American mobile wallet company Softcard, previously known as Isis, will allegedly be acquired by Google, according to sources at Techcrunch. The deal could be completed for as little as $100 million.
Softcard started life as Isis and was created as a collaboration between AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. It is an NFC based mobile payment system that never really took off despite the might of three major carriers behind it. Last year, the company changed its name from Isis to Softcard to prevent confusion with the similarly named terrorist organization. Read more »
Now that the controversy surrounding The Interview is slowly fading away, Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced that it will be releasing a Freedom Edition DVD and Blu-ray of the movie.
Both the DVD and the Blu-ray version of the movie have bonus content. The DVD has just one bonus content and audio commentary while the Blu-ray has all of that plus gag reel, deleted, extended, and alternate scenes, eight featurettes, and a collection of alternate jokes and shots from the set, accounting to over 90 minutes of additional content. Read more »
Google has announced that it will be shutting down the Google Glass Explorer Program. Under this program, users could purchase the Glass from Google’s website and provide feedback on the product. The last day to purchase Google Glass under the Explorer Program is January 19.
But even though the Explorer Program is ending, Google Glass itself isn’t going anywhere. Google said in its Google+ post that the team working on the Glass program is graduating from the experimental Google[x] labs division to having their proper division at Google. Read more »
Along with the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro, Xiaomi also announced two new peripherals at its keynote today. The Mi Box Mini is a smaller version of its Mi Box set-top box, which is essentially an Apple TV-esque device meant for streaming content from your smartphone.
The Mi Box Mini is extremely small and can just plug in straight into a power point. Read more »
You may remember Falcon Pro as the popular but ill-fated app on the Play Store that had to be pulled by the developer after it hit Twitter’s asinine API limit. The app has since then been available for free from the developer’s website, assuming you could work your way around the little easter egg to unlock and use the app.
The developer has now released a brand new Twitter app called Falcon Pro 3, which despite the name is not an update to the previous app but a new app altogether. The developer has made the app free to download but you will have to pay $3.99 to add the first Twitter account and every subsequent account will cost you $1.99 extra. The developer sayS, “This is the best way I could think of to deal with Twitter limitations and ensure continuous support.” Read more »
Size DOES Matter is a rhythm-based action game for iOS and Android by Channel 4. The game has already received accolades for its design, gameplay, and music.
Jide, a company founded by three ex-Google employees, have come up with a new Android-based tablet that is a straight-up clone of the Microsoft Surface.
The Remix Ultra tablet has a 11.6-inch 1080p display, unnamed NVIDIA 4+1 processor, and 2GB of RAM. It has a similar design to the Surface, with a kickstand at the back and a detachable keyboard that connects magnetically. Read more »
Last year, Philips announced the Fidelio M2L headphones designed to work with Apple’s Lightning connector. At CES this year, Philips announced a new model, the Fidelio NC1L that also includes built-in noise cancellation.
Just like the M2L, the NC1L includes its own integrated DAC and amplifier for converting the pure digital signal from the Lightning port into audio signal for the drivers. It also includes four microphone array for the noise canceling feature to work. Read more »
If you read our Top 10 Games of 2014 list, you’d have noticed the No. 3 slot was taken by a relatively unknown game called Crossy Road. Although despite its humble roots, the game had completely earned its place in the list thanks to its addictive gameplay.
Although Crossy Road has been available on Android for a while now, it was limited to the Amazon Appstore for some reason. Now, the game is finally available to download from the Play Store. Read more »
While LG probably has the most Android Wear smartwatches out of anyone out there, it has also quietly been working on a webOS based smartwatch. Made in collaboration with Audi (the kind where LG makes the watch and Audi gives it its name) this new unnamed smartwatch (model number LG-W120L) is quite an interesting design.
The design of the watch is similar to the G Watch R, wherein it has the same circular display, but with a few extra buttons on the side and a different finish for the watch. The specs are likely the same but it’s the software that’s new here. LG has created a custom version of webOS for the circular display of the watch and it looks quite a lot better than Android Wear. While the menus are still in the form of a list, the apps appear in a circular carousal that look much more at home on a circular display. Read more »
Mad Catz has announced a new gaming controller for Android devices. Called the L.Y.N.X.9, this is by far the craziest design I’ve seen for a controller and looks like something out of a Transformers movie.
The similarities to Transformers don’t end in just appearance. The L.Y.N.X.9 is capable of transforming itself into various form factors, using supplied accessories. Read more »
MediaTek has announced a new chipset specifically for the low-power needs of Android Wear devices. Called the MT2601, this new chipset is designed to be smaller and more efficient than current chipsets.
The MT2601 has a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A7 CPU, Mali-400 MP GPU, and supports qHD resolutions, which should be plenty for something like a smartwatch. Most of the current Android Wear devices are based on the Snapdragon 400 SoC, a quad-core chipset designed for smartphones but has three of its cores disabled for lower power consumption on wearables. Read more »
Sennheiser has updated its premium Momentum series of headphones. The current Momentum and Momentum On-Ear now feature improved design for better comfort as well as the ability to fold them for easier transportation.
Along with that, the company also announced two new wireless versions of the Momentum headphones. They feature the design improvements of the second generation models, but cut the cord and go for Bluetooth (aptX) to transfer the data. The headphones feature built-in controls to control your audio playback and calls, as well as NFC for pairing easily with your smartphone or tablet. On top of that, they also feature active noise-cancelation, which is not present in the wired models. Read more »
HP went ballistic today with its monitor announcement, launching no less than seven of them at once. This includes some 4K monitors, some curved, one 5K screen and there’s even a 3D monitor.
The HP Z27q is the 27-inch 5K monitor with a 5120×2880 resolution, identical to the new iMac with Retina display. The monitor has two DisplayPort 1.2 inputs, four USB 3.0 outputs, tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustment, and covers 99% of the Adobe RGB gamut. The Z27q will set you back by a reasonable $1,299 starting March. Read more »
Netflix maybe an excellent service, full of great content, which can be accessed from pretty much any device these days, but it is also seriously limited geographically. Due to licensing issues, the service can be accessed from only a handful of countries around the world, and even then the content is not the same everywhere.
To get around the location issue, many of the users have been using VPN. Unfortunately, the movie studios aren’t too happy with that, which has resulted in Netflix slowly starting to block VPN services. Read more »