3d illusion arts: Walyou

Walyou

TAG Heuer’s $12K Phone Never Runs Out of Power
4K Curved-Screen Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Specs and Release Date Are Out
BigBoy Advance: GBA becomes a very literal giant

TAG Heuer’s $12K Phone Never Runs Out of Power

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 01:58 PM PDT

Owners of mobile devices know how important battery life is in emergency situations, especially now that the TSA says no to discharged smartphones and tablets. TAG Heuer’s phone is a dream come true, only if didn’t have such a steep price.

TAG Heuer made a name for itself in the world of watchmakers, and now it wants to try its luck at making phones, as well. Meridiist Infinite, as this first attempt is called, means to be a device that people don’t throw away after a couple of years. Well, after dropping $12K on a phone, I’d keep it even as presse-papier when its technology became obsolete.

Stanislas Dupuydauby, brand manager at Tag Heuer, enforced that idea by saying that “Products become obsolete very quickly and are often lacking in quality. The time has come for a mobile phone to be endowed with a sense of permanence.”

So how does Meridiist Infinite achieve this unique feat? It’s quite simple, actually. The smartphone draws its infinite power from light, both natural and artificial. While the concept is easy to grasp, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t pose a challenge for the Swiss watchmaker, as Dupuydauby mentions: “The main challenge was designing a solar cell able to bring enough power to charge the mobile phone.”

Sunpartner Technologies, a French company, offered TAG Heuer a helping hand in the form of WYSIPS, which stands for “what you see is a photovoltaic surface.” Moreover, the French company plans to insert photovoltaic cells into textiles, which would really be great. Dr. Yang Yang, an engineering professor at UCLA, said about Sunpartner’s initiatives that “In the future, you could have a surfboard laminated with transparent solar cells. It could be used as a power collector, generating solar energy when you’re not using it for surfing.”

“So where’s the catch?” I hear you ask. Besides having an exorbitant price, this little piece of innovative technology has yet another major drawback: it’s a feature phone that lacks GPS sensors, Internet access and all the apps that make a typical smartphone great. Despite that, Dupuydauby is pretty optimistic about TAG Heuer’s first step in the telecommunications world: “The potential future applications are numerous. The phone could maintain a permanent battery reserve. So, critical applications would be guaranteed, even if the battery is dead: remote payments or e-boarding passes, for example.”

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about StoreDot’s fast-charging smartphone battery and these daisy-chained solar panels that charge batteries.

4K Curved-Screen Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Specs and Release Date Are Out

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 01:31 PM PDT

The latest and the latest phablet coming from this Korean tech company is no longer an enigma. Its specs and release date are now official, to the excitement of the company’s fans.

What seems to be the world’s first 4K smartphone will be launched in September at IFA 2014, in Berlin. Samsung decided that this wasn’t enough of a convincing selling point, so it added a curved-screen to the mix. In this context, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the price of this phablet will be exorbitant.

According to The Korean Times, an executive of a Samsung partner mentioned that the company is preparing to launch quite a few devices at IFA 2014, including OLED TVs and a competitor for Google Glass. When referring to the next big thing (this time quite literally), that executive claimed that the Note 4 would be available in two versions. The more expensive one will feature a curved-screen, and will be offered on niche markets, while the flat-screen version will be available for the masses.

Even though Samsung is all hush-hush about this, Yoon Han-kil, senior vice president of Samsung’s product strategy team, revealed that the new Note would have a new form-factor. Now everybody’s expecting the new Note to resemble LG’s G Flex, but I hope Samsung is going to be more creative than that.

From what I see in the following image, Samsung’s Exynos 5433, which will power the Note 4, will be quite powerful, but not enough to take Nvidia’s Tegra K1 down. Handwritten signature authentication is yet another innovative aspect, just in case the CPU wasn’t convincing enough.

The expected price ranges between £550 and £600 (around $940 and $1025), according to PCAdvisor, and I’d say they’re not that far from the truth, at least for the flat-screen version.

Not everything will be changed from the previous generations. For example, the screen diagonal of 5.7-inch from Note 3 seems to be a keeper, even though people believed that Samsung would go for something bigger, in the 5.9-6-inch range.

Evleaks claims that Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will come in the same colors as the S5: Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold. Judging by the reaction people had on Twitter, I’d say that this is not the best idea in the world. The Copper Gold version of the S5 was considered particularly ugly, so following this trend won’t help the manufacturer gain many fans. On top of that, recent leaks suggest that the next phablet coming from this Korean company will have an aluminum case. That would surely set it apart from the rest of Samsung phones, which are pretty feeble, to be frank.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Samsung Gear VR headset and the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini.

BigBoy Advance: GBA becomes a very literal giant

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 12:17 PM PDT

When it comes to DS and 3DS, users get to pick between the regular and XL versions of the consoles. We sort of wish this had been the case with the GBA, though.

A lot of modders are into the whole “turn your home-console into a portable experience” shtick, but Bacman‘s Bacteria decided to go around it the opposite way. He modified a Gameboy Advance unit to give it a huge 8? 4:3 screen. That is bigger than a Nexus phone or even a PS Vita! He dubbed the project BigBoy Advance, and now we get to show you guys some of what makes it so special.

Creating this baby was rather nostalgic for the modder, as his first project had been another GBA unit. He said the end result hadn’t been as good as he expected, mainly because of the parts he used and some odd decisions that shortened it’s battery life amongst other things, but it made him a better modder in the process. Well, it shows, because this piece looks fantastic.

You can see the BigBoy Advance functioning in the video below.