Hasta La Gadget!

Disney’s got a huge stable of iconic characters already immortalized in plastic, but the company’s looking to virtualize its lineup with today’s announcement of crossplatform game / toy experience Disney Infinity. Like Activision megalith Skylanders, Disney Infinity pairs actual plastic figurines (enabled with NFC or something similar) with game consoles connected to a pad. The pad transmits those characters directly into the game, across any system the game is being played on. Unlike Skylanders, Disney Infinity‘s pad can apparently add up to three connections at once, allowing for character powerup additions and other in-game bonuses. The first characters available come from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, and Monsters University (we spotted Jack Skellington and other biggies in the reveal trailer as well); Disney promises that users will also be able to create their own universes (virtually) inside the game, beyond just playing in themed environments. 20 characters are said to launch with the game when it arrives this June for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, PC, and mobile. Take a look at the announcement trailer just below.

Continue reading Disney Infinity challenges Skylanders for toy-based game crown, launches in June

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD

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T-Mobile had more than just big updates at its CES event; it gave us opportunities to try both its newly national HD Voice service and a seemingly unknown carrier-specific NFC app, Tap Tag. The currently Android-only software is best described as a crossover between somewhat simpler existing NFC tag systems. like Samsung’s Tectiles, and multi-step automation like Motorola’s Smart Actions. Put a Tap Tag-equipped phone against a relevant marker and it will perform one or more customizable tasks, such as putting the phone in a do-not-disturb mode at the same time it sets an alarm for the morning. From our glance through the menus, it’s surprisingly deep and flexible without being intimidating. There are pre-defined templates, but nothing’s set in stone — if your definition of an office mode involves launching YouTube and cranking the volume, you can make it happen.

More details, including HD Voice testing, await after the break.

Continue reading Hands-on with T-Mobile’s HD Voice, Tap Tag app for NFC-ready Android phones

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, T-Mobile

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While staring at all those HDTVs, we bumped into Samsung’s latest addition to its audio family. Alongside a Bluetooth-connected sound bar with a built-in vacuum tube, the electronics company introduced its DA F60 Bluetooth speaker set. Alas, as is the case with a lot of Samsung goods on show here at CES, there’s no mention of pricing, release dates or even regions, but it packs a decent amount of functionality. Along the left edge, there’s an NFC plate that connects to compatible smartphones, allowing you to transfer audio from either the music player or other third-party apps to the speaker. On the right side, there’s a volume dial and buttons to enable Bluetooth signal, a power button and what appears to be a bass-boost option.

Under its own steam, the portable speaker has enough for 8 hours of “standard use”, and at the pack there’s a port for AC power as well as an extra USB port to charge your phone (or anything else that can be topped up through USB). Another nice touch is that the speaker will wake up from standby when you tap your NFC smartphone to it. If needed, you can even pipe your Samsung TV’s audio through its SoundShare feature. Unfortunately the madness of the show floor meant we can’t vouch for the audio quality just yet, but you can take a closer look in our hands-on video, coming soon.

Continue reading Samsung debuts NFC-Bluetooth DA F60 speaker set, even charges your phone (hands-on)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Samsung

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Fitbit’s been in the fitness-tracking game for a while now, but today marks its first official entry into the wearable band space. Shown off here at CES 2013, the Flex is a wireless band much in the vein of Nike’s Fuelband and Jawbone’s rebooted Up. But while it shares many similarities with those existing products, there are a few very notable areas where it breaks apart from the pack– namely, the inclusion of Bluetooth 4.0. Now, health nuts can wirelessly update their stats to an iPhone or limited selection of Android (!) devices via that standard without having to manually sync.

While it doesn’t boast the Yves Behar design that Jawbone fancies, the Flex should prove to be a welcome accessory for fashion conscious consumers. To that end, it comes in five different colors — navy, black, tangerine, slate and teal — and features a thin strip of LEDs that can be activated by a simple tap. Those lights, five in total, each represent 20-percent towards a user’s assigned goal, so current progress can be easily monitored. And, as you might expect, there’s a vibration motor within the band to alert users based on settings made from the companion app.

The Flex is indeed a waterproof product and can be worn in the shower or even the swimming pool, though we wouldn’t advise you take it diving. Despite this H20 resistance, the Flex won’t track your butterfly strokes (or doggie paddles), but it will keep count of your steps, calories burned, sleep and distance walked.

Perhaps one of the most welcome innovations of this particular wearable is its ability to play friendly with Android — specifically, the Samsung Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III. Users who purchase this band will be able to download that app from Google Play at the end of January. Further, there’s one additional perk for Android users: the ability to tap-to-pair with NFC. In theory, this functionality should provide users with easy access to their stats, but we (in addition to the company’s many reps) had significant trouble triggering the action on repeated occasions.

If you’ve been monitoring the fitness-tracking space, but have been holding out for a band that offers just a little extra, then it’s worth considering the Flex. You can look for it to hit this spring for $100. Stay tuned for a video demo of the Flex in action.

Sarah Silbert contributed to this report.

Continue reading Fitbit Flex hands-on at CES 2013 (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Wireless

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What’s in a remote? If you’re Sony, it’s an opportunity to pack in some extra connectivity: select models (read: the more expensive sets, from the W800 range and above) from the company’s 2013 line-up will come with a new, NFC-capable clicker, perfect for hooking up your Xperia device for straightforward video and audio streaming.

Sony already showed us its easy-pairing approach using NFC on the Xperia Z, but the system has more uses than just streaming audio over Bluetooth to a speaker or headset. The TV controller – which Sony is calling the One-touch Remote – when tapped briefly against your compatible Xperia phone automatically pairs up a WiFi Direct connection, and begins screen mirroring.

That means photos, videos, music, and apps on the big screen, and in a way that’s probably so straightforward that we can even envisage the mass-market adopting it. Tapping the phone against the remote a second time cuts the connection, with a little haptic-feedback buzz from the Xperia to let you know it’s worked.

In fact, the limiting factor is likely to be the fact that it’s Sony-only right now. Just as with other customized NFC-based systems we’ve seen – Samsung’s S Beam comes to mind, on the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II – there’s no playing nicely between the technologies. Being able to hand your friends and family the remote and have their content almost instantly appear on the big-screen is great; having to frisk them to make sure they have a Sony Xperia first is less impressive.

Sony One-touch Remote adds NFC for easy Xperia screen-sharing is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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