Find: A Tiny QWERTY keyboard from Carnegie Mellon researchers Could Ease Typing on Miniscule Displays


 



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Find: Pebble and Basis B1—two good devices that could be one defining wearable

Basis sounds very capable. 
 
// published on Ars Technica // visit site
Pebble and Basis B1—two good devices that could be one defining wearable
Imagine this on your wrist—one day that'll be cut in half.
Jason Inofuentes

I had been wearing both bands for a bit more than two weeks. They'd been with me day and night, only leaving my wrists to briefly charge. They'd been with me as I prepared, and feasted, on an early Thanksgiving meal. They'd witnessed the birth of my second child. They'd reminded me, though I hardly needed reminding, that I should get more sleep while I rocked my son back to sleep. But it was at the end of a short run, the first since we'd come home from the hospital, that I was struck by how well matched these two were.

The Pebble buzzed.

The message read, "Basis: Good Job!"

As exhausted as you likely are of seeing ads and hearing pablum about wearable computing, it is still a young and very fringe market. Strictly fitness-focused activity tracking devices have experienced the most success, while devices that aim to enhance our lives through new computing and interface paradigms have achieved modest results at best. If early CES hunches are any indication, next year will likely mark the flash point for the market—the promise of a competent wearable computer may well become a reality.

But the wearable future partially depends on the wearable present. And as we end 2013, just how far along has the wearable computing market come? More importantly, how much further does it have to go? Exploring these answers starts by analyzing arguable the two best wearables available today: the Pebble Smartwatch and the Basis B1 fitness band.

These two products highlight the current highs and lows of wearable computing, while serving as a great barometer for the future. One is firmly grounded here on earth (and on your wrist), while the other takes to the sky to enhance your life and well-being. And as you can see in the journal-like entry above, we've been tossing aside any concern for fashion to pair them up and evaluate the possibilities.

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Android 'started over' the day the iPhone was announced

A wise wait to emphasize touch. 
  
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 // published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site
Android 'started over' the day the iPhone was announced

Apple's boast that the iPhone changed everything about the mobile industry has received some support from one of Android's original software architects. Chris DeSalvo, who worked alongside Andy Rubin at Danger before joining Google to build its mobile OS, says that the iPhone's announcement forced everyone on his team to realize that they "are going to have to start over."

Already in intensive development for two years by 2007, Android was Google's vision for a mobile operating system of the future. Still, in spite of all the work that had already gone into it, the Mountain View company was sure it couldn't carry on along the trajectory it'd been following — the earliest Android devices looked very much like Googlified BlackBerrys...

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The first iOS 7 game controllers: Logitech PowerShell and Moga Ace Power review

Not ready for prime time. Maybe apple needs to act. 

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site
The first iOS 7 game controllers: Logitech PowerShell and Moga Ace Power review

Sooner or later, the theory goes, Apple will make its move. The company will flip the proverbial switch that turns the Apple TV into a tiny video game console and mop the floor with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

But it looks like Apple still has a ways to go. The first two iOS 7 game controllers are here, and they’re not worth your money. In fact, they cast doubt on the idea that Apple really wants to build a console at all.

In June, when Apple announced its standardized game controller API for iOS 7 and a "Made for iPhone" certification program, it offered two templates for what a game controller would look like. Today, we have both. The $99.99 Logitech PowerShell follows Apple’s more simplistic design: it’s basically a...

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Find: The first smartring has an LED screen, tells time, and accepts calls


 
// published on Ars Technica // visit site
The first smartring has an LED screen, tells time, and accepts calls

Forget smartwatches—smartrings are the new thing now. An Indiegogo campaign for a product called the "Smarty Ring" has hit its funding goal. Smarty Ring is a 13mm-wide stainless steel ring with an LED screen, Bluetooth 4.0, and an accompanying smartphone app. The ring pairs with a smartphone and acts as a remote control and notification receiver.

The ring can display the time, accept or reject calls, control music, trigger the smartphone's camera, and initiate speed-dial calls. It will also alert the wearer with light-up icons for texts, e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangouts, and Skype. It supports dual time zones and comes with a countdown timer, a stopwatch, and an alarm. It can work as a tracker for your phone, too—if your smartphone is more than 30 feet away from the ring, Smarty Ring will trigger an alarm.

The ring supports Android and iOS—as long as your device has Bluetooth 4.0, it should be compatible. The creators are promising 24 hours of battery life from the whopping 22 mAh battery, and charging happens via a wireless induction pad.

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Razer Kazuyo looks set to add to iPhone controller options


 
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Razer Kazuyo looks set to add to iPhone controller options

Razer, one of the best-respected gaming peripheral makers, is apparently ready to add to the growing roster of iPhone game controllers. Apple opened the door for third-party accessory makers by adding a controller API in iOS 7, and we've already seen the first couple of efforts emerging from Logitech and PowerA. Like those peripherals, leaked images of a mooted Razer Kazuyo show it to be a wraparound case that envelops the iPhone and provides it with a multidirectional arrow pad and four action buttons. It's very similar in shape and appearance to Logitech's PowerShell, though it adds the extra ability to tilt the iPhone up, potentially offering a more ergonomic gaming experience.

Update: Further disclosures from Evleaks' tipster...

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Apple goes all Minority Report. It's opt in, but a bad idea.

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Apple's iBeacon location-aware shopping goes live today

Apple is switching on "iBeacons" across its 254 US stores today, according to a report from the Associated Press. iBeacons, which use low-power Bluetooth transmitters to offer location-aware services to your phone, were quietly introduced along with iOS 7, and although other retailers have toyed with the idea of adding beacons to its stores, Apple's rollout today represents the first major deployment of the technology.

The Apple Store iBeacons will work in tandem with the Apple Store app. Provided you've got the app on your phone and have given Apple permission to track you, it'll attempt to offer an augmented retail experience tailored to your needs. When you walk into the store and the app will enter "in-store mode." If you're...

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Find: Motorola's Ara project will be good for company, user experience, us industry and planet: smart move


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Motorola CEO sees Project Ara as the future of Moto Maker customization

At the end of October, Motorola made a surprising announcement: it was working on an open-source initiative called Project Ara that would allow for the creation of modular, customizable smartphone hardware. It's an ambitious and seemingly unlikely project, but Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside says it's all part of a plan to make consumers more involved with building their smartphones. "Moto Maker was the beginning of a much more exciting and longer-term story," Woodside says in an interview with YouTube personality Marques Brownlee. "Ara is much further out, but you can see how those two things tie together, and how as we introduce new materials into Moto Maker we're gonna pursue that theme across our product line going forward."

"The line...

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Find: he State of Smartphones in 2013, Part II: Would you like to play a game?

 
 
 
// published on Ars Technica // visit site
The State of Smartphones in 2013, Part II: Would you like to play a game?

Jason Inofuentes

The old rule for cameras applies to games: the best console is the one you have with you. We play games while we're on the bus. We play them while sitting in waiting rooms and standing in line. We play while our kids cover the walls in snot and crayon. We play whenever and wherever we can, and we've come a long way from playing Snake on our Nokia candy bars.

Google, Apple, and Microsoft have built services to extend the capabilities of their platforms for gaming, so silicon vendors in turn have pushed graphics hardware to startling heights. In 2012, the number of us playing games on our phones exceed 100 million, and we're likely to clear 120 million this year. This industry is generating real dollars, with revenues expected to be well over a billion this year. But growth aside, just what are the major themes of mobile gaming over the last year?

Apple ascendant

Ecosystem remains king, even in gaming. When it comes to game distribution and development, the services offered by the major vendors are hugely important. As mobile gaming matures, players want access to achievements, matching, and cloud saves. Putting that information on centralized servers allows gamers to know that when they buy a new phone or pick up their tablet, their Angry Birds scores will still be there.

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