Month: October 2012

Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging

Design by committee might not be the death knell for technology after all. Over four months after the Alliance for Wireless Power was founded in earnest, the coalition has already greenlit a specification for its partners to work from. The guideline lets device makers start building devices that charge through a magnetic resonance technology more forgiving of distance and material than Qi while simplifying the process through short-range wireless formats like Bluetooth 4.0 . While the A4WP group hasn’t made all the details public, it’s holding meetings this week to speed up the commercialization process — it’s here that we’ll learn whether the corporate bureaucracy is just as quick at getting wireless charging hardware into our hands as it is handshaking on standards. Continue reading Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging Filed under: Cellphones , Peripherals , Tablets Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

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Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging

Hands-On With LG And Google’s First Smartphone Collaboration, The Nexus 4

After having seen its mug plastered all over the internet in the days leading up to its release, actually playing with LG and Google’s new Nexus 4 seemed a bit anti-climactic. I mean, when you’ve seen a device like that cracked open and posed for your pleasure , it felt like there wasn’t much I didn’t already know about the thing. Oh how wrong I was. The first thing I noticed when I picked up the Nexus 4 is how remarkably sturdy it feels. Despite being an LG device, the Nexus 4 doesn’t really feel like one — it’s far more solid and slab-like than the plasticky handsets that the company has churned out in the past. This may sound weird, but I once I picked it up and got a feeling for its heft, I couldn’t resist the urge to tap the thing on the table a few times just to see how it held up (the answer: quite nicely). Turning the thing over reveals the funky patterned finish that reflects light we’ve seen before, and it catches and reflects light in some interesting ways. To be honest, it seems a bit too flashy for a Nexus device (previous Nexus phones were largely free of visual flair), but that’s just me picking nits. I get the feeling that Nexus aficionados will either love or hate the way the Nexus 4 looks, and for now I’m caught right in the middle. Speaking of looks, the Nexus 4 (as you’ve probably already heard) runs Android 4.2 , which doesn’t too far from the aesthetic seen in Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. You can check out a more detailed list of tweaks and additions here, but one change threw me for a bit of a loop — the app launcher now sports five columns of apps instead of the customary four. Meanwhile, the Nexus 4’s display represents a big step forward from the one seen in its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Galaxy Nexus to bits, but the Pentile sub-pixel configuration meant icons and text didn’t appear as smooth as I would’ve like. Thankfully, the Nexus 4’s 4.7-inch 720p IPS panel rendered colors brightly and accurately, but I think my eyes have grown accustomed to the way colors pop on AMOLED panels. That’s all well and good, but how does the thing run? Well, it’s always tough to judge a phone’s performance after only playing with it for a few moments, but the whole thing — from swiping through pages of widgets and apps to scrolling through long lists of emails — was as snappy as you would expect from a top-tier Nexus handset. Of course, we’ve got LG’s Optimus G to thank for that since both devices share the same 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM. To trot out a well-worn Android cliche, the experience was downright buttery, and I’m really looking forward to really putting this thing through its paces. I’ll refrain from making sweeping judgments for now, but the Nexus 4 managed to make a strong impression during the few brief moments we shared together. Expect a deeper dive into Google’s newest Nexus phone later this week after I’ve had some serious playtime, but in the meantime enjoy the rest of these photos.

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Hands-On With LG And Google’s First Smartphone Collaboration, The Nexus 4

First look: Pandora 4.0, the new mobile frontier

Enlarge / Pandora 4.0: the new look Pandora Here comes Pandora 4.0, a big remake of the music service’s mobile listening environment. If you are a Pandora fan, get ready for expanded playlist, station-making, lyric-reading, personal profile, and social networking power on your smartphone. The new service creates a “unifying” experience across web and mobile devices, the company proclaims. It also represents about six or seven years of planning, thinking, and development for the outfit. Back in 2005, iPhone and Android mobile gadgets were gleams in the eye of Apple and Google. Pandora, however, was transforming radio and music distribution with its sophisticated “genome” powered song recommendation algorithm. Millions of users were clicking thumbs up or down to millions of tunes on, well, millions of Pandora channels. By 2007, Pandora was a huge hit. It was, however, mostly a desktop computer hit. “We started thinking about creating a mobile service in 2004,” Pandora CTO Tom Conrad told us in an interview. “We wanted to unify the Pandora experience.” That meant an experience that was easy from the start, that allowed users to individualize their environment and get more of what they wanted, and that was “ubiquitously available.” Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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First look: Pandora 4.0, the new mobile frontier

Facebook tries cloaking probe into data leak involving 1 million accounts

Facebook officials told a blogger to keep their discussions with him private as they investigate claims he acquired names and e-mail addresses belonging almost one million account holders for $5 through a publicly available service online. “Oh and by the way, you are not allowed to disclose any part of this conversation,” member’s of Facebook’s platform policy team said during a tape-recorded telephone conversation, according to a blog post published by Bogomil Shopov, who describes himself as a “community and technology geek” who lives in Prague, Czech Republic. “It is a secret that we are even having this conversation.” Shopov said Facebook officials set up the conversation after an earlier blog post claiming he purchased data for one million Facebook users online for just $5. The blogger said it was impossible for him to determine exactly how recent the data was, although several of the entries he checked contained accurate e-mail addresses for people he knew. In addition to containing names and e-mail addresses, the cache he purchased also contained profile IDs. In an e-mail to Ars, Shopov said he suspects the data came from a third-party developer. The website selling the information has since removed the post that advertised the data, but for the time being it’s still available in Google cache . Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Facebook tries cloaking probe into data leak involving 1 million accounts

Super-Cellophane Can Keep Veggies Fresh for Months

A Japanese company has developed an advanced plastic cellophane that promises to vastly extend the shelf life of fresh vegetables and fruit. By preventing the produce from losing moisture and eliminating excess CO2 buildup, Belle Green Wise’s new Aura Pack has been found to keep some fruits fresh for a whopping three to four months. More »

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Super-Cellophane Can Keep Veggies Fresh for Months

Philips hue: the ‘world’s smartest’ LED lightbulb that saves you time during Red Alerts

Historically, altering the lighting color of a room required draping a gossamer-thin cloth over a lamp or buying a new bulb from the store. Philips has sought to solve that most taxing of first-world problems with the hue, a smartphone-controlled LED bulb that can cycle through shades at your whim. As well as block colors, you can use photos to create palette and can control the units even when away from home. It’ll be an Apple Store exclusive from October 30th, with individual units setting you back $59 (£49, €59) and three-bulb introduction pack with a wireless bridge for $199 (£179, €199). If that seems a little steep, just console yourself in the knowledge that it’s a thousand times more useful than other lighting devices we’ve seen this year. Continue reading Philips hue: the ‘world’s smartest’ LED lightbulb that saves you time during Red Alerts Filed under: Misc , Wireless Philips hue: the ‘world’s smartest’ LED lightbulb that saves you time during Red Alerts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

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Philips hue: the ‘world’s smartest’ LED lightbulb that saves you time during Red Alerts

Penguin and Random House merge, promise a brave new e-book future

The pressure of digital transitions can lead traditional media companies to circle the wagons — for better or for worse — and book publishers certainly aren’t immune as e-books take hold. Bertelsmann and Pearson are worried enough to be merging their respective Random House and Penguin publishing wings into a joint venture, not-so-creatively titled Penguin Random House, that they hope will better survive “long-term trends” like the shift away from paper-centric business models. While the two are engaged in the usual corporatespeak of creating “synergies” (read: resource cuts), we’re more interested in talk of the union being a springboard for digital efforts: Penguin Random House wants to be “more adventurous” with e-book models like self-publishing . Whether the merger leads to a renaissance for established publishers or just reduced competition when the deal closes in the back half of 2013, we’re bracing ourselves for the possibility of a Fifty Shades of Jamie Oliver crossover. Continue reading Penguin and Random House merge, promise a brave new e-book future Penguin and Random House merge, promise a brave new e-book future originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  The Guardian  |  Email this  |  Comments

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Penguin and Random House merge, promise a brave new e-book future

Better on the inside: under the hood of Windows 8

Windows 8’s most obvious—and most divisive—new feature is its user interface . However, it would be a mistake to think that the user interface is the only thing that’s new in Windows 8: there’s a lot that’s changed behind the scenes, too. Just as is the case with the user interface, many of the improvements made to the Windows 8 core are motivated by Microsoft’s desire to transform Windows into an effective tablet operating system. Even those of us with no interest at all in tablets can stand to take advantage of these changes, however. For example, Windows 8 is more power efficient and uses less memory than Windows 7; while such work is critical to getting the software to run well on low-memory tablets with all-day battery life, it’s equally advantageous for laptop users. The biggest single piece of technology that is new to Windows 8 is, however, squarely Metro focused: it’s a large set of libraries and components called WinRT. I’ve already written extensively about what WinRT is, so I won’t be getting into that here, but there are system capabilities that WinRT apps can use (or are forced to use) that are interesting in their own right. Read 77 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Better on the inside: under the hood of Windows 8