Louis Vuitton’s smartwatch is an extravagant take on Android Wear

The idea of the luxury smartwatch is not new — TAG Heuer, Montblanc and Movado are just a few premium brands to have incorporated Android Wear into their lineup — but it’s still something of a novelty. That hasn’t stopped Louis Vuitton to plunge headlong into wearables space, however, as it debuted its first-ever connected watch yesterday. It’s called the Tambour Horizon and its price starts at a jaw-dropping $2,490. I managed to get my plebeian hands all over it just a day after the announcement, and while I would never actually buy one, I’ll admit that it’s quite a stunning piece of wristwear.

Let’s start with how it looks, because that would be the first and foremost reason that you would even want to get this. It is, in short, gorgeous. The colors on the 1.2-inch AMOLED pop off the screen and the stainless steel chassis is perhaps the most elegant I’ve seen on a smartwatch. I especially like that it comes in brushed steel, stainless steel and a black steel. And, of course, you can choose from over 60 different styles of premium Louis Vuitton straps.

The 42mm case struck me as neither too large nor too small, and though it might still prove a little large for those with slim wrists, I can see it appealing to ladies who prefer a bigger watch. Plus, a smaller case would necessitate a smaller screen size, and I think the 1.2-inch screen is perfect here. Still, like all Android Wear smartwatches, it’s pretty chunky — about 12.5mm thick — and will weigh your wrist down somewhat. What salvages it is a lovely convex curve on the circumference of the chassis, which minimizes its otherwise bulky look.

The spec sheet is known at this point, but it’s worth revisiting here. It has a 300mAh battery, which Louis Vuitton said would give you a day’s worth of battery life, and there’s also 521MB of RAM and 4GB of storage inside. There’s no optical heart rate monitor, which I’m guessing would add additional cost to an already expensive watch, so I’m not too upset that it’s not here. Another interesting point is that the watch face never entirely goes dark — it might dim over the course of the day, but a quick jolt would kick the screen back to life in a jiffy.

And, of course, it has Android Wear 2.0, which comes with a boatload of features like customizable watchfaces and a standalone app store. The Tambour Horizon ships not only with a slew of different Louis Vuitton watchfaces — I really like the one in the lead image here — but it also comes with two proprietary apps exclusive to the brand. One is called City Guides, a contextual app that knows which city you’re in, so it can help guide you to great restaurants and sights. Another is a travel app that will let you know valuable trip information like flight departure times and which gate you should go to. Clearly Louis Vuitton is aiming the Tambour Horizon at a jetsetter sort of clientele here.

As gorgeous as it is, I’m hardpressed to recommend it. As mentioned, the watch starts at $2,490, and the prettiest of the lot — the black one — goes for $2,900. Most people who buy the analog versions of these luxury watches want them to last for years, possibly decades. A smartwatch, as advanced as it is right now, would likely be out of date in just two or three years. At least the TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45 lets you swap in your smartwatch with a mechanical timepiece; the Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon has no such option. Of course, if you can afford to spring $2,000 every couple years for a watch, who am I to stop you. But for the rest of us, that’s far too steep.

oBike arrives in London with its dockless take on Boris bikes

Already this year we’ve seen two Chinese companies that run novel bike rental schemes expand into the UK, and now Singaporean firm oBike is throwing its chips into the pot, too. The startup has this week put 400 of its two-wheelers to work in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, despite the capital being home to over 11,000 for-hire ‘Boris bikes.’ Unlike these, though, oBikes don’t require docking. Through the company’s mobile app, you locate the nearest available pushbike on a map, unlock it by scanning its unique QR code, then leave it wherever you want when you’re done.

The app also handles the payment side of things — 50p per half hour — and includes a credit system that gives users free ride time for reporting damaged and illegally parked bikes. The company tells Wired Tower Hamlets was a good place to start as it believes it to be an underserved area, and that it’s going to add hundreds of bikes to grow the scheme every day throughout July. According to oBike, it’s in ongoing discussions with local councils, which probably means it’s trying to persuade them there’s space for another player, considering the large number of ‘Boris bikes’ already in circulation.

Even in the much less saturated city of Cambridge, Chinese company Ofo had to scale back its trial, which began in April, to only a handful of bikes after the council became concerned they would clutter pavements. Mobike, which runs another identical app-based rental scheme, has had problems of its own after putting 1,000 bikes on the street of Manchester last month. It’s far from a widespread issue, but some bikes have been the victim of run-of-the-mill vandalism, while others have simply been stolen after having their locks hacked off.

Via: Wired

Source: oBike

Sports and tech pros own the first seven Overwatch League teams

“I think the next six months are going to determine what eSports will look like for the next few decades.”

That’s Noah Whinston, the 22-year-old college dropout who in 2015 founded Immortals, one of North America’s leading eSports teams. Whinston believes in a future where the eSports industry is stable, capable of launching careers, generating buckets of cash and sustaining incredible hype around the world. And he’s not alone.

Whinston is just one of seven owners who bought a spot in the Overwatch League, Activision Blizzard’s international eSports endeavor that aims to root professional Overwatch teams in specific cities — a lot like the NFL or NBA operates, but on a global scale. Today, Blizzard revealed the Overwatch League’s first seven team owners, who run the gamut from tech companies to traditional-sports investors:

• Boston: Robert Kraft, Chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group and the New England Patriots
• New York: Jeff Wilpon, Co-Founder and Partner of Sterling.VC and COO of the New York Mets
• Los Angeles: Noah Whinston, CEO of Immortals
• Miami-Orlando: Ben Spoont, CEO and Co-Founder of Misfits Gaming
• San Francisco: Andy Miller, Chairman and Founder of NRG Esports
• Shanghai: NetEase
• Seoul: Kevin Chou, Co-founder of Kabam

The city-based structure is central to Blizzard’s plans for a self-sustaining, lucrative eSports league built around Overwatch. Right now, the professional Overwatch scene is crumbling — teams pulled out of negotiations with Blizzard in a fairly public fashion earlier this year, citing disorganization, too few competitions and high buy-in costs for the new league. And Overwatch may be the most visible eSport on television with the ELEAGUE tournament on TBS, but professional gaming as a whole still lacks oversight and coordination, at least in the western world.

Overwatch League is an attempt to help stabilize the eSports market, and it’s doing so by mimicking a system that’s proven to work: city-based sports leagues.

“Traditional sports teams create a significant amount of revenue based on the fact that they get to host home games, and they sell tickets and local sponsorships in an exclusive home marketing territory,” Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer says. “That’s revenue that just didn’t exist in eSports, so we think through the structure that we’ve created, these city-based teams, we’re going to unlock a lot of value for team owners and players and fans.”

In order to sell eSports tickets, cities will need eSports venues. Blizzard wants to see gaming arenas in every Overwatch League city, and it’s already gotten started, opening the first-ever Blizzard eStadium in Taipei, Taiwan, earlier this year.

“The goal here is that, over time, we’ll have teams in all the major cities around the world and there will be an arena, a stadium, a studio — whatever the form is — where fans from that city, and frankly fans from all over the world, will be able to travel and watch Overwatch played at the highest level,” Nanzer says.

Overwatch League is the first international, city-based program in the eSports world, but Blizzard isn’t fighting for the industry’s maturity alone.

League of Legends developer Riot Games recently announced massive changes hitting its North American League Championship Series in 2018, giving teams more money-making opportunities, establishing permanent franchises and offering a raft of new player protections. Riot increased players’ starting salaries from a minimum of $25,000 to $75,000, plus it instituted a Players’ Association for eSports pros, many of whom get their start while still in high school.

Overwatch League also includes a minimum starting salary for players (Nanzer didn’t offer a figure but said that information should become public soon).

“I do think this is indicative — not just Activision Blizzard’s move, but the moves of other publishers as well — are indicative of a kind of coming-of-age of eSports,” Whinston says.

Nanzer, Whinston and countless others are watching eSports over the next six months as critical changes take effect in some of the industry’s largest games. Now is the ideal time for professional gaming to take root in mainstream culture, propelled by traditional-sports veterans and eSports newcomers with fresh ideas.

Or old ideas, like forming teams around cities.

“It creates an ability to tell a story that affects people differently based on the city that they live in,” Whinston says. “It affects people differently based on their prior experience with Overwatch, their prior experience with eSports, the players that they are personal fans of. The thing about eSports that was always promising, and potentially more promising than what traditional sports is capable of doing, is that it allows a level of connection directly with a player or a team or a match that traditional sports hasn’t been able to capture.”

Apple Adds PayPal as Payment Option for iTunes, App Store, and Apple Music

From today, PayPal customers in the U.K., Australia, Canada, Mexico, and the Netherlands can use their PayPal account to pay for App Store, Apple Music, iTunes, and iBooks purchases made on their Apple devices. PayPal said on Wednesday the option would be rolling out to other countries including the U.S. soon after.

Previously, Apple users were only able to pay for transactions using a registered bank card or gift card. The new option means it’s now possible to make purchases across iPhone, iPad, and iPad touch and Mac using a PayPal account. To select PayPal in the payment method options on iOS, go to Settings -> iTunes & App Stores and tap on your Apple ID, then select payment information. The same options can be found in iTunes on Mac or PC via the Account Quick Link.

Once users have updated their account settings for the above services, all future purchases made with the customer’s Apple ID will be automatically charged to their PayPal account. This includes purchases of apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books, as well as Apple Music subscriptions and iCloud storage.

The new payment option brings PayPal’s One Touch service to Apple accounts for the first time, meaning users can purchase from all Apple devices including Apple TV and Apple Watch, since they don’t have to sign in every time they want to make a transaction. PayPal said the system provides a “secure and versatile payment method to meet the growing demand for digital entertainment.”

(Thanks, Rick!)

Tags: App Store, PayPal
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Security Experts Wary as 1Password Subscriptions Push Users to Cloud-Based Vaults

Password manager app 1Password caused consternation in some quarters of the security community over the weekend when it emerged that the service’s new subscription-based model will push users to adopt a cloud-based password storage system over locally stored password vaults.

Previously, 1Password was offered as a one-time license purchase that enabled users to store their passwords in an encrypted local vault, which security researchers say is more secure than keeping user data in a remote server because hackers are forced to break into a specific device.

Going forward, the service will push customers to monthly subscription plans that serve up remotely stored password vaults through the 1Password.com website. This allows users to access their passwords from any computer by logging into their account, but as noted Motherboard, the change has not been universally welcomed.

Unfortunately, @1Password is betraying their users and moving to a subscription-only service. This is unfortunate. We cannot recommend them.

— Crypto Village (@CryptoVillage) July 10, 2017

1Password responded to criticism on Twitter by saying that it had no plans to remove support for locally stored vaults for users who had purchased the app, but that it was advocating subscription-based memberships because “we feel it’s the best way to use 1Password”.

“We want our customers to get the best. Some people won’t agree with that (which is fine!) so we’ll work with them to get set up how they want, but for 99.9 percent of people, 1Password.com is absolutely the way to go,” Connor Hicks, an engineer at 1Password, told Motherboard.

1Password’s new cloud-based option costs $2.99 per month (or $4.99 for an account for up to five people). However, 1Password developer AgileBits reiterated it had no immediate plans to remove support for local/Dropbox/iCloud vaults, and that it was open to speaking with customers to “help them determine if a one-time license is really what’s best for them”.

Tag: 1Password
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Apple Announces China Data Center Will Comply With New Cybersecurity Law

Apple has announced it is setting up its first China data center in partnership with a local internet services company, in accordance with the country’s new cybersecurity laws introduced last month.

Apple told Reuters on Wednesday that the data center would be built in the southern province of Guizhou with data management firm Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry (GCBD) as part of a planned $1 billion investment in the province.

“The addition of this data centre will allow us to improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly passed regulations,” Apple said in a statement. “These regulations require cloud services be operated by Chinese companies so we’re partnering with GCBD to offer iCloud,” it said, referring to its online data storage service.

According to Reuters, Apple is the first foreign tech firm to announce amendments to its data storage arrangements in China after a new cybersecurity law was implemented in June which requires foreign firms to store data within the country. Other tech firms with data centers in China include Microsoft and Amazon, which will also need to comply with the new rules.

Overseas business groups have been critical of the law’s strict data surveillance and storage requirements, which they say are overly vague and burden companies with excessive compliance risks, threatening proprietary data. Authorities say the law is not designed to put foreign firms at a disadvantage and was introduced as a response to the threat of cyber attacks and terrorism.

Apple assured reporters it had strong privacy and security protections in place. “No backdoors will be created into any of our systems,” said a company spokesman.

Earlier this week, Apple announced it was building a second data center in Denmark run entirely on renewable energy. The company said a planned data center in Athenry, Ireland, announced in 2015, had yet to begin construction and is awaiting judicial review.

Tag: China
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Climb aboard Blue Origin’s rocket for a (simulated) space ride

Why it matters to you

It should be fun as well as fascinating to experience Blue Origin’s space ride well before paying tourists get to do so.

Tourist trips to the edge of space — for those with the appropriate stomach strength and wallet size — could kick off in the next couple of years thanks to the likes of Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin private space company.

Bezos, a seriously ambitious individual who also founded the now-gargantuan Amazon store, is planning to launch the first sub-orbital rides for tourists aboard the New Shepard rocket as early as next year.

The cost of a ticket is currently unknown, though we imagine that for most wannabe travelers, securing the funds for the trip may involve shenanigans of the illegal variety or extremely good luck on the lottery. But there will soon be a much easier way to experience a ride on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Sort of.

It’ll mean heading to the EAA AirVenture event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, from July 24 through 30, and seeking out the Blue Origin exhibit.

Besides a New Shepard rocket, you’ll also find a 1:1 mockup of the astronaut crew capsule that forms part of Blue Origin’s reusable rocket system.

It holds six people, and visitors will have a chance to climb aboard, sit back in one of the comfy seats, and experience a simulated trip to space thanks to footage shot during previous missions by the New Shepard’s on-board cameras.

Going to Oshkosh? Come sit inside @BlueOrigin’s crew capsule and enjoy a simulated ride to space @EAA #OSH17 https://t.co/E6uejQLDgG pic.twitter.com/EjUuY5bdw7

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) July 10, 2017

The crew capsule, which is yet to be tested by humans during an actual Blue Origin mission, features the largest windows “in spaceflight history,” according to the company. This means that every space tourist and astronaut — as well as everyone on the simulated ride — will be able to marvel at the awesome view outside as the spacecraft heads toward space, and back again.

“We are very excited to come to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2017 and showcase our reusable New Shepard rocket and crew capsule so everyone can experience what it’s like to be an astronaut,” said Rob Meyerson, president of Blue Origin. “We hope to inspire the explorers of tomorrow, the ones who will help us achieve Blue Origin’s goal of millions of people living and working in space.”

Bezos and his Blue Origin team nailed their first rocket landing back in 2015, with four more achieved since then. They also beat SpaceX to become the first to reuse a rocket, landing one for the second time last year. The team has been working to perfect its reusable system, which includes the all-important crew capsule that’ll one day carry tourists and astronauts spaceward.

While the Oshkosh experience will involve everyone remaining well and truly on terra firma, future space tourists will be able to enjoy a trip 62 miles above Earth to experience “life-changing views of our blue planet.” They’ll even be able to release their harness and experience the freedom of weightlessness during what is certain to be a spectacular 11-minute ride of a lifetime.

Netflix turns Gerard Way’s warped superhero comic into a TV show

Hot on the heels of releasing its Castlevania animated series last Friday, Netflix announced a new adaptation from a different nerd corner. The streaming content titan will make a 10-episode live action show out of Dark Horse Comics’ dysfunctional superhero property The Umbrella Academy, which was created by My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way and award-winning illustrator Gabriel Bá.

It’s official. You have our permission to freak out. #UmbrellaAcademy https://t.co/HB6IpP9uqx

— Dark Horse Comics (@DarkHorseComics) July 11, 2017

Way’s transition from emo band frontman to comic scribe was unexpected, but aided by lavish art from Bá, The Umbrella Academy’s twisted take on the superhero genre garnered it critical praise and an Eisner (comics’ Oscar-equivalent award). While networks have been seriously considering adapting the work since 2015, Netflix snapped up the limited run and attached Steve Blackman (Fargo, Altered Carbon) as executive producer. The show will be adapted and written by Jeremy Slater, who wrote a draft of Netflix’s film take on Death Note.

Source: Netflix

Nintendo’s first Switch streaming app launches Thursday in Japan

Other than its still-in-development online gaming setup, the Nintendo Switch launched without the suite of video streaming apps we’re used to seeing on new consoles. Now there’s an announcement of one video app for the Switch that’s scheduled to launch July 13th, but unfortunately, it’s only for Japanese users. Niconico is a YouTube-like video sharing site where users comments float in over videos while the play. From the preview video, it all seems quite straightforward, but we still have no information on when apps like Netflix or Hulu will be available for gamers in other countries.

【今夜】Nintendo Switch niconicoリリース！

Nintendo Switchで動画を見ようhttps://t.co/OuOADTJOu9 pic.twitter.com/aj3GZWOl1m

— ニコニコ＠ニコ動公式 (@nico_nico_info) July 12, 2017

Via: NeoGAF

Source: Niconico Blog

Bondic’s new Liquid Plastic Welder reinvents glue for the 3D-printing age

Why it matters to you

Whether you’re looking to carry out minor repairs or insulate and secure wiring, this is one gadget every maker should own.

3D printers are normally pretty sizeable things, even when they are made to have a small “desktop” footprint. No one can accuse Bondic’s new BondicEVO Liquid Plastic Welder of having that problem. A bit like the world’s smallest, battery-powered 3D printer, the Liquid Plastic Welder is a pocket-sized device that extrudes a stream of liquid plastic for joining two materials together. Like some kind of nifty spy gadget (well, if spy movies were all about fixing fidget spinners with plastic welding), the adhesive stays in its liquid form until it’s blasted with ultraviolet light — with the result of hardening it in just four seconds.

Think of it as a 2017-era version of glue — only way more precise and easier to apply — and you won’t be far off.

The product was originally the work of Dr. Thomas Offermann, a German dentist-turned-inventor. According to Bondic’s superhero origin story, a patient one day asked if he could take home of the dental bonding material dentists use for filling minor cavities, as well as a UV light. This patient apparently used the material to attach wires to a microchip, which sparked the idea behind the current Kickstarter project.

After a few years of hard research and development and various versions, the next-gen BondicEVO is now available for pre-order on Kickstarter. In terms of form factor, it looks similar to a miniature glue gun, or a pocket squirt gun — complete with a high-quality finish. It includes a built-in LED light with more power than previous versions, a quick release cartridge system for easy refilling, and an ergonomic grip for convenient and steady applications.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t a replacement for either glue or a 3D printer, but some intriguing product that exists in the middle. Given its keychain-friendly portability, however, it would totally be a useful tool to have in the arsenal of any self-respecting maker — whether you are looking to carry out minor repairs, create unique art, insulate and secure wiring, or whatever else.

Prices start at $11, which includes a starter kit with a tube of BondicEVO formula, LED light, shaping tool, and decal. Shipping is set to take place in August.