Casio’s newest G-Shock has a giant dial for (complicated) music control

Casio continues to inch its G-Shock series towards something a little smarter, while holding onto a simple monochrome LCD display and that distinctly G-Shock styling. The “G’mix” GBA-400 improves on the typical digital watch feature list through Bluetooth, a pair of dedicated apps (one for the watch part, one for the music playing part) and your smartphone, whether it’s iOS or Android. Oh and there’s a giant dial control on the side and it’s really satisfying to play with.

See? Once you’ve linked the G-Shock to your smartphone, the dial can be setup to adjust volume, skip tracks, and even cycle through several different equalizer settings. You can also make your own custom equalizer profiles within the companion music app — and even decide which modes get added to the watch-based selector. To cycle through those menus, however, you need a depress another button. Bluetooth syncing is assigned to yet another button, while the third button does illumination and the fourth cycles through digital watch features like stopwatch and alarm.

For a digital watch with a few tricks up its sleeve, it’s unfortunately not all that intuitive. There’s a lot of buttons, and a lot of scrolling to get what you want done — we had to ask multiple times for driving instructions, inadvertently changing equalizer settings when we simply wanted to skip a track. We also don’t quite get the reasoning for two mandatory app downloads: surely Casio could integrate the watch features into the music app?

The G’Mix’s best trick is its music recognition integration, courtesy of SoundHound. With two scrolls upwards on the rotary switch, it’ll kick your smartphone into action, listening to the music. While it’ll offer up artist and purchase details within the phone app, it’ll also send a basic line of song information to the watch face itself — it all works without you having to touch the phone at all. From our brief testing with Casio’s team, it had no problem picking up a couple of ’80s hits — and it was all relatively easy to initiate.

Through the same Bluetooth connection, the new G-Shock can also sniff out your phone and ring it, when it’s somehow hidden itself. (Last year’s models apparently packed the same skill.) Unlike a lot of Casio’s watches, there’s no solar charging here, but the battery is rated for two years, which factors in using the mobile link feature for about two hours a day. Obviously, two years per battery change sounds much better than current smartwatch mileages — even the skill set of the Casio model is a severely reduced one. The watch goes on sale in Japan first, priced at 23,000 yen (roughly $220), but it’ll roll out globally after that — Casio expects to offer the model in the west later this year.

Filed under: Wearables

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‘All Together Now’ is a Fox sitcom about friends who unplug

Time spent with friends is supposed to be cherished. Nowadays, however, the existence of things like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter make those moments a little less special for some people, namely because they keep their eyes hooked to whatever device they have near them. To that end, according to Deadline, Fox has green-lit a TV sitcom called All Together Now, which features a plot based on six friends in their late 20′s who are keen to unplug from their mobile devices and interact with one another “for as long as they can stand it.” All Together Now is set to be produced by Alec Sulkin and Julius Sharpe, who most recently worked with Fox on Dads, a show canceled last May, after only one 19-episode season, due to very bad reviews. The new sitcom still hasn’t begun production, so it’ll likely be a while before it premieres — hopefully it’s enough time for you to gather your thoughts and realize that this is really happening.

[Image credit: Associated Press]

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, Mobile

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Via: The Verge

Source: Deadline

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The Times of India wants access to its journalists’ social networks

Over the past few years, social networks have become an extremely powerful tool for every journalist, whether it’s here in the United States or elsewhere across the world. But social networks like Twitter and Facebook aren’t just a venue for sharing links or live-tweeting breaking news events, as great as that is — it’s also about the engagement one can have with readers and other fellow journalist. Knowing this, The Times of India has recently implemented a new policy that requires its journalism employees to hand over Twitter and Facebook passwords, as it looks to gain control of what they can and cannot post on their social accounts.

The company shall be the owner of the access passwords, username and associated email address for the User Account, which shall be used by you on behalf of the Company to make posts. Company retains administration rights of the User Account, which shall be made accessible to the Company on demand. It is understood that sharing of such details of the User Account shall be an integral part of your contract with the Company and shall also be necessary for processing any settlement related to termination of such Contract.

According the report from Quartz, the new contract implemented by Benner, Coleman and Company Ltd., also known as The Times Group and publisher of The Times of India, also demands access even after an employee leaves the company. “The company may upload news or other material on the company User Account through any means, including automated upload streams, at its sole discretion, notwithstanding any termination of your contract with the company,” reads another excerpt from the document. What’s more, Quartz says that reporters who have raised concerns over the situation have been told that this “will be addressed in due course” — which, as you can imagine, doesn’t sound promising at all.

Filed under: Internet, Alt

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Via: Fast Company

Source: Quartz

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Intel’s tiny 3G modem will put always-on data in your smartwatch

There are already smartwatches and other wearables with cellular data built-in, but the bulky hardware they need for that wireless access makes them less than elegant. Intel clearly isn’t happy with this state of affairs, as it just unveiled an extra-tiny modem that should put truly sleek, always-connected devices on your body — and seemingly everywhere else. The new XMM 6255 isn’t much larger than a penny (0.47 square inches), but delivers a full-fledged 3G data link. It’s built to take abuses like power spikes, and it doesn’t need a big antenna to get a good connection; it can even get solid performance in a low-signal area like your basement.

The company isn’t ready to say just who’s using the miniscule modem in finished products, but the technology could be relatively ubiquitous. Besides more wearables that don’t have to rely on your phone to get online, you could see a larger internet of things where even relatively small devices have their own internet service; it’s reasonable to expect a lot of smart sensors and security systems that can always talk to the outside world.

Filed under: Wearables, Wireless, Networking, Intel

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Via: BBC

Source: Intel

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Russia wants to ban films that make it seem oppressive or silly

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Via: AV Club

Source: 9AM News (translated)

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Kickstarter has a new king: Coolest, an all-in-one cooler

Back when it introduced its first smartwatch, there’s no doubt that Pebble took the crowdfunding world by storm. But, more than two years after Pebble broke and set new records on Kickstarter, a cooler is now doing the same. As of today, Coolest is the most successful Kickstarter ever, at least in terms of money pledged on the site. The project has managed to lure in nearly 50,000 backers and collect a little over $10,424,610 million so far, shattering Pebble’s previous milestone of $10,266,845 million. Coolest is pretty much a portable party on wheels, complete with a plethora of built-in accessories, including a removable, waterproof Bluetooth speaker, USB charger, cutting board, storage space for plates and, wait for it, a battery-powered, rechargeable blender. In case that wasn’t enough, the do-it-all cooler will be LED-lit on the inside, for those times when you’re out camping late, and have a bottle opener to boot — we all know how important the latter feature is. You still have a chance to try to get your own, but hurry because there are only 58 hours to go.

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Coolest (Kickstarter)

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Jabra’s pulse-tracking earbuds tout Bluetooth connectivity for fewer tangles

Heart rate tracking in-ear headphones are starting to pop up on the regular it seems. A couple weeks ago, SMS Audio revealed its collaborative effort with Intel, and now Jabra’s joining the fray, but without the tether. In an effort to limit cord tangles, the audio outfit’s Sport Pulse wireless earbuds connect to your phone via Bluetooth for sorting tunes and tracking your pulse. Dolby sound handles the listening duties while an in-line remote wrangles those mid-run track changes. Inside, an optical biometric heart rate monitor keeps tabs on your workout, beaming collected data to the Sport Life companion app and peppering your activity with personalized coaching for added motivation. And as you might expect, the software helps plan workouts and logs info from each session. The wireless set goes on sale October 1st for $200 (£200), but you can pre-order now if you’re unable to contain the excitement.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video

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Source: Jabra

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