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Apple’s Latest Patent Makes Texting While Walking Less Dangerous

Posted: 27 Mar 2014 11:15 AM PDT

Apple iMessage Transparent Texting

Falling off a cliff is not that far-fetched of an idea if you’re texting while walking. This is exactly the kind of scenarios Apple is trying to prevent with the patent it filed for today.

Today, Apple’s patent portfolio became even larger, with the addition of transparent texting. The technology behind it isn’t complicated at all. The background of the iMessage app is replaced by a continuous video feed from the smartphone’s camera. Needless to say, this could help iPhone users avoid a lot of accidents, but Transparent Texting is not without downsides. Any additional task causes the battery to drain faster. All in all, this compromise might be worth it, considering the tragedies this technology could prevent.

Many of the accidents caused by a phone happen because the owner cannot focus on his path either because he is listening to music aloud, or because he is texting. In the first context, there’s not much to do about it, and people should pay more attention while crossing the street and even when just walking, if they listen to music while walking. Apple’s patent offers a solution to the second problem, though, and it should be mentioned that this solution isn’t particularly new.

The iSheep will argue that Apple came with yet another innovative idea, while all the other tech giants lack imagination and are way behind the Cupertino company. And they’d be wrong again. The app Type n Walk, which was launched back in 2009, did exactly the same thing as Apple’s Transparent Texting, but you guessed it, the developer of this app didn’t have a patent for that. A clip of how the app works is available below.

There is also the possibility of patenting a technology and never implementing it in any products, just so that others don’t use it. If, by any chance, Apple decides to include this among the features of iMessage, I just hope that the bright minds who will be using it don’t text while driving, assuming that there aren’t any dangers if the background of the messages is transparent.

It remains to be seen what attitude Apple will adopt towards the app developers that already use this technology in their products.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Samsung Galaxy Core’s Ultrasonic Cover that uses ultrasound to detect obstacles, and the Arianna smartphone app that uses haptic feedback to create a virtual cane.

9 Best Fantasy Novels Coming Out in 2014

Posted: 27 Mar 2014 06:00 AM PDT

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While there’s no new A Song of Ice and Fire book coming out this year as well, there are plenty of excellent fantasy novels to read, including some highly anticipated ones like The Magician’s Land, the Tower Lord and Words of Radiance.

The Magician’s Land, Lev Grossman

 

The Third book in his Magician’s series and the closing chapter in the trilogy, sees the return of Quentin Coldwater to the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic before his road back to Fillory and his attempt to save everyone from destruction he himself brought. It comes out in August.

Tower Lord, Anthony Ryan

 

This is the second book in Ryan’s Raven's Shadow series, which is as big as a Fantasy world can get. In this one, Vaelin Al Sorna tries to find peace in a distant reach far from the troubles of the realm, but it wouldn’t be interesting if trouble didn’t find him.

Half a King, Joe Abercrombie

 

There are many who see Abercrombie as better than GRRM and his First Law series better than A Song of Ice and Fire. Half a King comes out in July, telling the tale of Prince Yarvi trying to regain a throne he never wanted.

The Dark Defiles, Richard Morgan

 

The third book in A Land Fit for Heroes, Morgan’s books are always something different than your usual fantasy and sci-fi novels. This is the third in a trilogy about Ringil Eskiath, a war hero shunned by his family because he is gay. It comes out in July.

The Emperor’s Blades, Brian Staveley

 

Unlike most current trending fantasy novels, Staveley doesn’t make all of his work about grit and realism. There’s a dark undertone to everything, but plenty of humor and escapism that sometimes goes missing in current fantasy series.

Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson

The second book in The Stormlight Archive epic fantasy series was published earlier in March. What it’s about? There are a lot of things similar to ASOIAF, especially the POV things, but there’s a lot more desert, magic and weird names to memorize.

The Fifth Season, N.K Jemisin

 

For those who love to feel uncomfortable with what they’re reading, things that makes you move in your seat but also feel unable to put the book down, Jemisin’s novels are for you, in what seems to be the beginning of a new trilogy.

The Crimson Campaign, Brian McClellan

The second book in his Power Mage trilogy, following the excellent promise of blood from last year. For those who love reasonable magic structure and plenty of violence, this is the series for you. It comes out in May.

Prince of Fools, Mark Lawrence

If you loved the Broken Empire trilogy, focusing on Jorg, you’ll probably Lawrence returning to his world with the Red Queen’s War planned series, this time focusing on a new prince, Jalan, who’ll probably just as problematic to like as Jorg. It comes out in June.

Hat tip: 

For a list of sci-fi and fantasy novels that still don’t have their movie adaptation, check out our list of those that deserve it.

 

The All New HTC One M8 is Official and Already Available

Posted: 27 Mar 2014 05:00 AM PDT

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Spring is never slow for smartphone launches.  With the Galaxy S5 coming soon, the next biggest competitor from HTC hits the ground running.

After delayed launches for their last two major smartphones, HTC isn’t pulling any punches.  CEO Peter Chou walked on stage at the launch event for the HTC One M8 and announced that HTC doesn’t “do gimmicks.”  He said they want to give their customers a “pure, beautiful, straightforward, and an everyday great experience.”

The All New HTC One M8 is at the very least a valiant effort to be all that and more.  Chou boasted that last year’s One  ”was named the best smartphone at MWC,” which he found funny, because the device was almost a year old at the time.  That bodes well for a new HTC One that finds ways to improve (at least marginally) in all areas.

Peter Chou is clearly proud of the metal construction of the HTC One line, especially with the new HTC One M8.  Last year, HTC accomplished something amazing when they constructed a phone that was comprised of 70% metal.  This year’s phone pushes the design even further and its materials are comprised of 90% metal.

HTC’s Lead Designer, Jonah Becker, explained that HTC is “passionate about design” and that they “design for exceptional people who think for themselves.”  That passion really shows with the One M8, which is almost entirely milled out of a solid block of aluminum, Chou said the One M8 is ”Just like a premium watch or fine jewelry,” drawing a contrast against “competitor’s” phones, which are mainly produced from plastic materials.  Those weren’t the only shots across Samsung’s bow, though.  When Jason Mackenzie–president of HTC America–took the stage, he also emphasized the new and improved design and said it was ”It’s so much better than throwing a few dimples on the back” in a jab at the new Samsung Galaxy S5 design.

There’s more to the HTC One M8 than the physical design, though.  The rest of the hardware got a boost as well. The processor on the M8 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, which is basically an over-clocked and precisely optimized version of the Snapdragon 800.  The 801 on the M8 is quad core and clocks in at 2.3 GHz.  The phone also sports 2GB of RAM.

The screen is 5″, slightly larger than last year, but still provides 1080p resolution.  The increase in screen size means the pixel density will be slightly less, but it will take a keen eye to be aware of any difference. The phone will be available in 16 and 32GB models, but also returns SD card support up to 128GB.  Many power-users are dependent on SD cards, but Android has been moving away from providing SD cards as they are a flawed solution to most storage needs.

Last year’s HTC One made a big effort to abandon the megapixel arms race and opt for a larger image sensor over cramming more pixels into that sensor.  Not everyone was a fan of the resulting ultra-pixel camera, but the consensus was generally positive. This year’s HTC One M8 doesn’t do much to improve the resolution complaints lodged by some people, but attempts to make up for it with vastly improved camera experience and some fancy new features, the most prominent of which comes from the addition of a second camera sensor.

The new 2nd camera sensor serves to capture depth of field, which allows focus adjustments to be made after the shot is take, but also powers their new “Foregrounder” tool, which allows special shading and color effects to be added exclusively to the background of a photo, while leaving the foreground intact.

The camera app has also been drastically simplified and now allows granular controls over many different camera settings such as ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and etc.  Even better, you can save custom configurations to easily return to the settings later if you have a favorite setup.

 One of the biggest standouts from the 2013 HTC One was Boomsound.  Never before had a smartphone produced the volume or quality of sound that the dual front facing speakers of the HTC One could.  That is still the case today, but HTC is still at it, despite the sale of their portion of Beats Audio. Due to improved engineering and deeper speaker chambers, the HTC One M8 Boomsound is 25% louder and also has improved bass and audio quality.  That makes the phone loud enough that many may keep the volume at the halfway setting unless they are showing a youtube video to a room full of people.

Last year’s Sense 5.0 and the updated Sense 5.5 for the HTC One family went a long way to pare down some of the intrusions into Android and simplified and flattened the interface while adding some key features.  Sense 6.0, or as HTC calls it “Sixth Sense,” is even smarter.

The custom content curator, Blinkfeed, now has over 1,000 content partners and 5.7 million active users.  Updates to Blinkfeed will prioritize social posts with more activity, such as Facebook likes, and allow updates from apps like Foursquare or Fitbit to display updates right in with the rest of your feed.

Other software improvements include updates to the Sense TV app bring an even more interactive television experience.  The original HTC one had an IR port and TV guide integration, but the One M8 goes even further, with social integration and other second screen additions for various TV shows or sporting events.

The quick access features in Sense have been made even quicker, as the screen can now be turned on and off through a double tap, similar to the LG G2, but you can also access specific apps directly from the screen off position using various gestures.  The phone will even automatically answer calls by you raising it to your ear.

HTC has also broken off several components of Sense 6 into separate apps, so that updates can now be provided via Google Play, similar to the way Android is updated via Google Play Services, so now you can have many of the newest Sense updates without waiting for your carrier to push a firmware update.

Battery life has been increased by around 40% due to a larger battery and some software improvements.  Similar to the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC promises a plethora of battery settings that can stretch the battery life even further, depending on circumstances.

The only accessory announced is the Dot View case.  Reminiscine of the classic Lite-Brite toy, the Dot View case provides super low resolution access to some of the most basic data such as notifications, battery life, and time without having to power on the phone.

As rumored, HTC made a bold move by making the HTC One available almost immediately after the announcement and it can be ordered now from the websites of most major North American carriers and several european retailers.  HTC is wasting no time in getting the One M8 into the hands of drooling customers with the largest product rollout in HTC History.  By the end of April, HTC has committed to releasing phones for over 230 carriers in over 100 countries.

It remains to be seen how well the phone will catch on, but HTC has done just about everything possible to make the phone desirable and available, so we’ll have to wait and see if that translates into sales success.

Source: Engadget

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Read more on Walyou, The Quantified and Augmented Self, Google Gives the Smartwatch its Blessing With Android Wear

iOn Is an Innovative Take on Smart, Wireless Light Switches

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 01:30 PM PDT

iOn Wireless Capacitative Control Switch

Using the “Stop being sad and be awesome instead” model, iOn proves us that old light switches don’t need to be replaced from scratch. Instead, we could use a wireless capacitative control switch to make them better and improve their functionality.

If there hadn’t been a global financial crisis, I seriously doubt it that companies would focus that much on repurposing various devices, or on simply improving the functionality of the existing ones. That being said, iOn promises to bring magic into your home, by allowing you to interact in new ways with your electronic and electrical devices. It can be controlled via iOS or Android devices, and requires no physical contact in order to turn the light on or off. Best of all, it can even be hidden inside a wall, fact that could definitely make your visitors wonder how in the world you switched the lights on.

The manufacturer provided an extensive description of the iOn wireless capacitative control switch on Kickstarter:

“How does it work? Just like the screen on your smart phone, iOn is controlled by a capacitive proximity switching system. We just made the capacitive field bigger, increased its range and added some clever features to make it more stable.

iOn gives you cool new ways to control your environment, opens exciting design possibilities–and brings a little magic into your life. You can simply wave your hand near an iOn switch and the capacitive field reacts to turn iOn on or off.

Hold your hand inside the field to make your lights dimmer or brighter. Or use your smart phone. Imagine controlling all of your iOn switches from your iPhone or Android smart phone or even from your smart watch.”

In case it wasn’t obvious already, the developers of this little gadget are trying to get the money necessary for mass production by running a campaign on this crowdfunding platform. They’ve set a goal of $100K, and are willing to make small steps to get there, as iOn costs only $40 for early birds and $45 for the others.

You might also want to visit the company’s website, in case you’re interested in this device and want to learn more about it. Depending on how you look at it, iOn could be either an incredibly innovative device, or just a superfluous one.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Beep, a gadget that turns dumb speakers into smart speakers, and the Musaic wireless HiFi music system.

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