[Deal] Best Buy has the Champagne Gold Moto 360 for $199
Hurry before it’s too late! Only 9hrs left from when this was posted to get a Champagne Gold Moto 360 for $199. It’s one of the most stylish smartwatches out and the Champagne Gold makes it look even nicer. Regular price is $230 making this a $30 savings. Not a huge deal, but if you were planning on buying one anyways mine as well get it while it’s on sale. One thing to note is this is the 18mm band which is usually for very small wrist or ladies.
Source: Best Buy
Come comment on this article: [Deal] Best Buy has the Champagne Gold Moto 360 for $199
Samsung Galaxy S6 VS Pepsi
There seems to be a lot of guys on YouTube now a days breaking phones and it has turned into huge profits for them. It’s no wonder more and more YouTubers are always trying to break phones in the most unique way. Today we have a strange one. YouTuber adrianisen has created a video where he puts a regular Samsung Galaxy S6 into a bowl and pours a bottle of Pepsi on it. Why Pepsi you may ask? Well he says he has already done a Coke VS S6 test, but not everyone likes Coke so why not try Pepsi?
I don’t care what his reason is, but I guess it’s a good test? The video is in 4K if that makes it any better. I have to say the S6 is a lot more waterproof than I would have thought.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Come comment on this article: Samsung Galaxy S6 VS Pepsi
Madfinger Games’ Shadowgun: Deadzone is gaining full modding support
Video game developer Madfinger Games has just announced a special edition version of the hit mobile shooter Shadowgun: Deadzone that puts users in control. Entitled Shadowgun: Deadzone GM Edition (Game Master’s Edition), this title will allow players to create new maps, modify weapons and characters, and even create their own game elements.
What this essentially means is that the game is getting full modding support, allowing players to change many more aspects of the game than most other titles with modding support. If you take a look at the video and screenshots attached to this post, you can see that it seems relatively easy to create and modify maps and characters, which is definitely a nice addition to the already advanced title.
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Players interested in modding with the new GM’s kit can download it from the Unity link attached below. The kit comes with 2 full maps, 21 different weapons and can be played by up to 12 players at one time. Each player can also create their own gaming server to play on, as well.
If you’ve never played Shadowgun: Deadzone, now may be a good time to do so. And who knows, if you like the game, maybe you’ll eventually start modding it with the new GM’s kit. Be sure to head to the Play Store link below if you’re interested.
YouTube millionaire PewDiePie responds to his haters
Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, made a lot of money last year. His company, PewDiePie Productions, brought in about $7 million in revenue, mainly off of Kjellberg’s YouTube videos where he plays video games and reacts in silly ways. With those videos, he’s also raised more than $1 million for charity over the years. Kjellberg has 37.7 million subscribers on YouTube and about 9 billion views overall — considering that he receives ad revenue based on the number of views his videos get, it makes sense that he’s making serious bank. However, When news of Kjellberg’s revenue hit the ‘net, quite a few people responded with anger, outrage or thinly veiled jealousy, as they do any time that PewDiePie’s revenue goes public. This year, Kjellberg made a video addressing the money issue, including a brief description of his not-so-glamorous life before YouTube.
“Whenever it comes out how much I made a certain year, people just get so shocked,” Kjellberg says. “A lot of people also, which I saw, were very, very angry. They thought it was unfair. They thought I just sit on my ass all day and I just yell at the screen over here — which is true.” He laughs. “But, there’s so much more to it than that.”
Before hitting it big on YouTube, Kjellberg worked at a hot dog stand. He started making videos because he saw a hole in the YouTube market — no one had the video game audience on lock — and because he thought it was fun, he says.
“I am just as happy as I am now as I was five years ago,” Kjellberg says. “I’m very happy that I don’t have to worry about paying rent, because that was a huge issue…. To see so many people being upset about this whole thing, it’s so sad. It’s such a waste.”
Hear more of Kjellberg’s thoughts on money and haters below (and watch him read some of the weirdest comments he’s received over the past few days).
Even Mount Fuji is getting WiFi
After making the 12,000-foot trek up Japan’s Mount Fuji, you’ll probably have a few priorities: Get some serious rest; reload on carbs; and take a killer Instagram pic. Okay, that last one might not be so much of a priority, but it’s exactly what the Japan government is hoping for by bringing free WiFi to the mountain this summer. NTT Docomo and local prefectures are setting up eight hotspots along Mt. Fuji, including the summit, several cottages and a resort facility, which will be accessible with a special password. (Though we wonder why they’re worried about anyone leeching off WiFi connections in remote spots.) The WiFi access isn’t just about inducing FOMO in your friends — it also gives hikers the ability to check weather and potentially request help in areas where there’s no cell service. Just be ready to move quick, as you’ll only be able to use the WiFi service for 72 hours after you first log in. (Again, we ask, why?!)
[Photo credit: Getty/SHOSEI/Aflo]
Filed under: Networking, Internet
Via: Time
Source: Asahi Shimbun
Yamaha’s Reface mini keyboards put classic sounds in compact instruments
New keyboards and synthesizers that carry not only classic tones, but some classics stylings as well, are becoming quite popular. Despite leaking a bit early, Yamaha officially debuted its Reface line of mini keyboards at the summer session of NAMM this week. The compact instruments are meant to be used on the go, whether it’s in the backseat or in a dressing room before a show. Members of the group include the CS analog modeling synth, DX FM synth, CP electric piano and YC combo organ. For the sake of our discussion, we’ll focus on the two synthesizers. The Reface CS is an 8-note polyphonic “Virtual Analog” synth that’s said to be capable of sounds comparable you’d normally get from both analog and digital instruments. The FM (frequency modulation) synthesizer, the Reface DX, is the only one of the four with built-in patch memory, and it also packs in mulit-touch controls. In terms of audio, the DX offers sounds that range from “retro 80s to cutting edge modern at the flick of a switch.”
While that lack of patch memory may be a deal breaker for the other three, all four instruments are compatible with a Capture iOS app for tweaking knobs and presets on a mobile device. They’ll play nice with Web MIDI too, connecting directly to Google Chrome thanks to Soundmondo. It’s more of a social network than an app, but it’ll allow you to upload sounds to YouTube and SoundCloud by pulling audio from the mini keyboards via USB connection. The entire Reface line can also run on battery power, should the need arise, with on-board speakers that make for easy jam sessions. While the compact size and on-the-go features may make these attractive options, they’ll hit your wallet for $800 when the gear and the accompanying mobile app arrive in September.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Fact Magazine
Source: Yamaha
3D-printed car contest winner is road ready by design
Earlier this year Local Motors set forth a challenge for the 3D printing community to design a road-ready vehicle, and now there’s a winner. What you’re looking at above is the Reload Redacted – Swim and Sport from Kevin Lo. It beat out over 60 other designs and Local Motors says that the Swim and Sport was chosen in part because it reflects the benefits of the company’s Direct Digital Manufacturing, like the chance at a totally customizable vehicle with removable body panels. The outfit says a Low Speed Electric Vehicle (LSEV) version should ship to consumers early next year, and a prototype is on deck for a September release.
That 3D-printed doggie in the window will run you between $18,000 and $30,000 and a highway-ready version of the ride’ll tentatively be ready next year. Will we see this get printed at any upcoming auto shows? Given the company’s history I wouldn’t rule it out, but manufacturing is set for Local Motors’ Knoxville microfactory.
Filed under: Transportation, Alt
Source: Local Motors (1), (2), (3)
Kaspersky claims that the ‘Google Effect’ is real and dangerous
Kaspersky, a company specializing in software security, has released a report claiming the existence of the ‘Google Effect’ or, as they like to call it, ‘Digital Amnesia’.
They define Digital Amnesia as the experience of forgetting information that you trust a digital device to store and remember for you.
The research
In order to prove the existence of this phenomenon, Kaspersky commissioned an Opinion Matters survey of 1,000 US consumers aged 16 and up.
“The results suggest a direct link between data available at the click of a button and a failure to commit that data to memory. Kaspersky Lab has termed this phenomenon Digital Amnesia: the experience of forgetting information that you trust a digital device to store and remember for you.“
In a lengthy report containing a bunch of percentages, Kaspersky concludes that too many people t
rust their electronic devices with all of their information without protecting that information.
Kaspersky, as a software security company, is more worried that consumers aren’t running some sort of anti-virus/anti-malware software on their smartphones and computers. Heh, go figure.
For those worried about the security of their smartphones, I recommend you check out Benton’s article about the iOS v Android security debate.
The most profound thing I found in this study was the Google Effect. While we all knew it was happening subconsciously, there is something about it being a proven fact that makes it even more worrisome.
Professional opinions
If you don’t utilize your memory, links will weaken and your memory will get worse over time. If you actively recall information, your memory will strengthen and be there for you when you need it.
Dr. Maria Wimber argues that by passively repeating information, looking things up on the internet instead of recalling information previously learned, will result in shallow, moment to moment memory.
By not actively recalling information, we are unable to develop long-term memory. Instead, we will have to resort to looking up the information every time as we will no longer be able to retain the information for extended periods of time.
“ Past research has repeatedly demonstrated that actively recalling information is a very efficient way to create a permanent memory. In contrast, passively repeating information (e.g. by repeatedly looking it up on the Internet) does not create a solid, lasting memory trace in the same way.“
“The act of forgetting is not inherently a bad thing. We are beautifully adaptive creatures, and we don’t remember everything because it is not to our advantage to do so! Forgetting becomes unhelpful when it involves losing information that we need to remember. The act of memorization is a skill, and its importance as one the tools in our cognitive toolkit is dependent on how relevant memorization is for us to effectively navigate our world. In other words: being able to memorize is an important skill to have only if we need it.” Dr Kathryn Mills, UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London
The statistics
Kaspersky’s report details the various methods used in order to gain information.
In an unsurprising surprising twist, 50% of the people asked said that they were most likely to search online in order to find information leaving 39.3% to actually try to recall the information first.
This goes to show how much we depend on the internet and mobile devices for knowledge.
Even more solidifying the fact that we are overdependent on our electronic devices, 24.9% of people admit that they would panic if they were to lose access to the data stored on their devices. However, 22.7% of people claim that they would be able to remain calm in such a situation because they have enough of their information memorized.
There are some other stats like how 67.4% of people could call the number of the house they lived in when they were 15, but only 44.2% of people could call their siblings without having to look up the number.
I must admit that I cannot call my house from when I was 15, but I have a pretty good excuse for that. I didn’t have a home phone to call!
Conclusion
Kaspersky’s take away from this survey was that more people need to protect their digital memories with security software. I largely disagree.
The dangers of the Google Effect or Digital Amnesia are way more pressing than the dangers of not having security software on electronic devices.
There is a very real possible future where people can’t remember anything. Everyone will be running around with Google Glass variants that have facial recognition software that will alert the wearer of the name of the person they are talking to.
We should be trying to prevent the Google Effect, not make sure that our memories are safe in a machine. I believe that the best course of action would be to slowly rely less on technology.
Instead of using your contact list to quick dial your sister, try to manually input the number to see if you remember it.
It might take a little longer, but I feel like the extra time is worth the saved memory capabilities.
Source: Kaspersky via: Information Week
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BRAVEN BRV-X: A must have summer Bluetooth speaker essential [Review]
- Long battery life
- Charges your phone
- IPX7 waterproof
- Proprietary wall charger
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Summer is in full swing across the nation and for many that means getting outdoors. While I can certainly appreciate being in the great outdoors and enjoying the peaceful sounds of nature, that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes want some tunes by river, lake, or camp site. There are no shortage of Bluetooth speakers to choose from out in the wild. Some offer a little more than others. Some offer very little for a lot. BRAVEN, in my opinion, is one of those speaker manufacturers that does its very best to meet consumers needs in the middle by offering a lot for a middle ground price tag. Lets take a look at one of their offerings, the BRAVEN BRV-X
What’s in the box
- BRAVEN BRV-X Speaker
- Charging block with 4 international charging adaptors
- 3.5 to 3.5 headphone cord
- BRAVEN branded strap
- BRAVEN branded lanyard
Virtual overview of the exterior
On the top edges of the speaker we have controls to adjust volume, power it on and off, play/pause, change tracks and answer incoming calls.
The rear of the speaker is where you will find a screw on/off back. Under this is where you find a few key essentials to the speaker. First up is the charging port, a USB out to charger your phone or other devices, a battery life indicator and a switch for indoor and outdoor mode. You will also find an AUX in port to use that 3.5 to 3.5 headphone cable that BRAVEN packed in the box with anything that isn’t Bluetooth enabled. Just to the side of the removable back is a NFC tag that lets you easily pair the speaker to a NFC compatible device.
The bottom offers up four rather larger rubber feet that are almost sticky to reduce vibration when on a smooth surface. They aren’t quite sticky, but certainly feel like they are when you have it sitting on a table or counter.
The whole speaker is wrapped with rubber over molding combined with high-impact plastic that provides shockproof durability and gives it a unique feel in hand. Without all the fancy words, it means the speaker can take a solid beating and is likely to not withstand some bumps and drops without falling apart.
Interior specs
Inside BRAVEN packed a 5,200 mAh battery to power the speaker and any device you need a power boost to while on the go. It is rated for 12 hours of continuous playback at medium volume. That rating excludes any device charging of course. Braven doesn’t offer up details on the speakers, drivers or any hard numbers for audiophiles. It is apparent that there are two speakers that can be seen behind the front grill. As for watts, or ohms or impedance ranges, I am at a loss.
Additional, and important, details
There are a number of additional details to the BRV-X that are notable. Obviously this line is geared as a much more rugged outdoor type of speaker. That means it can take a good beating and keep on playing. It also means that as long as the rear cover is in place the speaker is also water-resistant with an IPX7 rating. That rating gives the speaker protection against submersion of 1 meter for 30 minutes before something could potentially go wrong. I see no reason to go diving with the speaker, but an accidental foll or splash won’t ruin your tunes for the day.
BRAVEN also has a pretty killer technology built into the speaker that they dub TrueWireless Technology. This technology allows you to pair two BRV-X device to each other to give you left and right stereo output while controlling it all from the same device.
How does it sound?
As mentioned above, the BRV-X carriers two sound profiles. One for indoor listening and one for outdoor listening. The indoor settings turns up the bass and gives you a full body sound for a large room. It can crank to max and not have any popping or distortion. However, if you go into your phone, or audio apps, settings and push things up to its max there can be some crackling issues. In a nut shell, don’t toss on Dre and crank the bass boost to 100% and expect it to thump without some potential audio issues. I did adjust some of the output sound through Rhapsody to get a little more bass and level out the mids/highs easily though for a bit more of customized sound experience.
The outdoor mode takes things to the opposite side of the spectrum by pulling the bass down quite a bit and pushing the mids the highs up. It pushes more sound for a larger outdoor space that is still clear and sounds great at all volumes. It would be thee perfect setting for late night moving watching in the tent on lower volumes as it highlights the voices quite nicely.
I ran a few phone calls through the speaker since it does offer an integrated microphone for speakerphone functionality. The recipients could tell I was on speakerphone, but were clueless to it being any different from my phones speakerphone. They could hear me just fine and I could easily hear them. Switching to outdoor mode seemed to product the best voice quality as it cleared out the bass from some of my male friends voices.
How does the battery perform?
I currently work in a retail space for 8 to 10 hours a day. The speaker sits out in plain view pumping out tunes from a variety of devices from the second we open until we close. It sits mostly at medium volume with some max volumes for demonstration purposes or to open/close the store. I have had no issues with the speaker lasting the whole shift with most occasions having it last through two whole days before it needs to be charged. By days I mean open to close for our retail hours which is 10 – 7.
What is it going to cost me?
The speaker is competitively priced for the rugged sector with a sound quality that matches nicely at $199.99. That price tags offers you up the gray and black offering in this review or the black with blue accent variant of the BRV-X.
What I like best about the BRV-X
Being that I have kids and it is summer, I really love that the speaker is IPX7 rated. It has sat outside on a number of occasions in the front and back during water fights and sprinkler sessions all without fear of it getting wet. It is plenty loud enough on both indoor and outdoor modes to rock my yard and that of a few neighbors. Lucky for me my neighbors all have the same taste in music that I do and they usually want me to turn it up more.
It is small enough and light enough to take on trips but packs enough sound to not force you to sit 3 feet away to hear it.
Indoor and outdoor mode give you a quick ability to switch profiles with little fuss and the difference in how it sounds is noticeable enough to warrant switching it for different environments.
The included strap is pretty cool and can be very useful in a variety of situations. Strapping it to the front or back of a quad, to a small tree or to the boat are the first things that come to mind. I strapped it to a low branch on the tree in the back yard to elevate the speaker and help it throw some more sound out over everyone heads.
What I dislike most about the BRV-X
A person can easily pick apart any product for some flaws. I do my best to point out the little things that may or may not drive you crazy. In the case of the BRV-X it still rests on the proprietary charging plug that still needs to be plugged into a wall outlet for charging. This method of charging is understandable, but limits long-term outdoor use for some. If I plan a week-long backpack trip and want to take the speaker for some tunes, I will be out of luck on day 2 or 3. I don’t usually venture out that long personally. Most trips have a car or generator accessible for one reason or another and I can give it a charge if needed. However, the lack of additional charging options, like a micro USB port for instance, is perplexing.
While I am very confident in the companies support and customer service, I don’t see a way to purchase another power plug-in the event of the one in the box getting lost or damaged.
The Bluetooth connection, whether connected manually or by NFC, was as quick and as painless as any other Bluetooth product I have used. It offers the usual 33-foot range and you will notice the music cut in and out around that marker. Other interference can cause the same thing. I also noticed that if you have multiple devices paired to the speaker that it will connect to what it feels like offers the best connection, not necessarily the one you are trying to pair with. I did have to put the speaker back into pairing mode to make it switch to the device I wanted to use at the moment. I am not sure if that is a fault of the speaker, or the devices and Bluetooth though as other devices I have available are super easy to toggle the connection on and off and connect to another device.
Overall thoughts
If you are in need of a solidly built, lightweight, great sounding and long-lasting speaker to get you through your summer adventures and beyond, it is hard to say that the BRAVEN BRV-X isn’t a solid choice for $199.99, from BRAVEN.com. Everyone that I know that has listened to them say they sound better and outperfom the Beats Pill and other similar devices they have used or purchased. I never got into the Beats hype, but I trust their opinions as much as they trust mine when it comes to product purchases. All that have picked one up tell me they still love it and use it nearly daily in the back yard for BBQ’s, at the river with the family, out camping on the weekends and on their desks at home.
You can venture over to BRAVEN’s site to take a closer look and order it directly from the company if you do so desire. If you love shopping though Amazon as much as I do though, you can save yourself a little money on both color options. At the time of posting this the BRV-X in black was $168.98 and the gray was $187.59. Odd price difference for the same speaker, but I don’t have control over that. Hit the links to get one ordered today. If you are looking for a different option, maybe something a little smaller like the BRV-1
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BBC giving away mini computers to help students learn programming
This is a pretty interesting story. In the UK the British Broadcasting Channel or BBC is giving away tiny micro:bit computers to children in year 7 (I assume similar to grade 7 here in North America) across all of the UK. The computers are similar to how a Raspberry Pi would work and function. The idea is if they give the computers out to students it will encourage them to get into programming and teach them the basics of hardware design.
Later this summer the BBC is also launching a website that will teach kids how to program on their tiny computers.
This computer is actually the second generation micro:bit computer and has a ARM Cortex-M0 CPU which is a lot more powerful than the first generation. The micro:bit is based on ARM software and hardware development tools as well which are already powering many other development boards.
Interestingly enough Samsung has been involved in the project by developing the tools to enable the micro:bit to talk to smartphones and tablets. This allows people to control their phone’s camera remotely using the micro:bit. Samsung is currently working on a mobile coding application that will support the micro:bit on mobile devices.
This October marks the first shipment of the micro:bit that will ship out to roughly 1 million 11-12 year olds. The BBC says this project is open sourced and will launch a not-for-profit organization to help develop a commercial device sometime in the future.
Source: BBC
Via: Androidauthority
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AIVAnet 