For times when soaking in a bevy of crime-related shows simply isn’t enough stimuli, CBS is now ready to amp up your viewing experience with its second screen app for the iPad. Known as CBS Connect, it allows fans to engage one another via social networking and view exclusive content from their favorite shows. The app also features the ability to identify what viewers are watching — be it live, on demand or from your DVR — and then tailor the second screen experience to sync with the program. For the moment, CBS Connect is built to engage fans of NCIS: Los Angeles, CSI and Hawaii Five-O, but if crime dramas aren’t your thing, the network promises that other shows will soon find their way into the mix. In the meantime, you’ll find the full PR after the break.
Welcome to Thursday evening everyone. Today Google settled its antitrust case with the FTC, avoiding fines in return for agreeing to license its standard-essential patents and removing advertising limits. The BlackBerry Z10 has leaked for Verizon and AT&T, while the ZTE P945 phablet has been revealed in leaked renders. Samsung has confirmed its oft-rumored Tizen handsets for 2013, with ASUS announcing a Leap Motion partnership today that will bring gesture controls to its PCs.
RIM and T-Mobile have announced the BlackBerry Curve 9315, and new rumors are saying that the LG Optimus G2 might get a reveal at CES 2013. Facebook has added free Voice Messaging and limited VoIP to its Messenger app, and GameStick reached its Kickstarter goal today, just one day after launching the campaign. The ASUS ME301T 10-inch tablet leaked today, complete with a Tegra-3 processor and Jelly Bean, while Corning announced that it will be debuting Gorilla Glass 3 at CES 2013.
It looks like Pebble will be hosting a CES event of its own, and Archos has announced TV Connect, which turns any HDTV into a smart Android TV. comScore’s market share results for November 2012 are here, with Samsung, Google, and Apple at the top, and we learned today that Angry Birds was downloaded 8 million times on Christmas Day. Chicago has agreed to a new deal with Microsoft for city-wide cloud service, and Samsung has announced the NX300 mirrorless camera.
We found out that Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition was downloaded 5 million times in 2012, while one analyst is saying that the Wii U underperformed at GameStop during the holiday season. Sony has a patent application on the books for technology that would allow it to block access to used games on its future consoles, and Samsung has delivered a patch for the Exynos security hole that is present in Galaxy S III handsets. Finally tonight, we have reviews of the HTC One VX and the EliteBook Folio 9470m ultrabook for you to check out, while Chris Davies tells us why he thought Apple would jump on Leap Motion first instead of ASUS. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!
Over in the UK TV interaction has a wider history thanks to Red Button services, and the BBC is finally coming through on its promise to join that experience with the internet as it launches its first companion app on iOS and Android. Previously tested in beta with Frozen Planet and Secret Fortune airings, these apps let Antiques Roadshow viewers compete against others — whether in the same room or across the country — as they try to guess the value of items displayed on the show. Will that be exciting enough to pull viewers away from whatever the UK equivalent of Sons of Anarchy or The Walking Dead is? Maybe not, but a Red Button version launched last fall netted 1.5 million users right off the bat, and the Beeb expects to build on that more by moving to mobile devices.
The internet-to-TV hookup even goes both ways, as we experienced in our demonstration of Connected Red Button services on TiVo last month and viewers experienced during the Olympics, so we’d expect to see even more interaction launching soon. The apps will be available later today for use with the new episode airing on the 6th. Can’t wait that long for your antiquing fix? Thanks to embedded audio watermarks syncing everything up, they will also work with last week’s episode (and future ones going forward) viewed on iPlayer or home recordings.
Both iOS and Android users will be seeing an update for their Facebook Messenger app starting today, one that will allow them to begin use Facebook’s own flavor of Voice Messaging. This feature is included in the download for all while Canada specifically gets a unique opportunity to work with VoIP in a sort of beta test of the service. The Canadian VoIP test will be working with iOS only (at the start) while Voice Messaging is set to hit Android and iOS all at once.
This release allows Voice Messaging – otherwise known as voicemail – to be integrated into the conversation rather than sitting beside it. This service is now not unlike the Walkie Talkie app Voxer what with its ability to record messages and push them to users in a chatroom. Facebook’s brand of this sort of functionality appears now to be a smaller part of the larger chat window while the Voxer app makes voice messages the primary function.
In Canada, Facebook app users are beginning to get VoIP functionality. This ability will allow you to call your friends using the internet, and is currently only going to to be available to users physically inside Canada calling other Facebook users inside Canada on iOS – on the iPhone, that is. This functionality uses data instead of phone “minutes”.
Facebook continues their ultimate mission to make sure any time you want to communicate with a friend, it’s through them – with everything from Skype calls via the browser (now defunct) and the newly updated Poke functionality in app form for mobile devices. Have a peek at the timeline below to see what else Facebook has been doing to keep you interested and stay tuned for the all-encompassing Facebook functionality wizard to command your communication from bottom to top.
If you can judge a technology’s wow-factor by how much it’s accused of being vaporware, Leap Motion‘s gesture-tracking was a hit from the off; companies jumped on the idea, though it’s perhaps a surprise that the first should be ASUS, not Apple. The matchbox-sized gadget – which can track the movement of ten fingers individually, and 200x more accurately than kit like Microsoft’s Kinect – will soon be integrated into Windows 8 PCs from ASUS, according to a new deal announced today. Microsoft’s OS certainly loves fingers, but Apple’s moves to blend the best of OS X and iOS arguably make it and Leap Motion more obvious bedfellows.
If you missed it first time around, Leap Motion’s eponymous gizmo is a tiny, $70 box that hooks up via USB and creates a four cubic foot area above itself within which individual finger movements can be tracked. That’s at an accuracy of within 1/100th of a millimeter, and the system can differentiate between fingers and, say, a stylus being held for mid-air handwriting, as well as recognize when finger movements are intended to be linked, such as for pinch-zooming.
Leap Motion walkthrough:
So why would Apple be interested in Leap Motion’s tracking technology? It’s all down to the Cupertino firm’s dual stance on touchscreens. On the iPhone and iPad, Apple hasn’t been slow to adopt touch, driving the adoption of capacitive technology, but its Mac desktop and notebook ranges have stubbornly avoided finger-friendly displays.
“The ergonomics of touch aren’t suited to a notebook or desktop”
Apple’s argument has always been that the ergonomics of touch simply aren’t suited to a notebook or desktop form-factor. Reaching out across to a display – whether to your MacBook screen or to stab at an all-in-one – isn’t comfortable, so their argument goes, when compared with a large trackpad such as the company’s own Magic Trackpad.
It’s a strategy entirely at odds with where Microsoft has pushed Windows 8, with the new Metro-style interface of the latest OS expressly designed for touchscreen computing. ASUS’ deal with Leap Motion, however, means its future laptops and all-in-ones will also support gestural interaction, waving and grabbing at the air in front of the display so as to manipulate what’s on-screen.
That’s actually an area of research that Apple isn’t unfamiliar with: the company has previously filed patents for Kinect-like navigation, including around a 3D display, or by using infrared light bouncing off your hands above a keyboard. None of that research has actually ended up in shipping hardware, however.
OS X has borrowed an increasing number of features and usage concepts from iOS in its latest iterations; that’s only expected to increase with the launch of OS X 10.9 later this year. With iOS so finger-focused, however, the limitations of a trackpad or Magic Mouse will continue to keep the reach-out-and-tweak-it immediacy iPhone and iPad users are familiar with from the desktop experience. Leap Motion’s approach would’ve fit that paradigm perfectly, though I’d be surprised if Apple wasn’t cooking up its own approach as the gap between mobile and traditional computing narrows.
Google may be beavering away on the last stages of Project Glass before the Explorer version arrives with developers, but meanwhile DIY wearable computers are springing up, some with Apple’s iOS at their core. A straightforward combination of an iPod touch, off-the-shelf wearable display, Bluetooth camera and a set of safety goggles was enough for AI researcher Rod Furlan to get a glimpse at the benefits of augmented reality, he writes at IEEE Spectrum, though the headset raised as many questions as it provided answers.
Furlan’s hardware falls roughly in line with what we’ve seen other projects piece together in earlier AR attempts. He opted for a MyVu eyepiece – a 0.44-inch microdisplay culled from a cheap Crystal headset, such as used in this UMPC-based wearable back in 2009, and this Beagleboard version in 2010 – hooked up to the composite video output of a 4th-gen iPod touch; that way, he can see a mirror of the iPod’s UI floating in his line of sight.
Meanwhile, a Looxie Bluetooth Video Camera – stripped of its casing and attached to the goggles – streams video to the iPod touch wirelessly. Furlan says he’s cooking up a second-gen version running off a Raspberry Pi, again another approach we’ve seen other wearables experimenters take. That, Furlan says, will allow for more flexibility with the Looxie’s input, as well as greater support for other sensors such as accelerometers.
The interesting part is how Furlan’s experience of the wearable evolved, from initial discomfort and a sense of information overload – the feeling of needing to keep up with every notification, server status, stock price, and message that pops up – to a less conscious consumption of the data flow:
“When I wear my prototype, I am connected to the world in a way that is quintessentially different from how I’m connected with my smartphone and computer. Our brains are eager to incorporate new streams of information into our mental model of the world. Once the initial period of adaptation is over, those augmented streams of information slowly fade into the background of our minds as conscious effort is replaced with subconscious monitoring” Rod Furlan
That fits in line with what we’ve heard from Google itself; Glass project chief Babak Parviz said recently that part of the company’s work on software has been to deliver a pared-back version of the usual gush of information that hits our smartphone and tablet displays. Developers, for instance, will be able to use a set of special cloud APIs to prioritize specific content that gets delivered to the Android-based wearable.
Furlan concludes that the biggest advantage of wearables won’t be overlaying data on top of the real world – what we know as augmented or mediated reality – but being able to persistently record (and recall) all of our experiences. That does differ from Google’s perception, where capturing photos and videos is only seen as a subset of Glass, and the headset is gradually being positioned as a way to access a curated feed of the digital world, whether that be from Google Now prompts or something else.
It isn’t all that often we get to talk about remote-controlled cars here at SlashGear, but the one we’re covering today comes with a few cool gadget-related features. Say hello to the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, a new RC car from the folks at Silverlit. While it looks like a normal RC car at first – and largely is – there are a couple key differences between this and other RC cars we’re used to seeing.
First and foremost, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is controlled using an app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. The car will connect your device using Bluetooth and a downloadable app that’s included along with your purchase. This setup allows you to use your device’s tilt controls to steer the car, and if you’re using an iPhone, you’ll feel force feedback as you rev the engine, which increases in intensity the faster the car is going.
While all of that is awesome, there’s one feature in particular that makes the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG RC really stick out from the crowd: music playback. You can use the app to play music from your device while you’re driving the car, or you can park it and play your music through the speakers this bad boy comes equipped with. The gull-wing doors on the car open to make sure you can hear everything nice and clear, and the lights on the car will even flash along to the music.
The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG comes with a price tag of $129.99 and will be launching sometime in Spring 2013. Silverlit is set to give the RC car a full reveal during CES 2013, which is right around the corner. Of course, we’ll be there reporting on all of the awesome stuff that’s sure to appear on the show floor, so keep it here at SlashGear for all you need to know!
Well folks, after a brief break to celebrate the new year, we’re back with the first Evening Wrap-Up of 2013. We heard today that the iPhone 5S might come with a number of color selections similar to the iPod Touch along with a larger screen, while rumors are saying that HTC will unveil its new flagship device, the M7, during CES (which is next week!). There are new services floating around out there that let users install pirated iOS apps without jailbreaking first, and Apple has secured Android sales data from Samsung, despite Samsung requesting that this data remain a secret.
The first details for Black Ops II‘s incoming DLC have leaked out, while the Project Paperless patent trolls are at it again with new unnamed subsidiaries to help them do their dirty work. Apple has a rumored relationship with Broadcom for 802.11ac WiFi in 2013 Macs, we learned today that CTIA will consolidate its 2013 shows into one massive mobile event, and the GameStick portable gaming console is looking to do battle with OUYA for Android console supremacy.
Apple is said to be testing out its new 28nm A6X chips while preparing to cut Samsung out of the loop, and in a very surprising turn of events, Ubuntu mobile OS was announced today and should be hitting phones starting in 2014. A US district judge has ruled that Amazon’s Appstore is very different from Apple’s own App Store, while the Samsung Galaxy M Pro has been leaked, complete with a full QWERTY keyboard. Installious has been shut down (so no, you aren’t just experiencing an outage), and we learned that the Do Not Disturb bug in iOS 6 will be fixed come January 7.
We have a couple Xbox-related stories today, as a countdown timer on Major Nelson’s website seems to suggest that the next generation Xbox will be announced at E3, while new rumors said that production on the console’s processor has gotten underway, with a potential launch coming late this year or early in 2014. Elite: Dangerous reached its Kickstarter goal today, with California and Illinois both enacting laws that prevent employers from demanding their potential employees’ social media passwords. Google executive Eric Schmidt might be taking a trip to North Korea soon, Zynga has shut down its Japan studio, and finally tonight, Chris Burns delivers his review of AT&T MiFi Liberate mobile hotspot. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night everyone!
The somewhat unexpected shutdown of Hackulous’ community, and the corresponding departure of related tools like Apptrackr and Installous, left iOS app pirates in something of a panic: many of those who jailbroke their devices expressly for ill-gotten goods suddenly lost one of their main sources. While they haven’t earned much sympathy, they’ve also triggered a surge in services that don’t require a jailbreak at all. Months-old pay service Zeusmos has seen a spike in popularity, but more recent upstart Kuaiyong is drawing the most attention. It’s offering others’ commercial releases through the web, for free — and on a scale into the thousands of bootleg installs per app, suggesting that it may be abusing enterprise policies rather than Zeusmos’ apparent reliance on developer slots.
There’s no immediate sign of a crackdown, but those app writers concerned about their revenue might take consolation in knowing that the risks might outweigh the rewards. iTunes syncing breaks the moment a pirated app reaches a device, and there’s no guarantee that every copy will be malware-free. Zeusmos also claims to be clamping down on questionable sources in an attempt to steer users towards homebrew apps. Even with those disclaimers, it’s still possible that Hackulous’ end may have created more problems for some developers than it solved.
In a mix of user interface usage, number crunching, and good ol’ analytics, the group known as ABI Research has revealed that Apple’s App Store has their top score in the mobile application storefronts category here at the start of 2013. The report they’ve released ranks stores based on both implementation and innovation with Apple winning the overall combined score over both the Google Play app store and Microsoft’s Windows Store, Google’s working for Android and Microsoft’s working for Windows Phone devices.
Combined scores for both implementation and innovation in this analysis showed Apple to be winning over the competition with 80.8 out of 100. Google’s score ended up being 72.2 and Microsoft ended up with a lovely 63.9, both of these also out of a max score of 100. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t Apple who won out when the scores were stacked up for innovation alone, with Microsoft scoring in at 77 out of 100 and Google coming in with 76, just the tiniest of points below the Windows Phone platform.
The innovation category for ABI Research works with what they say are the following five criteria: discovery, quality control, ease of use, “Breadth of Ecosystem”, and “Hosting and Deployment.” When they say Breadth of Ecosystem, they mean the availability of different kinds of media like apps, music, videos, and different kinds of apps, made for multiple screen sizes and even separate sections for phones and tablets. Hosting and Deployment for this study includes file-size limits as well as different methods for downloading media.
ABI researcher Aapo Markkanen made it clear this week that the study shows Microsoft doing well for their devices, but that it could all be for nothing if the Windows Phone platform doesn’t take off in a rather big way, rather soon: “Microsoft does seem to invest strongly in both personalized recommendation and editorial curation of apps. … [this approach] should favor developers with good products and little extra money to spare, over the ones that have mediocre products but big marketing budgets, [but this] won’t really matter if the devices powered by Windows Phone end up selling badly.”
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