Smart thermometer is ready to track your kid’s fever all day long
You no longer have to disturb your kid’s sleep just to see if that fever is getting any better. Months after its CES debut, Blue Spark’s TempTraq thermometer is available for a fairly reasonable $25. The Bluetooth patch keeps tabs on a child’s temperature in relative comfort for a full 24 hours, giving your progeny a chance to rest instead of enduring yet another probe in the ear. It can warn you if the temperature gets above a certain level, and you can use the Android and iOS apps to log when your tiny patient eats or takes medicine. This won’t track the illness from start to finish, unfortunately, but it might be all you need for that one day when you’re worried your little one’s condition might get worse.
Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables, Mobile
Source: TempTraq
‘XCOM 2’ infiltrates PCs in November
Prepare for permadeath. XCOM 2, the sequel to 2012’s wonderfully rich strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, is due to hit PC in November. XCOM 2 comes from publisher 2K and developer Firaxis Games, the very same team behind Enemy Unknown. They’ve been teasing a big announcement with a website for the Advent Administration, a futuristic government that advertises gene therapies and other technologies that rid humans of all illness — but the site has been hacked with messages that suggest all is not as rosy as it seems.
In XCOM 2, it’s 20 years in the future and aliens control the Earth. The XCOM special forces have gone guerrilla and “must strike back to reclaim control of Earth and free mankind from the aliens’ rule,” 2K says. So far, XCOM 2 is confirmed for PC only, with no mention of consoles or mobile. XCOM 2 is a continuation of the XCOM franchise, which has been around since 1993. XCOM as a series is historically acclaimed for its deep turn-based strategy gameplay and heart-breaking use of permadeath — meaning once characters die, they’re gone forever.
Even through the tears over fallen comrades, Joystiq adored XCOM: Enemy Unknown, calling it “an exemplary turn-based strategy game.” Three years later, we’ll see if XCOM 2 continues to carry the tactical torch.
Source: @XCOM
Shopping online doesn’t mean you have to skip the tailor
Before the end of the year, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s will offer custom tailoring for clothes you purchase online. How does that work? Well, thanks to a new startup from Men’s Warehouse founder and CEO George Zimmer, you just buy the clothes, and when they’re delivered a tailor comes to you to ensure the proper fit. As you might expect, the on-demand option is only available in certain areas… for now. Los Angeles is the first pilot city, with other trials planned for New York City, San Diego, San Franciso and the states of Washington, Oregon and Florida. Don’t live in any of those places? Fret not, the option is set to go nationwide this fall.
Zimmer’s new project is called zTailor, a company allows customers to coordinate an in-home fitting. All you have to do is book the appointment and a clothing pro with no less than five years of altering experience will take your measurements and return the items in a week or less. What’s more, if the item still doesn’t fit, any further changes are done free of charge. The same applies if you coordinate through the aforementioned retailers, too. zTailor is available in more areas, though, as folks in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. The plan is for the service to be available throughout the US before summer’s end.
Filed under: Internet
ASUS announces the ZenFone Selfie
Hopping into the selfie-oriented market as promised earlier this year, ASUS has announced the new ZenFone Selfie smartphone for the consumer ready for a picture of themselves. The main contrast between the ZenFone Selfie and a “normal” smartphone like the ZenFone 2 is the upgraded front-facing camera. In this case, ASUS has matched the 13 MP rear-facing camera with a 13 MP front-facing camera that comes with the same dual-tone flash as well. The rear-facing camera does get laser auto-focus, but the front-facing camera gets a wider 88-degree field of view.
As far as smartphone specs go, the ZenFone Selfie comes equipped with a 5.5-inch 1080p LCD screen covered with Gorilla Glass 4 and a Snapdragon 615 processor. Like LG and ASUS’s own ZenFone 2, the ZenFone Selfie comes with volume rockers located on the back of the device and the phone has a slightly curved shape to help users grip it better.
The ZenFone Selfie also comes with an optional Swing attachment. This can be used to extend your reach a tiny bit instead of going full-bore with a selfie-stick. The Swing can also double as a kickstand to hold the device in an upright position.
ASUS has not yet announced a release date, market availability or pricing details.
source: Engadget
Come comment on this article: ASUS announces the ZenFone Selfie
Sony Mobile cuts almost half of workforce in Sweden
Sony has confirmed media reports that the company’s mobile division in Sweden is cutting almost 1,000 jobs, which is close to half of the 2,200 jobs at their Lund, Sweden location. According to Sony, the cuts are impacting jobs in all areas of the division, both administrative and technical staff. Of the positions being cut, approximately 400 are contract positions while the rest are staff positions.
Sony Mobile has been a bit of sore spot for the company as it has struggled to be a profitable business center. Earlier this year Sony announced they would lay off about 2,100 people in the division in both European and Chinese locations. Once completed, the reduction will leave Sony Mobile with about 5,000 positions.
Last week, Pierre Perron who was president of the North West Europe division of the company announced he was leaving the company. It is not known whether that move and this latest layoff announcement were related.
source: TechCrunch
Come comment on this article: Sony Mobile cuts almost half of workforce in Sweden
You can watch a sneak peek from Jurassic World on Samsung’s Gear VR at Best Buy stores until June 12
If you are getting more and more excited the closer it gets to June 12th, the release date of Jurassic World, then this may well send you over the edge. Or at least to Best Buy anyway, because the retailer has teamed up with universal Pictures and Samsung to bring an exclusive clip of the film to selected Samsung devices.
The clip allegedly contains a big reveal, and can be viewed at the Samsung Entertainment Experiences at Best Buy stores until June 12th. Are you going to pop down to your nearest store to view the exclusive clip?
Source: Best Buy
Come comment on this article: You can watch a sneak peek from Jurassic World on Samsung’s Gear VR at Best Buy stores until June 12
Nintendo plans to join the ranks of Android manufacturers
According to a report from news website Kotaku, Nintendo intends to join the Android world by either creating a new mobile device or powering their next generation console with Google’s most popular software in Android. The codename for this unconfirmed project is NX and will supposedly be a “surprise” to the world.
With confirmed reports that Nintendo intends to have Android apps available by 2017, we can assume this rumor has some legitimacy. As a former gamer, I always saw Nintendo as a console for kids, families, and for “casual” gamers. The X-Box and Playstation, in my mind, exist for the more hard-core gamers and do not necessarily compete with Nintendo. As iOS and Android expanded all over the world, Nintendo started to struggle as both platforms offered much more variety and cheaper games for the casual gamers. Nintendo also struggled because they thought their product was good enough to survive on its own and their latest platform, the Wii U was highly limited in compatibility.
Rather than compete with Microsoft and Sony by building a high-end hardware gaming platform, which has never been Nintendo’s style, they will be joining the mobile world with a hardware device of their own running Android. This should help Nintendo as Google already has a huge app store and should make the next console much more versatile.
If we see Nintendo produce an Android powered next generation home console, or an Android powered mobile device, all Android users are winners as Nintendo has offered some of the most popular games in history. They may not be leaders in building hardware anymore, but Nintendo has always been a leader in developing games that span generations. Come 2017, hopefully we will be playing the Legend of Zelda or Super Smash Brothers on our Android devices.
The rumor has not been confirmed by Nintendo.
Via – Kotaku
Source – Nikkei
The post Nintendo plans to join the ranks of Android manufacturers appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Deal: Grab an HTC Desire 510 with one year of service from FreedomPop for just $250
HTC has proven itself worthy in the mid-range market over the past few years, continually offering smartphones with solid specifications and a great user experience for a low price point. Last year’s HTC Desire 510 still lives up to the company’s high expectations, bringing with it a perfectly capable 4.7-inch display, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, and a 5MP rear-facing camera.
If you purchase the phone on its own, it might cost you somewhere around $200. But in a new promotion that just made its way to the AA Deals Store, you can pick up a brand new HTC Desire 510 in Black with one full year of service from FreedomPop for just $249.99. The service includes unlimited talk and text, 500MB of 4G LTE data per month, visual voicemail ($30 value), tethering ($47.88 value), and usage alerts ($23.88 value). FreedomPop also doesn’t have any contracts or early termination fees, so you can cancel the service at any time with no repercussions.
If you’re interested in saving a massive 47% on this promotion, head to the Android Authority Deals Store link below.
Diving into Android M: Memory manager and revoking/adding permissions
Last week we brought you quick looks at a number of new changes that are heading to Android M. We’re at the point where most of the big changes have since been discussed thoroughly, but today let’s take a look at two fairly interesting changes that we’ve yet to talk much about.
Want to dive even deeper? Check out our full “Diving into M” series by clicking here.
First up, the new Memory manager. With Android Lollipop you can going into the “Running” section of the Apps menu to see how much RAM each app, and the system itself, is using. This was already a pretty great option for power users, but with Android M you can now get an even deeper look at your device’s RAM utilization.
The Memory section in M tells you how good of a job your device is doing when it comes to RAM usage, how much each app is using on average, and the maximum that each app has used recently. Bottom-line, it makes easy to see which apps historically are the worst offenders when it comes to memory consumption. Tapping on any of the apps in the list will give you even more info, such as currently running processes and what processes were running recently. You can even force stop a process if you so choose.
To open the Memory manager, you’ll want to go to the Apps menu, hit the hamburger menu, choose Advanced, and from there select Memory.
The other area we want to focus on is permissions. A big part of the Android M announcement surrounded permissions, and how apps designed for Android M will give users deeper control over what permissions apps have access to. Right now much of this isn’t up and running, as this is still a developer preview and no apps have been optimized for the new permissions system. In the final build of Android M, apps optimized for the new permission system will actually ask you to authorize individual permissions as you run into them (like first time using the camera in an app), instead of requiring you to grant all permissions in bulk when you first install them.
Beyond that, you’ll also be able to go in and grant/deny app permissions for apps even after you’ve already authorized or denied them in the past. So let’s take a look at how that will work.
Going into Settings > Apps, you’ll have two ways to mess with permissions here. First, you can click on any app individually. A new window will open up, and you’ll then click on the Permissions option. From here you’ll see any permissions an app currently has access to — or is denied. Turning them off/on is as easy as hitting the slider.
That’s not the only way to do this, though. From the Apps menu, you can also click on the hamburger menu and go to Advanced. This is the same screen you’ll access the Memory manager, but this time we will click on App permissions. This will bring up a list of permission groups (Calendar, Camera, Phone, etc).
Clicking on any of these permissions will bring a new list showcasing what apps have access to this permission. You can turn them off/on from here. Keep in mind that revoking permissions in Android M Developer Preview doesn’t actually seem to be working, but this is a preview and so we aren’t surprised.
What do you think of the new Memory Manager? The Permissions system? Let us know in the comments.
Apple Fitness Director Jay Blahnik Hosting Special Events at Asia-Pacific Retail Stores
Apple’s Director of Fitness and Health Technologies Jay Blahnik is touring the Asia-Pacific region this week to host live Q&A sessions with popular personal trainers and other well-known icons at Apple Stores in Australia, China and Japan. The special events focus on the intersection of health, fitness and technology, such as how to live a better life by maintaining a healthy body and mind.
Blahnik posing with personal trainer Michelle Bridges and a fan in Sydney (Instagram)
Blahnik sat down with Australian personal trainer Michelle Bridges for a live Q&A session at the Apple Store in Sydney, Australia on May 29 before heading to the Omotesando Apple Store to speak with technology journalist Nobi Hayashi in Tokyo, Japan earlier today, as noted by Macotakara. Blahnik will now travel to Beijing for an event with Chinese action filmmaker Donnie Yen at the Apple Store in China Central Mall on June 3.
Prior to joining Apple in July 2013, Blahnik was a Nike FuelBand consultant for almost 20 years and an award-winning fitness instructor and personal trainer. As health and fitness director at Apple, he has played an instrumental role in development of the Apple Watch, working in the company’s top-secret health and fitness lab where it has collected over 18,000 hours of health and fitness data from employee workout sessions.
AIVAnet 