Google launches ‘Works with Cardboard’ program for its VR headset
Google wants all apps developed for its Cardboard VR headset to work properly with, well, any version of its device. That’s tougher than it sounds, since the headset’s open-source, and a lot of companies and individual users are tweaking it to their heart’s content. To make it happen, Mountain View has launched the “Works with Google Cardboard” project, which gives headset makers the power to ensure their design plays nicely with apps made for the device. It doesn’t matter if they use metal or plastic, cut the materials out using any dimension or adjust the optic, so long as they input all those details into the Cardboard website to get a QR code to attach to their creation.
Once they (or another user) scan that QR code using the headset’s app, all applications designed for Cardboard will be optimized for their viewer. Makers selling their headsets can also apply for a certification badge indicating their design is compatible with apps and games developed for the device. Mountain View has even put together a shop where people can get headsets that have both a “Works with Cardboard” badge and a QR code.
Speaking of apps, Google has also launched a new set of design guidelines for developers, which focus mostly on how to make their creations usable. In addition, the company has released updated Cardboard SDKs for Android and Unity with better head tracking and drift correction. Users, on the other hand, can now find compatible apps more easily, thanks to the new Music and Video, Games, and Experiences Cardboard application categories.
If you’re yearning for more significant updates than these, though, don’t worry — it looks like the company has big plans for the device. A team from the School of Engineering in Trinity College Dublin has just joined the Cardboard division, bringing their ambisonic surround sound technology with them. Google says it will use that technology to bring “immersive audio to VR” in the future.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Source: Google Developers, Get Your Cardboard
The X-47B’s first aerial refueling test will also be its last
The Navy’s X-47B combat UAV demonstrator successfully paired with an an Omega Air KC-707 airtanker earlier this week. This marks the first time in aviation history for a UAV to demonstrate aerial refueling capabilities. Unfortunately, these tests also likely mark the end of the X-47B program. Despite only completing 20 percent of its potential flight hours, both of the Navy’s X-47Bs are destined for museums. Still, the technologies that they’ve demonstrated — including those historic autonomous carrier landings in 2013 — will make their way into future unmanned combat aerial vehicles as part of the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program.
Filed under: Transportation, HD
Source: Alert 5 (Twitter)
IKEA’s furniture with built-in wireless charging is coming to the U.S. in late spring
We recently rounded up some of the best wireless chargers you could purchase for your brand new Samsung Galaxy S6. But if you’re looking for something a little more futuristic, Samsung and IKEA have you covered. Announced at MWC 2015, IKEA and Samsung revealed their plans to bring wireless charging to living rooms and kitchens in Europe and North America sometime in the near future. And today, IKEA has finally given us some pricing and availability information on the new furniture items.
In the PDF attached below, you’ll find nightstands and lamps with wireless charging capabilities built-in. And while there aren’t any fully compatible office desks, IKEA has created a versatile wireless charger called the JYSSEN that can fit into the company’s MICKE or STUVA desks. If you want to take it one step further and integrate the JYSSEN into your own desk, IKEA is even selling a hole saw bit called the FIXA, which will cut the perfect whole for your wireless charger. If you aren’t in the market to buy any furniture at the moment, there are a few nice-looking wireless charging pads available in the catalog, as well.
Pricing is surprisingly on the inexpensive side, ranging from $27.99 for a wireless charging pad to $118.99 for a nice lamp. There are a ton of new products being offered, so you’ll definitely want to take a look at the source link below. You can expect to see the first wireless charging-compatible furniture items become available in the United States sometime in “late spring”.
T-Mobile’s John Legere vows to send a message to Verizon and AT&T on carrier overages
It’s no secret that T-Mobile has been the biggest carrier advocating for change in the wireless industry throughout the past few years. One of the most notable changes the carrier has made in recent past was the move to end all overage charges on its network, which came into fruition almost exactly one year ago. Soon after, CEO John Legere created a petition on Change.org that aimed to convince Verizon, AT&T and Sprint that overage fees were no longer acceptable. Even after reaching 100,000 signatures in just over one week’s time, the petition barely had any effect on the other three companies.
Flash forward to today, and T-Mobile is revisiting the petition for a different reason. Well, the Un-carrier’s goal is still to abolish overages in the wireless industry, but T-Mobile now taking matters into its own hands. In a vlog post sent out a few hours ago, John Legere vows that if the same petition (currently at just over 200,000 supporters) can get up to the 250k mark, he will send a personal message to Verizon or AT&T. Legere says the message could be anything from a “sky-written nastygram above AT&T’s headquarters” to a “giant greeting card delivered to the front door of Verizon”.
Legere says:
Last year, we calculated the carriers were taking $1 billion out of consumers’ pockets every year… (The carriers) slam you for using your device exactly like you’re supposed to, and these penalties often hit the people who can least afford them. If you’re going past your data limit, it’s probably because you don’t have a big data plan to begin with and are operating on a conservative budget.
If you’d like to help abolish overages throughout the entire wireless industry, you can sign the petition on Change.org to help get your voice heard. It will certainly be interesting to see what T-Mobile comes up with for a message, so let’s try to get that petition to 250k!
Leaked barge video shows SpaceX rocket landing up close
Another day, another video angle looking at the almost-landing of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. This time, the video is from the barge itself, although there’s no word on exactly how it got from there to a post on Reddit. Whatever its provenance (SpaceX has not commented yet) it certainly appears to be legit and gives us the closest view yet of exactly what happened. According to Kanye West biographer CEO Elon Musk, despite the rocket’s explosive ending the “droneship” is fine, with no hull breach and in need of only minor repairs. Enjoy this video, since as we mentioned yesterday, SpaceX may make its next rocket landing attempt on land.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DDF2DQ5rAh0?rel=0
Filed under: Science
Galaxy S6 Edge Battery Life – 4 Days Later
Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone has a lot going for it but the biggest concern for most would-be owners is the battery life. With a 2600 mAh battery powering a Quad HD display, octa-core processor and 16MP camera, there are concerns that the battery might not last a full heavy day’s usage.
The Galaxy S6 Edge launched around the world on Friday and we wanted to ask – is the 2600 mAh battery really enough? I’ve already run you through the first day’s battery life and as the battery can take a few charges to optimise itself for your usage, let’s take a look if the next few days’ usage has made any difference.
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First, a recap of the Galaxy S6 Edge battery life on Day One:
- Total battery life: 14 hours 11 minutes
-
Screen On Time: 3 hours 07 minutes
- Full brightness: 1 hour 59 minutes
- Screen battery used: 25 percent
- Video streaming: 1 hour 11 minutes
- Gaming: 36 minutes
- Phone Calls: 28 minutes
-
Top 3 Battery App Usage:
- Screen: 25 percent
- Facebook: 15 percent
- Twitter: 11 percent
Now let’s move on; after the first days’ battery life, the next day was an eye-opener. The next day saw the Galaxy S6 Edge used predominantly for LTE streaming at full brightness which definitely drew a lot of power.
Related – Best Android Phones of 2015
Here’s the battery life on charge 2:
- Total battery life: 7 hours 56 minutes
-
Screen On Time: 2 hours 16 minutes
- Full brightness: 2 hour 16 minutes
- Screen battery used: 13 percent
- Video streaming: 1 hour 14 minutes
- Gaming: None
- Phone Calls: 14 minutes
-
Top 3 Battery App Usage:
- Android OS: 13 percent
- Screen: 13 percent
- Twitter: 12 percent
The battery draining from full to empty in under eight hours was definitely a concern and I wasn’t sure if it was due to the full brightness of the display or a rogue app.
With this in mind, I set about reducing the brightness to 50 percent or less for the next full charge. At the same time, I removed an app I had installed at the beginning of the previous day (AirDroid if you were wondering) to see if that was also a cause of the poor battery life.
Here’s the details on charge 3:
- Total battery life: 23 hours 45 minutes
-
Screen On Time: 3 hours 31 minutes
- Full brightness: 0 hours 0 minutes
- Screen battery used: 6 percent
- Video streaming: 0 minutes
- Gaming: 0 hours 48 minutes
- Phone Calls: 1 hour 45 minutes
-
Top 3 Battery App Usage:
- Facebook: 11 percent
- Google Play services: 10 percent
- Twitter: 9 percent
One thing that is certainly clear is that having the screen at full brightness draws an extraordinary amount of power. Unfortunately in some scenarios – such as in direct sunlight – you need to go to full brightness for the screen to be legible so the next test was all about average usage.
Here’s the stats from Charge 4:
- Total battery life: 13 hours 14 minutes
-
Screen On Time: 3 hours 9 minutes
- Full brightness: 1 hour 07 minutes
- Screen battery used: 12 percent
- Video streaming: 35 minutes
- Gaming: 1 hour 06 minutes
- Phone Calls: 41 minutes
-
Top 3 Battery App Usage:
- Screen: 13 percent
- Google Play services: 11 percent
- Twitter: 11 percent
The fourth charge brought more questions as the age old problem of Google Play services draining battery reared its head.
Let’s see how long the fifth charge lasted:
- Total battery life: 15 hours 39 minutes
-
Screen On Time: 3 hours 41 minutes
- Full brightness: 1 hours 01 minutes
- Screen battery used: 12 percent
- Video streaming: 22 minutes
- Gaming: 49 minutes
- Phone Calls: 1 hour 11 minutes
-
Top 3 Battery App Usage:
- Facebook: 13 percent
- Screen: 12 percent
- Android OS: 9 percent
Another day of 13 to 16 hour battery life suggests that with my usage pattern, this is the most I can expect from the Galaxy S6 Edge. However, considering that the average user works approximately eight hours per day, it’s clear that the Galaxy S6 Edge will last a full working day, allowing you to charge it overnight and rely on it until you get home after work.
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Another thing to take away is that using your phone at 50 percent brightness or less adds several hours to your battery life. I’ve done further testing on this and it’s certainly a key factor. The octa-core processor drives over 3.6 million pixels and if the brightness is set to full, it draws a large amount of power. Reducing to around 50 to 60 percent could increase your screen-on-time by over 50 percent.
Related – Are the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge overpriced?
I’ll be back with more on the Galaxy S6 Edge battery life in a couple of days where I’ll be aiming to answer a few of the requests from the first in the series. If you want me to test how long the handset lasts whilst using a particular feature, do let us know in the comments below. Samsung has issued an update for the Samsung Push Service app to help improve battery life and I’ll be testing this ahead of the next set of results in a few days’ time.
Deal: Grab a refurbished unlocked 32GB AT&T HTC One M8 for $270 from eBay
HTC’s newest flagship smartphone, the One M9, has just recently been released to the masses. In our full review, we told you that it’s a great smartphone even though it felt extremely similar to its predecessor, the One M8. With that said, if you’re in the market for a new handset, eBay’s latest Daily Deal might be something worth checking out. Right now, you can buy a refurbished unlocked 32GB AT&T HTC One M8 for just $269.99. Considering most carriers are still charging an arm and a leg for the device on a two-year contract, this is quite the steal.
Since this is an unlocked AT&T model, you’ll be able to activate it on either AT&T or T-Mobile’s networks. And if you take advantage of the deal, you’ll score free shipping, as well.
More on the HTC One M8
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The HTC One M8 still has some great specifications by today’s standards. It has a 5-inch 1080p display, a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM and MicroSD expansion up to 128GB. It’s also running one of the latest versions of Android and will soon get the newest version of HTC Sense.
Since this is part of eBay’s Daily Deal, you’ll need to pick one up before midnight tonight to get the discount. If you’re interested, you can pick one up in Gunmetal Gray, Glacial Silver or Amber Gold by following the link below.
Any.do moves forward with Material Design, list sharing, full tablet support, and more
The next major version of Any.do is arriving right now for Android (including tablets) and Chrome devices, bringing with it an entirely new look and set of features. Version 3.0 reinvigorate the app with Material Design throughout. Navigation has been modified for effectiveness and fluidity while themes now add some personalization. The new features include list sharing, Date and Priority filters, and a default list option.
The changes are seamless across all platforms, and Any.do’s subscription is discounted to celebrate the update. The monthly fee for Any.do has been lowered to $2.99 while a yearly subscription is $26.99.
Hit the break for the gallery and download links.
What’s New
**Special launch price for a limited time only $2.99/ month or $26.99/ year**Any.do 3.0 takes advantage of Android in entirely new ways:Material design upgrades throughoutNew, more effective NavigationList sharing is finally here!Two brand new list filters (Date, Priority or original List)Rich, bold new themes to fully customize your Any.do experienceFully responsive tablet supportCustom default list option – choose any list to be your defaultBrand new on-boarding experience
Click here to view the embedded video.
Source: Any.do
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Alleged LG Stylus, model number LS770, press render surfaces
This afternoon, an alleged press render of the LG Stylus (seen above) surfaced online. The image, obtained by TechnoBuffalo, shows the handset believed to be LG’s competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Note series. Not too much is given away by this leak, though. The biggest takeaway is that LG will continue with its rear button setup, but we already had a feeling that was the case.
The model number for the Stylus is apparently LS770.
Source: TechnoBuffalo
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Dead Zebra debuts scientific series with Curie, Tesla, and Newton as inaugural figurines
Andrew Bell and Dead Zebra have returned with a new series of Android Mini Collectibles. This one is “…for Science!” as it will launch with figurines of Marie Curie, Nikola Tesla, and Isaac Newton. The new series focuses on the geniuses of science from hundreds of years ago.
The “…for Science!” collectibles will be available on April 20 at 11:00AM EST. The individual price of a figurine is $10 and orders are limited to two of each figure (or two sets). Bell hinted in the Dead Zebra blog post that the series would be ongoing if it finds success. Based on past performance, we think it is highly likely to stick around.
Hit the break to see the scientific heroes and their packaging.
Marie Curie
Nikola Tesla
Isaac Newton
Source: Dead Zebra
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