Snapchat’s Spectacles can now be bought online

Snapchat’s video and photo-capturing spectacles are no longer restricted to those who can hunt down its colorful vending machines. From today, you can also buy them online. Or rather, you can if you live in the US. Head to the Spectacles website and you’ll see the option to purchase a black, coral or teal pair for $129.99. Add them to your basket, however, and you’ll find a note which says “available in the US only,” as well as a reminder that only six Spectacles can be ordered per address/person. A welcome expansion then, but one that will frustrate power-snappers outside the states.

The sunglasses caused quite a stir when they launched last September. They were cheaper and more approachable than Google’s high-end Glass wearable, and displayed a clear ring of lights when the user was recording. The camera’s footage was unique too, shooting in a circular format that allowed fellow Snapchat users to watch in landscape, vertical, or a mix between the two. Snapchat followed up with a store in New York City, which attracted long lines at first. Recently, however, it’s been a lot easier to just walk up and buy a pair (the cold weather has probably helped.)

Ever since Snapchat rebranded as Snap, it’s talked about itself as a camera company. The app, it seems, is just the start of a broader push that involves both hardware and software. Wider availability for Spectacles, at least in the US, should also help the company as it gears up for a long-awaited IPO.

Source: Snapchat

Samsung’s US reputation plummets after Note 7 mess

In 2015, Harris Poll ranked Samsung third in its US Reputation Quotient report, ahead of Apple, and rated it number seven last year. Thanks to the recall and eventual withdrawal of its exploding Galaxy Note 7 smartphone and arrest of CEO-in-waiting Lee Jae-yong, however, the company has tumbled to number 49. The poll, conducted between November 28th and December 16th, 2016, queried 30,519 US adults on areas like social responsibility, products & services and workplace environment.

Harris notes that corporate malfeasance and product fraud are the two biggest risks to corporate reputation. That means Samsung, with accusations of bribery against its CEO and a flawed, poorly communicated initial recall of the Galaxy Note 7, is probably lucky it didn’t fall more. Apple, Google and Tesla were among the top ten in the survey, and online retailer Amazon headed the list. Companies with the lowest reputations include Comcast, Volkswagen, Charter and, at the back of the pack, airbag manufacturer Takata.

Consumer (and political) polls can have all manner of problems because of methodology, demographics and biases. The Harris Poll survey is actually at odds with an earlier Reuters/Ipsos poll finding the Galaxy Note 7 recall didn’t damage the brand’s reputation in the US.

Samsung has to overcome its tarnished reputation by rolling out a better gadget, and use Lee’s arrest as a chance to … cut off collusive links between business and politics.

However, the latter poll was conducted prior to the arrest of Samsung’s CEO and only among Samsung and Apple smartphone owners. As a result, it didn’t reflect recent developments and was more of an indication as to whether current Samsung owners would be likely to purchase a device again, not a general question about reputation.

The Harris Poll, meanwhile, rated how the population at large perceived many different companies, including Samsung. It had an unusually high 30,000-plus person sample size, and individuals were first asked to nominate and then rate two companies each with the worst and best reputations. They were then randomly assigned two other companies with which they were “very” or “somewhat” familiar and asked to rate them.

With Samsung’s reputation in decline, consumers may eschew it for future smartphone, TV and other purchases. And even though the Reuters poll shows Samsung owners are willing to cut it a break, a lot is riding on its next Galaxy S8 flagship and how it handles the arrest of Lee. “Samsung has to overcome its tarnished reputation by rolling out a better gadget, and use Lee’s arrest as a chance to … cut off collusive links between business and politics,” analyst Suh Yong-gu told the Korea Herald.

Via: The Verge

Source: The Harris Poll

Disney Research Builds Prototype Living Room With ‘Safe and Ubiquitous Wireless Power’

Disney Research has constructed a prototype living room with “ubiquitous wireless power delivery,” allowing users to move around while their technology charges without any cables, wires, or charging pads (via Ars Technica). Disney’s technology mirrors some early rumors for the 2017 iPhone 8, which suggested Apple was building a long-range wireless charging solution instead of the Apple Watch-style inductive charging solution of more recent reports.

The room’s walls, ceiling, and floor were built with aluminum panels, and a large copper pipe was placed in its center. The middle of the pipe was cut out and in the gap the researchers placed fifteen capacitors, “and it’s those capacitors that set the electromagnetic frequency of the structure, and can find the electric fields.”

To generate the power that is relayed into the room, a signal generator sits just outside the prototype living room and outputs a 1.32MHz signal to the capacitors in the pole, producing what the researchers call “quasistatic cavity resonance.”

“In this work we’re demonstrating room-scale wireless power, but there’s no reason we couldn’t shrink this down to the size of a toy box or a charging chest, or scale up to a warehouse or a large building.”

Given that it’s still a very early prototype, there’s a few caveats to Disney’s wireless charger, including the limit on the power that can be pumped into the room before it reaches dangerous levels for humans. The specific absorption rate, a measure of how much energy can be absorbed by the human body, is capped at 1900 watts. The copper pole at the room’s center requires the nearest person to have at least 46 centimeters of clearance before they’re put in danger. Besides these restrictions, Disney says it’s “completely safe” for anyone to occupy the room for any period of time.

In order for the devices to receive the charging signal, Disney had to design a receiver that allowed the researchers to “power many devices simultaneously.” Including an iPhone, the other objects included an RC car, a fan, a lamp, and six other devices. Although the technology is still nascent and the receiver is bulky, Disney’s “Volumetric Wireless Power for Livable Spaces” is an interesting look at what future wireless charging systems might be able to accomplish without the restrictions of the inductive charging pads popular today.

Because of the restrictions of charging mats, Apple’s Phil Schiller has said in the past that the introduction of a wireless charging pad for iPhone would actually be “more complicated” and he remained unconvinced that it was actually a convenient solution to traditional outlet and USB cable charging. Still, a prominent rumor for the iPhone 8 is its inclusion of wireless charging in some form, with Apple recently joining the Wireless Power Consortium in order to assist in the open development of the Qi wireless charging standard.

Read more about Disney’s findings here, and check out another video that dives deep into the science behind the researcher’s wireless charging living room.

Tag: wireless charging
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Snapchat Spectacles Now Available to Purchase Online for $130

After debuting exclusively inside special pop-up vending machines last year, Snapchat has today begun selling its video-recording Spectacles online for $129.99. Like in the vending machines, the Spectacles come in Coral, Black and Teal, and include a charging case and cable. At the time of writing, shipping estimates sit at a delivery time within the next 2-4 weeks.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said that the response to the Spectacles has been positive ever since the vending machines began appearing in California and New York. But, as TechCrunch uncovered in Snap’s IPO filing, the company mentioned that “the launch of Spectacles . . . has not generated significant revenue for us.” The filing further stated: “We expect to experience production and operating costs related to Spectacles that will exceed the related revenue in the near future.”

“As Evan shared in his interview with the WSJ, when we launched, the idea was : ‘We’re going to take a slow approach to rolling them out,’ says Spiegel. ‘It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it.’ Response has been positive since November’s launch so we’re now happy to be able to make Spectacles more readily available — especially for those in the US who have not been able to make it to a Snapbot.”

When synced with the Snapchat mobile app, users can tap a button on Spectacles to begin recording a ten-second video, which is saved in the “Memories” section of the app and can be revisited and posted to their Story. Even though distribution has been added online, Snapchat said that customers can still expect the vending machines to appear at random new locations in the future, after they have a “brief nap.”

Tags: wearables, Snapchat, Snap
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Apple Said to Debut New iPad Pro Lineup, 128GB iPhone SE, and Red iPhone 7 and 7 Plus at March Event

Apple will host a March event to introduce a new iPad Pro lineup, including 7.9-inch, 9.7-inch, 10.5-inch, and 12.9-inch models, according to Japanese website Mac Otakara.

If the report is accurate, it would suggest Apple plans to replace the iPad mini 4 with a new 7.9-inch iPad Pro model, update its existing 9.7-inch iPad Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models, and introduce an all-new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which is widely rumored to feature an edge-to-edge display like the iPhone 8.

The report claims Apple may add a 128GB storage option for the iPhone SE, alongside the smartphone’s existing 16GB and 64GB capacities, and add a new red color option for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Mac Otakara previously said the red color would be for the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus.

The report also calls for new Apple Watch bands at the event just like last Spring.

The rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro model, which is expected to have an edge-to-edge display, may not begin shipping until May.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3, iPad Pro, iPhone 7, iPhone SE
Tag: macotakara.jp
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral), 12.9″ iPad Pro (Caution)
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Get closer: New smartphone camera tech from Oppo zooming to MWC

Why it matters to you

Oppo has considerable experience in smartphone cameras, and has wowed us with new tech in the past, making the 5x very intriguing.

Oppo, the Chinese smartphone brand known for its camera phones, will be at Mobile World Congress at the end of this month, to show a new technology it’s calling “5x.” What’s 5x? Oppo’s not telling us, but from the way the firm describes it, we’re looking at a new technology, rather than just a new smartphone called the 5x. Probably best, as that’s just going to get confusing.

“Go 5x further,” says the Oppo invitation to see the tech at MWC, adding that it’s, “smartphone photography technology that will give users unprecedented ability to capture highly detailed images.” It has been in development for a year, and is now ready to be shown off to the public. Oppo has a strong photographic background, after it captured many headlines with its rotating camera modules and massive-megapixel selfie cams, and the company even takes the dubious honor of being the first to feature a pre-installed beautification mode on a smartphone.

More: Read our review of the Oppo F1 Plus

What could 5x be? Its name — and the “So close you can feel it” tagline — suggests something to do with camera zoom, a hot trend in smartphones at the moment. If it refers to a 5x zoom on a phone, and is optical without a massive lens extension, then it would surpass Apple’s 2x zoom on the iPhone 7 Plus, and Asus’ 2.3x zoom on the Zenfone 3 Zoom. However, this is only speculation, and we’ll have to wait and see what Oppo reveals on the day.

Last year Oppo also used Mobile World Congress to showcase some exciting technology. It demonstrated the next generation of its proprietary battery fast-charging system, which could take a cell from zero to 100 percent in just 15 minutes, plus a new image stabilization system for smartphone cameras. However, neither of these have since been made available in an Oppo smartphone, despite the intention to have them available before the end of last year.

While we’re excited to see Oppo’s new 5x technology, whatever it may end up being, we’re also wary that it may be an early prototype — and therefore not something we should expect to use in the real world any time soon.

SpaceX successfully lands Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center

Why it matters to you

Space exploration could grow less expensive, as Elon Musk’s SpaceX dream of reusable rockets took a step forward this weekend with its latest successful launch.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX project scored a victory over the weekend when it performed the successful landing of a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, after launching a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The rocket booster made its landing nine minutes after taking off and reaching low orbit.

The location of the takeoff and landing was the NASA Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, site of the Apollo lunar missions, with the exception of Apollo 10. This was the first time a rocket had been launched from Launch Complex 39A since the retirement of the space shuttle launches in 2011. SpaceX agreed a 20-year lease agreement for Pad 39A in 2014.

More: SpaceX is delaying the first crewed launch of its Dragon capsule

This weekend’s news was particularly positive following the temporary setback the SpaceX project suffered in September last year, when one of its rockets exploded on the launch pad.

For a short period of time it seemed like bad luck might also strike this weekend’s launch, when it was delayed for a period 24 hours from its original planned date of Saturday. On Twitter, Elon Musk explained that this was due to engineers discovering that, “the movement trace of an upper stage engine steering hydraulic piston was slightly odd.”

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Feb 19, 2017 at 12:20pm PST

“If this is the only issue, flight would be fine, but need to make sure that it isn’t symptomatic of a more significant upstream root cause,” he continued. “That 1-percent chance isn’t worth rolling the dice. Better to wait a day.”

The Falcon 9 rocket contained SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, packed with around 5,500 pounds of supplies and research equipment intended for the six astronauts on the ISS. It is expected to arrive at the ISS on Wednesday, when it will be retrieved using a 57-foot robotic arm.

In all, it’s another positive step in Musk’s SpaceX reusable rocket program — as well as proof positive that America’s most iconic launch site still has a whole lot of life left in it when it comes to playing a role in the next iteration of the space race.

Earlier this month, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the team hoped to launch “every two to three weeks” from three sites in California and Florida. It also had a successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket last month.

OPPO all set to unveil ‘breakthrough’ camera technology at MWC

OPPO’s “5x Project” will be unveiled next week in Barcelona.

OPPO has steadily risen through the ranks in China in recent years, and is now the largest smartphone vendor in the country. The company has announced that it will show off a new camera technology, dubbed the “5x Project,” next week at Mobile World Congress. According to OPPO, the camera tech gives users “unprecedented ability to capture highly detailed images,” with the company’s global VP Sky Li calling it a “breakthrough” in mobile photography.

In 2016, OPPO focused on improving the front camera with the F1, which featured an 8MP front shooter, and followed it up with the “Selfie Expert” F1 Plus and F1s, which came with a 16MP front camera. Its latest teaser suggests OPPO is looking to bundle a zoom lens in this year’s phones. With the event scheduled for February 27, we don’t have to wait long to find out what’s in store from OPPO.

Xiaomi will launch its in-house Pinecone processor on Feb. 28

Xiaomi won’t be presenting at Mobile World Congress this year, but the company is getting ready to unveil its in-house Pinecone processor next week in China. A recent post on China’s Weibo suggests the SoC will make its debut on February 28.

Not much is known about the Pinecone SoC, but the first device that will run the chipset will likely be the Xiaomi Mi 5c. Leaks from earlier this year hint at an octa-core CPU design clocked at 2.2GHz, as well as 3GB of RAM and 64GB storage.

By building its own SoC, Xiaomi will be looking to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm and MediaTek while offering features that differentiate its products, much like what Huawei does with its Kirin lineup and Samsung with the Exynos chipsets.

Xiaomi is partnering with Leadcore to leverage the company’s cellular technologies in its SoC, and is said to have been working on Pinecone for over two years. The leaked specs suggest Xiaomi is targeting the entry-level segment with its first chipset, which makes sense considering the budget category makes up a bulk of the company’s sales.

How to delete an app from Android Wear 2.0

Easily delete apps from Android Wear with just a few taps.

Android Wear 2.0 may have bundled in more features than you could bargain for into one tiny little operating system, but in some instances it’s helpful to have certain features when your phone is too far to grab.

Delete an app from Android Wear 2.0

Swipe down and tap Settings.
Scroll up and tap Apps.
Scroll down to the app you want to remove and tap it.
Tap Uninstall.
Tap the checkmark to approve the changes.

And now, you’re one app less!

Android Wear

• Everything you need to know about Android Wear 2.0
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• Discuss Android Wear in the forums!