Moto X Play will be coming to Canada on August 18th
The second device in Motorola’s recently refreshed 2015 lineup, the Moto X Play, will soon be available to purchase in Canada. The water resistant phone was already available in the UK, but Canada will join in on August 18th.
As a refresher, the Moto X Play features a 5.5-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 615 CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and a 21 megapixel rear camera. The battery life is rated for 48 hours of mixed use, and it is IP52 certified for water resistance. Pricing should be considerably cheaper than most other devices with these kinds of specs, too, so if you’re looking for a fantastic phone on a budget, keep the Moto X Play on your list.
source: Motorola Canada (Twitter)
Come comment on this article: Moto X Play will be coming to Canada on August 18th
You can now pre-order the Blackphone 2 for its September launch
Silent Circle have revealed that the Blackphone 2 will be launching in September and are now accepting pre-orders. Unfortunately, they don’t tell us the price of the phone.
The Blackphone 2 is designed to be super secure. So secure that Google has already added it to their Android for Work program. It will feature a 5.5-inch FHS 1080p display, 1.7 GHz octa-core processor, 3 GB of RAM, a 13 MP camera, a microSD card slot and quick charge support.
If you are interested in buying a Blackphone 2, the pre-orders start today and you can expect to receive it sometime in September. However, it’s not as easy as just pressing buy. You will need to contact the sales department in order to sign up.
Source: Silent Circle
Come comment on this article: You can now pre-order the Blackphone 2 for its September launch
Macy’s fights online shopping with a tablet in fitting rooms
The internet changed the way people shop, and Macy’s is well aware of this. In an effort to compete with successful online retailers like Amazon, Macy’s wants to rethink the shopping experience for its customers. According to a Bloomberg report, the retailer has started testing smartphones and tablets to upgrade dressing rooms in the women’s athletic and swimsuit departments. These devices, provided by the company for use in-store, let people request and try on different items without having to go out of the room and get those themselves. Once a customer finds something they like, the delivery arrives via chute. Yes, a chute.
Right now Macy’s is only doing this at a location in Manhattan Beach, California, and Bloomberg says the retailer didn’t discuss any expansion plans. Last June, the company (along with Bloomingdales) also announced it would begin offering custom-tailoring for clothes purchased online — which, above all, shows it’s not afraid to try new things.
[Image credits: AP images for Macy’s]
Filed under:
Misc, Household, Tablets
Source:
Bloomberg
Tags: dressingroom, fittingroom, Macys, retail, shopping
The stuff-finding Tile now helps you find your phone
Placing a location-tracking Tile on you stuff has become a good way to keep you from pulling up all the couch cushions in your house when you misplace your car keys. Today, Tile has introduced a new white Bluetooth-enabled white square that’ll keep helping you find your stuff, but also your phone with the Tile app. With the updated app and Tile if happen to lose your phone, you can double-press the “e” on the Tile and if the app is running in the background, the phone will start playing a little tune. The app can also be used to locate another phone. So when someone loses an iPhone, their Android-owning friends can help out instead of just shrugging because they can’t load Find My iPhone.
In addition to finding lost phones, the new Tile is also three times louder than the previous version so it’s easier to find lost items that are at the bottom of a bag or under those pesky key-eating couch cushions. The company also has a new site to help folks find their lost items so they’re no longer dependent on an app. Perfect for when you lose your Tile and your phone.
This is in addition to the Lost Mode that’s available for both versions of Tile that gets every phone out there with the app to start looking for a missing item and ping the owner if it’s nearby.
Source:
Tile
Tags: Loststuff, Tile
Parallels 11 brings Microsoft’s Cortana to Macs before Siri
The latest version of Parallels, the popular Windows virtualization tool for Mac OS X, almost feels like it’s trolling Apple. One of Parallels 11’s key features, alongside full Windows 10 support, is its ability to put Microsoft’s Cortana right on your OS X desktop. That’s right — you could have a Windows-powered virtual assistant on your Mac long before Siri reaches the desktop. Parallels has already made it possible to run Windows apps directly on your Mac desktop for years with its “Coherence mode,” but this latest update marks the first time it’s brought over a Windows feature on its own. Slideshow-313636
In a brief demonstration, Parallel’s Cortana feature (which requires a Windows 10 virtual installation, naturally) worked just like it did on Windows 10 proper, with decent voice recognition and no noticeable delays. It can even take advantage of your Mac’s location data, making it practically indistinguishable from a native OS X app.
Parallels 11 also packs in the usual performance improvements: It can launch and shut down Windows around 50 percent faster than the last version, and a new “travel mode” can save up to 25 percent of your battery life. But really, the main reason you’d want to upgrade is to put Cortana on your OS X desktop and freak out all your friends. Parallels 11 is available today for $80, though users of the past two versions can upgrade for $50. And if you need more out of your Windows virtual machine, there’s also Parallels 11 for Mac Pro Edition, which will take advantage of that machine’s beefy hardware. It’ll cost you $100 a year, or $50 a year if you’re upgrading from Parallels 9 or 10.
Filed under:
Software
Tags: Cortana, Macs, OSX, Parallels, Parallels11, Windows10
Fossil shows off Android Wear smartwatch powered by Intel
With the possibility of an impending update to the Moto 360, consumers are getting excited for a new Android Wear device. Well, Fossil took to the stage today at Intel’s Developer Conference to show off three new smartwatches coming this holiday season.
The first is a fitness band type device, and the other two are regular smartwatches. What makes today’s announcement so exciting is that the top-of-the-line smartwatch that we will see from Fossil this Holiday season, will have some Intel internals under the hood.
The specs obviously aren’t known yet, but we do know that the high-dollar item is running Android Wear and is powered by Intel. Battery life, screen density, charging capabilities, and all that jazz were intentionally left out of the presentation today. What wasn’t was that when Fossil showed these off, there was a familiar foe.
Fossil and Intel's smartwatch running Android Wear #idf15 pic.twitter.com/aXHSnAMsdN
— Lexy Savvides (@lexysavvides) August 18, 2015
That oh-so-controversial flat tire at the bottom of the watch face. After the world saw the Moto 360, we all were wondering why in the world would you make a round faced watch with a flat tire, only to learn that was where some of the sensors were housed. So we can only expect that this is the same reason why Fossil has one on their smartwatch.
Fossil and Intel announced that these devices would be officially revealed and announced in time for the holiday season, so we have a few more months to go before we get to dive into these. But from the looks, Fossil may have found a place in the Android Wear world with these one.
Let us know what you think about Fossil’s upcoming lineup of smartwatches that will be running on Intel processors. Also, let us know what smartwatch you are looking forward to the most for the last portion of 2015.
Source: Engadget
The post Fossil shows off Android Wear smartwatch powered by Intel appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Complete your Android Marshmallow transformation with the boot animation
As usual when a new version of Android is released, everyone wants to get their hands on whatever they can. Regardless of whether it’s the Developer Preview, or wallpapers, or even boot animations.
Well, with the final Developer Preview of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Google introduced a new boot animation. Problem is, only those with Nexus devices could have the boot animation. Not anymore, if you have a device that is running a custom ROM that supports the Cyanogen Theme Engine, you can get the new bootloader for your device.
Thanks to an awesome user over at XDA, an APK has been created that allows you to install and will give you the Android Marshmallow boot animation. Grab the wallpapers, grab the boot animation, and the MoonShine icon pack, and you’ll be feeling like you’ve already gotten Marshmallow on your device.
Source: Phandroid via XDA
The post Complete your Android Marshmallow transformation with the boot animation appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Blackphone 2 available for pre-order, launching in September
It has been over a year since Silent Circle released its Blackphone handset, in June 2014. The phone was among the first security-focused devices to become relatively successful, and we now find ourselves waiting for the second iteration, which was announced at MWC 2015. Almost everything about the Blackphone 2 has been revealed, except for the most important factors – price and release date.
There’s good news for those who have been hoping to learn more about the handset. Silent Circle has quietly published a pre-order page for the BlackPhone 2, and though it doesn’t tell us much about the cost of the smartphone, it does signal a September launch window, which is just around the corner.
For those who may be out of the loop, the Blackphone 2 is to come with a 5.5-inch FHS 1080p display, 1.7 GHz octa-core processor, 3 GB of RAM, a 13 MP camera, microSD card support and quick charge support. Of course, we can’t forget about the many security features Silent OS offers, and the fact they are joining the Android for Work program.
One of my biggest complaints about the Blackphone was its lack of Google Apps support, which in turn meant there was no Google Play Store access (at least officially). This proved to be a nuisance to users. And though we may see the same issue come to the successor, we at least know Silent Circle is working on a secure app store of its own. Furthermore, there’s a tablet by the name of Blackphone+ in the works, so you will soon be able to stay secure in multiple form factors.
Let’s get back to the main topic, though. The Blackphone 2 is launching this September, and you can get started with the pre-order process now. The only issue is you can’t just jump into the website and put your name to a phone; customers will need to contact the sales department first. As mentioned above, there’s no mention of the price, but we can assume it will be too different from the $629 the first iteration costed.
Are any of you signing up?
Android Auto updated with changes to music and navigation
Android Auto has been updated to version 1.2 and it brings small UI changes. Playing music and using the navigation in particular.
Music lovers will be happy to know the new update brings a play and pause button to music cards. This means if you are on the home screen viewing all the cards you can easily start or stop the music without needing to go into the app. Much more convenient if you ask me.
The second big change is for the navigation. Similar to the music change, an arrow icon will now appear on the navigation card. It allows you to still use parts of the navigation directly from the home screen.
Other changes are the usual bug fixes and minor improvements.
Come comment on this article: Android Auto updated with changes to music and navigation
Amazon’s latest service test has you picking up orders
Amazon has jumped through hoops trying to speed up deliveries, but wouldn’t it sometimes make sense to eliminate the last-mile shipping altogether and pick up orders yourself? That might just happen. GeekWire has discovered that Amazon is trying out a new service, Flex, that has you collecting your package from a facility. It’s much like a visit to a government office, or Amazon’s Purdue pickup spot — you take a ticket and wait for your turn. The company isn’t commenting on Flex (even the test building in Seattle is still in rough shape), but it’s safe to say that this would be limited to areas where Amazon can set up distribution centers.
Not that you’ll have to necessarily wait for it to get your goods faster, depending on where you live. The same Seattle building is expected to handle Prime Now orders (unsurprising given that this is Amazon’s home turf), and one of Amazon’s courier partners is hiring for likely Prime Now positions in Portland, Oregon. Although it’s doubtful that either Flex or Prime Now will come to many cities, it’s not far-fetched to see these gotta-have-it-now options becoming mainstays in major urban hubs.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Paul Sakuma]
Tags: amazon, amazonflex, delivery, e-commerce, internet, portland, primenow, seattle, shopping
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