Sony buys a chip maker to boost its Internet of Things
You probably don’t think of Sony as an an Internet of Things company (unless you count light bulb speakers), but it might change your mind soon. The Japanese tech giant just bought Altair Semiconductor, a chip maker focused on LTE hardware, to put always-available internet connections into more of its devices. It’s not saying much about what that future hardware will look like, but the $212 million deal should meld Sony’s existing sensor tech (such as camera sensors and navigation) with 4G data to create a “new breed” of gadgets. Don’t be shocked if many of Sony’s future electronics are always online, even when you’re nowhere near a WiFi hotspot.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Gregory Bull]
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Sony
Engadget giveaway: Win $600 worth of SCOTTeVEST tech wear!
If your New Year’s resolution was to get organized, this week’s giveaway could definitely help. SCOTTeVEST’s (SeV) clothing line keeps your gear at hand without needing a bag, using staggered pocket placement and weight management to keep you comfortable. There’s more than just vests, of course, with a variety of jackets, shirts, shorts, hats and accessories for both men and women. Touch pockets provide quick access to mobile screens and RFID-blocking zones will keep travel documents and wallets safe from airwave outlaws. There are even super-sized pockets for iPad fanatics — heck, Steve Wozniak is on the SCOTTeVEST advisory board. You can head over to the company’s website for a deep dive on all the products, but one lucky Engadget reader will be armed with a $600 gift certificate to load up on this tech-savvy swag. Just head on down to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning an SeV shopping spree.
- Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
- Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
- Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive a $600 gift code for a SCOTTeVEST online shopping spree (and free shipping if you’re in the US). *The funds must be spent in one single online order.
- If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email or Facebook login. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
- This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
- The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
- Entries can be submitted until Jan. 27th at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
Google’s Inbox app now has smarter search results
Google’s Inbox may take a bit of getting used to, especially if you’ve been using the plain vanilla Gmail interface for years, but once you dig in there’s a lot of powerful and useful features to find. (Some of them can get a little weird, though.) Today, Google is releasing some tweaks to make Inbox’s search feature more useful. For starters, when you look for something like a shipping tracking number, frequent flyer number, hotel reservation, bill or a number of other pieces of info that are buried somewhere in your email account, Inbox will surface it at the top of your search results.
It pops that info up in a card that looks quite similar to the information Inbox intelligently surfaces from your emails. The thinking goes that email users search their messages for specific info like this pretty frequently, so anything Google can do to surface that data quicker is a win. Along with the most pertinent bit of data that you’re searching for, Inbox will also feature a quick link directly to the email you’re looking for if you need to see it in its full context.
Below those quick results, Inbox will show a section of “top results,” with and the full chronological search results will be displayed below that. The Inbox team is confident that between the new “quick answers” and top search results, you won’t need to dig into the full search details very often, though there’s no word on exactly how it decides what emails to show in your top results.
If you’ve seen these features already, it’s because Google has done a bit of testing with them already — the company says that it made some notable improvements in its search ranking algorithms as they apply to email in the past few months. Now that they’ve completed the testing, these features are rolling out to all users, both in the Inbox app for Android and iOS as well as on the web.
LG admits G4 bootloop problem is a hardware fault, will repair affected devices
After several months of LG G4 owners complaining of a bootloop issue to no avail, we picked up the story and confronted LG. The official response has come through and it should make G4 owners happy: LG has acknowledged the LG G4 bootloop issue is a hardware defect and will repair affected devices.
According to the numerous posts on various social platforms and YouTube, the bootloop problem potentially affects all regional models and carrier-branded LG G4 units. After a prolonged investigation, LG has identified the source of the problem as a “loose contact between components” and vowed to repair it, with apologies to LG G4 owners that have been suffering from this problem with no resolution in sight.
Here’s the full statement LG made to Android Authority:
LG Electronics has been made aware of a booting issue with the LG G4 smartphone that has now been identified as resulting from a loose contact between components. Customers who are experiencing booting issues with their LG G4s should contact their local carrier from where the G4 was purchased or a nearby LG Service Center (www.lg.com/common) for repair under full warranty.
Customers who purchased their G4 devices from non-carrier retailers should contact an LG Service Center with the understanding that warranty conditions will differ. LG Electronics is committed to providing the highest standards of product quality and customer service and apologizes for the inconvenience caused to some of our customers who initially received incorrect diagnoses.
If you have a LG G4 with bootloop problems, you should now be able to get the troublesome connector repaired and get your phone back in working condition. LG confirmed that earlier attempts to fix the problem were misdiagnoses which led to the wrong parts being replaced. With the problem properly identified, it should be smooth sailing for repairs from here on in.
Uber is using smartphone data to alert it to bad drivers
Although Uber’s review system allows both riders and drivers to submit feedback on a recent journey, it can be hard for the company to know what really happened. Did a driver constantly break the speed limit or was a customer totally unfair with their feedback? Without evidence, it’s simply one person’s word against another’s. Uber has a plan to change that, though. Using gyroscopes and GPS chips built into driver and passenger smartphones, the company’s new scheme will log when a driver is (or isn’t) driving dangerously. Feedback will still be welcome, but the idea is to back up words and scores with cold hard data.
To ease tracking fears, Uber says it will only be able to “review” complaints after they’ve been submitted, not detect driver errors as they happen. If a rider leaves feedback saying that a driver took corners too fast, the company can use data collected from its apps to see if that was actually the case. “Mostly it’s about talking to both sides,” says Joe Sullivan, Uber’s Chief Security Officer. “But increasingly technology can help get to the truth.”
Uber’s trials aren’t all about (potentially) vilifying drivers, though. In an effort to protect freelancers from disruptive passengers, the ridesharing service has begun leaving kids’ toys in the back of vehicles. In Charlotte, for instance, riders may find a Bop It toy, which has proved “a great way to keep drunk riders entertained so they don’t distract their driver.” Customers in Seattle will also see drivers use color-coded lights to make their vehicles more visible at night.
Via: Guardian
Source: Uber
Sherlock Pikachu is the best Pikachu
Nintendo has just announced a new (Japan-only) title starring Pikachu as a world-famous detective. Named Famous Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Partnership (translated by our Japan-based editor), it’s described as a cinematic adventure game in which a “smug,” “wise-cracking” Pikachu will team up with a boy named Tim to solve a mystery. We already have a trailer, which very, very clearly takes influence from the BBC’s Sherlock.
A Pokétective game has long been on the cards. After a soft reveal three years ago, The Pokémon Company fell silent and the title missed its 2015 estimated release date. We’d almost forgotten about it, until Pikachu donned a deerstalker and saved the day. Famous Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Partnership is due out on February 3rd as a Nintendo 3DS download-only title costing 1,500 yen ($12.50). Anyone ordering it before the end of February will receive a 20 percent discount. There’s no word on an English-language version of the game, but we’ll always have this trailer. No one can take that away from us.
Source: Nintendo Japan
Japan and Trains: The Love Affair
Snowfall causing train delays is nothing new. In the UK, where I’m from, this happens with hilarious, infuriating regularity. But last week, the first snow of 2016 brought Tokyo’s central railway lines and Metro to a halt: hour-long delays between stations normally located minutes apart, packed platforms and a lot of complaints. That’s because Japan’s railway system typically works flawlessly, from the immaculately clean trains that service the distant southern isles of Japan to the experimental high-speed, floating maglev cars that might hit 372 miles per hour. If you love trains, you’ll love Japan. And I just love them.
Let’s start with that long-standing symbol of high-tech Japan: bullet trains or Shinkansen. Japan’s first high-speed railway opened in 1964 and cut journeys between Tokyo and Osaka by two hours, down to four, making it as fast as air travel. (In Japan, low-cost airlines have only recently started to expand too, and many are now cheaper than a bullet train ride.) Even so, since its inception 5.6 billion people have ridden on the Tokaido between Tokyo and Osaka. To date, there hasn’t been a single fatal accident involving passengers aboard a bullet train.
The nation’s bullet train safety record is impressive, but this is even more so: The average delay of a bullet train trip along the entire Tokaido line is just 54 seconds, including disruptions due to natural disasters. When local (read: slower) Japan Rail trains are delayed over five minutes you can request a “delay certificate” to show your confused boss when you appear for your salaryman duties a little bit late.
A whole lot of late notes were needed last Monday. Overnight snow battered some local Tokyo lines more than others. But, because it happens so very rarely, when Japan’s railways do experience hiccups, they usually makes the news, like when a computer control system problem affected 81,000 passengers back in 2011, for example. After the error, Japan Rail East issued a lengthy seven-page apology.
Tokyo’s Metro system is also very, very popular. The annual ridership is double that of New York’s subway, even though the latter runs on a 24-hour schedule. You can see where this is going: Rush hour is hell even without snow getting in the way. For what it’s worth, at least, Japanese conventions and social rules keep the metro quiet. Hardly anyone eats or drinks on it, and I’ve never observed anyone playing music out of their smartphone. Nearly everyone uses contactless cards (or chips built into their phones) at the ticket gates, so getting in and out is swift and smooth. While citizens’ own behavior certainly contributes to how pristine the cars look, that’s only half the story. Watch a cleaning team polish off a bullet train in seven minutes — and remember that the average delay aboard the Shinkansen is under a minute.
Japan’s like-clockwork train system might get half-explained away by the country’s culture, but there’s cold, hard efficiency at work too. As The Economist notes, the country’s seven major railway companies own the land around their respective lines and rent it out. They also own the infrastructure, including stations, the tracks and the trains themselves. That makes for a more efficient system compared to countries where these parts are separately owned and operated.
Meanwhile, subway drivers are rigorously trained in a simulator that has, alongside 3D digital reproductions of the routes, the same controls, vibrations and “sense of movement” as real trains. In the Tokyo Metro itself, drivers cover the same lines again and again — gaining a creepy degree of affinity for the manual speed controls. If it takes one minute and 45 seconds to get between two stations, that’s exactly how long the journey will take.
Japan’s impressive safety track record (eye roll all you want, Dana) and pristine carriages don’t touch on the curious place that trains hold in popular culture in Japan. Driving a train (or a truck) is apparently the fourth most-popular job among Japanese boys. Meanwhile, a cat is a ceremonial stationmaster at a distant Wakayama station. (RIP Tama, long live Nitama!) Back in urban hubs, there are station workers donning white gloves cramming more people into trains during rush hour, women-only cars to reduce groping incidents, an Evangelion-themed Shinkansen and even limited-run regional trains, like this one with a built-in foot bath:
Central Japan Rail continues to work and test its faster, next-generation maglev bullet train. Even without hitting its current top speed of 372 mph, next-gen lines will still cut commuting times to Tokyo in half. It’s scheduled to run in 2027, and tickets are likely to be even more expensive than the Shinkansen. Some experts suggest that it could be a very pricey mistake for the company, unless the railway tech gets picked up overseas.
Other countries are certainly interested in adding high-speed trains to ease congested roads, whether it’s maglev-powered or not. California’s high-speed rail project has already started, but Japan’s companies are looking to other possibly locations, including a lucrative line between New York City and Washington DC. The UK is working on HS2, its own (troubled) high-speed rail network; France has its TGV; and China is testing and selling its own high-speed trains. Other countries have and will overcome the technical challenges of high-speed, but I doubt they can they best the reliability and quirks of Japan’s train lines.
にゃんご！ニタマごちゃんすごいにゃんご！’「世界のニタマに」ですって！！ かっこい〜っ！にゃんご！ pic.twitter.com/jMKfi9lEYr
— 駅長たま (@ekichoTAMA) June 20, 2015
[Image credits: Getty Creative, Tokyo Metro, Discovery Channel, Kyodo]
Spotify video streaming rolls out to Android users
Video streaming has finally arrived to Spotify on Android devices, giving you more to do than just listen to audio. As earlier reports revealed, content is available from providers like NBC, Comedy Central and BBC, along with popular video podcasts. To access the new feature, go to “browse” and select “shows,” or check the “video” option in your library. You can then find content providers and follow shows or playlist “bundles” of video, just like you would with audio playlists. The company said that it’s aiming to suggest video content that’s in line with music that you’re already listening to.
The feature is supposed to arrive to iOS soon, but Spotify has no immediate plans to launch it on the desktop app. “Obviously our primary user is a music fan, and they are not necessarily leaning in and looking into the app,” VP Shiva Rajaraman told the WSJ. Most of the clips are relatively short, but unlike with the regular version of YouTube, for instance, they’re ad-free. Given that you can watch them without a subscription, it’s not yet clear how Spotify plans to monetize the videos, however. With 75 million users, they’ll no doubt boost the company’s bandwidth requirements significantly.
Apple Watch 2 Said to Enter Mass Production in Mid 2016
Quanta will be the sole manufacturer of the second-generation Apple Watch, according to a few sources out of the China supply chain (via DigiTimes). The same sources believe that the manufacturing company will ramp up mass production on the “Apple Watch 2” sometime in the second quarter of 2016, following reports that it began a trial production on the smartwatch this month.
The reason for Quanta’s status as the only Apple Watch 2 manufacturer stems from rumors surrounding Apple’s predicted low-volume production output for the second-generation wearable device. Citing “weaker than expected shipments” of the first Apple Watch, the supply chain sources point to the company’s tempered production forecast for its next version of the wrist-worn device.
Apple originally considered shifting some second-generation Apple Watch orders to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), but decided to keep all the orders with Quanta as volumes will not be high, the sources noted. Because of Apple Watch’s weaker than expected shipments, Apple recently reduced the device’s shipment forecast for 2016 down further from its estimate in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Although Apple has remained quiet on specific sales numbers for the Apple Watch, estimates put the wearable as a consistent rival to similar products, including Fitbit, with numbers only growing in the lead-up to the holiday season last year. Recent rumors point to the possibility of an interim update for the Apple Watch in March, including only one or two new features (like a FaceTime camera), and with a proper full 2.0 model released later in the year.
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HTC’s Hot Deals could get you 30% off of the One M9
HTC today launched its next Hot Deals promotion, allowing customers to take 30% off a $650 order.
It’s actually a neat deal, if you don’t mind getting something that isn’t the latest and greatest from HTC. The Taiwanese-based company’s latest flagship, the One A9, is nowhere near that $650 price point; however, snagging HTC’s One M9 from the company will cost about $650. That will net you that 30% off discount, bringing the final price to $454. That’s some massive savings right there!
In the same vein, a $500 and $150 order will get you a 20% and 15% off discount, respectively.
Keep in mind that this discount isn’t exclusive to smartphones. If you wanted to snag a One A9, you still can, but you’ll need to add more product to your cart in order to take advantage of that 30% off coupon. With the flagship costing $500 from the company, you will be able to use the 20% off option.
Another thing to note: the promotion only lasts until midnight tonight, and those in the US are the only eligible customers to take advantage of this promotion, unfortunately.
Does anyone plan on buying anything from HTC today?
source: HTC
Come comment on this article: HTC’s Hot Deals could get you 30% off of the One M9
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