Samsung Pay’s first television ad knocks Apple Pay
Three mobile payments services will be vying for your attention this fall. Google, Apple, and Samsung are all ready store your accounts and cards in phones for easy checkout while shopping just about everywhere with a compatible terminal. Samsung Pay, however, is able to tout itself as the mobile payments service that works in more stores than any other. And tonight during the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, Samsung ran the very first stateside television advertisement for Samsung Pay to promote its advantage over Apple Pay.
The ad, which you can watch below, shows how easy it is to be shopping (almost) anywhere in the United States with Samsung Pay handling the checkout process. The song “My Favorite Things” plays as Samsung’s devices show Samsung Pay at work before being interrupted by Apple Pay getting rejected. Someone with a Samsung device then steps in and the music resumes.
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Amazon’s Echo speaker reads you the top news headlines
Amazon just made it much, much easier to catch up on the news while you’re getting chores done around the home. A newly-added option for its voice-guided Echo speaker, Trove, lets you ask the device to read the top news headlines on a given subject. Want to get the gist of the latest political drama? Just say as much — you don’t even have to glance at your phone or your wrist. This isn’t going to provide insightful commentary, of course, but it could be good for those moments when you just don’t have time (or the free hands) needed to go in depth.
This is also a big update if you use the Echo to stay on time. You now have very fine-grained control over alarms and timers, including the ability to cancel specific alerts (say, your weekend alarm) and asking when multiple timers will run out. In other words, this gadget may now be exactly what you need to juggle multiple meals or sleep in on a lazy weekend.
Source: Amazon
Here’s your clearest look yet at an alien planet in motion
That pixelated dot you see above may not seem like much, but it’s a pretty big deal — it’s your best look yet at an alien world. Scientists have used the Gemini Planet Imager to capture the movement of Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant traveling around a star 60 light years away. That’s no mean feat when the exoplanet is about a million times fainter than its host, requiring that the Imager block the star’s light and compensate for the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere. The visuals are important beyond bragging rights, we’d add, since they’ll provide more insight regarding both the planet’s composition and its relationship to nearby objects. Although it’s going to be a long, long while (if ever) before you get clearly recognizable snapshots of an exoplanet, this abstract imagery has more than enough to keep scientists busy.
[Image credit: M. Millar-Blanchaer/Dunlap Institute, F. Marchis/SETI Institute]
https://player.vimeo.com/video/138973087?portrait=0
Via: Gizmodo
Source: SETI Institute, ArXiv.org (PDF)
Meizu Pro 5 press render surfaces with Flyme 5.0 on board
A press render of the upcoming Meizu Pro 5 just surfaced and despite recent reports, it will include Flyme 5.0 on top of Android 5.1.
Up until this point, many were curious as to what the Meizu Pro 5 would run. Recent reports indicated that it would include Flyme 4.5 and get pushed out an update with Flyme 5.0 at a later date. But it turns out, this will not be the case. A leaked render shows the device in its full glory running what looks to be Flyme 5.0. In addition, Meizu posted teasers showing off the number five and the date September 23, 2015 which is when the device will be officially announced.
We are expecting to see two different variants of the upcoming device, each featuring a different processor. Which one you get will most likely depend on your location. Otherwise, the device will feature mostly high-end specifications such as a 5.7-inch display, 4GB or RAM and a 21MP camera at the rear side. We’ll find out all the details in three days time.
Via: TechGadgetsz
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Unknown ZTE handset with no camera passes through TENAA
ZTE is having a good year so far especially in the states. Recently, an unknown ZTE handset got its certification from TENAA. Oddly enough, the handset appears to have no rear-facing camera.
All smartphones these days have cameras, but this new ZTE handset changes that. The handset has model number S3003. It features a slim all-metal design with a 5-inch 720p display and a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU backed with 1GB of RAM. The handset includes 8GB of on-board storage space and weighs in at only 117g. We aren’t expecting the device to hit the states due to its TD-LTE connectivity.
Hopefully we’ll find out more about the camera-less handset in the coming weeks.
Source: TENAA
Via: Mobipicker
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Volvo wants robots to help collect your garbage
To call garbage collection an inglorious job would be an understatement — it typically involves early mornings, monotony and (of course) lots of smelly trash. It’s the perfect sort of job for a robot, don’t you think? Volvo agrees. It’s partnering with both universities and waste management firm Renova on ROAR (Robot-based Autonomous Refuse handling), a project that has robots pick up your trash while a human oversees everything from the relative comfort of the garbage truck. It’s still early going (the odds are that the end product will look nothing like what you see above), but the hope is that it’ll eliminate most of the drudgery and noise of scooping up waste. You should see the first tests in June 2016, although it could be a while longer before you see automatons in front of your house — ROAR won’t be practical unless the robots can reliably empty cans and bins in real-world conditions.
Via: PSFK
Source: Volvo
Google Play Games gets updated to bring some new features [APK Download]
Android users will soon be able to live-stream directly from their Android devices following an update to Google Play Games today.
Version 3.3 of Play Games was released today and the teardown has revealed that the app adds the functionality to hook into the new YouTube Gaming service, allowing streamers to broadcast their gameplay from their Android device in real-time directly to YouTube.
It’s likely that details of the streaming service on Android will be revealed at the Google conference on September 29th, and may even be one of the flagship features of the new Nexus devices as there could very well be hardware restrictions for this feature.
You can grab the Google Play Games update from here.
Source: AndroidPolice
The post Google Play Games gets updated to bring some new features [APK Download] appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Microsoft’s next Band looks like something you’d want to wear
Microsoft’s original Band is many things to many people, but “fashion item” typically isn’t one of them — it looks less like a fitness device and more like a court-ordered probation tracker. You probably won’t say that about the next generation, though. MicrosoftInsider claims to have images of a second-generation Band whose curved design and metal accents (corroborating earlier rumors) give it a sorely needed sense of style. It’s an upscale Gear Fit, really. While it’s not certain just how much has improved on the inside, this new Band will reportedly track stair climbing and other changes in altitude. There hasn’t been much revealed regarding the product’s launch. Microsoft conveniently has a hardware event lined up for October 6th, though, so don’t be surprised if the folks in Redmond show this off alongside new phones and tablets.
Via: Windows Central
Source: MicrosoftInsider (translated)
Microsoft’s next Band looks like something you’d want to wear
Microsoft’s original Band is many things to many people, but “fashion item” typically isn’t one of them — it looks less like a fitness device and more like a court-ordered probation tracker. You probably won’t say that about the next generation, though. MicrosoftInsider claims to have images of a second-generation Band whose curved design and metal accents (corroborating earlier rumors) give it a sorely needed sense of style. It’s an upscale Gear Fit, really. While it’s not certain just how much has improved on the inside, this new Band will reportedly track stair climbing and other changes in altitude. There hasn’t been much revealed regarding the product’s launch. Microsoft conveniently has a hardware event lined up for October 6th, though, so don’t be surprised if the folks in Redmond show this off alongside new phones and tablets.
Via: Windows Central
Source: MicrosoftInsider (translated)
An unfazed lizard, JJ Watt, and a French scuba diver show what a better network means for Verizon
In many parts of the United States, Verizon is the best network. The carrier’s network is large and fast, two qualities that are the most important in the wireless industry. But it seems that people are unaware of what a better network means. So Big Red put together a ton of ads, all of which are currently airing on television (with great frequency during NFL games), to show that being better matters.
Verizon called upon an unfazed lizard, JJ Watt, a French Scuba diver, and many other people and things to prove its point.
First, Verizon wants you to know what “better” actually means.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Now Verizon feels you are ready to be told what a better network means….
Backup quarterback Luke McCown explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Defensive end JJ Watt explains a better network (while chopping wood).
Click here to view the embedded video.
An unfazed lizard explains a better network.
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A fancy egg explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
A straw explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
An hourglass explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
A French scuba diver explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
This passionate woman who is very passionate about juice explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
An oddly large basketball hoop explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
A door explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
A popular high school couple explains a better network.
Click here to view the embedded video.
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