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18
Dec

35+ great Android games are on sale right now


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Looks like Santa swung by the Play Store for an early delivery. Whether you were naughty or nice, help yourself with gifts in the form of big discounts on some of the best Android games you can buy.

Action, adventure, RPG, strategy, combat… the Android games sales going on right on the Play Store cover most of the genre spectrum and include a bunch of blockbuster titles. Here’s a non-final list that we’ll update with more game sales as we find them:

The discounts vary between 25% and 80%, so if you get a few games, you can save a decent amount. Note that the deals may vary depending on your region.

Let us know if you spot any other cool sales!

18
Dec

Roli’s quirky musical keyboard is now an iPhone app


When ROLI introduced the Seaboard — a quirky interpretation of the musical keyboard — it was hard not be curious. But, at $2,000, that’s likely where you remained. Even the smaller, more affordable Seaboard Rise was a little out of reach for many casual musicians wanting to try its tactile trickery (watch this to see what we mean). Today, however, there’s a ROLI for everyone, as the British firm has just announced Noise: a virtual Seaboard in iPhone app form. If you want to know why Apple’s 3D Touch matters, it’s apps like this that will show you — and Noise is much easier on your pocket (in fact, it’s free).

The Seaboard series of instruments look a bit like someone left a regular keyboard out in the sun; the smooth, contiguous keys give them an iconic look. This aesthetic spills over to the app. So does the nifty mechanism for manipulating sound with gestures. Just as you can wiggle a finger on a key to create vibrato on the Seaboard, you can do the same on the Noise app. That’s neat, but nothing new. What’s exciting here is the implementation of 3D Touch.

Apple’s pressure sensitive input might be good for adding in context menus and “peek and pop”-ing messages, but it really comes into its own with music apps, and Noise is a stellar example of that. Press hard and the notes sound louder. Or, keep a finger on the screen and push/release continuously to hear the sound change in organic, expressive ways (like changing the speed of a dubstep “wobble”). We’ve already seen similar tricks in music apps, but ROLI’s Noise is a particularly good fit.

As for Noise itself. You can choose the number of keys on screen (13, 17 or 25), and change the layout to include on screen modulation controls (like the Rise’s touchpad). There’s also support for MIDI over Bluetooth. The app is free, and includes 25 pre-installed sounds. If you want to expand that library, then add on packs can be purchased for a few dollars a pop.

Source: iTunes, ROLI

18
Dec

Deal: Asus ZenPad S 32GB selling on Amazon for $159 only, $249 for the 64GB variant


asus zenpad s 8 amazon deal

Looking to pick up a quality Android tablet, but faced with limited options due to budget constraints? Then this deal is for you!

The Asus ZenPad S 8.0, released in June this year, is now selling on Amazon for $159 only. The exact model in question is the ZenPad S 8 Z580CA-C1-BK 32GB variant, which features an 8-inch 1536 x 2048 resolution display, a quad-core Intel Atom Z3530 processor clocked at 1.3GHz, 2GB of RAM,  32GB of internal storage expandable via microSD slot, and a 15.2 Wh non-removable battery.

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If you fancy a slightly more powerful configuration and have $249 to spare, you could purchase the ZenPad S 64GB variant, which is paired with 4GB of RAM, a quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor clocked at 2.3GHz, and 4GB of RAM. The ZenPad S makes use of a USB Type C port, in case you weren’t aware. Both models have 8MP rear and 5MP front-facing cameras. ZenUI, Asus’ custom trim, runs on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

For more details, hit the links below:


aa_thumbnail_ASUS ZenPad_S_8SEE ALSO: ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 review28

18
Dec

ESA makes an easy-to-view archive of new Rosetta comet images


The Rosetta probe has finally beamed back the photos (among other data) it took of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, as it flew within just 19 miles of the comet’s surface. They were captured by the probe’s main imaging system called OSIRIS, which is comprised of one narrow-angle and one wide-angle camera, from June 20th to September 16th, 2014. The spacecraft has gone closer to the comet since then, but the photos illustrate what the probe was seeing as it approached the celestial body.

Those images were initially made available on a dedicated but hard-to-navigate website — thankfully, the Rosetta Downlink and Archive group has uploaded them elsewhere as albums, which are much, much easier to browse. If you’d like to take a look at what the hardworking probe sent back, you can find the photosets on ESA’s Archive Image Browser and the other data via FTP on ESA’s Planetary Science Archive.

[Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA / Daniel Macháček]

Source: ESA (1), (2), Planetgate, Planetary

18
Dec

Apple Pay comes to China in early 2016


As rumored (and inevitably), Apple Pay is coming to China. The company has partnered-up with Chinese bankcard network UnionPay to launch its payment system. The network, which is as ubiquitous as Visa in China, to let iPhone users pair their bank details to their Apple hardware. It arrives with support from “15 of China’s leading banks.” Like other territories, card numbers aren’t stored on devices or Apple’s servers and it’ll launch in China with support for the Apple Watch right from the start, if it’s wrist payments you’re waiting, nay aching, for. The country’s regulators still have to approve the announcement, but Apple’s press release points to a launch in early 2016 — just in time for Chinese New Year.
At the same time, Samsung has made its own deal with UnionPay and its payment system. As Bloomberg Business notes, the systems use different technology to pay for goods. Apple’s is NFC-based, while Samsung‘s system will offer magnetic strip compatibility too.

Source: Apple

18
Dec

Evernote’s Skitch will soon bid Android, iOS and Windows farewell


If Skitch is one of your favorite sketching and annotation apps, we hope you’re using a Mac, because it’s saying goodbye to Android, iOS and Windows on January 22nd. Evernote isn’t exactly switching the app off, so you’ll still be able to use it after that date. However, since it will no longer be updated, and it won’t be available for download on those platforms anymore, they’re bound to stop working in the future. The company says they’ve decided to kill those versions, because you can find “nearly identical annotation functionality” on the main Evernote app. It’s unclear why Skitch for Mac will live on, but we’re sure avid users aren’t complaining.

Besides Skitch, Evernote’s also killing off its Clearly browser extension that delivers distraction-free articles for reading, as well as its core app for Pebble smartwatches, on the same day. Similar to its reasoning for Skitch’s demise, the company says Web Clipper already has Clearly’s article simplification capabilities and Pebble’s Powernoter app (which it isn’t affiliated with) has Evernote-like features. From the sound of it, Evernote wants to simplify, drop products which it thinks have become unnecessary and ultimately focus on its core app going forward.

[Image credit: Heisenberg Media/Flickr]

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Evernote

18
Dec

Samsung teaming up with Google to make TouchWiz better than iOS


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TouchWiz, everyones favorite Android skin… Ok, not exactly, but at least Samsung has been working on improving it over the years. The current version is a much more stripped down version than it used to be. However, TouchWiz might become even smoother when it launches on the Galaxy S7.

There has been some rumours circulating saying Google may be working with Samsung to make TouchWhiz much more fluent. The rumours say Google engineers are said to be directly helping Samsung with TouchWhiz’s code, so it can have “greater fluency than iOS”. Bold words, but we can only hope it’s true.

Source: ITHome
Via: Sam Mobile

Come comment on this article: Samsung teaming up with Google to make TouchWiz better than iOS

18
Dec

VLC media player finally comes to Chrome OS thanks to Android Runtime on Chrome


vlc_video_player_landscape_TABetter late than never, right? VLC has announced that they’re finally bringing their fantastic media playing application to Google’s Chrome OS, marking off the last check box on its compatibility list.

What’s interesting is how the VLC managed to get things working, since Chrome OS technically doesn’t support normal “programs” like you’d download on Windows/OS X/Linux. If you’ve ever used Chrome OS, you know it uses apps/programs that are basically run inside of Chrome, the web browser, which all use Javascript. For something like VLC, porting the program over to Javascript from mostly C and C++ code was nearly impossible, which is what has kept the player away from Chrome OS for so long.

However, since Google announced the Android Runtime for Chrome that would allow some Android applications to run on Chrome OS, the VLC developers were able to use most of the Android application’s code to run on Chrome OS without a problem. That means this version of VLC is essentially the Android app, built to work on Chrome OS. Pretty nifty workaround, if you ask me.

The first release seems to have all of the features of the normal VLC player, so you won’t be missing anything by using it on Chrome OS instead of a different environment.

source: VLC

Come comment on this article: VLC media player finally comes to Chrome OS thanks to Android Runtime on Chrome

18
Dec

Uber delivering Christmas trees in Germany


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Turns out Uber isn’t as evil as all the Taxi drivers say it is. Uber will be delivering Christmas trees for free to residents of two German cities, Berlin and Munich.

Uber and online retailer Meine Tanne are teaming up to provide north German firs for 19.90 euros ($21.60). The trees will start being delivered on December 20th.

Germany General Manager Christian Freese said,

“It’s very conceivable that on-demand services will also become established in Germany in the long term,”

Uber has already been expanding their driving services to delivery services in the US with UberRUSH. It now looks like they might be trying out other countries too.

Source: Bloomberg

 

Come comment on this article: Uber delivering Christmas trees in Germany

18
Dec

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge used to make a professional quality short film


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I have seen tons of comparisons between modern smartphone cameras and professional cameras over the years. Each year they get closer and closer, but not quite there yet. However, that doesn’t mean an excellent smartphone camera can’t be used to film a professional quality short film and look great.

Part 1 of the film has been released by Jens Rijsdijk, Sjoerd de Bont and Kuba Szutkowski, three up-and-coming directors who used an S6 Edge as their only camera. The short film also has an interesting idea behind it as this first part was shot by Sjoerd de Bont, and the next two parts will be shot by the other two directors. However, each director must continue off from where the last one started. As you’ll see by the part 1, it could go anywhere.

Samsung is using the film as a promotion for the Galaxy S6 Edge. Either way, it still shows just how great their smartphone camera is, and how it can be used to create professional quality films in the right hands.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source: Samsung

Come comment on this article: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge used to make a professional quality short film

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