CoWatch looks to bring the power of Alexa to your wrist

iMCO is currently seeking funds on Indiegogo for CoWatch, a smartwatch built on the company’s Chronological OS with Alexa integration. That’s right, the company has built Alexa into the operating system so that you can get answers to questions, hail an Uber and more with just your voice. Ex-veterans of the Android team at Google are responsible for building the Chronological OS, which has built-in activity tracking and various customization options.

As for the hardware, the CoWatch has a 400×400 Super AMOLED display which is said to be fracture-resistant, as well as a 1.2GHz processor and enough battery to get you through 32 hours of normal use. Early backers will be able to get their orders in for $159, and the company hopes to begin shipments in early-June. Following the campaign, you’ll be able to purchase the CoWatch from the company’s site for $279, so if you think you may be interested in purchasing one you should probably get in early.

Back at Indiegogo

Press release:

iMCO TO LAUNCH FIRST SMARTWATCH INTEGRATED WITH CRONOLOGICS OS AND THE AMAZON ALEXA VOICE SERVICE

iMCO’s CoWatch features luxury design, cloud connectivity, activity tracking, AMOLED hi-res screen and 32-hour battery life; now available for pre-order on Indiegogo

New York, NY – April 18, 2016 – iMCO, a global innovator in smart wearables and devices, announces the launch of the CoWatch, a smartwatch with a sleek design and unique connectivity. Powered by Cronologics OS, a revolutionary operating system built by GoogleTM and AndroidTM veterans, CoWatch is the smartwatch that values users’ time. Compatible with both iOSTM and AndroidTM users, CoWatch will be the first smartwatch to integrate with Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service.

“We’ve spent the past year developing the CoWatch and are extremely excited to introduce it to the North American market via Indiegogo,” said Danny Dong, Founder and CEO of iMCO. “Beginning with the-best-in-class hardware materials and elegant craftsmanship, the CoWatch is seamlessly integrated with the new Cronologics platform and Amazon Alexa voice service, to deliver the convenience and added functionality, yet to be seen in the wearable community.”

The CoWatch excels at offering:

• Intelligence – The first smartwatch to integrate with Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service, CoWatch will allow users to quickly access Alexa to answer questions, receive traffic and weather reports, order an Uber, control smart home devices and more, all with the power of their voice.
• Activity Tracking – Track user’s activity, monitor their heart rate to help them stay fit and healthy. Connectivity – Cloud connectivity lets users turn on their lights, check on their car, and interact with the
  devices, products, and services that matter most in their smart home.
• Customizable – Wearers can pick a band and customize their watch face. An upcoming SDK will enable developers to build their own watch faces and apps, as well.
• Convenience – The 400×400 pixel high-resolution, vivid, super-AMOLED display and fracture-resistant touch screen, combined with the wearable industry’s fastest mobile computing processor of 1.2GHz, caters to any mood, activities, and fashion choices, day or night.
• Battery Life – Up to 32 hours of normal use with an always-on screen.

True to the Cronologics philosophy, the CoWatch was designed as both a fashion accessory and smartwatch first, rather than a phone accessory. Built with a fracture-resistant round watch face, 400×400 pixel high-resolution, vivid AMOLED full-circle touch-screen display and stainless steel case coupled with a ceramic decoration ring, CoWatch is the perfect accessory for anyone’s style. Additionally, it is powered by an Ingenic dual-core 1.2GHz and 300MHz mobile processor created for smart wearables. Along with the 1GB memory and 8GB storage, the highest capacity in the smartwatch market, the CoWatch offers unmatched hardware performance to meet its unique software features.

Cronologics’ Co-Founder and CEO, Leor Stern noted, “The CoWatch seamlessly fits into customers’ lifestyles — both functionally and stylistically. By collaborating with iMCO, we were able to offer a highly- intuitive user experience for customers, built around a design-focused watch, regardless of the phone they carry in their pocket.”

Through the CoWatch Indiegogo campaign, backers will be able to pre-order the product before it officially hits the market at significantly discounted rates. First-tier backers participating in the pre-sale will have access to rates as low as $159 USD. Early supporters will also have access to special perks and accessories, including a variety of customizable watchband options. To view the CoWatch Indiegogo campaign and subscribe for updates, click here.

The first round of mass production is already underway, in advance of the campaign’s conclusion. Many critical stages in the production roadmap have already been completed, and product will begin shipping to backers in June 2016. Following the campaign, the CoWatch will be available through the company’s website, and retail partners for $279 USD.

Shazam finally syncs matched tracks across devices

Shazam has a lot more competition from Siri, Cortana and other services, but the music recognition service has tried to stay on top with Google Now integration, faster recognition and other new tricks. The company has just added a feature that seems indispensable, but somehow wasn’t available before: syncing across devices. As long as you’re logged in to your account, it remembers any songs you identify and lets you see them from the desktop, iOS or other devices.

Like before, you then have the option to listen to the song on Spotify or purchase it on Google Play or Amazon. As Android Police points out, up until now your account was only good for tracking artists you follow, but couldn’t saved identified tunes — a pretty serious omission. Now, it will be easier to keep track of your Shazam activity, especially when you switch to a new device.

Via: Android Police

Source: Shazam (Google Play)

It’s complicated: A film examines our relationship with social media

In a world of status updates, indie filmmaker Kerith Lemon categorizes her relationship with modern technology under the “It’s complicated” banner. And with good reason. Lemon, whose short film “A Social Life” casts a harsh light on our addictive entanglement with social media, has dipped a toe in almost every online networking platform. That involvement was mainly a requirement of her job at the time. Back in the early aughts, Lemon worked as an integrated-marketing specialist at Viacom, where she handled brand messaging for the likes of MTV, Nickelodeon and CBS Radio. “I jumped on all of them because I needed to know everything,” she says. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that I signed up for eHarmony for a pitch to see how it would work.”

Lemon, however, soon grew disillusioned with the world of marketing and in 2011 decamped to Los Angeles to pursue her true passion: filmmaking. There she worked as a freelance producer until she got a call from Oprah’s OWN network to help develop its digital video strategy. After two and a half years as a VP at OWN, Lemon grew tired of telling other people’s stories and turned to social media “as an escape from the day-to-day grind.”

“I would be sitting on opposite ends of the couch from my husband, checking email and social media, and I was like, ‘This is no way to live!’” says Lemon of her “aha” moment. “And it was almost simultaneously that all these articles started popping up, ironically, in my social feed about social media jealousy and Instagram envy. And I was like, ‘Shit! I have that.’ And I didn’t like it once it had a name … It’s not me. I’m not this person.”

That wake-up call was what prompted Lemon to depart OWN and begin work on a cathartic short film that would eventually result in “A Social Life,” which has since made the rounds at various indie festivals. I spoke with Lemon about social media FOMO, addiction and the fine line between our digital lives and the truth.

Is this short reflective of your personal experience? Does it mirror what you went through?

There’s a lot of things that I pulled from my own life in there. I’ve never written something like this before. I’ve written for other people. I’ve written for brands … There’s a lot of moments in the movie that are stolen from my life. The ending is completely exaggerated.

The power of the visual is super-interesting to me, and as we look at how that is distributed across the social media platforms, we’re really only providing tiny snapshots into our life. I mean, the idea of capturing our life in a photograph is not new. People have wanted to do this since the dawn of cameras. But now with social media, we can distribute that to far more people. When you take these single images out of context, you can post something with a very certain intention, and then somebody, the viewer on the other end, could perceive that with a completely different outcome. So that’s happened to me a lot.

The thing of her taking the picture of the wine bottle happened to me. I got three beautiful bottles of rosé, and they were the most beautiful colors. Pink. And the light was streaming through my apartment. I just thought it was a gorgeous photograph. I tend to use Instagram just for beautiful pictures. And I posted it and I even captioned it: “Cheaper than a plane ticket. I love France.” And people would write back and be like, “You’re in France? Where are you?” … It clearly wasn’t my intention. I wasn’t lying about being in France. I was trying to be ironic and funny … But it can happen so easily. I feel like a lot of the misperception happens on the part of the viewer and whatever you bring to viewing that photograph.

Going back to the rosé bottles and the misinterpretation of that image you put on Instagram: When I watched the short, I thought to myself, OK, it seems that you’re implying here that the majority of people’s social media lives are total bullshit. That they’re intentionally taking these photos and framing these experiences to mislead people, to build out this greater image of their life and make it more exciting. Do you agree with that?

I don’t think the majority of people do it with a really strong intention. I think that there’s a lot of subconscious that happens in our posts … I think that especially for career-oriented people like me, which is where I was coming to this from, if you start to think about your brand, you’re making choices about what photos you post and don’t post. That’s not to say that she wasn’t doing all those things. In my mind, the first half of the movie, she’s not living a lie. Every time she wanted to post a photo, she knew it contributed to her brand — so she was choosing carefully — but she intended to do all those things.

But by the time we get to the afternoon of her staying at home, now it’s becoming more manipulated, how small a fine line there is between truly living the life you post and being able to craft some other life online.

If you’re feeling down and out about being on social media all the time, you have to consider that this is only one photo from this person’s life. And they may not even be doing that thing in that minute you’re looking at it. But your brain, for whatever reason, looks at that picture and thinks that must be happening in the now. And then you feel depressed or envious or jealous that you’re not out there doing the same fun thing.

I did think it was interesting that there was this one scene where she’s sitting all alone on her couch and she uploads a photo of herself that’s clearly been taken in the past. And it looks as though this is happening in the moment, and there’s all that jealousy. And I think people do intentionally mislead others doing that stuff, no?

Oh, absolutely. But I also know that I post old selfies that were just great pictures of me and I thought, I wouldn’t mind getting a little love back on this. Because we take a lot of self-worth from the likes and a lot of validation from these posts that we put up. I think especially for women. Not to say that it doesn’t happen for men that way.

I think I interpreted the short differently from what I’m getting from you in terms of how I thought you were coming at it. From watching this short, I got a very pessimistic view of social media through your lens, but it seems as though you’re not as pessimistic about it.

I’m an optimist. At the end of the day — and this is the reason I left the ending very open-ended — everybody has their own complicated relationship with social media. And I wanted people to have their own opinion of what she maybe goes on to do after this. Because for some people, like me, what I need to do after being stuck in this social media loop is that I have to put my phone down and leave it. I will go get a coffee without my phone. It drives my husband bonkers.

But for other people, it’s about shutting down the app and opening up a book on their phone. Which is fine, too. But I just believe that we all need a balance. Like I said, we give social media too much credit and too much time from our lives.

Can we achieve a balance, considering that every other day there’s a new app coming to take over and draw people’s attention? Right now you have Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. That’s already a handful of things for people to lose themselves in.

Oh yeah, for sure. As the kids say, “The struggle is real.” I think it’s possible, and that brings up a whole conversation that’s not included in my film. But it’s a conversation I’ve had with a lot of people after the festival screening: “What about our kids?” Every generation has their own complaint about something taking up too much time. Way back when, it was sitting in front of the radio for too long. And then it was that sitting in front of the television is going to kill you. And now it’s that holding a device in your hand is going to take your life early. That’s existed for a long time, but we can’t let this new generation grow up without understanding that they have to make choices for themselves and form their own boundaries. Parents ask me all the time, “What am I supposed to do about my kid?” Well, the answer is not to take away their phone.

Do you think that there’s any social media or digital backlash brewing?

I think so, just because it’s so ubiquitous. I think that there will be a segment of people who are able, possibly higher-income earners, who are going to choose to send their kids to school with no technology. It’s possible. And I think that it’s interesting that a lot of this conversation around the complicated relationship with technology is coming from the tech world itself … Mark Zuckerberg’s sister has that whole Dot Complicated platform which does podcasts all the time. Yeah, it’s about new technology, and she also is not saying we shouldn’t use it, but just again creating that awareness and thinking about how are we gonna have balance in our lives and not get lost in the interwebs.

Why do I think we’re persisting in this use if we know that even the companies know that it’s bad for us? Because it’s enjoyable.

Since you’re highlighting how addictive this behavior is on social media and the narcissism involved, and you’re so acutely aware of that, do you now reduce your involvement in the different platforms? And what are you actually even using?

The ones I check on a regular basis are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I think that shows my age. I have an account on Snapchat: I work with a lot of different creators, so I have that because I look at what they’re posting and see what they’re doing. But I probably will never Snapchat. I keep it kind of slim and simple … And I’m so much more conscious about what I post and share … Predominantly now, everything for me is kind of a brand piece. Facebook is kind of friends and family — where the wedding pictures went. Twitter and Instagram are definitely more brand outlets for me as a director and as a creator/storyteller.

We’re getting to the point where Apple and Amazon have specific settings for their devices to reduce the blue frequency [in LED screens], the wavelength, so that it doesn’t impair us as much and destroy our biorhythm so we can’t go to sleep at night. And yet we’re persisting with all of this …

Why do I think we’re persisting in this use if we know that even the companies know that it’s bad for us? Because it’s enjoyable. There’s so many studies out there that show how many endorphins we get from the scrolling action, which is crazy to me. That’s why all the sites moved to the long scroll, because you take joy from that motion and getting to see new exciting content.

I mean, it is addictive. Our bodies are physiologically being changed. I think it’s responsible, and I’m glad that the companies are doing that, but I think that it needs to be promoted in a greater way … We don’t really know what all this social media use is gonna do. We won’t know for some period of time. We won’t know what all this technology is gonna do to us for some time, because it’s all new.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Image credits: “A Social Life,” directed by Kerith Lemon

GameStop starts its own game publishing wing

Now that GameStop has dipped its toes into game publishing, it’s ready to jump in with both feet: the retailer has launched GameTrust, its own publishing division. The new wing will initially handle titles from existing partner Insomniac Games (of Ratchet & Clank fame) as well as Frozenbyte (Trine), Ready At Dawn (The Order: 1886) and Tequila Works (Deadlight). As you might guess, this isn’t a traditional publishing business. GameStop is taking a hands-off approach to the actual content. Instead, it wants to create “exclusive real estate” online and in physical stores to help people discover indie games that might otherwise get missed.

And despite GameStop’s tendency to protect its retail business at all costs, this will include digital releases on top of old-school discs. It’s not clear which distribution platforms GameTrust will reach, but it will produce games for both consoles and PCs, including in VR when relevant.

The move isn’t exactly a shocker. GameStop’s sales continue to drop as the industry moves toward digital releases — it knows that it can’t rely on physical game sales forever, and it has been diversifying its offerings for years. Becoming a game publisher not only gives GameStop something unique to offer at retail, but helps its bottom line even if players are happy with downloading games at home.

Source: Wired

Uber forced to suspend surge pricing in Delhi

Uber has announced that it will suspend surge pricing in Delhi after the government moved to protect locals from overcharging. The city is testing a Chinese-style odd-even rule to combat pollution, so only cars with odd (or even) license plates can drive on certain days. Uber had subsequently imposed surge pricing to encourage more drivers to pick up the slack. The city’s leaders had other ideas, imposing a set tariff to prevent transport firms like Uber and Ola from taking advantage. According to Mashable, Uber fees had increased by up to five times the going rate.

As it stands, Uber says that surge pricing is implemented by algorithm, kicking in only when demand outstrips supply. The higher charges are designed to encourage more drivers to get onto the roads and make a fast buck even faster. It’s a situation that prompted outcry from locals and led to the city regulating prices to ensure people weren’t getting gouged. The new tariff was enforced with career-ending penalties, with violators risking their car and their driving license.

Given the threat to the livelihood of our partners, at the expense of reliability, we are temporarily suspending surge with immediate effect

— Uber Delhi (@Uber_Delhi) April 18, 2016

Uber was its usual passive-aggressive self, saying that it would axe surge pricing “given the threat to the livelihood of our partners.” It also opined that the Delhi government was “interfering with market dynamics,” causing a drop in cars and a “negligible impact on requests.” Although given Uber’s traditionally hostile attitude toward any attempt to make its service safer and cheaper, that wasn’t a huge surprise.

@prasanto Interfering with market dynamics leads to fewer cars and neglegible impact on requests – leading to prolonged surged periods

— Uber Delhi (@Uber_Delhi) April 18, 2016

Delhi’s decision does allow us to watch Uber operating under lab conditions, since we can see what effect flatter pricing will have on demand. If the city’s residents are still able to take cars without much delay, then it could erode the company’s famous line that surge pricing is an important component of its business. That, combined with customer pressure to protect individuals from price gouging could have a big impact on how the company operates worldwide. We’ve asked Uber for its feelings, and will update this if we hear back.

Via: Mashable

Source: Uber Delhi (Twitter)

Taylor Swift Lip Syncs to Jimmy Eat World in New Apple Music Ad

A few weeks after starring in her first advertisement for Apple Music, singer Taylor Swift has partnered with Apple again on a second ad for its streaming music service. In the video, which Swift tweeted earlier this morning, the singer again showcases Apple Music’s “Activity Playlists” feature by focusing on the “Getting Ready to Go Out” category this time around.

At the beginning of the video, Swift navigates to a collection of songs under the “Jukebox Hits: 00s Alternative Rock” playlist and chooses Jimmy Eat World’s song “The Middle” as her background music. She mentions that she “used to listen to this in middle school” and begins lip syncing the lyrics in front of a mirror.

After Swift’s dance-filled jam session comes to a close, the ad ends with the tagline that Apple Music has “every song for every moment,” and reminds those who have yet to sign up that the service has a three month free trial available to any new member.

Getting ready to go out… @AppleMusic @JimmyEatWorldhttps://t.co/vq8LCFOuCO

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 18, 2016

Swift’s partnership with Apple on its new Apple Music ads comes nearly a year after the much-publicized dispute between the two, which began when the singer penned an open letter to Apple about its policy of not paying artists during the three month free trial for the streaming service. After Apple reversed course, Swift’s best-selling album 1989 appeared on the service, and she eventually even launched an exclusive tour documentary for Apple Music in December.

Tag: Apple Music
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Flexible lens sheets could change way cameras see

Cameras are already embedded in a lot of devices, but what you could wrap them around things like a “skin?” That’s the premise of “flexible sheet cameras” developed by scientists at Columbia University. Rather than having just a single sensor, the devices use an array of lenses that change properties when the material is bent. The research could lead to credit card-sized, large-format cameras that you zoom by bending, or turn objects like cars or lamp posts into 360-degree VR cameras.

In order to create a wraparound camera, the team first considered attaching tiny lenses to single pixel-sized sensors, a tact that’s been tried before on curved surfaces. However, they realized that when bent, such an array would have gaps between sensors that would produce artifacts in the final image. Instead, they created flexible silicon sheets with embedded lenses that distort and change their focal lengths when bent. The resulting prototype has no blank spots, even with significant curvature, so it can capture images with no aliasing.

The team flexed the prototype sheet — with a 33×33 lens array — in a predictable way, allowing them to produce clean (though low resolution) images. However, if the amount of deformation isn’t known, the system produces random and irregular images. For instance, they created a simulated camera based on a larger, more flexible sheet that produces a hilariously distorted image (above) when when draped on an object.

However, the goal is to eventually measure the amount of deformation with built-in stress sensors, then calculate the sheet’s geometry to produce a clean image. While the current prototype is very low-res, it proves that the concept is viable, so the team plans to “develop a high resolution version of the lens array and couple it with a large format image sensor.” Eventually, the sheet camera could result in sensitive large format cameras that produce very high dynamic range images. If you want to be more futuristic, the tech could even turn household objects and wearables into giant image sensors. Invisibility cloaks for all?

Via: Digital Trends

Source: Columbia University

Oculus and ‘Ratchet and Clank’ studio reveal two more VR games

Insomniac Games and Oculus Studios have partnered to create Feral Rites, a 3D brawler set on a mystical island, and The Unspoken, a player-vs-player spellcasting game, both exclusively for the Oculus Rift VR headset. They’re based in disparate realms of fantasy, from lush jungle temples to the mysterious shadows of big-city alleyways.

Feral Rites is a single-player adventure game about a jungle society that erupts in violence and chaos after the murder of its Chieftain (who happens to be the main character’s father). After growing up in a foreign land, players return to the island to seek vengeance through brutality, at times transforming into a vicious animal to complete story missions and side quests. Players can choose to be a male or female character, and it’s not just for show — each gender has unique combat abilities. Feral Rites uses a gamepad only (no Oculus Touch controls) and is due to hit the Rift in the fall.

The Unspoken is a first-person experience for one to two players, set in a hidden world of magic. It’s basically Fight Club crossed with the Harry Potter game Wonderbook: Book of Spells, featuring more than 25 spells to learn and deploy on other players in one-on-one battles. The Unspoken uses Oculus Touch controls, meaning players move their hands and arms to make magic in a handful of unique city settings. For example, players can transform a pile of garbage into a giant Debris Golem that helps them fight, or use a marker to draw an impenetrable shield. The Unspoken will hit the Oculus Store this holiday season.

Oculus is publishing Feral Rites and The Unspoken, extending its existing partnership with Insomniac Games. Insomniac CEO Ted Price told Engadget in March that working with Oculus is all about experimentation as both companies learn how to design for VR.

“There’s been much more mutual discovery, because we as a developer and Oculus as a hardware manufacturer are still figuring out how to create experiences in VR,” Price said. “It’s a brand new frontier for everybody.”

Insomniac Games is also working with Oculus on Edge of Nowhere, a spooky Arctic exploration game for the Rift and its Touch controls. In the non-VR arena, Insomniac just released a completely reworked version of 2002’s Ratchet and Clank, and it’s building Song of the Deep, an underwater 2D platformer for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC published by Gamestop. Insomniac plans to release Edge of Nowhere on June 6th and Song of the Deep on July 12th.

‘Edge of Nowhere’ and ‘Song of the Deep’ land in the summer

Edge of Nowhere and Song of the Deep sound like perfect games for the summer. Edge of Nowhere is a single-player VR game about the secrets hiding in Antarctica’s ice sheets, and Song of the Deep is a 2D sidescroller that takes place under the sea — that makes two cool titles coming out at the height of the year’s heat index. Insomniac Games and Oculus Studios will release Edge of Nowhere on June 6th for the Oculus Rift, and Gamestop will publish Insomniac’s Song of the Deep on July 12th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Edge of Nowhere is a psychological thriller with a Lovecraftian vibe, and it’s a remarkable, yet terrifying, experience in VR. Your head controls the camera as explorer Victor Howard searches surreal ice caves and snow-covered mountains for his fiancé, Ava Thorne, who mysteriously disappeared on a previous expedition.

Song of the Deep is the first game to be published by Gamestop, and it tells the story of Merryn, a young woman on a quest to save her father, a fisherman, after he’s lost under the ocean waves. Merryn travels in a submarine, fighting off sea beasts, exploring the underwater ruins of lost civilizations and solving puzzles in a 2D platformer. Her submarine can be upgraded with new weapons and abilities as she seeks out her father.

“Gamestop is publishing Song of the Deep, but we are the intellectual property owners and we also have full creative control,” Insomniac CEO Ted Price told Engadget in March. “It’s been a really straightforward and symbiotic partnership.”

Insomniac is also partnering with Oculus Studios for two new VR games, Feral Rites and The Unspoken, which are scheduled to launch once the air cools down again this year.

LinkedIn’s new app for students tries to make job-hunting easier

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about how hard it is for recent college graduates to find gainful employment. LinkedIn has become a major source for job hunting and networking, but it’s more focused on current professionals rather than those just entering the workforce. The company’s changing that a bit with the new LinkedIn Students app for iOS and Android. It essentially pulls in all the data in the LinkedIn network and focuses it on those soon to be leaving college to help them find positions that make sense given their backgrounds.

Once you download the app, you’re promoted to enter your education info and background — from there, you’ll go through five steps in the app every day to keep up with your job search. The app suggests roles and positions based on your education, sends you curated job-hunting articles, lets you see which companies are hiring graduates from your school, shows job listings relevant to your major and year of graduation and serves up other LinkedIn profiles from recent alumni with your major. It’s all meant to help you find jobs that might work for you and suggest positions you might not have considered already.

How useful this app will actually be remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that LinkedIn has a massive amount of career-related data. Providing a way for students who are close to graduating to tap into that data in a way that’s more relevant to their job search could be useful. It’s also a simplified set of tools for students — the company says it’ll be shutting down a variety of other tools for students in favor of LinkedIn Students. If you want to give the app a shot, it launches today on iOS and Android.