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Jawbone’s trackerless Up app syncs with Apple Health, other fitness services

As it promised mere weeks ago, Jawbone has launched a new version of Up for iOS that syncs data from numerous health services and doesn’t require its own tracker. Confusingly, the Jawbone app which does require an Up or Up24 tracker is also called ‘Up’ and is still available . However, the new version is more of a fitness catchall app that works with Apple’s Health and over a hundred other apps (and their trackers), like RunKeeper and IFTTT. Interestingly, it even works with Nest’s thermostat to “create an ideal sleep environment.” In fact, the new Up wants to manage all aspects of your health by tracking your sleep, nutrition and workouts. Once it learns your habits, the “Insight Engine” will then give you personalized health tips and other info. There are also social functions, including team tracking and the ability to boast about fitness milestones. Apple had pulled HealthKit apps a few days ago due to bugs, but after some scrambling they’re now back — you can grab Jawbone’s UP for iOS here . Filed under: Wearables , Software Comments Via: MacRumors Source: Jawbone

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Jawbone’s trackerless Up app syncs with Apple Health, other fitness services

One of the greatest pinball tables ever is going digital with your help

Ask pinball fans about classic tables and they’ll probably mention The Addams Family . It was widely available, well-designed and full of technological firsts, such as computer-controlled flippers. However, it hasn’t been recreated in software in its 22-year history — something FarSight Studios hopes to fix with a crowdfunding project to reproduce the table in Pinball Arcade . So long as the developer reaches its funding goal, you’ll get to play the Addams Family almost as if you’d stepped into an arcade circa 1992. The smart flippers, actors’ voices and Thing’s creepy animatronic hand should all remain intact. Thankfully, it doesn’t cost much to contribute and (hopefully) keep this vintage machine alive. Pledging $7 will get you access to the table on one of the platforms Pinball Arcade supports, including most mobile devices, consoles and PCs. It only costs more if you want more platforms or special access, including the behind-the-scenes menu (if you pay $15) or the coveted Special Collectors Gold Edition ($100). The digital Addams Family won’t arrive until February if all goes according to plan, but that’s a trivial wait if you’ve spent ages yearning for a version of the table that you can afford to take home. Filed under: Gaming Comments Source: Kickstarter

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One of the greatest pinball tables ever is going digital with your help

Belgian brewery to reduce truck use with underground beer pipeline

In order to cut down on the number of trucks it puts on the streets, Brouwerij De Halve Maan is working with the city of Burges to construct an underground beer pipeline. While the brewing still happens at its original site, filtration, bottling and shipping operations were moved outside of town in 2010. To get the tasty beverages from point A to point B, dozens of trucks go back and forth each day, but not for much longer. Folks familiar with the Cleveland, Ohio-based Great Lakes Brewing Company may recall that it uses an underground system to send its suds from a production facility to a taproom/pub across the street. The effort in Belgium will be much more elaborate though, replacing the 3-mile tanker route with 1.8 miles of polyethylene pipe, and cutting transit time to between 15 and 20 minutes. De Halve Maan claims the system can send out 6, 000 liters per hour — on top of cutting traffic and reducing emissions. What’s more, the brewery (er, brouwerij) will foot the bill for installation and road repairs, reducing the financial burden on the city. [Photo credit: Bernt Rostad/Flickr] Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Wired , CityLab Source: Het Nieuwsbladsaid (Dutch)

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Belgian brewery to reduce truck use with underground beer pipeline

Intel plots a mobile coup with $1.5 billion investment in Chinese chipmakers

While Intel is prominent in the mobile world, it’s often playing catch-up with the undisputed king of the market, ARM (and as a result, Qualcomm ). But that doesn’t mean it’s not willing to spend money to reverse that trend. The company has announced that it’s paid $1.5 billion for a 20 percent share in two of China’s biggest mobile chipmakers, Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics. The deal will see Spreadtrum jointly create and sell a range of Intel-based system-on-chips (SoCs), which Intel says will power devices from the middle of next year. It gives Intel the boost it needs to begin competing against its more established rivals, but also offers the chance of cracking the world’s biggest smartphone market (where Qualcomm is currently facing an antitrust probe). While Spreadtrum is known for low-cost chips that power Mozilla’s Firefox OS smartphones , there’s every chance this deal could see Intel make more of a splash in the booming Android market. Filed under: Cellphones , Wireless , Mobile , Intel Comments Via: Recode Source: Intel

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Intel plots a mobile coup with $1.5 billion investment in Chinese chipmakers

Soon you can own the world’s first electric keyboard

When Hermann von Helmholtz designed what was essentially the world’s first electric keyboard, he didn’t do out of a need to lay down crunchy riffs on the shores of the Rhine. What he needed was a way to generate tones and mix timbres in a bid to better understand the musicality and substance of vowel sounds. He ultimately came up with a series of electrically activated tuning forks hooked up to brass resonators , and now you can try to own one of your every own… assuming you’ve got between at least $20, 000 burning a hole in your pocket. This particular unit — hewn of wood and keys whittled from African ivory — wasn’t made by Helmholtz himself, but it is one of the few remaining examples of such 19th century tech still in existence. To hear auction broker Bonhams tell the tale, there’s just one other floating around the United States (another seems to be in safe hands at the University of Toronto ). Intrigued? The Helmholtz synthesizer will go up for auction in New York come late October along with a slew of other scientific curios from back in the day. Comments Source: Bonhams

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Soon you can own the world’s first electric keyboard

PayPal’s new deals let you pay with Bitcoin at more online stores

PayPal has been coy about embracing virtual currencies so far, but it just took a big step toward welcoming them with open arms. As of today, the company’s deals with processing firms BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin let you pay with Bitcoin at North American online stores that both use PayPal’s Payments Hub and accept digital cash. This doesn’t mean your PayPal wallet can suddenly hold Bitcoin; the service says it’s only moving “gradually” toward full support, and wants to see how things shake out. However, it should now be easier for many outlets (primarily smaller ones) to accept Bitcoin. Don’t be shocked if some of your favorite internet shops flick the switch and give you an alternative to paying with old-school money. Filed under: Internet Comments Source: PayPal Forward

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PayPal’s new deals let you pay with Bitcoin at more online stores

Blizzard cancels its next-gen online game despite seven years of work

Have you been anticipating Titan , Blizzard’s first online role-playing game since World of Warcraft ? Unfortunately, you’re going to have to pin your hopes on some other title. The studio tells Polygon that it has cancelled Titan despite pouring seven years of effort into the project, which was never officially announced. As Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime explains, Blizzard just “didn’t find the fun” during a reevaluation — the game was extremely ambitious, but it “didn’t come together” as a cohesive work that you’d want to play. The developers were also nervous about defining themselves as an online RPG company. They want to build “great games every time, ” even if that means switching genres. In a sense, it’s not surprising that Blizzard would give Titan the axe. The company has a history of cutting games that it doesn’t think will fly, even when they’re relatively close to completion — see StarCraft Ghost and WarCraft Adventures for examples. There’s no mention of where the cancelled game’s team will focus its attention, but it’s safe to say that their future work won’t bear much resemblance to WoW or other massively multiplayer experiences. Filed under: Gaming Comments Source: Polygon

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Blizzard cancels its next-gen online game despite seven years of work

AT&T tempts cord-cutters with $40-a-month broadband with HBO and Amazon Prime

If you tried to count the number of times that we’d wished cable companies would offer nothing more than HBO Go and broadband, you’d run out of limbs well before you hit the total. AT&T, however, is following Comcast’s lead in offering a cord-cutter bundle that offers us exactly what we want without any of that messy cable grift we normally have to pay for. The $39 a month U-Verse + HBO bundle offers U-Basic TV and U-Verse Internet Max Plus, paired with HBO and HBO Go but also, more notably, a year’s free Amazon Prime subscription as well. The company is also trialling a package that ditches the U-Basic TV and HBO options and just offers you broadband and Amazon Prime for $29 a month, although that’s only available in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco. The catch here is that once the 12-month contract expires, you’re bumped up to AT&T’s standard rates, but, hey, at least that’s a year you don’t have to worry about paying through the nose for 900 channels you’ll never watch. Filed under: Home Entertainment , Internet , HD , Amazon , AT&T Comments Via: Variety , Re/code Source: AT&T

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AT&T tempts cord-cutters with $40-a-month broadband with HBO and Amazon Prime

Microsoft makes it easier for students to get Office 365 at no cost

Back when it launched the Student Advantage program, Microsoft made it possible for 35, 000 educational institutions across the globe to receive free access to Office 365 . As part of that, students and teachers alike could get a subscription to the productivity software at no cost to them, so long as their school had enrolled in the initiative . Problem is, since then, each student depended on the school to be the one to create an Office 365 account they could use — until today. Microsoft’s now simplified the process , opening up a self-serve service for students to get the license without the need to check with the school’s IT department first. Those who qualify will need a valid .edu email address to receive the free subscription, from a school that’s currently participating in the Student Advantage program, and that’s about it. The only caveat is that this is limited to US students at the moment, but Microsoft says it plans to bring the sign-up feature worldwide later this year. Filed under: Internet , Software , Microsoft Comments Source: Office Blogs

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Microsoft makes it easier for students to get Office 365 at no cost

New reversible USB connectors will carry audio and video, too

We’ve told you all about the upcoming USB cable’s high-powered abilities, but now audio and video have joined the mix. Working alongside the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has leveraged a DisplayPort “Alt Mode” to sort full audio/video on monitors with resolutions of 4K and above with the Type-C tech. What’s more, with the help of an adapter or converter cable, the new standard can be made to play nice with regular DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI and VGA jacks on existing displays. To wrangle video and sound, the alternate mode leverages a couple of the Type-C connector’s so-called SuperSpeed lanes to deliver the goods to that external monitor — leaving the others to data transfers alongside that 100 watts of power. Of course, DisplayPort tech has been available in Thunderbolt cables/jacks for some time, but the new USB kit looks to be “a single-cable solution” that’s sure to clean up that mess of wires under your desk. Filed under: Displays , Misc Comments Source: VESA

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New reversible USB connectors will carry audio and video, too