Hasta La Gadget!

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

USB is due to get a lot more oomph now that the latest specification for version 3.1 has been approved.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group revealed Wednesday that it’s completed its specification for USB 3.1. The new spec will be able to push SuperSpeed USB to data transfer rates of up to 10 gigabits per second. In contrast, USB 3.0 SuperSpeed can deliver speeds of up to 5Gbps.

“SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps uses a more efficient data encoding and will deliver more than twice the effective data through-put performance of existing SuperSpeed USB over enhanced, fully backward compatible USB connectors and cables,” the group said in its press release.

Like its predecessor, USB 3.1 will be backward-compatible with older USB devices.

The action by the Promoter Group paves the way for manufacturers such as Intel and AMD to start building chips to support the new spec. Once the necessary chipsets and other hardware are in place, other companies can create devices to take advantage of the faster format.

But don’t expect USB 3.1 devices to start popping up right away. In January, the Promoter Group said that initial products will begin to appear in late 2014 with a wider range avail… [Read more]

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BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins confirmed this past May that BBM would come to iOS and Android “this summer”, which of course means that advertised launch window is rapidly closing. There’s still no official word on when BlackBerry is going to push its cross-platform messaging app out the door, some new images released today indicate things are chugging along at a decent clip.

The first image (seen above) was obtained by BGR and depicts a seemingly near-final version of the app running on a Samsung Galaxy S III… though it doesn’t shed much light on what the BBM Android experience is actually like. Those early impressions should be trickling out any day now, as BlackBerry has also begun extending BBM beta invitations to certain Android users whose devices run 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or later.

Frankly, it’s still a little confusing to me that BlackBerry is taking this approach in the first place. I mean, for a long while there, BlackBerrys were the smartphones to own and at least part of its appeal hinged on its curiously hardy (well, mostly hardy) messaging system. Of course, making the leap to alternative platforms presents its own set of issues, not least of which is the fact that iOS and Android are already saturated with free or freemium messaging apps.

Then again, BlackBerry may just be banking on BBM’s prominence as a way to build more buzz around the BlackBerry brand. It could honestly use some help, especially in light of some strained financials. Company representatives said during BlackBerry’s most recent (and none too confidence-inspiring) earnings call that roughly 40% of its device shipments over the past quarter were its new BB10 phones, which works out to 2.72 million units moved. That’s more than double what the company shipped in the previous quarter, but the folks in Waterloo apparently didn’t think enough of the number to break it out in an earnings release. The same goes for BlackBerry’s subscriber base, which dipped by some 4 million users between Q4 2013 and Q1 2014 (before you assault me in the comments, BB’s fiscal calendar is a little weird like that) with nary a mention in the initial release.

But still, pushing out a messaging app into two marketplaces that are already full to the brim with them is a very curious move indeed, and one that on the surface seems like something of a stinker. Maybe I’m wrong — maybe bringing BBM to the masses just might be what BlackBerry needs. Fortunately, it looks like we won’t have much longer to wait before we see how things actually work out.

We do come across a slew of smart devices in this day and age, ranging from smart cars, to smartphones, smart houses, smart windows, smart buildings, a smart TV, smart watches, and heck, why not thrown in a smart camera into the mix as well? Samsung did embark on the path of smart cameras in recent memory with the Samsung WB250F SMART camera, but this time around, the South Korean consumer electronics giant has decided to take a slightly different route by announcing the integration of Evernote into the aforementioned WB250F SMART camera. When you use the power and potential of Evernote with Samsung’s SMART camera 2.0 technologies, users will be able to discover a new method of capturing and synchronizing photos across any device that already comes with Evernote installed.

This particular new Evernote feature integration has been made available to those living in the US already, where it can be enjoyed after one performs a software update to currently-owned and newly-purchased WB250F SMART cameras. Each purchase of the WB250F SMART camera will now be accompanied by three months of the Evernote Premium service (that happens to work out to a $15 value), which will also comprise of a higher upload allowance per month (of up to 1GB), additional sharing options and faster image processing.

Ron Gazzola, Vice President of Marketing for Digital Imaging, said “Consumers want to take great pictures that they can share with their family and friends. With the addition of Evernote to Samsung’s WB250F, users can now seamlessly sync their images across devices and share their photo memories with other Evernote users.”

With this Wi-Fi enabled Samsung Smart Camera, the WB250F will let you share whatever images you have just captured on social networks or via email as long as it remains hooked up to a working Wi-Fi network. After integrating it with Evernote, it provides you another method of making use of your photos, where you can instantly and securely synchronize your freshly snapped photos to the entire range of your personal devices – as long as they have Evernote up and running, that is. Don’t you think that this certainly makes life a whole lot more convenient?

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[ Samsung delivers Evernote on the WB250F SMART camera copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Back in June, Netflix announced that it would be rolling out individual user profiles at some point over the summer, and today they’ve done just that. The company is finally ready to release a feature for its streaming service that many users have been dreaming about for awhile now, and it’s finally here. Individual profiles […]

Microsoft already talked up how the cloud component of its Xbox One console will work, but now we’re hearing of the benefits from the dev’s side. The verdict is certainly positive so far, with Dan Greenawalt, creative director for Forza 5, extolling its virtues, citing it as a “tremendous opportunity” in a recent interview with OXM. His team has been using it to take care of a lot of the AI elements in the game — such as its Drivatar system — which he claims would usually take up about 10 – 20 percent of the console’s processing power. By letting the cloud deal with it, however, it can spill out into much greater complexity, with Greenawalt claiming a boost equivalent to “600 percent” of the actual Xbox’s brains. This, in turn, freeing up the 10 – 20 percent it would have used for something else. Bold statement, of course, but with the early signals looking good, this is one feature we’re glad still made the cut.

Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft

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Via: vg247

Source: OXM