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15
Sep

The next ‘Resident Evil’ game is an online competitive shooter


Resident Evil‘s recent track record for hits is… patchy. And we’re being nicer than we should because of how fondly we remember the earlier games. More recent spin-offs and adventures for the series that all-but invented survival horror might have watered down that (t-virus) formula, but that’s not stopping Capcom’s very own hideous experiments. Tying into the 20 year anniversary of Resident Evil (or Biohazard), the company announced Biohazard Umbrella Corps, a game that’ll see you shooting zombies and… other people that also seem to also be shooting zombies. The trailer was heavy on the action and gore, but expect to control your characters in first person when accuracy demands it, as well as a bunch of new zombie not-so-friendly gadgets and weapons. The game arrives in early 2016 on PS4. (Update: and also PC.)

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Tags: biohazard, residentevil, sony, tgs, tgs2015, umbrellacorps, video

15
Sep

HURRY! HTC offers up some incredible limited time deals


HTC, as part of its Hot Deals promotion, is offering a number of great bargains today. Whether you’re looking for a phone, a tablet, or some goodies, HTC has something worth considering. The promotion runs for just a short time; it ends at midnight tonight (11:59PM PST). Note these are also limited to available supplies so don’t be surprised if something disappears along the way.

hotdeals

  • 50% off RE Camera
  • 50% off all accessories
  • 40% off Nexus 9
  • 25% off HTC One M9 (with UH OH Protection and $100 Google play Credit)

HTC Hot Deals

The post HURRY! HTC offers up some incredible limited time deals appeared first on AndroidGuys.

15
Sep

Deal: Pandora One 6-month subscription only $24!


pandora

Pandora continues to be one of the most popular music streaming services around. This is mostly thanks to to its stations and random nature, which allow you to discover music that is similar to your own tastes. Allowing an application to choose your songs can also be a gamble, though. There will definitely be days when you will need that extra umph, which is why you should look into getting Pandora One.

Pandora’s One subscription gets rid of ads, grants the user more skips and reduces timeouts. In addition, you can access superior audio quality (192k bits per second) and custom skins while listening to the web version. In addition, you will get these benefits from all supported gadgets, which include home products, vehicles and mobile devices.

pandora-one

This premium service usually costs $4.99 a month, but today the AA Deals Store is offering a 6-month subscription to Pandora One for only $24. That is a 20% discount, which will definitely be a good deal to someone wanting to stick with a fuller Pandora experience. Not to mention, you can try and make the deal sweeter by referring a friend, which can earn you $10.

Interested? Any avid Pandora user probably should be, so just head over to the AA Deals Store to get take advantage of this offer. Happy listening!

Buy Pandora One 6-month subscription for $24!

15
Sep

Sony confirms Xperia Z5 Premium only displays media in 4K


sony xperia z5 premium aa 10

Sony became the first 4K smartphone manufacturer with the launch of its Xperia Z5 Premium, an impressive feat that sees a whopping 808 pixel per inch packed into the 5.5-inch display. However, such a high resolution has brought with it a fair share of concern about performance and battery life.

When it comes to gaming, smooth native 4K rendering is still well out of reach of mobile devices, but some have also speculated that Sony’s latest smartphone may not even make use of its 4K display to render your day to day Android UI. This makes sense, as the benefits of 4K for everyday tasks are probably not worth the extra strain on the processing components.

Sony has now confirmed that this is the case, stating that the phone’s ultra-high resolution mode is indeed reserved just for image and video content that can enjoy the benefits. All other content is rendered at a more standard 1080p resolution or lower, in order to preserve battery life and performance.

“Xperia Z5 Premium features a 4K display with a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels based on SID Standard and enables all video and image content to be enjoyed in 4K resolution. All other content is displayed at 1080P or lower resolution in order to optimise the performance and battery stamina for this device, ensuring you can enjoy the 4K resolution when you need it most.“

Instead of displaying regular content at 4K, Sony is upscaling most of the time. However, as a 1080×1920 resolution factors nicely into the display’s 2160×3840 pixels, image quality should be very well preserved. Considering that the Xperia Z5 Premium still offers the same two day battery life as its lower resolution brothers, perhaps this news isn’t so surprising. Although the 4K display still requires some extra juice, the larger battery makes up for those extra pixels.

Sony’s Xperia Z5 range:

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Although Sony has the world’s first 4K smartphone, it turns out that day to day experiences aren’t going to look any more detailed than most other flagship handsets out there. Do you think that this diminishes Sony’s achievement, or is this just sensible engineering?

15
Sep

Samsung Galaxy View marches one step closer to launch, gets Bluetooth SIG certification


Samsung Galaxy View AA 1

Earlier this month at its IFA press event, Samsung unveiled the new Gear S2 smartwatch, but that’s not all. At the very end of the event, Samsung also very briefly teased a new product called the Samsung Galaxy View. Based on the short teaser and all the prior rumors, it seems likely the View is the rumored 18.4-inch tablet from the Korean giant.

Now it looks like we are one step closer to an official Galaxy View announcement, as the View may have just been certified by Bluetooth SIG. Technically the certification didn’t specifically name the View, but instead a Samsung device with the model number SM-T670. Of course, that’s the same model number that has been associated with the 18.4-inch Samsung tablet.

Samsung Galaxy View AA 5

While passing through Bluetooth SIG tells us nothing new about the tablet, it lends more credence to the idea that the Galaxy View is on its way and will pack a massive screen size. As for the rest of the rumored specs? Reportedly the tablet will offer a 1920 x 1080 display, an Exynos 7580 processor with 2GB RAM, 32GB of on-board storage with microSD for expansion, a 2.1MP front cam, an 8MP rear cam, and a 5700mAh battery. Its dimensions are said to be 451.8mm wide, 275.8mm tall, and 11.9mm thick.

Everything we’ve heard about the tablet suggests that Samsung is aiming it at living room use, though it could also make its way into classrooms and schools. The success of such a product will likely come down to marketing, and if Samsung can showcase enough family-oriented apps (board games, etc) to make the idea of a family-sized tablet one that resonates with consumers.

What do you think, at all interested in the Samsung Galaxy View? Conversely, do you feel it will be a massive flop?

15
Sep

Apple Expanding R&D Center in Sweden to Work on ‘Advanced Mapping Technology’


A new report today from Swedish news service Rapidus (via Tech.eu) claims that Apple has been quietly increasing its presence in Lund, Sweden with a focus on an “advanced mapping technology” that aims to further improve Apple Maps . The company is reportedly working out of a new R&D center in the city said to have launched last November.

ios9mapsnewfeatures

Now, a report from news agency Rapidus claims Apple has been quietly ramping up its operations in Lund, a city near Malmö in Sweden, where it is apparently working on ‘advanced mapping technology’. Reports that Apple had set up a relatively secretive R&D center in Lund first surfaced in November last year, but it’s always been unclear what was being worked on over there.

The news today points toward continued improvements for Apple Maps, which is currently seeing a significant amount of investment from Apple. The company has in recent months expanded its fleet of vans surveying streets around the United States and other countries with a variety of sensors. Apple confirmed over the summer that the data collected from the vehicles will be used to improve Apple Maps in the future, likely with street-level imagery similar to Google’s Street View.


15
Sep

Facebook can notify Android users via Chrome, as well as its app


Facebook has just flicked the switch on notifications via Chrome on mobile. Previously, if you wanted the social network to send you updates, you’d have to have the Facebook app installed. Now, if you browse to Facebook’s site with Google’s mobile browser, you’ll be asked if you’d like to receive notifications (or not). At least on Android, for now. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Google announced the planned feature back in Spring, only Facebook (by far and away the biggest notifier of anything?), finally added the feature this week.

Web notifications are important for sites like Facebook and content providers generally, because it adds a way to reach users without requiring they install an app. In some cases, that’s a way to give users a taste for the extra layer of “stickiness” an app provides; in other situations — like developing nations — it’s a way to overcome obstacles such as variable access to data. There’s another group, curmudgeons like me, that find the lack of notifications on a mobile browser a plus — you can still access the site when you want, without any alerts or pop-ups. Whichever camp you’re in, you have full control under Chrome’s settings to turn them on or off at any time.

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Internet, Mobile, Google, Facebook

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Source:
TechCrunch

Tags: android, app, chrome, facebook, google, mobilepostcross, noescape, notifications

15
Sep

ICYMI: Airbag moto-jacket, robotic landing gear and more


ICYMI: Airbag moto-jacket, robotic landing gear and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: Newly unveiled robotic landing gear is enabling helicopters to land on uneven ground. But that’s DARPA for you; always down with the militarized robot inventions. Meanwhile motorcyclists have a new jacket that not only looks legit but uses sensors to deploy an internal airbag if danger is detected. And a Kickstarter project for the SteadXP is interesting because it can make give most digital cameras a steadicam look, no matter how shaky or untrained the operator.

This GameBoy fridge is too nerdy not to see, and fully functional too.

If you come across any interesting videos, we’d love to see them. Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd.

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Cameras, Misc, Robots, Transportation, Internet, Software

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Tags: airbagjacket, DARPA, DARPAhelicopter, engadget, engadgetdaily, engadgetdailyshow, engadgetvideo, GameBoy, helicopter, icymi, incaseyoumissedit, Kickstarter, landinggear, motorcycle, motorcyclejacket, robotichelicopter, steadicam, SteadXP, video

15
Sep

Livescribe launches Moleskine-branded pen-and-notebook bundle


Livescribe is selling a new bundle of products comprised of a Moleskine-branded Livescribe 3 smartpen and tool belt, a Moleskine notebook that works with the device, one-year subscription to Evernote Premium and Livescribe+ apps for iOS and Android. The number of times we’ve mentioned the Italian brand should tell you that this specifically targets its fans. After all, it costs $230: that’s equivalent to the price of a Livescribe 3 pro pack, which already includes a regular writing pad, and a separate Moleskine notebook the company released last year.

From the sound of it, the pen in this bundle doesn’t come with extra features the regular version doesn’t have: It still sends what you write on the ivory-colored pages to the app and records sounds as pencasts. If you already have the pen and don’t mind missing out on the tool belt, that means you can always just grab the Milan-designed notebook from Livescribe’s online store. But if you’ve been wanting (but haven’t had the chance) to try the pen-and-journal combo out, you can pre-order the pack from the company’s website and expect it on your doorstep later this month or early next.

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Peripherals, Mobile

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Source:
Livescribe

Tags: livescribe, mobilepostcross, moleskin

15
Sep

Snapdragon 820 to debut with LTE download speeds of up to 600Mbps


Qualcomm

Qualcomm has announced that their newest chipset, the Snapdragon 820, will debut with the most advanced LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity technology of any other chipset on the market. The 820 will be reserved for premium level smartphones, presumably because of the cost.

  • LTE Advanced speeds
    • Cat 12 (up to 600 Mbps) in the downlink
    • Cat 13 (up to 150 Mbps) in the uplink
    • Up to 4×4 MIMO on one downlink LTE carrier
  • Breakthrough connectivity support in unlicensed spectrum:
    • 2×2 MU-MIMO (802.11ac)
    • Multi-gigabit 802.11ad
    • LTE-U and LTE+Wi-Fi Link Aggregation (LWA)
  • Comprehensive service across connection types
    • Next Gen HD Voice and Video calling over LTE and Wi-Fi
    • Call Continuity across Wi-Fi, LTE, 3G, and 2G
  • RF front end innovations
    • Advanced Closed Loop Antenna Tuner
    • Qualcomm RF360 front end solution with CA
    • Wi-Fi/LTE antenna sharing

The 820 is the first publicly announced chipset with Category 12 download speeds and category 13 upload speeds. To give this some perspective, this is 33% improvement over the 810’s download speeds and a 200% improvement over the 810’s upload speeds.

The 4×4 Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) is designed to double download throughput speeds on LTE. Basically, this allows for multiple connections to the same source for download. In theory, it kind of works like a torrent would. Download speeds are not only dependent on both the speed of the download connection, but also the speed of the upload on the opposite end. So if you’re connected to the uploading server twice, you can download the file twice as fast. Of course the uploading server will have to support the technology as well.

Other technologies announced for the 820 are Quick Charge 3.0, built-in malware protection, and 2x’s performance and battery life. What do you think? Will your next phone be rocking the 820? Let us know in the comments below.

Here is the full press release for your viewing pleasure.

Qualcomm Announces Breakthrough Connectivity Features in the Snapdragon 820 Processor

–Upgraded X12 LTE modem includes the most advanced LTE and Wi-Fi feature set of any publicly announced integrated modem and application processor for use in mobile devices–

SEP 14, 2015 HONG KONG

Qualcomm products mentioned within this press release are offered by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI), has integrated its newly upgraded X12 LTE modem into its upcoming Qualcomm® Snapdragon 820 processor, providing leading 4G LTE and Wi-Fi technologies for premium tier mobile devices. The new Snapdragon 820 processor addresses unprecedented demand for blazing fast connectivity and seamless services. The Snapdragon 820 processor’s upgraded X12 LTE modem offers:

  • LTE Advanced speeds
    • Cat 12 (up to 600 Mbps) in the downlink
    • Cat 13 (up to 150 Mbps) in the uplink
    • Up to 4×4 MIMO on one downlink LTE carrier
  • Breakthrough connectivity support in unlicensed spectrum:
    • 2×2 MU-MIMO (802.11ac)
    • Multi-gigabit 802.11ad
    • LTE-U and LTE+Wi-Fi Link Aggregation (LWA)
  • Comprehensive service across connection types
    • Next Gen HD Voice and Video calling over LTE and Wi-Fi
    • Call Continuity across Wi-Fi, LTE, 3G, and 2G
  • RF front end innovations
    • Advanced Closed Loop Antenna Tuner
    • Qualcomm RF360 front end solution with CA
    • Wi-Fi/LTE antenna sharing

This is the first publicly announced processor for use in mobile devices to support LTE Category 12 in the downlink and Category 13 in the uplink, providing up to 33 percent and 200 percent improvement over its predecessor’s download and upload speeds, respectively. Also available as a discrete chipset, the X12 LTE modem has demonstrated peak download speeds of up to 600 Mbps through 3x downlink carrier aggregation and 256-QAM, as well as peak upload speeds of up to 150 Mbps through 2x uplink carrier aggregation and 64-QAM. The Snapdragon 820 processor is also the first publicly announced processor to offer LTE support for 4×4 Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO), designed to double download throughput speeds on a single LTE carrier. In addition, it features Uplink Data Compression (UDC), a feature that is currently unique to select Snapdragon LTE modems, and engineered to enhance the user experience in a wide range of applications, including accelerating web page loading times. The Snapdragon 820 processor is also the first publicly announced processor with Advanced Closed Loop Antenna Tuning when paired with the QFE2550 Antenna Tuner, designed to dynamically optimize RF performance in real network conditions, particularly for challenging metallic industrial designs in premium tier handsets. Advanced Closed Loop Antenna Tuning is designed to reduce dropped calls, improve cell edge throughput and even lower power consumption.

In addition to its leading LTE features, the Snapdragon 820 processor also supports superior Wi-Fi performance and connectivity experiences through Qualcomm® VIVE 802.11ac with Qualcomm® MU  | EFX MU-MIMO technology, along with tri-band support, through multi-gigabit 802.11ad (11ad) Wi-Fi. With 2×2 802.11ac (11ac) plus MU-MIMO technology, devices will have the ability to achieve a range increase of up to 50 percent over the 1×1 configuration.

The peak rate of 2×2 80 MHz 11ac is up to 867 Mbps, while the 11ad peak rate is up to 4.6 Gbps. Additionally, 11ad offers up to a five time increase in user throughput with similar power consumption as 11ac. With dynamic session transfer between 11ad and 11ac, devices will have the ability to achieve high performance connectivity in a power-efficient way. The high bandwidth and speeds offered by 11ac Wi-Fi, 11ad Wi-Fi, and MU-MIMO brings new-levels of performance designed to improve overall quality of service, and enhance user experiences for applications such as streaming 4K video, doing peer-to-peer large file sharing, using media kiosks, docking wirelessly, hard disk backups and more.

The Snapdragon 820 processor features advanced convergence technologies between LTE and Wi-Fi, and between licensed and unlicensed spectrum:

  • LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U). The Snapdragon 820 processor is the first publicly announced processor for use in mobile devices to offer comprehensive LTE-U support when paired with the WTR3950, increasing mobile network capacity and user throughput by aggregating LTE in licensed and unlicensed bands.
  • LTE and Wi-Fi Link Aggregation (LWA). LWA is another method of aggregating licensed and unlicensed spectrum. It is designed to allow mobile operators to utilize their Wi-Fi infrastructure to augment licensed LTE network capacity with unlicensed spectrum capacity.
  • Next-generation Wi-Fi calling. The X12 LTE modem supports next-generation HD Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Video over LTE (ViLTE) calling services using the IP Multimedia Subsystem, with support for call continuity between LTE and Wi-Fi. Making use of the cognitive capabilities of Qualcomm® Zeroth, the X12 LTE modem monitors real-time Wi-Fi quality to decide if and when to shift the call from LTE to Wi-Fi or back.
  • Antenna sharing. The new modem supports several antenna sharing schemes between LTE and Wi-Fi, designed to make it easier for manufacturers to design devices with advanced technologies like LTE-U, 4×4 LTE MIMO, and 2-stream Wi-Fi, with attractive form factors and minimal performance impact on either technology.

“The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with X12 LTE modem is a new industry leader, offering highly differentiated features that put OEMs and carriers on the cutting edge, including the latest advances in LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “With technologies like 4K video, virtual reality and cognitive computing rapidly evolving, it’s important to provide consumers with the speed and bandwidth to create a more compelling mobile experience.”

The Snapdragon 820 processor continues QTI’s long-standing tradition of integrating industry-leading modem features. It also includes support for services such as LTE-Broadcast and dual-SIM LTE carrier aggregation devices. Devices based on the Snapdragon 820 processor are expected to be available in 1H of 2016.

About Qualcomm Incorporated

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) is a world leader in 3G, 4G and next-generation wireless technologies. Qualcomm Incorporated includes Qualcomm’s licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of its patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of Qualcomm’s engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of its products and services businesses, including its semiconductor business, QCT. For more than 30 years, Qualcomm ideas and inventions have driven the evolution of digital communications, linking people everywhere more closely to information, entertainment and each other. For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website,OnQ blogTwitter and Facebook pages.

Qualcommm, Snapdragon, Qualcomm RF360 and VIVE are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Zeroth is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm Snapdragon, Qualcomm Zeroth and Qualcomm RF360 are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Qualcomm VIVE and Qualcomm MU | EFX are products of Qualcomm Atheros, Inc. 

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