Pebble slashes pricing for Pebble Time and Pebble Time Round smartwatches

Pebble needs to keep consumers interested, especially with so many wearables now flooding the market.

The smartwatch-maker has therefore announced deep price cuts for two of its smartwatch models. Starting today, you can get the Pebble Time for $149.99 and the Pebble Time Round for $199.99. They’ve both been given $50 discounts. The Time Steel watch still costs $249.99

If you’ve bought either of these smartwatches on or after 21 January, Pebble said you can email the company (at order@pebble.com) to get a $50 refund. You’ll need to put “Price Adjustment” in the subject along with your original order number though. But that’s all you need to do.

Apart from new USD prices for the Pebble Time and the Pebble Time Round, Pebble revealed via a blog post it is also implementing “improved European and UK prices for our entire lineup – make joining the Pebble community or upgrading to the latest models easier than ever.”

Pebble is lowering prices in the UK for the Pebble Time to £149.99, whilst the Pebble Time Round will be available for £179.99. Prices across the range are also being lowered, however. Pebble is £79.99, for instance, and the Pebble Steel is £119.99. The Pebble Time Steel is £199.99.

Alongside these price changes, Pebble has elaborated on the success of its Pebble Health app that launched last December. Although it is a built-in feature for Pebble watches, the company boasted 90 per cent of Time watches have activated it and two-thirds use it weekly.

Pebble plans to add more features soon, including a new section in the main Pebble app for activity history.

Google I/O 2016: Here’s how and when to get your tickets

Google’s big developer conference is just around the corner, and so the company has announced when and how you’ll be able to attend.

Google launched the Google I/O 2016 website with information about the conference, including when you can register, how much it will cost you, and more. We’ve dug out the most relevant tidbits and laid it all out below.

Google I/O 2016: When is the conference?

Google’s annual developer conference will kick off 18 May this year.

Google I/O 2016: When does registration open?

Google is doing a lottery system again this year, meaning anyone can apply to get tickets but only a few will be accepted. It will open registration 8 March at 9 am PST and keep it open until 10 March at 5 pm PST. When the registration period closes, Google will randomly select applicants and notify them via email. Those applicants will then have a chance to buy tickets to the show.

Google I/O 2016: Where do you register?

Go to the Google I/O website during the registration period to start the application process.

Google I/O 2016: What do you need to register?

In order to register, you’ll need to sign in with your Google account. Previously, you also needed a credit card, but Google hasn’t specified that this time around. Once you have those two things handy, you’ll be able to complete the required registration application online.

Google I/O 2016: How much are tickets?

General admission tickets cost $900, while academic tickets are $300 each.

Google I/O 2016: Which events are scheduled?

The I/O 2016 website doesn’t yet reveal how events will work between 18 May and 20 May, but Google has announced the main keynote – now called the developer festival – will be held at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View.

Google I/O 2016: What can you expect?

Google I/O is a developer event, where Google previews the next version of Android as well as updates to core products, such as Chromebooks.

We also expect to hear stuff about virtual reality, the latest versions of Google Glass, and more. Check out our Google hub for all the latest.

Google I/O 2016: Will there be a live stream?

Yes. The main events are live-streamed via the Google I/O website, so if you’re not interested in attending, you can still tune in to watch.

Google I/O 2016: Want to know more?

Check out Google’s FAQ page for more details.

‘Forza Motorsport’ comes to Windows PCs this spring

Forza Motorsport is one of the precious few realistic racing games to hit the mainstream, but you’ve had to play it on an Xbox so far. You typically have to try games like Live for Speed or Project Cars to get your fix on a PC. Well, you won’t have to make that hard choice for much longer — Microsoft and Turn 10 are bringing the series to Windows 10 PCs. The upcoming Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is a free, distilled version of FM6 that shows what the previously Xbox One-only title can do with all the brawn of a gaming PC behind it. It makes full use of DirectX 12 to produce convincing visual effects, and it’ll run in 4K if you have the monster graphics hardware needed to do the resolution justice.

Don’t expect a carbon copy of the full console game when Apex arrives this spring. It “only” has 63 cars (versus 460 in the original) and six locations (versus 26), so this is more akin to Polyphony’s Gran Turismo mini games than anything else. Thankfully, the developers aren’t just giving you Xbox table scraps. Microsoft says this is really just a teaser for “future Forza experiences” on Windows, a proof-of-concept that shows it can work. You might just see the next title (c’mon, FM7!) arrive on the PC roughly in sync with its living room counterpart.

Source: Xbox Wire

DirecTV streaming services won’t require a satellite dish

AT&T isn’t about to sit on its thumbs while Dish’s Sling TV scoops up people eager to ditch conventional TV. It’s introducing a trio of DirecTV streaming services in the fourth quarter of this year that won’t require a satellite dish or existing AT&T services — your phone, PC or media hub will be fine. The core service is DirecTV Now, which will offer “much” of DirecTV’s regular live and on-demand content. If you’re only interested in handheld video, DirecTV Mobile will offer a mix of “premium” videos and digital content on phones. And if you just want a peek, DirecTV Preview will give you a free, ad-supported slice of content from the networks and Otter Media, AT&T’s online team-up with the Chernin Group.

The company isn’t spilling the beans on pricing beyond vague promises that the paid services will be “affordable” and allow for multiple simultaneous streams. So long as they’re reasonably down to Earth, though, this is a big move for AT&T. Rather than try to cling to traditional TV for as long as possible, it’s anticipating a day when many (if not most) of its customers are depending solely on a fast internet connection for all their video viewing. AT&T clearly stands to profit from that shift given high-priced internet services like Gigapower, but it beats pretending that the future will never come.

Source: AT&T

Watch the fastest-ever electric skateboard run

There’s no doubt that electric skateboards can get you around town in a hurry, but they don’t hold a candle to this. Mischo Erban recently set a Guinness world record for the fastest speed on an e-skateboard, hitting 59.55MPH on NGV’s four-motor NEXTboard as he blazed down a Slovenian runway. Was it dangerous to ride at highway-level speeds? You bet — as you’ll see in the video below, Erban took a tumble that could easily wreck an unprotected rider. Don’t try this at home, folks.

You probably won’t use a board like this on the street any time soon as a result, but the good news is that this isn’t the end point for high-velocity motorized skateboarding. NGV is working on a race series that would use electric longboards, recreating the speed of downhill races anywhere there’s enough flat asphalt. If the company pulls it off, it might capture the thrill of motorsport on a much more personal scale.

Via: SlashGear

Source: Guinness World Records

Tidal fires its CFO and COO in latest executive shuffle

We’ve become accustomed to hearing about executive shuffles at Tidal over the last several months. According to both Norweigan newspaper Dagens Næringsliv and Swedish news outlet Breakit, the streaming service fired both its CFO Chris Hart and COO Nils Juell. Breakit reports that Hart was axed after a dispute over the company’s refusal to release streaming numbers. Tidal confirmed that it terminated those two execs, but didn’t offer any further details. Hart and Juell are the latest in a line of Oslo-based employees to leave the company since Jay-Z purchased it, following the departures of CEO Peter Tonstad and product chief Ervin Draganovic last year.

In a statement to The Verge, Tidal added that it’s moving operations to New York while its product team will remain in Norway. The company also clarified that it does indeed share streaming figures with the Nielsen Music, unless an artist requests to keep that info under wraps. Tidal’s recent high-profile exclusives, including Beyonce’s new single and Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, are absent from the Billboard Charts. This would suggest that the service kept the streaming numbers on those two items from being released.

New albums from both West and Rihanna did muster brief boosts for Tidal’s iOS app, but the excitement has since waned. What’s more, we’ve yet to hear if the recent exclusives had any impact on the service’s subscriber numbers. For folks who hadn’t already taken advantage of the the free trial, nabbing access to The Life of Pablo is free of charge for a month, so the uptick in usage could certainly be temporary.

With the latest executive changes, we’ll be curious to see if Tidal’s approach changes in the coming months. Perhaps the company will stay the course on exclusive releases, live events and more as a means to attract new customers. However, until it reveals some figures, we’d surmise the hype around those exclusives fades quickly.

Via: The Verge

Source: Dagens Næringsliv, Breakit

Pirates hacked a shipping firm to find boats to raid

Seaborne pirates just borrowed a page from their land-based counterparts. A Verizon security report has revealed that raiders hacked a shipping company’s content management system to determine which ships were worth boarding, and where the valuable cargo was located. They not only knew when to launch a raid, but the exact crates they had to pry open — they could get in, steal the cargo they want and leave without the risk of a days-long, Captain Philips-style hostage situation.

In this case, the pirates still had a lot to learn about hacking. They didn’t encrypt their commands or use proxies, making it easy to trace their activities. They also weren’t skilled enough to compromise systems as much as they wanted. However, those tidbits aren’t about to comfort other shipping companies. If there’s a pirate outfit that’s both well-armed and technically savvy, it could create havoc by plundering ships with relatively little fear of getting caught.

Via: Business Insider

Source: Verizon

Brazil detains Facebook VP after he failed to give up user data

Apple isn’t the only company in hot water over encryption. Facebook’s VP of Latin America, Diego Dzodan, was detained by police this morning in Brazil after the company failed to comply with a court order to hand over Whatsapp user data, CNN reports. The big problem: Whatsapp (which Facebook owns) fully encrypts messages between users, and it has no records of messages sent. Even if it were to get access to a specific device, the encryption is likely too difficult for the company to crack.

“WhatsApp cannot provide information we do not have,” the company said in a statement. “We cooperated to the full extent of our ability in this case and while we respect the important job of law enforcement, we strongly disagree with its decision.”

Facebook received a court order to hand over the data four months ago, which authorities said was related to a drug trafficking investigation. The Brazilian court ended up issuing the order three times, and it started to fine Facebook around $12,600 for not following through, CNN reports. That fine jumped to $253,000 a day last month, and on February 7 the court also issued a warrant for Dzodan.

His detention comes after Brazilian authorities shut down Whatsapp for two days back in December for reasons that still aren’t clear. The messaging app has has over 93 million users in Brazil, so it makes sense why Facebook would be hesitant to lose their trust.

“We’re disappointed with the extreme and disproportionate measure of having a Facebook executive escorted to a police station in connection with a case involving WhatsApp, which operates separately from Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “Facebook has always been and will be available to address any questions Brazilian authorities may have.”

Dual Camera Smartphones Expected to Inspire New ‘Killer Apps’

Spurred by industry leaders like Apple and Huawei, adoption of dual-camera or dual-lens smartphones is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. “We think the dual-cam rally is more about when than if,” Morgan Stanley analyst Jasmine Lu wrote in a recent research report.

Lu believes dual cameras will catch on due to their impressive image quality and for future capabilities like 3D object mapping and depth analysis, all of which have the potential to lead to “killer apps” from smartphone manufacturers and third-party developers.

Dual cameras in the Huawei P9, image via VentureBeat

“We believe dual-cam not only helps narrow the image quality gap with SLR cameras but also allows developers to design new killer apps by leveraging in-depth analysis/mapping for 3D objects,” Lu wrote. “We expect dual-cam to trigger a multiyear upgrade cycle for the optical industry.”

Rumors suggest Apple is working on a version of the iPhone 7 Plus that includes dual-lens camera technology acquired in its LinX purchase last year. LinX worked on smartphone cameras with the potential to cut down on noise, boost light sensitivity, enable refocusing, and improve the level of detail in captured images, narrowing the quality gap between DSLRs and mobile device cameras.

LinX camera modules were also capable of creating detailed depth maps to create 3D models. Such capabilities in the iPhone could lead to apps that are able to do impressive things, from mapping the layout of a room for envisioning new furniture layouts to 3D scanning a real-world object for printing or manipulation purposes. New augmented and mixed reality games that merge real-world objects with virtual objects are also a possibility with that kind of technology. Apps, says Lu, are a key factor that could heavily impact the appeal of dual camera devices.

Early dual camera smartphones may not focus on advanced features like 3D depth mapping, but as dual camera adoption expands and technology improves, it is a logical direction for dual camera evolution.

Apple, with the iPhone 7 Plus, and Huawei, with the upcoming P9, are expected to be the main drivers of dual camera adoption in 2016. The iPhone 7 Plus won’t be available until September, but the P9, images of which were shared this morning by VentureBeat, is expected in the first half of 2016. Rumors suggest the camera will enable features like post-capture refocus and simulated aperture adjustment.
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