Nintendo’s awkward TVii service will shut down on August 11th
Remember Nintendo TVii, Nintendo’s weird television hub for the Wii U? Don’t worry, most people don’t — and in a few weeks you’ll never have to think about it again. Nintendo just announced that the service is shutting down on August 11th.
If you never used TVii in its heyday, it was sort of like a universal remote-control with a native second screen experience. The Wii U Gamepad was used to browse a channel guide (generated by entering your zip code) and comment on TV shows. If you found a program you wanted to watch, the Gamepad’s IR blaster would send a signal to your TV or set-top box to change the channel.
It was pretty novel way to tack TV-integration on to the Wii U without actually connecting the console to your set-top-box — but it was also kind of slow, laggy and generally lacked support. Is anything of value going to be lost in its shut-down? Let us know what you think: the comments below await.
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Nintendo
Source: Miiverse
Google Chromecast celebrates its second birthday with freebies
Today marks two years since Google debuted Chromecast, the small and affordable streaming device. To celebrate its second birthday, the company’s letting owners get in on a couple promotional offers: a free movie rental and access to 90 days of Play Music. Google did something similar last year, but back then it only included the complimentary subscription to its audio-streaming service. For those of you don’t have a Chromecast yet, the deal will be available until December 31st, so you still have some time to take advantage of this deal.
[Image credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty]
Filed under: Misc, Home Entertainment, Peripherals, HD, Mobile, Google
Source: Google
OnePlus says the OnePlus 2 is “ahead of its time”
Today, OnePlus reflected on the creation of its original device while providing insight to the journey it has been creating the OnePlus 2. Last week, OnePlus said that the upcoming phone is going to be “the 2016 flagship killer” even though a reveal is coming next week. It turns out that the company really means what it says.
OnePlus says its next flagship will offer features that other devices will not see until the release Android M this fall. The company also mentioned that the OnePlus 2 has been designed with the future in mind rather than competing directly with today’s offerings.
“Contrary to what some of our followers on social media may have believed, our tagline is not a typo – the OnePlus 2 was not created to compete with the flagships from 2015. We’re more interested in looking further into the future.”
It has been over fifteen months since the OnePlus One was announced. The company believes in lengthier life cycles than just about anyone else in the mobile industry. This is what OnePlus could be aiming for with its OnePlus 2. It doesn’t want to be the company releasing a new device every six months. OnePlus wants one that is made to last.
Source: OnePlus
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New study identifies “clear connection” between cancer and wireless devices
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We live in a world dominated by wireless devices – we’ve always suspected that there is a risk associated with this many devices around, radiofrequencies flying around and such, but yet another study has emerged that says there is a “clear connection” between wireless devices and cancer. The result of radiation from wireless devices can cause “metabolic imbalance” – also referred to as “oxidative stress” – which can lead to various diseases and cancer. Long term oxidative stress can even cause things we wouldn’t think twice about, or necessarily attribute to wireless device use – headaches, fatigue and skin irritation. This isn’t just high levels of radiofrequency radiation either – the study examined radiation levels that are far below the level deemed to be safe by regulatory bodies.
The findings in the study are definitely food for thought as our world only becomes increasingly wireless. And if you’re thinking that this is just one study, the authors of the study actually examined 100 other peer-reviewed studies, 93 of which suggested the same result. The study concludes:
“We suggest minimizing the intensity and time of RFR exposures, and taking a precautionary approach towards wireless technologies in everyday human life.”
Which is perhaps stating the obvious, but it’s not something many of us would instinctively do given how much we use our wireless devices, smartphones and tablets, everyday. It definitely makes the idea of unplugging now and then a little more necessary, if not attractive.
What do you think about the findings of this study and the “clear connection” between cancer and wireless devices? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: informa healthcare
The post New study identifies “clear connection” between cancer and wireless devices appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Vizio IPO plan shows how its TVs track what you’re watching
While the past few years have been tough for many TV makers (Panasonic, Pioneer, Toshiba, Sony, just to name a few), Vizio has continued to grow its business, and now it’s ready to go public. Vizio has made its name with impressive value-priced TVs that don’t skimp on features (it’s also a leader in the soundbar market, and has made attempts at selling tablets and phones too). According to the filing, Vizio has sold more than 15 million smart TVs, with about 61 percent of them connected as of the end of June. While viewers are benefiting from those connections, streaming over 3 billion hours of content, Vizio says it’s watching them too, with Inscape software embedded in the screens that can track anything you’re playing on it — even if it’s from cable TV, videogame systems and streaming devices.
We’ve never heard of Inscape before, but as explained in the S-1 Vizio filed today, it’s based on ACR (automatic content recognition) software licensed from a third party, and viewers can opt-out of participating in it while maintaining other connected features. That’s actually fairly common in modern TVs, and others like LG and Samsung have already rolled out features based on the tech to do things like integrate with TV shows, or display ads based on what the TV is showing. ACR software recognizes the video being displayed, matches it up and phones home the data. According to Vizio, its Inscape platform can pull some 100 billion anonymized datapoints from 8 million of its connected TVs every day. That kind of data can be used for ratings, and is valuable to both advertisers and content providers.
If all goes according to plan, that will mean more content directed towards Vizio TVs, which it hopes will lead to more sales as customers choose its platform. Vizio says this kind of data can help deliver the kind of personalized experiences people want, but we wonder if most people really understand their TV is phoning home data on any and everything they might be watching, even if it’s not through one of the built-in apps. One way or another, when the gavel drops and VZIO starts trading on the market, if you own a connected Vizio TV, you’ll probably be part of the product lineup too.
Inscape Data Services
Our Inscape data services have the ability to collect viewing behavior from any content displayed on the screens of our Smart TVs. We currently collect viewing behavior on most content that connects to our Smart TVs via external input. However, we do not currently collect viewing behavior streamed through VIZIO Internet Apps Plus or on Smart TVs located outside the United States….To date, we have entered into data licensing agreements with several analytics service providers and are in discussions with additional potential licensees of our data.
Inscape data services’ ability to collect and measure viewing behavior data from content displayed on our entertainment products positions us at the center of the connected entertainment ecosystem. Our Smart TVs can collect viewing data behavior from all media sources that connect via external input to our Smart TVs (e.g., set top boxes, digital video recorders, streaming media players, blu-ray and DVD players and gaming consoles), which generates a richer data set than can be obtained from any single media source. We can deliver this richer data set to advertisers and media content providers, who in turn can deliver more relevant, personalized content for viewers, enhancing the consumer entertainment experience.
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD
The livestream for the July 28th Motorola event will go live at 9am ET
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It’s all happening now. Motorola has announced on its Twitter account that the livestream for the July 28th Motorola event will go live at 9am ET – the event is expected to feature the announcement of the Moto X 3rd gen and Moto G 3rd gen; secretly, we’re hoping the new Moto 360 is announced too. Throughout all its teases of the event, Motorola has been referring to a change in relationship status i.e. the relationship between a phone and a person and Motorola contends that a “better mobile relationship is on its way”.
Tune into our livestream on July 28 at 9am ET. New relationship status coming soon. #HelloMoto http://t.co/5CvvcyNWHH pic.twitter.com/I7WSRX4Wbv
— Motorola Mobility (@Motorola) July 24, 2015
Also, we might be reading into their graphic a little too much, but the “O” in the “XOX” looks awfully like a “G” instead, which could be a subtle hint that the new Moto G and Moto X are indeed going to be announced at this event.
Are you excited for the July 28th Motorola event? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Twitter via TalkAndroid
The post The livestream for the July 28th Motorola event will go live at 9am ET appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
The livestream for the July 28th Motorola event will go live at 9am ET
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It’s all happening now. Motorola has announced on its Twitter account that the livestream for the July 28th Motorola event will go live at 9am ET – the event is expected to feature the announcement of the Moto X 3rd gen and Moto G 3rd gen; secretly, we’re hoping the new Moto 360 is announced too. Throughout all its teases of the event, Motorola has been referring to a change in relationship status i.e. the relationship between a phone and a person and Motorola contends that a “better mobile relationship is on its way”.
Tune into our livestream on July 28 at 9am ET. New relationship status coming soon. #HelloMoto http://t.co/5CvvcyNWHH pic.twitter.com/I7WSRX4Wbv
— Motorola Mobility (@Motorola) July 24, 2015
Also, we might be reading into their graphic a little too much, but the “O” in the “XOX” looks awfully like a “G” instead, which could be a subtle hint that the new Moto G and Moto X are indeed going to be announced at this event.
Are you excited for the July 28th Motorola event? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Twitter via TalkAndroid
The post The livestream for the July 28th Motorola event will go live at 9am ET appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Google celebrates Chromecast’s second birthday with a free movie rental
On this date two years ago, Chromecast was made available to people around the world. The technology behind it that simply mirrors content from phones, tablets, and computers to your television has been called upon nearly two billion times. Chromecast shows how affordable and simple streaming can be. It could be why the Television Academy opted to give voters their own Chromecast to view nominees for this year’s Emmy Awards. Now, on the dongle’s second birthday, Google is celebrating with a free movie rental from Google Play.
Google has seemingly placed a limit on the amount of rentals available to a single account; therefore, redeeming previous offers that are similar to this one may prevent anything here. The offer, though, does work with Android TV devices as well.
This offer must be redeemed by December 31. Happy birthday Chromecast!
Source: Google Chrome (Twitter)
Come comment on this article: Google celebrates Chromecast’s second birthday with a free movie rental
Nintendo redesigned Miiverse because you were using it wrong
You know how everyone completely loses it every time Facebook pushes a redesign live? It’s happening again — except this time it’s happening on Miiverse, Nintendo’s quirky social network. On July 29th Miiverse will be given its first major overhaul: a total redesign that adds new features, changes how game-specific communities work and, weirdly, imposes a daily post limit on all users. Why all the changes? According to Nintendo, the community has been using Miiverse, well, wrong.
“Miiverse is created for gamers to talk about games,” Nintendo spokesperson Erika said on the social network’s announcement forum. “But over time, some people have started using Miiverse for other things, such as long chats that are not strictly game-related.” The redesign was cooked up in an effort to keep Miiverse “game-centered,” and is the reason users will be limited to making 30 posts a day. To the casual user, that seems like more than enough — but the community’s heaviest users have grown accustomed to participating in long RP (roleplay) threads and interactive Miiverse drawing competitions.
These are probably the “long chats” that Nintendo is trying to shut down, but that hasn’t stopped fans of these threads from voicing their objections on Nintendo’s official Miiverse posts. Despite the reaction, Nintendo does seem to be trying to make Miiverse a more organized place: the July 29th redesign will add a private screenshot album (the contents of which can be embedded in other Miiverse posts), a “Play Journal” category for posts made from the in-game Miiverse menu, and separate categories for drawing and discussion posts. Finally, users will no longer be able to post directly to their activity feed, though your existing activity feed will be preserved indefinitely.
It’s a big change, and pretty weird — Nintendo has always been careful about how it allows its users to communicate with each other online, but the “tone policing” of this Miiverse revision feels just a little strange. On the other hand, the social network is sort of a mess, as is. The added categories and sorting options will certainly be a welcome change.
Via: My Nintendo News
Source: Miiverse (1), (2), (3)
Gogoro starts shipping its Smartscooter in Taiwan
The Gogoro scooter is ready for the streets of Taipei. The company will starts shipping its electric Smartscooter to customers that preordered the bike today. The brainchild of former HTC executives, Gogoro became one of the darlings of CES 2015 with its swappable battery solution for its electric vehicle. Instead of plugging the electric scooter into an outlet at home or at charging stations, riders use the company’s GoStation battery kiosks in their city and swap out the two batteries that reside under the seat. Gogoro has been working with Taipei businesses and the government to implement the battery swapping infrastructure it needs to sell its bike. The scooter sells for $128,000 NT (New Taiwan Dollar) which is about $4,066 US and initially includes two years of free battery swapping. Subscriptions will start at $299 NT ($9.50 US) and go up to $899 NT ($28.50 US). Launching in scooter-centric Taipei is a bit of a no brainer. And while the company hasn’t shared any future launch plans, we should expect more cities in Asia to get the bike with motorcycle and scooter-friendly North American cities like San Francisco somewhere on the horizon.
Filed under: Misc, Transportation
Source: Gogoro
AIVAnet 