Hasta La Gadget!

In an attempt to edge its way into the crowded mobile payments market, a new credit card scanning system is saying “ah, hell no!” to typing and swiping. Card.io is billed as an SDK that takes advantage of smartphone cameras to let devs accept credit, because, as its creators point out, “typing on mobile phones is slow, and most consumers don’t have a separate hardware attachment.” When it’s time to pull out the plastic, Card.io gets your phone’s camera going, and up pops a little green rectangle, in which you frame your card and snap a pic. Your credit card info is then processed by a third-party merchant, and the details are subsequently deleted from your phone. Can you hear that? That’s the sound of our chubby thumbs breathing a sigh of relief. The Card.io SDK for iOS is now available at the source link below, and an Android version should be close behind. For now, hop on past the break for a video demo.

Continue reading Card.io SDK takes swipe at competition with camera-enabled mobile payments (video)

Card.io SDK takes swipe at competition with camera-enabled mobile payments (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If it weren’t for a book’s worth of confirmation text from Nokia, we’d swear the N950 was just as much a unicorn today as it’s been every day prior. Even now, the developer version of the newly-announced N9 is coming to us sans imagery, with only a scant few hardware specifications to piece together something of an image in our minds. Thankfully, the mere mention of a “QWERTY keyboard” leads us to believe that it’ll look an awful lot like a leak we spied back in August of 2010. Needless to say, this MeeGo-based device won’t ever be widely available, but those interested in breaking out the code can look forward to a 4-inch TFT LCD (compared to the N9’s far superior 3.9-inch AMOLED), an identical 854 x 480 screen resolution, a “different” 8 megapixel physical camera, a different location for said camera, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a slightly less sensitive magnetometer. It’s also devoid of an NFC module, and the 1320mAh battery falls a bit short of the 1450mAh cell tucked with the downright delectable N9. Mum’s the word on price and availability, but Nokia’s not hesitating to remind us that the N950 units that do ship will be of “beta quality and come without any warranty or support whatsoever.” Don’t even front — you’re still buying one.

Update: The N950 device after the break was pulled from a Qt developer video looking very much like those early N9 leaks (and not the E7 slider) presumably protected by a plastic case.

Update 2: Another N950 without the case can be seen above.

[Thanks, Mark and Alan]

Continue reading Nokia’s N950 developer MeeGo handset gets official: 4-inch display, QWERTY keyboard, same childlike dreams (updated)

Nokia’s N950 developer MeeGo handset gets official: 4-inch display, QWERTY keyboard, same childlike dreams (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Indie developers turned to the Web hours after receiving warning letters from Lodsys last month, but larger devs took a more traditional approach, leaving the communication and finger-pointing to lawyers instead. Two such companies, the New York Times and OpinionLabs, came to light after filing suit against the patent troll yesterday, seeking declaratory judgements to invalidate Lodsys’s patents. A nine-page complaint filed by NYT lists four Lodsys patents, including 7,222,078, which had previously been used to target smaller developers. NYT’s ad click-through system and OpinionLabs’ surveys were both also targeted, and if the suits are successful, Lodsys would be responsible for all legal expenses, and wouldn’t be allowed to collect on its patents in the future.

We spoke with Julie Samuels of the EFF, who explained that filing for a declaratory judgment could theoretically enable NYT and OpinionLabs to have trials held in California and Illinois, where the declaratory judgments were filed, instead of the Eastern District of Texas — the notoriously plaintiff-friendly court where Lodsys filed its suit against seven devs on May 31st. Other devs who received letters but have not yet been sued can also do the same. The suits brought by NYT and OpinionLabs formally call the validity of Lodsys’s patents into question, but unfortunately don’t change the game for devs Lodsys already sued, who would still be responsible for licensing fees and other damages if the court determines the patents to be valid (and their apps to be infringing).

New York Times, OpinionLab sue Lodsys seeking declaratory judgement originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The shuttering of New York’s Chinatown Fair back in March marked the end of an era for the city — a last vestige of a time when social gaming meant more than just logging on to Xbox Live. The arcade experience hasn’t completely disappeared form the metropolitan map, however — in recent years, a new crop of venues have remixed the concept of yesterday’s arcades, places like Brooklyn’s Barcade, a shrine to 80s gaming machines that does brisk business serving spirits to Williamsburg’s 21 and up crowd. Launched in Ridgewood, Queens by game developers Kunal Gupta and Syed Salahuddin, Babycastles takes the re-invention a step further, offering up something between an arcade space and an art gallery.

Continue reading Babycastles brings its indie arcade action to The Engadget Show (video)

Babycastles brings its indie arcade action to The Engadget Show (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Peter Chou is sharing HTC’s graces at Uplinq 2011 with the announcement of OpenSense SDK, where the company hopes to recruit developers willing to create apps specifically for Sense 3.0. With help from the HTCdev community, software designers will receive tools to create a seamless experience between their applications and HTC’s user environment (while also rendering their apps incompatible with non-HTC handsets). Beneath the skin, developers will be provided access to proprietary APIs that support 3D displays and tablet pens — which could make quite the gaming session. There’s currently no release date for the SDK, but the company is already taking names for a summer launch. So, if you’re comfortable helping HTC build this barrier around Android’s “open” mantra, we imagine there’s some rather slick apps waiting to be given life. Jump the break for the accompanying PR.

[Thanks, Jonny and Eric]

Continue reading HTC announces OpenSense SDK and HTCdev, offers paradise inside its walled garden

HTC announces OpenSense SDK and HTCdev, offers paradise inside its walled garden originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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