James Martin/CNET
Today,
there's the Samsung Gear Fit. But it seems that if you listened to
Samsung president Young Sohn, that's merely a temporary patch for what
the future of wearable health tech will really bring.
Samsung's
health event, called "Voice of the Body," happened today. And at it,
Sohn, discussed a three phase evolution of health tech, starting with
phones, then moving to wearable devices, and finally ending up at
wearable sensors. We're currently in the middle phase.
Samsung's Simband health band (pictures)
The next step, unveiled by VP Ram Fish, is Simband, another
health band, but not a smartwatch: its focus is entirely on health
tracking, collecting lots of data to share with medical researchers,
doctors, and for personal health use. Simband is designed to be open and
modular, and comes studded with a ton of medical sensors.
The Simband is designed to work with a variety of medical needs and with many sensor technologies, and to eventually work with SAMI, Samsung's cloud-based solution for collecting and analyzing sensor-based health data. Unlike something comparatively primitive like the current Samsung Gear 2 and Gear Fit
heart-rate watches, the Simband has multiple sensors. It uses optical,
electrical, and physical methods of collecting heart rate, blood flow,
temperature, CO2 and oxygen levels, and even simulated blood pressure,
all to display real-time electrocardiograph information of it all. Even
the optical sensors on the Simband seem improved, with multiple
wavelength LEDs at once. Samsung admits its measurement technology needs
to be more accurate.
The
design looks a bit like most recent Gear watches. There are
differences: the battery's hot-swappable for easy night charging while
wearing to enable 24/7 tracking. Inside, an ARM-based processor handles
processing of the various sensors. The Simband has both Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth, so it can share data to local devices or directly to
Samsung's cloud.
The goal of Simband is to offer open APIs for
medical use, and to test the Simband at hospitals and medical
institutions. University of California, San Francisco and the University
of Chicago are two institutions already working with Samsung and the
Simband. So
who is Simband for? You, the consumer, don't need to worry yet. The
Simband seems squarely focused on Big Health and medical institutions
for now, as new ways are discovered to make the best use of different
arrays of sensors. The idea seems to be to use it to help prevent
disease and deliver better health profiles: one app, called TicTrac and
demonstrated on-stage at Samsung's event, used the Simband's multiple
sensors to quickly gather a health rating.
Maybe the Simband could
help predict illnesses before they strike, or get people to fix their
bad habits early. That could be great for anyone. Of course,
preventative medical tech could save hospitals and health insurance
companies a ton of money, too.
The bigger question is how these
sensors will evolve, how Samsung's cloud will use the data, and how
other researchers and companies will be able to develop tools for
Simband. The medical industry is a large beast, and Samsung's desire to
create a new open platform is an ambitious one, to say the least. And,
odds are Samsung won't be the only company to try to lay claim to an open health platform.
Simband looks a first step toward acknowledging how big a hill wearable health tech still has left to climb.
Gusto, Mailbox, CloudMagic, and Molto make it easy to manage your mail on the go.
The Gmail app for iPhones and iPads makes you wonder what Google is
doing with all its money. The company certainly isn't spending it on
interface design. Four free programs give you an entirely new view of
your mail on a phone or tablet, letting you slice and swipe your way
through your inbox.
Of the four apps I tried, my favorite is Gusto, although Molto (formerly Incredimail) offers a first-rate mobile interface, Mailbox takes swiping to a new level, and CloudMagic integrates with your favorite productivity apps. (Note that Mailbox, CloudMagic, and Molto are also available for Android devices.)
Gusto separates your files and photos
My
on-the-fly backup method of choice is to attach important files to an
email I send to myself. Gmail's has:attachment feature lets you see all
messages to which a file has been attached. Gusto
goes Gmail two better by automatically separating the files and photos
in your email archive, and by integrating with your Facebook account.
I used a Gmail account to test Gusto, but the program also supports Yahoo, AOL, and Outlook accounts.
The
app gives you four views of your email archive: "All" lists attachments
separate from the message they're attached to; "Mail" is the standard
message view; "Files" lists Office files, PDFs, ZIP files, HTML, and
other files; and "Photos" shows icons representing your archive's MOV,
JPEG, PNG, and other image files. (I was hoping to see thumbnails of the
images themselves, but no dice.) The Gusto email app for iOS lists the files and images attached to your messages separately from the messages themselves.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
You
can toggle among three inbox views: list, two-column, and an
abbreviated preview. Press the down arrow at the top of the screen to
switch between inboxes, accounts, and folders. You also get three views
of your Facebook photos: list (thumbnail, identifying text, and date);
thumbnails by month; and preview, which includes controls for sharing,
deleting, emailing the photos. Get several different views of the photos in your Facebook account via the Gusto email app for iOS.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
Note
that the Gusto support site states the program is free "during the
trial period." The developer offers a desktop version; I tested only the
iOS version on an iPad running iOS 7.1.1.
Swipe your inbox clean with Mailbox
The version of Gmail for the iPhone lets you swipe the screen to open the next message. The free Mailbox
app puts a finer point on your swiping. The program creates five
"zones": your inbox is in the middle (the default view), your archive is
directly to the right, your trash folder is to the far right, your
snooze options are to the near left, and lists are on the far left. The
three default lists are To Buy, To Read, and To Watch, but you can
delete these and create your own lists via the app's settings.
From
your inbox, you slide your finger slightly to the right to archive a
message, far to the right to trash it, slightly to the left to open your
eight customizable snooze options, and far to the left to add the
message to a list. The app claims to work best when it holds only the
messages requiring your immediate attention, so it prompts you to use
its built-in cleaner to scrub your inbox. The Mailbox email app for iOS offers to help you get your inbox to zero messages.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
If
you have only a handful of messages in your inbox, you can select
several and batch-swipe them. The program lets you drag messages in your
inbox to reorder them. You can disable autoswipes and create a swipe
pattern by pressing and holding the list, snooze, archive, or delete
icons. The app's preferences let you disable the options for marking
swipes as read, unstarring moved items, showing "help me get to zero,"
and swiping right to view drawer.
Mailbox links to your Dropbox
account and works with Gmail, iCloud, and Apple Mail for OS X. Of the
four iOS mail apps I looked it, Mailbox is the one that most closely
resembles the Gmail interface, for better and worse. The program's
neatest trick is its four degrees of swiperation.
CloudMagic unites your inboxes and work apps
If you're looking for a splashy interface for your mail, CloudMagic
probably won't be your first choice. But if you're looking to get more
work done in less time, this may be the email program for you. (The
program is available for Android devices as well as for iOS; I tested
only the iOS version.)
The "magic" worked by this clever app is behind the scenes. You can
create CloudMagic Cards that provide access to your mail from within
Salesforce.com, Zendesk, Pocket, Evernote, OneNote, Trello, and
MailChimp. In addition to Gmail and Google Apps accounts, the program
supports Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Exchange, iCloud, Hotmail/Outlook.com,
Office 365, and IMAP accounts. It allows you to integrate as many as
five separate accounts.
To keep costs down, the cloud-based
service pushes to your CloudMagic inbox only the messages you've sent
and received in the past 30 days, although the developer states it hopes
to allow you to access your entire inbox in a future update. You can
set notifications for individual accounts, apply a passcode lock to the
app, add custom signatures, and display the number of new emails on its
icon badge.
After you create a CloudMagic account, you're prompted to add an email account by requesting permission to access the account. After you install CloudMagic and choose an email service, you're prompted to grant the app permission to access the account.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
CloudMagic's
interface is similar to that of Gmail and other mail apps for devices,
but it has a couple of nice touches: press the header of the message
you're viewing to open a sidebar that lists conversation details:
contact information for the sender and recipients; the To: and Reply to:
addresses; the date and time the message was sent; and the message's
subject. Press the current message's header to open CloudMagic's conversation sidebar, which lists more information about the message.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
CloudMagic invites developers to create CloudMagic Cards for their apps. The vendor's FAQ includes information for troubleshooting account-access glitches and other problems.
Get a capsulated view of your mail with Molto
If you're looking for a new way to browse your inbox, Molto's
swipable mail capsules are worth checking out. Gone is the standard
message list along the left side of the screen. In its place are five to
10 message summaries presented in two columns, complete with image
thumbnails for senders and attachments. The messages in your inbox are presented in two-column capsules, complete with image thumbnails, in the Molto app.
Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET
Molto
works only in landscape mode on the iPad. It connects to iCloud,
Hotmail/Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail, AOL, and "other" mail systems (POP3 and
IMAP) in addition to Gmail. The app lets you add a custom signature,
and you can choose one of several email stationery designs, several of
which are available for free. Other stationery selections cost $3
apiece.
One of Molto's settings lets you share images and links
on social networks directly from your messages. When I tested this
feature, Facebook was the only service available for in-message sharing.
A "share" icon appears in the top-right corner of the attachment;
pressing the icon opens a small window for adding a caption to the image
or link before you post it. When it comes to Facebook integration,
Molto has a long way to go to catch up with Gusto.
Not a loser in the email-app bunch
Each
of the four email apps I tried beats the generic Gmail app for iOS in
one or more important ways. The programs are also a big step up from the
mail app built into iPhones and iPads. If you spend much time sending
and receiving messages from your phone or tablet, one of these programs
is sure to make your workday run more smoothly
A supplier of the scratch-resistant material has upped output, says a researcher, causing some to predict a bigger iPhone.
A rumored 5.5-inch-class "iPhone Air" could come with a sapphire screen cover.
Apple; screenshot by Brooke Crothers/CNET
Sapphire production for future Apple products jumped five-fold in April, according to a report from UBS Securities.
The research note (via Barron's) from UBS Securities' Steven Chin on Wednesday is centered on GT Advanced Technologies, which is a sapphire material supplier to Apple. Sapphire is a hard, scratch-resistant material currently used on the iPhone 5S' home button. In theory, it could replace the Gorilla glass that Apple currently uses for its iPhone.
"Our
monthly checks found GT had a very successful month of April at its
Arizona sapphire fab and estimate it shipped about 1 million two-inch
equivalents of sapphire to one of Apple's cover screen suppliers (up 5x
from the month of March when it first started production)," the note
said.
The note goes on to offer the usual speculation about the material's ultimate destination: the "iWatch" or the "iPhone 6."
But Chin seems to be leaning toward the rumored larger future iPhone, which a recent report out of China claims is going to be called the "iPhone Air."
"If it is possibly all for a larger screen 5.5-inch iPhone 6 in
November, we estimate monthly shipments to this single Apple cover
screen supplier need to reach a level of 10 million two- inch
equivalents per month by September to give us more conviction of a
successful ramp," he wrote.
Apple signed a deal with GT Advanced Technologies
back in November. That deal stipulated that Apple provide GT with $578
million in prepayments "at an Apple facility in Arizona." GT owns and
operates the furnaces that produce the sapphire.
In related news, On Tuesday, Apple was granted a patent for embedding displays, including those made from sapphire material, in a LiquidMetal iPhone chassis.
GT Advanced Technologies has yet to reply to a request for comment
OmniDynamics
3D
printing has such a wide range of applications, and it's certainly
becoming more accessible, but there's one thing it has in common with
its inkjet sibling: print material ain't exactly cheap. So wouldn't it
be great if you could make your own?
There are solutions out there
for the home use, but they are few and far between, like Reprap's
instructions for building your own, or the Filabot, which costs at least $649 for an assemble-your-own kit. Enter Strooder -- a much more affordable option.
Created
by a team in the UK called OmniDynamics, the Strooder is able to
convert cheap plastic pellets into PLA and ABS filament for your 3D
printer. In fact, the team is working on support for other kinds of
household plastics -- meaning that you could even melt down, say,
plastic bottles. As the device currently stands, you could use it to
recycle your failed print jobs (so long as you cut it into chunks that
can fit into the feed hole).
It works in a very simple fashion.
Plastic pieces are poured into the hopper, which has a capacity of about
a litre. The hopper feeds the plastic into the machine. Inside, a
heating element will melt the plastic, and a simple screw conveyer
mechanism smooths it out into an even filament, which is extruded from
the machine in one of three different thickness gauges, where it cools
and hardens.
OmniDynamics
The
potential benefits are fantastic. You can mix pellets for your own
custom colours, and even mix various types of plastic for different
degrees of hardness. And, to take the hard work out of chopping up your
own plastic, the team is also working on a grinder that you could simply
pop your pieces into on one end and get pellets out the other.
And the team has worked hard to make sure anyone can use it.
"The
overall aim for Strooder was to create a high performing product, that
also has a design which fits in a multitude of environments, ranging
from workshops, to home offices, and even schools. A key difference of
Strooder in comparison to other filament extruders, apart from its
stunning looks, is its user friendliness," OmniDynamics wrote.
"Strooder
has a 2.4-inch colour touch display preloaded with all the relevant
extrusion settings for ABS and PLA plastic. This enables even the most
novice of users to extrude to their hearts content! For the more
experienced user, all of these preloaded settings can be edited, and
there is also a manual setting for extruding with non-preloaded
materials."
At the moment, the Strooder is being offered as a reward for a minimum pledge of £199 (approximately $333) on Kickstarter, but check it out quickly -- it's selling fast.
The battleship USS Arizona, sunk during
the attack on Pearl Harbor, has undergone extensive underwater 3D
scanning to preserve this historic monument.
Autodesk
The loss of Pennsylvania-class battleship the USS Arizona
was the biggest blow of the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 7,
1941, the ship was bombed in the surprise attack, causing a massive
explosion that killed 1,177 of the 1,512 crewmen on board, and sinking
the USS Arizona to the bottom of the harbour.
The ship
was decommissioned on December 29 of the same year, and a memorial has
been erected over the wreck to mark its resting place. Yet, despite
several dive and salvage operations over the decades, the only existing
record of the ship's design plans was a drawing made by hand.
Now,
the US National Park Service has unveiled an extensive $2 billion
project undertaken last year in collaboration with creative software
designer Autodesk: a comprehensive underwater scan of the vessel, inside
and out.
"Technologically, this project is unprecedented," Autodesk strategic projects executive Pete Kelsey told CNET.
"Never
before have so many different types of data been brought together to
create an intelligent, high resolution, highly detailed model that can
be used for so many different purposes. This project combined
terrestrial laser scanning, SubSea LiDAR, SONAR and Autodesk's
photogrammetry technology to capture the existing conditions of the ship
and create a very accurate virtual model. Subsequently, the model can
be used to generate 3D printed replicas of artifacts on the ship, such
as a cooking pot, a Coke bottle, a catapult from the ship's stern, etc." One
of the nine surviving USS Arizona crewmen still alive, Don Stratton,
holding a 3D print of a cooking pot that still remains on the vessel.
Autodesk
Teams from around the US contributed to the project. Autodesk provided photogrammetry; Sam O. Hirota, Inc. provided terrestrial laser scanning; Oceanic Imaging Consultants provided multibeam side scan SONAR (images produced by bouncing sound off solid objects); 3DatDepth provided subsea LiDAR (images produced by bouncing laser light off solid objects); and Shark Marine Technologies provided diver portable SONAR.
"These
technologies had NEVER been combined before so we were pioneering a new
way to bring all this information together," Kelsey said.
"Interoperability was a significant challenge in the past, but with
Autodesk ReCap technology we were able to import all of the different
formats required."
The scan itself, which took place last year,
only took 15 days in the field, compared to the 1983 scan, which
required 90 days, and three days of post processing compared to the
three years for 1983's three years. The result is three-dimensional
survey-grade photorealistic computer models. The team has even been able
to reproduce some of the items found on the USS Arizona using 3D printing.
The
team didn't find anything unexpected or unusual aboard the vessel,
although it was in better condition than the team had thought it would
be. They were also surprised to find corals growing on the ship, given
that, to this day, it is still leaking oil at a rate of about 2.18
litres per day.
"However, seeing items that make a definite human
connection like cups, saucers, plates in the galley, teak decking, the 3
x 14" guns of turret one up on the bow, ammunition on the deck, and
steps that lead down an open hatch into the darkness were profoundly
moving," Kelsey said. "Sailors and Marines lived, worked and died here."
A National Parks Service cameraman shoots video of one of the ship's turrets.
AutodeskAnd
later this year, the public will be able to experience the results of
the scans themselves -- both as 3D-printed objects and an interactive
experience, which will allow users to explore the ship -- although an
exact date and location for these resources is yet to be revealed.
"We
have two primary objectives for this project: preservation and
education. This is the first comprehensive survey of the memorial and
the ship in 30 years; and the National Parks Service (NPS) hopes to gain
understanding of what is changing on the ship because a steel ship in
salt water is a finite resource. Understanding corrosion rates, coral
growth and oil leakage from the ship are key points NPS wants to
understand," Kelsey explained.
"On the education side, using 3D
interactive computer models is a great way to reach a broad, new
audience. Many visualisations and simulations of the ship can be made
from these models including what the ship looked like when it was
launched, when it was modernized, when it sank, etc."
Having
proven that the technologies involved can be combined in this way, the
teams are already starting to move ahead for the future.
"The workflows developed on the USS Arizona provide
value for new advancements in cultural heritage preservation work. We
are already in discussions with NPS, NOAA and others to do similar work
on Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, Peleliu and Chuuk (Truk Lagoon)," Kelsey
said
An art project looks to the stars with a
robotic, self-assembling red cottage representing the first ever lunar
art installation.
Sara Medina Lind
It
looks like moon real estate may soon be in hot demand. A project is
currently collecting crowdfunding to build the very first house on the
lunar surface -- not as a place to live, but as an art installation.
The Moonhouse project, headed up by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, was
originally conceived 15 years ago, but was put by the wayside during the
global financial crisis and has now been revived by the surge in
crowdfunding in the last few years. It would see a cottage -- painted Falun red,
traditional in the Scandinavian country -- standing on the moon's
surface by 2015. The project is also sponsored by the paint
manufacturer, Falu Rödfärg, which in 2014 celebrates its 250th
anniversary.
However, they won't be sending astronauts to assemble the
house. Instead, the house will be sent up in 2015 on SpaceX's Falcon
9, and private space robotics company Astrobotic
-- which has done a fair bit of work with NASA -- has designed the
three-metre by two-metre house to self-assemble once Falcon 9 drops it
off.
"The Moonhouse will enable people to make history and a mark
on the international scene since The Moonhouse will be the first payload
funded by private individuals to land on the moon," said Astrobotic CEO
John Thornton. "We look forward to working with The Moonhouse towards
the first 'Apollo moment' for people around the world. Only three
nations in the world have previously landed on the moon, but this is
about to change."
The project is seeking crowdfunding through its own website,
with backers paying for "distance". Pledging just $1 will fund, the
team says, 25 feet (7.62m) closer to the moon, while $15 is 375 feet
(114.3m). Higher reward tiers involve having your name inscribed in the
house, books, prints and other mementoes.
Sure, it may be loony. But at least there'll be broadband. Maybe they can even get the house to tweet at us
Some see potential benefit for Apple's
iTunes Radio offering, while others said it was a defensive move at a
time when Apple should be looking for offensive assets.
The acquisition of Jimmy Iovine (left) and Dr. Dre (second from right) is considered key to Apple's deal for Beats.
Apple
Even after Apple confirmed long-standing rumors
that it planned to acquire Beats on Wednesday, industry analysts lacked
any harmony in their impressions of the deal, with some singing its
praises and some cracking sour notes.
Morgan Stanley came out in favor of the $3 billion deal, saying a possible acquisition of the popular headphones
business and subscription streaming music service was justified because
of its low risk but potential for high return. Taking in to account
Beats' 30 percent revenue growth and gross margin that is likely to best
Apple's, Morgan Stanley said it viewed the acquisition's valuation as
fair, especially given the potential for further revenue growth from
pairing Beats with Apple's global distribution network.
"Subscription music service could make the deal a home run, with
every 1% penetration of Apple's 800M account base equating to $960M of
revenue," Morgan Stanley wrote. "Apple believes Beats offers the right
strategy for streaming music as it leverages both algorithms and 200
human curators to create playlists, which differentiates it from
competitors."
RBC Capital Markets was also positive on the
proposed deal, noting that Apple will acquire access to a leading music
subscription service and the company's high-margin hardware business,
which the analyst firm estimates to be sustaining more than 70 percent
gross margins. But another key will be the acquisition of creative
management talent in the form of Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr.
Dre.
"In our view, the iTunes/music
strategy, which has been challenged recently, could benefit from the
new hires," RBC Capital wrote. "Notably, Iovine was one of the first
industry executives to anticipate the download business's decline and
advocate for subscription and streaming services as music's future."
While
Wells Fargo Securities said it was willing to give Apple "some benefit
of the doubt" based on its historical success, the analyst firm took a
more bullish position. The analysts viewed the music-related
acquisition as defensive and posited that "Apple should be focusing on
more offensive assets to better position itself."
Noting that Beats' premium headphones business likely enjoys high
margins, Wells Fargo Securities worried that the acquisition was a
shortsighted effort to drive accessory revenue. The analyst said it saw
more benefit in the opportunity the deal presented for growth in an ad
business.
"However, we believe Beats lacks the scale Apple would
need and, frankly, driving apps for plain old in-app banner ads is not
the differentiation and innovation we expect Apple to bring to this
model," Wells Fargo Securities wrote.
Pointing out that the offer
for Beats was by far Apple's acquisition, International Strategy &
Investment Group also noted that the purchase price represented a little
more than 2 percent of Apple's cash on hand. The analysts said they
viewed the deal as a "head scratcher" but said there was potential for
Beats' nascent music subscription service to give a boost to Apple's
iTunes Radio offering.
But in one of the odder concerns voiced
Wednesday by analysts, ISIG suggested that Apple's new "spaceship"
campus currently under construction would have to undergo a major
architectural redesign to ensure talent retention.
"Since 1996
and enacted through Proposition 215, medical marijuana has been legal in
the state of California," the analyst firm wrote. "However, based on
our knowledge, there are no plans to house a medical marijuana
dispensary in AAPL's new 'spaceship' campus... Considering Dr. Dre's
debut solo album in 1992 was called The Chronic (slang for powerful
marijuana), AAPL may want to reconsider the construction plans."
The Chinese e-commerce giant will use its
10 percent stake to tap into the Singapore national postal service's
regional infrastructure.
SingPost/Alibaba
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut
that's part-owned by Yahoo, has made a S$312.5 million ($250 million,
AU$270 million) investment in Singapore's national postal service,
SingPost, the companies announced today.
The
deal, inked yesterday, will give Alibaba a 10 percent stake, and the
two companies also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for an
upcoming joint venture regarding international e-commerce logistics.
With e-commerce sales in the Asia Pacific region expected to hit $1 trillion by 2017, Alibaba hopes to tap into SingPost's regional infrastructure and international logistics capabilities for its Taobao site, perhaps as a first step to becoming a more global operation.
Taobao is famous for having great prices on everything under the sun,
but notorious for being very hard to use if you live outside of China.
Customers usually pay a shipping agent to order and ship the product out
of the country.
While Taobao does have a Southeast Asia version that guides non-Mandarin speakers into ordering online, it's still a convoluted process that will drive away users who are more used to websites such as Amazon.
By
tapping into SingPost's infracture, Taobao could potentially make it
much easier for customers to order and ship products to the region,
thereby increasing its market presence outside of China.
Origin's latest giveaway takes you to the front lines for awesome first-person combat. Plus: three bonus deals!
Regular
readers know my advice when it comes to videogames: wait, wait, wait.
The longer you hold out, the cheaper the game will be. In fact, if you
wait long enough, it might just be free.
Case in point: For the next few days, Origin is offering Battlefield 3 (PC) for $0. The game normally sells for $19.99. Woot!
Of
course, nothing is really free, right? There must be some catch.
Actually, there are two: You need to create an Origin account (unless
you already have one), and you need to install the Origin client on your
PC (unless you already have it).
Yep, I was joshin' you: those
hardly qualify as catches. It's fair to trade a few bits of personal
info for a game like this, and understandable that you'd need a download
manager to install it. Steam works the same way.
This is, quite simply, an awesome giveaway, and kind of a surprise given that Origin's last one (Plants Vs. Zombies)
was supposed to run through the end of May. (It's not only still
available, but has been extended till June 16.) Keep 'em coming, Origin!
Battlefield 3 was among the most celebrated titles of late 2011, offering "thrills that few games can match," according to GameSpot's review.
Although I disagree with the assessment of its "stale" single-player
campaign, it definitely does rank as one of the most exciting
online-multiplayer games to date.
And, hey, if you don't like it,
it's not like it cost you anything. Uninstall and move on. But I suspect
you'll enjoy many hours of run-and-gun fun. Bonus deal: Speaking of free games, here's a great one for the iOS crowd: For a limited time, Infinity Blade II is free.
Regular price: $7.99. Impossibly gorgeous graphics and tons of
hack-and-slash action combine to make this a true flagship game for iOS.
Beats
Bonus deal No. 2:
I honestly don't get the slobbering adoration of the Beats brand, nor
do I understand why Apple wants to pay $3 billion for it. Guess it's a
status-symbol thing. Of course, if the product is really good, I'll take
it -- provided there's a deal to be had. Today, there is: DailySteals
has the refurbished Beats PowerBeats running headphones for $49 shipped, with your choice of three colors. List price: $149.95. Bonus deal No. 3:
You know I can't let a good Roku deal go by, even if it's a rerun of
sorts. While supplies last, DealFisher has the refurbished Roku 1 streaming media box for $34.99 shipped. That's $15 off the price of a new one, and it comes with the same 90-day warranty. Now all you need is a cheap HDMI cable to go with it.
A Chinese manufacturer of wireless
charging coils has reportedly sent them to Apple for certification for
the much-rumored smartwatch.
A mock-up of what an iWatch might look like.
Sarah Tew and Christopher MacManus/CNET
Apple iWatch wearers might be able to charge the device wirelessly, at least if the latest rumors from Chinese media prove true.
Insiders at Chinese electronics maker Luxshare have revealed that the company has sent wireless charging coils to Apple to be certified and approved for inclusion in the iWatch, according to G for Games. Luxsure is reportedly one of two coil suppliers currently being considered by Apple, the report claims.
Asked
about its potential partnership with Apple, Luxshare declined to spill
anything to G for Games because "the product [iWatch] is not yet
available." Assuming the charging coils and all the other parts are
lined up, Apple is eyeing a release date for the watch sometime in the
second half of the year, according to the insider.
Reports of an Apple iWatch have been ramping up lately as vendors such as Samsung and Sony have unveiled their own high-tech watches. Motorola and LG are also prepping entries into the growing smartwatch market.
But Apple likes to wait before diving into a new product category, giving it the time needed to try to outdo its rivals. An Apple iWatch would reportedly act as both a smartwatch and an activity sensor. Apple's iOS 8, slated to be unveiled at next Monday's Worldwide Developers Conference, will reportedly introduce an app called Healthbook that could directly tap into the watch's health and fitness features.
As
with all iWatch reports, this latest scuttlebut from a "Luxshare
insider" should be filed in the rumor category. But in February, the New
York Times reported that Apple has been testing solar and wireless
charging for its purported smartwatch. Described in an Apple patent in late 2003, the wireless charging method would use magnetic induction, the Times said. Such a method would jibe with the need for charging coils in the device.
Most
of today's smartwatches require you to charge the device via a
conventional cable. But a more advanced and feature-packed smartwatch
would likely run out of power before the day is over. Motorola is reportedly eyeing magnetic induction wireless charging for its upcoming Moto 360 watch, G for Games said in March.
Assuming
an iWatch is on tap, Apple would certainly want to offer a similarly
flexible and simple way of keeping it charged throughout the day.
Attention, politicians and real estate
developers: This big 3D-printed model makes it a snap to showcase new
buildings, old highway routes, and more.
A 3D printed model of San Francisco makes it easy for developers, politicians, and others to see how the city is being used.
Daniel Terdiman/CNET
SAN FRANCISCO -- Picking up the hand-sized skyscraper, O'Brien Chalmers must have felt a little bit like Godzilla.
But
Chalmers, the president of Steelblue, a design firm that creates public
spaces, wasn't about to squash innocent bystanders. Rather, this was
the unveiling of a giant 3D printed model of San Francisco, said to be
the largest of its kind, and possibly even the largest 3D printed model
of a city ever made.
Presented by Autodesk, a giant maker of
digital modeling software and tools, and Steelblue, the 3D printed San
Francisco model was built primarily to help the real estate developer
Tishman Speyer -- which has giant projects under way all over town --
showcase its many projects, and how they impact this constantly
evolving city. But a big physical model of the city, which was produced
at a fraction of the cost and time required for more traditional
methods, has potential purposes that include everything from politics to
demographics to traffic planning.
The model, housed in a dark
room in a new South of Market (SOMA) building, is odd to look at. Made
in a single off-white resin, it can suddenly burst into color thanks to a
projector
mounted directly above. A single building can light up, or entire
neighborhoods can suddenly be awash in a rainbow of colors, depending on
what's being shown. Built at Autodesk's Pier 9 workshop here using two
Objet Connex 500 printers, it took just over two months to make --
including the time required to build prototypes, and cost under $20,000
in materials to make, said Autodesk senior product manager Justin
Lokitz.
Built to represent San Francisco's downtown and SOMA
areas, the model showcases 115 blocks of the city and weighs in at about
150 pounds of 3D printed resin, said Chalmers. Based primarily on city
planning documents and architectural drawings, the model is meant to be
as realistic as something done at a scale of one to 1,250 can be. But
beyond showing the state of the city today, the model also was a glimpse
of the future, with many buildings soaring to the sky that won't be
completed until 2017.
In fact, as anyone who has spent time in
SOMA recently knows, 2017 is a very important date. That's when the
Transbay Transit Center, one of the biggest infrastructure projects in
the area in years, is expected to be completed. Steelblue is one of the
design firms working on that project, and Autodesk's software is also at
its core.
To Chalmers, though, a big physical model like this is
very much about what-ifs. It's long been possible to look at cities in
highly-detailed digital models, but there's something special -- and
valuable -- about being able to walk around and touch a physical model.
Just as important, it's easy for anyone working with the model to make
an instant change -- pluck a block off the table, and replace it with
another. For planners and developers, the value of that ability is hard
to overstate, Chalmers suggested.
Another vital use is using the
model to see how the city is affected by any number of factors. Using a
projector mounted on the ceiling, it's possible to bathe it in light
that mimics the transit of the sun in order to determine the shadow
patterns of new buildings. Similarly, demographic or political maps can
be superimposed on it, as can moving traffic patterns, new subway lines,
or looks at long-demolished freeway routes.
According to
Autodesk's Lokitz, it could have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars
to hand-craft a physical model at this scale, especially given the high
degree of detail. But with 3D printing, a $3.8 billion market this year,
according
to CNBC, it was possible to do it quickly, and inexpensively, Lokitz
said. Though it's hard to quantify the value of the man-hours required
to make it -- including a number of prototypes -- the materials cost
less than $20,000, he said
Eddy Cue, Apple
SVP of Internet software and services, also says Apple in 2014 has the
"best product pipeline" he's seen in 25 years.
Apple's iTunes head Eddy Cue and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, chat at the Code Conference.
Asa Mathat/Recode
Beats is about to get a big injection of steroids from Apple.
Eddy Cue, Apple's head of iTunes,
and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, talked about the reasoning behind
Apple's plan to buy Beats and gave hints about what the two companies
could do together.
"It's about music," Cue said Wednesday during
an appearance at the Recode Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes,
Calif. "Music is something that is really important to culture. It's
important to everyone in the world. Everyone loves music. Apple has been
involved in music since Day 1. ... This is about us continuing to
invest in music."
He added that Beats had three things that Apple "wanted and loved:" incredible talent, premium headphones,
and a well-curated subscription music service. It also sees
opportunities in areas such as speakers, Cue said. Apple has a lot of
customers, it knows what they listen to, it gives the customers an easy
way to pay, and it has great relationships with artists, he said. All of
those will help put Beats "on steroids," Cue added.
"At the end
of the day, it's not about what Apple is doing today, or what Beats is
doing today," Cue said. "It's about what we can do together."
Cue later added that Apple has "the best product pipeline I've seen in 25 years" slated for 2014.
"I believe the products we've got coming are great," he said.
Apple on Wednesday said it plans to buy Beats for $3 billion,
giving the electronics giant a popular headphones business and
subscription streaming music service. The acquisition brings Beats
co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to Apple's management team, and
Apple will continue to use the Beats brand. Beats controls about 60
percent of the $1 billion premium headphones market, according to NPD
Group, and it has proved popular with everyone from celebrities to
tweens.
News of the deal broke earlier this month. At the time, it was unclear just why Apple would want to make the biggest acquisition in
its 38-year history. Beats sells a lot of headphones, but Apple, which
already sells its own branded in-ear headphones as part of a line of
accessories for the iPhone and iPad, could make similar headphones of its own.
As for a curated streaming music service such as the one offered by
Beats, that's also something Apple could probably create on its own.
Apple executives on Wednesday defended the move in interviews with
reporters and a memo to employees. CEO Tim Cook praised Iovine and Dre
and said the subscription service they built is the "first one that
really got it right." He also said that Beats gives the company "a head
start" on new products for the future.
Samsung could go head-to-head with Oculus Rift VR headset
Samsung is reported to be working on a
virtual reality headset that could beat Oculus Rift and Sony's Project
Morpheus into shops.
Sony's Project Morpheus VR headset.
Josh Miller/CNET
Samsung could be the first company to go all "Lawnmower Man" on us with reports of a virtual reality headset that could pip Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift to our eyeballs.
The
rumoured virtual reality headset, which would strap on your head with
screens in front of your eyes that make it feel like you've stepped into
a game, is reported to work with Samsung's Galaxy phones and tablets like the S5 and Note 3.
Oculus Rift and Kinect 'Vertigo Simulator'
According to Engadget,
the VR headset could be with us this year, and could even beat Sony's
Project Morpheus headset and the Oculus Rift VR rig into shops.
By pairing with Galaxy devices the rumoured headset could make for immersive Android
gaming. That doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me, however: the
processor and graphics limits of mobile devices mean mobile games tend
to be reduced in scope, and nobody wants virtual reality that looks
blocky and unrealistic. We had that in the 1990s and nobody bought it
then.
By contrast, Oculus Rift works with PCs -- although there will be an Android version
-- and therefore has the graphical and processing power that entails,
while Project Morpheus works with the PlayStation. Both systems
therefore have a lot more grunt at their disposal to make the VR
experience more realistic.
Oculus was recently snapped up by Facebook for $2 billion, suggesting that big companies see virtual reality as an actual thing that could make some money
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