High-speed maglev toys are coming in 2015
That’s what Takara Tomy’s promised us at this year’s Tokyo Toy Show in Japan. It had two very different maglev-powered toy sets to show off: an on the rails maglev train shuttle that apparently reaches up to 600km (well, in relative speed to its scale). To our dumb eyes, we’d rate and pretty damn fast. The train contains its own magnetic component, levitating it off the plastic-magnetic track and reducing that buzzkill of toy car physics: friction, ensuring it can skate around the track at a pace: the magnetic field produces both an upward and forward thrust. There was also a free-driving car prototype, but it required a sheet of metal to show of its driving skills and was a bit more… bare-bones.
You can see in the background where Tomy’s hoping the design will eventually arrive at. While the train model is set to land in 2015, with a bundled set priced at around 10,000 yen ($98), there’s no such price for the car. Where you’d typically find the wheels of a car, there’s four electromagnets, that rotate at a high speed and (get your Fleming’s right-hand rule ready) offer a sustained magnetic field — enough to keep the car slightly above its aluminum race track. And if this toy-maker can do a race-car, surely Mattel will finally be able to deliver on that hoverboard we were all (kind of) promised.
Filed under: Transportation
Did Google just leak the existence of Android 5.0?
Google isn’t normally a company gives away much information before they are ready to do so, and they seem to have become masters at teasing future products with relatively inane details. One tactic that they are known to use is showing the number of the next major Android software build in the clock of Google app screenshots. The latest example of this has been when Google showed off their new World Cup features in Google Now. Perhaps only subtle enough for the people who know Google’s tactics, the clock in these screenshots shows the time “5:00″ which suggests the next build of Android will be Android 5.0.
Previous times that Google has used this method of teasing has included Gingerbread (2:30), Ice Cream Sandwich (4:00), and Jelly Bean (4:20). Current screenshots that Google uses features the time 4:40 of course representing the current build of Android, Android 4.4 KitKat. We’ve long wondered whether the next version of Android would be 4.5 or 5.0, but this latest tease from Google surely confirms that it is going to be Android 5.0, and with Google I/O just a few weeks away, it seems almost inevitable that we’re going to see something related to Android 5.0 at the event.
What do you think of the next build of Android being Android 5.0? What do you think it’s going to be called? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Twitter via TalkAndroid
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Aaron Paul is messing with people’s Xbox Ones
If you sell a voice-activated console, it’s probably wise not to have people in your advert uttering the key phrase. Someone at Microsoft missed that point when they asked Aaron Paul to bark “Xbox on” at his TV to promote the Xbox One. More than a few people have commented on Twitter that the Breaking Bad star has inadvertently activated their consoles thanks to Kinect’s well-tuned microphones. Cheaper faster and now immune to celebrity interference? The reasons to buy a Kinect-free Xbone are stacking up.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Source: BBC News
Compare the best Android smartphones on the market today
Deciding which Android smartphone to buy can often be a difficult decision, with many different manufacturers offering varying specs, hardware combinations, and screen sizes.
If you’re undecided about just which Android smartphone you would like to purchase, then check out our handy comparison chart below. We’ve ranked the latest and greatest Android smartphones from ratings calculated by you to reveal just which devices are topping the charts.
Do you agree with the rankings? Drop us a comment in the section below to tell us what your favourite device of all time is, and why.
The post Compare the best Android smartphones on the market today appeared first on AndroidGuys.
US to begin selling off its Silk Road Bitcoin hoard
When the FBI seized Silk Road and the assets of its founder, it inadvertently became the owner of one of the world’s largest Bitcoin hoards. Just six months later, the US has decided that it wants to sell the smaller, Silk Road-owned portion of the stash, made up of 30,000 BTC worth around $18 million. The public auction will take place between 6am and 6pm on June 27th, with the funds being broken down into blocks of 3,000 BTC to make it a little more manageable. If, however, you fancied getting in on the action, be advised that you’ll have to front a deposit of $200,000 just to be allowed in. Still, if it’ll take you a bit longer to scrounge up that level of cash, the US will also look to sell off Ross “Dread Pirate Roberts” Ulbricht’s personal Bitcoin fortune — currently valued at around $87 million — before his trial begins in November.
Filed under: Internet
Via: WSJ
Source: US Marshal Service
Apple Launches Exchange Program for 5W European USB Power Adapter
Apple today launched a exchange program in 36 countries for certain models of its 5W European USB power adapter, which the company says may overheat and pose a safety risk in some cases, reports German site iFun (Google Translate).
The affected adapters, which are identified as Model A1300, originally came with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S models that shipped from October 2009 to September 2012. Apple is allowing users to bring in the affected adapters to an Apple Retail Store or participating Apple Authorized Service Provider, and will give a new adapter after a corresponding iPhone serial number is verified.
The program differs from Apple’s third-party USB charger takeback program, which launched last year in over thirty countries. That program allows users to trade-in a third-party USB charger for a discount on an official Apple charger, and was created following the electrocution of a Chinese woman that may have been caused counterfeit iPhone charger.
Oppo R3 gets announced in China
Earlier this month Oppo announced its N1 Mini smartphone, a not so “mini” smartphone. Not even 2 weeks later we get yet another device announcement from Oppo, the Oppo R3.
Oppo R3 shares the 720p 5″ screen with the N1, but doesn’t have that fancy rotating camera on the top. It is running Android 4.3 JellyBean with Oppo’s ColorOS on top of it. On the specification side, the R3 is running a Snapdragon 400 SoC along with 1GB of RAM and only 8GB of internal storage which is expandable via microSD. The phone of course has 2 cameras, on the back it sports an 8MP shooter, while there’s a 5MP shooter on the front. The device is powered by a 2420mAh battery, which we hope will be enough to power this thing throughout the day.
The most notable thing on this phone is its thickness, or should we say thinness. It is only 6.3mm thick, which is quite impressive, despite the fact it is not the thinnest phone around. That title is taken by Umeox X5 which is only 5.6mm thick.
The device launch was in China and it will cost around $370 there, there was no mention of an international availability though.
SOURCE: Oppo
VIA: PhoneArena
The post Oppo R3 gets announced in China appeared first on AndroidGuys.
You can watch the Spanish-language version of Breaking Bad on Hulu Plus right now
Sure, via Netflix (in 4K, soon) or on Blu-ray is a good way to watch the entire Breaking Bad series, but what if we told you there was a way to experience the show all over again for the first time? There’s a Latin American version of the show called Metástasis, and while the meth adventures of Walter Blanco are airing nightly in the US on Univision networks, it’s also available on streaming via Hulu — but there’s a catch. On broadcast TV and internet, there’s no option for English subtitles, so while native speakers and telenovela fans may breeze right through, if your last “Que?” was during a high-school elective you’re out of luck. To find out what you’re missing (Colombia instead of Albuquerque, schoolbus instead of RV), check out an English-subtitled trailer for Metástasis after the break.
Die-hards may want to keep an eye out for fansubs or give Rosetta Stone a shot, as this show is blowing through the entire series over the next three months — just in time for the premiere of spinoff Better Call Saul. The new eps are up on Hulu Plus already, and start flowing to the free Hulu streaming on the 17th. If primarily-English shows are more your speed, Hulu Plus did just add the full first season of The Bridge, the premiere episode of The High Road with Mario Batali, and the full run of The Real Housewives arrives today.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Metastasis (Hulu)
Facebook Messenger now lets you instantly send video clips
Facebook Messenger used to lag behind other messaging apps like Line or Viber when it came to sending media files. The key phrase here is “used to,” because its developers just gave it an instant video-sending feature on top of the voice- and photo-sharing functions they added in April. Now, when you tap the camera icon and hold the Send button, you can automatically record and send short video clips to friends. If you change your mind while recording (because you realized you haven’t even combed yet… among other things), simply swipe your finger off the Send button or quickly press X in the middle of the video clip while it loads on the chat window. Facebook’s slowly rolling out this Messenger update to both iOS and Android devices, so don’t worry if it’s not showing up on your updates list yet. But when it does, it’ll also come with the capability to send bigger thumbs up icons, because, hey, why not?
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Facebook
Source: iTunes, Google Play
Google set to launch a health-tracking platform called Google Fit
Not to be left behind by Apple, Google could soon launch its own health-tracking service for mobile devices. Forbes reports that the search giant is working on a new service, tentatively called Google Fit, which will pull in data from third-party fitness wearables and health apps and combine them into one central service. It’s not known if Fit will be delivered as a standalone app or come directly embedded inside future versions of Android, but it would likely operate as Google-made version of Apple’s HealthKit, a service that lets companies like Nike feed in fitness data, and Samsung’s own fitness framework, SAMI. An open platform would also lend itself to running on top of Google’s upcoming Android Wear platform, allowing smartwatches and fitness bands to feed data into Fit’s open APIs. Like Apple, Google is set to unveil its new health-centric service at its own developer conference, Google I/O, which kicks off on June 25th. It has a lot of wearable talks planned for the event, so we won’t have long to wait to learn more about what Google has planned.
Filed under: Wearables, Internet, Google
Source: Forbes
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