Hasta La Gadget!

It’s probably not a huge stretch to say that Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 running stock Android was the biggest surprise to come out of Google I/O last month. The handset — officially called Samsung Galaxy S 4 Google Play edition — is now on sale in the Play store for $649 alongside a special version of the HTC One. Spec-wise, the phone is identical to AT&T’s 16GB model and supports the same bands (including LTE). It’s powered by Qualcomm’s 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor with 2GB or RAM and features a 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display, 13-megapixel camera with flash, removable 2600mAh Li-ion battery and microSD expansion. While we briefly handled the phone at I/O, it wasn’t until yesterday that we got to spend some quality time with it. Hit the break for our first impressions and hands-on video.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Google

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Source: Play store

The last time we wrote about Windows 8.1, we had lots to talk about, but very little to share in the way of hands-on impressions. You see, though Microsoft unveiled loads of new features, apps and UI tweaks, it only released a handful of screenshots — and nobody outside the company was permitted to actually use the new software. Today, though, the OS update is available for anyone to download for free; in fact, because we’re oh-so special, we’ve playing around with it for about 15 hours already. So while that’s not enough time to put together a comprehensive review, we feel qualified to offer a few early thoughts. If you’re curious, you can meet us after the break for impressions on everything from the new panorama capture feature to Xbox Radio. And yes, we brought screenshots this time. Lots of ’em.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

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Source: Microsoft

Remember the View-Master? We’ve already seen goggles from Hasbro and Sanwa that transform the iPhone into a 3D viewer, but Poppy plans to spice things up by adding 3D photo and video capture to the mix. The device, which contains no electronics, is about the size of medium pair of binoculars and features a slot which accepts an iPhone 5. It’s launching on Kickstarter today for less than $50, along with a matching app. We got the chance to take a prototype for a spin and it worked like a charm. Check out the gallery and campaign link below, then read on after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Poppy (Kickstarter)

The last time Pioneer introduced a speaker bar was 1998, but 15 years later the company’s giving it another go. The just-announced speaker bar system, the SP-SB23W, will retail for $399 this fall — reps said the device was designed to pump out high-quality audio without sacrificing a small, attractive design. It’s clearly not the most compact rig on the market, but it does offer decent output. It features six independently amplified speakers and an eight-channel active digital crossover network. There’s also a wireless subwoofer with a 6.5-inch driver and Dolby Digital decoding on board.

On the noisy show floor here at CE Week, it was a little difficult to judge sound quality definitively, but the dialogue recording we heard did sound extremely crisp. For those who already count a Pioneer speaker or two among their home theater setup, the speaker bar should fit in perfectly; it sports a wood — rather than plastic — construction, and the company says its cabinet enclosure offer better control of the speakers “because of its resistance to unwanted resonance.” Check out our hands-on photo gallery below, and head past the break for the full press info.

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Many studies have shown that any kind of distracted driving is a bad thing, but Intel wanted to take a closer look at our driving behavior to determine if we could avoid it in the first place. Paul Crawford, a senior research scientist in Intel’s Interaction and Experience Research Lab, sought to do just that in a comprehensive investigation that seeks to understand not just where drivers are looking, but how they’re thinking. By doing this, Intel hopes to alert the driver of any mental warning signs before he or she even gets behind the wheel.

At a recent Research @ Intel event in San Francisco, Crawford used a racing car gaming set-up to demonstrate both visual and mental diversions with eye-tracking software and a functional near-infrared spectrometer headband. The latter is used to gauge the metabolic activity and cognitive workload of the brain under different driving conditions, which in this case fluctuated between a peaceful drive and a high-speed chase. Crawford also threw in a few questions and mathematical problems at the test subject to complicate matters. As you might expect, the brain was highly active during the more challenging scenarios and less so in the other. Crawford told us he hopes that the findings will point to ways we can optimize our environmental conditions and taskloads so that we can perform better, not just when driving but in everyday tasks as well. To see the demo in action and hear Crawford’s words for yourself, check out the video after the break.

Michael Gorman contributed to this report.

Filed under: Science, Intel

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