Wednesday, May 07, 2014

drag2share: Your smartphone may soon double as a hearing aid, thanks to Mimi

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/06/mimi-hearing-test/

Let's face it: we live in a noisy world. If we're not sitting on loud trains or traipsing past construction sites, we're retreating into music with headphones. Alas, this also means hearing loss is a problem that can't be ignored -- that's why a startup called Mimi cooked up an iOS app to help you really figure out how far gone your hearing is.

At flrst blush, it's a little like those old grade school hearing tests: as soon as you hear that telltale pulsating tone, you tap your phone's screen. After two minutes, voila -- you've got your own personal hearing profile which shows you how well your ears respond to different frequencies. Once that's all done, you can experiment with "masks" to experience life through the ears of a middle-aged person or a construction worker (among others). The notion of hearing a pre-recorded message through someone else's ears is a little bizarre, but it does open your eyes (or ears) to what others live with everyday.

Calling Mimi a mere hearing test is technically accurate for now, but the team behind it aspires to greater things. A future version of the app (which co-founder Phillipp Skribanowitz graciously let us play with at TechCrunch Disrupt NY) brings real-time audio enhancement into the mix. That mode (which will eventually cost you) chews on your hearing test data to tune the sound coming in through your headset's microphone for your own ears -- think of it as a software-based hearing aid on your phone. At this stage it's not terribly polished, but I did notice that the preset meant for construction workers did make a brief conversation a little easier to hear. Skribanowitz did say though that the team was more concerned about getting a functional product out the door, and that some of the more valuable stuff will come after the app gets a few coats of polish. Also coming down the pipeline are more traditional physical hearing aids that optimize the world's audio in the same way, though Skribanowitz told TechCrunch that the team's heart really lies in software. The biggest rub? For now, the app is tuned to work best with Apple's stock white EarPods and a pair of Sennheiser HDA 200s.

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Posted by Augustine at 6:50 AM

drag2share: Titanfall nears 1 million sold in three weeks

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/06/titanfall-sales-numbers/

Many looked at Titanfall as being the first tentpole game for the Xbox One, but how many people actually bought it? It turns out 925,000 units were sold through for the quarter, according to publisher Electronic Arts' latest earnings call. Unfortunately, Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore was citing NPD numbers and those don't include digital or world-wide sales, and thus copies bought via EA's Origin PC service or from the Xbox One's dashboard don't factor into that tally. The Xbox 360 version? It's "off to a great start," but Moore didn't go into specifics. Back in April, the NPD reported that the mech game was a top-seller for March and the second-best performing game for the Xbox One -- seeing hard numbers gives a better picture for how well gaming is doing on the new consoles. While Titanfall's numbers are impressive, it's worth remembering that Infamous: Second Son sold more than that on a s ingle platform globally (Titanfall's numbers combined the PC and Xbox One sales) in nine days both physically and via digitally distributed copies.

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Source: Electronic Arts

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Posted by Augustine at 6:50 AM

drag2share: Crysis 8K resolution hack offers a peek at the next decade of gaming

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/06/crysis-8k-resolution-hack/

Want to know what you'll be playing on your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Two in the next decade? Take a look at K-putt's Crysis 3 resolution hack. His tweak to the first-person shooter's main Windows program file lets the game's visuals run at up to a very wide 8K (specifically, 8,000 x 3,333). That's about 13 times more pixels than you'd see in a 1080p image, folks. The results very nearly speak for themselves -- screenshots look more like paintings, and even tiny objects are full of detail.

Don't think that your hot rod gaming PC can make this playable any time soon. Even a behemoth graphics card like NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan is barely good enough for running Crysis on three displays at 5,760 x 1,080; you'd need something with four times the pixel-pushing ability to keep up here. You can't exactly find an 8K screen at the local computer store, either. Technology moves quickly, though, and we wouldn't be shocked if both devices and displays are powerful enough to handle this kind of fidelity within a few years.

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Via: ExtremeTech

Source: K-putt (Flickr), Reddit

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Posted by Augustine at 6:49 AM

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

drag2share: John Lewis' own-brand smart TVs with webOS launching today from £1,399

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/06/john-lewis-lg-smart-tvs/

The TV section of John Lewis stores, where customers and voyeurs alike come to gawk at the latest sets, will be joined by three new models today that also happen to bear the retailer's name. Its first own-brand TVs, known as the JL9000 series, have been made by LG especially, and thus run the manufacturer's webOS smart TV platform. Self-branded products tend to be at the lower-end of their category, but trust John Lewis to deck out its TVs with 1080p LED IPS panels, integrated 2.2-channel soundbars with extra subwoofers, passive 3D and 8-megapixel webcams. Those bells and whistles come at a cost, of course, so the 49-, 55- and 60-inch models will set you back £1,399, £1,699 and £2,199, respectively (still, a little cheaper than when the range was first teased). In typical John Lewis style, each one comes with a five-year guarantee, meaning you can chase the store directly if something goes wrong -- not that you'd be happy about it when laying down that kind of dosh.

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Source: John Lewis

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Posted by Augustine at 12:39 PM

drag2share: Lenovo adds its first two consumer Chromebooks: N20 and N20p

Source: http://gigaom.com/2014/05/05/lenovo-adds-its-first-two-consumer-chromebooks-n20-and-n20p/

Following its Chromebooks aimed at the education market, Lenovo added a pair of Chrome OS laptops for consumers on Tuesday. The new devices are very similar to the Chromebooks meant for classrooms and are called the N20 and N20p. The N20 arrives for sale in July for $279 while the N20p launches the following month for $329.

Both share the same Intel Celeron chip that is now becoming fairly standard in Chromebooks save for a few models from Samsung and HP use the same type of processor found in smartphones and tablets. The pair also come with an 11.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, up to 16 GB of internal storage and 100 GB of Google Drive capacity.

The extra $50 for the N20p adds a touchscreen display, capable of 10 simultaneous touch points. That screen also folds back up to 300-degrees, allowing the N20p to be used in a standing mode. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Lenovo’s Yoga 11e Chromebook does the same. In fact, the N20p is essentially a consumer model of that computer while the N20 is similar but lacks the folding display feature.

n20p chromebook

Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:
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Posted by Augustine at 6:47 AM

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