Feb 05
Today, Amazon is announcing a new feature inside its mobile shopping app that lets you scan items in your home using your smartphone’s camera and quickly order all of your packaged goods online.
     |
Dec 04
Everybody and their mother has brought an activity tracker to market in the last year, but it actually makes sense that Polar—a company with a long history making heart rate monitors—would get into the game. Unfortunately, their first stab at a fitness monitor feels more like a first-draft.
| |
Sep 18
Polar Loop wristband tracks activity, exercise and sleep alongside an iPhone app for $109
Posted in: Today's Chili
We’ve tested our fair share of activity trackers and Polar is now adding one more to the fray. That’s not a Nike+ FuelBand you see, it’s the Polar Loop: a wearable for your wrist that keep tabs on activity, exercise and sleep patterns. Touting the “first waterproof” gadget of this sort, the company says the device can discern between activity levels, with alerts and motivational feedback along the way. The Loop syncs to Apple smartphones via Bluetooth with its companion app, Polar Flow. Similar to Nike’s wearable, Polar’s offering displays goal info, calories burned, steps taken and the time on an LED display. If you’re also after a heart rate monitor, the Loop can be combined with Polar’s H6 or H7 heart rate sensors for that purpose when it arrives next month in black with a pink version set for release in 2014.
Filed under: Wearables
Mar 15
Dec 10
Amazon’s augmented reality app for bargain hunters on-the-go, Flow, just got a bit handier with the recent addition of deeper search functionality. Released initially on iOS in November of 2011 and subsequently made available to Android users this past July, the app allows users to browse and compare prices in Amazon’s inventory by scanning items in brick-and-mortar shops. And now, with this latest Android-only update, users will also be able to incorporate text, URLs and phone numbers into their image queries, as well as scan and receive data on a slew of items in one pass. It’s live now on Google Play, so hit up the source below to get your download started.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google, Amazon
Source: Google Play
Nov 30
NYC Museum of Modern Art opens game collection with 14 classics, exhibiting in March 2013
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Given the subject matter, this is usually where the author waxes philosophical about whether — having been accepted by a major international museum — games are indeed “art.” We’re gonna skip that needless exercise today and simply tell you that the New York City Museum of Modern Art is officiating its intake of 14 video game classics as the start of an ongoing gaming collection, set to go on display in March 2013 in the MoMA’s Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries — the same galleries that house an original iPod and more. The games range from Buckner & Garcia inspiration Pac-Man to modern classic Portal, and even includes some lesser known gems (vib-ribbon, anyone?). The MoMA blog calls this initial selection just the “seedbed” for a chunkier collection of around 40 titles, all of which will be part of a “new category of artworks” at the iconic museum. Head below for the full first 14.
Source: Museum of Modern Art
Aug 22
If there’s one thing that I never thought you could turn into a DIY project, it’s lava flows. But leave it to the ingenuity of sculptor Boby Wysocki and geologist Jeff Karson at Syracuse University to create their own DIY lava project. They create molten rock, then pour it out to produce lava. Then, kids get to melt marshmallows on it.
The lava is created by melting crushed basalt from Wisconsin that’s 1.1 billion years old. It’s melted in a gas-fueled, tilt furnace up to 2192 degrees Fahrenheit. A couple of hours later, the rock has become molten, and it’s poured out. They’ve done more than 100 lava flows since the start of the program.
I’m not sure how the lava-toasted marshmallows will taste, but the project is pretty awesome as most of us haven’t seen lava up close and personal. Geologists and volcanologists are on hand to answer any questions you might have.
It sounds like a great field trip! If you don’t like marshmallows, then you can opt for hot dogs and roast them up on the lava as well.
Wysocki and Karson are currently working on making even more realistic lava flows, as is demonstrated in the video below:
[via Make:]
Jul 02
Amazon’s Flow augmented reality app comes to Android, makes shopping more entertaining
Posted in: Today's Chili 
The iOS crowd’s been able to enjoy Flow’s AR features since late last year, but fortunately for those on the Android side who’ve been missing out, this powered-by-Amazon app is now (finally) also available on Google’s OS. It’s simple, using augmented reality and A9’s “continuous scan technology,” the application allows users to buy, as well as get extra information on products such as video games, books, toys, DVDs and CDs through simply using one’s smartphone camera — much like Google Goggles does. Additionally, Flow will keep your scanning history on file, making it easier to find items by date, name, category or scan type. What’s more, Amazon’s Flow won’t cost you a nickel, and it’s up for download now via the company’s own app shop and the Google Play link below.
Amazon’s Flow augmented reality app comes to Android, makes shopping more entertaining originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.