drag2share: Google Has One Killer Advantage When It Comes To Smartwatches

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-now-for-android-wear-2014-3

Google unveiled Android Wear today, a lightweight version of Android that manufacturers can use to power smartwatches and other wearable gizmos.

None of the manufacturers listed as Android Wear partners (Samsung, Fossil, LG, HTC, Motorola, and a few others) have a device ready right now, but we should start seeing them go on sale in the coming months.

In the meantime, Google gave us a really good look at what the Android Wear operating system will be able to do. Specifically, it seems to rely heavily on Google Now, the digital assistant that comes with Android phones and as a separate app for the iPhone. 

In short, Google Now blows Siri out of the water. And it has the potential to be even more useful on wearable devices that are designed to contextualize your notifications and display what's most relevant to you at any given time.

If you're unfamiliar with Google Now, it works by pulling in data from all your Google services like Gmail, Calendar, Maps, searches, etc. and figures out on its own what to show you.

For example, if you have a meeting scheduled in your Google Calendar, Google Now can automatically alert you when to leave so you can make it on time. It even takes traffic delays into account. It can also scan your Gmail inbox for upcoming flight notifications and UPS/FedEx package shipments. 

That's barely scratching the surface of what Google Now can do, but just know it's an incredibly powerful tool for synthesizing all your digital information. Plus, Google keeps layering new features on top of Google Now, so it gets better the more you use it.

And that's what makes Google Now the killer feature for smartwatches. It doesn't make sense to have users swipe around to find what they want on a smartwatch. The real challenge is to create a product that just knows what you want to see based on where you are and what you're doing. And if you really do need to look s! omething up, Google Now is equipped with excellent voice search that can bring you the one answer you're looking for, not a list of search results like Siri often does.

It raises an interesting question: If and when Apple releases a smartwatch, would you rather have a device powered by Siri or Google Now? 

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drag2share: A Touchscreen 'Smart'watch That Doesn't Need a Phone

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-touchscreen-smart-watch-that-doesnt-need-a-phone-1545697017

In a time when every company seems to be announcing a smartwatch, Phosphor has taken a slightly different approach with its Touch Time. It runs a small suite of apps, accessible on the watch's monochrome touchscreen LCD display, but what it comes with is all it will ever have. There's no wireless connectivity to a smartphone, no USB port for firmware updates, and no way to upgrade it whatsoever—save for shipping it back to the factory.

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drag2share: vrAse turns your smartphone into a VR headset (hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/18/vrase-hands-on/

We'll admit it, when we first laid eyes on vrAse -- a smartphone case that gives your handset Oculus Rift-like functionality -- we were a bit... curious? The ambitious/ingenious project was launched on Kickstarter at the end of last year, and while it didn't get quite the huge sum that Oculus did, it captured enough imaginations to secure the money it needed. How does it work? An optimized app splits its output into two -- side by side. You then slide the phone into the headset/case which has a lens feeding into each eye, creating a large, 3D image. The hardware we saw was just a prototype, but final designs should be ready by summer. We also got to try it on!

In effect, the vrAse is creative use of existing hardware (your phone) and existing software techniques, with some barebones hardware that brings the it all together (the case). The first benefit of this approach is the cost, the vrAse (think VR, case) will retail for around $100 once it fully launches later this year. Another benefit is that by offloading the heavy lifting to your phone, the brains of the operation is effectively endlessly upgradeable. Update your phone, you have a new engine in the machine. Other perks of this method mean you can also benefit from other features that come with a phone such as the camera or microphone.

In our quick demo with the vrAse, we we shown a demo that sits you in a roller coaster. The phone being used was a Galaxy Note, so one with a larger screen, but we were surprised by how immersive the experience was. As we rode around the virtual landscape, we genuinely felt the urge to lean left and right along with it -- and the anticipation of a loop the loop was very real! Another demo we were shown used the phone's camera -- so that we could actually see the real world -- but the software placed virtual furniture in the room that we could walk around and even change the color of with a voice command to the phone. Apps aren't limited to working with the hardware either, games, for example, can have an optional 2D mode for when you just want to play on the phone directly.

The experience is perhaps not as fully immersive/slick feeling as the Oculus Rift due to the inherent compromises that come with an open hardware platform, and decentralized software (it's, of course, open to iOS, Android, Windows Phone and beyond). This should improve, however, once the final hardware is comes to market, and the goal posts become a little more fixed. We were shown how the retail unit will look, but were unable to take photos. As you can imagine, it's somewhat more attractive than the prototype we saw, and very much in keeping with similar headsets we've seen of late.

Filed under: Gaming, Wearables, Mobile

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http://www.cnet.com.au/cube-robot-demonstrates-incredible-balance-339346873.htm?feed=rss

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Android developers wanting a quicker and easier way to hack around with hardware should point their eyes at this Kickstarter project – called USB2Go — which is aiming to repurpose the micro USB port of your smartphone as a portal for plugging in an ARM Cortex-M3 development board. The board would...

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/17/usb2go/?ncid=rss

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