Aug 22
Facebook just announced a new and improved login experience that aims to make it faster and easier to sign in to your favorite apps. It doesn’t look much different, but under the hood, there are a couple key changes.
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Aug 22
Google Now, Android’s one-stop shop for anticipating your daily information needs, just learned a few new tricks. In addition to hotel reservations and boarding pass cards, Google Now will serve up cards for car rentals, concert tickets, and NCAA football …
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Aug 22
Google Now has been one of the company’s most focused-on products in recent months, and they just updated the service today with new capabilities and added cards. Google Now users will be able to keep track of car rental information and concert ticket info as well. Plus, they’ve added improved public transits cards for your […]
Aug 22
Omate, A Smartwatch That’s Also A Phone & Sports Tracker, Passes $100K Kickstarter Funding Goal In A Day
Posted in: Today's Chili
Post-Pebble‘s $10.2 million Kickstarter record, the smartwatch launches keep on coming. And coming. And coming. And coming. And probably coming next month, in Samsung’s ‘Galaxy Gear’ case. The latest wrist-affixed contender to step up for a slice of smartwatch pie is called Omate TrueSmart, and is the creation of a New York based startup.
Omate Kickstarter campaigned launched yesterday — and has already blasted past the initial $100,000 funding target, with $144,000+ and counting. Not bad going for such a nascent yet crowded space.
So what’s the big deal about Omate? Notably it’s not just a smartphone accessory but includes a 3G radio so if you add a micro-SIM it can be a standalone mobile phone in its own right. Assuming you want to talk into your wrist. And even if you don’t it can function as a phone companion, using the on board Bluetooth 4.0 or Wi-Fi.
Omate also runs a relatively up-to-date version of Android, v4.2.2, skinned with a wrist-friendly UI of course, so that means four icons on the screen at once — although the platform is also open and hackable, according to its creators.
Running Android potentially means access to lots of apps — albeit, most are clearly going to need to be customised to fit its 1.54 inch screen (it’s up in the air whether Omate will have access to Google Play, at this point). The device will apparently come with a “full set of pre-qualified Android applications”, according to the listing, with no specific list as yet. Although “social media messaging” is mentioned in the listing and there’s a Facebook screenshot so that’s one heavy hint.
The Kickstarter campaign also mentions generic “sports apps”, and activity tracking is clearly a focus for Omate’s creators — likely so they can tap into the quantified health trend. The watch includes GPS — so would presumably be able to crunch basic activity data such as distance, pace etc. Add to that, it’s water-resistant (IP67) and dust-resistant so should take some rugged, outdoor use.
Also on board: a 5MP camera so you can snap up-nostril shots of yourself running to share to your social networks, presumably (Skype videocalling apparently won’t be supported).
The watch is powered by a dual-core 1.3GHz chip. Memory is 512MB with 4GB of storage, expandable by microSD up to 32GB. There’s no word on battery life if you’re actually using the watch but its 600 mAh cell is apparently good for up to 100 hours on standby. Eking decent battery life out of a wrist-mounted device remains a core challenge for smartwatches. The smartest smartwatch in the world is only going to be as useful as its useful battery life is long.
The Omate’s price tag is around the $199 mark, with all $179 early bird pledges gone and only a few remaining at the $189 level. Its makers rather ambitiously reckon they will be ready to ship the first batch to backers come October.
Aug 21
If you were already gaming back in the 90’s, chances are you might have played or have heard the game Dungeon Keeper, a PC strategy game made by Bullfrog Productions under Peter Molyneux. The good news is that if you thoroughly enjoyed the game back in the day and wouldn’t mind reliving some of it for nostalgic purposes, you’re in luck as it seems that the game has been announced for mobile devices and will arrive on both iOS and Android this winter, although no specific dates were mentioned. There was also no mention of how much the game could cost, but some are speculating that the game could be free-to-play given EA’s recent releases so far.
For those unfamiliar, Dungeon Keeper places the gamer in the role of the, well, dungeon keeper, and instead of relying on more traditional storylines that place the gamer in the shoes of the hero slaying the demons and monsters, the gamer takes on the role of the monsters and is tasked to prevent the heroes from entering and stealing their treasure. It is a pretty unique take and while games that reverse the roles are somewhat common these days, back then it was a pretty big deal and if you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, you might want to keep an eye out for its release.
Classic Title Dungeon Keeper To Arrive On iOS And Android This Winter original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Aug 21
One BlackBerry Developer Is Responsible For Over 47k Apps In BlackBerry World
Posted in: Today's Chili
One of the downsides to the BlackBerry and Windows Phone platform is that when it comes to apps, the variety offered pales in comparison to iOS and Android, which is why we’re not surprised that both companies are offering up incentives to developers to create apps for their respective platforms. However it seems that one developer for BlackBerry might have abused the system a little too much and according to reports, developer S4BB has actually over 47,000 apps in BlackBerry World! Yes you read that right, ONE developer has close to 50,000 apps that have been submitted and approved for BlackBerry World.
According to the report, some of the apps submitted by S4BB are actually pretty decent, legitimate apps, but some of their submissions are a little dubious. Not that their submissions are dubious in the malware sense, but rather how the definition of app has been stretched as some of their submissions include city guides, audio books, phrasebooks, and more. Naturally by submitting all 47,000 apps (we wonder how they have so much time) it kind of messes up with numbers a little since it would make it look like BlackBerry World is popular with developers, when in reality the figures are a little skewed. We wonder if BlackBerry will take any action since this is almost like spamming, but then again if they were reviewed and approved, it could be a different story.
One BlackBerry Developer Is Responsible For Over 47k Apps In BlackBerry World original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Aug 21
Everyone loves wine—or rather, everyone likes to seem like they love wine. And what better way to give off an air of sophistication than to be able to offer perfect recommendations, pairings, and analyses on any wine at a moments notice? Delectable lets you do all that with absolutely no preparation required.
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Aug 21
Planning a new ride can be a daunting and time consuming task. Luckily there are a few services you can use to make the job easier.
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Aug 21
Google Keep is getting updated with location-based and time-based reminders.
Posted in: Today's ChiliGoogle Keep is getting updated with location-based and time-based reminders. Now you’ll be able to pester yourself about the stuff on your todo list with ease, and there’s even a menu where you can see all your upcoming pings. Remind yourself to check it out.
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Aug 21
You may remember when Google launched an app called Field Trip almost a year ago. It certainly hasn’t reached a popular state by any means, but it’s been proven a useful app when doing some sightseeing in an unfamiliar city. Google Glass is now getting the app to give you a virtual tour guide of […]
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