TAG Heuer to Combine Swiss Watch Expertise With Technology in ‘Different Craftsmanship’
LVMH luxury watch chief and TAG Heuer interim head Jean-Claude Biver spoke recently with Bloomberg, revealing some early details about the company’s upcoming smartwatch product. Biver was a notable early critic of the Apple Watch, saying Apple’s wearable effort looked like it was designed by “a student in their first trimester,” although he appears to have shifted his perspective more recently.
In this week’s Bloomberg interview, Biver recognizes the technological shortcomings of the Swiss watch industry, which lacks the communications and hardware background to produce a smartwatch. Instead, TAG Heuer will develop its smartwatch using a “different craftsmanship” that merges the mechanical know-how of the Swiss watch makers with the technology expertise of Silicon Valley.
For a smartwatch, “we can’t produce the engine, the chips, the applications, the hardware — nobody can produce it in Switzerland,” Biver said. “The hardware and the software will come from Silicon Valley. But the watch case, the dial, the design, the idea, the crown, that part of the watch will, of course, be Swiss.”
Biver earlier confirmed TAG Heuer was looking to work with technology companies on its smartwatch device and told Bloomberg in his latest interview that the company will reveal these partnerships in the next six weeks. Google and Intel are among the companies rumored to be collaborating with the luxury watch maker.
Besides the typical smartwatch functions of GPS location tracking, step counting, and smartphone integration, TAG Heuer may also differentiate its product by offering exclusive apps that promote its brand and partnerships such as the sports teams that it sponsors.
Though he may be creating a competing product, Biver told Bloomberg he plans to buy an Apple Watch when it launches.
“It’s a fantastic product, an incredible achievement,” he said. “I’m not just living in the tradition and culture and the past, I also want to be connected to the future. The Apple Watch connects me to the future. My watch connects me to history, to eternity.”
Apple is expected to launch the Apple Watch as soon as March. The wearable band will be available in a variety of configurations designed for the average user, the sports enthusiast, and the luxury customer looking for a high-end smartwatch.
Chrome to Mobile and Print to my Phone are both going bye-bye next month
Google is shutting down both Chrome to Mobile and “Print to my Phone” early next month. Chrome to Mobile was that browser extension that allowed you to easily send whatever web page you were viewing on your desktop, right to your mobile device. I often found it useful, but Google started Tab Sync a couple of year’s ago that might not be as quick, but is a lot more useful.
Tab Sync shows you every Chrome page that is open on every single device that you have so it’s a lot more versatile. All you need to do is tap on any of those open web pages from your mobile device, and it will open. I stopped using Chrome to Mobile ever since Tab Sync was introduced.
Print to my Phone is a feature in Google Cloud Print that allows you to choose one of your mobile devices as a printer option. I can say that I have never used the option, nor have I ever heard of it, so it’s no surprise that Google is shutting it down.
source: +Moshe Brevda More info on Tab Sync: Google
Come comment on this article: Chrome to Mobile and Print to my Phone are both going bye-bye next month
Avoid these horribly bad passwords in 2015
Data security is still a hot topic, thanks to the numerous high profile hacks that have taken place over the past few months. So, at the very least, we should all probably pick reliable passwords to protect our various online accounts with. Fortunately, SplashData’s newly compiled worst passwords of 2014 list gives a few suggestions for passwords that you should avoid.
Looking at the list, “123456” and “password” have somehow managed to retain their top positions from 2013 as the worst possible choices, with “696969” and “batman” joining the ranks as some of the most popular newbies last year. Sports teams, children’s names, and curse words are also rather popular throughout the top 100, and should probably also be avoided. Here’s the list of SlashData’s top 10, which you should definitely not use.
According to the data, 2.2 percent of exposed passwords were made up from the top 25 list and many of the poorest passwords are still being used from last year. However, the good news is that this is actually one of the lower figures seen by the researchers, so the number of people using these key words could slow be beginning to fall.
SplashData suggests using mixed character passwords of eight characters or more and using different passwords for different services. If you’re a little stuck trying to figure out how secure your password is, Microsoft has this handy tool available for free.
Report says Microsoft won’t launch the first Windows 10 mobile preview until February
A new report claims Microsoft will launch its public preview of Windows 10 for mobile devices sometime in February. The mobile version is supposed to work on both Windows Phones as well as small tablets with Intel and ARM-based processors.
UK minister calls for Netflix to offer the same content when Brits travel abroad
At the moment, if you travel abroad and open up the Netflix app you’ll notice that its library of films and TV shows is vastly different. That’s because the company has cut a variety of agreements with rights holders in different countries, which restrict what content it can make available to its subscribers. So while Netflix might have a deal to offer Doctor Who in the UK, it doesn’t necessarily have the rights to offer it in other parts of Europe. It means that if you’re abroad and want to continue binge-watching the Time Lord’s adventures, you could be out of luck. It’s a frustrating reality of the media industry, and why some savvy streamers have turned to proxies and VPNs in order to access Netflix’s library in other countries. Now, the UK’s Business Secretary Vince Cable wants to cover up these restrictions altogether with a “single online market” for Europe. It would, in theory, make services such as Netflix “portable,” so that whenever you travel abroad your library remains the same.
Under such a system, you would be able to watch Netflix’s UK catalogue of films and TV programmes anywhere across the continent. However, any additional shows normally available to Netflix subscribers in other countries would remain remain out of your reach. Of course, Cable didn’t detail exactly how his proposals would be implemented, and we suspect such a change would cause quite a tangle for Netflix and rights holders trying to work out which royalties need to be paid. These international complexities are, at least in part, why Netflix has been so focused on its own original content recently, and why we’re keeping a healthy degree of skepticism that such an idea will ever get off the ground.
[Image Credit: Liberal Democrats, Flickr]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet
Via: The Telegraph
Source: BIS
(Update: live now) OnePlus is allowing anyone to buy the One for two hours tomorrow
Update: the shopping window is now open. Get your OnePlus One here.
Original post:
With its high-end specs and low-priced cost, not to mention CyanogenMod pre-installed, the OnePlus One managed to earn its fair share of attention last year when it launched. Ironically, the so-called flagship killer also managed to accumulate a large amount of bad press as well, given the company’s questionable marketing tactics and the fact that outside its native country of China, it’s strictly an invitation-only affair.
OnePlus is offering a very limited window, once again, for all those interested, to buy the phone freely (but not for free, of course). A countdown page is currently displaying the hours until the event begins on January 20th. For those in North America, your call time will be 7PM-9PM EST, for Europe, 19-21 GMT, and for Asia, 19-21 HKT. And yes, that is correct; the phone will be available for two hours, thus ironically ensuring that even when anyone can buy the device, it’s still not without caveats. The phone starts at $299 for the 16GB version and $349 for the 64GB version.
The effort spent to obtain a OnePlus One certainly pays off even down to the packaging!
It will be interesting to see what OnePlus decides to do with the One after the presumed launch of an upcoming “OnePlus Two” device: will the original still be offered in sparse doses for the general public, or will it become more akin to the Google Glass Explorer program (well, prior to this month at least). It’s also worth noting that, in China, the phone is freely available to anyone at anytime, sans CyanogenMod however.
Official LG G Flex 2 intro video highlights unique features
If you prefer your smartphone features reeled off to heroic backing music provided by a string quartet, then you should definitely have a gander at LG’s G Flex 2 official introductory video above. Don’t worry, this video is much better than the incredibly odd advert for the original LG G Flex.
In case you missed any of it, the G Flex 2 is packing in some seriously impressive hardware. Between the 1080p flexible display, Android 5.0 Lollipop, and a new high-end 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 SoC, you’re looking at a cutting edge piece of kit. LG has also made some improvements to technologies seen in its previous handsets, including the miraculous self-healing back cover from the original G Flex and a faster camera laser focus system from its flagship G3.
We rather enjoyed our hands on time with the G Flex 2 at this year’s CES. In fact, the smartphone was one of our top picks from CES 2015, awarded for its impressive 1080p curved display, build quality, and cutting edge hardware specs.
Which, if any, of these features have caught your eye, or is the G Flex 2 a tad gimmicky for your tastes?
You can now order the BlackBerry Z3 SIM free in the UK
This one maybe a little late to the party but if you fancy picking up the low cost BlackBerry Z3 SIM free in the UK you can now do so thanks to Clove. The British online retailer has the Z3 priced at £154.99, including VAT, which seems reasonable value for money if you ask me.
Android 5.0.2 OTA files available for Nexus 7 2013 and 2012
A number of Nexus factory images for Android 5.0.2 Lollipop sprung up at towards the end of last year and now the update has begun appearing over-the-air for the Nexus 7, both 2013 and 2012 WiFi models.
If you simply cannot wait for the OTA update to reach you, you can grab the .zip file to install yourself from the links below:
- Nexus 7 2013 WiFi (razor) – LRX22C to LRX22G
- Nexus 7 2012 WiFi (nakasi) – LRX21P to LRX22G
As for what’s new in Android 5.0.2, you won’t notice any major new features or visual overhauls. Instead, 5.0.2, as the name suggests, is a bug fixing patch and should improve the stability of the OS overall. Previously, we have also seen a particular mention of addressing “issues with MountService which should now start before performBootDexOpt [and] changes related to NAND have also been pushed. Fstrim, introduced in Android 4.3, caused some serious issues on Lollipop… devices with slow NAND should now have a noticeable performance boost”. Sounds like good stuff.
If you’re not the manual updating type, don’t fret. The Android 5.0.2 OTA update should be rolling out to you soon.
Evernote for Mac helps you organize your digital life
Evernote has long been a popular way for people to take notes and archive important information. If you’ve never used it, here’s an introduction to the Mac version of the software, and some tips on why you might be interested. By the way, Evernote is free to start with, so you can get try it out without paying a dime.
Evernote isn’t just an application — it’s a service. In order to use the app you need to create an Evernote account that serves as an active online repository of all the data you enter using the app. But this makes it a breeze to synchronize your content between devices, and Evernote is practically ubiquitous: In addition to the Mac, you can download it for iOS and for other platforms like Windows, Android, Windows Phone and more.
Evernote divides content into notes and notebooks; notebooks are collections of individual notes. I’ve set up separate notebooks for home, work, and projects that I’m working on.
The individual notes in each notebook can be free-form text, ordered and unordered lists (including checkbox lists, if you’re picking up groceries, say, or supplies for a craft project) and more. You have extensive control over text formatting, and you can also include audio snippets, images, even snapshots using your Mac’s built-in camera.
Evernote isn’t just for typing and recording words. It works equally well if you have images you want to save (and notate). If Evernote isn’t the active app, you can just drag an image into the Evernote icon on the Dock and it’ll import the image too. This is great if you’re collecting images for inspiration or later collation and collection and just want to grab stuff and go quickly. There’s also an Evernote Web Clipper extension you can install for Safari and other browsers that will help you capture text and images from web sites.
Notes can be tagged so you can group and find them more easily later; you can also share them with other people using a connection to your own Contacts list; or post them publicly on social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. You’ll be notified if and when others make changes to the shared content, if you’ve enabled that functionality.
This only scratches the surface of Evernote’s core functionality, and this is only the “free” version of Evernote. If you choose to pay for Evernote Premium — which costs $5 per month for individuals, $10 per month per user for businesses — you get other features, like the ability to have longer notes, annotated PDF file attachments, improved search functionality, and perhaps most importantly, offline work support.
And because Evernote has long been a popular app, there’s a constellation of support for it — including devices that work with Evernote like scanners and pen styluses for the iPad — as well as third-party software that supports sharing with Evernote.
Evernote was updated this past November to take advantage of the new user experience Apple created for OS X Yosemite. The developers also used the new release to introduce other new features like easily resizable tables and images, redesigned interface elements and more.
Hopefully this has painted in broad strokes some of the features Evernote have and some of what Evernote can do for you. At the very least, you might want to give a try by downloading it yourself, since it won’t cost you anything (except a few moments of time to set up an account).
- Free – Download now
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