Kobo’s new Aura One e-reader is big and waterproof
Whether you read before bed, in the bathtub, during your commute or at the beach, Kobo wants to be there for you. The e-reader maker just released the $229 Aura One, a 7.8-inch waterproof slate that features a colored backlight for better nighttime reading. I’ve been trying to find time to read with an Aura One for the past week, and I have to admit the tub and bedtime friendliness of the device are huge benefits.
The Aura One meets the IPX8 waterproofing standard, meaning it can be submerged in up to 2 meters of water for up to 60 minutes. It held up under the running water of my shower, although the screen became a tad finicky when wet, flipping pages even without me touching it. If you’re reading in a bathtub (not under running water) or by the pool or beach like most bookworms, you probably won’t find the water to be a huge interference, and you can easily wipe it dry after a dip. Also, the grippy back has a textured finish that made the One feel sturdier and easier to hold onto when wet.
In addition, the company built in a front light system that uses RGB bulbs instead of just white ones. This is supposed to make e-reading before bed less detrimental to your sleep patterns. Researchers have found that blue light suppresses the production of the sleep hormone melatonin more than any other light, so staring at an artificially lit screen at night can make falling asleep more difficult. Also, according to Kobo, warmer-colored lights can signal to your brain that it’s the end of the day, so it can start preparing your body for slumber.
With the Aura One’s software, you can select the exact color temperature you prefer from a scale of blue to red. You can also program your typical bedtime, and the e-reader will automatically change the front light color gradually throughout the day so that by the time you’re reading at night, your e-book is lit by a warm orange glow. Those who have used Apple’s Night Shift mode in iOS 9.3 and up will find this familiar — it’s basically the same feature.
Because I was born and raised in modern times when electricity was plentiful, I wasn’t used to reading by candlelight, which is what the orange light here is meant to mimic. But the Aura One’s more reddish tone definitely felt better for my eyes compared to my iPhone’s screen in the dark, which often felt as if it was burning my retinas off.
Another piece of good news for my eyes is the Aura One’s generous 7.8-inch footprint. The larger screen allows for bigger words that are more comfortable to read than on my relatively tiny Kindle (second-gen). Its sharp 1,872 x 1,404 resolution gives it the same 300 pixels-per-inch screen density as the Kindle Oasis, which has a 6-inch panel. And despite the larger display, the 230-gram One did not feel too heavy, as I held it up for 15 minutes before passing out.
Of all the new features of the Aura One, though, I’m most excited by a less obvious addition. Last year, Kobo’s parent company, Rakuten, bought audiobook and e-book company Overdrive, which Kobo said is the largest provider of e-books to public libraries. The Overdrive integration means that when you’re looking for books to buy in Kobo, and you have a library card, you could choose to borrow the book instead. That’s fantastic news for Scrooges like me with a library membership.
At $229, the Aura One undercuts its closest competitor, the Amazon Kindle Oasis, by about $60. But not everyone wants a larger e-reader, and those who want a thinner, lighter slate will still prefer the Oasis. Amazon has some nighttime reading tech of its own, including a “blue shade” mode in its Fire tablets, which blocks blue light and lets you read by red or yellow light. Its Paperwhite e-readers also have a so-called night mode that inverts the color scheme to white text on black, which is easier on the eyes. Also, while Kobo has more than 5 million titles in its store globally, Amazon carries 4.6 million books in the US alone. For those who read a lot before bed, though, and don’t want to worry about getting their device wet, the Aura One looks to be a solid option.
Konami strikes out on its own for ‘Metal Gear Survive’
Thought you’d heard the last from the Metal Gear franchise? Despite creator Hideo Kojima’s departure from Konami to form his own studio, Kojima Productions, Konami has been hard at work on its own entry into the long-running series: Metal Gear Survive.
Metal Gear Survive is slotted right after the ending of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, exploring an alternate timeline caused by “unexplained wormholes” that start forming in the sky. As a result, players find themselves in an unfamiliar land where droves of what look like zombies are roaming around.
The trailer gives off a distinct Resident Evil vibe, offering stealth and co-op mechanics with 4-player online co-op, a variety of weapons and an assortment of creatures to tackle together.
Metal Gear Survive is slated for 2017 on PC, Xbox One and PS4. We’re at Gamescom and will bring you more on the game as soon as we learn more about it. For now, you can check it out for yourself via the video below.
We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany for Gamescom 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Facebook opens up Messenger to ad bots
Right now, Facebook lets Messenger bots from brands like Expedia and HP help you make a purchase, but they can’t try to sell you a new product. However, a policy change means those automated assistants will soon be able to send subscription messages, ads and promotions for services like makeup consultations. If you’re worried about spam, Facebook emphasized that the user is in control. “All conversations between businesses and people must be initiated by the person receiving the messages, who can then mute or block the business at any time,” wrote Product Manager Seth Rosenberg.
When you initiate a request via Messenger, the business has 24 hours to respond. However, replying back via an “eligible action” (like typing “learn more” or “make appointment”), resets the clock. Those who subscribe to a company’s Messenger feed, by comparison, will get messages unprompted and more regularly, but no promotional content is allowed. If subscribers reply to a message, however, it will switch into standard messaging mode, meaning ads and promos are fair game.
Existing companies using the service have three months to comply to the new rules for standard messaging, which are now in effect. For firms who want to start, Facebook promises to review new bots within five days.
The new subscription options are starting in beta for companies involved in news, productivity and personal trackers (bots used for fitness, health wellness and finance). Any interested organizations have six months to tell Facebook how, exactly, they plan to use it — presumably, Facebook doesn’t want the experience to be too spammy.
The service is a crafty way for Facebook to monetize its 1 billion monthly Messenger users, since it keeps folks in control of promotions. There are reportedly 18,000 bots on the service, and 23,000 companies using Facebook’s own “Wit.ai” deep learning tech that enables natural language recognition.
Via: Venture Beat
Source: Facebook
BBC picks new weather partner after 93 years with the Met Office
Although it’s been almost a year since the BBC announced its 93-year partnership with the Met Office was coming to an end, the broadcaster didn’t have replacement lined up at the time. During those months, it has considered bids from various new providers and ran what it calls “an open competition” to select a supplier who would appease licence payers by delivering high-quality services while keeping costs low. Today, the BBC confirmed that Netherlands-based Meteogroup was able to meet those requirements, allowing it to take over from the Met Office from spring 2017.
According to Nigel Charters, Project Director of BBC Weather re-procurement (that’s a real thing), the deal will save the BBC “millions of pounds over the next seven or so years.” At a time where the Beeb is cutting all it can to reduce its budget, the agreement will please the corporation’s bean counters.
MeteoGroup is already the UK’s largest private sector weather business and provides weather services for both Channel 4 and Sky. Its meteorological data will be fed into the BBC’s TV broadcasts and mobile app, which will require an upgrade to show “even more science and forecasting detail.”
Via: BBC News
Source: About The BBC Blog
Intel Touts USB-C as Future of Digital Audio as Apple Set to Ditch Headphone Jack
While the consensus is that Apple will remove the 3.5mm headphone jack on new iPhones unveiled next month, in favor of an all-in-one Lightning connector for audio output, charging, and accessory connectivity, Intel continues to position USB-C as the open standard of the future for digital audio.
At IDF 2016 this week, CNET reports that Intel architect Brad Saunders addressed the USB Type-C Digital Audio specification due this quarter, noting that its improved power management for USB headphones and other new features “will really make USB Type-C the right connector for audio.”
Apple has adopted USB-C on the 12-inch MacBook, but new iPhones are expected to retain the proprietary Lightning connector in lieu of the open standard. USB-C, meanwhile, continues to see wider adoption in popular Android-based smartphones like Google’s Nexus 6P and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7.
Apple has equipped its mobile devices with proprietary connectors for over a decade, including the 30-pin dock connector used for iPhone, iPad, and iPod models between 2003 and 2012. Apple’s notebooks, beyond the 12-inch MacBook, are also equipped with a proprietary MagSafe connector for charging.
For that reason, it is likely that Apple will continue to favor Lightning over USB-C for at least the foreseeable future.
Tags: Intel, USB-C
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NASA’s $1 million robotics contest will prep Valkyrie for Mars
NASA has formally opened registration for its Space Robotics Challenge, and to win a cut of the $1 million prize purse, researchers have to help prep Valkyrie for Mars. Also known as Robonaut 5 (R5), Valkyrie is the six-foot-tall, 290-pound humanoid robot the agency developed for deep space missions. It could be sent ahead of astronauts to prepare their habitats and make sure their final destination is safe to live in, or even to places too harsh for the human body. Participating teams will have to program a virtual R5 to complete a series of tasks that the robot will likely have to deal with after a dust storm wreaks havoc on Mars.
They’ll have to find a way to make the virtual robot successfully align a communications dish, repair a solar array and fix a habitat leak. Thankfully, Valkyrie doesn’t need food, so they won’t need to make it plant potatoes in the simulation. What they do need to figure out, though, is how the robot can accomplish all those with the added trouble of a communication delay between Earth and the red planet. Hey, the dust storm was supposed to have knocked out the communications dish, after all.
The agency has been planning this contest since 2015 and even sent two Valkyries to MIT and Northeastern University in Boston to get them ready for the competition. Interested research teams can register until September 16th, since the two-month-long qualifying rounds will begin three days later. The finalists that will be announced in December will demonstrate their simulation in June next year. NASA says whatever technologies the teams develop will be transferable, which means actual Valkyries and even their predecessors can use them.
Source: NASA
‘Mr. Robot’ has its own official mobile game
If you’re looking for some extra Mr. Robot while the second season plays out, then there’s now a mobile game to keep you entertained. Mr. Robot: 1.51exfiltratiOn is available for iOS and Android, and is packaged up like a fictional corporate messenger platform for the fictional E.Corp. Once inside, players will begin communicating with colleagues and hunt for data that can uncover the evils that lurk at the company’s heart.
The title is being published by Telltale Games, but was actually developed by Night School Studio, the creators of indie adventure Oxenfree. That title was roundly praised by our Jess Conditt earlier this year and the game’s soundtrack was released on vinyl a few months later. With a critically-acclaimed developer and a similarly-beloved publisher, snapping this up for $2.99 on the App Store or Google Play seems like a no-brainer.
We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany for Gamescom 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Source: App Store, Google Play
Automatic’s new car adaptor uses 3G without a subscription
Automatic just announced a new adapter that plugs into your car’s ODB port with an unlimited 3G connection instead of using your phone’s Bluetooth to talk to the company servers. The new Automatic Pro continues the startup’s desire to not charge a subscription fee and will only cost $129.95. That’s it.
The new always-connected adapter also comes with a new companion app. In addition to fancy new animations while a car is driving, it also has customizable notifications, deeper integration with online scripting service IFTTT (If This Then That). The new application only works with the Automatic Pro. Owners of the first and second generation adapters will continue to use the legacy app.
Getting the company’s adapters on a cellular network without charging customers a subscription has been part of Automatic’s plan since day one. “People don’t want another subscription,” he said. “We knew we always wanted to go cellular because of all the benefits of cellular. Now it’s an exciting time because we’re finally able to do that.”
So whether you want to track your trips, quantify your driving style, or just be able to figure out why your check engine light is on, the new Automatic Pro now does it even when you’re not in the car.
Source: Automatic
ICYMI: Amazingly old sharks and drones for the sea
Today on In Case You Missed It: A new study just published in Science details the carbon dating process used to find the average age of Greenland sharks is 272, along with pegging one at a likely age of 512. Those engineered shark cell injections for longevity can’t come soon enough. By comparison, the Reef Scouts from Ocean Lab are relatively new additions to the sea, with multiple water drones that flock together when only one is controlled.
If you’re interested in the animatronic shark suit in today’s opening, that video is here. The video of a 43-week clean-up on a Mumbai beach is here; use it to get your somehow, still-not-recycling family members onboard. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
New Report Confirms ‘iPhone 7’ and ‘iPhone 7 Plus’ Names, Effectively Ending ‘iPhone 7 Pro’ Rumors
The assumed names of this year’s iPhone lineup — “iPhone 7” and “iPhone 7 Plus” — have been confirmed by “reliable sources” speaking with Japanese site Mac Otakara. The sources said that Apple is following this name scheme to avoid confusion of having back-to-back iPhones with “S” in the name, even though the iPhone 7 will largely be a minor update over the iPhone 6s.
The new report nixes the chance for an additional third tier “iPhone 7 Pro,” which was a rumored dual-lens alternative to the single-lens “iPhone 7 Plus” early in the rumor cycle. The less-powerful camera option was said to be created by Apple as a fallback in case the dual-lens technology didn’t pan out. Now that everything seems to be going well for the company in this area, and mockups have repeatedly shown a dual-lens camera enclosure, it makes sense for Apple to revert to the well-known “Plus” moniker for its next-generation 5.5-inch dual-lens iPhone, and drop any reference to “Pro” altogether.
Otherwise, Mac Otakara reiterates on the expected rumors of the iPhone 7: there won’t be a 3.5 mm headphone jack, it will house an A10 chip, and it will introduce a new flush, capacitive Home Button in lieu of the traditional physical switch. That last aspect of the new iPhone has been a bit more up in the air in the weeks ahead of the September launch, since it’s hard to fully decipher whether recent image mockups confirm one way or the other if the Home Button is pressure-sensitive or not.
It’s believed that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be revealed at an Apple event on September 7, with pre-orders beginning two days later on September 9. A recent leak from AT&T has pushed back the reported launch of the new iPhone, however, suggesting that Apple could be preparing a wide release on September 23, although the original rumor of September 16 is also still a viable option.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: macotakara.jp
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