Hasta La Gadget!

Shouting at your TV will soon have more of an impact than just raising your blood pressure, with news that DirecTV expects to update its smartphone remote app with voice-control this summer. Capable of searching through live TV and on-demand content, and – like Apple’s Siri – recognizing natural language rather than requiring the viewer memorize specific controls, CNET reports, the functionality will not only allow you to chatter to your DirecTV box in the living room, but remotely command it while out and about.

DirecTV’s existing apps – for iOS and Android – are both in line for the update, which is due to come down the line sometime over the summer. They will also retain the existing placeshifting-style streaming abilities, which already allows viewers to view searched-for shows either on their phone or the TV, or indeed to browse search results on the TV screen using the app as a touchpad for navigation.

The difference, however, will be in how those search terms are entered. Rather than an on-screen keyboard, DirecTV will accept natural spoken queries – the company apparently demonstrated things like “search for comedies with Adam Sandler” in addition to requests for recent sports games by team – in addition to filtering with channel, actor, genre, and time.

One possible addition to what DirecTV is referring to as “open beta” functionality is room for promotional content. The updated app features speech bubbles which, by default, make suggestions as to possible searches subscribers might want to make. However, DirecTV has confirmed that the same UI is being considered for including adverts, presumably including pay-per-view movies and other on-demand content.

Speaking to a TV rather than navigating with a remote is something several manufacturers are trying to perfect, though the results have been mixed so far. Several models from Samsung and LG’s ranges include the functionality, with microphones integrated into the remote controls, while Apple’s long-rumored Apple Television has been tipped to use Siri for its control system.

DirecTV channels Siri-style speech for smartphone controller is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The $15 checks for iPhone 4 owners who took part in the “antennagate” class-action suit against Apple last year have begun to be distributed, with the first settlement payments showing up in mailboxes across the US. Issued from April 17, according to the accompanying letter 9 to 5 Mac reports, the payments came after Apple conceded it had a design issue with the iPhone 4′s antenna, and was unable to placate all users with the offer of a free bumper.

Antennagate, as the furore quickly came to be known, was centered on Apple’s decision to make the iPhone 4′s antenna an external feature of the design of the smartphone, rather than enclose it in the chassis as on early models. Depending on how users held their iPhone, it could lose signal partially or entirely.

Apple offered a free “bumper” case – which covers the edges of the phone, and thus the antenna – to buyers, but not all of them wished to wrap up their iPhone. The class action suit, then, was only for those who had been unable or unwilling to return the handset, had been affected by the signal issue, and who had not accepted the free case.

In all, Apple coughed up $53m to settle antennagate, though around 30-percent of that was swallowed up by the legal teams involved. For those expecting a payment, “the enclosed check must be cashed by July 16, 2013″ the letter warns, as “after that date, the check will be void and will not be reissued.”

Apple’s iPhone 4S “antennagate” checks begin landing is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It might sound like a killer drone, but the Microraptor was in fact an airborne terror that could harass fish as much as it did birds and mammals in the Cretaceous period, new dinosaur research has discovered. The flying dinosaur, known to be roughly the size of a hawk, had previously been believed to feed exclusively on what it could seize from the trees, but preserved stomach content examined by a team at the University of Alberta, Science Daily reports, revealed its appetites were far wider ranging.

The fossil was discovered in China, where it had been preserved in volcanic ash. That meant its stomach contents were preserved, which allowed the research team to identify fish remnants and overturn previous assumptions about the Microraptor’s diet, as well as where it lived and hunted.

“Now we know that Microraptor operated in varied terrain and had a varied diet,”Scott Persons, graduate student at the University of Alberta, said of the findings. Earlier evidence had suggested that the flying dinosaur stuck to the birds and squirrel-sized mammals it could find in trees.

“It took advantage of a variety of prey in the wet, forested environment that was China during the early Cretaceous period, 120 million years ago” Persons concluded, pointing out that the dinosaur’s teeth were, in fact, adapted to a mixed diet. Serrations on one side, with a forward-facing angle that allowed it to more quickly swallow fish after having dived down and scooped them out of the water.

The new discovery is notable because it makes Microraptor the first known flying raptor to prey on fish. The species is perhaps best known for featuring in Jurassic Park, though the film took liberties with the dinosaur’s anatomy, making it larger than in reality and missing out the feathers that would have covered a Velociraptor’s body.

Microraptor terrorized land and water new dino research reveals is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Automotive manufacturers have been pushing to get improved hands-free technology into automobiles all around the world. Handsfree technology allows drivers to do things such as make phone calls without actually having to touch their mobile phone. Some vehicles will even read text messages out loud to the driver and will allow the driver to send text messages using their voice.

Some lawmakers and automotive manufacturers believe this hands-free technology is safer. However, a new study published by the Texas Transportation Institute now claims that some hands-free technology is just as dangerous as manual options while driving. Specifically, the study claims that it’s just as unsafe to send text messages using a voice to text service as it is to type the text manually while driving.

The study looked at drivers aged 16 to 60 that were tested on a closed course. There were 43 licensed drivers and they all used the same vehicle, a 2009 Ford Explorer. During the test for the study, each of the drivers drove four times for about 10 minutes at 30mph with one session performed while not texting at all, one performed while texting manually, one while texting using voice to text app on the iPhone, and another while texting using an Android smartphone and a voice to text app.

The study found that driver response times were slower no matter what text method was used than when not texting at all. The study claims the drivers took approximately twice as long to react to a change in the situation ahead when they were texting using either method than when they were driving and not texting all. Researchers involved with study also found that while performance is roughly the same with both text methods, manual texting actually required less time than using voice to text.

“That is not surprising at all,” says John Ulczycki, vice president of the National Safety Council. “We have believed that for some time, that voice-activated texting is not any safer. There are two reasons for that. First, the technology is not yet perfected. Messages often come out garbled, which can take even more time. And second, it’s really the same kind of mental concentration that’s involved here. They’re still taking their mental concentration off the road.”

[via USA Today]

Stupid is as stupid does: handsfree texting still dangerous is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

An over-reliance on Apple’s custom has left LG Display in the lurch with its LCD screen sales, having seen profits pale alongside a shrink in panel demand. The screen company saw tablet and smartphone panel sales drop 4-percent in Q1 this year, versus Q4 2012, which analysts have blamed on smaller than expected orders from Apple. The Cupertino firm’s iPad and iPhone display requirements are believed to account for around 30-percent of LG Display’s revenue.

LG Display finds itself in a precarious position, then, as it faces an uncertain 2013. Its Q1 performance was a marked improvement year-on-year, but down 74-percent quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, Apple’s requirements for the coming months aren’t clear, though some market watchers have suggested that the company’s demands might spike sharply amid chatter of a cheaper iPhone model for developing markets.

The Korean firm isn’t giving specifics, but did say on Monday that it expected panel shipments to rise between 5- and 10-percent in Q2, versus Q1. If talk of a July budget iPhone launch pans out, that would suggest parts shipments from LG Display to begin roughly in June, potentially ending the quarter on an uptick in sales.

Overall, LG Display made 151bn won ($135m) in Q1 2013, down from 211bn won a year previous. Further down the line, a new iPad is tipped to be likely to drop in September, with LG Display providing some of the screens for that model too.

Meanwhile, the company is attempting to diversify and bring prices of alternative technologies to LCD, such as OLED, down to more affordable levels. Back in February, LG Display announced it would be investing the equivalent of $655m into OLED manufacturing refinements, so as to offset stagnating demand in TV-scale LCD screens.

[via NYTimes]

Apple screen sales slump skewers LG Display is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.