Hasta La Gadget!

PayPal employees at the company’s UK headquarters are tired of having to use traditional payment methods when buying their rocket and crayfish sarnies. It’s almost an affront, in fact, so they’re pushing local retailers in Richmond Upon Thames to trial an updated, entirely PayPal-based system that uses photo authentication to make things faster. If you want to try it, go to the “Local” section of your PayPal app (on iOS, Android or WP), which should show nearby participating shops, and simply select the one you’re visiting — this will then cause your name and profile picture to come up on the seller’s app so they can verify you’re the account holder and process the transaction. Having given it a quick armchair run-through, the system looks similar to what PayPal already offers in some Australian stores, and it’s apparently PIN-free at the point of purchase — although you’ll obviously have had to authenticate your app when you installed it, as well as have uploaded a reasonably realistic (and preferably static) profile picture.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Tablets, Internet, Software, Mobile

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Source: Sky News

It surely isn’t the first time we’ve seen a quirky automaker look to the smartphone in order to add a bit of pizazz to the morning drive — Mini owners far and wide have plenty of inside jokes when it comes to the Mini Connected app. That being said, SmileDrive might just have the market cornered when it comes to all-out joviality. The free app, which was launched today by Volkswagen of America and Google, is presently only available for Android devices. (And yes, it’s a result of Google’s Art, Copy & Code project.) In a nutshell, it connects to any vehicle via Bluetooth (yes, Fiats and Ferraris as well) and runs in the background while a drive is ongoing. Once the wheels have stopped and the ignition has been switched off, it uses factors like location, distance, time and weather to deliver users their Smile Score and awards them with stickers — think of ’em as Foursquare badges for motorists.

On a longer road trip, SmileDrive offers the ability to create a Smilecast: a dynamic travelogue filled with the captured photos, maps of the trip, status updates, as well as other memories that are collected on a single URL. It all sounds pretty fantastic, if we’re honest, but allow us to offer up a tip: make sure you phone’s plugged into a charger. Wouldn’t want that background action to drain too much of your battery, now would you?

Filed under: Transportation, Software, Google

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Via: The Verge

Source: Volkswagen, Google Play Store

We loved NVIDIA Shield‘s bone stock Jelly Bean OS in our review, but if you’re not a huge fan, NVIDIA’s now offering a way to dig in and customize your Shield’s OS even more. NVIDIA’s made the Shield’s software open source as of today, making the OS all the easier to customize. You’ll of course have to root your device and, ya know, have an idea of what you’re doing in the guts of a computer. NVIDIA warns new owners as much, saying, “To be sure, this is double-diamond stuff. If you’re not a coder or already set up with an Android development environment you should skip downloading these tools.”

The company’s blog post also notes that rooting your Shield or adding a bootloader will potentially void your device’s warranty, so hacker beware! Should the associated tasks and NVIDIA’s warnings not scare you off, the software is available right here. Our review video of the Shield is just below, in case you missed it last week.

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Software, HD, Mobile, NVIDIA

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Source: NVIDIA

Have a need for Bing? Microsoft’s got you covered. The same suite of apps already available on Windows 8 — that would be News, Sports, Weather and Finance — is now ready for your downloading pleasure on the smartphone version of the platform. This move comes just two days after the company updated the official WP8 Bing app, so it seems the mobile team’s been hard at work lately. As you can imagine, all four apps have plenty of options for pinnable Live Tiles; your favorite sports team, the weather for your travel destination, preferred stock holding and even Engadget are among the various choices. The apps should be live in the Store today, so expect them to land any time now. In the meantime, we have a full gallery of screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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It turns out that Doom co-creator John Carmack is more than just a virtual reality fanatic — he’s joining the company that’s leading the most recent VR revolution, today announcing that he’s taking the reins as Chief Technology Officer at Oculus Rift. In an email from the folks at Oculus, Carmack was confirmed to be out at the company he helped found — id Software — and joining Oculus full-time as CTO. He will apparently still serve some role at id, as id’s parent company told Engadget, “The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected.” We’ve asked both Oculus and id’s parent company for clarification.

Carmack said in a prepared statement that the first time he wrote code for Oculus, it stood up to many firsts he’s experienced in modern gaming: “the intensity of the first-person experience, LAN and internet play, game mods and so on.” Additionally, he believes VR “will have a huge impact in the coming years” — Carmack is the first announced big new hire at Oculus. CEO Brendan Iribe said in the announcement PR that Oculus is, “putting together a team of the brightest minds.” Carmack, as it turns out, was at the very top of Oculus’ list.

Carmack got his hands on the Oculus Rift dev kit headset far earlier than most, spotting creator Palmer Luckey’s still nascent creation in a VR forum online. After getting in touch, Carmack asked Luckey if he could check out a prototype, which led to Carmack showing off a ported version of Doom 3 at E3; Doom 3‘s Oculus Rift version was supposed to ship with initial dev units, though that was later called off. Carmack also runs a rocket building company named Armadillo Aerospace, which he recently characterized as “in hibernation.”

Update: Bethesda Softworks (parent company to id Software) responded with the following statement to today’s news: “John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project. The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected.” We’ve followed up for clarification as to what that means for Carmack’s efforts at id. In the note from Oculus, Carmack is said to be heading up and working out of newly created Dallas offices for Oculus.

Update 2: Carmack tweeted a bit of clarity to his new role at Oculus among his other jobs, saying, “My time division is now Oculus over Id over Armadillo. Busy busy busy!”

Update 3: Oculus offered yet another statement, this time saying, “John is working full-time Oculus. He is fully-engaged at Oculus as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). As you can guess from the title, CTO is never part time, it is a full time gig. John’s role at id is between John and id.”

Update 4: And finally (we think), id’s parent company Bethesda Softworks offered this final statement, “He’s still going to be working at id, in id’s offices.”

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Software, HD, Nintendo

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