Here Maps stops supporting Windows devices

We hope you weren’t counting on Here Maps to provide directions on your Lumia. Here has announced that it’s dropping much of its support for Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile. The company is pulling its apps from Windows 10’s app store on March 29th, and a workaround that kept its apps running will stop working after June 30th. The Here apps for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 will continue to work, but you won’t get more than “critical bug fixes” from now on.

Here says that it didn’t have much of a choice. If it wanted to continue supporting Windows 10 without that workaround, it had to rewrite its apps “from the ground up.” That’s a tough call when the entire Windows smartphone platform has just 1.1 percent of the market, if you believe estimates.

The move isn’t completely surprising. The German car manufacturers that bought Here don’t have the same incentive to support Windows that Nokia did, even after Microsoft acquired Nokia’s phone division. They’re interested in reaching the most people they can, and that means focusing on Android and iOS. This isn’t a fatal blow, since you can still use the built-in Maps app on Windows 10 to get at least some of the Here Maps experience. However, it’s not exactly comforting when one of Windows’ premier app developers backs out amid a trend of other developers (such as Bank of America and Pinterest) doing the same.

Via: The Verge

Source: Here 360

Fossil unveils 7 more wearables, including Android Wear watches

When Fossil teased plans to have over 100 wearable devices on store shelves this year, it wasn’t clowning around. On top of the abundance of devices it has unveiled so far, it’s announcing seven more today. Leading the pack are two Android Wear smartwatches, the multi-finished Q Wander (above) and the slightly tougher Q Marshal. Both are available with 44mm and 46mm circular cases, wireless charging and choices of strap and body styles. They sell at the same $275 starting price as last year’s Q Founder, so they might be viable choices if rivals like the Huawei Watch or Moto 360 aren’t your cup of tea.

The rest are considerably stealthier. The Smart Analog Movement series expands on the Q Grant line, matching a conventional watch look with activity tracking and automatic time zone updates. Pricing isn’t immediately available, but the Q Grant started at $175. The Q Motion activity trackers, meanwhile, give you a mix of activity tracking and basic call/text notifications in bracelet form for $95.

This wristwear is just a fraction of what you’ll see in the near future, too. Fossil notes that its 100-plus devices will include models from several brands, including Chaps, Diesel, Emporio Armani, Kate Spade, Michael Kors, Misfit and Skagen. In short, the company is determined to stay on top of the wearable trend — it doesn’t want any of its labels to be seen as behind the times.

Via: Mashable

Source: Fossil, PR Newswire

Google uses VR to put you inside a Bruegel painting

The Google Cultural institute has been working for half a decade to make the world’s art accessible to everyone (with an internet connection). It’s done a decent job of it so far, digitizing thousands of paintings and sculptures from hundreds of museums and galleries across the globe. More recently, it created a 360-degree video to put you inside the orchestra pit of New York’s Carnegie Hall. Building on that experiment, it’s now used a lot more creativity to produce a similar video for the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium. A video that takes you inside Bruegel’s The Fall of the Rebel Angels.

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Google describes the project as “an experiment to explore how modern technology can supercharge the museum experience.” Although anyone can view the 360-degree video on YouTube (it’s also available through the museum’s app), those visiting the exhibition will be in for a treat. There, they’ll find the “Bruegel Box,” a small room with wall-to-wall projections showing gigapixel renderings of three paintings. “Spectators walk in to find themselves literally in the picture, shoulder-to-shoulder with villagers, preachers and mystical creatures,” the Cultural Institute explains.

Interestingly, only one of the paintings projected in the box is physically on display at the museum; the other two are hosted in Berlin and Budapest. Google believes this highlights the power of technology to improve the museum experience for visitors. You can find The Fall of the Rebel Angels below. It’s best viewed with Google Cardboard and a compatible phone, but you can also watch it just fine on your laptop or tablet.

Source: Google

Here’s an early taste of the ‘System Shock’ remake

Two decades after its original release, System Shock is being remade. Night Dive Studios, the developer in charge of the project, released some pre-alpha footage, and it looks great.

If you’ve never played the original, it’s a hugely influential atmospheric first-person RPG in a sci-fi horror setting. A great game in its own right, it spawned a more successful (and arguably better) sequel, System Shock 2. Some of the minds behind the originals went on to create games you’ve almost certainly heard of. Ken Levine made BioShock, considered by many to be a spiritual successor, while Warren Spector made Deus Ex, which also leans heavily on the System Shock 2 formula.

Night Dive’s video describes the game as System Shock 1 Remastered, but it’s clear that this is more remake than remaster. The original artist is on board to help upgrade the original assets, and with that some of the level layout is changing. Speaking with Polygon, the developer explained that many people’s only exposure to the series is through BioShock, so it’s making some tweaks to cater to modern gamers’ tastes. That means the tone of the narrative is also set to shift, as is some of the gameplay. but the overall plot will remain.

System Shock is due for release in 2017. A bonafide sequel, System Shock 3, is also in the early stages of development, with Spector at the helm.

Source: Night Dive (YouTube)

Potential First Photo of iPhone 7 Plus Shows Dual-Lens Camera and Smart Connector

The first possible real photo of the iPhone 7 Plus has surfaced on Chinese website Bastille Post, providing a closer look at the design of the upcoming smartphone.

The most notable change is the inclusion of a much-rumored dual-lens camera with a protruding, pill-shaped enclosure, as opposed to two separate circular camera openings depicted in some online renderings.

Rumors are conflicting about whether the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, or both smartphones will have dual cameras, but it now appears that at least one model may not have a completely flush camera as originally expected.

The dual-lens camera is accompanied by a microphone and an LED flash, as seen on previous iPhones, while the antenna bands have been repositioned along the top and bottom edges of the smartphone as we first reported last month.

There are also three dots towards the bottom of the iPhone 7 Plus that appear to be for a Smart Connector, a new interface first introduced on the iPad Pro that can transmit both data and power at the same time for use with accessories. It is, however, unknown how a Smart Connector would be used on an iPhone.

Working from past experience and the design of the phone shown in the leaked photo, aftermarket iPhone modification company Feld & Volk is already preparing its own custom versions of the device and has created several renderings that give a higher quality view of what the new iPhone would look like assuming this design is accurate.

The renderings highlight the same features shown in the photo, including the dual-lens camera housed in a single oval-shaped protrusion and a Smart Connector near the bottom of the device’s rear.

Based on its research, Feld & Volk believes that both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus may include a dual-lens camera, contradicting several other claims that the camera will be unique to the larger iPhone 7 Plus. Feld & Volk also believes the iPhone 7 will measure approximately 6.1 mm thick (not including the camera protrusion), substantially thinner than the iPhone 6s and in line with the current iPod touch.

The overall look and feel of the iPhone 7 Plus chassis shown in today’s leaked photo is largely consistent with both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s lineups, including a unibody aluminum shell, pill-shaped volume buttons, a mute switch, and side-facing power button.

The photo does not reveal the bottom of the smartphone, but multiple reports claim the iPhone 7 series will drop the 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of an all-in-one Lightning connector for audio output, charging, and accessory connectivity.

The extra room on the bottom supports rumors that the iPhone 7 lineup could feature dual speakers powered by audio hardware from Cirrus Logic, although there appears to still be conflicting information on this feature. Stereo speakers route audio signals through two channels to simulate direction perception and would likely be louder.

Eric Slivka contributed to this report.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Apple Seeds Seventh OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the seventh beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.4 update to developers for testing purposes, just over a week after seeding the sixth OS X 10.11.4 beta and more than a month after releasing OS X 10.11.3. OS X 10.11.4 has been in testing since January 11.

The seventh OS X 10.11.4 beta, build 15E64a, can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or via the Software Update Mechanism in the Mac App Store. The update is also available to members of Apple’s public beta testing program.

OS X 10.11.4 offers a couple of new features, such as Live Photos support in Messages, the ability to password protect notes in the Notes app, and an option to import notes from Evernote, but like the recent OS X 10.11.3 update, it appears to focus primarily on under-the-hood bug fixes and performance improvements. Almost all of Apple’s OS X updates to date have been smaller updates that improve performance rather than introduce new features.

We’ll update this post with any features or significant changes that are discovered in the seventh beta of OS X 10.11.4. OS X 10.11.4 is likely to see a spring release alongside iOS 9.3, tvOS 9.2, and watchOS 2.2, with the new software coming as early as March 21, the date of Apple’s planned spring event.

Related Roundup: OS X El Capitan
Tag: OS X 10.11.4
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Sulon Q Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

If you’re excited by virtual reality and you’ve been considering an HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift, you’ll be aware of one big mitigating factor: in addition to the several hundred dollars or pounds you’ll spend on the headset, you’ll need a very beefy PC in order to play those high-end VR games you’re dreaming of. That’s exactly what the Sulon Q wants to avoid.

According to the Toronto-based manufacturer, the Sulon is the Bob’s Country Bunker of headsets: it does both kinds of digital reality, augmented and virtual. And it’s a cord-cutter, doing it all “tether-free” — no wires, no external controllers, no tracking systems. “Wear and play” is the phrase that the Sulon people like to bandy around.

The Sulon Q ‘tether-free’ headset (pictures)
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It basically means that the Sulon is an AMD-powered PC you wear on your head, one that even comes with Windows 10 pre-installed. Here are the key specs:

• AMD FX-8800P processor with Radeon R7 graphics built in
• Proprietary Sulon spatial processing unit (SPU)
• 8GB memory
• 256GB SSD storage
• A 2,560×1,440-pixel resolution OLED display
• 3D spatial audio powered by GenAudio’s AstoundSound
• Built-in 3.5mm audio jack and custom spatially optimized Sulon Q earbuds
• Dual noise-cancelling embedded microphones
• Sensor package: accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer
• Microsoft Windows 10, plus AMD LiquidVR
• Wireless keyboard and mouse are provided, plus it will work with any other Windows 10-compatible controllers and joysticks
• Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0
• Two USB 3.0 ports

What does that mean?

There are a couple of takeaways from that laundry list of components. One is the high-resolution display. The Sulon does both AR in addition to VR, but unlike the Microsoft HoloLens, which just overlays a holographic display on the real world, the Sulon will, as far as I can tell, completely replicate the world around you. It uses what it calls “real-time machine vision technologies”, layering the augmented parts of that reality on top of the digitally recreated real world.

The second point relates to the repeated use of the word “spatial”. The Sulon’s spatial processing unit (SPU) is a proprietary bit of tech that seems to be the linchpin of the system, mapping both the external world and your position in it. Sulon suggests that applications include spatial computing, where your lounge room is your computer desktop, with you able to use gesture controls to move programs around as you work on them.

Sulon

The controlled style of AR also means an even more augmented environment. Pop a virtual fireplace in your bedroom and the shadows and light will flicker around the real world objects such as your bed and wardrobe. Another example Sulon suggest is kicking a virtual soccer ball around your house, where real world objects like lamps and vases will break and shatter when hit.

Is this for real?

We’ll be able to find out soon, with the Sulon Q available for hands-on sessions this week as part of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. It’s certainly ambitious — even more so with Sulon aiming for a “late spring” launch, or around three months from now.

But the spec sheet doesn’t mention battery life, and that’s going to be a big deal with all that screen and processing power at play. Pricing, too, is yet to be announced.

Sulon describes the AMD processing and graphics power as “console-quality”, which will send shivers down the spine of anyone currently selling a kidney in order to buy the latest and greatest in graphics cards for their VR-ready PC. The kind of mixed interactivity that the Sulon Q is promising is going to take a lot of high-end processing power, so will it have enough left over for high graphical fidelity? Personally, I’ll take a grain of salt to wash down the hype and hope to be very pleasantly surprised.

Razer Blade (2016) Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Every year, I’m tempted to buy a Razer Blade gaming notebook. I haven’t yet. Though Razer is the only company consistently making a high-quality, high-performance ultraportable laptop, the high price has always held me back. I just can’t bring myself to pay $2,000+ for a computer that won’t run next year’s games well.

But Razer’s new Blade has an answer to my conundrum. Just like the 12.5-inch Razer Blade Stealth that wowed us last month, the new 14-inch Blade is effectively future-proof. If you need more graphical horsepower — say, in a year or four — you’ll be able to buy a Thunderbolt 3 docking station that adds the full muscle of a desktop graphics card. It lets you easily swap in a new graphics card, whenever you like, without even needing a screwdriver.

The Razer Core (sold separately) lets you choose which graphics card to add. Just flip open the handle, pull, and the tray slides right out.

Sean Hollister/CNET

And while that external graphics station is the coolest thing about the Razer Blade, it’s far from the only improvement. First off, unlike the Razer Blade Stealth, the new Blade 14 should actually be able to play games on its own thanks to a built-in Nvidia 970M graphics chip.

But it’s also advanced compared to last year’s 14-inch Blade. That Nvidia chip comes with double the video memory, and the Intel Core i7 processor is two whole generations newer. There’s also a faster solid-state storage drive and an improved fan design that should keep the internal components a little cooler. Plus, the entire laptop is nearly a quarter-pound lighter despite keeping the same battery capacity.

The Razer Blade’s Chroma keyboard.

Josh Miller/CNET

Then there’s the snazziest new part of the 14-inch Blade: the Chroma keyboard. Another carryover from the Razer Blade Stealth, it’s a fully programmable anti-ghosting keyboard with individual RGB LEDs under each and every key, so it can have lights dance in every color of the rainbow as you type or game. You can download profiles to have it display a pattern (say, a country’s flag), animation, or even react to your character getting shot or powering up in a game.

How much do these new improvements cost? Spec for spec, it’s $400 cheaper than last year’s laptop. Sadly, there won’t be a model with a 1080p screen anymore, which might make the new Blade seem a bit pricier at first — with a 1080p screen, 128GB of storage and 8GB of memory, you could once buy a Blade for as low as $1,799. But at $1,999, the new Blade gives you double the storage, double the memory and a higher-res 3,200×1,800-pixel display.

This gaming laptop is just 0.7 inches (18mm) thick. Here, you can see the new Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port that makes external graphics possible.

Josh Miller/CNET

To be honest, I’m still not sure I’ll buy a Blade. As much as I love its solid construction and perfectly weighted hinge, I need to see how long the battery lasts. I also generally prefer laptops with 1080p screens. (Games generally run more smoothly on lower-resolution displays.) But I also don’t see a lot of gaming desktops in my future — not now that external graphics are a thing.

While you wait for our full review of the new 14-inch Blade, here are all the specs for the US model:

• Display: 14-inch IGZO, 16:9 ratio, 3,200×1,800 pixels, with LED backlight and capacitive multi-touch
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M (6GB GDDR5 VRAM, Optimus technology)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor with hyper-threading 2.6GHz or 3.5GHz (base/turbo)
• Memory: 16GB dual-channel onboard memory (DDR4, 2,133MHz)
• Operating system: Windows 10 (64-Bit)
• Storage: 256GB SSD (PCIe M.2) or 512GB SSD (PCIe M.2)
• Communication: Killer Wireless-AC 1535 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1)
• Multi-point touchscreen interface
• Built-in webcam (2 megapixel)
• Anti-ghosting keyboard with Chroma backlighting
• Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)
• Three USB 3.0 ports (SuperSpeed)
• HDMI 1.4b video and audio output
• 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo port
• Built-in stereo speakers and array microphone
• Programmable Chroma keyboard, trackpad, backlighting and fan control
• Kensington Security Slot
• Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0) security chip embedded
• Compact 165W power adapter
• Built-in 70Wh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery
• Size: 13.6 by 9.3 by 0.7 inches (345 by 235 by 18mm)
• Weight 4.25 pounds (1.93 kg)

Keep charged with Aukey’s 15000mAh power bank for just $17 at Amazon with coupon code

Aukey is currently offering its 15000mAh power bank for just $17 at Amazon with coupon code NC6QYHJ3. Featuring two USB outputs, you can charge multiple devices at the same time, and one of the ports is Quick Charge 2.0 compliant. This means that you will be able to get that nice fast charge, even while on the go. At 15000mAh you will be able to charge your phone, tablet and other devices a few times per charge of the power bank.

If interested, you’ll want to act quickly as these have sold out in the past. Remember, you need to use coupon code NC6QYHJ3 for the full savings.

See at Amazon

Uber will now deliver food from your favorite restaurant straight to your door

Fancy eating out at that incredible restaurant both yourself and friends really enjoy, but can’t quite muster up the effort to get dressed and head out the front door? No worries, simply fire up the new UberEATS app and have the company deliver food from said establishment straight to your door. Uber has offered food delivery in the past, but now there’s a dedicated app.

Available for iOS and Android, the new app offers this unique service to those who reside in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto. Think of the experience as ordering a private vehicle, but instead of transporting people, you’re having the driver bring your dinner to your house. And since it’s Uber, ordering the vehicle itself is convenient as ever.

The company notes that Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. will be added in due course. Download UberEATS and let us know how you got on with regards to ordering and receiving your meal.