Leaked LG Nexus 5 specs seem underpowered at best
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We’ve been dying to know more about the LG Nexus 5 specs ever since we learnt of the device’s likely existence – we’ve had a spate of rumours already (nothing concrete of course), however the latest rumour from GizmoChina is the most unusual of the lot as it disagrees with almost every other report we’ve gotten so far. According to the report, the LG Nexus 5 will have a 5.2-inch 1080p display, 4GB RAM, 3,180mAh battery and Qualcomm Snapdragon 620 processor – regarding the processor, I think I speak for the collective Android community when I say “WHAT?” Previous rumours have suggested the LG Nexus 5 would have either a Snapdragon 820 or Snapdragon 810, making it a flagship level device, however a Snapdragon 620 would make the new Nexus 5 underpowered compared to even the outgoing Nexus 5.
The specs go on: front facing stereo speakers, rear mounted power button (a la the LG G3/G4) with integrated fingerprint scanner and a 13MP f/1.8 camera with OIS and laser focus, no doubt a similar sensor to the one in the LG G3. The last tidbit says that the LG Nexus 5 will be a hybrid of metal and matte plastic, and that it will cost in the range of $300-400 USD.
Personally, I’m still caught up on the processor as I’m pretty certain many a Nexus fan would be unhappy with that. What do you think about these LG Nexus 5 specs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: GizmoChina via BGR
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Coocheer 15W Solar Panel Charger review
We don’t always have an electrical outlet readily available, most certainly on a trip to the great outdoors. And God forbid that we don’t have access to our precious devices! So what options to we have? Well, we can charge up several portable chargers and hope it’s enough. Or you can buy one charger and efficiently let the sun do the work for you.
If the latter sounds great but you’re suspicious of the effectiveness of such a device, let me introduce the Coocheer 15W Solar Panel Charger.
I must mention that I’ve tried solar panel chargers before, but to no avail. They either didn’t charge fast enough for the worth or just didn’t work period. But when I spotted Coocheer’s seemingly robust implementation, I really wanted to know if a solar panel charger could be done well.
Design
So what makes this solar panel charger so special? For starters, you have not one, not two, but three considerably-sized solar panels.
This translates to 15W of power output (given you have full sunlight, of course). Therefore, Coocher was able to put in two USB charging ports, one capable of 2.1A and the other 2.5A.
In order to make the system effective, the solar panels are fairly large (slightly smaller than printer paper). At full extension, the charger is about 2.5ft wide. But you won’t be carrying it around that way. Fortunately, the charger is foldable for portability.
This system is a fantastic way to circumvent the fact that you need large panels in order to make solar charging worthwhile. Yes, fully laid out, the large footprint can be cumbersome to have around. But if you’re stationary (i.e. camping) or have it strapped to your backpack while you’re hiking, it should work just fine.
There are cutouts at the extreme corner of the panels that can serve as attachment points.
Also, because there is folding point between each panel, you have the flexibility to change the size. For instance, if you only need to charge one device, you can shorten the length to one or two panels by folding in extra panels.
The charger is made out of woven fabric material, like that is used for backpack straps. Therefore, the entire assembly is sturdy.
The solar panels are protected by a plastic film and adhered to the surrounded fabric. I feel like I can toss this thing around and it will be just fine.
The base of the charger houses the two charging ports within a pocket.
The plastic housing of the charging ports do have somewhat of a cheap feel, but they work. I wish Coocheer labeled which one of the USB ports is the one that outputs more power, for faster charging if your device supports it.
The pocket is held shut by Velcro, so smaller devices can be thrown in there while they charge. A Velcro lining is also used to keep the charger from unraveling when you fold it completely up.
Function
I gave the charger a couple test runs, on a overcast day and on a sunny day. The results met my expectations. On the cloudy day, I wouldn’t recommend plugging in two devices. For me, I just got enough juice to keep my phone’s battery percentage at bay. But this is certainly better than it draining!
On the sunny day, it was a much better story. At 50%, my Galaxy S6 estimated about 1 hour to charge the battery full. This is pretty darn close to Fast Charging speed! Pretty impressive for a solar panel charger.
Final Thoughts
I’m very pleased with how the Coocheer Solar Panel Charger worked out. Yes, it’s larger than typical battery packs. But the size is a limitation of solar panel technology, not a limitation of the manufacturer.
Having extendability that maximizes solar effectiveness, with the ability of compacting down to roughly the size of a sheet of paper, is a fantastic way to make solar panel charger practical. Also, the charging speed at full sunlight blew me away, along with the ability to charge two devices at the same time.
I won’t completely get rid of my battery packs, as the solar panel effectiveness is obviously largely dependent on sunlight. But now they can serve as backup if/when I need them. One thing’s for sure, I don’t need to worry about running out of battery.
Coocheer Solar Panel Charger product page
The post Coocheer 15W Solar Panel Charger review appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Report: Android Pay will launch with an LG Nexus in October
Reports out of Korea today are claiming that in the coming months, Google will team up with LG to launch Android Pay and a new LG Nexus phone. You may remember the hugely popular Nexus 5 was made by LG and many Android enthusiasts have been clamoring for an updated version of the phone ever since the disappointingly large and expensive Motorola Nexus 6 was launched last year. With multiple leaks all seeming to confirm that we’ll see a successor to the Nexus 5, fans just may be in luck.
According to the leaks we should see a 5.2″ 1080p P-OLED panel, 4 GB of ram, up to 64 GB of storage, a 3,180 mAh battery USB Type C, and a Sony IMX278 sensor with f/1.8 aperture lens. Powering the newest Nexus will be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 620. Qualcomm has recently gotten a ton of heat for their subpar Snapdragon 810 process that has been widely reported to run so hot that thermal throttling is a major issue. Fans will be relieved to know that in recent benchmarks that the 620 “comes close to, or actually beats the Snapdragon 810 as benchmarked in the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro”.
One question people are being forced to ask themselves is “what took so long?” Google had a gigantic lead on Apple’s mobile payment platform and squandered it. Google Wallet has been around since May 26, 2011 and now they’re going to be behind the 8 ball because they’ve let Apple come in and dominate mobile payments. Any entry into this growing segment is going to be seen as a late push to claim what Apple has trail blazed so far, whether that’s true or not.
This is yet another example of Google’s rollout of a feature that could be potentially game changing only for them to limit to the United States and not put any real development or advertising behind it.
Source: Business Korea
The post Report: Android Pay will launch with an LG Nexus in October appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Yankee Stadium to fans: Scan your thumb and skip the line
Welcome to the future, sports fans – you can use your smartphone to track trades, Twitter can tell you who’s on the DL, and now your fingerprints can get you into the ballpark faster. Beginning August 7th, Yankee Stadium will roll out the Clear biometric security service to visitors, which allows fans to use a “Fast Access” line by registering their fingerprints and driver’s licenses.
Registration for Clear will take place outside the stadium in tents, and activation is immediate. The Clear service has already been put into place at both AT&T Park in San Francisco and at Coors Field in Denver. Participants who sign up at the ballpark have the option of paying $179 a year to also use the service at select airports including Dallas/Fort Worth, Las Vegas and San Francisco.
Whether or not they care to provide their personal data to the service, fans will still need to have their bags screened before entering the park meaning lines will not be magically eliminated, just somewhat circumvented.
The MLB has mandated tighter security at all ballparks this season, asking for 100 percent of attendees to be screened before entering parks, so the step towards biometric security is clearly an attempt to provide better and faster security. However, with no details on the Clear site about how data is stored or protected, or what kind of security measures are taken with the fingerprint scanners (which can easily be tricked), staying patient in the regular line might be the more secure bet.
[Image credit: shinya/Flickr]
Via:
Bloomberg
Source:
MLB.com
Tags: baseball, biometrics, clear, Fingerprints, Yankee Stadium, Yankees
Apple’s Back to School Sale Kicks Off Online, Expands to Additional Countries
Apple introduced its 2015 Back to School promotion in late July, but it was initially limited to Apple’s Retail Stores in a few select countries. As of today, the Back to School Program is also available in the Apple Online Store, and it has expanded to additional countries.
With Apple’s 2015 Back to School promotion, students, parents of students, and educators who purchase an eligible Mac will receive a free pair of Beats Solo2 On-Ear Headphones or a pair of Beats Solo2 Wireless On-Ear Headphones at a $200 discount.
Eligible Macs include the iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Pro. The Mac mini, refurbished Macs, iPads, and iPhones are excluded from the 2015 Back to School program.
Apple has added a link to the Back to School promotion on its main site, which takes users to the Education Store and details the promotion. Viewing any Mac in the Education Store also brings up information on the Back to School program.
When an eligible Mac is added to a shopping cart, buyers will have the option to select their free Beats Solo2 headphones in Gloss Black, Gloss White, Gloss Blue, Gloss Pink, Gloss Gray, Gloss Red (Product RED), Gold, Silver, or Space Gray. Students hoping to take advantage of the $200 discount on Wireless Solo2 headphones will need to add them to the cart manually.
This year’s Back to School promotion is a significant deviation from the deals offered in past years. Previously, Apple provided iTunes or Apple Store gift cards in amounts between $50 to $100 with the purchase of a Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
Apple’s Back to School promotion will run until September 18, 2015.
Apple Merges Apple.com Website and Online Store
Apple made a significant change to its online presence today, merging its Apple.com website with its once-separate online store, to create one main website. There is no longer a standalone store.apple.com website that is used for making purchases, and the “Store” tab that was once at the top of Apple.com has been removed.
Instead, there’s a universal shopping bag icon that displays products in the shopping cart, past order information, account details, and favorites. Purchasing an item is now done by clicking the “Buy” button on each individual product page, which links to the same purchasing menus that were present in the online store.
Apple’s main site includes direct links to Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch, Music, and Support. Despite the major integration, Apple’s main site is largely unchanged, as are the product pages. Locating accessories is somewhat more difficult, however, with the removal of the central store site and the lack of dedicated store sections. Accessing accessories is largely done by visiting the main product sections and clicking on banners like “Accessories for Apple Watch” and “Accessories for iPhone.”
Apple’s integrated online store streamlines the shopping experience. Instead of viewing information about a product on the main site and then having to click over to the store, everything is now done in the same place.
In a statement given to TechCrunch, an Apple spokesperson said the change was done in an effort to create a simpler site for customers to learn about and shop for products.
“We redesigned Apple.com knowing that our customers want to explore, research and shop in one place,” said an Apple spokesperson in a statement. “The new Apple.com takes the very best of our existing site and our online store to give customers one simple destination to learn and buy without navigating between two different sites. We’ve also improved several of the site’s features to make shopping easier than ever for our customers.”
The changes to the Apple.com site were made this afternoon and are live in the United States and several additional countries.
Pebble Time Steel now up for pre-order
The Pebble Time Steel has begun shipping out to those who backed the metallic version of the Time during its KickStarter campaign. The first wave of backers are set to receive the watch this week, with Pebble hoping to have the Time Steel in the hands of all its backers by the end of next month. But what about those who didn’t back the Pebble Time Steel? The good news is that Pebble has now opened up reservations for the watch, set at a price of $249 with an expected late September shipping target.
The Pebble Time Steel will come in your choice of black, silver, or gold finish. The band itself will not be metal, however, and is instead made of Italian leather. For those that would like a matching metal band, you can expect to pay an additional $49.99, though Pebble has yet to give us an exact timeframe for when these metal bands will be available to consumers.
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For more details on what to expect from the Pebble Steel Time, be sure to check out our full review of its plastic-clad brother, the Pebble Time. While the aesthetics may differ a bit, the UI and hardware remain largely identical.
What do you think, anyone planning on picking this one up? Or have you already ordered, and are just waiting for it to arrive to your doorstep?
Microsoft Translator arrives to Google Play
When it comes to translation apps, Google Translate is among the best out there, especially with its relatively recent addition of Word Lens instant video translations. So can Microsoft knock it off its pedestal? While it’s hard to say without spending more time with it, Microsoft Translator has now arrived to Google Play giving us another solid alternative.
Microsoft Translator doesn’t offer anything quite like Word Lens and in some ways isn’t quite as powerful as Google Translate, but it’s text-to-speech language support is very robust, the UI is pretty decent looking, and there is full support for Android Wear. Here’s a quick breakdown of Microsoft Translator’s capabilities, as found on their official app listing:
- On your watch: Speak to your watch and get an instant translations in 50 languages
- Not sure how to pronounce the translation? Let Translator speak the phrase for you.
- Noisy environment? Just show someone your watch or phone. In addition, on the phone, large full-screen translation cards make it easy to show others what you’re trying to communicate
- Bookmark your translations for later use
- All your translations are synchronized between your watch and your phone, settings too
- On the phone companion app, in addition to speech translations from your watch’s language, you can select other speech languages or you can type on your keyboard (really useful for noisy places!). You can also copy & paste translations from and to other apps
Keep in mind we’ve ran into a lot of comments on the web about the app not being compatible with a number of devices or regions, though we expect this to change in the hours, days, and weeks to come. For what it is worth, both my Nexus 5 and Huawei Mate 7 were recognized as compatible.
Anyone try Microsoft Translator yet? If so, what do you think so far?
JXE Streams: digging through the ‘Rare Replay’ vault
More than any other artistic medium, video games have a dire need to preserve their history. Unlike movies, books or music, it’s incredibly hard to enjoy a classic game years or even decades after its release because of how quickly the technology powering gaming advances. Lately though, the influx of HD remasters and digital distribution have made it really easy to enjoy works from years gone by. So when Microsoft announced Rare Replay at this year’s E3, the idea of 30 (!!!) games from developer Rare’s past being playable on a modern console struck a chord with many people. But how do games from the UK studio’s storied history hold up to? Join us at 3PM PT / 6PM ET on Twitch.tv/Joystiq, right in this post or on the Engadget Gaming homepage to find out as we broadcast two solid hours of classic Rare weirdness.
Oh, and we have a giveaway for you! Microsoft sent us a load of Rare-themed swag and one lucky (and random) person from chat will get it all. Full details reside just below the Twitch player.
- Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
- Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
- Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) Banjo Kazooie pack including: Conker t-shirt, Battletoads New Era snapback hat, Battletoads Bollé sunglasses, Viva Pinata “fudgehog” pinata, sticker pack and a Nylon Perfect Dark tri-fold wallet.
- If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email or Facebook login. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
- This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
- The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
- Entries can be submitted until August 6th at 8:00PM ET. Good luck!
Filed under:
Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Tags: battletoads, gaming, hd, hdpostcross, jxe, jxestreams, microsoft, rare, rarereplay, rareware, twitch, xboxone
A guy in the UK called the ISS from his backyard and you can too
For most of us, visiting the International Space Station is little more than an impossible dream — but if you know what you’re doing, talking to the orbiting laboratory is surprisingly plausible. No, really: just ask Adrian Lane, a Gloucestershire UK Ham radio operator who called up an ISS astronaut from the comfort of his own backyard shed.
Contacting the ISS wasn’t incredibly difficult for the 52 year old amateur radio operator, but it did take some legwork. Lane had to plot the path of the space station to figure out when it would be flying over his house. When the time was right he reached out to the sky and got a response: an American voice was welcoming him aboard the International Space Station.
Lane said the conversation was pretty mundane, but he was still thrilled — for 50 seconds he talked to astronauts about how the earth looked from above the sky and how their day was going. The situation is a little unique, but actually not all that special: the ISS openly publishes its Amateur Radio frequencies on the ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) website. Anyone with a 2-meter radio rig, some spare time and a little luck can reach out for contact. If an off-duty astronaut hears your call, they’ll probably even respond.
[Image Credit: Getty Images]
Source:
ARISS, The Register
Tags:
AIVAnet 