Moto 360 battery life could be as long as two and a half Days
The Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch is possibly the most anticipated wearable device of 2014, yet we actually know remarkably little about it. Apart from the fact we know it will be running Android Wear as an operating system and has an ambient light sensor that differentiates it from the other Android Wear watches, we don’t really know what’s going on under the bonnet of that beautiful, round watchface. A big criticism of its Android Wear stable mates, the Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch, is that their battery life is dismal, only lasting about a day, something that is becoming a depressing standard among smartwatches. The Moto 360 battery life, however, may be up to 2.5 times better than that after Italian blogger, Luca Viscardi, suggested his prototype Moto 360 lasts up to two and a half days.
This would be a significant feather in the cap of the Moto 360 if this turns out to be true on the full production model, as smartwatches developed by phone manufacturers have erred on the side of inconvenient thanks to their lacking battery life. We’ve heard that the Moto 360 also makes use of Qi-wireless charging to recharge its battery, another major concern with the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, so it seems like the Moto 360 has dealt with the major concerns of its main competitors. This isn’t to say that the Moto 360 won’t have its own issues, but it is look pretty good.
What do you think of a two and a half day battery life for the Moto 360? Let us know your thoughts.
Source: Luca Viscardi via Phone Arena
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The ASUS Android Wear smartwatch may be announced at IFA 2014
We have previously heard that Taiwanese manufacturer, ASUS, is working on an ASUS Android Wear smartwatch, and it appears likely that the device could be announced at IFA 2014 in Berlin next month. Whereas the offerings from Samsung, LG, and probably Motorola too, have costed about $199 USD, it has been hinted that the ASUS smartwatch will undercut them all, priced at around $99-149; not too shabby. Furthermore, ASUS CEO, Jerry Chen, says he prefers the appearance of the ASUS offering over wearables from the other manufacturers (but of course he would!); frankly, it would be hard to out do the Moto 360 on style, but we’ll hold our reservations.
Chen also commented about the future of wearables at ASUS, saying:
“We’re dreaming big about the future of wearable devices, but the dream will not come true this year or in the first half of next year, because the market demand has not picked up”
And that’s probably true; despite the fact that we in the Android community have pored over the new and future Android Wear devices, they have yet to become truly mainstream in the same way that smartphones have become part of our lives. Still, it’s an exciting time, and we can’t wait to see what ASUS brings to the table, particularly at such an attractive price point.
What do you think about the ASUS Android Wear smartwatch? Let us know what your thoughts are in the comments.
Source: Focus Taiwan via Phone Arena
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‘Real Housewives’ is going mobile for TWC customers, break out the pinot
When you stop to think about it, NBC’s reach goes quite a bit beyond just broadcasting Parks and Rec on Thursday nights — the Peacock Network owns a slew of cable channels too, including Bravo. Starting this week you can catch the latest exploits of whichever Real Housewives cast you favor, regardless of what city you’re in, so long as you are (or know) a TWC subscriber and have a device with the respective network’s apps near by. The new channel line-up includes USA Network, Syfy, Telemundo and the Golf Channel, with NBC Sports Extra and Golf Live Extra, with the rest of NBC’s networks rolling out sometime in September. And don’t worry Bright House customers, as follows tradition you won’t miss out on Leslie Knope’s farewell season either, regardless of if you catch it live or on demand.
[Image credit: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Time Warner Untangled
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Microsoft OneNote Online tells you who else is futzing with your documents
Microsoft has just plumped up OneNote Online, and while it’s not exactly a complete overhaul, the refresh adds features critical for cloud collaboration services. For instance, the update introduces a feature called People Presence, which shows all active users working on the same page as you are, so you can ping people if you need a brainstorming session. To prevent collaborators from overwriting each others’ edits, Microsoft has also improved the service’s syncing capabilities to reflect changes nearly in real time. These updates are already live on Office Online, where you can edit any OneNote notebook you or your friends share on OneDrive or Office 365. And, yes, you can enjoy the features no matter what OS (the software’s available on several platforms) your friends used to upload.
Source: Office Blogs
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Twitter makes it easier for VIPs to reach each other above the noise
There’s a chance that you signed up for Twitter to catch what your favorite celebrities are saying. However, a lot of famous people either do little more than self-promotion, or are reluctant to sign up in the first place — are you really going to come back if these luminaries aren’t as interesting as you’d hoped? Twitter is worried you won’t, so it just gave its verified users a pair of new features to help get them talking. The site now gives these privileged folk an alert in the Android and iOS apps when another verified person follows them. They’ll also get to see a list of their verified followers if they’re using iOS. If all goes according to plan, it should be easier for superstars (and, yes, the media) to strike up conversations, giving you more to read when you’re not chatting with your friends.
The strategy makes sense on that level. However, it won’t be surprising if the move rubs a lot of regular Twitter users the wrong way. Many argue that the company doesn’t do enough to serve the bulk of its audience, such as taking a more active approach to fighting harassment. Upgrades for the verified camp may give the impression that Twitter only cares about members who attract large crowds and thus generate lots of ad revenue. The approach could well improve the quality of what you see on the service, but it’s not going to help your interactions with others.
[Image credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for The Mint Jubilee]
Filed under: Internet
Source: Twitter Media Blog
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Wearables of the future may use reflected WiFi signals to communicate
Let’s face it: our gadgets are growing smaller and smarter by the way, and making sure they’ve got enough power to get us through a day or two is no small feat. That problem wasn’t lost on a team of researchers from UCLA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory — they’ve spent the last two years cooking up a way for a device to communicate with a WiFi router by reflecting the very signals it sends out back at it. The end result? An incredibly low-power way for future wearables (or other tiny gizmos) to send data back and forth.
The beauty of so-called ambient backscatter devices like these (see one example above) is that they don’t require a transmitter, or even a battery in some cases. All of that communication is handled by tweaking and reflecting ambient carrier waves that are already bouncing around anyway, be they television signals or (in this case) Wi-Fi networks. That’s all great, but how well does the process actually work? Well, the UCLA team was able to create reflector links with data speeds of up to 3 Mb/s between a test device and a signal source about 8 feet away, and they’re confident that more signal tweaking could eventually get that range up to 65 feet. Neat as this all is, there’s no telling if or when a wearable maker will ever even run with the ambient backscatter approach. If we’re lucky, Google’s willingness to talk turkey about the tech means it’s interested in baking some version of it into future devices. We’re not exactly holding our breath, but hey — we wouldn’t mind being pleasantly surprised, either.
Filed under: Wearables, Mobile
Via: Research at Google
Source: UCLA Electrical Engineering
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Apple Bans Two Hazardous Chemicals From Final iPhone Assembly Process
Apple announced today that it is banning the use of benzene and n-hexande, two potentially hazardous chemicals, during final assembly for both iPhone and iPad, according to the Associated Press. Benzene is a carcinogen that has been linked to leukemia when not handled properly and n-hexane has been linked to nerve damage.
The decision announced Wednesday comes five months after the activist groups China Labor Watch and Green America launched a petition drive calling on Apple Inc. to abandon the use of benzene and n-hexane in the production of iPhones.
The Cupertino company conducted a four-month investigation at 22 factories and found no evidence that either benzene or n-hexane endangered the 500,000 workers at those factories. Four of the factories had traces of the two chemicals at “acceptable safety levels” while the other 18 contained no trace of either.
Still, Apple decided to order its suppliers to stop using the two chemicals for final assembly for iPhones, iPads, Macs, iPods and accessories. The factories will also be required to test all substances to make sure the chemicals aren’t present, even if they’re not listed in the ingredients. The two chemicals are often found in cleaner used on machinery and electronics.
However, Apple will still allow benzene and n-hexane at plants responsible for the early production phase of its devices, which are, for the most part, different from the final assembly plants. Apple is lowering the maximum amount of the two chemicals that can be used during early processes.
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of environmental initiatives, told the AP that the company wanted to be “responsive to concerns” and “crack down on chemical exposures”.
“We think it’s really important that we show some leadership and really look toward the future by trying to use greener chemistries.”
The two chemicals aren’t exclusively used by Apple’s manufacturing processes, as other large tech companies have faced the same criticisms. Small traces of benzene can also be found in gasoline, cigarettes, paints, glues and more.
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Samsung officially announces the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, the “evolution of Galaxy Design”
Samsung is calling its latest smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, an “evolution of Galaxy design”. Today, Samsung officially announces the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, looking every bit the phone we were expecting. Chief among the departures from the design of the Galaxy S5, and arguably the biggest “evolution”, is the inclusion of a metal frame on the Galaxy Alpha. Samsung has also made sure to make the Galaxy Alpha extremely thin, coming in at a very impressive 6.7mm thickness.
As expected, the Galaxy Alpha will have a hardware specification that runs with either an unspecified octacore or quad core processor (likely to be the Snapdragon 801), with 2GB RAM, a 720p 4.7-inch display and a 1,860mAh battery. It will also be available with 32GB storage, but no microSD expansion slot, which definitely furthers the argument that the Galaxy Alpha is a direct competitor to the rumoured iPhone 6. The phone will be available in Charcoal Black, Dazzling White, Frosted Gold, Sleek Silver, and Scuba Blue, though availability will vary depending on your region; no word on what regions it will be available in yet.
What do you think about the Samsung Galaxy Alpha now that it is released? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Samsung Tomorrow
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Official Samsung Galaxy Alpha wallpapers are available Now
Samsung, despite what you think about their devices plethora of devices, have always delivered vibrant and inspired wallpapers with each of their smartphones – most recently the Samsung Galaxy S5 – and the release of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha today is no different. Thanks to SamMobile, we have 9 official Samsung Galaxy Alpha wallpapers, each of which exhibits Samsung’s penchant for saturated colours and abstract composition. As expected, the 1280×720 resolution of the Galaxy Alpha means that each of the wallpapers is optimized to be 1280×1280.
For the rest of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha wallpapers, please visit our gallery here.
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha was officially announced today, strongly rumoured to be Samsung’s answer to the rumoured release of the iPhone 6. It exhibits quite a few hallmarks of iPhone devices – lack of microSD expansion, nano-SIM slot, metal frame with chamfered edges – but marks a significant departure from Samsung’s standard, plastic Galaxy design. Even adopting the expected form factor of the iPhone 6 with a 4.7-inch display, Samsung looks set to do battle with its bitterest of rivals in the smartphone market, and with a taste of their own medicine, no less.
What do you think of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha wallpapers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: SamMobile
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Samsung Expands Anti-Apple ‘Wall Huggers’ Advertisement to Airports
Back in early July, Samsung launched a new Galaxy S5 ad calling iPhone users “Wall Huggers” and mocking the iPhone for having a short battery life while touting the battery-saving capabilities of its own newest flagship phone.
Samsung has now expanded its “Wall Huggers” advertising campaign to select airports, according to CNET, displaying Galaxy S5 ads alongside power outlets.
In addition to highlighting the Galaxy S5′s Ultra Power Saving Mode, the ads include the words “So you have the power to be anywhere but here,” possibly poking fun at Apple’s own recent line of app-focused advertising, which revolves around the tagline “You’re more powerful than you think.”
First introduced in February, Samsung’s 5.1-inch Galaxy S5 includes a fingerprint sensor, a water resistant casing, and a heart rate sensor, along with one of its most highly touted features, the Ultra Power Saving Mode. This mode activates a black and white display with limited app access when the phone’s battery is low, cutting off LTE and disabling WiFi/Bluetooth to provide up to an additional 24 hours of standby time with less than 10 percent of battery left.
While Apple does not have a similar power saving feature on the iPhone, it does provide users with quick access to settings like WiFi and Bluetooth, plus options to disable battery draining features like background app usage and location services. Apple’s newest operating system, iOS 8, also includes battery saving functions like Battery Usage, which lets users keep an eye on apps that are draining too much power.
Many people are hoping Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6 will introduce better battery life, but signs have pointed towards only modest battery gains thus far. Various rumors suggest the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 could get a battery between 1,800 and 2,100 mAh, a moderate improvement over 1,560 mAh battery in the iPhone 5s.
Samsung’s Galaxy S5 ads can be found at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and at the O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago. The advertisements may also expand to other airports in the future.
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AIVAnet 