Playdate: Chilling out in the Mushroom Kingdom
It’s been a long week, folks — and there’s only one proper way to unwind: a cool drink, some Twitch friends and your Super Mario Maker levels. That’s right, we’re returning to our vault of level submissions to torture Sean and have a good time. Join us on Twitch.tv/Joystiq, the Engadget Gaming homepage or right here in this post starting at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific. Didn’t get in on our last Mario Maker event? Drop your level codes into chat, and we’ll make sure to give them priority.
Audioengine’s HD6 powered speakers pack Bluetooth and a built-in amp
If you’re not familiar with the name Audioengine in regards to speakers and other audio gear, allow us to introduce you. The company may not be a big-name brand, but it has a knack for stellar sounding tech. Adding to its arsenal this week, Audioengine debuted the HD6 powered speakers. Inside the dapper wood veneers and magnetic speaker grilles, there’s a built-in amplifier, 24-bit optical input from the company’s D1 digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and high-fidelity Bluetooth with aptX. Audioengine says it took pieces from some its best-selling gear and combined them with its signature sound inside the new retro-styled cabinets. All of the usual connections and remote control are there as well, making the HD6 a solid option for handling the audio from your mobile device, turntable, television and more. In addition to the aforementioned walnut and cherry wood finishes, you’ll also have the option of satin black. The Audioengine HD6 speakers are available now for $749, so get ready to empty your piggy bank. Slideshow-341344
Via: The Gadgeteer
Source: Audioengine (1), (2)
Raindar is a simple and powerful weather radar app (App review)
Weather apps are a dime a dozen. Today we’re going to take a look at Raindar, who does it a little bit different. Raindar focuses on one thing, and does it incredibly well. If you haven’t figured it out yet by name alone, Raindar is a simple radar app that gives me relevant information quickly and with just enough options to make it powerful.
Raindar is one of my favorite apps because it checks a lot of boxes for me. First off, it’s incredibly easy to use. In fact, it’s easy to use “right out of the box”. When you first open Raindar, it detects your location, centers map directly over you with about a 250 mile radius and shows you what’s on the radar in the area. Super simple.
Raindar is also very fast. It loads almost instantly, and displays the information in a straightforward way. You can be in and out of the app in seconds with the information you need. If you’ve ever used Google Maps, then you’ll instantly recognize the maps and the weather systems will be easy to find. Weather Underground supplies the weather data.
Not only is it fast to get the information for your area, but if you’re looking to see what the weather is like at your destination, you can quickly search, have a list of cities that match your search and be taken to that location fast.
While you’re in the app, it detects your location and refreshes the doppler radar every 30 seconds. This is a fantastic feature, especially if you’re sitting watching a storm system roll toward you.
If you’re ever in a severe situation, you’re going to want relevant information quickly. Raindar will display weather tracks in these situations with icons for Thunderstorms (yellow circle), Hail (yellow square), a rotating Thunderstorm (yellow diamond) or a Tornado (magenta triangle). Clicking on any of these icons will show you more detailed information in an effort to keep you safe.
While Raindar is pretty simple out of the box, there are a few options for you to tune the app to your liking. First off, you can turn the storm tracks on and off if you like. Also, you can toggle the display from either just a regular map or you can switch over to a satellite image. I prefer the map because it’s a little cleaner and the information is a little more clearly displayed.
You also have the ability to turn up the reflectivity within the app. You may be wondering what exactly that means. Have you ever been watching your local weather man and his radar shows it’s raining where you are, but it’s maybe just a bit foggy? Those are called false reads, and they show up because the reflectivity is turned up too high. Doppler Radar, or in this case “Pulse-Doppler” works by picking up reflections off water in the atmosphere, and depending on your reflectivity setting, your radar will be a little more sensitive at the cost of some false reads.
Raindar certainly isn’t perfect. It hasn’t been an updated in a few years, and even though its core functionality is entirely intact, it could use a facelift. But, for what it does, it’s brilliant. Simple and fast are generally two of the most important factors in a weather app and Raindar kills it on both. This isn’t going to be your seven day forecast app, but it isn’t trying to be.
I generally don’t write about many apps because I don’t use many. I’m the type of person that generally doesn’t want to install an app on my phone if I can get a task done in the mobile web browser, but Raindar is one of the first apps I install every time I switch to a new phone.
Play Store Link: Raindar
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Cats and Wrestlers advertise Google Photos
Google has released an ad for their Google Photos app that features a luchador, a tattoo of a cat, and a lost romance.
It’s a humorous premise, sure, and it exaggerates the app’s current capabilities for comedic effect, but let’s take a look at how effectively information is crammed into this 40-second ad.
See also: Google Photos update will let you ‘hide people’
Hold up. What is Google Photos?
Really? Okay fine. Google Photos is an service that provides cloud-based storage. The app doesn’t really replace your phone’s gallery so much as enhance it. Every picture that you take is automatically uploaded for you to access later. That way if your phone ever gets lost or stolen or drowned in the Marianas Trench, the pictures you snapped of sushi last Thursday night will be saved for posterity forever. It also has a pretty cool Assistant feature that compiles animations and highlight reels with or without your input.
Got it. Back to the wrestlers.
So anyway, the premise is that, while snapping photos of a masked wrestler, a woman discovers via Google’s image recognition capabilities that the wrestler is her former lover. What’s cool is how well this information is packaged. We see the wrestler leap and go into slow motion, camera flashes strobing. We’re taken into the smartphone interface showing the pictures as they are taken, with Google quietly running an image match in the background. This demonstrates Photos’ anticipatory search capabilities. You don’t have to tell it to look for similar images; it does it just in case you want them.
Recognizing the tattoo as a cat, Google begins showing publicly available pictures of cats. This is a pretty big deal. Previously, image recognition services like Google Goggles weren’t very good at identifying things like animals, but breakthroughs via Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence research have greatly increased Google’s recognition capacity in this area.
Next, we see that integrated into this passive image search is a private photo taken by the user. It’s someone with the same tattoo. This demonstrates that Photos not only consults public images, it also includes your personal images in its search results.
Meanwhile, the luchador is still falling. The subtext here is speed. Google Photos does all this instantly without even waiting for user interaction. In the time it takes a wrestler to hit the ground, Google has recognized a tattoo as a cat, searched for images of cats, found a personal image that matches more closely, and provided all this information to the user.
On top of this, they manage to throw in a joke and imply an entire storyline. Pretty elegant work, in my opinion. Are you a Google Photos user? What’s your favorite feature of the app? Let us know in the comments below! Not a Google Photos user? Pick it up in the Google Play Store:
Tim Cook says Apple will learn from discrimination seen in Australia store
A video hit the web this week showing Apple store employees in Melbourne, Australia, kicking out a group of black teenagers because security was worried “they might steal something.” In the video, the teens (from Sudan and Somalia) repeatedly question the employees’ concerns, but they only response they receive is, “End of discussion. I need to ask you to leave our store.” Apple swiftly apologized and a senior manager from the site visited the students involved to assure them they were welcome at the store. Apple CEO Tim Cook sent an email to employees calling the incident “unacceptable,” asserting the company’s commitment to inclusivity and pledging to re-train its leadership in stores worldwide (as unearthed by Buzzfeed). “While I firmly believe that this was an isolated incident rather than a symptom of a broader problem in our stores, we will use this moment as an opportunity to learn and grow,” he writes.
Source: Buzzfeed
DraftKings and FanDuel sue to stop New York Attorney General’s ban
Following New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s request for daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel to stop operating in his state, the two sites filed a lawsuit against the AG. Filing a petition with the New York Supreme Court, both sites allege that Schneiderman’s office illegally interfered with their business operations by threatening payment processing vendors if they didn’t stop handling transactions for players in New York. The Attorney General also declared the two illegal gambling sites earlier this week, threatening to ban them if they didn’t stop operations. The companies maintain that their version of fantasy sports do indeed require skill rather than luck, which separates them from regular ol’ gambling.
Source: ESPN
Chinese-owned Vertu vows to keep making luxury phones in the UK
It’s been a little over a week since Vertu announced that it is now under full ownership of Hong Kong’s Godin Holdings. Which, as we found out, is linked to Godin Cyberspace Security Technology — aka GodinSec from mainland China. This raised two questions: Will Vertu be ditching its “Handmade in England” slogan in favor of the classic “Made in China?” And does Godin intend to make use of its own secure smartphone OS on future Vertu devices? The short answer to both is no, according to the newly appointed CEO Billy Crotty.
UC Berkeley to study climate impact of Uber and Lyft
Researchers at UC Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) have announced that they are pairing with NRDC Urban Solutions to study the climate impact of ridesharing schemes like Uber and Lyft. The study will examine whether such “ridesourcing” services have a positive impact, by replacing privately owned automobiles, or whether they actually put more cars on the road by competing with existing public transportation systems.
Via: The Verge
Source: NRDC
Microsoft wants ‘Red Dead Redemption’ on Xbox One, too
You aren’t alone in your desire to play Rockstar Games’ old West epic Read Dead Redemption on your Xbox One — Microsoft’s director of program management Mike Ybarra wants to play it again, too. “I would love to see Red Dead,” he said of making the Xbox 360 game backwards-compatible. In a recent interview, Ybarra revealed that it’s a personal favorite and that he’s played hundreds of hours of the dusty 2010 open world game. Behind Call of Duty: Black Ops II, it’s number two on the list of fan-requested titles for the just launched Xbox One backwards compatibility feature.
[Deal] Beats By Dre Solo HD Headphones for $99.99
Most of you have heard of Beats By Dre. Almost everyone pairs Beats By Dre with high-quality sound and superior designed looking headphones. Athletes like Lebron James, Cam Newton, Richard Sherman, Kobe Bryant and Russell Wilson are regularly seen wearing Beats before and after games. Don’t settle for the free headphones that came with your devices. Take advantage of this limited time deal on a set of Solo HD headphones, from Beats, for $99.99, 44% off MSRP with free shipping included.
Bring your music to life and give it the respect it deserves with a set of Solo HD headphones from Beats. While you’re at it, show off your personal style by selecting the Solo HD headphones in white, green, purple or light blue.
Check out the main features of the Solo HD headphones from our details page:
- Features extremely high-definition quality, clear sound & deep bass
- Includes titanium-coated driver technology for accurate music reproduction
- Made of quality durable & flexible material for the perfect fit
- Folds down to a compact, travel-friendly size w/ tri-fold design
- Includes a built-in mic for on-the-go calls
- Includes an in-line controller for adjusting tracks & volume
- Cancels ambient noise w/ active noise control
- Supports all-day comfort
- Certified refurbished w/ 90-day manufacturer’s warranty
SPECS
- Dimensions: 9.1″L x 5.3″W x 6.9″H
- Weight: 1 lb
- Length of cable 4.45 ft
- Type of jack: 3.5 mm
- Original Beats sound profile
- Active Noise Control to cancel ambient noise
- In-line mic & remote to control calls, volume, and tracks About Beats Audio
Includes:
- Beats By Dre Solo HD Headphones, Refurbished
- Compact carrying case
The Solo HD headphones look spectacular and come with a carrying case to keep them safe when you’re not using them. They sound even better than they look. These normally retail for $180, so get them before they sell out at the low price of $99 with free shipping.
Drop us a line below and let us know what you think about this great deal, and whether you signed up for it or not. You can find this, and many other great tech bargains through our Deals page. Backed by StackCommerce, there are daily promos, giveaways, freebies, and much more!
AndroidGuys Deals: Beats By Dre Solo HD Headphones
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