Leaked spec list for Lenovo’s upcoming flagship smartphone surface online
It was just last week that Lenovo’s upcoming flagship smartphone of 2015, bearing the model number PB1-770N, passed through China’s official certification database, TENAA, and now a leaked specifications list for the handset has popped up online revealing details of its internals.
In terms of dimensions, the device measures 186.6 x 96.6 x 7.7mm and weighs in at 230g — so it’s neither thin nor lightweight which may have something to do with whats under the hood.
The handset will pack a whopping 6.8-inch Full HD display, an unidentified 1.5GHz octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter and 3,500 mAh non-removable battery.
That’s all the information we have on the PB1-770N for now, but be sure to check back as we’ll definitely be hearing more about this smartphone over the course of the next few days/weeks.
Source: TENAA
Come comment on this article: Leaked spec list for Lenovo’s upcoming flagship smartphone surface online
Asus made a profit in June selling its smartphones, momentum should continue well into July
Asus was able to make it profit selling its smartphones last month, reaching 1.5 million sales. The company is expecting to sell another 2 million this month. This comes just a month after the Taiwanese-based company made the Asus ZenFone 2 available in North America, and for cheap.
While Asus does expect sales to climb through June, the company expects the ball to continue growing well into July with the launch of the ZenFone Selfie, a smartphone with a 13-megapixel camera on the front and back.
Beyond smartphones, Asus is planning to sell 8 to 10 million tablets in 2015. The company hopes its new ZenPad line, announced recently at Computex, will help boost those figures. At this point, Asus’ biggest problem is advertisement. In some of the world’s biggest markets, most people don’t think Asus, but they do think Samsung and Apple, and that mainly has to do with advertising.
The best thing the Taiwanese-based company can do is get its name out there, and show the world it’s just as good as the giants in the market, particularly Samsung and Apple.
source: DigiTimes
Come comment on this article: Asus made a profit in June selling its smartphones, momentum should continue well into July
Tesla won’t build more battery swap stations
If you’ve ever taken your Tesla to a battery swap station then, according to Elon Musk, you’re in a minority. At the company’s shareholders meeting, the CEO revealed that the uptake on the service has been miniscule. Musk said that, by this point, every Model S owner in California had been invited to book an appointment, but only a handful took them up on the offer. As such, it’s highly unlikely that the company will persist with the plans, instead focusing its time, money and resources on building out its popular supercharger network.
It is possible to think that, perhaps, the whole battery swapping plan was intentionally holed below the water line from the start. After all, the company’s first round of invites went to just 200 users, of which only four or five expressed a positive interest. Part of that is because people don’t normally book scheduled appointments to visit the gas station, so it’s not something that they’re used to. Then there’s the fact that nobody’s going to pay another $60-plus for “instant charging” when a Supercharger is free and you get to visit the restroom at the same time.
Musk also spoke about his company’s international network of EV refueling stations, and admitted that some people were taking advantage of the free electricity. They may be intended only for re-juicing your engine during long trips, but locals have been sneakily using them for short top-ups. Those who have been identified have been sent a polite, but firm, note saying that it’s cool every now and again, but to stop ruining it for everybody else.
The CEO also made mention of the fact that the Supercharger network is currently sourcing its power from conventional energy sources. Musk has pledged that, wherever it’s possible to do so, the network will be outfitted with solar panels and a Powerwall battery so that “the entire Supercharger network is powered by sunlight.”
[Image Credit: AFP/Getty]
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Tesla, Seeking Alpha
Microsoft’s Surface Hub pen display costs from $6,999 to $19,999
You’d be forgiven if you forgot what the Surface Hub is. After all, Microsoft announced it the same day as its futuristic HoloLens headset — arguably the more interesting of the two products. Even so, though, the Hub is a compelling device in its own right: a big pen display designed for conference rooms, making it easier for employees to brainstorm, even if some people are tuning in remotely. We took one for a brief spin back in January, but at the time it was unclear when it would be available or how much it would cost. Today, Microsoft clarified that the 4K, 84-inch version we tried will cost $19,999 and go on sale in July, right around the time Windows 10 comes out. In addition, there will be a smaller, 55-inch version available for a much lower price of $6,999. (For the money, you get 1080p resolution on that one, which is just fine considering how relatively small the screen is.) Both should ship in early September.
We know, we know: That sounds like a lot of money for what appears to just be a display. But keep in mind that the Surface Hub is actually a fully functioning Windows 10 PC, capable of running any app that would run on any other Windows machine. Also, Microsoft claims the price is competitive compared to traditional video-teleconference systems (the company estimates, for instance, that outfitting a room for 8 to 12 people would otherwise cost upwards of $38,000, nearly twice the price of the 84-inch model).
If nothing else, the Hub will be easier to use. Without logging into it, you can just walk up to the screen and start writing. The display comes with two pressure-sensitive pens, each of which attach magnetically to the side of the Hub and charge there, too. And because the display supports 100 simultaneous touch points, you can have multiple people writing at once, or doing things like holding and dragging elements across the screen. In our time with it, both at the launch event and a recent behind-closed-doors meeting, everything from writing to pinch-to-zoom felt smooth and controlled on the display. We’re also fans of the display’s matte, slightly textured finish: It doesn’t feel slippery like other touchscreens, and it makes writing feel a little more natural as well.
Throughout, too, you can loop in remote coworkers via a built-in Skype app, as well as use any Miracast-enabled device (say, an Android phone or tablet) to wirelessly mirror the presentation. From there, you can “write back” notes from the Hub to these various devices, and anyone tuning in remotely will see the notes drawn in real-time, as if they were there in person. When you’re finished with your meeting, you can press an “I’m done” button, have the device email you the notes, at which point it’ll wipe itself before someone else uses the conference room. Can your current video-teleconference setup do that?
For the most part, it’ll be corporate IT departments buying the Hub, and luckily for them, they can buy it through the same channels as, say, the Surface Pro. (Microsoft says it was important that businesses be able to purchase the Hub the same way they would traditional A/V gear.) Even if you’re just a regular consumer, though, you might get your chance to play with the Hub after all: It will eventually be on display in Microsoft Stores, meaning anyone who walks in will be able to have some playtime.
Tabletop display turns your phone’s images into 3D holograms
If you’ve ever thought that the apps and videos on your phone were flat and lifeless, H+ might have an answer. It’s crowdfunding the Holus, a tabletop display that turns 2D content from phones and PCs into 3D holograms that you can see from any direction. All you do is plug in — after that, you can play virtual board games, educational titles and any other app with support for the extra immersion. There’s even motion tracking that will make sure content follows you when you wander around. H+ hopes that Holus will revive the lost art of real-life get-togethers without making you revert to that Monopoly game gathering dust in your closet. That’s a bit optimistic (as are the impossibly high-quality promo shots), but it’s hard to deny the allure of a living room holographic display that you don’t have to wear.
It won’t surprise you to learn that Holus will be pricey. You’ll have to pledge $550 as an early backer to get one ($650 for a Holus Pro with HDMI video input), and it’s more likely that you’ll be spending $850 to $950 for the privilege. As it stands, the first units aren’t expected to ship until March, so you’ll have to be patient. If the hardware lives up to the hype, though, it could be worth the investment for technology that was sci-fi just a few decades ago.
Source: Kickstarter
‘Abzu’: a scuba diving game that’s part Zen, part ‘Journey’
Abzû, the debut game from game development house Giant Squid, may as well have the subtitle Journey 2 or maybe even Flower 3. Studio founder Matt Nava, the former thatgamecompany art director of those aforementioned art house gaming touchstones, is making yet another emotionally bald, deeply pretty game about communing with nature through fluid controls here. In playing Abzû, though, any cynicism born out of its similarity to Nava’s past work floats away like so much foam on a wave.
This undersea adventure is immediately familiar, clearly of a piece with Journey‘s nomadic wandering and Flower‘s breezy environmentalism. Even in just a brief demo session, though, Abzû is equally transcendent. Of all the games from E3 2015 I got to play at early events, Abzû is the one I didn’t want to stop playing. Even in a pre-alpha state, Giant Squid’s game makes you feel like you’re somewhere else.
Rather than Journey‘s desert or Flower‘s verdant pastures, Abzû drops you into the middle of the ocean as a young woman sporting a black-and-yellow wetsuit as well as some miraculous scuba gear. During a brief introduction at a pre-E3 event, Nava explained that he and his team want your time as a submariner to be totally uninterrupted by onscreen displays or a pressing need to fill up on oxygen. Abzû‘s heroine can stay underwater indefinitely, peering into submerged caves and kelp fields as she moves forward. Rather than break the illusion of exploring the ocean floor, the unreality of your scuba gear is freeing, letting you come to terms with the diver’s initially tricky, but ultimately silky swimming controls.
What Abzû lacks in terms of technological realism, it makes up for with ichthyology accuracy. The elegant icy caverns and sun-dappled reefs you swim through are heavily populated, with what Nava describes as “tens of thousands” of fish. Not only are they modeled to look like their real-world selves, but also they behave like actual fish, flowing in tight schools. The effect of swimming smoothly into an open, shallow area after sneaking through a cave only to find it teeming with fish ranging from teensy to enormous is mesmerizing. The fish can also lead you farther into the sea you’re exploring.
Holding the PlayStation 4 controller’s trigger — the pre-alpha build on hand was running on Sony’s machines — the diver automatically schools with whatever creature’s closest. In a large horde of silvery fish, she’ll merge into the center and follow along as they loop and pirouette in the current. When I caught up with a sea turtle lackadaisically tooling around a giant rock, the schooling button made the diver do a little flip before she lightly clung to the amphibian’s shell. While I didn’t catch up to any in the demo, Nava told me that I could even meet up with whale pods later on.
The effect of swimming smoothly into an open, shallow area after sneaking through a cave only to find it teeming with fish ranging from teensy to enormous is mesmerizing.
Schooling with the fish is an odd gaming reward. More often than not, video games reward action with more action. Shoot a red drum; it explodes. Complete a row of Tetris blocks; the blocks disappear and a bright noise sounds. In Abzû, merging with a school following its movements is a passive act, but deeply affecting. You give yourself over to the simulation of nature and seeing your almost abstract, minimally detailed diver merge with the hyper-detailed fish elicits a catharsis startlingly similar to actually exploring the natural world. Like all moving art, it exaggerates and imitates the real world to evoke something fundamental. Sitting in the basement of a hotel surrounded by humming computers, I couldn’t help but get swept away by Abzû.
It’s not all reenacting the final scene of Tom Hanks blissfully swimming off with Daryl Hannah in Splash in Giant Squid’s game; there is a steady sweep forward. Unfolding in a similarly linear fashion to Journey, the demo did indeed have goals, even if they were simplistic. In exploring the caves, I ran into passages blocked by sand or frigid water that I couldn’t get past. While a solution to the cold wasn’t on hand in this version, there was an answer to the sand. Periodically you’ll find small, yellow submersible drones that can be reactivated.
As long as you have at least one with you — Nava said that there’s currently no limit on how many you can have with you, but there will be a cap in the final version — it will vacuum up any sand blocking passages into new areas. Being tiny, the drones can be easy to miss, and they’re vulnerable to the ocean’s less friendly elements. A nosy great white shark destroyed one of my companions after I cleared the way into the final area of the demo. (I asked if you’d even have a chance to make friends with the shark later in the game. Nava, answering me very specifically, did confirm that the shark will be “less of a dick” later on.)
After the shark messed up my drone, the demo took control of the diver as well. She swam out and out into the open sea as the camera pulled back revealing an even wider swath of creatures than I’d seen to that point. Manta rays, whales, giant schools of luminescent fish in a panoply of colors. While Abzû won’t be released until 2016, its fundamentals are already well in place. Nava has made yet another game about peaceful exploration and observation that conjures up intense emotion. Whether it feels as complete as Journey and Flower will depend entirely on how it comes together over the next year. With this demo, though, his studio has produced something that made me all too reluctant to get out of the water.
The Leica Q is a compact and stylish full-frame camera
Leica’s been relatively quiet since Photokina 2014, where it revealed a full set of cameras for every different budget and taste. Today, though, the German manufacturer is stepping out of the shadows and introducing the Leica Q, a beautiful small camera with some powerful attributes. It features a 24-megapixel, full-frame CMOS sensor, an ISO range of up to 50,000, a 3-inch, 1.04 million-dot LCD screen, NFC, WiFi and 1080p video-recording at 30 or 60 fps. Leica says the sensor powering the Q was custom built for it, designed to work perfectly in conjunction with the Summilux 28mm f/1.7 fixed lens. Like with most of the company’s cameras, however, you’ll have to break the bank to own one of these. The Leica Q is available now for a cool $4,250 — which, if it helps, does include a free copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.
Filed under: Cameras
Platinum ‘nano-raspberries’ may hold the key to methanol fuel cells
Could our future cars be powered by methanol fuel cells, rather than gas, hydrogen or electric batteries? The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) has made the oil alternative slightly more viable by developing a fast, simple way of producing platinum “nano-raspberries,” which contain tiny clusters of nanoparticles. Each tiny piece of matter, measuring between 1 and 100 nanometers, can act as a catalyst inside fuel cells to help convert liquid methanol into electricity. The clusters are called nano-raspberries because of their fruit-like shape, and they’re particularly effective due to their high surface area.
NIST’s process uses water as a solvent to make the nano-raspberries in roughly 40 minutes. The team tried a number of alternatives, including methanol, ethanol and isopropanol, to see how they affected the production of “nano-grapes,” which are formed from large clumps of nano-raspberries. These bunches, if they grow too large, can reduce their catalytic properties, and it’s this part of the research which NIST says is most important. In short, it’s not just the nanoparticle material that scientists should be worried about — it’s also the solvent they’re combined with. The hope is that their test methods will be used to discover better combinations of solvent and nanoparticle materials.
[Image Credit: Curtin/NIST]
Filed under: Transportation, Science
Source: NIST
NASA releases climate change projections to help developing nations
NASA has just released detailed climate change projections through the year 2100, and it’s one of the key aspects of a project intended to help developing nations combat the impacts of global warming. That project is the newly launched Climate Services for Resilient Development initiative, a partnership between the US government, the UK and various organizations, including the American Red Cross and Google. As you can see in the illustrations of NASA’s data, the Earth’s bound to get hotter and hotter until the average daily temp exceeds 113 degrees Fahrenheit in most countries by the year 2099. The effects of climate change such as storm surge (see above), droughts and ocean level changes can be felt everywhere. However, they can be especially destructive in developing nations that don’t have the means to prepare for them and to deal with the aftermath.
According to the White House, the Climate Services project “will provide actionable science, data, information, tools and training” to developing countries, most likely with help from NASA when needed. What those are exactly differ by region: for instance, the project could help seaside locations conjure up sea level projections and find places where houses and buildings won’t end up submerged in water. It could help other locations build infrastructure (water supply lines and deep wells are likely candidates for places prone to drought) and create population maps, among other things — anything that can help a country boost its resilience to the impacts of global warming. The initiative, which has launched with $34 million in funding, will develop services to offer Colombia, Ethiopia and Bangladesh for now. Eventually, it’ll expand its reach to the rest of the Andean region and Caribbean, East Africa and the Sahel, and South and Southeast Asia.
NASA’s dataset, by the way, shows how rainfall patterns and temperature will change throughout the years “in response to different scenarios of increasing carbon dioxide simulated by 21 climate models.” It was created using a big data research platform called NASA Earth Exchange within the agency’s supercomputing facility at the Ames Research Center. The full dataset is open to the public, so you can download it if the PowerPoint slides aren’t enough for you. Just make sure you have enough space on your computer, because its total size is a whopping 12 terabytes.
[Image credit: Claudio Accheri/Flickr]
Filed under: Science
Hoopla app review
The days of browsing books at your local library are slowly fading into extinction. While there are many people that prefer the look and texture of a physical book, the millennial generation has moved more and more towards their digital counterparts. Many of the libraries in the US do not maintain digital archives of their media. This is where services like Hoopla come into play.
Hoopla works in conjunction with your local library to offer digital titles. With your library card, you can borrow a certain number of titles from their collection per month. That amount is determined by your library. Hoopla offers ebooks, comics, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and music, but the available content will depend largely on your library. My library, for example, does not provide comics or ebooks but does offer everything else.
The design of the application is fairly easy, but they could have done so much more. Personally I would like to see some settings for parental controls and video quality. Another feature would be to have options in the sidebar to select the type of media that you want to browse, but that’s not a deal killer for me. The home page lists available media and groups them into categories. There is a link to the right that will allow you to view all the media in the selected categories.
E-books and comics:
E-books and comics are available for 21 days at a time. They have a large selection of books and comics. You’re sure to find something interesting to read. Just don’t expect to find the latest and greatest novels or comics.
Audiobooks:
Audiobook titles, like the e-books and comics, are available for 21 days at a time. I personally was not able to stream the book directly through the mobile app. This was remedied by downloading the book directly and then playing in through the application. The audio quality was good, but there was an occasional blip here and there. My biggest complaint is that there are no chapter points programmed into the book. They do have a system of user generated bookmarks and the player will pick up where you left off, but it would be nice to be able to jump to a specific chapter in the book.
Movies and TV:
The video quality is good, but they do not offer HD content at this time. I have been assured that they are working on implementing this in the near future. Most titles are available for 72 hours after you check them out, but a few titles are only available for 48 hours. It streams fairly well and I experienced no buffering. The catalog is fairly large but is by no means an exhaustive catalog. The good news is that there are several modern titles to choose from. The bad news is that there is no support at this point for Chromecast or Amazon’s Fire TV.
Music:
Albums are available for 7 days. The quality is good, but like the audiobook player, the music player app experiences the occasional blip. Just like with the audio books. I had to download the album first to listen to the music. The catalog has several newer titles, but just like your local library, you may not find everything you’re looking for.
Overall this is a great app that is still in its infancy. They have new features like HD video streaming and Chromecast support that are in the works. They are also continually looking for new content providers to keep things fresh. The service is cross-platform and can be easily picked up from one device to another.
Is this a replacement for services like Amazon Prime, Audible, Google Play, Hulu Plus, or Netflix? At this point, the answer is no. However; to those whose library does offer Hoopla, this is a great alternative or supplement to these services. The best part is that it is 100% free to use and there are no ads that come with it.
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