Plex’s Xbox One update brings music, playlists and more
There are a host of new features coming to Plex’s Xbox One app. In addition to the standard fare of navigation tweaks, added SmartGlass functionality and bug fixes, the media organizer/caster now allows users to play music through their Xbone. Plex also now offers playlist support for both songs and videos. Plus, there’s no longer need to convert videos either, the service can play back video in Xbox’s native MKV file format. But arguably the coolest new feature is that you’ll finally get real, honest-to-goodness trailers prior to watching your films. It’s as close to the theater experience you can get without having to pay for IMAX and stale popcorn.
Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Microsoft
Source: Plex
Samsung Galaxy J2 leaked specs hint at super affordable handset
Samsung launched the Galaxy J1 affordable handset only about half a year ago, but the way the industry moves we are sure they are well underway to releasing a successor. In fact, we know they are, as rumors of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy J2 have just started to surface. Unlike most other tech murmurs, the information obtained on this device is quite extensive!
SamMobile quotes some anonymous sources who claim the device will come with a 4.5-inch TFT LCD display with an 800x480p resolution. Internals are said to pack a 1.2 GHz Samsung Exynos 3475 quad-core processor (32-bit), 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. Other hardware includes a 5 MP rear camera, a 2 MP shooter in the front and a 2000 mAh battery, all smashed together in a 136 x 69 x 8.3 mm phone running Android 5.1.1.
This is quite an upgrade over the Samsung Galaxy J1, its direct predecessor. That phone only had a 4.3-inch display, 512 MB of RAM and a 1850 mAh battery. This leaves us wondering if the Galaxy J2 will be as affordable the J1. Direct successors usually are priced similarly to previous iterations, but the Galaxy J2 sure doesn’t seem like a $115-dollar phone, which happens to be the Galaxy J1’s price.
We also saw the Samsung Galaxy J5 and J7 launching last month, but those are in a whole other realm. They sport much better specs and even feature front-facing flashes. We wouldn’t expect the same treatment for the Galaxy J2.
No details on pricing and availability are provided yet, so we can only assume. Sammy will probably announce this new phone relatively soon and for a very reasonable price, though. We assume the phone will launch mostly in emerging markets like India, other Asian countries and some parts of Latin America.
Are any of you interested in buying a mid-range phone like the Samsung Galaxy J2? It seems like a good little gadget for a very casual user, but I wouldn’t exactly recommend it to everyone.
Deal: Moto E (2015) now $89.99, $99.99 for LTE version
Motorola knew how to take on the affordable market when they released their first Moto G. The phone changed everything, offering a low price that was reasonable even for emerging markets, a fair design and performance that didn’t make you want to stab through your smartphone. Now the company has an even cheaper alternative for those who want a more casual experience – the Moto E series.
The Moto E comes with its sacrifices, but its $119.99-$149.99 price point truly makes up for the budget phone’s downsides. The Moto E (2015) offers a very good bang for your buck, and you can pay the higher price tag to get 4G LTE to speed things up. Need more of an incentive? Amazon is offering all three versions of the 2015 Moto E at a substantial discount.
Both the US and Global GSM versions are currently priced at only $89.99, a $30 discount over their original price. Those who want a faster data speeds can opt for the 4G LTE iteration, which costs only $99.99; that’s a $50 discount over the original Moto E (2015) 4G LTE price, and only $10 more than the discounted 3G versions.
You won’t easily find a better deal for a smartphone like the Moto E, so we definitely urge you to jump on this deal if you are looking for something at this low price range. The device packs quite a set of specs considering what you pay for it. It sports a 4.5-inch qHD display, 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage, 5.0/0.3 MP cameras and a 2390 mAh battery that should keep the resourceful device running for a good amount of time (about 6.5 hours of screen-on time!). And if software matters to you, Motorola has been great at keeping its low-end devices just as up-to-date as their flagship devices when it comes to Android updates.
Furthermore, Amazon makes this deal more enticing by offering free one-day shipping to Prime subscribers. Are you signing up? Try not to take too long, as we don’t know how long it will be before this deal closes.
Attacker who ruined your holiday gaming gets a slap on the wrist
If you were hoping that all of the Lizard Squad attackers who took down the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live last holiday would get their comeuppance… well, you’ll be disappointed. A Finnish court has convicted Julius Kivimäki (aka “Ryan” and “Zeekill”) of a whopping 50,700 charges related to various computer crimes, including data breaches, telecommunication-based harassment and swiping credit card data. It sounds good, but his penalty is limited to a suspended 2-year prison sentence and an order to help fight cybercrime — a trivial penalty in light of his overall damage. Even if you limit Kivimäki’s culpability to the gaming network outage, he was still partly responsible for days of downtime at Microsoft and Sony that frustrated millions of players. While he’ll theoretically stay on the straight and narrow for at least a while, the verdict isn’t exactly going to scare Lizard Squad’s other members into becoming model citizens.
[Image credit: Jean-Jacques Boujot, Flickr]
Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Sony, Microsoft
Via: Daily Dot, GameInformer
Source: Kaleva.fi (translated)
The best of Public Access Vol. 4: Mac Powerbooks, Microsoft Bob and more
The past week on Public Access has seen y’all looking both forward and back in tech history. Englishman and US resident Jess James explained how he would change the course of history (and the outcome of the US revolutionary war) with a big screen TV and some Monty Python. Meanwhile, Miné Salkin wrote of being smitten with the Macintosh PowerBook 100 as a child, and Joe Duncan explained the difficulties of selling the Tandy Video Information System in the early ’90s. Lachlan Harris bridged the old and new, making the case that Microsoft’s Bob software (from 1995) never actually left us and the DNA of that helping friendly program remains a part of Windows 10. And, Oded Lilos told us why speech recognition and voice assistants — despite the sizable part they’ll play in our computing future — won’t be replacing keyboards anytime soon.
P.S. The homepage is coming soon! in the meantime you can check out the latest from Public Access right here. Not a member? Apply, and keep the weird alive.
This week, we want you to tell us about the painful (and/or funny) technological moments in your life and the lives of those closest to you. Whether you’re an early adopter or late bloomer, everyone has had gadgets misbehave. So, we want you to tell us the story of your most frustrating tech experience. And, when you’re not solving your own gadget problems, I’m betting you’ve had to do the same for your friends and family. When duty called, did you regret answering? All great art comes from pain, and it’s time to share yours with the world.
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“That said I have to tell you that I would have been much more likely to take the view of Washington and his rebellious cohorts were I there at the time, so despite my ancestry I think I might lean towards making every effort to further the revolution rather than hinder it.”
Read the rest of Rewriting history: friend or foe? by Jess James
“Sparks flew from my pudgy little fingers as I navigated through the rudimentary operating system, baffled at how files within folders could be stored into other folders and into infinity. There was no mouse, only a difficult-to-use trackpad that included a little rubber tip in the middle, which my mom’s friend affectionately referred to as “the nipple.””
Read the rest of Love and PCs: The Retro Mac that Blew My Mind by Miné Salkin
“Tandy (parent company of Radio Shack), looking to boost sales with an “innovative” new product, immediately jumped into the multimedia market with their Video Information System (VIS). It ended up being one of the biggest flops in the company’s history.”
Read the rest of Tech Throwback: The Tandy Video Information System by Joe Duncan
“Microsoft Bob was an ultimate love letter to skeuomorphism, an attempt to make the computer easy to understand for the layman. The cartoony graphics and inspiration for comic sans has been panned into oblivion. Even Steve Ballmer has admitted that development needed to stop.”
Read the rest of Microsoft is re-releasing Bob and you love it by Lachlan Harris
“Now, there are those who may argue that keyboards are going to become as antiquated as the horse and buggy, and that may well indeed occur in the future. But from where I sit today, keyboards are going to become increasingly more important and useful, and as they do, they will delay a reality that sees everyone walking around talking to themselves. And that, at the very least, is something to get on (key) board with.”
Read the rest of Does Siri Proactive Spell the End of Keyboards? by Oded Lilos
YOUR DOSE OF INSPIRATION
Digital therapy: it’s time to vent about your most frustrating tech moments
We’ve all been there: a gadget simply won’t work they way we want it to due to user error, design flaw, or a simple bug. As any first-year psych student will tell you, however, it’s cathartic to talk about your problems. So, tell us the story of your greatest gadget frustration(s), and let the healing begin.
Relative tech support
Most of us have, at some time or another, been enlisted to play tech support for a loved one. Whether it’s setting up a new phone, hooking up a home theater, or learning how to use Facebook, we want to know how you got your family member through their tech ordeal.
Disappointing, but unsurprising: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 won’t have a microSD slot
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Samsung abandoned many notable things in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge that they had previously held as important to consumers – removable batteries and microSD slots headline the list of omissions. It’s suspected that Samsung did most of this to help slim down the device and we had hoped that with all the extra internal space, the new Galaxy Note device would be able to accommodate at least some of these “luxuries”. Unfortunately, according to a new report, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 won’t have a microSD slot, which is just as disappointing as it is unsurprising.
Before you polish your pitchforks however, the report also details the new storage technology that Samsung utilized in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Called UFS 2.0, the new technology reads and writes almost twice as fast as the old storage standard, eMMC 5.0. This includes scenarios where the fastest available microSD cards are used, which really paints a picture where microSD is a technology that will eventually be abandoned in favour of lightening fast internal storage. With that in mind, it’s no surprised that countless manufacturers are joining Samsung in abandoning physical expandable memory in their flagship devices – don’t be surprised if the LG G4 turns out to be the only flagship this year with the feature. The future, for now, appears to be cloud-based storage and super-quick onboard storage.
What do you think about the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 not having a microSD slot? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: SamMobile via Droid-life
The post Disappointing, but unsurprising: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 won’t have a microSD slot appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Ubisoft launches new trailer for upcoming Rayman Adventures game for mobile
Ubisoft has just announced that the latest game in the Rayman franchise, entitled Rayman Adventures, will make its way to mobile smartphones and tablets sometime this fall.
The game features the familiar side scrolling gameplay that we’ve come to expect from other Rayman titles, so there’s nothing too out of the ordinary with this one. However, judging by the graphics shown off in the trailer, this game looks extremely polished, and will come with some killer graphics.
Rayman Adventures will star none other than Rayman himself, along with his new viking buddy, Barbara. During the duo’s quest to save the elusive “sacred tree”, the Enchanted Forest much also be saved by hunting down a multitude of ancient eggs that have been stolen and scattered all over the world.
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Although the trailer doesn’t specifically mention that the game will come to Android, we have a pretty good feeling it will when it launches in the fall. No pricing information has been given quite yet, either, though both Rayman Jungle Run and Fiesta Run are available in the Google Play Store for $2.99 each. We know details are a little scarce for the time being, but we’ll let you know once Ubisoft releases more details about Rayman Adventures.
Sprint to begin selling the budget-friendly Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime on July 10th
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly, capable Android smartphone, you may want to check out what Sprint has to offer in the next few days. On Friday, July 10th, Sprint will begin selling the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime for just $240 without a contract. You can also pick up the device for only $29.99 with a two-year contract (after $50 mail-in rebate), and well-qualified buyers can get the device for $0 down and $10 per month for 24 months.
Although the Galaxy Grand Prime doesn’t offer up the best specs we’ve ever seen, it certainly could be much worse. The device comes with a 5-inch qHD display with 960×540 resolution, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of on-board storage and microSD card expansion up to 128GB. It also has an 8MP rear-facing camera, 5MP front-facing camera and a 2600mAh battery. The device features 4G LTE connectivity and runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box. It should noted that the press release states that the device comes with just 8MB of storage, but we’re assuming Sprint meant 8GB in this case.
Don’t miss: Best Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime cases
If you’re interested, the Galaxy Grand Prime will be available both in-store and online when it launches on July 10th.
ChargePoint wants to put a $500 electric car charger in your garage
If you have an electric car, you’re probably familiar with ChargePoint: it’s the largest electric vehicle charging network out there. It has chargers all over the world, and a lot of them are free to use. Later this summer, you’ll be able to install one of the chargers in your own garage — but that’ll cost you $500.
The ChargePoint Home EV charger was first announced back at CES, but back then it wasn’t clear how much an in-home unit would cost. Now we know: the in-home unit will sell for $500-750, depending on how much power it puts out, how it’s installed and how long its charging cord is. Want a 32 amp hard-wired installation that can charge a car up to 25 feet away? It’ll cost you extra. Want to save some cash? Go with a shorter (12 or 18-foot) cable, a slower 16 amp, 12 RPH (range per hour) charge speed and a plug-installation.
This isn’t ChargePoint’s first residential charger (the company has been making those since it was known as Coulomb), but is definitely its smartest: the ChargePoint Home is a WiFi connected system that integrates with the company’s larger charging network and its associated mobile app. You can track where and when you charged your car (at home, work or a public station) and schedule remote charging and charge reminders. It even integrates with Nest to facilitate energy savings or shut the system down in case of a power surge. ChargePoint hasn’t announced the official sale date yet: just that it’ll be available on Amazon later this summer.
Filed under: Misc, Transportation
Source: ChargePoint
Capcom is making a light-up ‘Mega Man’ helmet
Want to up the ante on your costume for the next big comic convention? Capcom will soon have you covered. The game developer has teased plans for an official, wearable Mega Man helmet that lights up. It won’t grant you cybernetic powers, but it definitely looks the part — combine it with Think Geek’s Buster Gun and you’ll look like you’re ready to take on Dr. Wily. While Capcom hasn’t even mentioned a pre-order date, let alone a release date, it could be worth holding out if you’re determined to trump other would-be Blue Bombers.
Filed under: Gaming, Wearables
Via: Polygon
Source: Capcom
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