Hands on with the Motorola Moto Pulse
This week, Motorola silently launched two new wireless audio products that are available right now. The company’s new wireless on-ear headphones is called Moto Pulse, coming with a built-in microphone that allows for hands-free calling. It uses a Bluetooth connection and that means you can use the Moto Pulse with phones, tablets, and computers. Both Android and iOS devices are supported here. The extent of Motorola’s attention to software doesn’t end there, though. The Motorola Connect app will ensure that you always know the status of the Moto Pulse, specifically its battery life and location.
While compact in size, the Moto Pulse has 40mm speaker drivers to pump out rich sound. Comfort, too, was made possible with the Moto Pulse and that’s seen in the pressure-free headband and cushioned ear cups.
Hit the break for the video.
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The Moto Pulse is priced at $59 and comes in black and white color options.
[Motorola]
Come comment on this article: Hands on with the Motorola Moto Pulse
OnStar hack remotely starts cars, GM working on a fix
Hacker Samy Kamkar unveiled his latest triumph this morning: OwnStar, a tiny box that acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot and intercepts commands sent from a driver’s OnStar RemoteLink app, allowing an unauthorized user to locate, unlock or start the vehicle. Simply place the box somewhere in an OnStar-connected car and wait for the driver to start up the RemoteLink app within range of the vehicle. The driver’s smartphone should automatically connect to OwnStar’s network and, voila, the hacker now has all of the car owner’s information (email, home address, final four digits on a credit card plus expiration date), and control of the car. GM has already issued one patch this morning aimed at securing the RemoteLink app, but it was unsuccessful, according to Kamkar.
Kamkar never intended to wreak havok with OwnStar, he said in an interview with Wired. He wanted to expose a vulnerability in the OnStar app and help GM fix it — and it seems as if that’s precisely what’s happening. GM is working to patch the RemoteLink bug now and Kamkar says he’s in contact with the company as they fix it. Kamkar plans to reveal more technical details about OwnStar at Defcon 2015, which runs from August 6th to the 9th in Las Vegas.
OwnStar update: GM told WIRED that OnStar bug was fixed, however it’s not actually resolved yet. I spoke with GM & they’re working on it now
– Samy Kamkar (@samykamkar) July 30, 2015
This is the second major car-based hack to surface this month. On July 24th, Fiat Chrysler issued a voluntary recall of 1.4 million US vehicles with certain touchscreen entertainment systems, after Wired reported that it was possible to remotely cut the engine, disable and activate the brakes, and track the location of these cars.
Hands on with the Motorola Moto Surround
The Moto Surround joined the Moto Pulse as the two new audio products announced by Motorola earlier this week. The design of this set of wireless earbuds is unique because of who Motorola is targeting. Resting on your shoulders and around your collar, the Moto Pulse has blue wires that link the earbuds themselves. Motorola also made this device waterproof and sweatproof, clearly indicating the Moto Surround is for people who are active and spend a lot of time staying fit. Battery life, when playing music, should be up to twelve hours, outlasting probably any workout.
Motorola used aptX technology and that apparently gives the Moto Pulse its crisp highs, full lows, and clear mid-ranges.
Hit the break for the video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Pricing for the Moto Surround is slightly higher than the Moto Pulse, coming in at $69.
[Motorola]
Come comment on this article: Hands on with the Motorola Moto Surround
Epic App Battles of Android: Beats Music vs. TIDAL
In the final installment of App Battles Round 1, we’ll be spectating the battle between Beats and TIDAL.
In the Black corner, we have TIDAL, Jay-Z’s premium with 500 000 downloads and a 3,5 star rating.
In the Red corner, we have Beats, Dr. Dre’s premium with 10 000 000 to 50 000 000 downloads and 4,5 star rating.
Who will win this battle between Jay-z and Dr. Dre? They are both in the ring and ready! FIGHT!
Round 1: App design
We’re gonna start this off by having a look at TIDAL first, and although they both have some design in common, I’ll about each app separately first.
The first thing you’ll notice is the dark design that it features.The entire app is based off a black background, which contrasts well with the album art and song titles. It’s ideal for night time as it doesn’t strain your eyes too much. While it certainly won’t be a bad idea to be able to customize it to your liking, I had no problem with the dull color combo.
The actual layout of everything was actually rather efficient and pleasing to use. It’s not cluttered or designed in a way that makes you despise it. There’s a simple panel that can be opened up by swiping on the left side of the screen. This is basically the main way you get around and swap between feature like “What’s new”, “TIDAL Rising” and of course all your playlists, favorite music, settings and the “Offline” mode toggle (We’ll chat more about these features later).
TIDAL certainly took some time to create a pleasurable experience.Everything is easy to use and easy to find. But how does Beats fare?
Beats has a simple color scheme, namely something made up of black and white, with the occasional spot of red. The bold text is punchy but not overdone, while the absence of material design makes you luster for what could’ve been something great. Again, themes do not exist so only thing you can choose is your music, but hey, this is not a big problem.
Fortunately the design is universal, which means the text and colors are the same throughout. You get the standard menu by swiping from your left, and the feeds from artists you follow are available by swiping from your right. Overall the graphics seemed great and there’s no place where Dr. Dre’s minions let their design guard down. At least that I could see.
Both the Red and Black team have had a fair fight this round. Although they put their best foot forward, it appears to be a tie. Perhaps one would’ve had the edge had they had the ability to color shift
| Service | Score /10 |
|---|---|
| Beats | 8 |
| TIDAL | 8 |
Winner: Tie
Round 2: Features
Both teams are refreshed and ready for Round 2! This time we’ll compare them head on.
When I opened Beats, it prompted me to pick a couple of artists and genre’s I liked. After the setup I saw that these made up the majority of the recommend songs, with very little presence of artists that I said I did not like. TIDAL, on the other hand, offers no such thing and throws you in the deep end. You’re by yourself to slowly find what you like amongst everything. It was rather inconvenient as most other streaming services prompt you to select your favorite’s. But that said, TIDAL offers HiFI, lossless audio quality with 1411kbps, significantly better than Beat’s 320kbps. For those that aren’t audiophiles, that basically means that TIDAL offers better music quality over Beat’s. You will need a good pair of headsets to make a difference though, and even if you’re running decent Internet speeds, the tracks might pause a few seconds in-between as the next one loads.
And of course, both offer offline modes. As the name hints, this allows you to save songs for times when you don’t have Internet, as you obviously won’t be able stream. Both worked effectively and it easy to implement as you just add the tracks to a playlist and flip the switch to “Offline”.
I should also mention that Beats offers over 20 million songs, while TIDAL offers over 30 million.
Although there is no defining feature that gives any of them a reasonable lead, I think it’s safer to say that TIDAL’s higher quality tracks will the larger selection has an edge over the ability to filter your favorite genres and artists when you start the app.
| Service | Score /10 |
|---|---|
| Beats | 8 |
| TIDAL | 9 |
Winner: TIDAL
Both opponents are equally bruised but TIDAL managed to throw a few more punches.
Round 3: Pricing
As much as we would like them to, free trials don’t last forever. Beats Music offers a 14 day free trial that allows you to test out the full version and see how much you like it. TIDAL is a bit more generous and offers 30 day trials that also allows full free access to premium features. The ‘Premium’ tag only applies to TIDAL which allows you access to HiFi tracks, or FLAC ( Free Lossless Audio Codec), the 14211kbps we talked about earlier.
| Service | Trial Period | Price Tier 1 | Price Tier 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beats Music | 14 Days | US $9.99 | – |
| TIDAL | 30 Days | US $9.99 (TIDAL Premium) | US $19.99 (TIDAL HiFi) |
It does seem that TIDAL is asking too much for $19.99 for something that only gives you more by upping the quality. Perhaps they would’ve had a more convincing deal if it was $14.99 or less. Beats only has one price plan. It should be mentioned that TIDAL has different plans including Family – which offers discounts for more people – and Student – which halves the price. Beats had no such deals and discounts, and might end up paying dearly for that.
Beats looses a considerable amount of points for lack of different tiers and discounts. TIDAL looses out at the price of Premium tag.
| Service | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Beats | 6 |
| TIDAL | 7 |
Round Winner: TIDAL
With 2/3 rounds won, TIDAL advances to the next round. Who will be his opponent? Keep tuned to androidguys.com to find out!
The post Epic App Battles of Android: Beats Music vs. TIDAL appeared first on AndroidGuys.
These may be specs for the LG G Flex 3
We always welcome a little peak into what’s to come. Some details regarding the next iteration in LG’s Flex line have sneaked in, with “top-end” written all over it.
Relayed to us via MobiPicker, the LG G Flex 3 is said to come packing Qualcomm’s latest, the Snapdragon 820 octa-core SoC. 4GB of RAM will accompany the beastly processor.
What’s interesting is the report states it will have a 6″ QHD screen. We saw LG reduce the size of this year’s G Flex by half an inch, implying that they went overboard the first time. It seems iffy that they would revert back.
Another interesting tidbit is that the chassis will be made out of metal. Past G Flex phones have had glossy, self-healing plastic. However, many noted that the plastic felt cheap. We have also heard in the past that LG is playing with the idea of metal phones, which backs up this claim.
Other juicy specs include:
- 20.7 MP rear and 8 MP front cameras
- 32GB storage (expandable)
- 3,500 mAh battery
- Fingerprint scanner
The report says to expect a launch in March 2016. Being that this is a whole eight months away, I wouldn’t put too much faith in this specific configuration. We’re just speculating at this point. Also, this year we saw the G Flex 2 debut at CES in January. So if LG follows the same path, the release timeframe should be January/Feburary.
Do you like what you’re hearing so far for the G Flex 3? What do you think if they were to go back to 6″?
The post These may be specs for the LG G Flex 3 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Wizards Maze HD: Spooky Fun
Halloween might still be a while away, but who says we can’t have a bit of spooky fun? In Wizards Maze, the creepiness comes to life as you find your way through, you guessed it a maze. Can you handle the monsters, the confusing paths and elusive keys? Read on!
Setup
You’re greeted by the main menu upon opening up the game. The eerie font ushers you in, there’s a list of levels surrounded by various buttons, you select the “Start” button and you’re off. My character is placed in the maze and awaits my command, except I have no idea of what I’m actually doing and what my goal is. Fortunately my hands soon found the simple controls and within no time I was walking about. Although it’s simple, that’s no excuse for a non-existing tutorial. Nonetheless, I soon discovered I had to collect keys scattered around the maze, and unlock several doors to lead to the final portal for the next level. And talking about controls, you can choose various layouts that suit you best.
Gameplay
As previously stated, the game is based on finding your way around a maze. Obstacles like spiders and slimes crawl around aggressively, threatening to kill you if you’re not careful enough. Keys are placed in various strategic places, making you run back and forth to advance. Perhaps one of the funnest things you can do is shoot your magic balls of flames to attack enemies and interact with elements of the game; namely to break ice gates. I was constantly shooting just in the name of fun; I’m sure I’m not the only one who will be doing so. Strangely, there are adverts but they it only shows when I started the game up. The developers certainly had us in mind. Everything ran smoothly and no lag showed its ugly head throughout gameplay, which should be expected as the graphics aren’t exactly cutting edge. There could’ve also been some challenges or a storyline behind everything
Is it for me?
There’s no reason you shouldn’t attempt to give the game a spin. It can be played in short bursts or over long periods of time and would be ideal to fulfill any sudden gaming urges, unless you’re into hardcore zombie killing.
What we liked:
- Great, simple gameplay
- Easy User Interface
- Challenging levels
- Playful music
And not so much…
- Lack of tutorial
- No challenges or storyline behind the game
If you’re looking for something challenging yet easy to play, Wizard Maze is the ideal game for you. It’s really suitable for literally whenever you want to play, wherever. Early Halloween, anyone?
The post Wizards Maze HD: Spooky Fun appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Get the Kyocera Hydro Icon and six months of FREE service for $49.99
Ready for a huge deal? How about a great device and a year’s worth of service for less than some people pay for their monthly rate plan? If you’re looking to ditch your contract carrier, this package from FreedomPop is definitely worthy of your attention and may save you a significant deal of moolah, baby.
You can find this, and many other great tech bargains through our Deals page. Backed by Stack Commerce, there are daily promos, giveaways, freebies, and much more!
The post Get the Kyocera Hydro Icon and six months of FREE service for $49.99 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Prince is still using Spotify to promote new music, one song at a time
Prince may have pulled his music from nearly every streaming service, but that’s not stopping the artist from using them for promotional purposes. He has a new single, titled “Stare,” that’s available for streaming as a Spotify exclusive. Don’t get your hopes up, though, as the new track is the only song you’ll be able to stream from the service. Earlier this month, Prince pulled all of his music from Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and others leaving Tidal and Google Play Music All Access as the only two places you could listen via subscription. Despite revoking access the full collection of albums, it seems the musician still sees value in those other services as he’s certainly using them to circulate new music.
[Image credit: Cindy Ord/Getty Images for NPG Records 2015]
Filed under: Internet
Via: Fact Magazine
Source: Spotify
Luxury smartwatch maker Olio adds 24k gold to its repertoire
Back in March, Olio introduced a new kind of smartwatch to the world: the Model One. Olio aimed to set itself apart from other smartwatches by going premium; really premium. We’re talking surgical grade stainless steel, precision forged housing, leather sourced from Italian tanneries and basically the same materials and processes you’d expect from a high-end Swiss watch. It’s so premium that Olio only made 1,000 of them — 500 in black and 500 in steel — in its first, limited batch. They were priced over $500. They were also sold out in a matter of weeks. Today, Olio is introducing its second batch of watches. It has the same black and steel options as before but now? The watch also comes in two different shades of gold.
The new hardware is available in either 24 karat gold or 18 karat rose gold and the material is supposedly “very pure real gold,” as Steve Jacobs, Olio’s founder and CEO, tells me. He speaks especially highly of the rose gold, saying that it’s a custom alloy that the company itself designed. “It’s a chocolatey rose gold, with a very sultry tone,” he said. And it’s not just the gold material either; Jacobs tells me that instead of iron exchange glass, the new gold watches were made with sapphire glass.
Like the other watches, the gold ones come in either a link bracelet or you can opt for either a black or brown alligator grain leather strap. The leather ones are $1195 each while the all-gold link bracelets are $1395 each. But even if you do have the cash to buy one, you’ll be wise to hurry up and get one. Just like with the first edition, the second batch of watches will be limited in quantity: there’ll be 500 each of the black and steel ones, and only 100 each of the two gold options.
“The way we’ve built our company is very akin to a craft brewery or an artisan coffee shop,” says Jacobs, who’s done product design for companies like Apple, HP and Google. “We make really high quality stuff in small batches.” He says that in addition to the design and the materials, the company also focused a lot on the watch’s feel. There are steel ballasts in all four corners, and he says the company actually “shaves microns off at a time” to get at the right weight. “It has beveled edges so it doesn’t hit your wrist bones.”
That said, the watch is still a big and heavy thing. This, he says, is aligned with the current trend of oversized watches. But as I tried on a few different pairs of the Olio, I knew it was a bit too hefty for me. Still, Jacobs says that in the future, they hope to reiterate and come up with smaller designs. The watch has an inductive charging coil on the back for wireless charging (it ships with a small travel-sized charger) and it also has conventional watchband straps so you can swap them out with your own if you like.
I also couldn’t help but notice that the watchface isn’t a complete circle; it falls victim to the same sliced off look that the Moto 360 has. According to Jacobs, when they designed the watch two years ago, there was little choice but to squeeze in all of the phone’s sensors in that little half-circle, if only to make sure the rest of the watch wouldn’t be too clunky. He did say, however, that the company is working on different watch designs going forward.
What’s particularly interesting about the Olio, however, is its proprietary software. Instead of opting for Android Wear, the Olio is actually compatible with both Android and iOS. As such, it doesn’t come app-laden like most modern smartwatches. Instead, its UI is pretty simple: from the watchface, you can swipe down to reveal settings and swipe up to show useful controls like a music player or navigation. Jacobs says you can even use it to remotely start your car or control a Nest thermostat. It can do this without apps, he says, because of any service can communicate through notifications and open APIs. Olio is also working on directly integrating a few services with the watch, though Jacobs wouldn’t say which ones.
Swiping left and right will reveal “earlier” and “later” screens: “Earlier” shows the notifications you’ve missed, while “Later” reveals your upcoming schedule. Other features include the usual stopwatch and timer functions and the weather forecast. What I found intriguing is that the watchface itself is dynamic: at night, it has a starry night aesthetic, while it’s brighter during the day. There’s also an astral pattern on the watch that shows your last 12 hours of digital activity — if you received a ton of tweets and emails between 2 and 4pm, for example, those areas of the watch would be filled with rays. It’s a unique touch, Jacobs says, that means the watchface will never be the same for any one person. Additionally, the watchfaces are uniquely designed for each style of watch too; so the black and steel watchfacees have different designs than the gold ones.
Another interesting touch is something called Olio Assist, which Jacobs describes as a cloud-based personal assistant. The way it works is this: Say you receive a text message from your boss asking about your project. You’re driving at the time, so you can’t answer, but you simply swipe “Yes” on your watch. Because the watch knows through location and movement that you’re driving, it could respond to your boss saying that you’re driving, but you’ll be happy to respond later. And then when you arrive at your destination, the watch will ping you to remind you to respond. “The idea here is that it’ll continue to learn your behavior over time,” says Jacobs.
The target audience for the Olio, Jacobs says, is likely the modern-day professional. “Our best-selling models, are the most expensive ones. People aren’t coming to us looking for the cheapest thing, people come to us for a luxury timepiece that’s also intelligent and functional.”
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Olio
‘Mr. Robot’ creator on the evils of Facebook and hackers in Hollywood
You’d be forgiven for being skeptical about Mr. Robot, USA’s new hacker thriller starring Rami Malek and Christian Slater. In general, movies and TV shows haven’t done a great job of portraying hackers, and really, technology of any sort. Even the king of cinematic cool, producer Michael Mann, couldn’t make cybersecurity exciting with the film Blackhat. But that’s what makes Mr. Robot so special: It’s a show about hackers that actually features live computer screens with working code and viable cyber attack vectors. It centers on a disaffected cyber security expert named Elliot (Malek), who stumbles on a clandestine group of hackers dedicated to disrupting the global economy. We sat down with the show’s creator, Sam Esmail, for a long conversation about how it came to be.
What was your inspiration for Mr. Robot? I’m seeing plenty of elements from Fight Club and Taxi Driver in the show.
The hacker side of it actually was a combination of my frustration with the way hacker culture and tech culture was represented in Hollywood. I thought it was a very inaccurate, forced and cartoonish way of representing that kind of a culture. I never understand why they felt the need to use cheesy CGI graphics, and make magical leaps — logic leaps — in action when the actual reality is far more interesting and compelling.
The other side of that is my passion for wanting to do a story about this culture, just because I thought it deserved better. I personally found it compelling and fascinating. The reason why I even had this inclination is because I was a nerd growing up, my friends were nerds… And they actually kind of served to be my inspiration as well. I just found them interesting and fascinating … and lacking in Hollywood, and that kind of all added up to the genesis of Mr. Robot.
Although, when you boil it down from there, I really wanted to do a character piece about one specific character from this world. I wanted to be inside his head as intimately and as close as possible. Then the character of Elliot started to form. Taxi Driver hands down is probably one of the best character pieces in cinema, so of course that was an inspiration. The use of VO (voice over) and the sort of isolation, in terms of the filming and storytelling, really you’re just locked in with this guy.
Did anything inspire the idea of using technology to change the world?
I’m Egyptian, and I have a lot of cousins out in Egypt. I went out right after the Arab Spring and my cousins were part of the whole movement. They were 20 year-old kids who used Facebook and Twitter to sort of start this movement and bring about this dramatic change, unlike any I’ve ever heard of in the history of Egypt. That moved me so much, and I found that so inspirational. Obviously that ties so well into that sort of ongoing monologue in my head about wanting to write a story about a hacker. When I talked to my cousins and heard their passion and anger, there’s this kind of a fine line. What I thought was interesting was that anger was typically considered a negative emotion. But this was not negative, this was positive and channeled in a very positive way to bring about much needed change over there. If it wasn’t for that [emotion], it wouldn’t have happened.
There was a huge amount of respect I had for my cousins, a huge amount of fear… The bottom line is that it was very gripping, and that became a huge component in writing Mr. Robot.
Do your cousins actually attribute technology to much of the Arab Spring? There’s plenty of commentary online against that idea.
Absolutely. The thing about Egypt is there’s a lot of control over the newspapers, over the television, so information cannot really be disseminated really easily there. So it’s hard to organize in Egypt without that… There is no way to control the Internet, the beauty of the internet is that it’s incredibly decentralized. There isn’t one on/off switch. And as much as Egypt has tried to control it, there are major loopholes and ways that young people can sort of circumvent the system. And it’s beautiful… that that wound up being the thing that shifted the power, because it’s just something the older generation couldn’t fully understand.
I remember talking to my aunts and uncles, who belonged to the older generation, and they still don’t quite get that the internet is a compilation of computers. I don’t think it’s an educational thing. If I were to ask people here in the states if they could describe what the internet looked like, I think people still think it’s a machine in some closet somewhere. So it’s fascinating how that one piece sort of shifted this huge amount of power to the younger generation. And I actually think that’s beautiful.
Around that idea of the internet being this open place for an exchange of ideas, there’s a lot of controversy about Reddit these days. Is that something you’ve been following?
I need to give Reddit a shout out (on the show), because I actually think it’s a great platform. In terms of social media, which I’ve actually gone on record of not being trustful, Reddit I would say feels very genuine in terms of being open. [Esmail also recently held a Reddit AMA session.]
So you’re not a big Twitter user?
Twitter I actually mind less because I think it’s meant for publication, for publishing. It’s not necessarily about relationships, it’s more of a platform to distribute entertainment via witty tweets, links, or whatever… But Facebook is where I really have the problem. Because those are meant to be my private interactions with my family and close friends. And here we are giving it to a large corporation. … They have all this information on us, and that’s exactly how they make money, and they’re going to monetize it. and there’s just something incredibly dangerous about that.
Are you at all worried about Facebook trying to consume the web? That’s kind of where they’re going now by having media companies publish their content directly on Facebook.
There were these discoveries that Facebook has been conducting psychological tests and social experiments, and then using the information they know about you to manipulate how you feel about certain things. I mean, just think about the consequences of that. A corporation whose sole purpose is profit, knowing all these personal intimate details of your life, and then using this against you in some sort of subtle, subliminal psychological warfare to compel you to either buy products, or switch from one product to another. To me, that’s just incredibly disgusting and Orwellian. I don’t really know why there’s isn’t more of an uproar.
USA did a survey when our show premiered, targeting Millennials, and asked if they could go back in time and start over, would they join Facebook. And I think overwhelmingly most people said no, which is great. [The survey actually noted most Americans wouldn’t join any social media site.] I still don’t know why it’s as popular as it is. I’m hoping either that changes, or Facebook changes. But I doubt Facebook will.
The hacking elements feel a lot more realistic than other shows and films. How did you achieve that?
I was probably a huge tyrant about it on set. I’m sure I didn’t make many fans because of it, because it takes a lot of work. Everything from the writing of it, to the execution, to the production design, to the shooting, we don’t shoot any green screen when we deal with a computer screen. That’s all done practically. So that required a production design to build all the screens beforehand. And it required our tech consultants to walk us through what those screens would look like. And then it required the actors to follow all the commands and type all the commands that an actual hacker would need to do. All of that required a lot of time and energy and money. And then in post [production] if I saw something that wasn’t right, we had to fix it and redo it by reshooting those screens.
I became incredibly obsessive about it because I just think in reality, this is what goes on. These screens are not fake. I never wanted to conjure anything up, or fake anything, because the reality of it is far way more interesting than anything I could imagine. There were times when people wanted to take shortcuts and I started to understand why I was frustrated all these years. People think that that’s not the drama, it’s not in the coding. Which they’re right, but if you start fudging on that you lose the credibility of the world. And if that starts to go, then the drama goes with it. I hope we proved it.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
[Images: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
AIVAnet 