Kano is seeking funding for three new coding kits: Camera, Speaker and Pixel
Following the success of its Computer kit, British-based coding kit company Kano is back with three new packs to get young minds learning about the way things are made.
The three new kits are camera, which lets you build a camera and programming filters, tripwire sensors and more, Pixel, which is a grid of lights that can show sports scores, games and art, and Speaker, which is a Bluetooth speaker that lets you make music.
- Kano allows children of all ages to build a computer from scratch, like Lego
Like we saw with the Computer kit, all the pieces snap together like Lego and to programme code you simply drag and drop preset lines of code into order using the free software.
All three are currently seeking funding on Kickstarter where they’ve raised $135,000 at the time of writing of a $500,000 goal.
Camera kit
If you’ve seen or used Kano’s computing kit before, then you’ll instantly recognise any of the new coding kits. All are made to be colourful and fun to help engage kids and get them coding. To build the Camera kit it’s just a case of plugging all the supplied parts into the right places, connect it to the Kano brain and that’s it, you’ve got a working camera. You can add a tripwire sensor to take a picture every time someone or something goes past, but the real fun comes in the coding.
You use the free Kano Code software, which lets you programme the camera to take a picture at set time intervals, or when it’s sunny outside to recording timelapse videos.
Pixel kit
Pixel is a lightboard that can display virtually anything, including weather, stocks, scores, games, art, animations and more. Again you just clip the pieces together like Lego add the included tilt sensor and you’re done.
Speaker kit
The Speaker kit is a Bluetooth speaker and synthesizer in one. You can stream music to it, loop sounds, learn electronic music or turn it into an instrument. You can programme a drum machine and add a gesture sensor to change the volume, distort the sound and switch tracks.
All three kits are avaialble to pre-order now with a $99 pledge or you can get all three for $249 for a limited time. The Pixel kit is expected to ship in January 2017, the Camera kit May 2017 and the Speaker kit July 2017.
Audeze iSine are the world’s first planar magnetic in-ear headphones, we have a listen
High-end, California-based headphone manufacturer Audeze has taken much of the same technology found in the excellent Sine on-ear headphones, and put it into two dinky pairs of in-ears. The iSine 10 and iSine 20 bear a slight resemblance to the Millennium Falcon and the technology found inside the casings really is space-age. Rather than use a traditional configuration of a mid/bass driver and a tweeter, the iSine use planar magnetic technology.
This setup marries Fluxor magnets with 30mm planar magnetic diaphragms, which also happen to feature patented Uniform Voice-coil technology. Audeze says the result should be “precise control and fast response times without distortion”.
- Audeze Sine review: When Lightning strikes
- Best Lightning headphones 2016: ‘Phones for iPhones
We’re inclined to agree, as some brief hands-on time with the iSine 10 proved they sounded incredibly spacious and almost as if we were wearing a pair of over-ear headphones instead. Bear in mind, they’re semi-open-backed, so passengers around you on a train may be able to hear what you’re listening to. Here’s looking at you One Direction fans.
Pocket-lint
They’re relatively heavy for in-ear headphones too, mainly because of the 24-bit DAC found halfway down the cable. It’s this DAC that helps the iSine sound so good, as it takes the audio signal from your iPhone – and only the iPhone, as the iSine connect via the Lightning connection – and puts it through the built-in DSP to improve the sound.
Put them on though and that weight becomes barely noticeable, as they come with transparent ear hooks to fit over your ears, ensuring they stay in place, although we probably wouldn’t recommend you wear them on a run.
The difference between the iSine 10 and 20 is that the 20 get a longer Uniforce voice coil which covers even more of the planar magnetic diaphragms. Audeze says the extra coverage enables “better control and responsiveness for enhanced bass, clarity and imaging”.
The Audeze iSine 10 in-ears will be available from October for £379 while the iSine 20 can be had for £579.
Samsung Pay adds in-app coupon search for its anniversary
Samsung Pay is celebrating its first year in America by launching a feature couponers would love. The Korean company has teamed up with the owner of Coupons.com to make redeeming discounts much easier. Now, when you link your loyalty card or account with the app, you’ll be able to browse all the digital coupons that retailer has to offer within Samsung Pay itself. You can also clip all the coupons you want to use, and they’ll automatically be applied when you check out with the app.
Besides the nifty new feature for people shopping on a budget, the payment app is now much easier to use with a new device, as well. It stores your membership, gift and reward cards in the cloud, so you won’t have to scan them or to type in your details again when you finally get that Note 7 replacement or that other Pay-compatible Galaxy phone you’ve been eyeing for quite sometime. Finally, Samsung is giving away 365 Gear S2 smartwatches to lucky Twitter users who tweet out an emoji-filled birthday message for the app. The Gear S2 is Pay-compatible, by the way, giving the winners a way to pay for purchases with a wave of their arm.
Source: Samsung, Quotient Technology
Google adds an Incognito search mode on iOS
Sometimes you need to find something that you don’t want to see listed in your Google search history, even while you’re on the go. Chrome’s Incognito browser sessions can be good for that, but a new tweak for the Google Search app on iOS makes it easy to open up disposable sessions there too. Additionally, it’s set up so that if you leave the app and need to come back to the search, you can lock it using TouchID, so even on a shared device like an iPad, someone else can’t easily see what was in there.
Google says that other changes have made the app more stable with 50 percent fewer crashes, increased compatibility with iOS 10 and added the ability to watch YouTube videos within the app. If you find Incognito searching useful, then you can jump straight into it with 3D Touch by hard pressing the search icon.
Source: Google Search Blog, iTunes
Google for iOS Updated With Touch ID Incognito Mode and YouTube Support
Google announced an update to its namesake app for iOS yesterday, adding a resumable private browsing mode and inline YouTube support.
The new private browsing feature apes Incognito mode from the company’s Chrome browser, along with its dark window theme, but adds an extra layer of privacy, too. Like Chrome, search and browse history are not saved when the mode is enabled, but Google app users can also enable Touch ID for the feature, allowing them to re-enter an existing Incognito session after exiting the app.
Additionally, the Google app gets inline support for YouTube videos, allowing for instant playback within search results, instead of being switched to another browser window or the YouTube app.
The update also renames Google Now to “the feed”, and brings increased stability for iOS 10 users as well as performance improvements that promise to reduce crashes by half.
The new Incognito mode does not appear to have rolled out to all users yet, but once it does, the mode can be enabled by tapping into the app’s account settings screen and selecting “Turn on incognito”.
A hard press of the Google app icon from the home screen also turns up a 3D Touch option to enter the mode on compatible devices. The Touch ID feature can be configured in Incognito settings.
Google Search can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Tag: Google
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BlackBerry DTEK60 images leak ahead of official unveil
It looks like BlackBerry is all set to announce a follow-up to the DTEK50, dubbed the DTEK60. The phone is slated to make its debut on October 11, and ahead of its unveil, press renders have leaked out showcasing the device from all angles.
Unlike the mid-range DTEK50, BlackBerry’s upcoming phone will be targeted at the high-end segment. Our sister site CrackBerry has details on the specs, which include a 5.5-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 820 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 32GB storage, USB-C, fingerprint sensor, and a 3000mAh battery.
Head on over to CrackBerry for more on the DTEK60.
Google Play Music finally launches in India!
Google Play Music is here, and it’s everything you’ve been waiting for.
After several false starts, the moment we’ve all been waiting for is here. Google Play Music is finally available in India, and at an initial glance, it looks like the entire catalog is available for customers in the country.
Individual tracks are priced at ₹15, which is costlier than what you’d find on Apple Music (₹9 per song), and you can purchase albums for as low as ₹70 (Iron Maiden’s excellent The Number of the Beast), with prices going up to ₹210 (Metallica’s S&M). If you’re into regional music, Play Music has most Bollywood albums released in the last 20 years.
It doesn’t look like you can subscribe to Play Music All Access just yet, but you can upload up to 50,000 songs from your own music collection into the service.
Indian readers, what are you liking the most about Google Play Music? Let us know in the comments.
Mercury is the first planet after Earth with tectonic activity
To date, Earth has been the only planet in the Solar System known to demonstrate tectonic activity. Other planets are geologically active, but not much more than that. However, it now looks like our homeworld isn’t alone. Smithsonian researchers combing through high-resolution images from NASA’s Messenger spacecraft have determined that Mercury is still tectonically active. The team spotted many relatively young fault scarps (surface offsets), which are strong indicators that the minuscule planet’s crust is still shrinking as the core cools down. As Gizmodo notes, common wisdom previously dictated that Mercury’s interior would have settled down billions of years ago.
Messenger also picked up signs of a magnetic field, which you should see in a planet where at least some of the core is still molten and thus active.
This doesn’t meant that Mercury’s activity is a carbon copy of what you see on Earth, mind you. There are no tectonic plates shuffling around, so you’re not about to see continents or other familiar features. The shrinking crust might be triggering quakes even now, however, and it might only take a seismic probe to confirm that the planet is rumbling.
The scarps could prompt a rethink of planetary development. If Mercury can take so long to completely cool down, what does that say about Earth and other terrestrial planets? While the discovery isn’t likely to fundamentally challenge geology, it shows that humans still have a lot to learn about other worlds.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Nature, Smithsonian
Moscow will replace Microsoft’s products with local offerings
Microsoft might lose a whole city of customers in Russia. According to Bloomberg, Moscow will begin replacing Redmond’s products with homegrown software as a result of Vladimir Putin’s urging to stop depending on foreign tech. Artem Yermolaev, the city’s head of information technology, told reporters that Moscow will begin by dropping Microsoft’s Exchange Service and by replacing Outlook on 6,000 computers with state-run carrier Rostelecom PJSC’s email system. Authorities are looking to deploy the email software to as many as 600,000 computers in the future. They might even replace Windows and the Office suite entirely, though there seems to be no solid plan for that at the moment.
The Russian president has been calling for companies and other entities to opt for local offerings for a while now, citing American corporations’ decision to shutter services in Crimea after his government annexed the peninsula in 2014. To ensure things go their way, Putin’s internet czar German Klimenko wants to raise taxes imposed upon American firms operating within Russia.
In recent years, Putin’s government has also been passing laws and imposing strict requirements to ensure a tight hold over the country’s tech sector. Back in 2014, it required websites accessible in Russia to store its citizens’ personal data in servers within its borders. Earlier this year, it started requiring internet providers to add backdoor access to their subscribers’ encrypted messages, as well.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Bloomberg
Facebook might launch its Slack-like messenger for all in October
Facebook has been working on an product to compete with Slack for the past two years, and according to a new report, it might finally be ready for a commercial launch.
Slack is a messenger platform popular among many companies and teams, including Pocket-lint. We even published a handy guide that walks you through how the app works and several tips and tricks. But there are alternative options available, and soon, one of those options will be from Facebook. The social network has been developing it for awhile and already has 450 companies using it.
It’s called Facebook at Work. Facebook began testing it in 2015 and has signed up big clients like the 100,000-employee Royal Bank Of Scotland. The service offers Facebook Groups, Messenger, audio and video calling, and access to the social network’s profiles, Events, and Live video features. It’s unclear if Facebook at Work will be free. Slack has both free and paid tiers (charges $6.67 per active user).
The Information claimed Facebook at Work will launch next month and that Facebook will also charge a set monthly fee per active user, though companies of any size will be able to try it before getting charged. Check out the Facebook at Work’s dedicated page to see a video that shows how the service could transform your workplace or how your team communicates.
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