Wellograph’s fashionable fitness tracker is now on sale
It was back in January that we got our first look at Wellograph’s stylish fitness watch with a sapphire crystal display. More than half a year later, however, and the company is ready to start pushing the hardware out to its customers. The Wellograph not only provides the time, but is an activity tracker and heart-rate monitor, thanks to its optical sensor on the underside of the case. The company promises that, in addition to a seven-day battery life, the hardware will store up to four months of activity data before you’ll need to sync it with your smartphone. Priced up at $350, the hardware will begin arriving on pre-order customers doors on September 12th, and you can rest assured that we’ll be running our eyes (and hands) over this hardware in the following few weeks.
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Marketwired
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SoftBank’s humanoid helper robot will come to the US within a year
Good news: you won’t have to book a flight to Japan to try SoftBank’s Pepper robot for yourself. The telecom now expects the helpful humanoid machine to launch in the US within a year. There’s no mention of American pricing so far, although you may not want to use the ¥198,000 ($1,883) Japanese price as a yardstick — it’s bound to change at least a little bit. The company’s attention to both home and business customers remains the same, though, so you may well have a robotic companion in a matter of months.
Source: Bloomberg
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Facebook said to bring back some face-recognition features in the EU
In the past, European data authorities haven’t been very receptive of Facebook’s facial recognition software. But it looks like that might be changing soon. According to TechCrunch, the social networking titan has (quietly) started to restore some face-recognition services in Europe, though there are a few compromises to consider. What this means is that Facebook users across the pond are once again seeing the “tag suggest” option within pictures they have uploaded, but it can only be used on friends who are in the US and have the tagging feature enabled on their accounts. Perhaps, Facebook’s finally managed to address the concerns Euro officials had with its savvy tech, and that could be why the changes have taken place. With nothing confirmed, however, we reached out to Facebook for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
Filed under: Internet
Source: TechCrunch
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Apple says iCloud wasn’t breached in celebrity photo leak
It wasn’t long at all after personal and explicit photos of some 100 celebrities started making the rounds when people started attributing the leak to a breach of Apple’s iCloud storage system. After a nearly two day long investigation, Apple has released a statement to try and clear things up — to hear the folks in Cupertino tell it, the incident was a “very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions” and that none of its systems were breached in the process. In other words, we’re not looking at a savvy hack exploiting a Find my iPhone security flaw so much as some very dedicated phishing and/or social engineering. Of course, that’s not to say that the pictures in question (well, the ones that weren’t taken with Android devices anyway) didn’t come from iCloud, just that hackers didn’t directly crack the sanctity of Apple’s services. You can check out the full statement after the jump for yourself.
We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities. When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple’s engineers to discover the source. Our customers’ privacy and security are of utmost importance to us. After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud(R) or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.
To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification. Both of these are addressed on our website at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4232.
Source: Apple
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Meizu’s MX4 is a big phone that’s surprisingly comfy to hold
Xiaomi may be the darling of tech publications when they look to the Chinese smartphone market, but let’s not forget that Meizu is the real pioneer of community-centric phone brands. As such, Meizu is sparing no effort to one-up its arch rival with its latest flagship phone, the MX4, as announced in Beijing earlier today. Thanks to the MediaTek MT6595 SoC, we’re looking at an octa-core (four 2.2GHz A17 and four 1.7GHz A7) device that can connect to both FDD-LTE and TD-LTE networks right out of the box, thus beating the Xiaomi Mi 4 whose LTE variants aren’t due until end of this year. More importantly, the MX4 manages to undercut the 3G-only Mi 4 by about $16 to $33 off-contract, depending on the storage capacity.
Like its predecessor, the MX4′s 5.36-inch IPS screen maintains an unorthodox 5:3 aspect ratio, but with a slightly bumped-up resolution of 1,920 x 1,152. Compared to the standard 16:9 smartphones these days, the MX4 benefits from an eye-friendlier home screen as the icons are more spread out, plus the wider body can accommodate a slightly bigger pop-up video player — a feature on Meizu’s Flyme OS 4.0, which is a heavily but prettily customized Android 4.4 ROM — when you’re holding the phone in the usual portrait mode. The screen also takes up 79 percent of the phone’s front side and has a narrow 2.6mm bezel, both of which look rather impressive. Meizu added that it’s co-developed a screen sealant with Loctite that helps absorb shock impact, in order to reduce the chances of shattering one’s screen when the MX4 hits the floor.
Despite the large screen, the MX4 is actually a phone I’ve enjoyed holding the most in its size category. First of all, it’s only 147 grams heavy and 8.9mm thick (yet it still packs a built-in 3,100mAh battery) thanks to its aircraft-grade aluminum body — one that claims to be harder than that of the iPhone 5s. Secondly, the MX4 carries an ergonomic curvature that’s similar to that on the MX3, so there are no edges that would otherwise dig into the palm. To get to the MX4′s Micro SIM slot, you can now simply peel off the flexible back cover, as opposed to using a pin to push and peel the hard cover off the MX3. The downside of that is you may feel the seam between the aluminum frame and the plastic cover, so hopefully the final production units will have a tighter fit.
Last but not least, the MX4 packs a 20.7-megapixel f/2.0 main camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. While the latter’s resolution is rather disappointing, it does offer a live beautification mode, which lets you preview the enhancements on your eyes, chin and skin before taking selfies. As for the main camera, its 1.2μm pixels will apparently handle dark environments just fine, plus its speedy image signal processor can handle 25 fps continuous shooting in 10-megapixel mode, 720p slow motion capture and even 30 fps 4K video capture. For the icing on the cake, there’s a dual tone LED flash for better results when using flash.
The MX4 will be launching on September 20th globally, though only China prices are available at the moment: The 16GB model is just CN¥1,799 (about $290), whereas the 32GB flavor is CN¥1,999 (about $325), and the 64GB model costs CN¥2,399 (about $390). Pretty aggressive, right? And for the record, only the gray edition will be available to begin with, followed by a white edition and a gold edition. Much like the Smartisan T1, you can also purchase a liquid plus screen protection warranty for just CN¥89 (about $15) per year.
| Meizu MX4 | Meizu MX3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 144 x 75.2 x 8.9 mm | 139.0 x 71.9 x 9.1 mm |
| Weight | 147g | 143g |
| Screen size | 5.36 inches | 5.1 inches |
| Screen resolution | 1,920 x 1,152 (418 ppi) | 1,800 x 1,080 (415 ppi) |
| Screen type | IPS LCD | IPS LCD |
| Battery | 3,100mAh (non-removable) | 2,400mAh (non-removable) |
| Internal storage | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB / 128GB (China Mobile only) |
| External storage | None | None |
| Rear camera | 20.7MP Sony IMX220, f/2.2, 1.2μm | 8MP Sony IMX179, f/2.0, 1.4μm |
| Front-facing cam | 2MP Sony IMX208, f/2.0 | 2MP Sony |
| Video capture | Up to 4K 30fps | 1080p 30fps |
| NFC | None | Yes (except for 16GB version) |
| Radios | Up to LTE | GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSPA+ |
| Bluetooth | v4.0 | v4.0 |
| SoC | 2.2GHz A17 x 4 + 1.7GHz A7 x 4 octa-core MediaTek MT6595; PowerVR G6200 GPU | 1.6GHz A15 x 4 + 1.2GHz A7 x 4 octa-core Samsung Exynos 5410; PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU |
| RAM | 2GB | 2GB |
| SIM slot | Micro SIM | Micro SIM |
| WiFi | 802.11b/g/n/ac | 802.11b/g/n |
| Audio | Unknown | Wolfson WM5102; triple-mic noise reduction |
| Operating system | Android 4.4, Flyme OS 4.0 | Android 4.2, Flyme OS 3.0 |
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
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Bungie teams up with Google Maps to bring Destiny Planet View to the Masses
The upcoming release of Destiny from Bungie is a very highly anticipated game release. The sci-fi first person shooter is scheduled for release in just 7 days from today on September 9th. I know a number of people who already have time off from work planned just for the official launch of the title. Like any big name game title, keeping the public interested and keeping it in the headlines will inevitably help it sell well. A recently launched collaboration between Google and the games developing studio, Bungie, might be one of the better pushes we have seen to date.
“Created using Google Technologies, Destiny Planet View gives fans an immersive first look at Destiny’s in-game locations on Mars, Venus and the Moon. While the experience only reveals a small slice of Destiny’s massive worlds, users will be able step through each area and discover useful lore, gameplay tips and even a few hidden real-world and in-game incentives along the way.”
The Destiny Planet View leverages Google Maps and the talent of Bungie to bring gamers an explore-able version of three of the open world planets in the game. (The Earth’s Moon, Mars and Venus.) The website pulls you off our little rock and into space. You get little spoken intro and then are given access to all three locations. As you click around and explore you are given more details about each area. Each area gives you some images to look at, videos to watch and the ability to scout the areas a little before you finally jump into the game next week. It really is a pretty sweet promotional bit for the game.
Bounce on over to DestinyPlanetView.com and take the tour.
Source: Destiny Planet View Via Android Central
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Apple to Open New Retail Store in Atlanta on Saturday, September 6 [Mac Blog]
Georgia is set to gain its sixth Apple retail location this Saturday, with the grand opening of the new Apple Store at Atlanta’s Cumberland Mall. Located in the Cumberland district of Atlanta, the two-story mall houses more than 100 retail stores and restaurants.
The new Cumberland Mall location is the third Apple Store in Atlanta, joining two other retail stores at Lenox Square and Perimeter Mall. There are also stores in Augusta, Buford, and Alpharetta.
Apple’s Cumberland Mall store will open at 10 a.m. local time on Saturday, September 6. As is common with new store openings, employees will likely hand out T-shirts to the first customers to visit the new location. The store has already begun accepting reservations for workshops and Genius Bar appointments.
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Celebrity iCloud Accounts Compromised by Weak Passwords, Not iCloud Breach
A breach of Apple’s iCloud and Find My iPhone services was not involved in the recent hacking incident that saw the private photos and videos of several celebrities leaked onto the Internet, according to a press release just issued by Apple.
Instead, celebrity iCloud accounts were compromised by targeted attack on user names, passwords, and security questions.
We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities. When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple’s engineers to discover the source. Our customers’ privacy and security are of utmost importance to us. After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud(R) or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.
Over the weekend, hundreds of nude photos of celebrities were leaked on 4chan before spreading to multiple Internet sites, with one of the involved hackers pointing towards iCloud as the source of the material, which quickly led to accusations of a flaw in iCloud as the reason for the leak.
Apple announced plans to it was launch an investigation into the matter on Monday, after a tool surfaced on Github that could have potentially allowed hackers to brute force their way into accounts via a security flaw in Find My iPhone.
Apple suggests that users utilize a strong password and enable two-step verification to avoid similar hacking attempts.
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Oppo ‘Finds’ its way to Australia with the Find 7, Find 7a, N1 Mini and Neo 5
Oppo has made their rounds around the globe. What started out as a name brand in China and select Asian locales has slowly grown to Europe, North America and a few other areas of the world. Not all regions received the same device options, but the fact they were available at all was a good step. Here in the states the Oppo Find 7 was the big talk of the town for a while. Now our friends in Australia have the ability to order up one of the Oppo devices directly from Oppo.
“At OPPO we’re focused on innovation and are passionate about exploring the latest that technology has to offer, while providing our consumers with high-quality, state of the art devices. We feel that Australia as a country mirrors these values, so we’re excited to begin our journey/exploration into Western markets here,” said Michael Tran, head of marketing at OPPO Mobile Australia.
Out the gate potential Australian buyers will have the option of 4 devices from Oppo. The Oppo Find 7, Find 7a, N1 Mini and the Neo 5. The Neo 5 might not ring a bell as much the other device names might. The Neo 5 is a more entry-level device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, Android 4.3, a 1900 mAh battery all on a 4.5-inch screen. The Find 7 is the big dog of the bunch with a 5.-inch Quad HD 2K screen, 2.5GHZ Quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM 32GB internal storage and 3,000 mAh battery. Oppo has done pretty good at bringing a device of each caliber to Australia.
Pricing details are as follows:
• Find 7 – $719 inc GST
• N1 mini – $539 inc GST
• Find 7a – $629 inc GST
• Neo 5 – $219 inc GST
Any of our friends out on the island thinking about picking one of these up? Go poke about on the Oppomobile Australia site for yourself.
Source: Oppo
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Native Instruments reveals new keyboards for ‘Komplete’ freaks
First came synths, samplers and drum machines. Then computers caught up, and could do much of the same stuff, for much less money (and in much less space). But, humans like to “play” things, so we then we got MIDI controllers. Now, the circle is closing — the current trend is software-specific controllers. Example? The new Komplete Kontrol S series of keyboards from industry giant Native Instruments. Komplete is the company’s, erm, comprehensive music production software package (drums, sample, sounds, synths… everything). It contains some of the most used virtual instruments on the market (Massive, for example, is behind a good chunk of Dubstep sounds).
The new Komplete Kontrol S keyboards (apart from having a lot of “K” going on) are built to work seamlessly with all the instruments in the collection, in a similar vein to how Native Instruments’ popular mixing software — Traktor — works with the Kontrol line of DJ hardware. The new kit arrives along with the next iteration of Komplete (version 10), so as you can imagine, there are plenty of new tools for sound-smiths, too.
As Komplete contains a wide variety of instruments, Native Instruments has included “Native Map” technology that auto assigns all virtual the knobs and faders you see on screen, to the appropriate physical equivalent (for easy access to filters or volume etc). A “Light Guide” feature, on the other hand, uses LEDs above the keys to let you know what sounds are where and other useful feedback. For the more ham-fisted (yours truly), “Smart Play” is selection of features to make it easier (but not idiot proof) to knock a tune up quickly — one-finger chords, ready to play progressions and preset musical scales, for example.
No matter if you’re a one-finger maestro or the next Calvin Harris, you can pick up a Komplete Kontrol S keyboard in the usual choice of sizes (25, 49 and 61 keys) starting October 1 for $500/$600/$700 respectively. In the meantime, there’s the usual saliva-inducing demo video above to tide you over.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Native Instruments
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AIVAnet 