Final's credit card tackles security with unique numbers for each retailer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/final-credit-card/

While newfangled credit cards like Coin and Plastc aim to cut down on wallet clutter by loading up all of your payment methods in one place, another option is taking aim at security. It's called Final, and the chip & PIN card serves up a unique number to every place you shop or a "disposable" set of digits for one-time use. So when the next Target or Home Depot breach happens, you'll only have to deactivate the number assigned to those places rather than go through the hassle with your bank. You can easily deactivate numbers when a subscription has run its course, and set monthly limits so you're alerted when someone tries to go over that amount or that "free trial" runs out. When shopping online, there's a browser extension that quickly generates new numbers and populates the info fields automatically. What about mobile payments? Final plays nice with that digital wallet too, and as you might expect, a online portal offers access to spending info so that you can set goals and keep an eye on things. The company is looking to launch its beta in the first quarter of 2015, and if you're looking to opt in, you can sign up for early access via the source link down below.

Filed under: Misc

Comments

Source: Final

Read More...

Summary only...

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro Ultrabook brings a thinner and lighter design

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/lenovo-yoga-3-pro-thinkpad-yoga-14/

Remember how Intel recently unveiled a new family of chips designed to make 2-in-1 laptops much thinner and much lighter? Of course you do. Anyway, get ready to see lots of machines coming out this holiday season with extra-compact designs. Case in point: Lenovo's new Yoga 3 Pro Ultrabook, which launched today with a chassis that's 14 percent lighter and 17 percent thinner. All told, it weighs in at just 1.19kg, or 2.62 pounds. That's impressive even for a 13-inch Ultrabook, and it's definitely an improvement over the last-gen Yoga 2 Pro, which came in at 3.06 pounds.

Otherwise, the Yoga 3 Pro is similar to the last model: It still has a 3,200 x 1,800 display, and the industrial design and keyboard layout have barely changed either. Of course, too, this is fundamentally still a Yoga, which is to say it has a 360-degree hinge allowing you to fold the screen back into tablet mode (and also "Stand" mode, and "Tent" mode). As before, the battery life is rated for up to nine hours, not that we ever got close to that on the Yoga 2 Pro. Hopefully Lenovo actually means it this time. As for performance, this is an ultra-low-voltage Intel Core M processor, which means in exchange for slimmer designs and long battery life, you may experience a slight dip in performance versus a standard-voltage system. That said, it shouldn't stop you from using the machine as your daily driver.

Additionally, in less important news, Lenovo announced the ThinkPad Yoga 14, the company's first convertible Ultrabook with that particular screen size. Like the original ThinkPad Yoga, which has a 12.5-inch screen, this newer model has a self-flattening keyboard that locks up when the machine is in tablet mode. As a relatively big-screen Ultrabook, the specs are a bit more heavy-duty than you'd otherwise expect from an ultraportable, including discrete NVIDIA GeForce 840 graphics, 1TB of storage and 8GB of RAM. Despite that horsepower, though, Lenovo says you can still get up to eight hours of runtime on a charge. Both laptops arrive at the end of this month, with the Yoga 3 Pro priced from $1,349, and the ThinkPad Yoga 14 starting at $1,199.

Nicole Lee contributed to this report.

Filed under: Laptops, Lenovo

Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Google's Android emulator is ready to help developers make 64-bit apps

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/googles-developer-emulator-is-ready-for-64-bit-apps/

There's a lot to look forward to in Android's next major update, but hardware nerds are focusing in one one key feature: official support for 64-bit mobile chips. It's the mobile OS' inevitable future, and chip-makers have been preparing for it for quite awhile. Now app developers can jump in, too: Google announced today that a x86 64-bit Android L developer preview emulator image is available for developers that want to take their apps to the next generation. Not every dev will need to rebuild, however -- apps built in Java will automatically benefit from the 64-bit release's increased accessibility to memory and registers. Choose another language? Well, you'll need to recompile: head over to the source to start testing your apps in 64-bit.

Filed under: Google

Comments

Source: Android, Google+

Read More...

Summary only...

Toshiba prototype is a simpler, lighter Google Glass rival... with a catch

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/toshiba-glass-prototype/

Nearly every tech company wants in on the wearables game, but they can't all be Google Glass or Apple Watches -- not that they have to be. But hey, here's Toshiba -- and it's got a Toshiba Glass prototype to show off. We'll say this right at the start: this remains a reference product that the company's showing off at CEATEC in Japan this week. And yes, technical specifics (let alone a price) aren't being discussed yet, but the vision for Toshiba's eye-based wearable prototype is a gentle, predictable one. The hardware is the combination of a tiny projector, attached to admittedly normal-looking frames. However, there's actually a special kind of one-sided reflective glass to catch the projection. The projection module itself is kind of bulky, but actually lightweight... which is great, until you realize that this prototype requires a constant wired connection to work.

According to Toshiba, there's no computational component in the arm, which primarily consists of a tiny projector and not much else. There's no camera, rather Toshiba's concept would act primarily as a notification system. The concept teaser (and accompanying projected images) offered glimpses of fitness tracker notifications, call reminders and a handful of business-based applications point towards security and warehouse use. Toshiba's New Business Development Division's Yuki Kaneko told us that's a device headed for B2B first: it's for other companies that also want Toshiba's system support and other business-type stuff... that we leave to other dustier tech publications.

When we brought up the inevitable Google Glass comparison, Kaneko-san was (surprisingly!) positive about the ever-present wire, citing that it kept the weight down by offloading not only computing (and other frills like cameras), but also the battery. Battery life is thus dependent on whatever device it's connected to, leaving the wearable lighter and more, well, wearable. The real device will appear next year, but consumer models for us mere muggles will likely be a while after that -- for now, this is a business-centered wearable -- which probably explains the "goggle edition." (Our words, not theirs.)

Filed under: Wearables

Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Drone racing in the woods evokes more than a few Star Wars memories

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/drone-racing/

Ever wanted to recreate the speeder chase in Return of the Jedi, or pod racing in The Phantom Menace? There's apparently an easy way to do it that doesn't involve sci-fi technology. France's Airgonay club recently raced flying drones through a forest using a combination of cameras and wearable displays to immerse pilots in the action. As you'll see in the highlight video below, it's both thrilling and more than a little challenging -- racers have to both dodge around trees and other drones that could come from virtually any direction. At least a few competitors had to retreat to a repair area to fix broken rotor blades and other damage.

This isn't really a spectator sport yet, but the Airgonay team is hopeful. There's a global tournament coming in about a year, and the club would like to see events stream online so that you can get that first-person experience from afar. The group's Herve Pellarin even predicts that drones will get virtual lasers to "shoot down" opponents Wipeout-style. FAA regulations may prevent this remote-controlled racing from getting started in the US for a while, but it's good to know that the framework for it already exists.

Filed under: Robots, Wearables

Comments

Via: GigaOM

Source: Herve Pellarin (YouTube)

Read More...

Summary only...