Engadget Daily: The Jawbone Up3, light bulbs that fool burglars and more!
As it turns out, smart light bulbs aren’t just good at saving you from high utility bills — they can prevent burglaries too. Read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours, including the Jawbone Up3, Dell Venue 11 Pro, and Google’s latest Maps update.
Showtime plans to follow HBO with cable-free streaming in 2015
Let’s say that your premium cable-drama tastes range more toward Homeland or Masters of Sex than they do Game of Thrones or Girls. Good news, then! If you’re getting tired of paying for access to the network on top of your monthly TV bill, that could change next year according to Wall Street Journal. On today’s earnings call, CBS’ chief executive officer Leslie Moonves said that standalone access to Showtime’s programming was coming in 2015 “fairly definitively.” It’s a bit on the wishy-washy side of things, but it gives the outfit a chance to cover its rear should the requisite deals we’d imagine this requires not happen in time. That should sound at least a little familiar considering HBO said something similar not too long ago. Want to simulate pay-TV-less Showtime until then? Well, there’s always Dexter and Californication on Netflix.
[Image credit: Getty Images for Showtime]
Moonves says we’ll “fairly definitively” see stand-alone SHOWTIME offering in 2015. $CBS
– Julia Boorstin (@JBoorstin) November 5, 2014
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Wall Street Journal
AppleCare for Enterprise With On-Site Support From IBM Now Live
Earlier this year, Apple and IBM announced a major enterprise mobility partnership that would see IBM selling iOS devices to its corporate customers, creating industry-specific native apps, providing iOS-optimized cloud services, and providing support for a new AppleCare service.
IBM and Apple are now moving forward with their partnership, and Apple has recently launched a new AppleCare for Enterprise website, suggesting that its promised enterprise-grade AppleCare plan is now available for IBM’s enterprise customers.
As detailed on the website, all AppleCare for Enterprise accounts are handled by an AppleCare Account Manager, providing a personal liaison with AppleCare. Apple promises a one-hour response time for all urgent issues, with IT department-level support available 24/7 via phone or email. All AppleCare for Enterprise customers can also replace 10 percent of damaged iOS devices, giving businesses an easy way to replace iPads or iPhones that have been accidentally damaged by employees.
As promised during the announcement of its IBM partnership, Apple is offering an onsite hardware repair service for AppleCare for Enterprise customers. While Apple is handling all email and phone requests, IBM Global Technology Services will provide onsite repairs.
You have the option to get onsite service coverage for two or three years from the date of your hardware purchase. If you have a hardware issue during that time, AppleCare for Enterprise will help get you back up and running quickly. IBM’s Global Technology Services, a worldwide Apple Authorized Service Provider, will provide onsite service within the next business day.
The new AppleCare for Enterprise site comes just ahead of IBM’s first dedicated enterprise-focused iOS apps. During Apple’s recent earnings call, Tim Cook said that next month, IBM will introduce apps across six sectors: banking, government, insurance, retail, travel, and transportation and telecommunications.
Pricing on the Enterprise plans is unknown, but enterprise customers interested in finding out more about Apple’s AppleCare for Enterprise plans are encouraged to contact their Apple or IBM Account Executives.
Gear Circle is Samsung’s new way for instant hands free communication
Samsung announced today a new tech toy for a hands-free communication. Known as the Gear Circle, the tech is said to be both light-weight and sweat resistant. The kicker is this wireless stereo headphone sits around your neck, vibrating when you have an incoming call. There’s more it can do.
It also supports other Bluetooth-enabled devices and comes with touch controls that makes it easy for active people to use. It boasts nine hours of play time and 11 hours of talk time. The earphones can be detached and to pause music, pausing them is as simple as putting them back together. Users can receive voice notifications using Text-to-Speech through S Voice.
The Gear Circle is currently available in a number of T-Mobile stores, comes in back and blue and will be available at AT&T, Samsung,com and Amazon.com later this month. Those who want it in white will have to buy it from Best Buy as they will carry that color exclusively.
source: Samsung
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Verizon will play the price-cutting wars conservatively
With mobile carriers looking at cutting prices to woo new customers or to keep current customers, it’s becoming a customer’s market. With every carrier playing a game of price cutting chicken and doubling data, cutting prices and throwing around all sorts of promotions. However one of the larger four, Verizon looks to be blinking at the other carriers’ stares.
Verizon will continue to play the price-cutting game but will do so on a conservative manner by not overacting to rival carriers price cuts. Even so Verizon isn’t hesitating with its on series of promotions. New and existing cuystomers who choose the $80 per month More Everything plan will get 10GB instead of 6GB. Those that go with the $100/month plan will get 15GB instead of 10GB.
Verizon is also looking at deploying AWS spectrum to help with LTE performance during heavy usage times focusing on customer experience versus speed.
Verizon will have to do something in the wake of T-Mobile‘s addition of millions of new subscribers. While Verizon boasts the most coverage, expensive prices will force customers to look elsewhere, especially at those with non-contract options.
source: Fierce Wireless
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Dell selling Chromebox bundled with keyboard and mouse for only $199
If you’re in the market for a new Chromebox you should start paying attention. Dell released a Chromebox bundle online for $199. That bundle includes a wireless mouse and keyboard (valued at $39). The Chromebox from Dell sports 2GB of RAM, a fourth-generation Intel processor, and an Intel 7260ac HMC network card. However the deal does not include a monitor so if you’re going to buy this make sure to have one on-hand.
Normally the Chromebox retails for just under $300. So if you’re in the market for a new Chromebox, hit the source link below. There’s no telling just how long this deal is going to last, so you better hurry.
source: Dell
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There’s now a steel-reinforced bullet for 3D-printed guns
Despite all the hype surrounding 3D-printed guns (good and bad), they still haven’t truly taken off outside of enthusiasts. A reason for this is, perhaps, the lack of powerful ammunition — something that’s not 3D-printed or, put simply, generally made out of plastic materials. But, as Wired reports, a gentleman from Pennsylvania has already started working on a solution, for those who were looking for one anyway. Michael Crumling, a 25-year-old machinist, recently designed bullets that use a rather thick, steel shell, strong enough to keep a hold of the blast from inside without spreading any force to the weapon.
Crumling has been successfully testing live rounds of his ammo, which he’s dubbed .314 Atlas, on a 3D-printed gun he created himself. “Basically it removes all the stresses and pressures from the 3-D printed parts,” he told Wired. “You should be able to fire an unlimited number of shots through the gun without replacing any parts other than the shell.” While this may be great news for fans of 3D-printed guns, we have a feeling that lawmakers won’t be as pleased.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Alt
Via: The Verge
Source: Wired
New-gen GTA V looks great, and you can play in first-person (video)
The re-release of Grand Theft Auto V on PS4 and Xbox One (PC version delayed until 2015) is just days away now. As a result, Rockstar is cranking up the PR campaign by showing and telling why it should get your hard-earned money (again). Yesterday it delivered confirmation of the leaked first-person mode that brings even deeper immersion to your criminal hijinks — according to a comment on CVG’s podcast, you can even watch the cutscenes in first person — along with a video preview of what it’s like (viewable on YouTube here and in higher quality, higher bitrate video at Gamersyde.) Today it has another highlight reel to present, showing the difference between the PS3 and PS4 version across scenes.
The high-res 1080p / 30fps experience is just the start — you can quickly see more detail in the buildings, environments and cars as a dashboard smear suddenly has working dials, a green blur on the ground becomes fully 3D-rendered foliage and more. The team has also talked specifically on its work for the PS4 version, as IGN says the jump to first person is controlled by the DualShock 4’s touchpad, while police lights cause the lightbar to flash red and blue and radio chatter to come out of the controller’s speaker. Peep the reflections on the helicopter and the realistic looking puddles for more evidence of the team’s attention to detail, although there’s some aliasing and pop-in evident in the videos too. Give them a watch and let us know if you’re convinced it’s time to make a return trip to Los Santos.
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Sony, Microsoft
Source: Rockstar Newswire (1), (2)
Sound Off! What’s the best virtual reality experience right now?
There’s no way around it. Virtual reality gaming is heading our way (despite some folks’ opinions to the contrary). A ton of companies are currently working on fancy head gear and we’ve seen announcements about the Carl Zeiss VR One, Samsung Gear VR, Sony Morpheus, Oculus Rift and even Google’s crazy cardboard experiment. For those of you lucky enough to have one of these rare devices, head over to the Engadget forums and tell us the best VR gaming experiences you can have right now.
[Image credit: Neilson Barnard / Getty Images]
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Engadget forums
Pushbullet update allows you to send texts from your computer
There’s already quite a few options if you want to send SMS’s through your computer, but Pushbullet is adding another. You could already reply to texts through their Chrome extension, but now you can send new text messages as well. All you have to do once you have the app and Chrome extension is click on the SMS tab, enter the number or name of the recipient, and type your message and send. The text is sent via your Android phone, which means it will come from your real phone number and appear in the conversations on your phone.
Source: Pushbullet Blog
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