On the court with the promising Qlipp tennis sensor
It wasn’t long ago that we rounded up a collection of gadgets aimed at tennis players — everything from fitness trackers to sensor-laden rackets. But this is still a young market and we’ve seen several new entries since then. Equipment maker Babolat announced the Pop, a stat-tracking sensor housed in a wristband, back in August. Meanwhile, a new name is entering this growing field. A small team called 9 Degrees Freedom successfully crowdfunded the Qlipp — a small sensor going for $99 in pre-release deals before jumping to its regular $129 price. It’s a “universal” device that should work with nearly any racket and the company boldly claims it’s the “ultimate tennis performance sensor.” I received a pre-release version several weeks ago and, thanks to a nagging foot injury, I ended up spending far longer with the device than I anticipated. That added time gave me the chance to watch the accompanying app evolve as the Qlipp neared its December release and while the typical crowdfunding growing pains are evident, I do like where the company’s going with this device.Slideshow-338509
Cortana for iPhone beta signups kick off
Just as it did with Android, Microsoft is gearing up to bring its Cortana virtual assistant to iPhones. The beta release of Cortana won’t have all of its features — you can’t say “Hey Cortana” to wake it up, for example — but it sounds you’ll be able to ask Cortana questions manually and add reminders. Basically, it’ll have the same limitations as the current Cortana Android beta. If you want to be a Cortana guinea pig, fill out this survey to sign up for the beta and sit tight for a download link over the next few weeks. Be warned, though, Microsoft also says it’s only looking for a “limited number”of people to try it out, and it’s currently only available in the US and China. You can be sure it’ll open up the Cortana for iPhone beta even more eventually.
Via: The Verge
Source: Microsoft
Steve Jobs Passed on Building Apple Car in 2008 to Focus on iPhone
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away in October 2011 following a lengthy battle with a rare illness, contemplated building a so-called “Apple Car” as recently as 2008, according to his former advisor Tony Fadell.
Tony Fadell discussed an Apple Car with Steve Jobs in 2008 (Image: Bloomberg)
In an interview with Bloomberg, Fadell, who led Apple’s iPod division between 2001 and 2010, said he had discussions with Jobs on multiple occasions to hypothesize about what features an Apple-branded vehicle could have.
“We had a couple of walks,” Fadell said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang. The pair posed hypothetical questions to each other, such as: “If we were to build a car, what would we build? What would a dashboard be? And what would this be? What would seats be? How would you fuel it or power it?”
Jobs, who drove a Mercedes, decided not to move forward with the idea at the time, said Fadell, instead focusing Apple’s efforts on the iPhone, which accounted for about two-thirds of the company’s net revenue last year according to SEC filings.
Fadell, who now serves as Nest Labs CEO at Google parent company Alphabet, said he does not have firsthand knowledge about Apple’s car plans, but he did reflect on the similarities between smartphones and modern vehicles.
“A car has batteries; it has a computer; it has a motor; and it has mechanical structure. If you look at an iPhone, it has all the same things. It even has a motor in it,” said Fadell, who’s now the chief executive officer of Alphabet’s Nest home appliances company. “But the hard stuff is really on the connectivity and how cars could be self-driving.”
Apple has considered building a car before 2008, Bloomberg noted. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller disclosed in 2012 court testimony that Apple discussed building a car before the original iPhone launched in 2007, while former Apple board member Mickey Drexler has also said Jobs wanted to build a car.
Apple faces growing competition from tech rivals such as Tesla and Google, and traditional automakers, if it chooses to enter the electric vehicle market. Recent rumors suggest Apple has assembled a team of hundreds of employees to develop an electric vehicle that could enter production as early as 2020.
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Polar and Swarovski partner to make fitness tracking fashionable
Polar is a pioneer in wearables that track fitness. They have been making activity trackers and heart rates monitors for over 35 years and recognize a severe hole in the market of fashionable fitness trackers. Just because fitness focuses on health doesn’t mean you can’t look good while doing it.
So Polar and Swarovski partnered up to bring the Polar Loop Crystal for women who don’t want to wear an ugly or tech looking activity tracker and still want to monitor their activity. The new activity tracker will come embellished with 30 Swarovski crystals and feature a textured bracelet with a comfortable fit.
Polar has a long history of creating fitness products that encourage and offer guidance for healthy lifestyles. Being active and focusing on wellness is a trait that we’ve always viewed as beautiful,” says, Marco Suvilaakso, Global Product Director at Polar. “More often, consumers are looking to technology as a way to make their increasingly busy lives easier. We designed the Polar Loop Crystal specifically for women who are not only passionate about fashion, but also who are looking for an accessory that can keep up with their routines, offers motivation throughout the day and supports their fitness goals and overall well-being.
The Polar Loop Crystal will track daily activities like steps, calories burned, workouts and sleep, and gently vibrates to remind users to move if they have been inactive for too long. It not only looks good, but it has the brains to back it up as it will also vibrate when you get a call, display text messages and vibrate if you’re inactive for too long.
The Polar Loop Crystal will be available to purchase at Polar.com for $159.99 this month.
The post Polar and Swarovski partner to make fitness tracking fashionable appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Facebook passes new milestone with its AI research
Facebook’s AI brain has become rather good at detecting breeds of dog.
Facebook may be best known for its huge social network, but the company is also conducting research in exciting computing fields, including artificial intelligence. The company has been speaking a little more about how far it has come with its machine learning research this week and is preparing to put some of its technology to work in consumer products.
Facebook’s AI Research team (FAIR) has been working to train computers to identify objects in photos, understand natural language and to be able to plan ahead. Apparently, the company’s system is 30 percent faster and uses 10 time less training data than previous industry benchmarks.
The research team has devised a range of tests to teach computers a range of skills from predictive visual learning to understanding how to play Go. All of these ideas share one key theme, object recognition. This is an area that Google has been working on intensely for some time too, but Facebook is also looking to combine the idea with other technologies, such as language understanding.
Most recently, the research team has been working on object description. Facebook’s technology can analyse and pick out objects in both the real world and from pictures, including seemingly odd things like a species of dog. Facebook looks to be integrating this into its social network to help describe images to the visually impaired. In the end, the researchers envision that this type of technology can augment our own memories and provide more useful data at our fingertips.
There are a number of interesting videos in the source link below, if you want to see the technology in action. Founder Mark Zuckerberg shared the video below, which offers a closer look at what the company is up to. Facebook will also be presenting a new paper at NIPS next month, detailing how far the company has come.
Samsung sold 180,000 Gear S2 in China in under 8 hours
Samsung might have dominated the smartphone market but the company’s wearable efforts have, so far, failed to reach the same heights. The original Galaxy Gear ran Android but since then, the company has switched to its own Tizen OS – which was only compatible with Samsung smartphones – with mixed results.
Smartwatches in video:
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However, earlier this year, the Korean OEM launched the Gear S2 at IFA 2015 and alongside its very impressive and unique circular bezel and interface, the new wearable also bought compatibility with any Android smartphone running Ice Cream Sandwich or later. The additional support was seemingly designed to make the Gear S2 more appealing to all users and based on a report out of China, it seems that Samsung’s attempts may yet prove to be fruitful.
According to the report, major retailer JD.com managed to shift 180,000 units of the new Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic smartwatches in just 8 hours after putting them up for sale. Furthermore, retail stores are complaining about supply shortages as Samsung seemingly struggles to keep up with the demand in China while also rolling out the smart watch to additional countries around the world.
For Samsung, the news is definitely positive as it means the Gear S2 – which is arguably one of the most unique wearables ever made – has a chance to capture a stronghold in the market. Although 180,000 sales in 8 hours is definitely impressive, it does somewhat pale in comparison to the Apple Watch, which achieved approximately 1 million sales in its opening weekend.
In China, the Gear S2 is being sold for 2,198 Yuan (approx $350) while the Gear S2 Classic retails for 2,398 Yuan (approx $390). Both are competitively priced and if Samsung is able to make enough units to meet overall global demand, the Gear S2 range could prove to be the closest challenger to the Apple Watch, which currently dominates the wearables market.
Upcoming Nomad Wallet will also double as a 2400 mAh power pack
While quick charging and other tech improvements are making it easier to top off a phone’s battery, there are still times when you need to top off your phone but don’t have immediate access to a power outlet. In those instances, a power pack sure comes in handy. But how many of us actually bring an external battery everywhere we go? You just might, if this battery happened to also be your wallet.
The new Nomad Wallet looks like a fairly standard wallet at first glance, with a leather exterior and the ability to hold six cards, as well as some cash, receipts, or whatever else have you. The overall size also looks about what you’d expect from a real wallet, at 25 x 85 x 125mm. But what makes the Nomad truly stand out is that its hinge has a rechargeable power bank with a capacity of 2,400 mAh – which should be enough to charge most phones, or at the very least give it a nice top-off to last you until you’re able to get to that wall socket again.
See also: Best Portable Battery Packs
Unfortunately, the only version currently up for pre-order is designed specifically for iPhone users, featuring a Lightning connector. The good news is that an Android version is supposedly on its way “soon”, so if you are at all interested in the concept, you might want to keep an eye on their website. We’ll also keep watch and update this post when the Android model becomes available.
As for the pricing? If the Android version sticks to the iPhone-charging model’s pricing, you can expect it to be offered for around $90. What do you think of the idea, could you see yourself purchasing one of these? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Now that we take Huawei seriously, what’s next for the Chinese giant?
It’s well past time that Huawei was on your radar. It’s one of the most exciting manufacturers in the Android space today. This year’s well-received highlights so far include the classy Huawei Watch, and the excellent Nexus 6P. Its partnership with Google could be the springboard it needs to crack the US market. If it can continue on its current trajectory, then Samsung and Apple will have to look over their shoulders.
Huawei grabbed an 8.7% share of the worldwide smartphone market in Q2 of this year, up from 6.7% in 2014, and 4.3% in 2013, according to IDC. In its homeland, Huawei has just wrestled the throne from Xiaomi, becoming the top smartphone vendor in China in Q3, according to Canalys. It appears to be riding the crest of a wave. Can it reach new heights, will it maintain its course, or is there danger of a wipeout?
Moving on up
The smartphone market has grown much more competitive in the last couple of years. The impact of falling prices and powerful new players undercutting the old order, can be plainly seen in Samsung’s decline, and the struggle of once-powerful players like Sony, HTC, and Motorola. How has Huawei so consistently managed to swim against the tide, with growing sales in all regions of the world?
It has adopted a shifting strategy, using its growing popularity to climb the ladder from budget, to mid-range, and now up to premium. Huawei’s main line has been branded as Ascend for years, but it dropped the name when it released the impressive Huawei P8. This marks a strategy shift that CEO, Richard Yu, spoke about at the start of the year when he told Bloomberg, “We are giving up the low end of the market. Many vendors are suffering. Only two vendors have had a good life: Apple and Samsung.”
Ten months after making that statement you could make a pretty strong argument that Huawei is selling the best Android Wear smartwatch on the market, and the best Android smartphone. The Huawei Watch and the Nexus 6P are premium devices in terms of design, specs, and features, but they significantly undercut Apple and Samsung on price.
Just because Huawei is reaching for the top, doesn’t mean it’s ignoring the rest of the market. The Honor brand is Huawei’s answer to Xiaomi. It has been selling feature-packed smartphones through direct e-commerce channels, targeting a younger audience, and it’s being run separately from the core company. It has expanded into more than 70 countries already, and offers impressive specs at mid-range prices.
Conquering the States
Huawei is selling smartphones across the globe. It dominates China, it has been doing great in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Sales have been soaring in Europe after a major marketing campaign. Huawei sells phones everywhere, from Japan to Jamaica, but the next major target is the US.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that it will be an uphill struggle, especially after a U.S. congressional committee suggested Huawei was a security threat because of alleged ties to the Chinese government, back in 2012. But that claim looks rather ridiculous in light of Snowden’s revelations about the NSA hacking into Huawei, as reported by the New York Times.
Smartphone sales stateside started out gently last summer with the Ascend Mate 2, sold unlocked and direct from Huawei’s online store (it also offered the cheap SnapTo). The uninspiring P8 Lite followed in June this year. But Huawei is done sticking its budget toe in the water.
There’s little doubt that the Nexus 6P will be Huawei’s biggest selling smartphone, so far, in the US market. Being formally introduced to many Americans by Google can only be a boost for Huawei’s fortunes. We’ve looked at the potential depths of Google and Huawei’s relationship before, in terms of wireless networking and Google’s desire to re-enter the Chinese market. Which brings us neatly to an important point about Huawei.
A tech giant
We aren’t talking about a small company here, and Huawei certainly isn’t reliant on the smartphone market. It first made the Fortune 500 back in 2010. It rose to prominence making equipment for the telecommunications industry. Huawei’s routers and switches power many of our networks.
A brief scan of recent tech news is revealing. Huawei just demoed the world’s first 1 Gbps mobile network with Hong Kong Telecom, which it called 4.5G. It’s also a major player in enterprise storage, where a partnership with Micron will bring flash storage to European data centers, as reported by The Register. This is a company with reach.
Returning to smartphones, Huawei is well-positioned, in part, because it can manufacture and use its own chipset, courtesy of the HiSilicon division. This enables the kind of integration you see at Samsung, and it could lead to the licensing and sale of Huawei’s Kirin processors to other manufacturers in future. There’s a very broad base here, enabling Huawei to tackle the smartphone market from a position of strength.
What’s next?
The Nexus 6P is an important phone for Huawei, but we’ve never seen Galaxy S and iPhone levels of sales from a Nexus phone and it probably won’t change that. Huawei’s next big release is going to be the Huawei Mate 8, set to be unveiled at the end of the month. It’s expected to have the HiSilicon Kirin 950 SoC, which may feature an octa-core design and Cat 10 LTE support, for fast performance and lightning download speeds. We also expect a premium design, possible Force Touch support (first shown in the Mate S), and a top notch camera.
There’s a chance that the Huawei Mate 8 will be the most advanced smartphone on the market for the next few months, at least. Beyond the specs, it’s going to be interesting to see what Huawei plans in terms of release. Will it be available worldwide? Could it be the first Huawei flagship to sell in the US?
Samsung and Apple have been untouchable for a long time (in tech industry terms), but Huawei does seem to be breaking away from the rest of the pack. If it keeps making the right moves, this could be a serious, sustained challenge to the dominance of the top two.
Facebook to use artificial intelligence to help blind people ‘see’
Facebook today announced that it has achieved a new feat in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research that will improve its image recognition capabilities considerably. The new technology that will be presented at leading artificial intelligence conference, NITS, next month is likely to help blind people recognize images posted on Facebook.
After a long-term research, Facebook’s AI Research (FAIR) team reached a breakthrough that uses Artificial Intelligence to train computers to distinguish between objects in photos. The social networking giant says that its new system sorts images 30 percent faster, using 10 times less training data than previous industry benchmarks.
Facebook says that blending its image recognition feature with natural language understanding technology will make it possible for visually impaired people to ask the computer what’s in a photo.
Apart from fast image recognition, FAIR has even created an AI bot that can play the board game Go quite well. It is said to be on par with a strong human player.
Source: Facebook
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Code in the Galaxy S6 Edge isn’t as secure as you think, Google researchers reveal
Google security researchers decided to dig into the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge to see what they could find as far as vulnerable code goes. Suffice to say, what these Googlers found wasn’t good news.
In their digging, 11 vulnerabilities were found that have the potential to be used for creating files within the system privileges for stealing personal data, such as the user’s email. Potentially even more dangerous is that these vulnerabilities could be used to advance an application’s permissions to obtain even more data.
Google sent their findings to Samsung, and got a quick response saying that eight of the major issues had been fixed in an October Maintenance Release. The other three will be fixed in a November Maintenance Release, though it wasn’t mentioned how long these updates will take to get to carrier-branded units.
“It is promising that the highest severity issues were fixed and updated on-device in a reasonable time frame,” Google researchers said.
The goal of this experiment was to see that if the security measures that were put in place across the Android platform could prevent the exploitation of these vulnerabilities in a manufacturer’s code. The results were a hit-or-miss, in some cases. For instance, SELinux, a defense mechanism put in the Android code by default, made it difficult to exploit these vulnerabilities, but some bugs in the code allowed SELinux to be disabled, giving Crackers a wide open field to play in.
For those of you interested, you can find all of the hard details on these vulnerabilities and more at the source link below.
source: Google
via: Computer World
Come comment on this article: Code in the Galaxy S6 Edge isn’t as secure as you think, Google researchers reveal
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