Soul Electronics’ new sport headphones double as a walkie talkie
App-based personal trainers are great, but they usually lack the yelling abilities of a real live human. Soul Electronics has a solution for that, and it allows you to keep your headphones on. The company is leveraging Kickstarter for its Combat+ Sync wireless headphones that not only keep you from getting tangled in a cord during your bench press sets, but they also pack in a walkie talkie feature. So when your pal needs a bit of extra motivation, you can do just that as the cans have a built-in microphone to capture your cues. Slideshow-312043
Soul is looking to add fitness guidance to its companion app too, in case your gym partner oversleeps. That’ll happen if the crowdfunding campaign eclipses $300,000. For now, there’s a music sync tool that allows you to listen to the same music alongside controls for the walkie talkie mode, music EQ and customizing LED colors. Like previous models in the Combat+ line, the headphones are sweat proof and the earpads are not only removable, but you can wash them as well. The ability to keep those clean is certainly a nice touch. In order to secure a pair before they ship early next year, you’ll need to commit $199 via the source link below.
Filed under:
Portable Audio/Video
Source:
Kickstarter
Tags: combat+sync, combatplussync, headphones, soul, soulelectronics, sport, training, video, walkietalkie, workout
Researchers can predict bad weather up to a month in advance
Climate change means that it’s no longer certain that the tailgate you’ve planned for the third weekend in August will have clear skies and sunshine. Fortunately, a group of Chinese researchers think that they’ve developed a system that’ll predict catastrophic weather events from anything up to 30 days in advance. That’s a big deal, since the traditional limit for making an educated guess about an impending monsoon was less than half that. The paper, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, reports that the team has managed to overcome a key principle of chaos theory that’s long held-back such research: the Butterfly Effect.
In a chaotic system, like weather, the smallest of variations in conditions can have exaggerated consequences. In Edward Lorenz’s original explanation, the flapping of a butterfly’s wings could change the local atmosphere, which would have a knock-on effect around the globe, causing a hurricane elsewhere. This principle also means that it’s impossible to predict weather patterns more than a fortnight ahead of time, since there’s too many variables for even a supercomputer to keep track of.
That’s why, instead of trying to build bigger and even more sophisticated models the team, led by Dr. Xia Zhiye, decided to go small. By narrowing their focus to local areas only, the researchers were able to spot signifiers of monsoon-like rain events up to 30 days ahead of when they took place. If this system can be replicated, it means that it’s possible to know when heavy rain events will occur a month before they do. It’s still early days, but we’re already thinking that this’ll do wonders for the picnic-planning industry.
Filed under:
Science
Via:
Business Insider, South China Morning Post
Source:
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
Tags: ButterflyEffect, ChaosTheory, Prediction, Weather, XiaZhiye
The countdown begins in August for limited-time game ‘The Flock’
The Flock is a multiplayer horror game with a twist — its in-game population begins at 215,358,979, and every time someone dies, the counter drops by one. When the population hits zero, the game will no longer be available for purchase and only those who already own it will be able to participate in The Flock‘s final phase. The games begin on August 21st, when The Flock hits Steam and the Humble Store for $17.Slideshow-305479
The Flock is set in the year 3000, when the Earth has been ravaged by pollution so thick that it blocked out the sun, forcing humans to extinction. A skeletal, agile race called the Flock now roam the land. They discover an illuminated Light Artifact that transforms whomever holds it into the Carrier, a humanoid creature. Players attempt to capture objectives as the Carrier or simply survive while holding the Light Artifact, fighting off entire hordes of Flock with its radiance. The Flock is a tale of extinction and developers at Vogelsap hope to convey the harsh realities of life among a dwindling population.
Plus, as they write in a new FAQ page:
Most indie multiplayer games lose their player base within a year. Even heavy hitters such as Titanfall and Evolve have a fast dwindling player base. The most popular games such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike still have a somewhat anticlimactic ending of their players’ experience. Because in the end at some point — and this can be after five years or two months — you’ll stop playing because you either got bored of it, you’ve seen it all or you, or your friends have no longer time to play. We want to tackle that problem, and make sure The Flock ends with a climax after which the game will be fondly remembered.
Vogelsap developers also address how they’ll handle hacking and bots in the game. First,they’ll give the hacker a warning and revert all lives, even legitimate ones, that he or she has removed from the game. Repeated hacking or use of bots will result in a ban. In-game suicides shouldn’t impact the population much, developers say: “We rather hope you have fun scaring your friends and enjoy the extra content we’re planning to release. Also, there’s a respawn time.”
The only way Vogelsap would add lives to the in-game population is if developers launch the game on other platforms, such as the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. If this happens, all platforms will share a single population pool. “The finale is something to be experienced only once by the players of The Flock,” Vogelsap writes.
Anyone who pre-orders The Flock from the Humble Store or Vogelsap’s website, or buys it during launch week on Steam, will receive an extra game key to give to a friend. Or an enemy. Your choice.
Tags: hdpostcross, humblestore, Indie, STEAM, TheFlock, vogelsap
Moto X Pure Edition hits the US on September 3rd
Up until today, we only knew the Moto X Pure Edition would launch sometime this September. But now Motorola’s revealed via Twitter that its new flagship, also known as the Style, will hit the US on the 3rd of said month. (International availability is still unknown, but we reached out to the company to see if had any dates to share.) The Moto X Pure Edition is going to start at $400 unlocked and, here in the States, it’s expected to work on any carrier — with LTE. As a refresher, it also features a 5.7-inch, Quad HD (1,440 x 2,560) display, Snapdragon 808 processor with 3GB RAM, 20-megapixel (f/2.0) rear camera and Android Lollipop. If you don’t feel like waiting for it, there’s always the 2015 Moto G — which is only $180, yet continues to offer some of the best bang for your buck.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile
Source:
Motorola (Twitter)
Tags: mobilepostcross, Motorola, MotoXPureEdition, MotoXStyle, MotoXStylePureEdition, PureEdition
Google unveils Android Experiments – a showcase of inspiring projects on Android
To better showcase what awesome things are possible with the Android operating system, today Google announced Android Experiments. This is a new initiative from the company that will help show off some of the most inspiring and creative apps, games and even Android Wear applications available.
There are already 20 Android Experiment projects available on the site, from camera apps to puzzle games to the new apps from Google Creative Lab that we talked about yesterday. Roman Nurik’s Muzei live wallpaper and FORM watch face are included on the list as well. Google elaborates:
The 20 initial experiments show a broad range of creative work–from camera experiments to innovative Android Wear apps to hardware hacks to cutting edge OpenGL demos. All are built using platforms such as the Android SDK and NDK, Android Wear, the IOIO board, Cinder, Processing, OpenFrameworks and Unity. Each project creatively examines in small and big ways how we think of the devices we interact with every day.
This is just the start of the new project, though. Google says any developer who thinks their app is creative enough can submit an entry to be featured on the site. It’s open to everybody, so if you have a unique app you’d like to show off, head to AndroidExperiments.com to submit your own.
How to Turn Any Song into a Ringtone on your Android Phone
We all know that the stock ringtones for most phones range from merely annoying to other-worldly, nightmarish soundscapes of noise and agony (I’m looking at you, “Moto”). Even after almost a decade of smartphones, creating your own custom ringtone hasn’t gotten much more intuitive. Fortunately, this simple four-step process will help you turn any MP3, AAC, AMR, or WAV file into a ringtone that will be all your own.
Step 1: Move the Song to your Phone
If you want to create a ringtone, your first step will of course be getting the audio file onto your Android device. There are a variety of ways you can do this, but for the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll just go with a simple transfer over a USB cable.
If you already have the song file on your Android, then congratulations! You’re already one-fourth of the way done! Pat yourself on the back and skip ahead to Step 2, just try not to look too smug about it.
This guide assumes that you are using a PC. Don’t despair, Mac users, because the process is almost identical.
Locate the Song on Your Computer
Using your computer’s file explorer or finder, locate the song you want to use on your hard drive. It may be in any number of places, from an iTunes music stash to a downloads folder, so you might have to look around for a bit. Once you’ve found it, make note of its location.
Link Phone and Computer with USB
Using a standard micro USB cable, attach your Android device to your computer.
You probably have one of these cords lying around since they almost always come with new phones, and you usually need one to keep your device charged. However, if you somehow manage to find yourself in a micro USB drought, you can grab a new one for a couple of bucks off Amazon. Don’t worry about shelling out extra for any of the gimmicky, gold-plated kinds; a run-of-the-mill cable will serve you just fine.
Open Phone via Explorer
When you attach your phone to your computer via the USB cable, you’ll probably get a message asking you how you would like to use this device. Choose to explore the device’s files and folders.
If this option does not pop up, go ahead and open a new explorer window. You should find your phone listed among your computer’s available storage devices.
Drag Your File Over
Go back to where you located your music file and drag it over to your phone’s storage.
These next steps use applications that automatically locate audio files for you, so it doesn’t matter very much where you put it. However, it’s generally good practice to put it somewhere you can find it again to keep your device tidy and organized.
Step 2: Get Your Apps
Some songs are ready-made to be used as ringtones. If you’re grabbing AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” for instance, you’re probably going to want that famous opening riff to herald the arrival of every phone call. Depending on file type, your phone might automatically recognize the song as ringtone material.
In most cases, however, some tweaking and fine-tuning is in order. We will be using the following two apps to chop directly to the part of the song you want to use as your ringtone and ensure that your phone is able to use your new creation as a ringtone or notification sound.
Download RingDroid by RingDroid Team
RingDroid is the go-to app for everything custom ringtone. It’s relatively lean, supports a plethora of popular audio file formats, and is able to assign freshly trimmed songs as ringtones right from inside the app.
From time to time, though, RingDroid can hit a snag or two. Some users have complained about having to save two versions of a file if they want to use it as both a ringtone and a notification. There is also some grumbling about its capabilities when it comes to assigning ringtones to specific contacts. That’s why we’ll be installing a second app as a catch-all workaround for all of RingDroid’s potential shortcomings.
Download File Manager by Cheetah Mobile
Oh sweet File Manager, how I love you dearly. I could sing File Manager’s praises all day long, but how-to articles aren’t the best medium for filibustering, impromptu musical numbers. Therefore, I’ll just sum up.
File Manager is a tiny powerhouse of an app that gives you a clean window into your Android device’s backstage. It has a ton of clever little tricks up its sleeves, including a slick wifi file transfer system.
For our purposes, we’ll just be using File Manager for its ability to assign any audio file as a ringtone or notification. This is a huge advantage since most stock interfaces tend to be a little finicky about which file types can be used for what.
Step 3: Trim your Ringtone
Once you’ve got your apps installed, it’s time to whip that audio file into shape. Cut right to your favorite chords and be sure your ringtone ends before the part you don’t like as much kicks in.
Locate Your Tune
Pull up RingDroid and locate the song you want to use. Note that RingDroid’s interface uses audio file properties rather than file names in its default browser. This means that if your song has track name and artist data, then its listing may differ from the name of the file you moved over from your computer.
Once you find your song, tap it, and RingDroid will open up the editing tool.
Find an Ideal Segment
Use the sliders to isolate the part of the song you want to use as your ringtone. RingDroid will trim away all the rest.
Don’t worry about cutting up your song, though. RingDroid will keep the original file.
The app lets you define a segment of any length, but remember that you’ll be using this as a ringtone, so it won’t be playing for more than a few seconds most of the time. Hit the Play button to hear a test run of your ringtone.
Finalize
Once you’ve got your song trimmed, tap the floppy disk “Save” icon.
Now you can give your ringtone a new name. Make sure it’s something you’ll remember.
Before you finish out, change the file type from the default option “Ringtone” to “Music.” This will ensure that you will be able to use it as either a ringtone or notification in the future with the help of File Manager.
Step 4: Apply Ringtone
You’re almost there. RingDroid has built-in functionality to assign your freshly-trimmed musical masterpiece as your ringtone without ever leaving the app, but let’s forego using that ability for now.
In this last step, you will use File Manager to select your ringtone instead. This avoids some potential hiccups and you can use this same technique the next time you want to change your ringtone, regardless of whether or not you go through RingDroid first.
Settings
Don’t open File Manager. Instead, pull up your Android device’s settings.
Sound & Notification
Find the Sound & Notification option and tap it. Some variation exists between devices, so don’t worry if your menus look a little different. The important thing is to get to your phone’s stock ringtone selection options.
Once you find your current ringtone setting, tap it.
Use File Manager
Since you installed File Manager, you will be given the option to use it instead of the default ringtone selection function. Choose to use File Manager. You can also choose whether you want to always use this app or only use it once.
When File Manager opens up, tap the “Audio” shortcut to see a list of all the audio files on your phone.
Locate the file you created with RingDroid. Since you selected “Music” as its filetype, it will have the extension .M4A. Be careful not to confuse it with your original, untrimmed song file!
Once you select it, you’re done! Give your phone a test call to give those sweet, angelic tones a trial run.
If you want to assign a specific ringtone to a contact, just use this same process in your contacts menu, using File Manager once again instead of the default ringtone selector.
Conclusion
It’s true that there are other methods to create your own ringtones, but what makes this technique so useful is that it works for a variety of widely-used file types, and it avoids the most common complications that users tend to run into. It’s also a very quick method, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself spending an entire afternoon chopping apart your favorite songs and trying them out as ringtones!
Samsung: This is the Note 5 we wanted
Dear Samsung,
I am tired of complaining about the choices you guys are making without offering a solution. The writers over at Sammobile are misguiding you by saying you guys know what you are doing in posts like this one. Very few commenters agree with the article, and those commenters are your true fans, like me. None of us are incentivized in anyway to only write positive things as we pay for our devices and have the right to speak up when we aren’t happy.
I have been groaning over your decisions because I know you are capable of so much more. Why you choose to take on Apple head to head blows my mind. You were always better than Apple, but now you are trying to be Apple, and it just isn’t working. Us Note fans will come back in flocks if you make this phone for us.
Note 5.1
Software – Allow true bloat removal and get us faster updates
Many of us love some of the features that come with TouchWiz, because we can have dual windows, S-Pen controls, one-handed mode, and customizable quick toggles. We love that stuff, so keep improving on that. But do better at getting us software upgrades. Many of us have been, or are still stuck on Lollipop 5.0.1 and we know the fault is on Google for releasing a terrible version of Android, but you aren’t providing us with the fixes that Google implemented. We are tired of not getting updates when we pay for the most expensive device. Usually the more you pay, the better service you get…usually.
Stop agreeing to allow carriers to install bloat. The last time I did a count of how much storage those apps consumed, I counted over 1.5GB! I know we can deactivate the bloat, but that causes other issues. Whenever I deactivate the 15 AT&T pre-installed applications, it causes my phone to act buggy. An example, my texting stopped working when I deactivated all of the AT&T apps. AT&T is adding a layer, on top of Touchwiz, and Touchwiz is on top of Android.
This leads to slower updates. First Google provides updates to Android. Then you have to update your customized Touchwiz software, and then AT&T has to do it too. It slows everything down and can ruin the Touchwiz experience.
Focus on making Touchwiz useful and stop letting carriers add bloat. I will live with your pre-installed apps that I don’t want like S Voice.
Battery – Continue to add battery size and allow it to be removable
Some people never swap their batteries, but many of us do. It is one of our favorite features. As some phone manufacturers went away from it a couple years ago, you continued to keep this feature which kept us loyal. For each Note iteration, you continued to increase the battery size even as processors became more power efficient. Give us a bigger battery – give us the 4100mAh that was once rumored to come in the Note 5, not a smaller 3000mAh battery.
We need a bigger battery because as you give us more features and improve hardware, we find more reasons to use our Notes. Better phones = more usage. We aren’t typical users where we mainly just care about texting, emailing, and web browsing. We use our Notes for EVERYTHING, from gaming to business and everything in between.
Build – Stick with the Note 4 language and add IP67 water and dust resistance
The Galaxy S5 had it, and it was great. Who wouldn’t want a little extra protection from the elements? Us Note users want IP67, because we pay a premium price, as in the image below, AT&T customers paid almost $900 dollars for the Note 4 after taxes. Don’t give us more glass on the phone that can break.
The Note 4 does have a premium build, feel, and comes in the perfect size. We love being able to pull the back panel off, to replace it with an S-View Flip Cover without adding much thickness.
If you wanted to make us even happier, although this isn’t necessary, make color options available like Moto does with their Moto maker. You don’t have to go as far as them, but how hard is it to make that back panel in other colors? You can even make money on the sales if you want, charge us 20-50 dollars per back cover. It allows us to customize our phones and makes us even more loyal because we will love our phones just that much more. If you want to get ambitious with it, offer carbon fiber, oak, bamboo, and leather like LG and OnePlus. We would much rather have that than a glass back.
Storage and Memory – 4GB RAM, and be the first to offer 64GB as standard with expandable memory via MicroSD
For many of us 32GB is enough. But we want more. It doesn’t cost you a ton of money to standardize every device to 64GB. The Note is a premium device, so give us premium storage. And don’t take away the expandable memory, that was just mean. Expandable memory has worked well in every device you have made, and now you’re the only major Android manufacturer who doesn’t offer it in their flagship.
As for memory, 4GB is a great choice as Touchwiz adds more usable features, we need the RAM to keep up with our multitasking.
Speaker – Move it to the front, dual speakers would be great but not at the expense of our home button
Having the speaker on the bottom of the Note 3 was acceptable, but moving the speaker to the back of the Note 4 was moronic. It doesn’t make sense to point sounds away from ears unless it is sound we don’t want to hear like gunshots. So get with it, and turn our ear piece into a front facing speaker at a very minimum. Dual speakers would be even better, but you would have to find a way to sneak it in under the home button.
We love our home button, and you could follow the Nexus 9 design language and push the speakers to the very top and bottom edges of the front of the phone.
Display, Processor, and Camera – Stick with what has been working
The Note 4 has an incredible display and camera. To be honest I would be happy with the same QHD Super AMOLED display as well as the 16MP rear camera. But now that the Galaxy S6 showed superior images over all other devices, go ahead and give us that camera. Can’t really go wrong with either. Your Super AMOLED display is without a doubt the best display on the market.
Just stick with the highest end processor. We don’t necessarily need it, but we love having the fastest device. It has worked with the Note 3 and Note 4 so stick with what you’re doing with the processor and GPU.
Remove hardware features like the UV sensor and give us a clock
Okay I might be going a little overboard here, so let me know in the comments if you have something else to offer, readers.
I don’t use the O2 sensor, heart-rate monitor or UV sensor. They are all very cool concepts in theory, but I don’t use them and could do without them.
How cool would it be if you added a cool feature on the back of the phone like an always on clock? It doesn’t have to be digital, it could be analog. Premium cars come with analog clocks with actual number hands and that would make the Note even more distinct. And it would allow us to not have to turn our displays on just to see the time. Most of us use our phones as a clock now, so it would be really cool to have an analog watch on the back. Digital would be cool too.
Warranty – Add accidental damage protection
You would do good by us Note fans by giving us accidental damage insurance included in our warranty. I know this is more money out of your pocket, but it will give us just one more reason to stick with you. HTC does it with their UH-OH plan, and I know they sell a tiny fraction of phones compared to you, but you could make it work.
Summary
I know this is a bit of tough love Samsung, but it is only because I want you to succeed. You are the only company capable today of giving us this device and if you build it, we will come. Stop listening to people who don’t actually use the Note line, and listen to the customers who actually use your devices. We will be your marketing crowd as we will tell everyone how great our Note 5.1 is and what everyone else is missing out on. I may not be buying the next Note 5, but I will buy the Note next year if you actually make a Note for your loyal fan base again.
Sincerely,
Derrick Miyao
Readers, if you think I missed anything please add it in the comments section. I can add your comments to my post in an edit, and pass this article around to fellow Samsung fans if you agree with it. We need to help Samsung get back on track.
The post Samsung: This is the Note 5 we wanted appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Twitter Officially Removes 140-Character Limit From Direct Messages
Twitter today announced a major change to the way Direct Messages work on the Twitter platform, removing the 140-character limit that restricted the length of private messages. With the change, Twitter’s Direct Message feature is on par with other chat and messaging apps, allowing for unrestricted conversation.
Twitter first announced its plan to remove the 140-character limit from Direct Messages in June, but the change began rolling out to users around the world today and will continue to become available to users over the next few weeks. The 140-character limit has been removed across the Twitter platform, which encompasses the Twitter app for iOS, the Twitter app for Android, Twitter.com, TweetDeck, and Twitter for Mac.
While Twitter is largely a public experience, Direct Messages let you have private conversations about the memes, news, movements, and events that unfold on Twitter. Each of the hundreds of millions of Tweets sent across Twitter every day is an opportunity for you to spark a conversation about what’s happening in your world. That’s why we’ve made a number of changes to Direct Messages over the last few months. Today’s change is another big step towards making the private side of Twitter even more powerful and fun.
There are no plans to remove the limit from the public side of Twitter, so tweets will continue to be restricted to 140 characters. To get access to Direct Messages that have no character limits, Twitter advises users to upgrade to the latest version of the company’s apps.
Twitter for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Twitter for Mac can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free. [Direct Link]
TweetDeck can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Twitter update raises the character limit for sending private messages from 140 to a whopping 10,000
Twitter fans rejoice! After years of having a low character limit when sending private messages, the company is finally dropping the limitation. The new limitation will be set at 10,000 characters which is much higher than the previous limit of only 140 characters per message.
Twitter’s product manager for DM’s, Sachin Agarwal said
“It’s the No. 1 request we get from folks. They want to be able to say what’s on their mind and be themselves. We want to make sure you can really fluidly move between public and private”
The well overdue feature will take affect on mobile apps, desktop apps, the web and some third party apps. One of them being Tweetbot. Twitter says the new character limit will allow businesses to conduct customer service lines for their company all over DMs much easier . In addition, the company will also allow sending links and now lets twitter users share tweets inside their group messages. All the new features will be welcome enhancements.
Via: The Verge
Come comment on this article: Twitter update raises the character limit for sending private messages from 140 to a whopping 10,000
Android Wear v1.3 scores new features and functions
A well needed firmware update will be hitting Android Wear smartwatches in the near future. The update will bring all sorts of new features. According to Android Police, here are just some of them:
- Interactive watch faces that respond to your touch
- Together watch face to keep you connected to a friend
- Weather app to see the forecast for the next 4 days
- Translate app that lets you tilt your wrist to share a translation
The update is slated as version 1.3 for the Android Wear companion application.
Google is hoping the app will help close the gap between its Android Wear platform and Apple’s Watch OS. Developers will be able to add these features to their apps as soon as the firmware updates arrive. The update is rolling out to Android Wear smartwatch owners in the comping days, so be patient. Note that none of the changes will take place until Google releases the official firmware update for your select Android Wear smartwatch. Once both the smartwatch and the Android Wear application on your smartphone or tablet are up to date, you will begin seeing the new features.
Via: Android Police
Come comment on this article: Android Wear v1.3 scores new features and functions
AIVAnet 