All-Season Jacket Turns Inside-Out To Keep You Warm Or Cool [Clothing]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5927946/all+season-jacket-turns-inside+out-to-keep-you-warm-or-cool

An Austrian company has developed a new kind of triple-layer fabric that allows this jacket to keep the wearer either warm or cool depending on how they wear it—making it the perfect accessory for globe-hopping adventurers who prefer to travel light.

The Polychromelab fabric is stretchable, breathable, and waterproof—and while one side features a black outer layer that absorbs sunlight and heat, the other is bright and reflective, radiating it all away. So when worn with the black layer on the outside, the jacket will not only suck up the sun's rays to keep you warm, it will also reflect your own body heat back onto you on the inside. And when worn with the bright silver layer on the outside, the jacket will in turn reflect light and heat, and allow your body to breathe and cool down if you're sweating.

The first jackets made from this new uber-material won't be out until September, but the company has apparently been testing the fabric for several years now, so it will hopefully deliver on its claims. But since it's also being quiet on pricing details, you can probably safely assume they're not going to come cheap.

[Polychromelab via Gizmag]

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Wi-Fi Media lets your Nexus 7 play movies on any screen via HTC's Media Link HD (hands-on video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/21/wi-fi-media-lets-your-nexus-7-play-movies-on-any-screen-via-htc/

We're rather big fans of the Nexus 7 here at Engadget HQ -- it's just hard not to like a $200 tablet with a Tegra 3 SoC and 7-inch glass-bonded IPS display running pure Jelly Bean. Of the few missing features, there's one we're bemoaning more than the lack of rear camera, and that's the absence of any kind of HDMI or MHL video output. So far, watching movies with the Nexus 7's been relegated to using a Nexus Q and streaming content from Google Play or YouTube.

Enter Wi-Fi Media, an app available for free on Google Play that lets most Android devices like the Nexus 7 play movies, music and stills on any screen via any Cavium PureVu-compatible streamer, such as HTC's $90 Media Link HD. We tested Wi-Fi Media with our Nexus 7 and Media Link HD and found it to work pretty much as advertised except for some caveats. First the app doesn't mirror your screen -- you're limited to playing content stored on the tablet or on the network via DLNA, which means no YouTube, Netflix or games. Second, the app doesn't handle some co! mmon fil e types -- like AVI, for example.

While it supports watching movies, listening to music and looking at pictures, keep in mind that Wi-Fi Media is not a particularly polished app. In addition to playing local and remote DLNA content, you're able to login to Facebook and Picasa and stream images directly from these accounts, but that's pretty much it in terms of functionality. There's also no way to configure the Media Link HD, so you'll need a sanctioned HTC handset to setup the multimedia streamer before using it with a Nexus 7. Want to know more? Peek at our screenshot gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.

Gallery: Wi-Fi Media hands-on

Update: Since there's some confusion in the comments, we'd like to clarify that the Media Link HD is not a DLNA device. It normally only works with select HTC phones like the One X, One S and EVO 4G LTE. WiFi-Media's primary purpose is to connect with a Media Link HD -- the app also just happens to support DLNA.

[Thanks, Matt]

Continue reading Wi-Fi Media lets your Nexus 7 play movies on any screen via HTC's Media Link HD (hands-on video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablet PCs, Software

Wi-Fi Media lets your Nexus 7 play movies on any screen via HTC's Media Link HD (hands-on video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Beats increases its share ownership to 75%, lets HTC keep majority stake, 'commercial exclusivity in mobile'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/21/beats-htc-realign-business-agreement/

Although HTC and Beats are just shy of the one-year anniversary of their 300 million dollar partnership, it looks like the two are again growing apart. In a letter to shareholders today, it's been announced that the original owners of Beats plan to buy back 25 percent of its own shares, for a total ownership stake of 75 percent. That said, HTC will still retain nearly 25 percent of the remaining shares for itself, ensuring that it remains the largest external shareholder. As the release puts it, this new setup "provides Beats with more flexibility for global expansion while maintaining HTC's major stake and commercial exclusivity in mobile." All in all, it seems like this is more about shifting priorities given recent news like Beats' MOG acquisition, but it wouldn't make eventual breakup all that unsurprising given the partnership's mixed results. For now, you can hit up the press release for all the details.

Continue reading Beats increases its share ownership to 75%, lets HTC keep majority stake, 'commercial exclusivity in mobile'

Beats increases its share ownership to 75%, lets HTC keep majority stake, 'commercial exclusivity in mobile' originally appeared on Engadget on Sat,! 21 Jul 2012 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Akamai Deck Shows Mobile's No.1 Problem: 12 Seconds To Load An Ad

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-akamai-deck-shows-mobile-advertisings-no1-problem-speed-2012-7

The data is clear: mobile is going to be big.

But it may not be fast.

According to data collected by Akamai Technologies, which specializes in web speed acceleration for advertisers, slow load times on mobile devices could be mobile advertising's biggest obstacle.

The time it takes for a mobile site to load is reminiscent of web sites in the late 1990s—and that's a big problem.

Everyone knows mobile is growing.

But growth can be really fast. It took Draw Something nine days to gather the same number of users that AOL took nine years to get.

Within the next two years half of all commerce-related visits will be mobile.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/21/firefox-15-beta-boasts-support-for-opus-audio-format-reduces-ad/

Can't bear to part with your favorite browser extensions, but can't stand to see them devour your system memory? Maybe you should check out Firefox 15. According to Mozilla's Hacks blog, the browser's latest beta should patch up the majority of memory leaks gushing from Firefox add-ons. Also new, is the beta's support for Opus, a free audio format partially supported by Mozilla. The firm hopes competing browsers will pick up the format as well, calling it "as good or better than basically all existing lossy codecs." The blog makes quite a case for the format, citing tests and bitrate information, going as far as giving instructions on embedding Opus players in web pages. Check out the codec of tomorrow for yourself at the source links below.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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