drag2share: Jawbone and Automatic can now log runs and road trips in one place

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/14/jawbone-automatic/

Jawbone makes an activity tracker that goes on your wrist. Automatic makes an activity tracker that plugs into your car. The opportunities for synergy there just seem endless, don't they? Thanks to a little inspiration from a well-received hackathon project, these two tracking tech companies have partnered up to put all your movement data Jawbone's iOS and Android companion apps.

Should you own both devices and install Automatic's software from the Jawbone App Gallery, all the driving data the dongle collects (think trip time, average MPG, start/stop locations and more) will appear in your Jawbone feed. Why? Well, there's the sheer utility of it, for one -- users of both devices now have a single location that highlights their day's back-and-forth. There's also a more contemplative angle, too. By seeing your movement in one shot, you'll also get a sense of how your time is split between being active and cussing at others from behind the wheel. With any luck, you'll start to reconsider which of your trips require a car in the first place. That's potentially great news for your body and the environment... though Automatic'll probably be a little sad you're not zipping around as much as you used to.

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Source: Automatic

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drag2share: I Got A 3-D Printed Version Of Myself And It Came Out So Good It Makes Me Uncomfortable

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/3-d-printed-bobble-head-2014-5

Last month, I covered MediaBistro's Inside 3-D Printing conference at the Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan.

The confab brought together big guys like 3-D Systems with boutique 3-D printer makers from across the country.  

I came away most bullish on 3-D printing's potential in medicine, and less so for everything else, at least for now. Mainstream printing is still too cute — most of the tables were basically filled with 3-D printed plastic cats — to augur a huge market buildup anytime soon.

But that doesn't mean cute is bad — and it doesn't even have to involve animals.

Among the firms represented was The Bobble Shop, a French-based group with a franchise in Washington Heights, that scans your head and puts it on any number of pre-set costumed figurines. Here's how the process works:

I wasn't thrilled with the costume choices available for heads that actually "bobble" (they tended to be sci-fi or military themed), so I went with a blonde samurai for maximum absurdity.

The table was on promo duty, so I didn't have to pay for anything. Below is the result. Despite the hair and the costume, it's kind of unnerving to have something that resembles me this much. As Ernst Jentsch wrote in his 1906 essay on uncanny feelings: "The finer the  mechanism and the truer to nature the formal reproduction, the more strongly will the special effect also make its appearance."

There are actually a bunch of firms that do this. The most high-end one is (where else) in Germany. They're called TwinKind, and their results are even more stunning.

 

If this is the future of 3-D printing, it won't be very big...but it'll be awesome.

SEE ALSO: Credit Suisse's Bullish 3-D Printing Argument

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drag2share: The iPhone 6 Is Going To Have An Amazing Screen (AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-6-display-specs-2014-5

Apple will make the screen of the next iPhone bigger, and much sharper according to the latest report from Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac. 

Gurman has the exact specifications of one of the new iPhone models Apple is testing. He says the iPhone 6 will have a 1704 x 960 resolution display.

That means the 4.7-inch phone will have a 416 pixels per inch. The current iPhone has a 4-inch screen and 326 pixels per inch. More pixels per inch means a sharper screen. The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 would have 356 pixels per inch, which is less than the 4.7-inch phone, but still more than the current iPhone.

Gurman also notes that each time Apple makes major design changes to the iPhone, it also tweaks the resolution to fit the new dimensions. For example, when Apple increased the iPhones screen size from 3.5 inches to 4 inches with the iPhone 5 in 2012, the screen resolution changed from 960 x 640 to 1136 x 640. 

Gurman arrived at his conclusion by noting that from a developer's perspective, the iPhone 5, 5s, and 5c have a "base resolution" of 568 x 320. However, these phones actually have twice as many pixels to display images at a 1136 x 640 resolution although developers are creating apps at a 568 x 320 scale.

Sources familiar with the situation told Gurman that Apple plans to triple this "base resolution" with the iPhone 6, which would result in a 1704 x 960 resolution display. This would mean that Apple's new iPhone(s) would also maintain the same 16:9 aspect ratio found on the iPhone 5, 5s and 5c. 

It's important to note, however, that this is based on one specific iPhone 6 test model, so it may not reflect the final product. 

The report comes at a time when both Samsung and LG are upping the display quality of their flagship smartphones. LG, for example, will! outfit its next G3 smartphone with a quad-HD 2,560 x 1,440 resolution display, which would make it one of the first phones to feature a screen that sharp. Most high-end Android phones have 1080p full HD screens, while the iPhone has been stuck at 1136 x 640 for the past several generations.

That being said, critics have continuously praised the iPhone's screen despite the fact that its specs don't match up to its rivals, which further proves speculation that the difference in smartphone display quality when bumped up to 1080p isn't very noticeable to the human eye.

Apple is expected to introduce at least one new iPhone model at in September. Some reports have suggested that the larger 5.5-inch smartphone could be delayed until 2015.

SEE ALSO: Everything You Need To Know About iOS, Apple's Next Major iPhone Update

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drag2share: Theses Are The Apps That Could Finally Help Wearables Take Off

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/BOHwhM4IM5Q/the-apps-that-could-take-off-on-wearables-2014-5

Since BI Intelligence's early coverage on the wearables market, we have always taken the stance that wearables won't be all-encompassing personal computing devices — at least, not at first. 

Rather, wearables will serve as robust extensions to existing mobile devices and will fill certain niche use cases. In many cases, they will work unobtrusively in the background (think about a fitness band counting steps or a smart watch that provides reminders only at certain hours).

They will be out of the way but recording data and providing information when people need it.

In a recent report, BI Intelligence zeroed in on the wearable apps ecosystem, looking at the fragmentation that is holding back app development and pinpointing a few "killer apps" that could make the devices truly compelling. 

For now, the wearables apps ecosystem is minimally stocked, and this is holding back wearables as a whole — mainstream consumers still don't see a real purpose served by wearables. But recent developments point in the direction of which wearable apps might succeed. 

For full access to the Wearables Apps report and our on

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drag2share: Big Food Is Fighting A Frozen Foods Crisis

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/big-food-is-fighting-a-frozen-foods-crisis-2014-5

Major packaged foods companies are facing a crisis in the frozen foods aisle.

As people become increasingly concerned with healthy eating, frozen vegetables and prepackaged meals have taken a hit because consumers perceive them as being less fresh than their non-frozen counterparts.

U.S. sales of frozen meals fell 3% between 2009 and 2013, with an additional 2% decline forecasted for 2014, the Associated Press reported in April.

Now, major players like ConAgra Foods, General Mills, and Kellogg's have come together to combat the image problem that's taking a bite out of the $70 billion frozen foods industry.

A trade group they formed, called the The American Frozen Food Institute, has launched a new website and a television campaign aimed at convincing consumers that frozen foods are every bit as fresh as the meals they would find in a restaurant or prepare in their own kitchens.

The campaign's tagline, "How Fresh Stays Fresh," pitches the idea that freezing foods is "nature's pause button," which allows the companies to keep foods at peak freshness until the moment customers are ready to eat them.

The group's claims are based in large part on a study commissioned by its affiliate nonprofit research group, the Frozen Food Foundation. The study found that most frozen produce has as many nutrients as fresh produce, with some of the frozen fruits and vegetables having more nutrients than those stored in a refrigerator for five days.

Wh ile the process of freezing foods might not make them less healthy, many of the meals found on the frozen aisle are unhealthy nonetheless due to the quality of the ingredients being frozen.

The American Diabetes Organization warns that many of these meals are high in calories, fat, sodium, and carbohydrates, and recommends looking at the nutrition label before purchase.

SEE ALSO: America's Biggest Food Companies Sold 6.7 Trillion Fewer Calories In 2012 Than They Did In 2007

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