CoolStream CarChat+ a bargain Bluetooth device for your car review
Nowadays, Bluetooth in your car is becoming as common as an AM/FM radio was 20 years ago. It’s a great feature that helps to eliminate potential distractions by allowing you to speak on your cell phone hands-free. There is also the added benefit of being able to stream your favorite music through the Bluetooth system. Of course, this only applies to vehicles that have been manufactured within the last 4-5 years. If you have an older vehicle, many times you are out of luck. This is an area where CoolStream sees an opportunity to bring in-car Bluetooth technology to the masses with the CarChat+.
CoolStream CarChat+ Overview
The design of the CarChat+ is pretty simple. It features a car power adapter with two 2.5A USB charging ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack to connect with your vehicle’s auxiliary port. There are 3 buttons on the device. A call button to answer incoming calls and pause your music, and a plus and a minus button to navigate your music. There is also an LED indicator light to let you know when the device is connected to power and to your phone via Bluetooth.
One opportunity that I think they missed here was to integrate a voice launcher into the unit. My LG Tones can initiate the Google Now voice commands and it is the one thing that I would change about this device if I could.
CoolStream CarChat+ Setup
Like its sister device the CoolStream Duo, this device is almost plug and play. First, plug the Coolstream CarChat+ into vehicle’s power outlet. Second, plug the 3.5mm jack and plug it into you vehicle’s auxiliary port. You’re almost done. Of course, like every other Bluetooth device out there, you have to pair it to your phone. CoolStream makes it dead simple, by not requiring a pin number to complete the pairing process. Just search for devices on your phone and select CoolStream Car. Now you’re done. Dead Simple.
CoolStream CarChat+ usage
I really like this device. I have another Bluetooth receiver that I was using before, but I had to manually turn it on, and it was battery operated. This allowed it to be more portable, but also less convenient. The CarChat+ feels like a factory installed Bluetooth system. It turns on and off with the car, and my phone connects to it automatically every time. Another great feature that I really like is that you can connect 2 devices simultaneously.
When it comes to streaming music, this device delivers clear, distortion-free audio. There really wasn’t any buffering or pausing in the music either. When two devices are connected at the same time, the device that starts playing music first will be the one that you will hear. However, upon pausing the music on the first device, the second device can begin playback on the CarChat+.
In terms of the voice function, let me say that the microphone works great. In my Honda Odyssey, the power outlet is placed low in the van. In fact, it was much lower the area that you would be speaking into naturally, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Callers reported that they could hear me crystal clear.
When two calls come in at once, the second device was the one that took priority on the call. The downside here was that if you were already on a call, that call would be interrupted and you would manually have to switch the call back to your handset. This could potentially be a big problem for the person driving. I recommend that the passenger turn off the phone audio in the settings to avoid this.
What we liked
- Simple setup
- Great audio/call quality
- Factory like integration
What could be better
- Better implementation of the simultaneous phone connections in regards to phone calls
- Voice control integration
CoolStream CarChat+ Overview
This is a superb option for those without factory Bluetooth integration in their vehicle. If you have a spare outlet and an auxiliary audio port, then I highly recommend that you check this device out. The device retails for $29.99 with free shipping on their website and on Amazon. With such a low price, you really can’t go wrong here.
The post CoolStream CarChat+ a bargain Bluetooth device for your car review appeared first on AndroidGuys.
FBI director says he’s ‘not a maniac’ about backdoor cellphone access
FBI director James Comey is making a final push for backdoor cellphone access for law enforcement ahead of key Senate committee meetings. In national security site Lawfare, he first admitted that “universal strong (cellphone) encryption will protect all of us — our innovation, our private thoughts, and so many other things of value — from thieves all kind.” However, he quickly added that “there are many costs to this,” citing terrorist organizations like ISIS. He said that the group recruits members “through mobile messaging apps that are end-to-end encrypted… (and) may not be intercepted, despite judicial orders under the Fourth Amendment.”
However, as critics have pointed out, he again failed to mention the downsides of backdoor access. One of the biggest is that it opens new security holes that make everyone more vulnerable, including the government itself. For instance, a company that supplied tools used by the NSA to spy on US citizens and government was itself hacked recently, which could result in a security nightmare if its apps fall into the wrong hands. Another problem is trusting law enforcement not to overreach. Comey said that access would only happen “in appropriate circumstances and with appropriate oversight.” However, as the Snowden revelations proved, the FBI and NSA operate without much oversight and virtually no public transparency.
FBI Director James Comey
Comey thinks that the bad and good parts of strong encryption are “in tension,” but didn’t offer any evidence that the “bad parts” of encryption have thwarted law enforcement. Instead, he vaguely offered that “there is simply no doubt that bad people can communicate with impunity in a world of universal strong encryption.” By contrast, Apple’s new, strong encryption scheme has given thousands of iPhone users proven benefits by protecting their personal data from thieves, as one pundit pointed out.
Despite all that, Comey said that the US still needs to have a “robust debate” about encryption. Tech companies like Google and Apple have already made their feelings clear, though, telling President Obama that they were strongly opposed to special government access to devices. Both companies recently introduced strong encryption for apps like Gmail and iMessage, and Apple says it can’t read user’s messages itself, let alone share them with law enforcement. However, Comey’s message may be targeted more at politicians than the public. Later this week, he has crucial meetings with the Senate Intelligence Comittee and the Senate Judiciary Comittee, where he’ll try to convince them of the dangers of using encryption to “go dark.”
[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Apple, Google
Via: Nextgov.com
Source: Lawfare
A visual tour of the Pokémon Research Lab
There’s no better way to inspire children into a career in animal taxonomy and species classification than Pokémon. Possibly. A temporary Pokémon Lab in Japan is opening its doors to wannabe researchers (and their parents), offering them a pokéball and 12 different stations to test and identify the critter inside. Once you’ve derived the specific pocket monster (fortunately, at this junior research center, it’s limited to a pool of around 30), there’s also a healthy spoonful of real science and biology at the end — oh yes, it’s edu-tainment. This part of the exhibit tries to convey how important discoveries have occurred through observation and categorization of animals and creatures (the game’s creator was famously fascinated by categorizing insects as a child). There was also a giant Pikachu in a lab coat to assist where needed — although he didn’t really help all that much.
Filed under: Gaming, Science, Nintendo
Source: Pokemon Lab
EE Rook offers 4G and Android for just £49
Another day and another carrier device, this time from the UK’s largest carrier; EE‘s latest own-brand device definitely pushes the boundaries of affordable devices and is aimed specifically at the entry-level Pay As you Go (PAYG) market.
The Rook launches today and is priced at £49 for new customers (plus a mandatory £10 top-up) and £39 for new customers and EE is calling it “the UK’s lowest priced 4G smartphone” which is technically correct as it costs £1 less than the Vodafone Smart Turbo 4 on PAYG. EE estimate that 44 percent of PAYG customers spend up to £50 on a smartphone and the Rook is designed to offer the UK’s only 4G experience at that price point
What do you get for your money? Aside from double-speed 4G, you’ll get a 4-inch 480×800 pixel display, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, a MediaTek 64-bit quad-core 1GHz processor and a 1500mAh battery. Also onboard is a 5MP rear camera sans flash and autofocus and a VGA front camera.
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The specs certainly won’t wow you but they definitely push the boundaries of what you can expect at the sub-£50 price point. The Rook runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, although we’re not sure how well it will run on the low-end hardware.
Sharon Meadows, Director of Devices at EE, said:
At EE, we believe everyone should have access to 4G and the experiences it offers on the go. The Rook provides a great 4G smartphone at a compelling price – allowing even more people to enjoy the benefits of our superfast mobile network from high speed web browsing and downloads to gaming and streaming.
EE’s decision to produce a budget entry-level device is certainly interesting given that both EE and rival Vodafone have – recently until now – focused on producing the best devices possible at an acceptable price. However, a tactic successfully implemented by some OEMs is producing entry-level devices to capture some of the lucrative volume market and the Rook is EE’s attempt to do the same.
Apple’s First Retail Store in Queens, New York Opens July 11
Apple has announced that its first retail store in Queens, New York, located at the Queens Center shopping mall in the Elmhurst neighborhood, will have its grand opening on Saturday, July 11 at 10:00 AM local time. The new Apple Store at 90-15 Queens Boulevard will be open between 10:00 AM and 9:30 PM on Monday-Saturday and between 11:00 AM and 8:00 PM on Sunday.
Apple’s first retail store in Queens will mark its eight location in New York City, with six existing locations in Manhattan and one in Staten Island. Apple is also planning to open its first retail store in Brooklyn, having signed a long-term lease for a 20,000 square-foot building at 247 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, although those plans are running behind schedule after the store missed its original April 2015 grand opening target.
Apple Store at Queens Center under construction in late May (Twitter/Joe Calati)
Apple recently opened its new Upper East Side store in Manhattan at 940 Madison Avenue, on the corner of 74th Street, on the site of a former banking complex built in 1921 that previously housed luxury retailer VBH. The company also plans to renovate its iconic Fifth Avenue store and temporarily relocate to the vacating FAO Schwarz toy store in the same General Motors Building plaza.
Tim Cook Named to Duke University’s Board of Trustees on Six-Year Term
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been named as one of eight new board of trustee members at his alma mater Duke University, where he earned his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business in 1988, the school announced today. Cook began serving his six-year term on July 1 and will assist the governing body in determining Duke University’s educational mission and fiscal policies.
Tim Cook speaking at Duke University in April 2013
The other new trustees are The Coca-Cola Foundation chairwoman Lisa Borders, PRM Advisors founder Patricia Morton, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and ValueAct Capital CEO Jeff Ubben. Duke University also appointed three observing members on the board, including Elastic Fabrics of America marketing executive and Duke alum Jack Boyd, recent Duke graduate Anna Knight and Duke JD/MBA candidate Ben Shellhorn.
Cook returned to Duke University in 2013 for his 25th reunion and participated in an hour-long dialogue with Fuqua School of Business Dean Bill Boulding and students about why Apple is successful, collaboration, ethical leadership, career planning, inspirational leaders, intuitions and more. The embedded playlist of videos above will play through each of the seven clips that the university shared.
Facebook tests ‘floating’ videos in your News Feed
Pop-Up Video: it’s not just the greatest VH1 show ever, it’s also Facebook’s latest feature. The social network is rolling out floating videos for desktop users that can sit anywhere in your window while you continue browsing your News Feed, just like on Tumblr. You can activate the feature by clicking on a new button at the bottom-right of video embeds, which looks like this:
First spotted by The Next Web, it seems like the feature is slowly rolling out to the majority of users. In our informal poll, four out of five people were already seeing the button in their feed. Facebook has been steadily improving its video options in an effort to muscle in on YouTube’s lucrative business of placing ads on user videos. If pop-ups gets more users watching more videos for more time, that can only be a good thing when it comes to selling marketing space to potential advertisers.
Filed under: Facebook
Via: The Next Web
How the BBC’s Micro:bit came to be
In the early eighties, the BBC started a computing revolution with the launch of the Micro. The heavy, light-brown box, created with help from Acorn and ARM, was designed to complement the broadcaster’s ongoing computer literacy project. It was intended to give children a grounding not only in programming, but also graphics, sound and gaming. In the thirty-plus years that have passed, the BBC has remained committed to educating Britain’s youngsters in the same fields, but never returned to hardware — at least until a few years ago.
In 2012, a small team inside the BBC Learning department began work on a new project aimed at tackling the technology skills gap in the UK. It was the very start of what we now know as the Micro:bit. It was developed with the idea of encouraging children to think about computers and tablets not as things you simply use, but as devices that can be used to create.
The team hacked together prototypes, creating rudimentary circuit boards that demonstrated what they wanted to achieve. But, it looked out of place in a world filled with Raspberry Pis, Arduino boards and other education-focused programmable microcomputers. The BBC knew it couldn’t do it alone, and so had the idea of collaborating with UK partners to put its vision into the hands of one million Year 7 (11- and 12-year-old) students. The response was enormous.
At today’s launch, the BBC counted 29 partners, ranging from manufacturers, software makers, retailers and educators. Microsoft, Samsung, ARM (a company full of executives who cut their teeth on the BBC Micro), the Bluetooth SIG, Element 14, Lancaster University and more have pooled their resources to hold the hands of teachers, children and an emerging young maker community.
Microsoft, for example, has modified its beginner-friendly TouchDevelop platform specifically for the Micro:bit. TouchDevelop lets developers of any skill level create apps for smartphones, tablets or PCs, whether they’re using Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android. For the new initiative, it’ll host the code and projects of all one million developer boards. The Micro:bit supports up to five different programming languages, which include JavaScript, C++ and Block, with Microsoft providing two of them.
The Micro:bit itself hosts 25 red LEDs, all of which can be programmed to display messages, deliver the graphics for games or other feedback. The two push-buttons on its rear can act as inputs for a game controller, or help children create basic rewind and fast-forward buttons on a music player. The built-in accelerometer detects movement, which is perfect for creating programmable “robots,” while a compass tells it which way it’s facing.
Indeed, the BBC’s demonstration area was filled with clever creations. Micro:bits were fixed to all manner of household items, including a frying pan that tells you when to flip a pancake or when your omelette might be burnt. Another company had outfitted a toy car with the BBC microcomputer, letting you drive it around a ready-made track with a smartphone app. One internal BBC project involved modified ping-pong bats that lit up a strip of coloured LEDs when the ball was hit.
The exhibits give a small taste of what is possible with the Micro:bit, but the BBC knows that when the devices reach Britain’s Year 7, the real fun will begin. With a lot of early insight from teachers, the BBC and its partners have created a microcomputer that aligns closely with the curriculum. Before launch, the broadcaster seeded a small number of prototypes to schoolchildren, who created a basic version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and a pizza tracking bot. With one million units in kids’ hands, the possibilities are infinite.
The BBC’s commitment to openness is key here: the first batch of Micro:bits will reach teachers in September, who will have time to create learning environments ahead of a large-scale rollout in October. Once distributed, the technology will be licenced so companies all over the world can make their own Micro:bits for schools. The BBC has formed a non-profit company to do so, which will also open-source the board’s specifications. Educators will be spoilt for choice: they’ll have access to Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, Micro:bits and others, which can all provide a solid foundation for children to understand more about the technology they use, and perhaps influence the way it’s headed in decades to come.
ICYMI: 3D-printed art, a Pac-Man satellite and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: The giant robot duel challenge response is in from a Japanese mecha-manufacturer (aimed at some lippy Americans with a super paintball gun) and it’s throwing hella shade y’all. Switzerland’s EPFL space agency realized its old cubesats were cluttering up space so it came up with a hungry hippo of a satellite that should start gobbling up its smaller kin by 2018. And an architect hacked a 3D printer with LEDs and is creating beautiful paintings with light.
Today’s happy bonus video is more like a night terror: Google’s Artificial Neural Network is being used to distort images like this scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. No thanks.
From the cutting room floor: I’m way into the idea of this stretchable mesh that conforms to your body and soothes sore muscles. It didn’t make the cut because there aren’t any videos of the thing, but if you stumble across any similarly interesting clips or stories, we’d love to see them! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Robots, Science, Internet, Google
Galaxy S6 Edge demand is to blame for Samsung’s poor Q2
Earlier in the day we reported on another lacklustre quarter for Samsung’s mobile division, as the company prepares to report its seventh consecutive quarter of declining profits. It turns out that the Galaxy S6 Edge might be to blame for much of Samsung’s weaker than expected earnings.
According to the preliminary report, Samsung is expecting 48.0 trillion Korean won in consolidated sales and an operating profit of 6.9 trillion Korean won, which translate to a 4% decline over Q2 of 2014. As Samsung’s semiconductor and TV business are expected to grow, the blame is being laid squarely at the mobile division. More specifically, sales of the company’s latest flagship smartphones – the S6 and S6 Edge.
Samsung lack of production capacity for the Galaxy S6 Edge’s display have been well documented and the company has been attempting to address the issue for months. However, the problem is not so much that Samsung isn’t able to keep up with Galaxy S6 Edge demand, but rather that the Galaxy S6 Edge has had a direct impact on sales of the regular Galaxy S6.
Samsung was not expecting similar demand for both Galaxy S6 versions
According to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, Samsung misjudged the type of smartphones that consumers would be after. The company expected to sell four Galaxy S6 handsets for every S6 Edge variant and setup production accordingly. However, demand has ended up being much closer to a 50/50 split between the two.
As a result, Samsung has been left with Galaxy S6 stock that simply isn’t selling. Apparently the white variant is particularly overstocked. Even if the company could produce more Edge units, it would still have incorrectly invested large sums of money into excessive production of the regular Galaxy S6.
Samsung has been left holding lots of Galaxy S6 stock, as customers wait for more S6 Edge production.
Since launch, Samsung is said to have reconfigured its manufacturing operations to help produce as many Galaxy S6 Edge units as are needed. Samsung has previously stated that it would be able to meet demand more accurately by the end of June, which would have just missed out on the Q2 figures.
Sales and profit figures could rebound in the third and fourth quarters, providing that the Galaxy S6’s popularity holds up. Even so, this is likely to be a costly miscalculation for Samsung, which was hoping to improve its profitability this year after the sharp declines of 2014.
AIVAnet 