Minuum’s Android Wear keyboard makes smartwatch typing a fidgety reality
If you thought talking to your smartwatch was awkward, how about a tiny keyboard? Minuum’s single-line keyboard app (which even made it to Google Glass) is coming to Android Wear — and the beta sign-up sheet’s right here.
Via: Techcrunch
Source: Minuum
FiftyThree’s Pencil iPad stylus arrives in the UK
Are you a Briton who’s been itching to try out Pencil, FiftyThree’s Bluetooth-connected iPad stylus? Until now, the only way to get hold of the device would be to order it from the US and bracing yourself for the inevitable barrage of paperwork and annoyance from customs. Thankfully, the company has decided to end our suffering, and is commencing sales of the device to the UK, Germany and France from today.
Pencil is the companion device to the company’s free iPad sketching app Paper, which was born from the ashes of Microsoft’s Courier project. Rather than undergo any needless pairing operation, you simply have to hold the tip of the device onto the logo in the artist’s palette, and the technology will handle the rest, normally within about three seconds. The company promises that Paper will charge from empty in around 90 mins, and will, apparently, last for up to a month with “normal use,” whatever that is.
I’ve never used it for anything more than doodling, since you’re only able to use a single, pen-style brush and the eraser before being required to pay for more functionality. If you introduce Pencil to the equation, then any and all features that are available in the app come alive. When we tried this the first time, a pop-up told us that the extra brushes, like blend, watercolor and marker would stop working as soon as we disconnected the device, although after turning off Bluetooth and restarting the iPad, those extra brushes are still working — something we’ll take advantage of until the company inevitably fixes it. Naturally, the rubberized tip will still work as a stylus even when powered off, but you won’t be able to take advantage of any of the other features until you activate it.
Like its transatlantic cousin, Pencil will also be getting the same pressure sensitivity update that US users will receive whenever Apple deigns to release iOS 8 — which is expected at some point in the autumn. If you’d like to snap up the hardware today, you can do so from Amazon, with the Graphite (unibody aluminum) version being priced at £50 and the Walnut (hewn from sustainable wood) at £65. Admittedly, that’s a little pricer than if you, somehow, were able to snag them in the US, since the former is costs $60 (£35) and the latter is $75 (£44), but just imagine that part of the extra fee is not having to deal with tedious missives from the HMRC.
The Wii U tears itself apart so you don’t have to
YouTuber Vsauce3 is at it again, and this time he’s tearing down Nintendo’s latest console via the always neat-looking stop-motion animation. The Wii U’s hardware specs are pretty well known by this point, but what this video does is gives some context to the silicon. The console’s 2GB of RAM is much less impressive compared to both the PlayStation 4′s and the Xbox One’s 8GB, but that’s 23 times the amount of memory that was packed into the original Wii. Similarly, the Wii U’s 32GB hard drive sounds pretty paltry on paper, but it’s apparently big enough to hold every NES, Super NES and N64 game. Pretty cool, right? The video below has a few more bits of trivia contained therein, and watching it will make the wait for the next Legend of Zelda exactly two minutes shorter.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Nintendo
Via: Kotaku
Source: YouTube
Almost 40 Windows Phone games get updates to work with newer devices
Microsoft made a big fuss over Windows Phone’s gaming abilities right from the start, but it’s hard to appreciate that if you’re a newcomer; many classic titles never made the leap to Windows Phone 8, or were never tuned for budget devices. Not all of those releases will be consigned to the history books, however. In a sudden revival, nearly 40 older games (according to WPCentral) have been updated to either run on Windows Phone 8 in the first place or else support devices with a modest 512MB of memory, like the Lumia 630. You may know some of the upgraded games off-hand. Microsoft’s relatively recent Halo: Spartan Assault is the highlight, but we’ve also spotted earlier gems like Hexic, ilomilo and even Minesweeper. This renaissance probably won’t lead to any Windows Phone converts, but it should give first-timers a warmer welcome — and veterans a trip down memory lane.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: WPCentral
You can now inhale shots like air for just $700
Drinking is great, but there are so many drawbacks — the calories, the glass that’s cramping your dancing style, the half-hour wait for the buzz. Fortunately, Vapshot can solve all those issues (apart from the alcoholism) with its Vapshot mini machine by letting you inhale your liquor at home instead of drinking it (see the video below). You can grab one in white for $700 or stainless steel for $899, and extra bottles are $9 each. As we saw last month at our Austin, Texas Engadget event, it’s simple to operate: you just insert your booze of choice, vaporize it into a serving bottle and inhale with a straw. You can even combine the “air shots” with regular shots or mixed drinks. Though it may sound sketchy, Vapshot says their machine is the only model lab-tested for vaporizing alcohol, and is “well within” the acceptable levels for that purpose. We’ll have to take its word for that, but if you’re curious and living in Seattle, guess what? You can check it out for yourself at our Engadget Live Seattle event this Friday, July 18th. We’d recommend getting there early for, er, reasons.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Vapshot
DARPA picks the first companies that will work on its unmanned spaceplane
Slowly but surely, DARPA’s XS-1 Experimental Spaceplane is becoming more than a bundle of nice ideas. The agency has just chosen the companies that will square off in the first phase of the unmanned craft’s design program, most of which are recognizable names in the space business. Boeing is partnering with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on one version of the ship; Masten Space Systems is teaming up with XCOR on another, and Northrop Grumman is cooperating with Virgin Galactic. All three groups will have to submit initial designs before DARPA can move on to a second phase, so we’re still far, far away from seeing an XS-1 in orbit. But hey, it’s progress — and the companies involved are skilled enough that a cheap, highly reusable spaceplane should become a practical reality.
Filed under: Transportation, Science
Source: DARPA
TechCrunch: Samsung eyeing home automation startup SmartThings
We know that Samsung isn’t one to let any potential market segment pass it by, and according to TechCrunch, it’s considering an acquisition that would put it in play in the suddenly expanding home automation business. The target? SmartThings, which would follow a recent theme of former Kickstarter projects being acquired by behemoths, and pump up Samsung’s Smart Home efforts to match Google/Nest and Apple/Homekit. In case you’ve forgotten, SmartThings is the company that figures it can connect everything in your house to the internet through its Hub device and make them controllable from pretty much any mobile app — if you’re ready to handle that kind of responsibility. TC’s sources put the proposed price at $200 million but caution that the deal may not be done yet, and we don’t know where the just-announced Thread industry partnership would fit in with this. SmartThings’ PR declined to comment on the rumor, but we’ll go ahead and pencil in “Galaxy Lightbulbs/Door Knobs/Thermostats” for Samsung’s next big unveiling just in case.
Filed under: Household, Samsung
Source: TechCrunch
Engadget Daily: Ascend P7 review, FCC extends net neutrality comment deadline and more!
Today, we review the Huawei Ascend P7, take a look at an external E Ink display for your phone, dive into the world of wearable apps designed to ease the burden of flying and learn how Gamestop made millions by selling digital add-ons. Read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Huawei Ascend P7 review: the best mid-range phone you’ve never heard of
Huawei’s Ascend P7 might not be the most powerful handset on the market, but for the money, it can’t be beat. This mid-range handset is well-built, has respectable battery life and a beautifully crisp display.
FCC extends the deadline for comments on net neutrality until Friday night
Didn’t get your comments about the FCC’s proposed new version of net neutrality before the site crashed? Don’t worry, the commission is extending the deadline until midnight this Friday.
Add a battery-saving, E Ink display to your phone for $79
This is the InkCase Plus, an always-on E Ink display meant to help you get the most battery life out of your handset — specifically, the Galaxy S5. Want one? Lucky for you, the project is now live on Kickstarter.
Hacking the friendly skies: creating apps for wearables at 36,000 feet
“In-flight hackathon,” you say? By partnering with American Airlines, Wearable World aims to equip wearable startups with the tools they need to build apps that ease the burden of flying.
You also might like:
Sling’s ‘M1’ streaming box brings built-in WiFi at a lower price
It’s been nearly two years since Sling unveiled new placeshifting boxes, so it’s high time the company brought its products into the year 2014. The firm just announced two refreshes, including the entry-level M1, which has a smaller footprint and comes with built-in WiFi so that you don’t need to park the thing near an Ethernet cable to stream live and DVR’d TV to your mobile devices. Additionally, it can now be configured using the Android/iOS app, though unfortunately, you need to use old-school component cables (maybe in the year 2016 they’ll add HDMI). On the software side, meanwhile, Sling is bringing back its Mac and PC desktop apps, since users seemed to miss it. Most importantly, it’s cheaper: The M1 costs $150, compared with $180 for the Slingbox 350 it’s replacing.
Meanwhile, the Slingbox 500 has been renamed the “SlingTV,” though the design and price ($300) remain unchanged. But while the hardware is the same, the UI has gotten a major overhaul, with a new gallery view that’s a little prettier (and potentially easier to navigate) than your typical TV grid. In particular, the new software now shows live sports scores and stats, courtesy of Thuuz. (Gotta hand it to Sling for knowing its audience: men who love sports and are away from home a lot.) The downside to this new look, though, is that Sling has to start all over again in getting developers to make apps for the Slingbox. Indeed, at launch there will only be two channels, including Blockbuster on Demand. So, here’s hoping Sling can work with the Netflixes of the world to build custom apps, and soon.
Speaking of apps, Sling also made some updates to its various mobile applications, which you can use to either stream content from your Sling box, or send it to a set-top box like a Roku or Apple TV. For starters, the iPad app can now send video Roku to players; previously, only the iPhone and Android apps could do this. Also, regardless of which platform you use, the apps are now capable of what’s known as a “full handoff,” which is to say you can safely exit the app once you’ve sent the video to an Apple TV or Roku box. Those updates are scheduled to hit this weekend on July 20th. The M1 will go on sale then too. The SlingTV, meanwhile, will arrive until late August, at which point Slingbox 500 owners will get a free software update to the new user interface.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
The Big Picture: The Philippine government’s big EV initiative
Manny Tangco (far right) owns Manila’s Malabon Zoo. Above he poses with “Pacquiao” the orangutan, an albino python and former beauty queen Gionna Cabrera in a PR stunt last weekend promoting e-trikes in The Philippines. The country’s government is funding an initiative to encourage adoption of electric tricycles over the (estimated 3.5 million) conventional petrol ones. The target is to replace 100,000 combustion engines with e-trikes by 2016. In a statement, Tangco believes many animals are dying because of polluted environment — and one way to prevent this is for a cleaner vehicles such as EVs.
Filed under: Transportation
AIVAnet 