World News: smartphones

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Monday, July 7, 2014

Vertu launches 'Bentley' collection of luxury smartphones

BYRichard Lai @richardlai16 hours ago

What happens when two British luxury brands make a baby? In the case of phone maker Vertu and automaker Bentley, the pair have just announced that they are working on "Vertu for Bentley" phones -- with the first one due in October, followed by four more models over the course of the five-year exclusive partnership (sorry, no more love for Ferrari). There's little info on what to expect here at the moment; all we know is that these special edition devices -- presumably running on Android with nice specs à la Signature Touch -- will offer exclusive Bentley content to their users, and that they "will be jointly designed by the Vertu and Bentley design teams, based on a relationship that goes far deeper than the utilisation of materials and cues on design." Jeez, get a room, you two.

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Tags: android, bentley, luxury, mobilepostcross, phone, vertu Next: Retired NASA probe brought back to life after 27 years drifting in space .fyre .fyre-comment-divider > span.fyre-comment-reply-wrapper {top: 18px;}.fyre .fyre-comment-divider > a, .fyre .fyre-comment-divider > a:hover {top: 20px;} ✖AboutAbout EngadgetContact usAdvertiseAbout Our AdsCommunityForumsEngadget MetaCommunity guidelinesReviewsProduct reviewsWrite a reviewContributeSend us a tip!Add to our databaseWrite a reviewStart a discussionAsk a questionLive eventsEngadget ExpandEngadget LivePopular topicsMobileHDAltSoftwareAppleFollow EngadgetEngadget AppsMore Apps from Engadget

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Google Project Tango smartphones heading to space this week

BYEdgar Alvarez @abcdedgar5 hours ago

Google is no stranger to having some of its devices up in space, what with the Nexus S and One each taking on different missions in years past. Up next: Project Tango. The search giant's smartphone, which packs 3D sensors that allow it to track and map just about anything around it, has been playing a role in NASA's Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellite program, otherwise known as SPHERES. As Reuters notes, these spherical satellites could one day "take over daily chores for astronauts or even handle risky duties outside of the vessel." Accordingly, on July 11th, NASA and Google are doing good on the promise to launch Project Tango smartphones into orbit, where they be will be used as "the brains and eyes" of the bowling ball-sized, hovering robots at the International Space Station.

SPHERES Project manager, Chris Provencher, told Reuters they had been looking to add better processing power, cameras as well as a slew of sensors to the robots, and smartphones were the way to go. "This type of capability is exactly what we need for a robot that's going to do tasks anywhere inside the space station," he said about Tango possessing the right attributes to meet the program's needs. "We wanted to add communication, a camera, increase the processing capability, accelerometers and other sensors. As we were scratching our heads thinking about what to do, we realized the answer was in our hands [smartphones]."

[SPHERES image credit: NASA]

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Via: VentureBeat

Source: Reuters

Tags: 3D, Google, International Space Station, InternationalSpaceStation, ISS, NASA, Project Tango, ProjectTango, Robots Next: Google Play encryption bug is blocking paid apps from using Android Wear .fyre .fyre-comment-divider > span.fyre-comment-reply-wrapper {top: 18px;}.fyre .fyre-comment-divider > a, .fyre .fyre-comment-divider > a:hover {top: 20px;} ✖AboutAbout EngadgetContact usAdvertiseAbout Our AdsCommunityForumsEngadget MetaCommunity guidelinesReviewsProduct reviewsWrite a reviewContributeSend us a tip!Add to our databaseWrite a reviewStart a discussionAsk a questionLive eventsEngadget ExpandEngadget LivePopular topicsMobileHDAltSoftwareAppleFollow EngadgetEngadget AppsMore Apps from Engadget

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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Smartphones for hire: Which personal assistant is right for you?

"Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding."

This isn't a standard job interview answer, but then again, "What does the fox say?" isn't a typical question, either.

The top three smartphone platforms now feature fully functional personal assistants, and just like real-life assistants, it's not so easy to pick one at random. Each has its own talents, weaknesses and personality quirks to consider. So, I conducted a series of "interviews" with Siri, Google Now and Cortana to get to know them better -- and yes, they all know exactly what the fox says.

Siri

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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

NYC inks deal to put train tickets on smartphones

Part of New York City's train system is set to get a 21st-century kick in the pants. Digital tickets that live on commuters' smartphones will soon be introduced thanks to a deal inked between the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Board and Masabi, one of eleven companies that offered to build such a system for the city. The pact follows a -- presumably successful -- trial conducted between Masabi and the MTA in 2012. Not every locomotive route will see paperless ticketing at first; only the Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Railroad are scheduled to be equipped with the new tech.

Once the program is firing on all cylinders, users will be able to buy tickets and present them to conductors using only their phones. While the setup will be a first for the Big Apple, a number of cities already have similar schemes. Masabi alone has has similar ticketing programs in Boston, San Diego and even Long Island. There's no firm launch date in place for the MTA's solution, so don't expect to see it running in a matter of weeks. Ben Whitaker, Masabi's CEO, told the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog that the MTA system is so massive that "planning, training and testing" will take a fair amount of time. For now, dead-tree tickets will still have to do.

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Monday, April 28, 2014

The battle for exclusive games has come to smartphones

It's like Sega and Sony all over again. We don't mean the hardware arms race (although that's certainly happening), but how the smartphone world's two top players are now fighting over the most popular games... and their sequels. Gaming is one of the top money-spinning app categories on smartphones and tablets and according to a WSJ report, both Apple and Google are trying to get popular games and their developers on their side. The companies promise headline placement in their respective online stores and prominent ads around the app portal, in exchange for exclusivity, or at least a lead. This was apparently the case for Plants Vs. Zombies 2 last year, where Apple got a two-month lead over the Android version -- and it's not the only one.

The Cut The Rope series followed a similar pattern, while Gameloft, the company behind titles like Asphalt, had apparently discussed the exclusivity angle with Apple, but eventually decided to launch on both Android and iOS at the same time. "We haven't found the case where it makes sense for us," said Gonzague de Vallois, head of sales and marketing. In contrast to the console battles from the last few decades, neither platform has managed to nail down anything resembling a talismanic mascot character or series -- we're not expecting hell to freeze over in this new fight. 0 Comments Share

Source: WSJ

Tags: apple, CutTheRope, google, mobilegaming, mobilepostcross, PlantsVsZombies Next: Behold the internet's power: Quentin Tarantino to rewrite movie ending after script leaks .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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