Governments want to get rid of passwords, too
It’s not just giant tech companies that want to put an end to passwords. Both the US’ National Institute of Standards and Technology and the UK’s Office of the Cabinet have become the first government bodies to join the FIDO Alliance, giving them a direct say in building more secure (and more universal) sign-in systems. Given how often governments depend on fingerprinting, smart cards and other physical identification methods, the move makes a lot of sense — they want to encourage security measures that make it tougher for hackers to swipe sensitive data. It’ll be a while before you see the influence of these new partners, but you may well be using government-grade ID to access your PC or phone in the future.
[Image credit: Shutterstock/Pedro Miguel Sousa]
Filed under: Internet, Software
Source: FIDO Alliance
Samsung’s NX500 camera delivers 4K video in a small package
Samsung’s NX500, introduced earlier this year, is basically a smaller version of its NX1 flagship mirrorless camera. The main difference between them is their look, although the top model does feature better continuous shooting and shutter speeds. Inside, the NX500 packs the same APS-C, 28-megapixel sensor as its bigger sibling, along with a DRIMe Vs image processor, an ISO range of up to 51,200, NFC, WiFi and a 3-inch, tilting Super AMOLED screen. It can also shoot 4K video at 24 (4,096 x 2,160) and 30 fps (3,840 x 2,160), making it a decent future-proof option for anyone who wants to record higher resolutions than 720 or 1080p.
Thanks to its compact body, it’s super light too, weighing in at only a little more than half a pound — I only wish it wasn’t mostly made out of plastic, because it does have a slightly cheap feel to it. Not a dealbreaker, perhaps, but definitely worth noting. On paper, the NX500 easily stands out from the growing list of mirrorless shooters. For the most part, though, the same can’t be said about its real-world performance. The pictures and video it produces are good, but not great — especially when compared to a direct rival like Panasonic’s Lumix G7.
During my time with the camera, which was paired with a 16-50mm PZ lens, I found that it struggled a bit in low-light situations and when shooting moving subjects. That was a surprise given its top-of-the-line spec sheet. You can certainly get the shot you’re looking for, but your patience will be tested. Still, the NX500 does perform well outside of those scenarios, like during the day or in well-lit places, and that may be more than enough for some people. Meanwhile, 4K movies came out looking colorful and sharp; it’s also nice to have the option to shoot at either 24 or 30 fps, depending on what suits your needs. That said, I wouldn’t recommend using the continuous autofocus setting in video mode, as it had trouble keeping up with subjects from time to time.
Simply put, the NX500 comes with a lot of solid attributes, including its small size, high-res pictures, 4K video and a menu system that’s a pleasure to use. Just don’t expect to be blown away by most of it. For $800, kit lens included, you may be better off spending the extra cash on Samsung’s NX1, a camera that performed well when we tested it a few months ago. There’s no doubt that the NX500 is a wonderful little camera, but I’m more excited about the potential for its second-generation model. In the meantime, here’s hoping its minor quirks can be fixed via software update.
To view full-resolution sample images shot with the Samsung NX500, click here.
Massive 6.8-inch Lenovo phone visits TENAA
With the leaks season in full swing it’s now time to see what Lenovo is up in the smartphone game. As you’ll see below a giant Lenovo phablet with the model PB1-770N has been spotted at TENAA. Indeed, this one could have an absurdly huge 6.8-inch display.
Measuring 186.6 x 96.6 x 7.7 mm, it’s nice to see Lenovo has maintained a relatively thin device at 7.7 mm. This is pretty impressive stuff considering there’s a huge 3500 mAh battery inside.
Reportedly, the device comes with 4G LTE connectivity, with support for TD-LTE, FDD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, CDMA2000, CDMA 1X and GSM network bands. Lenovo’s huge phablet is said to be running a version of Android (probably Lollipop) with Lenovo’s custom UI on top.
The body from the back looks much like that of an iPhone 6, a metal unibody construction perhaps. In regards to the display, the whopping 6.8-inches puts it merely 0.2 inches short of being declared a tablet with calling capabilities. The Lenovo phone is similar to Huawei’s recently announced P8Max.
The TENAA listing doesn’t mention any other specifications about the phablet, but it is expected to be running on a high end processor, probably a 64 bit octa-core and at least 3 GB of RAM. Will you prefer Lenovo’s phablet or Huawei P8Max? Do you think such a big phone is overkill or unwieldly?
The post Massive 6.8-inch Lenovo phone visits TENAA appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Buy one get one free offer on leather backs for your LG G4
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LG’s recent flagship device, the LG G4, is live across all US carriers and that means if you picked one up, or plan to soon, you should start considering accessories. The LG G4 is one of the few high-end devices on the market that kept the removable back a standard feature of the device. LG was also keen to take the opportunity to create a slew of back plate options for customers. While certain carrier models offer certain back cover options, it is easy enough to swap it out for something different. In an effort to help you get the best look for any occasion, LG is offering up a buy one get one free promo on all their leather backs now through June 30th.
The LG page tells you to choose your carrier to see what backs are available, which doesn’t make a lot of sense as all five colors options are available for all carriers. In all truthfulness, they are available for any LG G4 since the external aspects of the device are the same everywhere. The leather backs aren’t cheap by any means as they retail for $69.99 each. Head over to the LG G4 leather back cover page and choose your two colors, add them to your cart and checkout. Before you spend the money you will see the second back cover is listed for free in your cart. The covers are still in a pre-order status at the moment, but they are slated to start shipping out after June 26th.
Get your BOGO offer at LG.com
The post Buy one get one free offer on leather backs for your LG G4 appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
A $1,495 toaster oven takes the guesswork out of cooking
It may look like the toaster oven you fed yourself with that time you were on the lamb and hiding in a seedy motel, but this thing could be the future of cooking. Meet June, which its creators call “the computer that cooks.” Essentially, it’s a… toaster oven, but one that comes packing a NVIDIA Tegra K1 chip, a five-inch touchscreen and a “full HD” camera that’s embedded in the ceiling. This smart oven is designed to take all of the stress out of cooking, as well as make your baking exploits social media friendly.
The secret to June’s on-paper success is in its heating elements, which are made of carbon fiber and apparently can reach maximum power in just five seconds. That enables the device to reach temperatures of 350 degrees Fahrenheit in just over four minutes, far faster than that lumbering unit in your kitchen. The speed of the heating also means that the built-in system can make minute adjustments to the temperature to ensure your food is perfectly cooked.
For instance, if you wanted to roast a chicken, the hardware has a built-in scale, so it’ll be able to do all of the fiddly pounds-to-minutes calculations for you. Then, you can shove a temperature probe into the middle of your meat (which connects to the inside of June) to enable the system to variate the heat where necessary. Finally, the camera in the ceiling can, not only try to guess what food you’re cooking by sight, but also let you watch your meal being cooked without having to open the front door. All you have to do is watch the action unfold on your smartphone, and yes, you can share the pictures of your cakes partway through baking to your Instagram chums.
So, you’re sold on one, right? Before you open your mouth to utter the immortal “shut up and take my money,” you should be warned that this costs a pretty penny. If you pre-order before July 10th and stump up a $95 deposit, then you’ll be able to grab this device for $1,495. Yes, that’s the price of a decent stove at Home Depot, but if you don’t pre-order before then, the markup rockets to $2,995. That said, if this technology is proven to work and the second-generation version comes in a stove format, we’d certainly think about making the splash. Still, that probably works out to a cheaper dollar-per-meal rate than something like the Rotimatic, right?
Filed under: Misc
Via: Gizmodo
Source: June
Pay whatever you want for this mobile developer bundle worth $1700
Are you an aspiring or novice developer looking for an edge or some additional help? You should really check out the promo happening over at AndroidGuys Deals.
For a limited time you can pay whatever you want for a bundle valued at more than $1700. Not only will you have access to instructional material on topics such as Android Lollipop App Development buy also more wide-ranging stuff like HTML5 and UX and UI. We’re talking hundreds of courses here!
Individually these courses range anywhere from $50 up to $500 however you can pay whatever you want for them. Pay more than the average price and you’ll receive the entire upgraded bundle.
- Monetize Your App: Major Advertising Networks $49 Value
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- Learn Swift Programming Step by Step $99 Value
- Learn to Build Mobile Games Using Unity 3D $149 Value
- Projects in HTML5 $199 Value
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As part of the deal, 10% of the profits from your purchase will go towards Creative Commons. These are the guys who develop, support, and champion the legal and technical infrastructure that leads to even better digital creativity, sharing, and most importantly, innovation.
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Aumeo wants to fine-tune your headphones for a personalized listening experience
Everyone loves music, but unfortunately our hearing quality gradually declines, both with age and by exposing our ears to overly loud environments. Perhaps an under-appreciated point is that your left and right ears are a little different when it comes to frequency sensitivity and will age differently as well.
Aumeo, a project currently looking for funding on IndieGoGo, aims to help users fine-tune their listening experiences by examining and correcting for our own personal hearing inaccuracies.
The basis of the project is the little hardware box that houses the company’s tailored audio technology, which is presumably some sort of stereo EQ setup. You connect your phone up to the box either via a cable or Bluetooth and then connect up your usual headphones.
Of course, similar EQ settings are already available in most half-decent audio apps for Android for you to begin making adjustments already. Although you won’t necessarily be able to tailor the EQ in each ear, you can probably get pretty close with a little tuning. However, by using an external piece of hardware, your personalized audio settings are applied to all audio output from the handset, and not just from your favourite music app.
Before listen through the Aumeo hardware, you’ll want to test your hearing using the company’s companion app. This app tests the user’s hearing across 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 4 kHz and 8 kHz frequency points, using a beep while asking the user to adjust the volume until they hear the tone. From here the app builds up a profile of your hearing at these frequency and saves the settings on the hardware, which then compensates for any highs or lows.
Once setup, you won’t need to change the audio settings again, although it might be worth doing a retest if you happen to change headphones, as what you’re listening through will have an impact on what you can and can’t hear.
The Aumeo is now live on Indiegogo starting from $99 (free US shipping) or from $169 if you want a two pack. The project is already well on its way to reaching its $40,000, just 41 days left to raise the remaining $12,500.
Rumor: Moto X (2015) will feature a fingerprint scanner
The latest rumors surrounding Motorola’s highly anticipated Moto X refresh for 2015 is that the upcoming flagship will opt for a fingerprint scanner, as we’re beginning to see in many flagship devices.
Photos were posted online of the alleged Moto X’s chassis. Pictured above, you can see that all of the internals have been gutted out, except for a small square cutout, which seems to be the housing for a fingerprint scanner.
As far as the design of the upcoming Moto X refresh goes, there’s not much to go off here, besides the form factor we’ve come to know and love over the past two versions of the device.
Past rumors have suggested that the Moto X (2015) will feature a Snapdragon 808 chipset, 4GB of RAM, and a 16-megapixel rear camera.
We’ll have to wait for some official confirmation, as we get closer to Motorola’s release for its next flagship device.
source: MyDrivers
Come comment on this article: Rumor: Moto X (2015) will feature a fingerprint scanner
Use your Xbox One gamepad wirelessly with your PC this fall
Microsoft didn’t have just a 1TB Xbox One in store today. The company has also revealed that a wireless PC adapter for the Xbox One’s controller will be available this fall, both by itself ($25) or bundled with a gamepad ($80). The add-on will give you that familiar, console-like input on any Windows 10 device with a spare USB port, including stereo audio and voice chat. That’s a while to wait just to get that Xbox One feel on your computer without plugging in a cable. However, the adapter could make all the difference if you’re using a laptop or tablet and want to get rid of as many cords as possible.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Microsoft
Source: Major Nelson
Here’s your clearest view yet of star formation in the early universe
Spotting anything at the edge of the known universe is difficult, but scientists have just managed to get a surprisingly sharp view. They’ve used the ALMA telescope array’s imaging and spectral info to visualize a galaxy about 11.4 billion light years away (2.4 billion years after the Big Bang) in unprecedented detail — enough to see clumps of stars that were still forming at the time. The key was taking advantage of a special gravitational lensing effect, an Einstein ring, where Earth is in perfect alignment with both the target galaxy and an in-between galaxy distorting and magnifying the target’s light. Researchers used modeling to correct for that distortion and see what the ancient celestial body really looked like. It’s not a perfect picture (the intermediary galaxy’s black hole is obscuring things), but it’s still humanity’s best peek yet at what was happening well before our planet even existed.
[Image credit: ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ)/Y. Tamura (The University of Tokyo)/Mark Swinbank (Durham University)]
Filed under: Science
Via: Space Fellowship, SlashGear
Source: ESO
AIVAnet 