Gadgets, Last week`s dotCom Radio Show topic Android Wear:LG G Watch Or Samsung Gear Live Now The first Android Wear smartwatches are available to order now in the UK - and you can get about six for the price of a pair of Google Glass. The new wearables were detailed at Googles I/O press conference on Wednesday, and will allow wearers to check notifications, make voice searches and use apps while keeping their phones in their pockets. The first two devices - LGs G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live are available to pre-order on Google Play. But among the tech press it is another device - the round Moto 360 - which is capturing most attention. The Moto 360 wont be released until the end of the summer, but its classic watch styling, leather strap and round design are said to be beautiful in person, and potentially more useful. As for the devices which are available already, here are the key details: LG G Watch: • £159, released on 4 July • Comes in two colours (Black Titan and White Gold) • Fits any standard 22mm watch strap • Has an always-on display which turns from black-and-white to colour when you raise it • All-day battery • Water and dust resistant Samsung Galaxy Alpha With 4.7-Inch Display and Metal Frame Launched Samsung took the wraps off its latest Galaxy smartphone, the Galaxy Alpha. The South Korean electronics giant is calling the Galaxy Alphathe evolution of Galaxy Design, touting its metal frame, elegantly curved corners, and a tactile soft back cover. The South Korean manufacturer has announced that the Galaxy Alpha will be globally released sequentially starting September in over 150 countries, but the company did not officialy reveal the pricing of the device. However, a reportpegged the off-contract price of the device at $689 (approximately Rs. 42,250). Samsung says the newly-unveiled Galaxy Alpha with metal frame is built using sophisticated and compact construction techniques. The Galaxy Alpha was previously previewed by the company at a yachting event in Moscow. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha runs the latest Android 4.4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. It features a 4.7-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) Super AMOLED display. The handset sports a sleek profile with dimensions 132.4x65.5x6.7mm and weighs 115 grams. Much like recently released high-end smartphones - LG G3 Cat.6, LG G3 A, andSamsung Galaxy S5 LTE-A - the Samsung Galaxy Alpha also comes with the LTE Cat.6 support denoting LTE-A speeds of up to 300Mbps (peak download rates). The Galaxy Alpha is powered by an octa-core chipset, most probably Samsungs Exynos SoC, with quad-core 1.8GHz and quad-core 1.3GHz. The smartphone also comes in a quad-core variant with a clock speed of 2.5GHz, presumably the Snapdragon 805 SoC the other LTE-A smartphones are carrying. Considering that Samsung launched the octa-core variant of the Galaxy S5 in India, we can expect the company to announce the octa-core variant of the Galaxy Alpha, and may bring the LTE-A version later. There is 2GB of RAM and 32GB inbuilt storage, which is non-expandable. The Galaxy Alpha sports a 12-megapixel rear camera and also includes 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. It packs an 1860mAh battery. Apart from LTE, other connectivity options include Micro-USB, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, and NFC. The Galaxy Alpha, much like the flagship Galaxy S5, comes with fingerprint scanner. The company notes that the Galaxy Alpha at launch will be available in Charcoal Black, Dazzling White, Frosted Gold, Sleek Silver, and Scuba Blue colour variants. Adobe Ink and Slide You’re right to be weary when software companies make the plunge into hardware manufacturing. But the Adobe Ink and Slide really is something special—and part of Adobe’s slow, but calculated move into the smartphone and tablet space. With the Ink and Slide, you have no reason to not make some beautiful art—especially considering that you have Adobe’s great iOS apps and also countless other third party apps at your disposal. It’s a bit spendy for the average user, but artists on the go won’t find a better solution for doing some drawing on the iPad. Sony Xperia Z2 tablet The Z2 tablet would be an easy gadget to glance over and totally forget about. It might not stand out among the sea of Android tablets at Best Buy, but it’s by far the best to come out this year so far. This 10.1-inch tablet is absolutely gorgeous, showcasing Sony’s return to the simpler, more refined design sensibilities of its past. Beyond some nice integration with Playstation and the fact that it’s water resistant though, the Xperia Z2 is light on gimmicks. Instead, Sony has delivered a powerful, premium, light, and incredibly thin tablet that is the best Android alternative to the iPad Air on the market Mophie Space Pack If you’re going to stick a case on your iPhone, you’d better make it the new Mophie Space Pack. It sounds futuristic, but this iPhone 5/5s case really does everything you need to keep you going all day—most notably, extending your battery life with its 1700mAh battery. The Space Pack also acts as a portable hard drive, providing 64GB of additional storage, which can all be managed within the free app. It seems like a no-brainer, but those two features alone make it the only case worthy of sticking your iPhone in. Best sat navs Find your way from A to B with minimum fuss Could the car sat nav boast the shortest lifespan of any technology yet? Surely our GPS-supporting phones are more than capable of handling our daily car sat nav needs? Not so fast - theres still plenty of life left in dedicated devices. Apart from offering the kind of focus that is only available from a dedicated device, true sat navs offer proper mounting systems that arent fiddly plastic nightmares and also pack voice options that entertain and inform. Thats not to say that you should leave your phone at home. Phone apps are catching up quickly, and they dont cost the earth either. In fact, some of the most interesting projects are only on phones right now. Meet 50 Cents heart rate-tracking headphones! Can’t bring yourself to buy a pair of Beats headphones now that Apple owns the company? 50 Cent’s SMS Audio may have the ideal solution in the form of the BioSport In-Ear, a distinctive pair of earbuds that also manages to squeeze in a heart rate monitor too! Is tracking your fitness getting a little out of hand? Read on for all the details! At first glance, SMS Audio’s BioSport In-Ear look pretty much like any other pair of fitness themed earphones. They’re slightly more angular than your standard bud, plus there’s a distinctive hook on the top to keep them in your ear and the bright colouring helps them to stand out from the crowd – but there’s nothing in the design to give away that there’s some serious tech packed into the compact casing. Not only are the BioSport headphones capable of booming sound into your ears while you run, SMS Audio has teamed up with Intel to pack in an integrated optical sensor that’s capable of tracking your heart rate as you go. Fitness and health monitoring is built into plenty of different tech wearables, with everybody from Samsung to Microsoft getting in on the action, but this looks to be the first time that any form of fitness tracking has been built into a pair of headphones. 50 Cent’s BioSport earphones work alongside running companion app Runkeeper to help you to monitor everything from heart rate to the pace you’ve been running at, and it could shape up to add to your perfect fitness regime. While there’s a seemingly endless stream of wearables also offering similar features – from the Samsung Gear Fit to Fitbit, whether we really need a pair of fitness tracking earbuds remains to be seen – but it could definitely suit those who don’t want to keep something on their wrist at all times. Still, if you’re going to listen to music anyway, it’s one less gadget to carry around and it could be the ideal workout partner, as the BioSport earphones also have a couple of other tricks too. The headphones are IPX4 certified, which means that they’re rated to deal with water and can keep on going even if you’re heavily sweating or if it starts raining during your run. Don’t worry about charging the headphones either, as the biometric sensor draws all of its power from the 3.5mm cable. Throw in that notable hook shape, which is designed to help the earbuds stay in place however hard you train, and they really could be the ideal buds for a serious workout. If you’re interested in these buds, the SMS Audio Biosport In-Ear headphones are set to launch at the end of the year – but there’s currently no priced attached at the moment. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the latest as soon as we hear it. Skully: Meet the smart helmet that packs in a heads-up display, rear-view camera and GPS navigation! Helmets probably aren’t the first thing that spring to mind when you think of smart tech, but the new Skully AR-1 is definitely smarter than average. This new Indiegogo project crams in a surprising amount of features, including a heads-up display and a rear-view camera, helping to keep you more aware of what’s going on around you, making for what could be the ultimate life saver. Want one of these? Claiming to be the “world’s smartest motorcycle helmet”, the Skully AR-1 offers all the details you’re ever likely to need while hitting the highway, showing you plenty of information on a heads-up display in front of your eyes. It means you won’t need to look away from the road at any point, and it may even save you from needing the protective qualities the Skully AR-1 also has to offer. The heads-up display offers handy info like the speed you’re travelling at, with Bluetooth onboard too making it possible to see and respond to incoming call. Those are handy features to help keep your eyes on the road, but its the rear-view camera projected in the corner of the visor that could really prove to be a life saver. Want more wearable tech? Check out the smart hoodie! With GPS also built into the helmet, the Skully AR-1 can even offer turn-by-turn directions, displayed discretely at the top of your visor, so again there’s no need to take your eyes off the road. It’s not just about vision either, as the Skully AR-1 can also stream music to your ears via Bluetooth from your smartphone. Want to get your hands on the Skully AR-1? Head over to the company’s Indiegogo page, where a pledge of $1,599 (£953) will get a helmet delivered to you around May 2015. It’s certainly not the cheapest helmet on the market, but with all that tech crammed in, it looks like it could be the ultimate helmet for taking on the road – and it could end up saving your life too.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 12:48:20 +0000
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