Apple Pay Launch in Canada Planned for November
Apple Pay is planned to launch in Canada in November, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report claims Apple is in negotiations with six Canadian banks about launching the mobile payments service in the first country outside of the United States.
The six Canadian banks reportedly in talks with Apple include the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, CIBC and National Bank of Canada. The financial institutions, which together account for more than 90% of Canadian bank accounts, are open to supporting Apple Pay in Canada, although have expressed concern about fees and potential security issues.
“The banks are open to an agreement, but they aren’t happy with Apple’s fee proposals and are concerned about security vulnerabilities like the ones that U.S. banks experienced as they rolled out the service, the people said.”
Developing…
Apple Watch Goes on Display in Milan, Phil Schiller and Marc Newson on Hand
After being announced to appear at Milan’s Salone Del Mobile Design Fair earlier in the week, today the Apple Watch was displayed for the first time to the public, outside of a retail store or pop up shop, at the design fair (via Macitynet) [Google Translate].
The Apple Watch on display in the Carlo e Camilla restaurant
On display at the Carlo e Camilla restaurant in Segheria, the Watch is displayed in long rows of glass-topped tables, identical to its presentation in Apple’s own retail locations. The fair is even allowing customers to experience the same try-on appointments happening in retail stores since pre-orders began one week ago.
The entrance to the Apple Watch showcase at the fair
Interestingly, as the Watch is displayed at the Carlo e Camilla in Italy, pre-orders for the wearable aren’t available to Italian customers due to Italy not being included in the first wave of launch countries for the Watch. There to experience the event is senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple, Phil Schiller, and Marc Newson, who works part time at Apple as a designer alongside Jony Ive.
Phil Schiller at the event in Milan
Although Apple has yet to confirm pre-order numbers for the Watch, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes the device could have sold more than 2.3 million units during the initial pre-order wave. While the exact number remains a mystery, stock of the Apple watch definitely remains constrained as pre-orders for all devices slipped to a 4-6 week dispatch date, and beyond, only 6 hours after going live.
Smell-o-phone creator attaches scents to eBooks and songs
The Harvard professor that brought us a real life smell-o-phone has announced that he’s expanding his olfactory-focused products to include eBooks, songs and clothing. Now clothes that give off a scent isn’t that weird, but eBooks and songs? How does that work? Professor David Edwards is calling these unusual digital tomes and music “oBooks” and “oSongs,” and they pair up with his company’s, Vapor Communications’, “oPhone” contraption. That device (see above) contains all the scent chips meant to be mixed until it matches the specific scent indicated by the files. When it was launched last year, it was only good for giving off scents attached to messages indicated by the sender through its accompanying app.
An oBook’s images come with “scent tags,” and as long as you’re accessing the files on a smart device connected to the oPhone, the contraption can give off smells indicated by those tags (say, the scent of fruits or flowers) as you read along. As for oSongs, they trigger specific smells with their melody as they play. The bad news is, you can’t buy any oSong or oBook yet. In fact, they’re nothing but museum exhibits at the moment.
The first oBook is called Goldilocks and the Three Bears: The Smelly Version, and it will be exhibited at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York starting on April 18th. The first oSong, on the other hand, was composed by Canadian-Hungarian composer Dániel Péter Biró and will be exhibited at Le Laboratoire Cambridge on April 17th.
That said, the company does have a new product ready for purchase: its first oClothing item, the $10 oBracelet, which has an embedded scent chip that can last for weeks. We’re guessing people would be more excited if the company’s found a way to allow users to attach any scent they want to any eBook or song. But seeing as these products aren’t even ready for a wider release, we’re not holding our breath.
Filed under: Misc
Source: oNotes
How will NASA find new galaxies? Glitter
Space telescopes are great, but they’re hardly the cheapest things to build, launch and maintain, which means scientists are forced to make compromises. The solution to this problem isn’t to build a better rocket with a bigger carrying capacity, but to rely upon a low tech way to make any party fabulous: glitter. Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory believe that the high-tech equivalent of shreds of foil could be used as a cheap and lightweight alternative to the hefty mirrors you’d find in the Hubble Telescope.
You see, big mirrors are used to see the objects magnified by the light, which greatly adds to the heft and cost of the hardware. In this project, codenamed “Orbiting Rainbows,” the mirror would be ditched in favor of a cloud of glitter-like particles that’d float behind the lens. This cloud would be held in place by lasers and could, theoretically, be shifted around to reflect radio waves instead of light when required.
Naturally, this technology isn’t likely to pop up outside of a laboratory any time soon, but early tests have proved positive. If it works, then the tech could also be utilized to help predict earthquakes and other, more local, applications. The hope is that we’ll see a small prototype dropped into near-Earth orbit with a test cloud “no larger than a bottle cap.” Maybe the JPL should dig through the rest of Mariah Carey’s back catalog just in case the secret to perpetual motion is tucked inside the lyrics to Dreamlover.
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Accessory makers are solving Apple’s MacBook problem
We like Apple’s 12-inch MacBook with its sleek look, high-res screen and scant mass — but we have a big problem with the single USB-C port. For one, it doubles as the lone power connector, meaning you can’t even charge your MacBook and transfer files at the same time. Another issue is finding peripherals that even support the new standard, fancy as it is. However, you’re not totally screwed — if you don’t want to pay for Apple’s own (expensive) USB-C adapters, there are options coming from established companies like Belkin and some very intriguing products on Kickstarter.
Early adopters have no choice but to buy Apple’s $79 USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, because right now, it’s the only game in town. After you plug it into the MacBook’s lone port, you’ll have a USB-C charging port, a USB 3.1 port and an HDMI port with up to UltraHD output (Apple has a similar cable with VGA). Let’s be real here: the MacBook is pretty expensive starting at $1,149, and this peripheral should be included. If you want to pay less and don’t mind swapping cables, you can settle for Apple’s $29 USB-C to USB 3.1 cable that will at least let you plug in, say, a standard USB key. Belkin has a similar cable coming soon at the same price.
What about storage? As mentioned, transferring files from a regular USB key or drive is a pretty basic task that you just can’t do on a MacBook. Fortunately, SanDisk has a 32GB, $49 dual USB drive coming in June that you can plug into both Type-C and standard USB ports. If you need more space, LaCie’s Porsche Design USB-C drive (with a USB 3.0 adapter cable) arrives this summer in 500, 1TB and 2TB capacities. There’s no pricing yet, but Lacie has a similar USB 3.0-only device starting at $75.
If you’re willing to punt on Kickstarter, a company called InfiniteUSB has USB-C cables that sport a male connector and female pass-through socket, letting you stack as many as you want. The design is based on the company’s standard USB stacked cable, which has been around since 2010. The cables come in MicroUSB, Lightning or female USB flavors and start at $18 each. They’re compact and fold magnetically, letting you travel light and add connectivity as needed — but you can’t use them and charge your MacBook at the same time. The company has exceeded its $10,000 goal many times over with nearly $200,000 pledged.
Other Kickstarter options include the $19 BeeKeeper USB-C to USB 3.0 adapter, which lets you keep a standard USB cable on your MacBook, even for charging. Finally, there’s the HydraDock hub (above). From a single USB-C connection, it gives you 11 ports, including a 3.5mm stereo headphone port, a gigabit ethernet port, an SDXC card slot, a mini DisplayPort, one HDMI output (1080p max), 4 USB 3.0 ports and 2 USB-C ports. It looks versatile enough to solve all your connectivity issues, but it’s still halfway to its funding goal. And like all things Kickstarter, there’s a chance it’ll never see the light of day.
Google improves presentation of URLs in mobile search results
The next time you search for something on your smartphone or tablet, you might notice a small change in the search results. Instead of displaying long URL names, Google will now display the real-world name of the site and the actual URL will be in a breadcrumbs-like format.
This is obviously more simplified, but it also helps users understand websites better. You can see the before (left) and after (right) in the image above.
The update is taking place gradually so you might not see the change right away. Real-world names will only be available in the U.S, and the new breadcrumbs format will be available worldwide.
source: Google
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Get double the 4G LTE data with Walmart Family Mobile starting April 18
Walmart Family Mobile, which is powered by T-Mobile, just announced that customers will get double the data starting tomorrow. Even better news is that existing customers will enjoy the extra data too!!
The double data refers to the lower priced offering, which is $29.88 per month. That includes unlimited talk, text and data with up to 1 GB of 4G LTE data. That used to be 500 MB, so the data is now doubled.
There is also a $39.88 per month plan that enjoys the same unlimited talk, text, and data, but you get 3 GB of 4G LTE data. This plan enjoys the same 500 MB increase from 2.5 GB, but it’s obviously not doubled.
In case you’re not familiar with Walmart Family Mobile, it’s for postpaid customers only and there are no contracts. Plans can be purchased at Walmart stores or Walmart.com. As mention earlier, the network is powered by T-Mobile so you will need a T-Mobile compatible phone. You can bring your own or purchase one at Walmart.
Come comment on this article: Get double the 4G LTE data with Walmart Family Mobile starting April 18
Google+ v5.3 update brings visual improvements [APK Download]
Google+’s latest update brings a few tweaks and visual improvements to their communities section, implementing a design similar to what Google Play uses for an app page’s header. This is a much welcomed improvement, and really makes communities look great.
Another visual update to Google+ is the status bar changing color as you scroll down pages. These changes are purely cosmetic, and don’t bring anything in the way of functionality. Below is a link to the APK mirror.
The post Google+ v5.3 update brings visual improvements [APK Download] appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Apple Watch With Custom Red Sport Band, Folding UK Plug Spotted in New Photos
British cyclist and former professional rugby player Will Carling has shared a pair of new photos on Twitter that appear to reveal two unreleased Apple products. The first photo shows a stainless steel Apple Watch with what looks like a custom red sport band, while the second photo provides a side-by-side look at an Apple charger with a unique folding plug design for use in the United Kingdom.
Carling claims that Apple design chief Jony Ive provided him with the folding charger, which could be the official charger for the Apple Watch in the United Kingdom, and it is likely that is who gifted him the Apple Watch with a custom red sport band as well. Ive grew up in England and is known to be a rugby fan, and Carling was the former captain of England’s national rugby team from 1988 to 1996.
It is possible that the photo is actually of an Apple Watch with the similar looking pink sport band, although the lighting in the shot gives the band more of a red appearance and Carling mentions that he prefers “the red band” on Twitter. Apple has given a custom watch to at least one other iconic figure, with designer Karl Lagerfeld spotted wearing an Apple Watch with gold link bracelet earlier this week.
It is possible that Apple may eventually release a (PRODUCT)RED version of the Apple Watch by offering this custom red sport band for sale. Apple gives a portion of sales generated from (PRODUCT)RED merchandise to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa, raising over $70 million towards the initiative to date. Apple’s current (PRODUCT)RED lineup includes iPods, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cases, and iPad Smart Cases and Covers.
Take part in Samsung’s global ‘What If I Can’ walkathon campaign to build solar powered schools in Africa
Samsung might be expecting to sell over 70 million of its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones in its attempt to return to maximum profitability, but the Korean company is pretty active in its charity work as well. This is evidenced by it’s What If I Can charity campaign that started earlier this year, aiming to build Solar Powered Internet Schools (SPIS) in Africa. You can take part simply by downloading the What If I Can app from the Google Play Store and taking part in the global walkathon.
The What If I Can walkathon campaign aims to build one of the Solar Powered Internet Schools in Africa for every 800 million steps recorded. Th app works pretty much like a normal pedometer app, it just counts your steps, showing your personal total as well as the current global step total. Exactly how far do 800 million steps take you? Well, it basically means that a SIPS will be built for every 640,000km (400,000 miles) worth of steps. That’s pretty far, further than the earth to the moon by a good margin. It’s a global counter, which that the steps you take walking in the supermarket, fetching your children from school or even just pacing around your garden are totted up with everyone else’s efforts. A great by-product of using the What if I Can app is that your will be able to keep track of how much exercise you are doing.
The Solar Powered Internet Schools are housed in a converted 40ft container that allows for easy transportation. Each SIPS comes with its own solar panels that make it self-sufficient and internet access is achieved through GSM and satellite communications. Furniture, lighting and air-conditioning are also provided to ensure a comfortable learning space. Each SIPS can accommodate up to 30 students, allowing them access to laptops and tablets. In case of technical problems, Samsung has a dedicated support team to keep things moving smoothly. At present, there are SIPS facilities in 15 African countries.
The good news is that you don’t have to be using a Samsung produced smartphone to take part, the What If I Can app can be downloaded to all Android-powered devices. The app updates your progress to the global step count every five minutes. Downloading the app from the QR code or Play Store link below is the first step.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Source: SamsungTomorrow
Come comment on this article: Take part in Samsung’s global ‘What If I Can’ walkathon campaign to build solar powered schools in Africa
AIVAnet 