Plastc wants to be the only credit card you'll ever need

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/plastc-card-preorder/

Your fat wallet wants to meet Plastc -- a device which its manufacturers claim can replace most of the credit/gift/loyalty cards you currently mule about. It works by pairing with an app on your phone (via Bluetooth), which provides near unlimited storage for all your cards (Plastc itself can only store up to 20). The app also logs your transaction history. Does this all sound a little familiar? That's because you're probably recalling a similar device called Coin launched back in 2013. Just like Plastc, it, too, can store various card details that you can call up, depending on which one you want to use. The bad news is that Coin, which promised to ship the first units this year, moved its ETA to spring 2015 (though there's a beta test going on) -- something pre-order customers obviously weren't happy with. So, one has to wonder if an unknown company will be able to do what Coin couldn't and release such an ambitious product on time?

See, in addition to being able to switch up card details through the e-ink touchscreen panel, Plastc can also show loyalty or gift cards' barcodes and remotely wipe your data in case it gets lost or stolen. The panel displays your name, picture and signature along with your card number as a form of identification, and it even flashes a message to return the card back to you if you lose it. Its accompanying app, on the other hand, is supposed to come with a security pin and facial authentication.

If both Plastc and Coin do make it to market, though, the former might have the upper hand, as it'll come embedded with a computer chip that makes it difficult to clone. The US will start encouraging retailers to only accept cards with those chips by 2015, making Coin obsolete almost as soon as it's out. Plastc's now available for pre-order from its website for $155 each -- $55 more expensive than the $100 Coin -- and might be out as soon as the summer of 2015.

Filed under: Misc, Mobile

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Source: Plastc

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Kinect for Windows can track individual finger movements

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/kinect-for-windows-finger-tracking/

Microsoft's new Kinect sensor is a lot of things, but absurdly accurate isn't one of them. To that end, Redmond' Research division is showing off some recent advancements its made with Handpose -- a way to fully track finger movement with its do-all gizmo in a variety of conditions. The video we've embedded below shows off the $150 PC peripheral analyzing and capturing intricate finger and hand movements seemingly pretty easily both from close-range and further back. Changes in lighting don't affect the fidelity either, as the tracking is all performed by the Kinect's depth sensor, not its camera. As Kotaku notes, however, this looks very much like something that'll be used for applications outside of gaming, rather than as a boost for your Dance Central skills. We'd like to imagine that its extra accuracy would probably come in handy in the operating room.

Filed under: Desktops, Cameras, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Peripherals, HD, Microsoft

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Via: Kotaku

Source: Microsoft Research (YouTube)

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GitHub's free student bundle gets you started on writing code

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/github-student-bundle/

It's harder to score student discounts on programming tools now that many of them are subscription services, but GitHub has just launched a bundle that could make it far less expensive to get cracking. Its new Student Developer Pack gives you free access to the kind of tools you'd typically need to get a serious coding project off the ground, including the Unreal game engine, cloud hosting and GitHub's own code repository service. How much you get for free varies. Some partners simply offer credit, while others will give you a subscription -- in a few cases, for as long as you're still a student. The hope is that you'll like the tools enough to pay for them later, of course, but it's hard to knock an offer that leaves you with fewer school-related bills.

Filed under: Internet, Software

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: GitHub Education, GitHub Blog

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EE TV is a set-top box that streams video to your mobile devices

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/ee-tv/

Already the UK's biggest mobile network, EE is looking to branch out. The company today announced EE TV, a new set-top box that will serve up over 70 Freeview channels, as well as various catch-up and on-demand services. The box itself has DVR capabilities, with a 1TB drive capable of storing roughly 600 hours of recorded TV or film. Up to four channels can be recorded at once, too. With EE being a mobile network, smaller screen devices are integral to the product. EE TV will pump content to up to four different screens including your TV, so tablets and smartphones connected to the same WiFi network can tune in to different channels or watch different on-demand video streams.

As you'd imagine, this is handled through iOS and Android apps which mimic the set-top box's UI. You can also use the apps as a remote for the main set-top box if you've misplaced the physical one, and "flick" anything you're watching on a mobile device instantly to the living room TV. You can also pause whatever you're watching on one device, and resume from another -- something EE says is only possible on its set-top box currently. Probably the most interesting feature is called "replay," which records up to six channels all the time, with the last 24-hours always available if you've missed anything.

Alongside the 70+ selection of Freeview channels, and catch-up services like BBC iPlayer, apps including YouTube and Wuaki.tv will also be available at launch, with various other services said to be joining the platform soon. EE TV will be launching in the very near future, and will be free to any of the company's broadband subscribers. Mobile customers will be able to get involved from £9.95 per month, and if you're not an EE customer of any description, you're out of luck.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet

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OLED Wallpaper Could Be the Future of Lighting

Source: http://gizmodo.com/oled-wallpaper-could-be-the-future-of-lighting-1643373103

It's the Star Trek-inspired future we were promised—walls that glow and change color, perhaps with just a gentle voice command. And it's finally (almost) possible thanks to a series of advances in OLED sheets. This new lighting solution also uses half as much energy than existing fluorescent lights. It is, however, pretty expensive.

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