Google teased us with a behind-the-scenes look at Project Ara’s progress last week , and now it’s giving would-be module makers some meat to dig into with its new Module Developers Kit. As the name implies, this release really isn’t meant for laymen: it’s a set of guidelines for how those bits should look and interact with the endo (Google’s pet name for the phone skeletons you pop those modules into), along with schematics and code samples to play with. That said, there still a few neat morsels worth noting! Google has some awfully flexible plans for how future Ara phones will handle battery modules, for instance: Users of an Ara phone will be able to power their device with one or multiple batteries; they will be able to swap a depleted battery with a fresh one, without powering off their phone; they will be able to charge one or more batteries in their phone from one or multiple charging devices. We already knew that there would be three different-sized endos, but Google’s also cool with modules that stick out from the bottom or back of the phone, like the pulse oximeter (below) the company’s been mentioning for months. It seems a little odd that Google doesn’t want manufacturers crafting modules that could stick out of an Ara’s phone side, but we’re guessing that’s a concession made for grippability. Then there’s the little matter of how we the people will actually be able to order our phone parts. Google’s guidelines make mention of an online marketplace (somewhere in the Play Store, probably) where we’ll be able to pick parts and configure our dream devices. The sales bit of this equation hasn’t been totally fleshed out yet, but the folks in Mountain View still have time to iron it out. The full document is 81 pages long and just a little more accessible than you’d think — you can download the full package here in case you’re curious. The first of three Ara developer conferences will kick off next week too, so fear not: the best is surely yet to come. Comments Source: Project Ara

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Google’s modular phones: hot-swapping batteries is just the beginning

So far, invisibility systems for cars have been pretty lame or not terrible useful . Land Rover seems to have finally nailed it with the “transparent bonnet” (hood) on its Discover Vision concept car. It works via a heads up display, which projects a see-through view of the road from cameras located in the grill (see the video after the break). That permits a driver navigating in tight quarters to view sharp rocks or other obstacles, and even see the wheels turning below the car. The tech will be on display next week at the New York International Motor Show , and is part of the company’s (apparently see-through) vision for future models. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: CNET Source: Jaguar

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‘Transparent’ Land Rover hood shows the rubber meeting the road (video)

Don’t despair that you’ll have to buy both Red’s Scarlet camera and its Dragon upgrade just to get 6K video capture at a semi-reasonable price. The company has announced that the ready-made Scarlet Dragon body will go on sale tomorrow for a relatively affordable $14, 500. It should ship once Red catches up on Dragon upgrade orders , or around June. You may not be recording many projects at full resolution, however. Red did squeeze in 6K (after concerns that it wouldn’t make the cut), but you’ll only get it at 12FPS when shooting full frame — you’ll have to drop to ‘just’ 5K to get speed worthy of movies and TV. Company chief Jarred Land hints that the Scarlet Dragon should be faster in widescreen mode, though, so you might not have to shell out for the higher-end Epic Dragon to produce a sharp-looking masterpiece. Filed under: Cameras Comments Source: Red

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Red’s 6K-capable Scarlet Dragon camera goes on sale for a mere $14,500

Didn’t think that Raspberry Pi’s namesake computer could get any more miniscule? Think again. The organization has unveiled the Compute Module , a board that stuffs the Pi’s processor and 4GB of storage into the space of a stick of DDR2 laptop memory; you’re looking at the tiny new device on the left. This isn’t meant to show off Raspberry Pi’s miniaturization skills, though. Fitting the system into a small standard connector lets circuit board builders attach whatever interfaces they like, rather than make do with the built-in ports on a conventional Pi design. You’ll have to buy the Compute Module alongside a starter IO Board when the hardware launches this June, but it will eventually be possible to get the modules by themselves. Individual pricing isn’t available just yet. However, Raspberry Pi says that large-scale buyers (think educators and entrepreneurs) can buy batches of 100 at about $30 per piece. Filed under: Misc Comments Source: Adafruit , Raspberry Pi

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Raspberry Pi’s computer now fits in the space of a tiny memory stick

Today, Microsoft’s unveiling Skype TX, a new version of its VoIP service geared toward broadcasters. The service uses technology developed by Cat and Mouse — a recent MSFT acquisition — to offer the higher-quality audio and video output that media professionals require. (It also supports the broadcast-standard HD-SDI interface.) Skype TX can handle multiple calls at once through a single interface, and it will eliminate distractions such as call notifications and ads. Considering how often radio stations both big and small rely on Skype to beam in guests, TX definitely has a target audience. Microsoft hasn’t addressed pricing or release timing, but we’ll likely be getting a look at the product in action here at NAB. Filed under: Networking , Microsoft Comments

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Microsoft announces Skype TX with studio-grade audio and video for broadcasters

Thanks to Moore’s Law, anybody can predict that even the most powerful smartphones and tablets coming out right now (the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5 , for instance) will be made obsolete by whatever flagships get announced in 2015. These predictions fortunately don’t have to be based off of speculation anymore, since Qualcomm just revealed the Snapdragon 810 and 808, a pair of 64-bit high-performance chipsets slated to show up in flagship Android devices early next year. Both new Snapdragons come with 64-bit support, but they won’t be the first Qualcomm chipsets to have it: the Snapdragon 610 and 615 , announced at Mobile World Congress in February, will hit the market just in time for the 2014 holiday season. The difference, however, is in the rest of the package; the 810 and 808 will come packed with plenty of other powerful goods. Qualcomm claims that both 20nm chips will be smaller, lighter and more power efficient. The octa-core 810 is the more appealing of the pair. It’ll sport four Cortex-A57 cores for power-intensive tasks and four lower-power Cortex-A53 cores for those times you don’t need the extra oomph. Additionally, it will come with support for 4K displays, LPDDR4 RAM (which is faster and more efficient than LPDDR3), voice activation and dual Image Signal Processors for better imaging. The included Adreno 430 GPU is supposed to be 30 percent faster than the 420, which isn’t even out in today’s flagships yet (we’re expecting it in the Snapdragon 805, which will debut later this year). It will also support Cat 6 LTE-Advanced (the modem is integrated directly into the chip this time) and 2-stream multi-user MIMO; this basically means that your WiFi connection will be significantly faster and more efficient than what you’ve got on your phone or tablet right now. If Qualcomm can deliver exactly what it’s promising here, next year’s high-end devices will be incredibly impressive. The 808 shouldn’t be ignored either, and not just because it bears the same name as a famous drum machine. This chipset will come with six cores (two A57 and four A53), 2K display support, LPDDR3 RAM and an Adreno 418 GPU, which claims to be 20 percent faster than the Adreno 330 (which can be found in today’s flagships). We’re not entirely sure how this chip will be positioned when compared to the 810 and 610/615, but naturally we’re expecting it to be somewhere in between. Interestingly, Qualcomm’s sharing the roadmap to its premium Snapdragon chipset lineup much earlier than it usually does; the 810 and 808 won’t be available on devices until the first half of 2015. This is largely due to competitive pressure: MediaTek, Intel and NVIDIA are going big by pushing out chips with 64-bit support and, in some cases, eight cores. Given how fast the industry is iterating, it’s not hard to see that Qualcomm — which currently dominates much of the mobile chipset market — doesn’t want to lose momentum or popularity. Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Wireless , Mobile Comments

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Qualcomm’s 2015 chips may make you regret getting a new phone this year

NAB 2014 wouldn’t be the same without Livestream , one of the internet’s most popular broadcasting services, introducing new hardware or software. As such, Livestream has just announced another way for users to share video on its site: an application for Google Glass . Obviously, Livestream isn’t the first to bring this feature to the wearable set, since you can already use the search giant’s own Hangouts app to broadcast what you’re seeing. Starting an event is as easy as pie: the “Livestream” voice command launches the app and one simple tap on the side of your Glass headset gets you live in no time (roughly five seconds or so, in our experience). As it stands, the only way to pair an account is by having Glass scan a QR code, which can be found within the event pages on Livestream’s website; soon you’ll be able to do this straight from the streaming platform’s iOS and Android apps. Livestream Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Phil Worthington, told us that it’s all about integrating the Glass app with the rest of the company’s ecosystem, like its Broadcaster and all-in-one Studio video switchers . “Our mission is to democratize live video broadcasting, so this is the best step in our revolution. We want to be on every device possible, ” Worthington stated. (Psst… Livestream video demo taken with Google Glass. How meta.) Filed under: Misc , Wearables , Internet , Google Comments Source: Livestream

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Broadcast your point of view with Livestream’s new Google Glass app

Apple has sort-of-confirmed that it recently snapped up another small company, called Novauris. The firm specializes in speech recognition and has historical ties to the core technology and patents underpinning Siri. TechCrunch reports that Novauris’s experts are already working inside Apple to improve its voice assistant, but no one really knows exactly what they’re up to. One of Novauris’s big strengths has been locally-processed recognition, which doesn’t rely on distant servers, so it’s possible that Apple wants Siri to accomplish more without a data connection. (Apple’s current Siri partner, Nuance , can also do offline processing, but Apple hasn’t been able to bring that technology in-house.) We’re just speculating, of course, but this is a function that no voice assistant has really mastered so far (although others are definitely working on it ), and it’s even more important now that iOS is getting into the car . Filed under: Cellphones , Tablets , Mobile , Apple Comments Source: TechCrunch

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Apple buys tech that could take Siri offline

Even if you’ve only played a handful games with online multiplayer in the past dozen years, chances are that at least a few of your sessions have been powered by Gamespy’s back-end tech . On May 31st, the company is shutting down its servers for good, and as a result, a bunch of games are losing their online capabilities. For console games, that largely amounts to multiplayer. For certain PC titles though, that also includes authentication servers for CD keys — losing those means losing access to the game itself. You probably weren’t playing most of what Gamespy’s listed anymore ( WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2009 on PS3, anyone?), though, and a good deal of what’s there are somewhat obscure Wii, DS and PC titles. There are, however, high-profile stand-outs: most anything from Rockstar Games and Activision, or the PS3 version of Borderlands and the hardcore military-sim (and basis for DayZ ) ARMA series, for instance. What about those? Well, according to IGN ‘s sources , GameSpy’s parent company has been working with some developers and publishers, including Rockstar, to migrate to different platforms for around two years. Activision said that its players won’t be affected, and ARMA- developer Bohemia Interactive is “very near” to finding a solution , but couldn’t share many details. Gearbox Software, the studio responsible for Borderlands, passed the buck to its publisher 2K Games, which declined to comment. As gaming moves further into a future that’s ever-more reliant on the internet, these types of things will likely (perhaps inevitably) continue to happen. After all, justifying the cost involved for keeping servers active for a relatively small number of people can be hard to justify. We’ve reached out to 2K ourselves, and will update this post should we hear back. [Image credit: Paul Cross / Flickr ] Filed under: Gaming , Home Entertainment , Networking , Internet , HD Comments Via: Gamasutra Source: GameSpy (1) , (2)

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Gamespy’s multiplayer servers are going dark, be prepared

After touring the canals of Venice and braving the Polar Bear capital of the world, you can now visit the ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia… virtually, that is. The armchair adventurer’s best friend, Google Street View, now touts around 90, 000 panoramic images of the vast 12th century Khmer wonder. Google took photos of Angkor Wat’s glorious temples, sculptures and wall carvings, using both its Street View cars and its 40-pound backpacks called Trekkers , which Hawaii’s local government recently used to capture its beaches on film. To make the experience even fuller, Google’s also adding 300 exhibits of various Angkor Wat-related artworks to its virtual museum . Obviously, there’s nothing quite like admiring the complex’s architecture in person, but hey, this could be good enough for folks who can’t pack up and travel the world. Filed under: Internet , Google Comments Source: Google Maps , Street View

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Explore the ancient temples of Angkor Wat through Google Street View