Lenovo unveils a $49 Chromecast competitor
Lenovo has unveiled its own media sharing device to keep up with the Chromecasts and Roku Streaming Sticks of the world. But the Lenovo Cast differs considerably from Google’s similarly named device, and not just because it looks like a puck instead of a stick. You start by plugging it into the HDMI port of your TV or monitor (it supports HDMI 1.3) and sync up with your WiFi network, like similar products. But from there, it taps into your DNLA or Miracast-enabled smartphone, tablet or laptop, to output up to 1080P video to your big screen. That’s unlike the Chromecast, which uses its proprietary (though ubiquitous) Chrome browser environment.
While that might make setup a bit more messy than Google’s dongle, Lenovo’s Cast should be a bit more versatile. With dual frequency WiFi (5GHz and 2.4Ghz), the disk will let you cast in most formats up to 20 meters (65 feet), even through walls. The DLNA and Miracast capability also means plenty of video, image and sound formats will be supported, and you can mirror any content from a smartphone. All that will cost you $50, which is a bit more than a $35 Chromecast, but the same as Roku’s Streaming Stick and Amazon’s FireTV stick (though the latter also includes a remote). The Cast will arrive this August at the same time as Lenovo’s incoming Surface 3 competitor, the ThinkPad 10 tablet.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Pixelmator’s photo-editing app is coming to the iPhone
After testing the waters on Mac and iPad successfully, Pixelmator is now bringing its highly rated image editor to Apple’s iPhone. Finally. Most notably, the application will feature new editing elements to assist while you’re on the go, including a distort tool that lets you warp a photo to your liking and see the changes in real-time. The soon-to-be universal iOS app is going to be available for $5 starting tomorrow, or as a free update to people who already own the iPad version. Oddly enough, the Pixelmator app seems to have disappeared from the App Store in recent hours, but we’re sure it’ll be back there in time for tomorrow’s scheduled launch.
Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Software, Mobile, Apple
Via: The Verge
Source: Pixelmator, App Store
Google adds app deep linking to goo.gl short links
Google has added a useful new trick to their goo.gl short link service; app deep linking.
Deep linking allows a URL to open up a specific page within a designated app instead of just pulling open a new browser window on your phone. Clicking a Twitter link on a website opens up that tweet in your Twitter app, and so on. Google makes indexing apps for this kind of deep linking very easy, and in a world driven by mobile applications and smartphones, it makes sense. Up until now, though, it hasn’t worked with Google’s own goo.gl URL shortening service.
Now any shortened links through goo.gl can deep link into apps so long as the developer has properly indexed their application. Google offers some pretty detailed instructions for that, though, and in many cases the apps are probably already set up for it. Plus, it works cross platform with both Android and iOS.
This new feature has been rolled out retroactively, so developers won’t need to update any short links they may have floating around the internet.
source: Google
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Pebble Time pre-order date announced as Kickstarter units start shipping
Starting now, backers of the Pebble Time campaign on Kickstarter can expect to receive tracking numbers as units are being shipped around the world. Everyone will not see their Pebble Time at the same time because units are being sent out in stages.
The first 10,000 backers are expected to see their Pebble Time units ship this week. Then, once they are out of the way, Pebble will forward tracking numbers to everyone else. The process, which is being performed with five distribution centers worldwide, is expected to be complete by mid-June.
Prospective buyers that did not get involved with Pebble’s second Kickstarter campaign can pre-order the Pebble Time on June 22. The price for the Pebble Time on that date will be $199.
Pebble compiled a list of services that device owners should take a look at:
- Transport with Uber
- ESPN
- Fitocracy (iOS-only for now)
- iHeartRadio
- TripAdvisor
- The Weather Channel
Source: Pebble
Come comment on this article: Pebble Time pre-order date announced as Kickstarter units start shipping
Buying a computer and an Oculus Rift should cost “around $1500″
Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus, recently discussed just how much you can expect to spend on a “complete package” of a computer powerful enough to use the VR headset, and the headset itself. He estimated the price of everything at around $1500, which is definitely not something just anyone will be able to afford.
The company hasn’t announced pricing for the headset just yet, but since Oculus has already announced what they consider minimum specs to power the headset, we can try to ballpark what price point they’re trying to hit.
The recommended hardware for the Rift demands an NVIDIA GTX 970/AMD R290 GPU or greater, an Intel Core i5-4590 CPU or better, and 8+ GB of RAM.
Quickly searching around on Amazon, you can find those GPUs in the $300 – $350 range, while the CPU runs around $180 and 8 GB of RAM will cost about $60. You can estimate those parts to cost between $550 and $600, and that’s not including a computer case, motherboard, hard drive, or power supply.
Going with cheaper components, you could finish that computer build for roughly another $300 (assuming you were willing to piece things together by yourself and not buy a computer from a company) and end up hitting upwards of $800 – $900. A pre-built machine will likely add several hundred extra dollars to that price tag. A machine that hits the recommended hardware from iBuyPower lists at around $1100.
With those price ranges, we can assume the Rift will be priced anywhere from $300 to $700. Granted, that’s a pretty wide range to try to figure out, but I’d bet that Iribe is counting on most people buying their computers, not building them, so hopefully that price is a little closer to the low end.
source: re/code
Come comment on this article: Buying a computer and an Oculus Rift should cost “around $1500″
Android Pay’s arrival means a new direction for Google Wallet
As we suspected, you’ll be hearing more about the new Android Pay setup — announced a couple of months ago during Mobile World Congress — during the Google I/O event this week. According to a New York Times report, Android Pay will let retailers take payments from inside their mobile apps, use it at brick-and-mortar retail locations, and automatically update the customer’s status in store loyalty programs. Like Google, retailers are interested in using those loyalty programs to track trends among their customers, and the report goes on to claim that Apple Pay will add a similar tie-in within the next month or so. So what will become of Google Wallet? Apparently, it will be reintroduced with a focus on sending money directly between two people to go along with being preinstalled on carrier phones. The mobile payment wars are just beginning, and potential competitors like Facebook and Samsung have their own plans too — expect more details from all sides soon.
[Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: New York Times
GoPro is working on a spherical camera rig for VR, and a drone
In case you were wondering what the next move is for GoPro as it keeps its action cameras one step ahead of cellphones and DSLRs, we have answers: virtual reality and drones. CEO Nick Woodman announced both projects tonight during an interview at the Code Conference. GoPro showed off a spherical camera rig after it acquired Kolor last month, a company that specializes in stiching together the resulting footage so it can be experience in VR. The Six-camera Spherical Array should arrive later this year, and a GoPro-branded quadcopter is planned for next year. There’s fewer details available about that, but rumors late last year pointed to a model priced between $500 and $1,000.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/pMBDA-Our4w?rel=0
Filed under: Cameras
Source: TechCrunch, Re/code
Google is adding a ‘buy’ button to its shopping ads
That rumor of Google adding a “buy” button to shopping ads? It’s true. The company’s Omid Kordestani has confirmed to Recode that this super-quick purchasing option is “imminent.” He didn’t describe how it would work in detail, but the leak described “Shop on Google” search ads that take you to a product page the moment you give in to that consumerist impulse. The real mystery may be who’s onboard with the program. Google reportedly went the extra mile to court retailers worried that they’d be cut out of the loop, but there’s no certainty that you’ll see a lot of big-name stores signing on right away.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Via: Ed Baig (Twitter)
Source: Recode
Target Plans to Offer Apple Pay After Chip-and-PIN Card Upgrade
Target CEO Brian Cornell spoke at Re/code‘s Code Conference in Palos Verdes, California today, where he confirmed that the company plans to offer in-store support for Apple Pay in the future. According to Cornell, while he’d love to have Apple Pay available “right now,” support will not be coming until Target upgrades its system to support integrated circuit credit cards to comply with new standards.
Integrated circuit cards (or chip-and-PIN cards) replace the magnetic stripe on a credit card or debit card with an embedded microchip. The microchip communicates with a supported point-of-sale system and transactions are authenticated through a PIN instead of a signature.
Chip-and-PIN cards are already used in many countries around the world because they’re believed to be more secure than traditional credit cards. In the United States, retailers are being encouraged to adopt point-of-sale systems that support chip-and-PIN cards by the end of 2015. As of October 2015, the four major credit card companies in the U.S. are introducing policies that will cause retailers who don’t support chip-and-PIN transactions to be responsible for any fraudulent charges made with chip-and-PIN cards.
Target is especially eager to move to a more secure transaction system following a major data breach in late 2013 that saw hackers obtaining payment information for approximately 40 million of its customers. The move is a major transition for Target, and Cornell says he doesn’t want to “distract the team” with work on other payment systems.
“Our focus is on getting chip-and-PIN in place in time for the holidays,” Cornell said at the second annual Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. “Down the line we want to accept all the types of payments that our guests want. But this decision was all about focus. … It is a major undertaking to convert to chip-and-PIN, and I decided that we can’t distract the team.”
Cornell says he has met with Apple CEO Tim Cook, and once the chip-and-PIN transition is completed, Target will be “open-minded” about supporting additional payment systems like Apple Pay. Target already supports Apple Pay in its iOS app.
Apple Pay Rewards Program to Debut at WWDC
Apple plans to introduce a new rewards program for Apple Pay at WWDC next month, reports The New York Times. In a piece covering upcoming mobile payment upgrades from Apple and Google, the site suggests that Apple will announce details about enhancements to Apple Pay at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
Few details are known about the rewards program that Apple plans to implement, but it is said to offer “perks” to customers who make purchases using Apple Pay.
But analysts have noted that a missing piece from Apple Pay was a rewards program to keep users returning to participating merchants. People familiar with Apple Pay said that next month, Apple will announce such a program offering perks to consumers who make purchases with the service, though they declined to reveal details.
There have been rumors about a rewards program for Apple Pay since before Apple Pay launched in October of 2014. In September, a report suggested Apple was working on a pilot program that could see it partnering with multiple third-party retailers to form an Apple Pay loyalty program.
Further rumors suggested the system could tie into iAd, delivering targeted ads to consumers via iBeacons and Bluetooth LE with coupons for free or discounted products, but it is not clear if that’s how Apple’s finished rewards program will work.
Upcoming Apple Pay competitor CurrentC offers a built-in rewards program that’s able to incorporate loyalty cards and discounts for individual merchants, and CurrentC executives tout this as one of the major differentiating features of its system. With its own rewards program, Apple Pay will be better situated to compete with the reward-based features of CurrentC.
It is not known if Apple has plans to introduce additional Apple Pay features at its Worldwide Developers Conference, but it’s possible that it could share details on an expansion of the service to additional countries like Canada. Canada is expected to be one of the first countries beyond the United States to gain Apple Pay support.
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