This week the folks at Omate have unveiled the Omate TrueSmart smartwatch formally, ushering in what they suggest is the dawn of “Smartwatch 2.0.” This second age of smartwatch technology is – according to Omate – one in which the full collection of abilities of the past generation are kept intact without the need of […]
This morning it was announced that Steve Ballmer would be stepping down as CEO of Microsoft within the next 12 month period – MSFT was sent soaring up 7% in trading immediately following this news blast. While the stock still sits closer to 35 than it does to its recent high back in June (and […]
This morning Microsoft has made an announcement suggesting CEO Steve Ballmer will be stepping down within the next 12 months. Saying that there’s “never a perfect time for this type of transition”, Ballmer made clear that this was his intention all along, and that the company needs “a CEO who will be here longer term […]
Earlier today, we reported that Canonical’s Indiegogo campaign to fund an Ubuntu-based smartphone missed its crowdfunding goal by a mile. However, we’re now learning that Canonical has every intention of moving forward in another capacity, calling the campaign a success and noting that the $12.8 million they did manage to raise was the largest amount […]
Let’s not kid ourselves: We don’t control the Internet, the Internet controls us. Any notions to the contrary are foolish at best, but a new Kickstarter project called Circle wants to help families fight back against the Internet’s omnipresence with hardware and software that allows individual control of devices connected to a local network.
Circle isn’t a router, like the Skydog, which was created by the Xerox PARC company PowerCloud Systems and is based on a similar concept. Instead, it’s a network device that can communicate with your router, and with all of your connected devices, offering up a filter between your existing gear and the unfiltered Internet, allowing you to set limitations for kids’ devices based on age, time, ad content and more. You can receive notifications about different types of Internet activity to your own device, too, and get reports about both “negative” and “positive” browsing, Circle claims.
In other words, Circle makes you the NSA PRISM program for your own household, but with a little bit of China’s Great Firewall thrown in the mix. You can schedule timed access to different categories of site, so that Facebook or YouTube time doesn’t get crazy, cut off access temporarily via Pause mode, turn off access once it’s time for bed, and even block ads entirely on devices that your kids use. All of this is managed via an app for iPhone.
Circle says their solution is better because it doesn’t require setting up user profiles or installing nanny software on every individual device, and because it works with your existing router, you don’t need to get an expensive replacement or change any network settings.
The team behind Circle includes Tiebing Zhang, a former network security engineer for the Department of Defense, and Honeywell Wi-Fi control systems engineer, as well as Jelani Memory, an entrepreneur with experience in design, sports, business development and much more besides. Circle definitely manages to look the part, thanks possibly to founder and Product Designer Sean Kelly, but whether it can back up those good looks with performance remains to be seen.
Circle is $150 to pre-order via Kickstarter pledge, with an anticipated delivery date of August, 2014. Nice to see a hardware startup give itself a reasonable amount of time to deliver. The startup is also looking for roughly $250,000 in total funds to make the project work, which will take the working prototype that currently exists and make it production-ready.
Not to be outdone by the rest of the high definition display-making brands revealing units this season, Samsung has this week revealed their Series 9 monitor SB971 working with a 27-inch 2560 x 1440 pixel panel. This machine joins the recently announced Series 9 SC770 touch monitor and Series 9 SC750 rotating monitor to create […]
This week with the PlayStation 4 games news wave crushing Gamescom 2013, announcements of devices like the console’s DUALSHOCK 4 controllers were all but thrown under the bus. Here we’ve got a couple of new visually stimulating color combinations from Sony itself, one in red, the other in blue. These controllers will be released at […]
The Ouya Android gaming console is already out, but its competitor from BlueStacks is picking up steam in the development phase. The subscription-based GamePop and GamePop Mini will have titles from five top new developers at launch, the company announced today. Those include TinyCo, Animoca, Game Circus, Creative Mobile and Nevosoft, and together they represent over 340 million downloads on the Google Play store as of right now.
GamePop’s entire value proposition is dependent on the fact that it can offer gamers access to a rolling catalogue of 500 premium games for a monthly subscription price of just $6.99, so being able to sign up devs with big-name hits is a key success factor for BlueStacks. And according to BlueStacks and its partners, this is also an opportunity for previously mobile-only game makers to explore the TV and home console market, which is a potentially lucrative shift.
Previously, the GamePop team announced that HalfBrick, Glu, COM2US and OutFit7 would be offering titles on its platform, locking down some of the most successful mobile games and apps available on Android. There still hasn’t been a major studio like EA or Gameloft announced as a partner, however, which could hurt its chances of being taken seriously by the gaming community.
As my sometime partner in crime Chris Velazco pointed out on yesterday’s TechCrunch Droidcast, game library is a key concern for any device, and the Nvidia Shield, which in some ways competes with the GamePop and the Ouya thanks to TV-out capabilities, faces problems in that regard despite major publisher backing.
There’s no question that game choice will be key to the GamePop’s ability to woo customers, especially when asking for a regular, monthly commitment. A stable of solid Android developers who’ve proven their ability to attract downloads can help, so today’s announcement is good news for those rooting for the concept, but true marquee titles are going to be the key to success here, since the entire concept is based around turning casual gamers into something a little less casual and a little more invested.
This week we’ve heard more than one unofficial confirmation that the iPhone 5S would be launched with three color models – and today we’re seeing the whole lot. According to sources – the anonymous kind – speaking on the iPhone 5S launch coming up soon (as soon as September 10th, as it were), the device […]
As the device known as Chromecast gains steam, an ecosystem is being expanded around it. Google’s intended purpose for Chromecast was to make connecting Google apps and services – not to mention their Android software on devices galore – to displays of all sizes, specifically in the television realm. Just weeks after the initial launch […]
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