Immerge is a ball of Lytro cameras for VR video
Lytro first made a name for itself with a small rectangular camera that did one magical thing: It allowed you to refocus photos after you’ve taken them. It did this trick thanks to some complex software and the camera’s unique light field technology that captures millions of rays of light. Last year, Lytro applied its light field technology yet again with the Illum, a DSLR-like camera with an even larger image sensor and more robust hardware. Over the past year, however, Lytro has been hard at work applying its light field expertise in a whole new arena: Virtual reality. Today, the company has announced the result of that work. It’s called the Lytro Immerge, and it’s the essentially what Lytro is calling the first ever light field powered professional VR capture camera.
ICYMI: Magic Robot Fingers, Borked Tesla Autopilots and More
Today on In Case You Missed It: A Korean startup is set to launch a crowdfunding campaign for its home smartening “robotic fingers” — internet-connected gadgets that push analog buttons so you don’t have to. The self-driving cars of the future could look like terrestrial BORG cubes if designer Tommaso Gecchelin has anything to say about it. And speaking of the future of self-driving cars, Tesla recently announced that it will dumb down its “Autopilot” feature to prevent customers from abusing the technology.
And don’t forget this awesome Judge Dredd-inspired short film from Corrior Digital and Parrot drones.
If you come across any interesting videos, we’d love to see them. Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd.
Karma launches $50 unlimited data for its shareable hotspot
Up until now, the shareable hotspot company Karma has offered internet access one way: Pay as you go for $14 a gigabyte, with free data thrown in when others hop onto your Karma Go hotspot. Now, it’s introducing another method called Neverstop, which gives you unlimited internet for $50 a month. You’ll be limited to just 5 Mbps download and upload speeds on Sprint’s LTE network, but it may be worth paying for peace of mind without data caps. Just like with Karma’s initial offering, which is now called Refuel, you’ll also be rewarded when other people connect to your hotspot to the tune of $1 a person. With Refuel, you get 100MB of free data when sharing your hotspot.
You can now buy and download classic TV shows from the BBC’s new digital store
Fans of classic British TV shows will be happy to hear that the BBC has decided to make its archive of content available to purchase and download via its newly opened BBC Store. Programs such as Doctor Who, Top Gear and Only Fools and Horses, wildlife documentaries from Sir David Attenborough, and reality programs such as The Great British Bake Off are only a few examples of the array of content available.
All told, there’s around 7,000 hours worth of content available via the BBC Store, with prices ranging from £1.89 for a single episode, £7.99 for a season, while 3 seasons of Orphan Black will cost £34.99.
For the moment, BBC Store content can only be viewed via offline apps on PC’s and Mac’s, although the BBC is apparently working on standalone BBC Store apps for Android and iOS. And while purchased content will show up under ‘My Programmes’ on the iPlayer website, said content is unable to be streamed via the official iPlayer apps.
While the BBC Store would appear to have been launched somewhat prematurely, thanks to its content currently only being able to be viewed on PC’s and Macs, the British Broadcasting Corporation is working on the issue. With tons of classic British TV shows to choose from, the BBC Store would appear to be a winning move from the BBC once it’s possible to view the content on more devices. Sadly, for readers outside of the UK, content is currently only able to be purchased from the BBC Store with a UK debit or credit card.
You can get 25% discount off your first purchase by entering the code WELCOME25 at checkout.
Source: BBC
Come comment on this article: You can now buy and download classic TV shows from the BBC’s new digital store
Apple Patents Touch ID ‘Panic Mode’ for Instant Access to Emergency Services
The United States Patent and Trademark Office today published a patent application initially filed by Apple in May of 2014, describing a method for users to designate a specific finger to unlock an iPhone with using Touch ID, which would then cause the iPhone to enter a “panic mode” (via Business Insider). The mode could then tell the iPhone to completely lock down, limiting access to personal data if a user is being forced to unlock their iPhone.
Currently, Apple allows users to enter up to five different fingerprints to unlock an iPhone, so users would just have to designate which is the “emergency” print in the Touch ID settings menu. Apple’s patent describes a situation in which a thief attempts to rob someone’s iPhone from them to gain access to their personal and private data stored within, and the user being robbed quickly placing the panic mode finger on Touch ID so the thief can’t access any data.
The company is going one step further with the patent application, however, describing a way in which the activation of panic mode turns on the iPhone’s camera and microphone to capture a robbery or crime as it happens and sending all the data to both a user’s iCloud account and possibly even local police. Another section of the patent details a possible way for the device in panic mode to act as a beacon, alerting nearby devices (other iPhones, computers, etc) to a possible crime in their vicinity so they can alert the authorities and come to the panic mode activator’s aid.
In some embodiments, the mobile device 104 may be activated into the panic mode in emergency situations to act as a beacon. If there is a nearby device, the nearby other device (e.g., a PDA carried by another person, a computer in an automobile, etc.) can be alerted with an alarm so that the user of the other device might come to the aid of the user initiating the panic mode.
For example, triggering the panic mode can send out a signal on multiple frequencies, channels, links, etc., to provide location information relative to other devices so that users of the other devices can provide assistance. Furthermore, as discussed in more detail below, the panic mode may include a locator function that uses, for example, global positioning systems (GPS) and/or cellular location systems to provide the location of the mobile device 104 to emergency response providers.
The new patent — inventor credit going to Karthik Sudhir — also describes more basic functions of the feature, including a straight-forward klaxon that blares until a user confirms that they’re safe and even a way for Touch ID users to set up specific apps to open immediately when they unlock the iPhone with specific fingers. As with all other patents, “panic mode” is far from confirmed and may never even make it into a future version of the iPhone, but it remains an interesting glimpse into the internal discussions at Apple regarding the company’s possible future products.
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OnePlus X shows up at Amazon India, stock is limited
The new OnePlus X is gradually heading out to countries around the world and the smartphone has just arrived in India, courtesy of Amazon.
The handset is retailing for Rs. 16,999 and comes with free delivery within 2 – 4 business days. EMI is also available and starts at Rs. 1,518.30 per month. Before we get ahead of ourselves though, you will still need an invite before you can make your purchase. But at least these seem more readily available this time around than they were at the launch of the OnePlus 2.
For a quick recap, the OnePlus X comes with a 5-inch 1080p AMOLED display, a quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 2,525 mAh battery, and a 13MP rear camera. The phone has come in for some criticism for its older SoC and lack of features such as NFC or a fingerprint scanner, but there’s some pretty decent hardware here for the money.
More coverage: OnePlus X hands-on and first impressions!
The company also recently announced a new warranty scheme for its smartphones, which will apply to the OnePlus X as well as the OnePlus 2. The scheme offers additional protection against accidental damage on top of the standard 1 year manufacturer warranty, so might be worth checking out.
There is only a limited amount of stock available from Amazon India, so order quantities are restricted to just one per customer, if you just so happen to have multiple invites. The handset will be in stock come November 6th and should begin shipping out on November 7th. Click below and head on over to grab yourself an OnePlus X.
Samsung Pay may support phones from other brands in future
Samsung Pay may be one of the most compelling reasons to pick up one of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphones but the Executive Vice President of Samsung’s Mobile Division, Injong Rhee, has revealed that the company might on day open up its payment service to devices built by other manufacturers.
According to Rhee, Samsung is considering opening up its system to its partners and possibly non-Samsung handsets but currently isn’t working with any other brands, as the company is busy with further development of the platform. So there’s nothing on the horizon any time soon, but the door has been left open to collaboration in the future.
“From the beginning, we’ve considered providing Samsung Pay to our partners. But right now global expansion is happening so quickly for Samsung Pay that we are focusing all our energy on deployment.” – Samsung’s Injong Rhee
What isn’t clear is whether Samsung would allow other companies to use its Magnetic Secure Transmission technology, which allows Samsung Pay to work with a range of existing card readers, or if other partners would have to rely on NFC, offering little benefit over the universal Android Pay system. However, we do know that Samsung is planning to bring its magnetic technology to its lower end smartphones in the near future.
See also: Samsung Pay may be heading to less expensive Galaxy phones
Samsung Pay was only launched in South Korea a couple of months ago and has only just made its début in the US. As of last month, the service has over one million users and has seen transactions worth $88 million pass through it. Samsung has also stated plans to support additional financial institutions, online purchases and gift card payments, and may also offer its own card-less options at some point in the future.
Clearly the company has big plans for Samsung Pay and getting its software onto a wider range of devices could be an important step on the road to becoming a bigger player in the financial industry.
A week with FreedomPop in the UK: you can’t argue with free
Between the four main carriers and numerous tier-two operators in the UK, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to picking a mobile network. And yet, we’ve now got another new player to consider that does things a little differently. FreedomPop’s mobile service launched towards the end of September (it’s already established in the US), with its main attraction being a completely free, barebones tariff. Though it sounds too good to be true, the “Basic 200” plan gives you 200 minutes, 200 texts and 200MB of 4G data each month, gratis. So… what’s the catch? Well, there isn’t one really, as long as you stay within those allowances. FreedomPop does intend to make money, of course, through overage charges, value-added services and its paid SIM-only plans. While many of you may well be awaiting delivery of a FreedomPop SIM, I managed to take the service for a test drive last week, and this is how I fared.
Amazon UK Prime members get free same-day deliveries
In its bid to get more products to customers quicker, Amazon UK has today added another delivery option for customers. Prime Same Day offers (you guessed it) same-day delivery on one million products, as long as you’re already signed up to the company’s £79 annual membership. Unlike Prime Now, which costs £6.99 and gets your items to you within an hour, Amazon’s new shipping option is free.
Source: Amazon UK
Sony’s entry-level Alpha A68 has ‘4D focus’ for low light
Sony just reminded us that it makes more than mirrorless and compact cameras by launching the Alpha A68, an A-mount model with a 24-megapixel APS-C sensor. As with Sony’s APS-C Alpha A77 II and full-frame A99 models, it uses a hybrid electronic OLED viewfinder with 100 percent coverage and “faithful color reproduction,” according to Sony. That’s complimented by a 2.7-inch TFT LCD that tilts 135 degrees up and 55 degrees downwards. The killer feature is the translucent mirror, which allows for what Sony calls “4D Focus” — a 79-point phase-detection AF that works continuously at up to 8fps, even in low-light. Slideshow-339147
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