Otterbox’s new case lets you use accessories without removing it
Ah yes, phone cases. A necessary purchase if you’re accident prone or tend to drop your handset on the regular. Unfortunately, adding that accessory usually makes for a headaches whenever you try to use another mobile add-on like a thermal camera or lens clip. Typically, you would have to remove your protective case before you could use any of those other gadgets. Well, Otterbox is looking to rid you of that frustration with the new Universe system and it’s swappable “accessory modules.”
On the back side of the phone case, there’s a slot that allow you to attach add-ons like a super compact speaker, Square reader or additional memory. The full line also includes things like Olloclip lenses, a Seek Thermal camera, tripods and more that can all be used without having to take you phone out of the main case. Otterbox’s Universe system is available May 29th for iPhone 6/6s and iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus with the case itself priced at $50. There’s a collection of 15 accessories that work with the case that are available at launch, except for the Goal Zero battery which will arrive in June. Here’s the full list and pricing info:
- Square contactless and chip card reader: $50
- Olloclip 4-in-1 lens: $80, includes fisheye, wide-angle, 10x and 15x zoom options
- SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive: $60-$120, available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities
- Nite Ize Steelie vent mount kit: $40
- Goal Zero slide battery: starting at $60, adds a full charge to your iPhone
- Manatee Works StingRay barcode scanner: $95
- Seek Thermal compact camera and case: starting at $249
- Influx WiFi booster: $40
- PolarPro Trippler tripod: $50
- PolarPro Stance compact tripod: $30
- PolarPro PowerPack removable battery pack: $50
- PolarPro Beat Pulsar wireless mobile speaker: $60
- PolarPro Fisheye wide-angle lens: $30
- PolarPro Trail Blazer armband: $35
- PolarPro Stash Slim mobile wallet: $20, stores cards on the back of the case
‘Romancing SaGa 2’ is out for mobile devices this week
Square Enix has been hard at work this year bringing titles we previously thought may never see the light of day in the west to mobile devices. The latest to join the ranks of mobile ports is Romancing SaGa 2, a port of the cult classic Super Famicom game from 1993.
While there have been rumblings and an official announcement indicating that Square Enix had planned to bring the venerable role-playing game to mobile devices, an official English trailer has just been released. There’s also a date to go along with it. You’ll be pleased to know, dear RPG fans, that you can pick it up as early as May 26th for both iOS and Android.
The enhanced port will include updated visuals, a New Game Plus feature, additional character classes, and even a gardening mini-game, as if there weren’t enough to do before. It’ll set you back $17.99, but it’s well worth investigating if you’re invested in the traditional JRPG scene, especially as it’s only just now receiving an English translation 23 years after it first debuted in Japan. Unfortunately, we won’t be receiving the Vita release Japanese consumers got, but hey — mobile is a start.
Via: Polygon
Android will have password-free sign-ins by the end of 2016
Back in 2015, Google teased the prospect of Project Abacus, a sign-in approach for Android that ditches passwords in favor of a trust system that uses patterns (such as location, typing speed and voice) to verify your identity. But when is it coming out? Sooner than you might think, actually. In a low-key presentation at I/O 2016, Google revealed that Abacus should be in developers’ hands by the end of the year. Multiple “very large financial institutions” will start trying it out in June, taking a big step forward from the university tests that began last year.
How well it works depends on how many people are willing to trust Google. Abacus determines patterns based on data collection that’s already taking place, but might make you nervous when it’s used to skip passwords. You’re trading a degree of privacy for convenience, and there’s no guarantee that everyone will want to make that sacrifice.
Source: TechCrunch
OnePlus wants you to order its new phone using a VR headset
OnePlus doesn’t think that last year’s VR launch for the OnePlus 2 was just a gimmick… in fact, it’s ramping things up. The fledgling smartphone maker has unveiled its own VR headset, the Loop VR, and it’s giving away 30,000 units for free (plus shipping) ahead of the OnePlus 3’s introduction. And it’s not just for the sake of impressing diehard fans, either. If you visit OnePlus’ VR shopping experience, you’ll get to order the OnePlus 3 before anyone else. Yes, you’ll have to immerse yourself if you want to get the first crack at the company’s next flagship.
Of course, this is all a calculated marketing strategy. If you receive a free VR headset, immerse yourself in a launch event and get early dibs on a new phone, isn’t there added pressure to buy that phone? Even if OnePlus is primarily catering to existing fans, the VR strategy could help it out by convincing those diehards to purchase a phone quickly instead of taking a wait-and-see approach.
Source: OnePlus
AT&T streamlines its smartphone installment plans
AT&T’s current Next installment plans are a little bewildering, to put it mildly. Do you want to trade in at 12, 18 or 24 months? How about a downpayment and installments for 28 months? Mercifully, the carrier knows what a mess it made. As of June 9th, it’s streamlining its installment plans to give you just two choices. The first, Next Every Year, is for habitual upgraders: you can get a new phone every 12 months if you agree to a 2-year payment plan. The regular option, just called Next, lets you upgrade every 2 years if you’re willing to make payments over 30 months.
In both cases, you can soften the month-to-month blow by trading in your old device or making a down payment. And of course, this only applies to installment customers unwilling to spend extra. You can still buy a phone outright or pay things off if you want to upgrade on your own terms.
The slimmed-down options could be crucial for AT&T. Most of its rivals already have simpler plans. T-Mobile, for instance, splits you between a regular 24-month plan or the 12-month Jump On Demand plan (with 18 months of payments). Just be aware of the lock-in for the standard Next plan — those 30 months of payments could feel like an eternity.
Source: AT&T
Infuse helps you find fresh videos on Apple TV and iOS
Media portal and set-top box makers have tried any number of things to help you decide what to watch next, ranging from visual makeovers to voice recognition. However, the team at FireCore thinks it has a better way: filters. The new Infuse 4.2 for Apple TV and iOS has a redesigned library view that not only helps you find videos the old-fashioned way, but incorporates smart filters that automatically sift through your collection. You can quickly figure out which TV shows are kid-appropriate, for example, or look for just the movies that came out last year. Moreover, you can create home screen favorites that revolve around these filters — you could always see what’s new the moment you sit down for the evening.
There’s more. On iOS, Infuse titles now show up in Spotlight searches and will start playing right away when you tap the results. Your ratings on Trakt sync across devices, too, so you won’t forget that a show was amazing just because you’re about to watch it somewhere else. All told, this isn’t the minor update the version number suggests. Give it a look if you’re frequently wracked with indecision on movie night.
Source: FireCore
Google Science Journal studies the world through your phone
Are you (or your kid) curious about the world around you? Google wants to help. It just launched Science Journal, an Android app that helps you perform (and comment on) simple science experiments. The app can record light, motion and sound levels using only your phone’s sensors, letting you study everything from a light bulb’s brightness to the acceleration in a jump. It’s easy to kick things up a notch, though. You can connect Arduino-powered sensors, and Google is partnering with Exploratorium to offer starter kits to help budding scientists. Science Journal is free, so there’s no harm in giving it a try — even if you’re a full-fledged adult, you might learn something.
Via: Android Police
Source: Google Play, Google for Education
I salvaged my shattered iPhone with a ‘Band-Aid’ screen cover
After a BBQ last Sunday (there may have been alcohol), I dropped my phone. Multiple times. And I wasn’t lucky. Although my iPhone 6 Plus has suffered tiny hairline cracks in two of the corners, this time the drops were critical hits resulting in a spiderweb of substantial cracks, the majority of them around the bottom right corner — you know, where your thumb always is. Typing on it meant risking a tiny shard or two cutting into my thumb, and even when I avoided that, those cracks still irritated my fingertips. Touch functions were also impaired. Google Maps was not cooperating. While the brunt of the damage was in the lower corner, the drop had also crippled my front-facing camera. Perhaps the camera leaves the screen structurally weaker there, or was this the universe’s way of saying I’d taken one too many self-portraits?
And yet the next day was Monday, a work day. The Apple Store was fully booked. I needed a miracle. Or at least a cheap short-term solution. I turned to Pitamo’s smartphone bansouko (“Band-Aid”), a cut-it-yourself three-layer screen for broken smartphones. It promises to contain any more shards of doom, stop the cracks from getting worse, and keep your phone useable — all for under 10 bucks. What could go wrong?
I heard about the smartphone “band-aid” from my colleagues at Engadget Japan. None of them had tried it out — possibly because they were sober enough to not drop their (caseless) iPhone multiple times. I went to one of Tokyo’s many giant electronics stores to make a purchase.
I picked it up and grimaced. “Cut to size,” it said at the bottom of the packaging. I was going to be dependent on my cutting and tracing skills for this to work even remotely well. There’s a laborious nine-minute, Japanese-language tutorial on how to apply it, but the pictures included with the cover explain everything, even if you have no kanji-reading skills. You trace the outline of your phone (and because you cut it yourself, you can use it on any smartphone model). Then you cut out your phone-shaped sticker. Carefully. The guide then suggests you use a toothbrush to gently remove any excess phone screen shards. Except my thumb had done that for me already.
Then there’s the heady (actually low-stakes) tension of attaching your screen cover: no bubbles, get the sides aligned just right, and make sure nothing gets trapped underneath. In case you’ve never used one before, welcome to the wonderful world of smartphone screen covers. These little sheets of curvy plastic have the inexplicable superpower to trap air, hair and dust no matter how hard you try not to. (The Apple Store offers this service for free for a reason: You’ll screw it up on your own.)
The base layer of this particular cover is made of a softer material that keeps what’s left of your screen in place and intact. It also has a bit of flexibility to it and feels like it’s tightly bound to my phone. The topmost layer has a low-reflective satiny finish which the maker says should resist fingerprints more easily — though that’s really the least of my problems.
When it finally went on, it felt good. Peeling a “fresh” cover off an out-of-box smartphone is the primary reason most tech writers get out of the bed in the morning. This may be the reverse of that, but it feels just as satisfying. However, the struggle wasn’t over yet. I then had to grab a craft knife and cut away and areas that needed access to the outer elements: the home button, speaker and front-facing camera. The scrape of a craft knife on my iPhone made me queasy — especially on the home button — but I pushed through. Still, the glass-based damage to the front camera (coupled with multiple layers of plastic) means I’m going to have to learn how to take selfies with the iPhone’s main camera.
Is my screen perfect again? God, no. Look at it! But the smartphone cover is helping. I can safely run my fingertips over the screen; it’s at least useable again. My iPhone will live another day to play games, get me places on Maps, and help me rant on Facebook. Fortunately, I had paid extra for Apple Care, and so I’ll be taking my phone in later next week to get it replaced. This “Band-Aid” cover is very much a short-term solution, but by that criteria, it works.
Google is making mobile search more visual with rich cards
Google’s new “rich cards” format will make googling on your phone a more visual experience than what you’re used to. It’s sort of an evolved version of rich snippets, those search results that come with small images and a short sample of the web page’s text, though it’s not supposed to replace the older format altogether. The company is rolling out the feature for recipes and movies first. So, if you’re doing a search for, say, X-Men: Apocalypse or a recipe for chocolate pie, you might see a carousel of cards right on top of the results page that can scroll sideways. For now, you can only encounter rich cards if you’re using the English version of Google.com, but the company will likely roll it out for more categories and languages in the future.
Source: Google
‘Woorld’ makes a strong argument for weird Project Tango apps
It’s not hard to see how Google’s Project Tango can be utilitarian. Need directions through a crowded mall? Easy. Want to learn more about art installations as you wander through a museum? Done. What’s easier to miss is just how weird things can get when you’re holding a device that can sense the very environment around you, but Funomena’s new Tango game Woorld serves as a pretty good reminder.
In case you hadn’t heard, Funomena is an indie game studio in San Francisco that counts Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi among its ranks. Gamers probably know exactly what the means for Woorld: it’s equal parts adorable and strange. In a nutshell, you’ll use a Tango device to scan your surroundings — the floor, walls, and even ceiling if it isn’t too high. That initial sweep defines the realm of a tiny little world, where you place objects like plants, faucets, houses, moons and more. Why? Partially just because you can, but also to make the world — as viewed through a screen anyway — a little more beautiful.
See, unlike the Katamari Damacy series, or the more obtuse Noby Noby Boy, there doesn’t seem to be an overarching goal in Woorld. There’s an exploration mode (that we weren’t allowed to play with) that basically helps you wrap your head around the arithmetic of these objects — placing a cloud in the air and making it rain on a sprout causes the tiny plant to grow, and so on. Most of the time though, you’ll be hanging out in a sandbox mode, free to place objects where you like and see how your tiny virtual world comes together. There might be more to the game — Google didn’t have much information on how the final product would turn out — but at least we won’t have to wait too long to find out.
The first consumer Project Tango device is set to launch in just a few weeks, but developers — like Takahashi and Funomena — have had access to development devices for months. With any luck, that means people have been toiling on similarly off-the-wall stuff to give Project Tango hardware a more profound reason to exist. Navigating about learning more about the world around us is great and all, but I can’t wait to start seeing Tango apps that take the world around us and turn it on its ear.
AIVAnet 