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Walyou

Angry Birds: Transformers is out now for Android devices
Kodak’s Sports and Action Camera Shoots 360-Degree Videos
Microsoft Band: it exists, and it is grand
iWatch Android Wearable Will Be Launched Soon, But Not by Apple
How to Use Apple Pay Outside of the United States

Angry Birds: Transformers is out now for Android devices

Posted: 30 Oct 2014 12:10 PM PDT

Explosions and Transformers are no longer synonymous with Michael Bay movies as now they return combined with Rovlo’s Angry Birds.

The latest entry in the Angry Birds franchise, called Angry Birds: Transformers, has finally arrived to Android devices around the world and can be downloaded for free at the Play Store. It brings many changes, as this time around players won’t be slinging the birds against the piggies and their fortresses but is instead a side-scrolling auto-runner where players transverse a level while shooting enemies and shanty structures in the background. Of course, the pigs are standing on these structures and you know what happens next.

The weapons don’t seem to be very effective against the pigs (the Deceptihogs!), but like in previous entries, it’s best to shoot and collapse the structures for better scores. The franchise is all about physics-based destruction anyways. While the game is fun to pick up and play, more serious players will soon find out the game is plagued by Microtransactions that go from color swaps and skins to extra lives and power-ups which require the very real, green dollars. But what is that compared to the pleasure of engaging once again against the green piggies?

Via Phone Arena

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Kodak’s Sports and Action Camera Shoots 360-Degree Videos

Posted: 30 Oct 2014 06:30 AM PDT

GoPro’s supremacy in the sports and action camera department started being disputed recently, as both Polaroid and Kodak have launched similar products. The latter’s addition to this sector can shoot 360-degree videos and has a lot of connectivity options.

Once a popular brand of photography-related products, Kodak went out of the spotlight and gave way to manufacturers of digital cameras. Now, the American company makes the news when launching innovative products such as the AstroZoom AZ651, which has the largest optical zoom (65x) available in a consumer compact camera. The newly-announced Kodak Pixpro SP360 Action Camera, however, targets a different audience than the one interested in shooting pictures and videos at a distance. This little gadget was built with lovers of extreme sports in mind, but it might prove suitable for action scenes shot by casual users.

What really sets Kodak’s sports camera apart from its competitors is the unique 360-degree curved lens that lets you shoot more action in more angles. As any reputable device that gets to be used in all sorts of environment, the camera can withstand physical shocks, extreme temperatures and humidity. More precisely, it is 2m shockproof, -10 degrees Celsius freezeproof, dust- and waterproof.

In terms of technical specs, the SP360 includes a 16 megapixel sensor, is capable of recording video in 1080p, as well as shoot still photos in 10 MP at 10 fps. As far as connectivity is concerned, there are Wi-Fi and NFC sensors included. Both of these are used for pairing the camera with smartphones, so as to have a larger viewfinder when shooting photos and videos.

The PixPro Remote Viewer is a companion app for the SP360 camera that’s currently available both for iOS and Android devices. It’s particularly convenient when you want to control or view the videos shot with this action camera.

The Kodak PixPro SP360 Action Camera can be purchased on the manufacturer’s website for $349. That’s a lot less than the $499 you would have to pay for a GoPro Hero 4, but you need to keep in mind that Kodak’s camera also has fewer functions. Still, for the purpose it serves, Kodak’s product should manage to attract some of the people who have been considering buying an action camera, but can’t afford a GoPro.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the cute Cube camera that breathes new life into the Polaroid brand, and Sony’s Action Cam pet mount that enables dogs to shoot wacky videos.

Microsoft Band: it exists, and it is grand

Posted: 30 Oct 2014 06:00 AM PDT

The internet was abuzz with leaks, mentions and concepts for Microsoft’s new fitness tracker / smartwatch. Turns out, it was real after all, and called Band.

We had been talking about Microsoft releasing their own wrist hardware, allegedly a smartwatch in the past. Yet, what came to light today was something else entirely. The Microsoft Band got officially announced, and it’s so very interesting as it is a 10-sensor fitness tracker that costs just one cent below $200.

Band will more than track your heart rate, as it also keeps track of sun exposure thanks to its UV sensor, stress via another one (a galvanic skin response one), and also has a built-in GPS amongst other goodies. The band is only 18.5-millimeter long, made of “thermal plastic elastomer”, and sports a small touchscreen capable of 320 x 106 resolution in 1.4-inches. The benefits of this? The battery life is really long, and it can go for a couple of days without needing to recharge.

Just like a smartwatch, the Band is capable of giving the user notifications for e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, and similar social media, but the focus is clearly the health side of things. Microsoft’s attempt is to measure the users data so they can use it to their advantage: for example, does a certain breakfast make you run faster? That’s the literal example they give. They made this video to explain what we’re up for.

Via Gizmodo

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iWatch Android Wearable Will Be Launched Soon, But Not by Apple

Posted: 30 Oct 2014 05:30 AM PDT

Apple Watch was expected to be launched under a different name, but it looks like the Cupertino company was forced by circumstances to give up on the iWatch name. Still, it looks like a smartwatch using this name will be launched soon.

The iWatch could never have been an Apple product, as this name is trademarked in Europe, and doing so would have inevitably resulted in lawsuits and many millions of dollars in damages. Because of this, Apple took the safe route and used a very generic name for their wearable, while renouncing on their dream to use the i on each of their products.

Daniele Di Salvo, CEO of Probendi, is a 50-year-old Italian entrepreneur whose Dublin-based software development studio holds the trademark for the iWatch name for computing devices and software since August 3, 2008. Pictured above is a concept for the iWatch Sport, which should be launched sometime in the future, even though some people are skeptical and call this vaporware. There is also an app made by Probendi that is called iWatch. Police in Vercelli, a small town in northern Italy are said to use it for sending mugshots to their HQ, fact that makes you think that Di Salvo might just be a patent troll.

Di Salvo pointed out that “We have been contacted by some very important manufacturers in China about the possibility of manufacturing a smartwatch and selling them with the name iWatch. Discussions are still ongoing. We are good at software but hardware is definitely not our business but we are evaluating this request.”

According to Bloomberg, Profendi’s iWatch will have a smaller price than the Apple Watch. It will only come with a square touchscreen, GPS and accelerometer, which explains why the iWatch will be cheaper. After all, at $349, Apple Watch is among the most expensive smartwatches currently available. Ironically enough, the iWatch will run Google’s Android 4.4 KitKat, so this must be one of Apple’s worst nightmares.

I’m pretty sure that unaware that the iWatch isn’t in fact an Apple product, many of the company’s fanboys will jump to buy it. Assuming that Probendi will go with the design pictured above (which is actually highly improbable), that may be the wearable’s main selling point. Other than that, it will feature functions found in any other smartwatch.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the surprisingly unsurprising Apple Watch, and the iWatch, Apple’s possible replacement for the iPhone.

How to Use Apple Pay Outside of the United States

Posted: 30 Oct 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Launched earlier this month, Apple Pay is the U.S only payment service. Here is a way to use it outside of the country.

Pretty big deals in their own right, one of the biggest things that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have gifted us (besides those ginormous, sometimes bendy screens) is NFC. NFC, or Near Field Communication, allows your phone to communicate wirelessly with other devices around it.

Specifically, the NFC of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will allow us to use Apple Pay. An easy to use payment service, the idea with Apple Pay is that it will put all of our payment details (PayPal, debit cards, credit cards etc.) in one place and lets us pay with those at the till instead of fishing out the appropriate card, wallet or amount of coinage.

Such a big deal is Apple Pay, that Apple has even said that the service could replace wallets altogether. But there’s just one problem: it’s only available in the United States. That doesn’t mean that you can only use it in the USA however, as the ability to use Apple Pay around the world is as simple as choosing the right credit card.

When adding cards to Apple Pay, as long as you make sure that they are United States credit cards (registered to US addresses) you will be able to use them across Europe and in other continents where retailers have NFC systems set up. Granted, you may incur additional charges as a result of using your United States credit card abroad but if you don’t want to take your cards on holiday with you or find yourself without another way to pay whilst you’re out of the country, it could make the difference between buying goods and leaving the store empty handed.

Furthermore, there’s hope that this will soon stop being an issue. Visa Europe has said that they are “working closely with Apple and with our member banks to bring this new service to market in Europe” and sources suggest that Apple Pay will be rolled out to China sometime soon. So as always, we’ll keep you posted.

Source: MacRumors

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