Jun 28
Jun 28
BlueStacks Adds A Free Hardware Option To Its ‘Netflix For Gaming’ With GamePop Mini
Posted in: Today's Chili
Mobile virtualization startup BlueStacks only recently revealed the GamePop, its mobile home gaming console that offers all-you-can play gaming for a flat monthly fee, but it’s already expanding the line. Today, the company is announcing GamePop Mini, a version of the GamePop that offers completely free hardware with a standard $6.99 monthly GamePop service subscription, with smaller hardware that’s yours to keep after 12 months even if you decide to cancel your GamePop account.
The GamePop Mini also runs Jelly Bean 4.2, and connects to your TV via an included HDMI cable. Just like its big brother the GamePop, it will provide access to the service’s curated list of 500 games (from both Android and iOS sources) each month, with titles from studios like HalfBrick (makers of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride) that are normally available only with a one-off purchase. The key difference between the GamePop and the GamePop Mini will be in terms of specs, which BlueStacks aren’t quite ready to reveal.
The $129 GamePop is currently available free to pre-order customers, but reverts to full price as of June 30. The GamePop Mini will become available as of July 1 for pre-order, and BlueStacks CEO Rosen Sharma told me in an interview that it will ship at or around the same time as the GamePop some time this winter. Sharma said a free console was always something that it wanted to do, and that the GamePop Mini is the first of a line of “forever free” options it plans to provide to gamers seeking to access its services.
“We were always planning this, because we think of GamePop as a service,” he said. “Just like when you think of when Netflix came out, they used to send you a Wii disc so you could run it on the Wii, and then you could run it on the PlayStation. And our goal is that you can run it on a number of different devices, and some of them will be from us, and some of them will be from other people.”
GamePop becoming a platform agnostic service would be a considerable departure from other mobile gaming consoles out there, like OUYA and the upcoming GameStick. It would open the door to integration in smart TVs, Windows computers, embedded devices and various other places. Once that happens, the value prospect of a subscription service with true portability increases dramatically; GamePop truly does become the Netflix of mobile gaming.
“It is in part to show how good the market is out there, and I would call it a showcase, but the pre-orders have also inundated us,” Sharma said. “So it’s not just a showcase. The direct channel is a very strong business, and one we plan to continue, but having it run everywhere is our vision.”
Sharma also talked about GamePop’s potential to eventually bring in media titles, as well as interactive experiences that aren’t strictly games, like the Talking Tom series, which is especially a hit with younger audiences. For mobile developers, that presents an option for getting a variety of mobile titles in front of a wide swath of users on a huge range of devices, on a subscription-based billing model that could upturn the pay-per-download revenue scheme that’s mostly driven the mobile software ecosystem to date.
GamePop Mini will be a way for BlueStacks to spread its service far and wide, especially since there’s no commitment, and you need only return the console hardware should you decide to cancel the subscription before the 12 month mark. It’s also super portable, and in fact pocketable, so it’s designed to travel (which has the side benefit of introducing new people to GamePop). I think it’ll be most interesting to see how users react to having both a free and a $129 hardware option for a brand new type of gaming device, but we’ll find out more come winter when they launch.
Jun 28
BlueStacks introduces the GamePop Mini, its first subscription-based ‘free’ game console
Posted in: Today's Chili
In an effort to outdo itself, BlueStacks is announcing the GamePop Mini for the cube-averse. The biggest difference between the Mini (seen above on the left) and the cube (the… uh… cube above) isn’t the form factor; it’s in pricing. Where the regular GamePop is $129 (unless you act soon) the Mini is “free” after a 12-month subscription of $7 per-month, or $84 total. At this price, it costs less than an OUYA, but slightly more than a GameStick. “If you keep it more than 12 months, you keep it forever,” BlueStacks’ Head of Marketing and Business Development John Gargiulo told us. Of course, there’s not much to do with the Mini without a subscription. “It’d be like if Netflix did it this way and had hardware — the unit would be useless without the subscription,” he added. Additionally, if you return the Mini inside of 12 months, there’s a $25 restocking fee.
The subscription gives users access to a plethora of games from 500 “popular mobile game partners.” Those partners include the teams behind Jetpack Joyride and Fieldrunners. “Getting the kind of developer support we’ve gotten, it sets us apart,” Gargiulo said. “We saw what happened with the Dreamcast and we saw what happened with the Wii U. You need to have good launch titles; there needs to be games everyone recognizes and wants to play.”
To make GamePop more enticing to developers, BlueStacks created Looking Glass — proprietary tech allowing iOS-only apps to run on its Android-4.2-based console. When an iOS app makes calls to Apple’s hardware, Looking Glass interprets those calls and translates them to the GamePop Mini’s hardware. Of course, a few changes within the code are necessary. “[Porting is] not easy, but I would submit it’s not hard, relatively speaking,” Gargiulo said.
Filed under: Gaming
Jun 28
Pininfarina: you may know it as the high-end Italian firm that designs fast, expensive cars like Ferraris. Now, for the first time, its designers are branching out into residential design with a condominium in Singapore. And it looks like the cars they design.
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Jun 28
Jun 28
While it’s still questionable whether or not humans could really thrive in space, we now know that, even if our own bodies are doomed to become weak and decrepit, any bacteria we tote along has every chance of living a full, happy life. Because according to new research, space might be exactly what bacteria needs to become a thicker, stronger, superpowered mutant version unlike anything we’ve ever seen on Earth.
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Jun 28
The Google Street View Trekker backpack is at it again, and this time it visited the abandoned Hashima Island, or more well-known as “Dead Island” or “Dead City” from the most recent James Bond film Skyfall. In the movie, the island serves as the cyberterrorists headquarters, but it’s actually a real place and now we
Jun 28
Toilet Trike Runs on the Runs
Posted in: Today's ChiliJapanese toilet company Toto has a bike that runs on poop. If you want to save on fuel and produce your own fuel instead, this is the bike for you. The toilet you see there is just decorative, but the engine does run on poop.
It’s called the Neo and it took three years of research, development and design. It is basically a 250cc trike, with a built-in toilet for a seat. However, I was just kidding about you contributing to the fuel supply, which is actually purified and compressed livestock waste. So it still runs on poop – just not yours.
The bio-gas that it uses comes from the Shika-oi, in Hokkaido where waste and household water are converted to methane gas via fermentation. The methane gas is then converted to bio-gas by purifying. The bio-gas is what ends up in the bike, so there’s no actual manure anywhere, but it’s a fun design that gets the word out about alternative energy.
[via Neatorama]
Jun 28
Withings Pulse is now available
Posted in: Today's Chili
The smartphone is not a device that handles all of your calls properly while ensuring that your live is a whole lot more organized – with a slew of new apps rolling out as well as accessories that can connect to your smartphone directly via a physical cable or over a Bluetooth connection, you can be sure that the landscape of smartphone accessories is forever changed. Case in point, the Withings Pulse might be something that folks who emphasize a lot on fitness might want to check out, being a powerful and pocket-sized activity tracking tool which was specially designed from ground up in order to help users achieve personal health and fitness goals.
It can be said that for the first time ever seen on an activity tracker, the Withings Pulse would see the inclusion of heart rate measurement as well as automatic run detection in order to have it track the number of steps taken, distance covered, elevation, calories burned, and quality of sleep. Hmmm, I suppose quality of sleep can be measured by how much one moves, and chances are it would be at its most accurate when you happen to sleep alone without anyone else in the room messing up its readings with their snores and movement.
The Withings Pulse will synchronize with a smartphone using Bluetooth Smart, while there is the free Withings Health Mate App where all the data will be collected and displayed in real time. The Withings Pulse tips the scales at a mere 8 grams and measures a diminutive 1.69 inches, meaning it is unobtrusive and is small enough to be inserted into a pocket, bag, or even used with the included clip on a belt, shirt or bra. Right in front lies a fully functioning OLED touch display, letting you use your finger to navigate through the screens while browsing through the past fortnight’s worth of collected data. At the back lies a heart rate sensor which requires you to place your finger in order to take a reading.
The Withings Pulse will play nice with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad, iPod touch 4th gen, iPod touch 5th gen and Android devices 2.3.3 or higher.
Press Release
[ Withings Pulse is now available copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Jun 28
Microsoft Build 2013 event wrap-up
Posted in: Today's Chili
We came. We handled Windows 8.1. We grabbed news about the latest and greatest from Microsoft. We picked up a few new Steve Ballmer catch phrases (“touch touch touch touch!”). Then, we left. In a nutshell, this was our experience covering Microsoft Build 2013 this week at the Moscone Center, though it obviously was much more involved. Fortunately, we were able to bring you, dear reader, along for the action — but in case you missed any of the excitement as it happened, you’ll find a list of all of the announcements, hands-ons and other posts we covered during the event below the break. Feel free to also visit our Build event page for an extra visual oomph.
Filed under: Announcements, Microsoft
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