Pebble launches official Time Watch companion app for Android
In preparation for its launch later this year, Pebble has today launched an official companion application called ‘Time Watch’ for its upcoming second-generation smartwatch. The app will enable users of the Pebble Time to access the Pebble App Store, organise their device and alter its Settings using their smartphone.
The application will also serve as a platform for any incoming over-the-air (OTA) updates for the smartwatch, including new software versions and bug fixes. It will prompt you whenever an upgrade is available and will immediately start installing it on your watch once you’ve instructed it to do so.
A full roundup of all of the app’s functions can be seen below:
- Support for Pebble Time watchapps, features, accessories, and data sources (e.g. Timeline-based apps, color watchfaces, weather/sports data, and more).
- Organize what’s on your Pebble by Watchfaces and Apps/Timeline. Dragging downloaded watchapps within the menu reorders them and syncs the changes to your Pebble (woo-hoo!).
- Toggle settings, set as active watchface, contact developer, and more by tapping any item within My Pebble.
- In My Pebble, the watchface with the green checkmark is the one currently active on your watch. Quickly change the active watchface by tapping the empty circle of another watchface in the menu.
- Supports both new Pebble Time watchapps AND all items currently available in the Pebble appstore.
If you’d like to install Time Watch on your Android smartphone or tablet, hit the link below. Alternatively, you can scan the QR code to initiate the download.
Come comment on this article: Pebble launches official Time Watch companion app for Android
Lenovo unveils its Smart Cast concept, a smartphone with a built-in laser projector
If you’ve been hankering after a smartphone with a built-in projector, Lenovo may well have you covered. At its TechWorld conference in Beijing today, the Chinese company unveiled a smartphone concept that included a built-in laser projector that can turn any flat surface into a keyboard that you can type on.
The Lenovo Smart Cast has a couple of other neat tricks up its sleeve, the first one being the ability to play a virtual musical keyboard, where you can create music in real-time with no discernible lag. You can even project the image of your favourite game on to a surface and control the game by swiping on the projected image. The smartphone recognises your gestures and converts them into commands.
The second nifty feature is that by rotating the projector and laying it flat on a table, for example, you can display your media content onto a nearby wall.
Naturally, being a concept, it’s unclear whether Lenovo will ever put the Smart Cast smartphone into production, but it is a sign that the Chinese company is attempting to think outside of the box in terms of smartphone development, much like it does with its range of laptops.
We have some a video and some more pictures for you to look at below and don’t forget you can follow our Google I/O 2015 coverage right here.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Source: Lenovo
Via: Pocket-Lint
Come comment on this article: Lenovo unveils its Smart Cast concept, a smartphone with a built-in laser projector
OnePlus is upset that Verizon is using the #NeverSettle hashtag
Have you ever used a catchphrase and then become annoyed when someone else began using it in earshot of you? Well, that’s kinda like how OnePlus is feeling at the moment, thanks to Verizon Wireless using the #NeverSettle hashtag in an advertising campaign. To make matters even more confusing, T-Mobile has also been using the same hashtag in its attempt to attract Verizon Wireless customers.
Never one to shy away from publicity, OnePlus is asking its followers to join the company in its attempt to take back the #NeverSettle mantra. OnePlus wants to send 500 tweets simultaneously via the Thunderclap app in its attempt to take back the #NeverSettle hashtag. If you decide to join the fight and reside in the U.S., you might also receive a surprise from OnePlus. All you have to do is enter your details on the form, and sign up for the Thunderclap as well.
You can follow our coverage of Google I/O 2015 right here.
Source: OnePlus
Come comment on this article: OnePlus is upset that Verizon is using the #NeverSettle hashtag
‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ is a fun distraction, but it’s not Batman
Neon green and red lights flash as Batman maneuvers the Batmobile through loop de loops in a gaudy underground racetrack. On the streets of Gotham, giant, bulbous tanks strafe around each other shooting at the speeding Bat-vehicle as it tries to escape. Onscreen, a computer-animated Alfred appears and gets snippy with master Bruce.
This is a description of the things I did in a demo of Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight, due out this June on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. And if any of the above sounds a whole hell of a lot like the camp film Batman & Robin, well, that’s because it’s eerily similar. If you were a fan of that Joel Schumacher-directed 1997 nipple fest or the open-world distractions of the 2011 video game Arkham City, then that gameplay might sound pretty awesome. But for a fan of Batman: Arkham Asylum like myself, however, this sample of Arkham Knight was disconcerting.
Commissioner James Gordon remains remarkably understanding of his peers.
For its new entry in the series, Arkham Knight, developer Rocksteady chose to double down on the open-world exploration of predecessor Arkham City, giving players an expanded metropolis and a souped-up Bat-vehicle to explore it with. The face-lift that open world’s received on the new PlayStation 4 hardware is truly impressive. The streets, thugs and heroes of Arkham Knight glisten with detail and reflected light. Batman’s dank, wet world is gloriously represented even if it feels like you’ve been on these streets before. In fact, if Gotham seems overwhelmingly familiar when you start playing, that’s because the city, though significantly bigger, does indeed borrow architecture from the last game.
That familiarity isn’t a bad thing, though, as continuity between Batman’s video game adventures should enhance the fantasy that you actually are the Caped Crusader. This is his city and while it should change — especially after the middle of town was converted into a freaky prison colony in the last outing — it shouldn’t be wildly different every time.
The Batmobile, which has both destructive and acrobatic panache, lends a perspective absent from the previous games. Where most of Arkham City had players using grappling hooks to swing around and glide through the city’s rooftops, Arkham Knight keeps players grounded in the Batmobile. Unfortunately, that decision to constrain Batman to the streets also seems to have opened the door to some truly Schumacherian missions (sadly devoid of sexual innuendo) for Batman to complete while joyriding.
How does the Riddler afford all these underground racetracks?
I got to indulge in three Batmobile-centric mission types in the demo: bomb disposal, Riddler racing (seriously) and a chase sequence where I tried to catch the jetpack-rocking villain Firebug. To Rocksteady’s credit, all three were pretty entertaining.
In the first mission, the Arkham Knight (as the game’s villain is called) has sprinkled bombs throughout the city that Batman must diffuse by attaching a wire to them (with the Batmobile) and uploading a virus. He then has to defend that secured bomb from neon red-tinged robot tanks while the virus uploads. The whole thing feels more like a version of Battlezone, the 1980 arcade game, if it were made by Daft Punk. The Riddler races, meanwhile, feel like Mario Kart built by an insane person and set in a city sewer system. Which is more or less precisely what’s happened here: The Riddler has you try to beat a course time while you drive up walls and make tricky jumps underground.
Are these Batmobile-specific diversions entertaining? Sure! But when you’re riding the elevator back up from the Riddler’s subterranean fun times, it’s hard not to wonder what the hell any of that has to do with being Batman. Is Rocksteady attempting to ape the goofy Batman of the ’50s comics? If that’s the case, then why is everything all neon counterpointed with shadows and grit? Why have a tank fight at all?
The tag-team fights add a welcome spin on the series’ brawling.
The Firebug chases at least feel more true to Batman’s spirit. Those missions have players driving up to a burning building and then chasing the high-tech arsonist as he tries to escape. Trying to drive around tight city corners so you can get close enough to launch yourself out of the Batmobile, tackle Firebug and beat the crap out of him feels absolutely awesome. It’s also irritatingly open-world-game-specific, though. Since it’s a type of mission, players have to chase Firebug multiple times to complete that side story.
The Riddler races feel like Mario Kart built by an insane person and set in a city sewer system.
Therein lies the greatest problem with Arkham Knight’s shift from the tightly wound exploration of the original to the now Grand Theft Auto-esque open world: The game rarely feels momentous. Every one of these missions feels like so much filler; distractions to give you something to do as you Bat around town. The Firebug mission would be so much more exciting if it was just one specific incident; one big showdown rather than a chore that needs to be repeated over and over again. Batman: Arkham Knight‘s story may deliver the big, enunciated moments I crave, but unfortunately it was off-limits in the demo.
The series’ signature chunky fighting, at least, still feels great in Arkham Knight. Characters like Nightwing can be accessed on the fly by tapping the controller’s shoulder button. (note: Nightwing takes off after the fight, though, so these team-ups are temporary.) As in Arkham City, however, the whole of Gotham’s littered with random henchmen looking for a fight. So while you’ll always have something to do, keep in mind the brawling will be revisited ad nauseam, meaning more repetition of similar goals, as well as fewer distinctive set pieces and special places to explore.
Sadly, Uma Thurman doesn’t play Poison Ivy this time out.
It bears repeating that everything I did in this demo was fun. The races, the bomb disposal: They were perfectly entertaining. The production quality’s not what eats away at Batman’s latest video game adventure. Everything in Arkham Knight feels like it’s expertly made, but also indistinct.
I’d just rather have a flawed Arkham Asylum than a high-quality open world of distractions any day of the week.
[Images credit: WBIE]
Third-party Twitter apps will display quoted tweets properly soon
It’s been six weeks or so since Twitter revamped its “quoted tweet” function, saving users valuable characters and generally improving the experience for everyone using the site or the official apps. Now, it’s updating its API to support the changes, which will allow third-parties to properly display the quotes in their apps. To be clear, that’s all the update will allow for: displaying quotes correctly. Actually quoting tweets, according to Tweetium for Windows, is not supported by the API change, and it’s unsure if or when that’ll happen.
Filed under: Software
Source: Twitter
Amazon Prime same-day delivery is now free in 14 cities
Amazon can get you a package in an hour, but if you “only” need it the same day, delivery is now free in 14 metropolitan areas. To get the service, you’ll need to place an order of $35 or more and be an Amazon Prime subscriber at $99 per year. You’ll also need to be in specific urban centers, including San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle/Tacoma (check your zip code here). The move is yet another carrot for Prime subscribers and probably a blow to brick-and-mortar stores, who now rely a lot on impatient shoppers.
Via: LA Times
Source: Amazon
Watch this little robot learn to walk after taking damage
Robots are getting pretty good at carrying on after taking a knock, but what if they lose a limb? Scientists from the US and France have given a six-legged ‘bot the smarts to keep going even if two of its legs are disabled by, say, a Sarah Connor shotgun blast. The team created and then rated a number of simulations for how its robot could keep moving forward despite losing a leg or two. Once that information was programmed into the robot, it was able to rapidly evaluate the options and use the one that worked best in the real world.
Calling it “intelligent trial and error,” they described the programming as a kind of intuition for robots. “These predictions come from the simulated, undamaged robot. (However) it has to find out which of them work, not only in reality, but given the damage,” according to lead author Antoine Cully. He added that the same algorithm also lets the machines adapt to new situations and environments. The researchers think the bot could one day be useful as a rescue aid or personal assistant, and expect to see similar robots that can adapt to adversity or even fix themselves. NASA, for one, will need them for future Mars missions.
Filed under: Robots
Via: The Register
Source: University of Wyoming
Lego appears to be building a ‘Minecraft’ competitor
Lego’s new Amiibo-like Dimensions figures haven’t even hit stores yet, but already the company appears to be taking on another gaming phenomenon: Minecraft. The world’s biggest toy brand has begun including small flyers inside some of its sets advertising a new game called Lego Worlds, inviting players to “Explore. Discover. Create.” Sounds exactly like the premise of Mojang’s popular sandbox game, doesn’t it? Lego may have gotten a little ahead of itself as the dedicated website for Worlds has yet to go live, but something tells us we might learn more about this mysterious title when E3 comes around next month.
Filed under: Gaming
Via: Eurobricks
Source: Lego Worlds
Apple Store in Upper East Side of Manhattan Opens June 13
Apple overnight added signage to its upcoming retail location in the Upper East Side of Manhattan that confirms the store will open on June 13. The new store will be located at 940 Madison Avenue, on the corner of 74th Street, and remains under construction ahead of opening. The new store will be Apple’s seventh retail location in New York City alongside Fifth Avenue, Grand Central, SoHo, Upper West Side, West 14th Street and Staten Island stores.
Apple Store in Upper East Side at 74th Street and Madison Avenue (Instagram/Krystyl)
Apple updated its retail store list today to reflect the new Upper East Side location, with store hours listed as 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM Eastern on Monday through Saturday and 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM Eastern on Sunday. Apple likely opted for earlier closing times than some other New York City locations to please Upper East Side residents that have voiced their opposition against the store and large crowds that it could attract.
The upcoming store at 940 Madison Avenue will occupy a former banking complex built in 1921 that most recently housed luxury retailer VBH. The building itself offers a large amount of space, featuring a 4,000 square-foot ground level and 1,000 square-foot mezzanine. Apple leased the building nearly one year ago and the site has been under renovation since at least October 2014.
Readdle Debuts New ‘Spark’ Email App for iPhone and Apple Watch [iOS Blog]
Readdle, the company behind popular apps like Scanner Pro and Documents 5, today introduced a new email client for the iPhone and the Apple Watch, called Spark. Spark is designed to make it easy for users to sort through, organize, and reply to email messages by categorizing them by sender and importance.
In Spark‘s Smart Inbox, email messages are arranged so that personal emails sent by actual people are shown ahead of those sent by automated services, making it easier to get to important messages first. A full list of unsorted emails can be accessed by tapping a small toggle at the top of the screen or by choosing the regular inbox option from Spark‘s sidebar, which also houses pinned emails, sent emails, drafts, trash, archived emails, and attachments.
Pinned emails are a useful Spark feature that lets an important message be pinned to the top of the Smart Inbox so it remains in view even after it’s read. In Gmail, pinning is the same as starring a message. Emails can be pinned with a simple swipe to the left, while a further left swipe deletes an email. A right swipe also has two functions: marking as unread or archiving.
Spark can be heavily personalized to meet each individual’s email needs. Swipes, mentioned above, can be customized to perform different functions, and there’s also a built-in widget feature. Widgets are accessible via a button at the bottom of the screen and add additional features to Spark, like a Calendar, a folder for pinned emails, or a folder for snoozed emails. In the future, widgets will be able to do things like group Amazon purchase emails or offer weather information.
Spark uses a natural language search feature, so users can search for specific email messages with queries like “from John with PDF attachment,” and it integrates with several cloud services for saving and sending attachments. Spark also includes a few other useful features that speed up email management like smart notifications, fast signatures, a list of attachments you’ve received, and the ability to quickly save a message as a PDF.
One of Spark‘s best features, however, may be its included Apple Watch app. Spark delivers Apple Watch notifications whenever an important email is received (it’s customizable to send a notification with every email), and it’s fairly accurate when determining what’s important. Tapping one of these notifications opens up the Spark app on the Apple Watch, with tools to snooze, archive, delete or reply to an email.
The app supports quick pre-written replies like “Thanks,” and it lets users reply to emails via dictation, which is handy for managing emails from the wrist. There’s also a useful main view that displays emails organized into categories based on who they were sent by or whether they were pinned.
According to Readdle, Spark is the most ambitious product they’ve worked on, and their goal is to make it better than any other email client available. In its current iteration, Spark not entirely free from bugs, but as it can be downloaded at no cost, it’s worth checking out to see if it fits into your workflow.
Spark will be free on the App Store and should be rolling out soon.
AIVAnet 