Google might make a VR headset that doesn’t need a phone to work
We have been hearing talk that Google is working on a new VR headset. They already have the Google Cardboard, but this one is said to be much better.
One of the reasons this headset will be much better, and totally different from anything else out there, is the fact that it will be an all-in-one device. It won’t need a phone or a PC in order to work.
Google is actually said to be releasing two new VR headsets. One that is similar to a Samsung Gear VR, which uses a phone to be powered, and another one that doesn’t need anything else to work. The second one would be in its own class as everything else out there must have other devices to function properly.
We don’t know if these reports are true or not as we have heard that one headset is supposed to debut this year, however, we have also heard that Google might dump the idea entirely. If the rumours are true, a likely time frame to see the device would probably be at the Google I/O developer conference later this year. However, it would probably be the headset that works with phones first, and not the stand-alone one just yet.
Come comment on this article: Google might make a VR headset that doesn’t need a phone to work
Samsung pushing 91MB update to the Gear S2
People with Samsung’s Gear S2 are being greeted with a software update that ushers in performance improvements and bug fixes.
Here’s the full changelog:
- This update includes new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes.
- Add new applications: World Clock, ESPN, News Briefing
- Add new watch faces: Mendini watch faces
- Add search function in the Contacts application
- Add new screen time out Setting (Settings – Display – Screen timeout)
- Show an unread notification indicator on the watch face
- Alert shown when Bluetooth connection is disconnected
- Enter emojis directly using the keyboard
- You should upgrade the Samsung Gear application to the latest version for this update.
- Some changes may vary depending on countries
The software update, which is labeled as version R720XXU2BPA4, is 91MB.
Samsung’s Gear S2 (along with the Gear S2 Classic model) was released in October 2015 after debuting at IFA 2015. Then, at CES 2016, the company announced two new variants of the Gear S2 Classic are on the way. The Gear S2 Classic in Rose Gold and Platinum will be sold by Amazon, Best Buy, Macy’s, and other retailers starting tomorrow, February 12.
Come comment on this article: Samsung pushing 91MB update to the Gear S2
Samsung pushing 91MB update to the Gear S2
People with Samsung’s Gear S2 are being greeted with a software update that ushers in performance improvements and bug fixes.
Here’s the full changelog:
- This update includes new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes.
- Add new applications: World Clock, ESPN, News Briefing
- Add new watch faces: Mendini watch faces
- Add search function in the Contacts application
- Add new screen time out Setting (Settings – Display – Screen timeout)
- Show an unread notification indicator on the watch face
- Alert shown when Bluetooth connection is disconnected
- Enter emojis directly using the keyboard
- You should upgrade the Samsung Gear application to the latest version for this update.
- Some changes may vary depending on countries
The software update, which is labeled as version R720XXU2BPA4, is 91MB.
Samsung’s Gear S2 (along with the Gear S2 Classic model) was released in October 2015 after debuting at IFA 2015. Then, at CES 2016, the company announced two new variants of the Gear S2 Classic are on the way. The Gear S2 Classic in Rose Gold and Platinum will be sold by Amazon, Best Buy, Macy’s, and other retailers starting tomorrow, February 12.
Come comment on this article: Samsung pushing 91MB update to the Gear S2
‘Grand Theft Auto 5’ outsold almost every game in January
Rockstar Games is reaping the rewards of keeping GTA Online fresh with things like heist missions and holiday-themed events for these past few years. Grand Theft Auto 5 was the number two selling game last month amid slowing console hardware sales, a bizarre fact considering it debuted almost two-and-a-half years ago. September 2013, to be exact. Of course, that evergreen gateway to GTA Online‘s multiplayer has also benefitted from a staggered release starting on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, later coming to PC and then PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Regardless, how crazy this is wasn’t lost on the NPD Group’s David Riley:
“This is the third consecutive January where Grand Theft Auto V was a Top 5 title. Astonishingly, the game has moved up in ranking placement from fifth place in January 2014, to third in January 2015 and to the second-best selling game in January 2016.”
In January alone, Rockstar’s (online-and-off) crime simulator outsold last fall’s heavyweights Star Wars Battlefront, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege and Fallout 4. And it handily beat out Lego Marvel Avengers, which released last month and sits near the bottom of the sales charts.
The only game it couldn’t topple was Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. But hell, when publisher Activision reports that after less than two months at retail its futuristic shooter was the top-selling console title (PDF) in 2015 even a juggernaut like GTA is going to have a hard time closing that gap. I’d be remiss to not mention that Minecraft did something similar last August, however, taking silver over GTA 5‘s fourth place finish. Still, this is incredibly rare.
The NPD Group famously doesn’t record digital sales data from the likes of Steam or PlayStation Store, but Rockstar parent company Take Two Interactive recently revealed that to date, GTA V has sold over 60 million copies worldwide across all platforms.
The average is going to be a little off considering the game sold over 11 million copies in its first 24 hours, but it’s like Rockstar has moved two million copies per month, every month, since its initial release.
Now, if only we could get some news on that single-player expansion…
‘Grand Theft Auto 5’ outsold almost every game in January
Rockstar Games is reaping the rewards of keeping GTA Online fresh with things like heist missions and holiday-themed events for these past few years. Grand Theft Auto 5 was the number two selling game last month amid slowing console hardware sales, a bizarre fact considering it debuted almost two-and-a-half years ago. September 2013, to be exact. Of course, that evergreen gateway to GTA Online‘s multiplayer has also benefitted from a staggered release starting on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, later coming to PC and then PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Regardless, how crazy this is wasn’t lost on the NPD Group’s David Riley:
“This is the third consecutive January where Grand Theft Auto V was a Top 5 title. Astonishingly, the game has moved up in ranking placement from fifth place in January 2014, to third in January 2015 and to the second-best selling game in January 2016.”
In January alone, Rockstar’s (online-and-off) crime simulator outsold last fall’s heavyweights Star Wars Battlefront, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege and Fallout 4. And it handily beat out Lego Marvel Avengers, which released last month and sits near the bottom of the sales charts.
The only game it couldn’t topple was Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. But hell, when publisher Activision reports that after less than two months at retail its futuristic shooter was the top-selling console title (PDF) in 2015 even a juggernaut like GTA is going to have a hard time closing that gap. I’d be remiss to not mention that Minecraft did something similar last August, however, taking silver over GTA 5‘s fourth place finish. Still, this is incredibly rare.
The NPD Group famously doesn’t record digital sales data from the likes of Steam or PlayStation Store, but Rockstar parent company Take Two Interactive recently revealed that to date, GTA V has sold over 60 million copies worldwide across all platforms.
The average is going to be a little off considering the game sold over 11 million copies in its first 24 hours, but it’s like Rockstar has moved two million copies per month, every month, since its initial release.
Now, if only we could get some news on that single-player expansion…
Foursquare wants you to order food from its phone app
Foursquare doesn’t just want to help you find nearby restaurants these days… it wants to bring the food to you. It’s partnering with Delivery.com to let you order food, groceries and even alcohol through its mobile app. It’s technically kicking you over to Delivery.com’s app to finish the order, but that’s almost beside the point — you can have that new Indian restaurant deliver some food rather than remind yourself to check it out later.
Is this going to help Foursquare turn a corner? It’s hard to say. There certainly isn’t a shortage of food delivery services, some of which have a big head start. Foursquare might not be the first place you turn to when you’re feeling peckish and want to stay home. However, the company’s many business customers are going to like it a lot. Foursquare’s delivery option is that much more likely to turn their location info into paying customers.
Source: Delivery.com (PR Newswire)
Foursquare wants you to order food from its phone app
Foursquare doesn’t just want to help you find nearby restaurants these days… it wants to bring the food to you. It’s partnering with Delivery.com to let you order food, groceries and even alcohol through its mobile app. It’s technically kicking you over to Delivery.com’s app to finish the order, but that’s almost beside the point — you can have that new Indian restaurant deliver some food rather than remind yourself to check it out later.
Is this going to help Foursquare turn a corner? It’s hard to say. There certainly isn’t a shortage of food delivery services, some of which have a big head start. Foursquare might not be the first place you turn to when you’re feeling peckish and want to stay home. However, the company’s many business customers are going to like it a lot. Foursquare’s delivery option is that much more likely to turn their location info into paying customers.
Source: Delivery.com (PR Newswire)
GravityBox, the Xposed module to rule your rooted device – Android customization
Continuing our efforts learning some basic root tools to better control your device, this week’s Android customization finishes off our initial set of Xposed modules, let’s take GravityBox for a spin. As one of the most robust Xposed modules around, GravityBox does a lot more than just a task or two like the modules we’ve previously explored.
Before we begin
As always, you will need a fairly modern Android device running a stock version of Android, it will need to have been rooted, custom recovery and Xposed flashed to it and the Xposed Installer installed and ready to roll. I’ll put a link to instructions on these tasks below.
Once inside Xposed on your device, search for and install the appropriate GravityBox for your device. Please take careful note of which version of Android you have installed, as you can see, my Nexus 7 is running Lollipop, there is a specific version of GravityBox for Android 6.x Marshmallow – I don’t want to explain it here, but it matters which you choose.
Rooting your device, a few things to think about
Xposed module and installer basics
GravityBox for Marshmallow now available
GravityBox, an overview
So, what’s the big deal with this GravityBox I keep talking about? Truth is, there are smaller apps and modules to perform almost every feature found in GravityBox, but you’ll be hard pressed to find one that does it all the way GravityBox can.
As a brief overview, GravityBox can control most aspects of your notification bar, the notification drawer, quick settings, navigation bar, power options and controls, audio options and controls, add extra navigation bars and functions, add physical keyboard hotkeys for specific apps, tweak phone settings, tweak display settings and a few more cool features. Bottom line, if you want to play around with the visual layout of the operating system pieces, GravityBox is your one-stop-shop of fun.
GravityBox is free, but there is an option to support the developer in exchange for some extra functionality. Primarily, you’ll be able to backup and restore your GravityBox settings, which can be hugely useful if you often reset your device.
We will likely play with GravityBox more than once in this customization series, but for today, let’s look at a couple easy examples.
Relocate your clock and add a network utilization indicator to your notification bar
It will be easy to tackle both of these settings in very short order, but let’s start with the clock before moving to the network usage indicator.
With GravityBox installed, head on in and tap on Statusbar tweaks.
Half way down the page is the option for Clock settings, tap on it.
The third option in the list is a toggle called Center clock. You’ll never believe what it does! Go ahead, turn it on.
Look at that, there are a ton of other settings you can play with, but we’ve accomplished our goal for today.
Now it’s time to add that network utilization indicator to the notification bar. This is almost as easy as the clock to manage. If you’ve just finished tweaking the clock, you can back up one screen to get to the Data traffic monitor, but let’s start from the beginning again, it’s easy enough.
In GravityBox, tap on Statusbar tweaks.
Choose Data traffic monitor.
Tap on Data traffic monitor style and choose either Simple Style or Omni style.
Simple style adds a single data usage metric, I’ve opted for Omni style, which shows independently the values for incoming and outgoing data – that is, your current download and upload speeds.
Once again, there are a handful of cool extras you can play with, but we have accomplished our goal for now.
What’s next
As you likely noticed, we explored only two small tools of one small aspect of GravityBox. Making simple changes to the clock and adding a network utilization indicator are great examples of the power of this root tool, we look forward to exploring more in the future.
Before you back out completely, did you notice that you can change the Statusbar colors? That’s right, one of the other Xposed modules we’ve played with, called Clockhex, allowed us to change the color of the clock, Simply tap into Statusbar colors and change all of the system status icons and text to a new color. A small thing, sure, but this is a level of customization that inspires me to continue this series, these things are why I Android.
Next week
If you are not brave, rest assured we will revisit GravityBox again in the future, there is so much it can do, we may not even install Tasker on this device. Next week on our Android customization series is again up in the air, I am still working on a few cool Android wear ideas, but if I can’t get them together, we’ll look at a few more fun and useful GravityBox tweaks.
What do you say, is there any one small thing on your Android device that you’d like to see changed? If so, let’s see if GravityBox can do it for you.
More Android customization projects:
‘Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories’ makes its way to Android
Rockstar has added another Grand Theft Auto entry to their mobile portfolio, this time adding Liberty City Stories to the Play Store. This is a port of the original PSP game, which was designed with a mobile-first mentality before smartphone gaming exploded. The missions are focused more around being quick and accessible, as opposed to the longer, more meaty style that you’d find on the console versions of GTA.
That’s not to say Rockstar has simply released a straight port of the older game, however. The resolution textures have been improved, there’s a new real-time lighting effect system in place, and there’s a much bigger draw distance to take advantage of the better hardware available now. The controls are obviously mobile-friendly, but it does support physical controllers and Android TV, so if you don’t want to sit down and play this on your touch screen, you’ve got options.
The game is currently 40% and only $3.99, so if you want to pick it up, now’s the time to do it.
Click here to view the embedded video.
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[Deal] Gamer gifts from NVIDIA Shield
Still looking for a Valentine’s Day gift for someone special? NVIDIA has you covered.
NVIDIA is offering six games for the Shield at a discount of up to 67 percent through Feb. 14.
Is your significant other a fan of adventure games? Pick up The Park in the GeForce NOW store for 33 percent off the regular $12.99 price. That’s a savings of about $4.29. You can also get Submerged in the GeForce NOW store for 25 percent off the regular price of $19.99. That means you save about $5.
NVIDIA is also offering four native Android games at big discounts. Juju is now available for 50 percent off the regular price of $9.99, while Dustoff Heli Rescue can be had for $1.50, down from the regular $2.99.
If you’re into role-playing simulations, you can grab This War of Mine for just under $5, a 66 percent savings off the regular price of $14.49. You could also grab Windward for 66 percent off the regular price of $9.99.
The savings are only good through the weekend, so get moving.
Source: NVIDIA
Come comment on this article: [Deal] Gamer gifts from NVIDIA Shield
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