Fossil teams up with Intel to produce its line of wearables
We heard plenty about Intel’s wearable aspirations for 2014 back at CES, and since then it has announced collaborations with the likes of SMS Audio and more. Fossil was named as having a plan for Android Wear, and as of today the two are officially in cahoots. Unfortunately, details are scarce at this time, as we’re left with the announcement that the pair aims to team up on “emerging products and technologies that will be developed for the fashion-oriented consumer.” Judging by the wording of the PR, it seems that Fossil has more than watches on its agenda, and the outfit designs jewelry, handbags, wallets and more in addition to the traditional timepieces like the one pictured above. Of course, MetaWatch is an offshoot of the lifestyle company, and this is the latest in a group of accessory brands diving into the wearable craze.
Source: Intel
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DARPA head joins the list of speakers at Engadget Expand!
Fall’s nearly here and so is the next Engadget Expand event. On November 7th and 8th, we’ll once again take over New York City’s Javits Center North to let you experience the future of technology and hear from the leading minds in the industry.
We’ve also added a few more big names to our growing slate of Expand speakers:
- Arati Prabhakar: Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- Ebbe Altberg: CEO, Linden Lab
- Cynthia Breazeal: Founder and CEO, Jibo Inc.; Associate Professor and Director of Personal Robots Group, MIT Media Lab
- Colin Guinn: SVP of Sales and Marketing, 3D Robotics
- Mark Setrakian, Robotics and Animatronics
We’ll announce more speakers and exhibitors to expect at Expand soon, but in the meantime you can get your free tickets right here. And if you won’t be anywhere near NYC that weekend, don’t despair — we’ll have a livestream from the stage and show floor to keep you up-to-date.
Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Alt
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Facebook Messenger’s new trick brings doodles to your photos
Still looking for a reason to use Facebook’s now-unbundled Messenger app? A new feature learns from competition including Snapchat and Facebook’s own Slingshot by adding easy annotation on shared photos. Just click the picture icon like you normally do, then hit the edit button instead of send, and you can doodle with your finger (remember Draw Something? Is anyone still playing that?) or just type in some text before sending. Right now the tweak is Android-only, and should already be live if you’re running the most recent version of the app.
Filed under: Internet, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Facebook Messenger (Google Play)
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Dell outs ‘world’s first’ 5K display with a massive 5,120 x 2,880 resolution
4K is so last week. Most of us haven’t added one of those displays as part of our daily workflow yet, and Dell’s 5K option is on the way. The UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K monitor claims a world’s first with said resolution. In terms of dimensions, that’s 5,120 x 2,880 which clocks in at four times the resolution of QHD and seven times that of full HD. The panel itself is 218 PPI, putting it just shy of the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and features the company’s PremierColor tech and anti-smudge/anti-reflection edge-to-edge glass across its 27-inch facade. There are built-in “immersive acoustics” thanks to a pair of Harmon Kardon 16W speakers with six USB ports, on-board card reader and adjustable base for sorting tasks. If you’re already wanting one for your office, you should probably start saving now. The UltraSharp model is set to arrive in Q4 with a $2,500 price tag.
Via: AnandTech
Source: Dell
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Test your luck in OMG! Fortune Free Slots (review)
If you love to gamble and are looking for a new casino game, you may want to check out OMG! Fortune Slots. It’s a new take on some older, more classic casino games like slots, scratch cards, BINGO, and Wheel of Fortune. With over 25 levels, let’s take a look to see if this game can become your new favorite pastime.
Interface
OMG! Fortune Free Slots is incredibly bright and colorful. It’s filled with tons of animations that will keep you interested while you play. As much as we like the general interface of the app, we would change one thing about the app… how often it asks for real money. Every few minutes you’ll most likely be prompted with a change to invest in more coins. With daily deals and coin packages, the app is constantly reminding you that you have a change to buy more. It took away from the experience a tad, but nonetheless, the game relatively easy to navigate and move around.
Gameplay
You begin the game by entering the Lobby, where you can see all of your unlocked games. To begin, only one is available to you. If you work decently hard. the first few levels are a breeze. Around levels 6-7 is where we began having a bit of trouble completing the rounds on the first try. The aim of the game, obviously, is to rack up as much money as possible, all while completing daily, weekly, and monthly challenges. Also, with more than 25 unique levels to choose from, you won’t get bored very easily.
Each level has a bright and colorful theme that puts a fun twist on the classics – whimsical birds, Zodiac, city life, and more. As if the number of different games weren’t enough, they’ve also added a slew of mini games to be completed in between rounds.
What we like:
- More than enough levels to keep you interested
- Mini games add to the experience
- Fun animations make the app great to view/navigate
What we would change:
- Less-frequent reminders to buy coins with real money would make the experience much better
Would I recommend this app?
If you love casino games, you’ll love this game, plain and simple. The fun animations make it one-of-a-kind, and for a free app, it makes the experience way better. Hit the download link below to start playing OMG! Fortune FREE Slots.
The post Test your luck in OMG! Fortune Free Slots (review) appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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Assassin’s Creed Pirates goes free along with new Cold Blood update
Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Pirates isn’t what some might think. The first time I heard the title I was expecting a companion app to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Instead, the title is a standalone game that puts you in the middle of the ocean battling ships and making a name for yourself. You also have various side missions where you go fishing, whaling and rescue people from the depth of Davy Jones locker. Sadly, I have let many floating sailor die.
Ubisoft has released a new update to the game today called Cold Blood. The expansion gives you access to new chapters in your story in the Arctic Seas. They have also tossed in a new crew member that is supposed to help you out with your plaguing resource problems. Ubisoft also makes mention that the update is ‘introducing legendary customization.’ Basically you can give your ship some upgrades.
The updated scenery is nice, so is the customization abilities. Interestingly enough the title has dropped its price tag too. In a blog post on Ubisofts website they announced, quietly, that the pirate title is now free-to-play on all platforms. Android isn’t the only OS getting special treatment. I am sure they didn’t want to raise to big of a stink since the title sat at $4.99 for so long. Many of you will be plenty upset about it and if it ruffles your feathers enough you may want to just request a refund through your Play Store order page. You may also want to be wary of updating too. Seems a few reports from the Play Store review section seem to have people losing their ships, saved progress and resources.
For everyone else that didn’t drop $5 on the title, or $0.10, now is your chance to give the high-seas battle game a chance.
Source: Ubisoft | AndroidPolice
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The post Assassin’s Creed Pirates goes free along with new Cold Blood update appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
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Walgreens, CVS Expected to Partner With Apple for Mobile Payments Service
Popular drugstores Walgreens and CVS are expected to partner with Apple on its upcoming mobile payments initiative, accepting purchases made with the company’s new iPhone payment system, reports Re/code.
CVS and Walgreens are expected to accept purchases made with the new iPhone payment system, details of which Apple plans to announce Tuesday, according to a person briefed on the plans. With more than 15,000 locations combined, acceptance by the two chains will give Apple a huge footprint if all of their stores are involved.
Earlier this week, Apple was rumored to be partnering with retailer Nordstrom, leading to fears that its upcoming payments service would be limited to higher-end retailers, but it appears that Apple will also be aiming to sign deals with stores people visit regularly. As noted by Re/code, getting stores that people frequent on board could lead to quick acceptance of the new mobile payment service.
EasyPay mobile payments concept by Ricardo Del Toro
Re/code‘s report also divulges some information on how the system might work, allowing shoppers to “wave or tap” their iPhones at checkout terminals. The service is said to work over NFC, transmitting payment information from the phone when the device is near the store’s checkout area. NFC may, however, be supplemented by other wireless technologies, and Touch ID is expected to be integrated into the system for added security.
Sources caution that Apple’s payment system may in some cases employ additional wireless technologies either in conjunction with, or in place of, NFC. The new payment method will also likely include the use of fingerprint identification already available on the latest iPhones as an added security measure.
In addition to inking deals with various retailers to support the system, Apple has also established deals with major credit card companies Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, as well as credit card issuers.
Apple is expected to unveil its mobile payments service on Tuesday, along with the iPhone 6 and its much-anticipated wearable device. Both the iWatch and the iPhone 6 are said to play an important role in the new mobile payment service, as the two devices are rumored to include support for NFC.
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We’ve dunked a Kobo Aura H20 in water and it lived to tell the tale
When Kobo launched the Aura, the idea of selling a premium e-reader with a top-line price and a big screen was something of a risk compared to the Kindle juggernaut. When the device went on to become responsible for a full quarter of the Canadian company’s sales, it was clear that the risk had paid off. Naturally, when it came time for the Kobo Aura H20 to make its debut, the company decided that the next frontier would be to try and conquer an e-reader’s deadliest foe: water.
Kobo’s major inspiration for adding waterproofing to the device was a reader competition on Facebook, when the company asked its readers to take pictures of them using the device. More than a few took point-of-view shots of them reading while laying in the bath – with the device safely nestled inside a ZipLoc bag. That’s why it sought to remove buttons (the backlight switch has been ditched) and all of the ports are nestled behind a sealed rubber gasket at the base.
Of course, you all want to know what the Aura H20 is like to use. In fact, the new hardware is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, and it’s a lot more comfortable in the hand. The (relatively) new E-Ink Carta display is significantly better than the Pearl used in prior units, and processing-power has gotten to the point where there’s almost no lag when switching between pages – in fact, we’re told the speed is 450ms. Since the backlight button has now been ditched, you can now activate it by stroking your hand down the left side of the display, or little flicks if you don’t want to move that much.
When dunked in a glass of water, which it’ll handle for 30 minutes up to depths of a meter, an error message pops up over your text, informing you that you need to wipe the unit down when you get a second. Naturally, you can dismiss this message and continue to read, but we’d imagine that you’ll probably want to get out of the pool first. The waterproofing also enables you to rinse the device, so should you spill a glass of wine or coke, you’ll be able to blast the sugar away before it congeals guilt-free – unless, of course, you leave the port cover open. As before, Kobo is planning to launch the Aura H20 into people’s homes on October 1st, priced up at $180 in the US/Canada, £140 in the UK €180 in the various European nations where available.
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Apple hires famed industrial designer Marc Newson to work with Jony Ive
Marc Newson is well known for putting his design touch on everything from bikes to cars to cameras to — of course — watches, and now he’s joining Apple to work with his good friend Jony Ive. Vanity Fair reported he will be joining Ive’s design team, but still work from the UK and also take on projects outside of his work with Apple. Newson has worked with Apple before, and collaborated with Ive on a one-off aluminum desk for Bono’s (RED) auction last year that sold for $1.68 million. Check out his portfolio here — while he probably can’t help Apple work out improvements to cloud security and two-factor authentication this seems like the right person to design a smartwatch (or whatever it is we’ll see on Tuesday) that people actually want to wear.
[Image credit: Theo Wargo via Getty Images]
Source: Vanity Fair
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Explore the Great Depression in photos with this interactive map
Imagine today’s government backing a program to document the plight of modern day farmers. Many might malign such use of resources, or the value of the endeavor. But, that’s exactly what the Farm Security Administration did between 1935 and 1944 (i.e. the great depression). Photographers were distributed across the land, and negatives sent back to Washington. Of the estimated 170,000 shots taken, around 88,000 were developed and manually classified (remember that next time you moan about corrupt EXIF data). The collection has since been digitized, along with the manually-taken data for each picture, which a team at Yale has now used to create an interactive map. The wonder of modern technology means you can see where, and by whom, every picture was taken right from the comfort of your den. A sober reminder of what different times we live in. Probably a few years later than planned, but the Internet finally provides the perfect way to complete the FSA’s original goal of “introducing America to Americans.”
Filed under: Science, Internet
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Yale
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AIVAnet 