HTC One M8 Eye picks up Marshmallow update in India

The HTC One M8 Eye is making the long-awaited switch from Android 5.0.2 to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow in India. The first stage of the process involves downloading a 119.7MB interim update, after which you’ll be able to install the 1.07GB Marshmallow update.

Following the update, the phone’s software version is incremented to 5.07.720.1, with Sense remaining at 7.0. Alongside all the new features in Marshmallow, the update includes the February security patch. If you’re rocking the One M8 Eye in India, head to Settings -> About -> Software updates on your phone to manually download the update.

Thanks Devavrat Pohnerkar!

LG officially unveils budget-centric K5 and K8

LG unveiled the K10 and K7 earlier this year, adding the entry-level K4 to the lineup. The manufacturer is now expanding the K series with the launch of two additional models, the K5 and K8. The K series is LG’s play at increasing market share in the entry-level segment, with the phones targeted primarily in emerging markets.

The K8 leaked on LG’s Hungarian website last month, giving us an early look at the hardware on offer. The phone offers a 5-inch 720p display, 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6735 SoC, 1.5GB of RAM (1GB in Latin American markets), microSD slot, 8GB or 32GB internal storage based on the region, 8MP camera at the back, 5MP front shooter, LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, and a 2125mAh battery.

The LG K5 is the entry-level offering, featuring a 5-inch FWVGA display, 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6735 SoC, 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal memory, microSD slot, 5MP camera at the back, 2MP front camera, and a 1900mAh battery. The handset shares similar hardware as the K4, with the difference being the larger 5-inch screen.

A major plus point for the K8 is that it offers Marshmallow out of the box, whereas the K5 is running Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Both models will be available in three color variants — gold, white and indigo for the K8 and gold, white and titan for the K5. LG mentions that the K8 will be available in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, CIS and Latin America, with the K5 targeting Europe, CIS and Latin America. Pricing information will be revealed once the phones make their debut later this week.

LG EXPANDS ITS MID-RANGE K SERIES WITH TWO NEW MODELS

With Great Looks and Great Performance, K8 and K5 Give Value-Conscious Customers More Reasons to Choose LG

SEOUL, Mar. 15, 2016 ― Following the rollout of the K10, K7 and K4 earlier this year, LG Electronics (LG) announced that two new members of its K Series lineup, K8 and K5, will be introduced in key markets this week. The K8 will be available to consumers in regions including Asia, Africa, the Middle East, CIS and Latin America. The K5 will target customers in Europe, CIS and Latin America (model name Q6 in Mexico).

Revealed publicly for the first time at CES 2016, the K Series delivers a feature-rich UX and an advanced camera without the premium price. Its brilliant finish was influenced by the glossy pebble design language of previous K Series devices which imparts a luxuriousness and modern look to the collection.

The K8 is most notable for its premium design highlighted by smooth, curved edges as a result of its 2.5D Arc Glass while its woven back cover offers a comfortable and secure grip. Users can enjoy clear, crisp images on the HD-quality display and take incredible selfies with the 5MP front camera and popular options such as Gesture Interval Shot and Flash for Selfie.

To offer a superb viewing experience, the K5 sports a best-in-class 5-inch display matched to a sleek, metallic body. The 2MP camera on the front with Gesture Shot makes taking selfies even more fun and with three different colors to choose from — Gold, Silver and Titan — the K5 is sure to stand out in its category of mostly black and grey competitors.

“We are aware of the diverse needs and wants of our customers around the world and our goal is to deliver the best products to meet their expectations,” said Juno Cho, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “The K8 and K5 will be fantastic choices for anyone who is seeking a smartphone with great looks, great looks, at a great price.”

K8 Key Specifications:

• Display: 5.0-inch HD In-cell Touch
• Chipset: 1.3GHz Quad-Core
• Camera: Rear 8MP / Front 5MP
• Memory: 1.5GB (EU, NA) / 1GB (LATAM) / microSD
• Battery: 2,125mAh (removable)
• Operating System: Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• Size: 144.6 x 71.5 x 8.7mm
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n / Bluetooth 4.2 / NFC / USB 2.0
• Colors: Gold / Indigo / White

K5 Key Specifications:

• Display: 5.0-inch FWVGA
• Chipset: 1.3GHz Quad-Core
• Camera: Rear 5MP / Front 2MP
• Memory: 1GB RAM / 8GB ROM / microSD
• Battery: 1,900mAh (removable)
• Operating System: Android 5.1 Lollipop
• Size: 141.5 x 71.6 x 8.9mm
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n / Bluetooth 4.1 / USB 2.0
• Colors: Gold / Silver / Titan

Google’s next campus looks like a campsite from the future

Google’s grand designs for a new complex have been upgraded since we saw them last. Its still-in-planning campus (right next to the Googleplex), has benefitted from new renders, revealed in part of the company’s planning application to local officials. It’s less transparent and, well, dome-y than last year’s designs. If you enjoy 40MB pdfs filled with planning detail, you can dive in right here. Meanwhile, we’ve collected the renders right here:

It’s an intentionally flat structure, as Google attempts to blend the campus into the all the nature that surrounds it. This means tent-shaped roofs that slope down from each level. The complex will total roughly 600,000 square feet, which includes 45,000 square feet of interior landscaping, keeping plenty of green inside complex. And if the renders are to be believed, there will be space to rollerblade.

Via: BizJournal

Sony PlayStation Vue is finally now available across the US

Sony announced that its PlayStation Vue internet TV service has gone nationwide in the states.

The Netflix-like service launched over a year ago and has been available in select US cities, bringing live, local broadcasts from CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC (as well as live cable, on-demand movie, and sports) to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and Miami. But there is a caveat to the service now expanding across the US: it’s cut live network programming in the 203 added markets.

It is instead offering “slim” packages, and they’re basically the same packages that original subscribers have been getting, meaning you’ll get live cable channels, on-demand movies, and sports programming (starting at $29.99), but the live broadcasts from CBS, FOX, NBC, and ABC have been axed (hence the $10-cheaper starting price). Check out Pocket-lint’s PlayStation Vue guide for more on pricing and programming.

The new PlayStation Vue is basically a lot like Dish’s Sling TV – only it offers cloud DVR functionality to boot. You can watch it across a range of devices, including PlayStation 4, PS3, Fire TV, and iOS, but it’s currently lacking native Android support. There is Chromecast support, however.

Sony eventually wants to offer nationwide live broadcasts from the big four, but we won’t hold our breath for that considering it took a year for the service to even expand to markets beyond the original seven launch cities.

READ: Sony’s PlayStation Vue online TV service is officially live in the US

What is Sony PlayStation Vue and where is it available?

Sony’s PlayStation Vue streaming TV service has finally expanded past the PlayStation to Amazon Fire TV devices and the Chromecast.

That means you can pick the right plan for you and – without a cable contract – begin getting access to a rich channel offering that comes close to matching what cable and satellite providers currently offer, including live TV and a cloud-based DVR feature, and you won’t need a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 to do so. Unfortunately, the service is still limited to select US cities at the moment.

Here’s everything we know so far about PlayStation Vue…

PlayStation Vue: What is it?

Sony Computer Entertainment America

PlayStation Vue is a new cloud-based TV service from Sony.

It offers live TV, movies and sports – all without a cable or satellite subscription. It is therefore an ideal service for cord-cutters, a growing group of people who prefer to cancel or forgo a cable or satellite subscription in favor of an alternative internet or cloud-based service.

Netflix, for instance, is another alternative service aimed at cord-cutters.

PlayStation Vue: How do you sign up?

You can sign up for PlayStation Vue at http://www.psvue.com/plans.

PlayStation Vue: Where is it available?

In March 2016, Sony announced that its PlayStation Vue internet TV service had gone nationwide in the states.

The Netflix-like service launched over a year ago and has been available in select US cities, bringing live, local broadcasts from CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC (as well as live cable, on-demand movie, and sports) to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and Miami. But there is a caveat to the service now expanding across the US: it’s cut live network programming in the 203 added markets.

PlayStation Vue: How much is it?

Sony Computer Entertainment America

PlayStation Vue offers three subscription tiers in the original 7 launch cities: Access (50+ channels of live TV, movies, and sports) for $49.99 a month, Core (60+ channels along with local sports) for $54.99 a month, and Elite (85+ channels and access to even more content from Epix Hits and Machinima) for $64.99 a month. If you’re unsure about PlayStation Vue, you can also always try it at no cost via the 7-day trial.

Nationwide however it is offering new “slim” packages that cut the live network programming from the big four.

The slim packages include Access Slim (55+ channels, with live cable TV, movies, and sports channels) for $29.99 a month, Core Slim (70+ channels, with all the channels from Access Slim with the addition of national and regional sports networks) for $34.99 a month, and Elite Slim (100+ channels, with all the channels from Core Slim with the addition of more movie and entertainment channels) for $44.99 per month.

PlayStation Vue: Which channels come with each package?

Sony Computer Entertainment America

Go here to explore the channels within each standard package, or go here to see what is included with the nationwide slim packages.

Channel offering for the standard packages vary depending on city. In New York City, for instance, the Elite package comes with:

• CBS, Fox, NBC, AMC, Animal Planet, BET, Boomerang, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CMT, CNBC, CNN, Comedy Central, Cooking Channel, Discovery, DIY, E!, Epix Hits, Esquire, Food Network, Fox News, FX, HGTV, IFC, Machinima, MSNBC, MTV, MTC 2, Nat Geo, Nick Jr, Nickelodeon, NickToons, Own, Oxygen, Spike, Sundance TV, Syfy, TLC, TNT, Travel, Tru, TCM, TV Land, Universal, USA, VH1, VH1 Classic, and more.

Also, Sony recently announced a new deal that would add ESPN, the Disney Channel, ABC, and ABC Family to the service.

PlayStation Vue: How can you watch it?

Sony Computer Entertainment America

Go here to explore the devices supported by PlayStation Vue.

Since launch, you needed a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 3 gaming console in order to watch PlayStation Vue on your television. However, on 12 November 2015, Sony announced that its streaming TV service is also now available on both the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV stick, with support coming “soon” for Google’s Chromecast. You can even watch it using an iPhone or iPad.

There is currently no native support for Android.

Want to know more?

Check out Pocket-lint’s PlayStation Vue hub for more details.

Philips’ new Hue light switches to warm temps at night to help you sleep

The tech industry is continuing its assault on cool, blue light.

Philips has announced a new smart lightbulb called Philips Hue White Ambiance. It’s part of the Hue ecosystem and promises to emit “every shade of white light” from colour temperatures of 6,500 k to 2,200k. Also, if you pair it with the Philips’ Hue app, you can use a feature called Routines to automatically change the colour temperature of the bulb throughout the day, so that it is cool in the afternoon and warm at night.

Warm light versus cool, blue light at night will supposedly help you sleep better. Apple recently introduced a Night Shift feature for its mobile devices that reduces the amount of blue light iPhones and iPads emit. Studies have shown blue light can negatively impact sleep by affecting the body’s circadian rhythm, but with Night Shift enabled, your device screen will instead emit warmer and, essentially, yellower colours.

These colours in the spectrum effectively cut down on the amount of blue light shining through at night. Apple was not the first company however to test such a feature or even launch it. Amazon offers a similar thing on its devices. The first major update to Fire OS 5 – a forked version of Android powering Amazon’s tablets – introduced something called Blue Shade last year.

It also changes display colour and brightness so Amazon’s tablets are optimised for nighttime. According to Amazon, many studies indicate that blue light coming from tablet displays suppress melatonin production at night. Philips hasn’t said if it scientifically studied the effect of its new buls, but it’s pushing the idea that White Ambiance will help you get a great night’s sleep.

Philips said it will offer individual bulbs, integrated lighting, and a starter kit with two bulbs, but there’s no word on pricing yet.

Next for iRobot, a cute $199 kitchen and bathroom mop bot

After tackling ever-complex vacuuming, sweeping and mopping bots for most of your house, iRobot took a surprising turn for its latest product: it went small and cheap. The company’s new $199 Bravaa Jet is a tiny thing meant to clean all of the nooks and crannies of your kitchen and bathroom. It’s basically a miniaturized version of the company’s Bravaa floor mopping robot (which itself is based on technology it acquired from Evolution Robotics, which used to make the Mint floor sweeping robot.)

Given its price and tiny size, the Bravaa Jet could open up the dream of automated home cleaning to consumers who’d scoff at the pricy entry point for Roombas (which is around $300 for an outdated model these days).

So why build a bathroom and kitchen cleaning robot in the first place? iRobot reps say there’s an increasing need among consumers to mop up uncarpeted floors, and, furthermore, they find that cleaning kitchens and bathrooms often takes up the most time. If you’re going to make those floors spotless, you’ll also need something a lot smaller than the company’s existing Bravaa bots, which are about the size of typical Roombas.

There aren’t many surprises with the Bravaa Jet. To use it, you just need to pour in a bit of water into its reservoir; slap on a cleaning pad for wet mopping, damp sweeping (for hardwood floors) or dry sweeping; place it on the floor, and set it on its way. The bot goes up and down your floors, mapping the path along the way. Reps say it can clean a 100 square foot area in around an hour, but it really depends on the cleaning pad you’re using. The wet mop pad can handle an area up to 150 square feet, while the dry sweeping pad can go up to 200 feet. The bot uses a lithium-ion battery that should last for around an hour and a half.

When it comes to wet mopping and damp sweeping, the Bravaa Jet spritzes out a bit of water, and then makes a back-and-forth mopping motion to clean the floor with the solution built into the pads. It takes three passes on your floor for a full round of wet mopping, and two for a round of damp sweeping. The latter pad is mainly meant for people with fancy floors that can’t get too wet. Most of us will rely on dry pads to sweep the floor first and the wet pads to finish the job.

You’ll get two of each single-use pad bundled with the robot, and you can buy replacements in packs of 10 for $7.99 from iRobot and its retail partners (Target, Best Buy and others). If you’re looking for a more sustainable alternative, you can also buy a box of two washable pads for $20. Those won’t include any cleaning solution, obviously, so you’ll have to supply your own.

During a brief demonstration in a high-end Manhattan hotel bathroom, the Bravaa Jet managed to clean up a freshly spilled coffee spill without leaving any residue behind. The dirty liquid it picks up is held in the pad, so it won’t just spread it all over your floor. The bot wasn’t very loud, either, so I wouldn’t imagine having a problem running it in my bathroom or kitchen for an hour or two.

Surprisingly, iRobot also included a bit of new technology in the Bravaa Jet: It can create its own virtual wall (a border that it won’t cross while cleaning) with the press of a few buttons. Roomba users, meanwhile, still have to rely on standalone, battery-powered virtual wall devices to do the same thing. iRobot reps say that the Bravaa Jet manages to do this because of how it maps your floor.

As someone who’s been using Roombas for the past 10 years, I’m excited to try out the Bravaa Jet soon to see if it’s actually a capable cleaning bot. I’m also the sort of weirdo who actually likes to clean my bathroom and kitchen by hand, so this bot has a high bar to pass. You’ll be able to snag a Bravaa Jet for $199 starting today, and it hits retail stores on April 1.

GM teams up with Lyft to offer drivers short-term rentals

If you’ve been eyeing the ride sharing economy but your car isn’t up to snuff Lyft and GM have teamed up to offer short-term rentals to would-be drivers. The Express Drive program is launching later this month in Chicago and will be launching shortly in Baltimore, Washington DC. and Boston.

The program will rent cars to Lyft drivers anywhere between one to eight weeks at a time. The cost of renting one of the Chevy Equinox crossovers will be based on how many trips the driver can secure. For less than 40 trips in a week, the cost will be $99 per week plus $.20 per mile. For more than 40 trips in a week, it costs only be $99 a week with no mileage fee. If the driver is able to pull off more than 65 trips in a single week, the weekly rate for the car will be waived.

The news comes only two months after GM invested $500 million in Lyft. The ride-share company has already teamed up with Hertz to offer short-term rentals. Now would-be drivers have an additional option.

Source: Lyft

Twitch wants developers to bake streaming directly into games

If Choice Chamber scratched the itch for audience participation in your Twitch streams, get ready for a whole lot more where that came from. The live-streaming juggernaut has announced Stream First, an initiative that it says is focused on making sure Twitch broadcasting is built into a game’s design process from the outset rather than shoehorned in later in development. Future in-stream participation could include anything from viewers choosing what happens next, a la Twitch Plays, gaining in-game experience simply by watching your favorite streamer play your (new) favorite game and a host of others.

There are a trio of Stream First games already in development: Superfight, Wastelanders and Streamline. In Superfight players create superheroes by drawing cards from a deck, arguing whose character would win in a fight and then letting the audience decide the victor. Wastelanders is a bit different, in that it’s a strategy game that has broadcasters and the audience playing together in battle against another streamer and his or her viewers. Lastly, Streamline pits streams against each other in arena games. Viewers can place bets on participants in the game and even vote for rule changes, to name a few bits of available interactivity.

You can bet that once Amazon’s Lumberyard game engine and its native Twitch integration starts gaining more traction that these types of games will only continue to flourish.

Source: Twitch Devs

iRobot Braava Jet 240 Mopping Robot Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Josh Miller/CNET

iRobot’s newest robot mop will focus on quality over quantity. The Braava Jet 240 can only cover 150 to 200 square feet, a big step down from the 300-to-1,000 sq. ft. range of its predecessor — the Braava 380t. But with a vibrating cleaning head to increase agitation, a water nozzle to spray the area it’s covering, and premixed detergent in its disposable pads, the Jet 240 should do a better job of scrubbing the smaller area it can reach.

The Braava Jet 240 goes on sale today on iRobot’s site for $200 — the cheapest robot cleaner the company’s released to date. Starting April 1, you’ll be able to purchase it from a variety of retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond and Target. The price converts to approximately £140 and AU$270 for our readers in the UK and Australia, respectively, and I’ll update the piece with specific availability in those regions once that info becomes available.

How it works

Designed around accessibility, the Jet only has one button that turns it on and starts it. It has three different modes — dry sweeping, damp sweeping and wet mopping — but you won’t have to adjust any settings yourself. Each mode has its own unique Swiffer-style cleaning pad. Slide the one you want into place, and the Jet will detect your selection.

You also won’t need to set up any sensors to help the Jet navigate. It uses a bumper to detect objects, a wheel count to tell how far it’s traveled, and a gyroscope to keep track of how much it turns. The Jet 240 will cover your floor one quadrant at a time — row by row like a Zamboni, slowly circling the objects it comes across.

Hands on with iRobot’s short range scrubber…
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For dry dusting, it’ll cover the room once with little overlap. The damp cycle covers everything twice, and wet mopping uses more water and goes over it all three times, hitting the lower end of the product’s area range as a result of the extra passes. During the demonstration, the wet mopping process looked less like a Zamboni in action and more like a person traditionally mopping, going back and forth over one spot then branching out from there.

Both the damp and wet modes employ the Jet’s water nozzle to spray the area in front of it. You’ll fill the reservoir with water before each run, which will activate the cleaning agent in those specific pads once they get wet. Cleverly, the bot will wipe an area, then back up and spray what it just covered before wiping it again, which helps it avoid accidentally spraying any furniture. The pads absorb liquid, so the floor should feel dry shortly after it’s done. And since the electronics of the Jet are sealed, you supposedly won’t have to worry about spilling and ruining your expensive new cleaner when you fill the reservoir.

Fill the reservoir before running a damp or wet cleaning cycle.

Josh Miller/CNET

Once the Jet finishes, you can hold it over a trash can and hit an eject lever to dump the disposable pad without needing to touch it. Two of each pad ship with the product, and they’re only meant to be used once, so you’ll need to buy replacement packs of ten each for $8 or reusable pads you can wash for $20 a piece.

Impressions

More robot moppers

• iRobot Scooba 450
• Techko Maid Smart Maid
• Yujin Robot iClebo Arte

The lower price helps mitigate this somewhat, but iRobot’s taking a big gamble here in reducing the range and run-time of this model. Basically, the Jet 240 is a one-room-at-a-time cleaner, and after each room, you’ll have to swap out the pad and charge the battery yourself, making the whole process much more hands-on than the latest Roombas, one of which can take care of a whole floor of your home with little to no supervision and can even find its docking station and charge itself when it necessary.

The improvements to the cleaning process sound promising, and they’re necessary, as the Braava 380 didn’t impress us in our review. The improved navigation should help the Jet efficiently cover a single room. It’ll detect carpet and use that as a boundary. You can also create virtual boundaries yourself by putting it on one side of a line you don’t want crossed and holding the start button.

The new Braava will need to clean well to be worth the price.

Josh Miller/CNET

Still, even though the price is in the range of a reasonable splurge, if it can’t mop as well as a human with an actual mop, it’ll have a hard time proving itself a worthwhile machine. Again, iRobot prioritized quality over quantity, so the quality aspect better pay off. During the demo, the Jet did a great job cleaning up dirt and even coffee stains, but couldn’t remove some tough rubber scruffs.

Outlook

iRobot’s aiming for accessibility and thoroughness here. A company representative said, “We hope to get to consumers who haven’t adopted robotic cleaning yet.” Given that we’ve yet to be impressed by any robot mops, maybe the “less is more” approach is the way to go. Once we get our hands on the Braava Jet, we’ll put it through a variety of cleaning tests to see where its cleaning limits lie.