Posts Tagged ‘motorola’

Imagine if treating a mental illness was as simple as playing a video game — except your mind is the controller. That idea isn’t only real, it’s a therapy gaining traction in the medical community and among patients, who swear by its healing effects. Called neurofeedback, the procedure purports to treat a variety of illnesses — from alcoholism to post-traumatic stress disorder — for which mainstream medicine still hasn’t found adequate long-term solutions.

More:
I think, therefore I heal: the weird science of neurofeedback

Would you like to charge gadgets simply by placing them on a surface? You’re not alone: since Palm introduced the Touchstone wireless charging dock in 2009, companies have been trying to commercialize inductive charging solutions for a variety of devices, from smartphones to automobiles. Today, however, there are a number of competing standards, each incompatible with the others. Here, we’ll keep track of the battle, including new developments in inductive charging technology, until we can proclaim a victor

Read More:
From Touchstone to flashpoint: the wireless charging standards war

What if Zelda was a heroine, rather than a damsel in distress? That’s the idea behind Clockwork Empire — a conceptual Zelda sequel from Dresden Codak author Aaron Diaz. Set 2,000 years after Twilight Princess , the game would see Zelda assume the role of protagonist, tasked with rescuing Prince Link. Diaz says the idea was inspired by Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” web series, though he notes that the changes would go far beyond gender.

View article:
Zelda plays the heroine in ‘Clockwork Empire’ concept game

Microsoft is facing growing criticism over its Windows RT operating system. Performance issues with the OS were apparent from the very first Microsoft shipment of the ARM-based Surface RT hardware. The software maker has been shipping updates each month that have improved the situation gradually, but there are still questions over the benefits of Windows RT and how Microsoft intends to fix and improve it going forward.

Read the article:
Microsoft defends Windows RT, fails to answer criticisms

We’ve been eagerly waiting to see what T-Mobile has planned for its “Uncarrier” event planned for March 26th , but it looks like the details have trickled out ahead of schedule. According to an alleged leak posted by Engadget , unlimited talk and text will be included free in any of the carrier’s data plans, which range from $60 a month for 500MB of high-speed data to $130 a month for 12GB — all of which include the ability to use your phone as a mobile hotspot. And if tethering is a lesser concern than your high speed data cap, you can always opt for unlimited data at $90 a month, minus the hotspot functionality. According to the document, “the number of lines and amount of high-speed data are the only choices that a customer needs… Continue reading…

Continue reading here:
T-Mobile ‘Uncarrier’ pricing possibly leaked, removes guesswork with flat rates for data

Apple isn’t the only phone maker looking to break into smart watches . In a Bloomberg report , Samsung Mobile VP Lee Young Hee confirmed reports that the company is developing a connected wristwatch, saying “we’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” and adding that the company has been working hard to bring it to market. While the watch — possibly named the Galaxy Altius — has been rumored for some time , this marks the first official confirmation from a Samsung executive. The VP didn’t provide any other details on the product

Follow this link:
Samsung working on another smart watch, says mobile VP

We all know the feeling. You’re sleepless in the sad hours of the night or stumbling around early on a hazy weekend morning in need of something to read, and that pile of unread books just isn’t cutting it. Why not take a break from the fire hose of Twitter and RSS and check out our weekly roundup of essential writing from around the web about technology, culture, media, and the future? Sure, it’s one more thing you can feel guilty about sitting in your Instapaper queue, but it’s better than pulling in vain on your Twitter list again. Grab all of these as a Readlist

View post:
The best writing of the week, March 17

If you call yourself a gamer, odds are fairly good you’ve played through one or both of Valve’s acclaimed Portal games. If so, perhaps — in between solving those mind-twisting puzzles — you’ve wondered what life would be like working inside Aperture Laboratories. A new Portal 2 -inspired web series from Wayside Creations aims to satiate your curiosity. Aperture R&D goes inside the cold, unwelcoming halls of the research facility, following a pair of scientists as they strive to earn the distinction of Lab Team of the Month. Even losing an esteemed colleague to a turret laser doesn’t dissuade our protagonists from pursuing the prize.

Read More:
Watch this: live-action ‘Aperture R&D’ series takes you deep inside the labs of ‘Portal’

Flickr has pushed the latest update to its revamped iPhone app , and the headline feature is a tweak to an existing one from the web: according to the changelog, tags are now hash tags, and can be tapped directly below each photo. While Flickr was one of of the first web services to popularize tags as a sorting and search mechanism, it seems Yahoo felt that legacy wasn’t enough for the photo-sharing service to keep pace; the change is in line with the Flickr app’s adoption of retro filters and @-symbol usernames. The word “hashtag” hasn’t extended to the main Flickr website itself, though, and existing tags from the web don’t show up as tappable hashtags in the app. By adopting the language of the app-driven mobile web, the Flickr app..

Continue Reading:
Flickr iOS app adds hashtags as it chases Instagram and Twitter

Smartphones are better than ever. Faster than ever. Smarter than ever. These days, almost everyone has a borderline magical computer in their pocket, and every smartphone has a camera

Read this article:
Top Shelf Versus: what’s the best smartphone camera today?

Less than 24 hours away from Samsung’s next Galaxy S unveiling, detailed images have leaked on Chinese site IT168 that look exactly like yesterday’s purported video of the device. The pictures show that the eight-core phone will measure 7.7 millimeters thick and weigh in at 138g, with a 4.99-inch 1080p display. The description confirms reports that the device will have a 13-megapixel camera , a significant jump from the Galaxy S III’S 8-megapixel resolution.

Read the article:
Samsung Galaxy S 4 revealed in leaked images

When HTC announced the One , its new flagship phone , Verizon was conspicuously missing from the list of US carriers. However, All Things D is reporting that Verizon will in fact carry the HTC One later this year, with a launch coming a month or two after the device arrives at the other US carriers. Originally, it seemed like Verizon might just be content to offer the Droid DNA, which similarly offers a large 1080p display, but it appears that HTC might pull off the coupe of having its flagship device on all four US carriers. That was a major success for Samsung with the Galaxy S III, and it could help HTC claw its way back in the its struggle to regain marketshare.

See the article here:
HTC One reportedly coming to Verizon later this year

In Mexico, an eco-terrorist group called Individualidades Tendiendo a lo Salvaje (ITS) has been wreaking havoc upon scientists working in bio- and nanotechnology, as part of its ongoing crusade for ecological purity. As Wired reports , ITS envisions technology and civilization as cancerous forces, working to erode nature and leading humanity toward an abyss of doom. Thus far, they’ve claimed responsibility for seven attempted bombings against scientific research groups, and according to a manifesto published last month , they plan to do more. “We have said it before, we act without any compassion in the feral defense of Wild Nature,” the manifesto reads.

See the original article here:
In Mexico, eco-terrorists wage war against technology

The third season of HBO’s Game of Thrones finally kicks off in just a few weeks — but if you’re having trouble remembering exactly how the plot of season two came together (and don’t have time to re-read A Clash of Kings ), HBO has you covered. The network just released a 14-minute recap covering the main plot points of the second season, complete with interviews and discussion from show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and a number of cast members.

Excerpt from:
Catch up on ‘Game of Thrones’ season two with the show’s creators and actors

Google has a knack for going big at SXSW. Last year, the company created an entire village near the Convention Center. This year, just outside the convention center, Google has opened a “playground.” And what better way to experience the playground than with a shoe that taunts you with a male, British voice. It’s not intended to be a consumer product — the project comes out of Google’s Art, Copy, & Code initiative, whose tagline is “Advertising Re-imagined.” With an Arduino board, some key sensors (pedometer, gyroscope, etc.), and a bit of snarky code, the shoe tracks how active you are and will respond accordingly with either faint praise or biting sarcasm. A branding initiative that’s also an art project that attempts to..

Read the article:
Of course Google made a talking shoe for SXSW 2013 (video)

Today, payments startup LevelUp announced the availability of a sleek new tool: a newly-refined version of its mobile phone scanner, which can simply take a picture of your screen to initiate a money transfer. The device will debut at the SXSW Interactive conference this week in Austin, TX. All of the conference’s 40 concession stands will play host to LevelUp’s devices, which the company designed using a $2,000 MakerBot in its own office. LevelUp estimates that the process saved LevelUp $30,000 in prototyping fees and weeks of back-and-forth with factories in China

Visit site:
Payments startup LevelUp taps MakerBot to build a sleeker way to pay with your phone

Back in December, Judge Lucy Koh refused to give Apple the sales bans it wanted on 26 Samsung products found to infringe on its patents, ruling that Apple needed to establish that the patented features were “important drivers” of demand for the offending devices. Now Apple is appealing the ruling, arguing that it sets the bar too high, and it’s getting help from an unlikely friend — Nokia. The Finnish cellphone maker filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Apple this week, and while the filing is under seal, Nokia outlines its position clearly in an accompanying motion.

See the article here:
Nokia sides with Apple in push for Samsung product sales ban

If you’re in the mood for a couple of minutes’ worth of unsettling gaming, look no further than Auti-Sim , a game designed to illustrate auditory hypersensitivity, a common condition in autism spectrum disorders. You play a child in a sunny playground full of other noisy kids, free to move around and explore the environment. But as you approach, the playful screams turn to piercing shrieks, and the sounds of ABCs being recited become unbearable. The screen fills with static to further convey your discomfort, only subsiding when you move to a quieter corner of the playground to cool down.

Original post:
‘Auti-Sim’ conveys the discomfort of auditory hypersensitivity

After previously making the panaroma app available for iOS (and Windows Phone 7 after that ), Microsoft is finally bringing Photosynth to Windows Phone 8. As you’d expect, Microsoft has tapped into WP8′s feature set and is offering full Lens support for this version of Photosynth, letting users launch the app directly from the default system camera. Among other functionality Microsoft says is new for Windows Phone 8 is the ability to view shared panoramas and new controls for locking white balance / exposure. The free app should be available from the WIndows Phone Store now, but if you’re not seeing it immediately, give it some time; Microsoft says it may take a few hours for Photosynth to hit every region

Follow this link:
At last, Microsoft brings Photosynth panorama app to Windows Phone 8

Earlier this year it became illegal in the United States to unlock a carrier-subsidized phone or tablet without prior authorization — but it looks like the Federal Communications Commission may not be so fond of the idea. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told TechCrunch that the FCC was in fact going to investigate the ban to see whether it has any harmful effects for consumers and competitors. Genachowski is quoted as saying that it “raises competition concerns; it raises innovation concerns.” However, he reportedly wasn’t entirely sure if the FCC would be able to intervene in any meaningful way in this instance — though it will be exploring its options. “It’s something that we will look at at the FCC to see if we can and should…

View the original here:
FCC will investigate cellphone unlocking ban, says chairman

If you were hoping to see a revelatory smartphone from Motorola in the coming months, you might want to tone down those expectations. Google’s Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President Patrick Pichette today said that products in Motorola’s current and upcoming pipeline “aren’t ‘wow’ by Google standards.” The surprisingly honest admission came during Pichette’s session at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference. When questioned on where things stand with Motorola at the moment, Pichette didn’t mince words.

Link:
Google’s CFO admits products in Motorola pipeline aren’t ‘wow by Google standards’

It seems inevitable that if a product specifically advises against certain activities that some people are going to push the limit. That’s exactly the case with home soda machines like the SodaStream, called carbonators, which are increasingly empowering inspired owners to try to mix their own concoctions — a warranty-voiding activity. As detailed in a New York Times article , some are graduating from adding prepackaged syrups and juices to their carbonated drinks to tossing natural flavor infusers like slices of fruit and mint leaves directly into the water before carbonating it. Some mixologists with professional gear are carbonating alcoholic drinks directly, foregoing the once-obligatory splash of club soda, and creating a… Continue reading…

Original post:
Drink hackers take home carbonators to the limit

On today’s annual shareholder meeting , Apple CEO Tim Cook said that he expects the company will move into its new Cupertino Campus 2 , nicknamed the “spaceship,” in 2016. Additionally, the CEO stated that the company is in continued talks with the city to gain approval for the project, and he said that “we hope to break ground later this year.” The timetable provided by Tim Cook is a year later than what the company first said when it revealed plans for the campus. At that time, it said that it planned to break ground in 2012 in time for a 2015 move-in date . Today’s word from Tim Cook confirms a Bloomberg report from last November that said the campus wouldn’t be ready until mid-2016. Continue reading…

Read More:
Apple plans to move into new ‘spaceship’ Cupertino campus in 2016

Before Asus announced the Fonepad at MWC in Barcelona today, we knew the device’s name and little else. Now we know what Asus gets when it inverts the Padfone, in name anyway — the Fonepad is a 7-inch tablet that’s a dead ringer for the Nexus 7, and splits the difference between the 5- and 10-inch screens that make up the Padfone. We’ve had a few minutes to spend with the device, and though we’re not sure it’s worth a $50 premium over the Nexus 7, the $249 Android device is light and easy to use, and comfortable if a little cheap. Developing..

See the original post:
Asus Fonepad hands-on: definitely a tablet, just one that makes phone calls

Asus is launching a 7-inch Fonepad today at Mobile World Congress. Running Android 4.1, the 7-inch Fonepad uses Intel’s Atom Z2420 processor with 3G voice and mobile data support. Asus has equipped its Fonepad with a 1.2-megapixel front facing camera and a 3-megapixel on the rear. The display runs at 1280 x 800, and Asus has 1GB of RAM in its latest tablet.

See the original article here:
Asus unveils 7-inch Fonepad with support for voice calls, starting from $249 in March