What's better than having a thermal camera capable of finding the freshest cinnamon buns — among other prey? The FLIR ONE accessory gave iPhones Predator-like thermal vision which turned out to be as awesome as it sounds , and now a company called Seek Thermal is promising the same with an iOS and Android-friendly smartphone accessory that makes a few compromises for a cheaper price tag.
Material Design is all around us, and of course Google products have been slowly been updating its products in order to match the new look of the upcoming Android Lollipop. This week it's the turn of Google Play Music to get an overhaul, but it's not just the look that gets a major tweaking, but rather, the way you listen to music as well. They are now offering "radio stations" that have been tailor-fit to your current activity or mood, thanks to a recent acquisition that supposedly makes curating music easier.
Songza was bought by Google earlier this year and it's now time to put it to use by integrating it to Google Play Music. As long as you're a subscriber to Google's music service, you'll be able to have access to playlists that have been specially curated to match any activity you're doing or match any mood you're feeling at the moment. You will also be given several options for music stations that will match your preference at that moment, so you will not be limited to just one kind of music when you're exercising, stressfully commuting or sleepily trying to finish work stuff.
The Listen Now page has also been redesigned to make it easier for you to find or discover new music. There are also cards that will show you what songs you've recently played and based on this, you will be sent cards of new music and radio stations that fit into your most played genres or artists. The album and artist descriptions are now easier to read as well, thanks to redesigned landing pages. Other music streaming services have to step up their game as apps like Spotify, Pandora and others continue to give you more innovative ways of listening instead of just queuing up the music on your player.
You can download Google Play Music for free from the Google Play Store, but you need a $9.99 per month subscription to be able to access its catalogue and enjoy features we mentioned above. The streaming service is not yet available everywhere but only in certain territories like Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, United Kingdom, United States among others.
Square Enix has a big gift for fans of the Hitman franchise today, at least for those who also favor playing the titles on their mobile devices. First up is an update to the diorama-esque Hitman GO title, adding a bit of nostalgia for those who have played the game's Silent Assassin sequel. But more than that, there is finally the addition of cloud saves plus a temporary price drop to celebrate the update. There's even some good news about the more Hitman-like Sniper title coming soon.
Continuing its tradition of bringing memorable locations from its bigger titles, like the "The Opera" from Hitman Blood Money, Square Enix is bringing Hitman 2 Silent Assassin's iconic St. Petersburg map to Hitman GO as the latest mission box. And by "box", they do almost literally mean a box, because, if you have forgotten, Hitman GO plays out more like a board game set in a cardboard diorama world. This new box brings 8 new levels set in Varosnij Square. As before, to access this new box for free, you need to have completed at least 140 missions. Otherwise, you can also cough up $0.99 to buy the new levels if you're in a hurry.
The update also finally ropes in cloud saving, meaning your save games can now be stored on the Internet, meaning you can pick up where you left off, no matter what device you're on. And that bit might be even more useful now since Square Enix is releasing the update on both Android and iOS at the same time. To celebrate this expansion, Hitman GO's prices will be taken down a notch, now available for only $1.99. There's very little time to deliberate the matter though, as it will only last until the 29th of October.
Square Enix is also teasing that their other mobile Hitman game will be launching soon. How soon? They're not exactly saying. Unlike Hitman GO, Hitman: Sniper returns to the roots of the franchise and is billed as a "competitive sniping game." That said, based on early sneak peeks, it won't be a faithful rendition of a full Hitman game either. It will instead be like a "vertical slice" of a Hitman title, focusing on short mission-based bursts that seem to be the trend of many mobile games these days.
Download: Hitman GO on Google Play Store
SOURCE: Hitman.com
Do you remember the days when you used to play against your friends in game consoles while you were in the same space and using the same device? No? Well, if you're of the generation that just plays on your own respective devices, here's something new to try. And if you're part of the generation that longs for the days when playing games used to be social, then here's some throwback fun for you. Micro Battles is a new game on Android that lets you play with actual people while you're holding a single device!
Same device multiplayer games are very rare nowadays, not because we're selfish about our gadgets (or maybe we are!). But regardless of the reason, Micro Battles lets you do this on games that change everyday (more on that later) and in keeping with the "nostalgia" bit, they are of the classic 8-bit variety. All of the games go for the one vs one single button battle, which is unique in itself already. And since the battles change everyday, then you need to open the app and use it if you don't want to miss anything. But if you don't have anyone to play with, then the games would be useless. So yes, you need to go out there and reconnect with friends or make new friends, just to be able to play.
Some of the Micro Battle games includes a football (okay, soccer) game where you both get to control a single player each and get them to score five goals into your opponent's goal. There's also a cowboy dueling game where you just get one bullet each and try to hit your opponent, with the added difficulty of having cacti around you where your bullet might ricochet or something. There also seems to be a dog-fighting game (no actual animals were hurt don't worry) and a battle-ax throwing game (no humans were hurt as well, maybe just their pride).
If you use the game's free to play mode, you get to play one of the four featured games every day. But if you choose the $1.99 in-app purchase, then you get to play all of the games whenever you want. Get Micro Battle from the Google Play Store.
Amazon just made its earnings conference call today and things are not looking good for the retailer giant. The company reported a staggering third quarter loss of $544 million, compared to last year's loss of $25 million from the same quarter. And the culprit? Both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, it is the Fire Phone that is to blame, at least according to some company reps. The rather eccentric smartphone has apparently cost Amazon a $170 million writedown in addition to supplier commitment costs.
Very few really expected the Amazon Fire Phone to be a phenomenal trailblazer, like say, an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy, But it's still quite surprising to learn that it performed that terribly in the market. It's not like Amazon is a newborn babe when it comes to mobile devices, granted smartphones are on a slightly different ballpark from tablets and ereaders. And it's not like the device itself is an underdog, sporting your basic set of hardware that make up any high-end smartphone, at least during its launch. So what happened?
Many would be quick to pin the blame on the Fire Phone's exclusivity to one and only one carrier. If you're a more established and highly popular smartphone maker, perhaps you can afford to shut out others from your device. But when you're just starting out, getting in bed with only one, even if it's AT&T, might pose some adoption problems that will remain even if you bring down the price to just one US dollar.
But perhaps the biggest problem of the Fire Phone is one of purpose. Amazon's other devices are laser-focused on a particular use case and that is where they perform best. The Fire Phone, not so much. As a smartphone, yes it does good, but so do other models as well. As an reading device, perhaps not so much. The Fire Phone was also billed to be intimately tied to Amazon's other business: selling products. But as much as people love to shop, having a dedicated smartphone just for that may not make much sense. The Fire Phone also has other notable features, especially the Dynamic Perspective, but these are all fancy gimmicks that sugar coat the device's lack of a vision.
Do you own a Fire Phone or have you dreamed of getting one yourself? Any thoughts on this development?
VIA: SlashGear
Most of the current smartwatches and Android wearables put in the market today – at least those worthy of note – can trace their very recent history back to IFA 2014 in September, because that’s where most of them got launched. This includes the LG G Watch R (the “R” stands for “round”) which was unveiled at Berlin and is slated to start its global rollout in November, with the first market to get the device being Europe.
The LG G Watch R follows after the relative success of Motorola’s Moto 360 of staying within the classic round design of watches. LG hypes that their version is a “full circle”, rather than the “flat tire” roundness of the Moto 360. LG says that the Android Wear device will be available firstly in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and most major markets in Europe by the beginning of November.
The US market will most likely follow by the middle to the end of November, with LG also peddling the G Watch R at the Google Play Store in select countries. The G Watch R has a stainless steel casing to contain its classic form factor, but under that is a Snapdragon 400 chipset and 512MB of RAM to power a fully circular 1.3-inch OLED display.
The battery of the device is rated at 410mAh, and the smartwatch also has an IP67 rating, which means it can survive being submerged for 30 minutes at a maximum depth of 1 meter. Will this beat the Moto 360 in terms of style and features? Tell us what you think below.
SOURCE: LG
No sooner than we had written about all the buzz LG is creating with its upcoming smartphone the LG F490 – they come out with a release confirming what we have been assuming to this point. LG is indeed coming out with a new octa-core processor – the NUCLUN (pronounced “noo-klun”) – which will be featured in the new LG G3 Screen, the official name for the F490.
LG has made public what should be their first competitive attempt at a processor. The NUCLUN is indeed designed with ARM big.LITTLE architecture – employing four Cortex A15 cores running at 1.5Ghz, and four energy-saving Cortex A7 cores running at a lower 1.2Ghz speed. LG confirms that the NUCLUN will support current and next-gen 4G standards, which include LTE-A Cat.6 and current LTE bandwidths as well.
The LG G3 Screen is confirmed to have the design language of the current flagship, the LG G3 – although we have seen pictures up close before this confirmation. It seems redundant to list off the specs here, but to confirm – it will have that gigantic 5.9-inch screen (hence the name), the NUCLUN octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a 13MP/2.1MP camera combo, and a 3,000mAh battery to power it all up.
So there you have it, LG confirms what has been fodder for the rumor mill these past few days. Expect the G3 Screen to launch in Korea first before anywhere else. We should have pricing information on this device soon.
SOURCE: LG