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Audi Shows Off Smartwatch Controlled Car

Posted: 19 Jan 2015 09:43 AM PST

Audi Prologue Concept header

At this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2015), car maker Audio shows off their smartwatch controlled car.

With the popularity of Google Glass, the upcoming Apple Watch and even glowing neon apparel, the age of wearables is well and truly upon us. These hi-tech gadgets look great and cost a lot but are we getting value for money?

One of the biggest questions surrounding wearable gadgets is whether or not they are really necessary and if they are much more than gimmicks. The Apple Watch has been a recent focus of this as Apple’s next product only appears to offer us such innovations as ‘a dial that lets you zoom in and out’ and ‘an app that lets you arm wrestle’.

Also hoping to eschew any worries about wearables being a fad is car maker Audi. Famed for the quality of their cars over anything else, their latest innovation may have just given us all a reason to pick up a smartwatch this year.

That suggestion came at CES 2015 in Las Vegas, with the technological trade show allowing companies to show off what they’re working on. One of the things that Audi showed off this year is their Prologue concept car. Impressively, Audi used their very own smartwatch to bring the vehicle on stage.

That smartwatch that hasn’t been announced just yet but it’s being made in partnership with LG and runs on the Linux based operating system webOS rather than Android. In addition to this smartwatch they also showed off the the Audi Smart Display (which is a tablet that lives in your car) and explained that passengers will be able to control car functions and entertainment with it. They company says that the Audi Smart Display will debut in the Audi Q7 in 2016.

Audi’s Ulrich Hackenberg also talked up the Audi A7 which drove itself all the way from San Francisco to CES 2015 in Lass Vegas. That’s a trip of over 550 miles. There’s no on whether the aforementioned smartwatch will let you type in your location and have the car drive itself to you though, but that would be incredibly cool indeed.

Source: engadget

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New Nintendo 3DS hack does away with region locking

Posted: 19 Jan 2015 06:00 AM PST

regionthree_nintendo_3ds_region_unlock 1

Up until now, Nintendo 3DS games were blocked for other regions, but thanks to a user’s hack, the consoles can now play any game, at least until Nintendo patches it.

A coder by the name of Jordan "Smealum" Rabet (who the community already knows thanks to the Ninjhax project) has come up with a new hack that allows the Nintendo 3DS to do something gamers have been asking for years while Nintendo looks the other way: to be able to play games from any region, bypassing the region lock that ensures games can’t be imported.

This project is called RegionThree, and works with every Nintendo 3DS system out there, save the New 3DS/3DS XL variants, which aren’t available in the US and Europe yet. By exploiting some code in the console’s browser, the system gets to run all kinds of code, including that from foreign regions. While this opens the door for piracy on the system, Smealum’s project itself is not about that, with the author even explaining he condones the activity.

Users interested in this hack can check out the author’s GitHub page, and follow his instructions.

Via Technabob

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Xiaomi might be preparing a gaming console release

Posted: 19 Jan 2015 04:00 AM PST

xiaomi-gaming

Chinese giant Xiaomi might be ready to jump into the gaming market this 20th of January, after China’s ban on video game consoles comes to an end.

The 20th of January will see the end of China’s ban on video game consoles, and the Chinese company Xiaomi might take that opportunity along with every other major player in the gaming world to provide China with their products. Xiaomi is already a household name in Asia when it comes to smartphones, competing head to head with Apple or Samsung, but this would be their first attempt to compete against the likes of Sony and Nintendo.

Now, this is all hearsay so far, and we don’t know what the company will release: it may even be an accessory for a console that already exists more than a video game itself but the market is buzzing with speculation because all of their products have been hits so far.

Via Geeky Gadgets

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Microsoft Inconspicuous Mode Patent Makes Smartphones Less Annoying

Posted: 18 Jan 2015 12:59 PM PST

Microsoft Inconspicuous Mode

The latest patent application of the Redmond giant could make dramatic changes in how our smartphones react in certain environments, such as movie theaters or conference rooms.

There are plenty of situations when a ringing smartphone is inappropriate, and that’s what must have prompted manufacturers to implement a silent or mute mode in the first place. However, we’re only humans, so it’s not unheard of to forget about muting our smartphone during a movie, and even if the ringtone is very discreet, the display’s brightness will surely be uncomfortable for others. Microsoft is looking to solve this by implementing an inconspicuous mode into its smartphones, provided that the company is granted this patent.

Here’s part of the patent’s abstract description: “One problem with the ubiquity of [mobile devices] in so many different environments is that their use is not appropriate in all settings. As one common example, in a theater the sound from a mobile communication device and the light from its display can be distracting to other theater patrons.” That being said, muting the ringtone and dimming the display might be the best solution we have, momentarily.

While I agree that preventing people to use their smartphones while driving (unless they’re doing so with their hands on the wheel) is extremely important, I’m not so fond of the idea of having the inconspicuous mode activated at night. In case of an emergency, people should find out right away what happened, not wait till the morning comes. That’s particularly problematic since Microsoft describes the inconspicuous mode as a profile that’s activated automatically, presumably depending on the location and time.

Should this patent be granted to Microsoft, it might be implemented in a future version of Windows Phone, but more details about that will be available on January 21, when Microsoft will hold a press conference. At that point, the world will learn more about both the desktop and the mobile versions of Windows 10.

If only there was an inconspicuous mode for people, too, so they’re silent while watching a movie at the cinema. Since that’s not really technology-related and it’s (still) impossible to program people, I guess it just depends on how much common sense means to some people.

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