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The Exetech XS-3 Provides Smartwatch Diversity
Speed Reading App – Can it Work?
Flappy Bird Creator is ‘Considering’ Rereleasing the Game
Google’s Acquisition of Green Throttle Games Hints at Nexus TV
Ex-Apple Engineer Admits that the Buttonless Mouse Came to Be by Accident

The Exetech XS-3 Provides Smartwatch Diversity

Posted: 13 Mar 2014 07:00 AM PDT

People come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities, so their devices should vary in the same way, so don’t be surprised to see iterations in new technologies.

Most of the demand for smart watches is due to a desire for a second screen device. A separate and supplementary device to present notifications and run simple apps, powered by the central hub that is a standard smartphone.

However, not all people are looking for an additional device. There is also a demand for a miniaturized smartphone that is portable and always available, very much in direct contrast with the likes of large screen “phablet” devices such as the Galaxy Note series.

Exetech is one of the first companies to fill this desire with the Exetech XS-3, a full blown Android smartphone, miniaturized into a watch form factor.

The XS-3 isn’t exactly the most advanced when it comes to specifications, though. It will ship with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, a nearly 2 1/2 year old Android version. The processor is a dual core processor from MediaTek and it will have 2GB on onboard storage, bolstered by an available SD card spot.

Due to the hardware and form factor, there are a couple inherent limitations for the XS-3. First, it will not be the best option for running most apps. Although many apps may be optimized for the screen size as smartwatches become more prevalent in the future, it will initially be a major stumbling block for the device.

The second is battery life. Since the watch is so small, only a 420mAh battery could be installed, meaning only a handful of hours if it put through any reasonable workload. The significance of battery impact is usually negated with watches that are used as a supplementary device since the workload can be divided between the battery on the watch and the phone.

Although the Exetech XS-3 may only be a nice solution for a select few, it also serves as proof that no single device can fully encompass all the needs of every user. Most geeks that want to get the most out of their technology will need to look to a variety of device types, be it a smartphone, smartwatch, or a headset like Google Glass.

Of course, not everyone is looking to maximize the number of features they have access to, which is exactly why something like the XS-3 exists in the first place.

Source: Engadget

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Speed Reading App – Can it Work?

Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:00 AM PDT

You’ve probably heard by now about Spritz, offering people the possibility of “speed-reading”, which pretty much means finishing thick, fat novels like George R. R. Martin writes in no time.

Aside from the question some might be asking, which is why would you deny yourself the possibility of immersing yourself in a book for hours and days, there’s also the more important question: Is it actually possible?

The idea behind Spritz suggests that flashing just one word of an article or book at a time inside a text box will increase the speed of reading without actually giving up on comprehension of the text. Each word will be centered around its Optimal Recognition Point (ORP), the point at which most readers recognize its meaning. Users will be able to set the pace of which the words zoom by. At the moment, the app can go up to 600 words per minute, which is about double the normal reading time.

This isn’t the first time speed reading has “threatened” to change our lives. In the 1950s, a schoolteacher named Evelyn Nielsen Wood claimed she could read a lot faster than the normal 250-300 words per minute by moving her finger along the text, avoiding sub-vocalization, or saying each word mentally. She claimed to have reached the ability to read 2700 words a minute, and made a lot of money through her system.

But is speed reading any different from skimming? A 2009 study found that skimmers did not remember very many details, nor could they make inferences from the text. But they did remember the story's most important ideas better than those who tried to read normally but didn't finish the piece.

There’s actually a world championship for speed reading, in which contestants manage to read up to 2000 words per minute, but remember about only half of what they read. More studies show that anyone reading more than 600 words per minute cannot remember more than 75% of what they’ve just read.

Scientists claim there is simply a limit to the mind’s speed. It can’t digest so many words coming at once, and eventually your eyes might be able to scan symbols very quickly, but there won’t be anyone upstairs ready to compute them. The claims of being able to read Harry Potter books in 77 minutes or the Bible in 13 hours sound impressive, but we’re probably not going to be able to remember anything from what we’ve just read.

Hat tip: The Atlantic / Image via Tech Crunch

Flappy Bird Creator is ‘Considering’ Rereleasing the Game

Posted: 13 Mar 2014 05:00 AM PDT

After the popular mobile game Flappy Bird was taken off of the App Store and Google Play Marketplace, the game's creator has now said that he may rerelease it.

Releasing a mobile title is not all fun and games. The majority of mobile titles don't account for the millions in revenue that the app market as a whole continues to make, with its creators having to work hard to make them a continued success. For those mobile titles that do prove to be a hit, the hard work continues still as support and fan feedback make up a large part of a developer's continued work on the game. Dong Nguyen, the Vietnam-based creator of Flappy Bird, a simple tap game that is both bright and colourful yet difficult to 'master', knows this well, as backlash to the difficulty of the game from fans as well as suggestions that his game may have stolen some art from Nintendo's Super Mario games led Nguyen to receive a lot of hate. As a result, he took the game off of both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Marketplace, but now, in a new interview, Nguyen has revealed that he may just rerelease Flappy Bird.

Nguyen's comments about a possible Flappy Bird rerelease were made during an interview with Rolling Stone, with him saying to the magazine that he is "considering it", but his rereleased version of Flappy Bird would come with a "”warning [to] take a break!” Other than Nguyen's comments to the magazine, the likelihood of a Flappy Bird rerelease is otherwise unclear as he also has several other games in production.

These games include an 'untitled cowboy shooter', 'a vertical flying game called Kitty Jetpack' and an "action chess game" called Checkonaught, which is reportedly set to be released this month. However, money may prove a good incentive for Nguyen to rerelease the game once these aforementioned in-development titles have been released as Flappy Bird reportedly earns him tens of thousands of dollars in revenue a day, so we'll keep you posted once we know more.

Source: TechRadar

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Google’s Acquisition of Green Throttle Games Hints at Nexus TV

Posted: 12 Mar 2014 01:30 PM PDT

The search giant might be working on a way of bringing mobile games to the big screen, as it confirmed signing a deal with Green Throttle Games, a company with experience in this area.

Rumors regarding Google’s Android console started last summer, and intensified yesterday, when PandoDaily.com revealed that Green Throttle Games is now part of Google.

The Green Throttle Atlas controller (pictured above) creates a virtual console on Android smartphones and tablets when connected via Bluetooth to the app developed by Green Throttle Games. Since this company had a great start in developing both the software and a bit of the hardware required for writing a new chapter in Android gaming, Google figured that it would be easier to buy it instead of working on the same things of their own.

In the case of most mergers and acquisitions, the employees of the smaller company join the greater one, but this doesn’t seem to be the norm here. Charles Huang, co-founder of Guitar Hero creator RedOctane, pointed out that he will retain the rights to the Green Throttle Games brand, and that he will not join Google when the deal goes through.

Nexus TV, the set-top box that Google is rumored to be working on, will focus on gaming, considering this acquisition. Furthermore, Nexus TV seems to be a replacement for Google TV, a product that the search giant launch in 2010. Unlike most devices launched by Google, that set-top box proved to be terribly unsuccessful, as it caused its manufacturer, Logitech, to lose millions of dollars.

Probably one of the best things about a Nexus TV is that the device would run Android and that developers would be able to change it according to their needs and taste. Besides that, the product would represent a direct competitor to Apple TV. If anything, Apple TV represents one of the few occasions in which the Cupertino-based company made something ahead of the search giant.

Google decided not to disclose any of the details surrounding this deal, so we don’t know for sure how much they paid for Green Throttle Gaming, nor what exactly they will be working on. While that is typical for Google, there is a great chance that the Nexus TV rumors are true.

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Ex-Apple Engineer Admits that the Buttonless Mouse Came to Be by Accident

Posted: 12 Mar 2014 12:45 PM PDT

Not all the innovative products that we use have been preplanned. Even Apple’s Magic Mouse, the world’s first multi-touch mouse, seems to have been created by accident, according to a former employee that was close to the matter.

Considering that even some songs and scientific breakthroughs came about by chance, it shouldn’t surprise us so much that a butonless, multi-touch mouse was created accidentally. Still, many thought that Apple’s Magic Mouse was the result of years of R&D. After 15 years since the mouse’s design was presented to Steve Jobs and 5 years since its launch, Abraham Farag, the former Apple Senior Mechanical of Product Design, admitted in an interview with CultofMac.com that the Magic Mouse was just a happy accident, and nothing really planned ahead.

Farag recalls that “It all started with a model we did not have time to finish. We had made six of these great form models to show Steve. They were fully done, with all the parting lines cut in for buttons and different plastic parts, and all the colors just right.” Besides these, the design team also designed a mouse that was meant to resemble the Topolino model that was sold prior to the one that looked just like a hockey puck.

The former Apple engineer explained that the prototype “looked like a gray blob. We were going to put that model into a box so people wouldn’t see it.” To everyone’s surprise, Steve Jobs didn’t like the five finished models, considering that they don’t bring anything revolutionary to the table. Instead, “Steve looked at the lineup of potential forms and made straight for the unfinished one,” as Farag stated. “That’s genius. We don’t want to have any buttons,” Jobs said, according to Farag.

“[Afterwards], Bart Andre, Brian Huppi and I left the room and huddled outside with each other, [saying] ‘how are we going to do that?’ Because of that unfinished model we had to invent a way to make a mouse with no buttons,” Farag recalls.

Call me skeptical, but it’s pretty easy to put words in someone’s mouth, especially when he is no longer among us. When the Magic Mouse was launched, Jobs was still alive, and I don’t think that anything could hit the market without being previously presented to him, but having him seem supernaturally innovative is a bit far-fetched. Yes, the Magic Mouse shares the simple design of modern Apple products, but I have some doubts about it being made by accident.

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