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Phones4u confirms all iPhone 6 pre-orders will be cancelled

Now that news of the Phones4u collapse has begun to settle, details are starting to emerge about how customers will be affected. The good news is that the company has said it will honour existing contracts, but it has also confirmed that people who pre-ordered the new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus last week will miss out on getting their new smartphones, at least from them. In a statement shared with the Huffington Post UK , Phones4u noted that “any orders that have not already been dispatched will be cancelled and any payments refunded to customers.” Phones4u has yet to ship any devices to customers and its store has already been replaced with a sad-looking page full of support line phone numbers . Customers who ordered last Friday will now need to place their order again with a different retailer, but they’ll be placed at the back of the queue as Apple’s official delivery times begin to slip. [Image credit: kake_pugh, Flickr ] Filed under: Cellphones , Wireless , Mobile Comments Source: Huffington Post

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Phones4u confirms all iPhone 6 pre-orders will be cancelled

Sega’s created the projection-mapped kids’ sandbox of the future

If grown-ups can have flashier, fancier toys as the years go by, so can kids. Sega’s latest games machine is set to appear in arcades as well as in the waiting rooms of car dealerships and real estate offices. It’s not any kind of video game, though — it’s an interactive sandbox that projects images based on what players are building with its non-sticky sand. Sega calls it “Eederu Sunaba” or Picture Appears! Sandbox (a loose translation, but hey), and it’s equipped with sensors that can determine the height differences on the surface of the sand, along with a projector to make the magic happen. If a kid (or an adult — no judgment here) piles up sand to make a hill, the projector beams an image that makes it look like it’s covered in grass, or even in snow if the hill’s tall enough to be a mountain. Trenches, on the other hand, are filled with digital water, complete with swimming schools of fish, though the system can also project insects like ladybugs and butterflies instead. These virtual organisms can even detect if you’re trying to touch (or squish) them. Definitely beats trying to craft a sandcastle in the playground and coming up with something that looks like a mound of dirt, doesn’t it? If you don’t live in Japan, you can ask those University of West Bohemia students how they created their Kinect sandbox (that’s very similar to this one) back in 2011. Or, you can just watch the video below and live vicariously through those happy Japanese kids. [Image credit: Nikkei Technology/Sega ] Filed under: Misc Comments Via: Nikkei Technology , Japan Trends Source: Sega

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Sega’s created the projection-mapped kids’ sandbox of the future

Facebook test lets users schedule when a post will be deleted

It’s certainly nothing new for Facebook to test new features amongst a limited number of users before a widespread rollout, or killing them entirely (it did ask for willing participants , after all). With its latest trial, the social network is trying out an option in its iOS app that allows you to schedule when a post will delete. Taking a cue from its own ephemeral offering Slingshot , the feature will sort the erasing after a period ranging from one hour up to a week. As The Next Web points out, it’s likely that deleted posts will remain on Facebook servers rather than being permanently deleted, but that’s a point we’ll be looking to clarify if the tool gets officially added in the future. Filed under: Internet , Software , Facebook Comments Source: The Next Web

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Facebook test lets users schedule when a post will be deleted

Apple reveals new iCloud pricing, but you still only get 5GB of space for free

It used to be that if you compared iCloud pricing to other online storage services, Apple didn’t look so hot. (Twenty bucks a year for 10GB?! Bye, Felicia .) Now, in a bid to better compete with bigwigs like Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, Apple is revising its iCloud plans so that they’re a little more affordable. Now, 20GB costs 99 cents a month; 200GB costs $4; 500GB is $10; and 1TB is $20 a month. All told, that’s an improvement — at least compared to the Apple of years past. It must be noted, though, that the free storage plan still only includes 5GB of space — a bit stingy considering Google and Microsoft both offer 15GB gratis. Also, as low as Apple’s prices are compared to the olden days, Google’s are still better: Google charges $10 a month for 1TB, not $20, and it also offers a more inexpensive 100GB option, which Apple doesn’t do. Filed under: Internet , Apple Comments Via: 9to5Mac

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Apple reveals new iCloud pricing, but you still only get 5GB of space for free

Visa’s Token Service generates fake CC numbers to keep your real ones safe

If you haven’t heard yet, Cupertino just launched a digital wallet called Apple Pay that randomizes your credit cards’ numbers. The one responsible for generating those fake numbers for Visa cards in particular, is Visa itself, through its new Token service , which the world’s largest credit and debit card company has announced right after Apple’s big reveal. These “tokens” are random numbers not associated with your name or real card numbers. You can use them to purchase anything online or by using mobile to pay via contactless payment systems in brick-and-mortar stores. Visa’s system can even generate different tokens for each merchant, device or type of purchase, if you want to be even more secure. The great thing about using tokens is that you won’t have to scramble to cancel and replace your card with a new one in case a retailer or a website suffers a security breach, because they never had your real CC details in the first place. As you’ve probably guessed, Apple Pay users will get the first crack at using Visa’s Token Service, starting in October for folks in the US and in 2015 for the rest of the world. The technology was designed to work with all major platforms, though, so it’ll eventually be available to its other customers (read: those using other devices through other digital wallets) in the future. [Image credit: Alamy] Comments Via: Reuters Source: Visa (1) , (2)

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Visa’s Token Service generates fake CC numbers to keep your real ones safe