Google Glass Available in UK

Google Glass Available in UKGoogle has released their wearable Google Glass product in the UK, making it the second country after the U.S. where someone can pick purchase the device. Despite some concerns with the Department of Transportation over potential distractions by wearers while driving, Google has released the product again targeting developers more than general consumers and requiring the buyer to be 18 or over.

The basic prototype development kit is available for £1,000 from those in the UK through Google’s website. Google Glass was first released in the US in April of 2012 and was initially available to developers, but has generally been released in May of this year in the U.S. for around $1600.

Sony PlayStation TV Coming to the U.S. and Canada

Sony PlayStation TVSony announced at the 2014 E3 conference the release of the Playstation TV to the U.S. and Canada, but did not provide an exact release date, yet. The Playstation TV is a small media streaming device, not unlike the Apple TV allowing users to stream digital media to a connected TV.

The media device from Sony has already been released in Japan and will allow a user to stream their PS4 to another TV, along with allowing play of Vita, PS1 and PSP games. This would give owners of the Playstation TV access to over 1,000 games.

Sony is pricing the Playstation TV at $99 by itself or for $140 bundled with a DualShock 3 controller, 8GB memory card, an HDMI cable and the LEGO Movie: The Video Game.

via Mercury News

Logitech Upgrades Harmony Universal Remotes

Logitech Harmony Universal Remote ControlsOn Monday Logitech announced some new upgrades and integration with its universal remotes, bringing control over your Sonos speakers and integrating some new on demand media including Amazon’s new Fire TV.

With the upgrades, users of the Harmony Ultimate and Harmony Smart Control on their smartphones will be able to control the volume, playback and favorite access for their Sonos speakers directly from the remote control or smartphone app. With the Smart Control app (only), users will also be able to use the keyboard or voice command to search for content through streaming media devices including Amazon’s Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku.

The team has also added some ease to the installation of a new universal remote with some automatic detection of your Sonos speakers, Roku devices and even Phillips Hue lights. The Harmony Ultimate runs $349.99 and the Harmony Ultimate Hub that connects to your smart device goes for $99.99, both available now.

via VentureBeat

Apple Smart Watch Scheduled for October: Nikkei

Apple Smart WatchAccording to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Apple announced on Thursday at the Worldwide Developers Conference that it will be releasing a new wearable watch-like smart device as soon as this October. According to the report, the ‘iWatch’ will have a curved OLED touchscreen display and will be able to collect health-related data such as calories, sleep tracking, blood glucose level and blood oxygen levels and integrate with smart phones.

The report indicated that the smart watch from Apple will also run on iOS 8, the new operating system recently announced for the iPhone and iPad, and will be partnering with Nike, which could be marking the end for the FuelBand and all coincides with the release of a new OS in the fall along with the previously announced Health and Healthkit applications.

[Image Credit: AppAdvice.com]

Google Unveils Project Tango Tablet Dev Kit

Project Tango TabletIn this case the rumors have held true and Google has announced a tablet device as part of project Tango from the Google ATAP group. This latest gadget is a smart tablet with technology on board to allow the device to “see” the world around it in 3D, giving it a greater understanding of its surroundings.

Applications of these Tango devices are fairly vast and sometimes seem a little obscure, but some examples given are the possibility of enhanced gaming involving your actual surroundings, assistance to the visually impaired or even just helping to locate items on shelves in a store you just walked into. The announcement allows developers to sign up for notification when the Tango Tablet Development Kit is available, stating a time frame of sometime later this year and a serious price tag of $1,024 USD.

The specs are a 7″ tablet driven by a NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It has WiFi, BTLE (low energy Bluetooth), 4G LTE available, 120 degree front camera, a 4MP back camera, and of course a motion tracking camera and a depth sensor on the back of the device.

Project Tango Tablet

Xbox Getting 45+ New Apps Including Twitter

Twitter App on XboxMicrosoft announced on Wednesday that more than 45 new apps will be making their way to the Xbox 360 and Xbox One console, and many of them will be opened up to all users where previously a Live Gold membership was required.

Some of the apps include Vine, HBO GO, ShowTime Anytime, Comedy Central, Major League Gaming (MLG) and a customized version of Twitter designed to work with your big-screen TV. The enhanced Twitter experience allows you to see Tweets in real-time along with the show you’re watching and will integrate with the television program guide to see what shows people are tweeting about. Vine will also be integrated to watch alongside your display while gaming.

Microsoft promised to have more information in a Xbox E3 briefing on Monday June, 9th. You can see the announcement and a list of all of the new apps coming to both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 here.

Amazon Drops Mystery Launch Event Teaser

Amazon Mystery Device Launch EventToday Amazon posted a notice on Twitter for a mysterious launch event in Seattle later this month, but was vague about what exactly is being launched. The notice did include a link to a YouTube video showing what appears to be people using some sort of handheld device, but a device was never really shown.

Rumors have previously circulated about Amazon working on a technology that will track a person’s retinas, allow a picture to move along with the angle of someones eyes providing a 3D-looking image without any type of 3D glasses. The movements people are making in the video seem consistent with something like this but it’s tough to say for sure. Take a look at the video below and come up with your own conclusion:

Olympus Announces OM-D E-M10 Limited Editions

Olympus OM-D E-M10 Limited EditionsOlympus announced the release of some special limited editions of its OM-D E-M10 compact camera to be released in late June, 2014. The limited edition will be available in three different colors: green as pictured here, black and orange.

In addition to the colors the special release will come with a special leather shoulder strap and a shiny-lettered OM-D lens cap to match the grip and the strap. It also comes with the Olympus Share smartphone connectivity and a 14-42 pancake zoom lens. The camera will be offered exclusively through Harrods, retailing for £749 (~$1255 USD).

via Ubergizmo

Apple’s New iOS 8 Will Not Support iPhone 4

iOS 8 Will Not Support iPhone 4 and olderThe rumors appear to be true, iPhone 4 users will be left in the dust once the new iOS 8 update is released. This is nothing new for Apple, as keeping with tradition, they did the same thing with the iPhone 3GS which did not support the iOS 7 update.

The iOS press release states that these devices will be receiving the new update: iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPod touch 5th generation, iPad 2, iPad with Retina display, iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad mini with Retina display. iOS 8 is set to release in the fall of 2014 along with that release, are rumors of the new next generation iPhone. So start saving those pennies now iPhone 4 users.

Apple Releases Info on iOS 8

Apple Announces iOS 8Apple made a number of anticipated announcements today at WWDC, but the likely most anticipated was the release of iOS 8 for the iPhone and iPad devices. This is the latest operating system for the mobile devices from Apple, replacing the existing iOS 7 with a number of changes. None seem radical but all were well received. Below is a summary of what came down for the new OS today:

The Mail application will have the ability to hold and simply swipe to delete messages, not unlike Mailbox or Android’s Gmail. They also added a feature to minimize a message you are composing temporarily to read other messages.

When typing emails or any other text using the keyboard, Apple added something they are calling QuickType. QuickType will prompt with predictive words, again not unlike Android’s OS, but Apple claims that the predictions are not only based on the letters but also the context of the message and who you are typing too, such as professional work colleague versus a close friend.

Notifications from apps have become a common and handy feature and now iOS 8 will have a feature that lets you reply to these notifications right from the notification prompt instead of having to switch applications. This feature won’t be for just Apple applications either. They said 3rd party apps like Facebook will be able to utilize this feature as well.

If you’ve gotten in the habit of double-tapping the home button to get the multi-tasking screen, the updated OS will have a new feature that will bring up frequently accessed contacts instead for quick access to call or Facetime with someone without having to go through the steps of finding them in the Contacts application.

HealthKit and the Health app are a couple of interesting new features that will be added to iOS 8. with HealthKit, Apple is trying to solve the problem of different healthcare applications not communicating with one another. For example, a exercise monitoring application that records your heart rate or blood pressure could communicate with a health providers application, comparing your history of measurements and giving health care providers valuable information.

Last and certainly not least, Apple introduced Family Sharing. With this feature, family members who use different iOS devices would be able to share media purchases from the iTunes store including apps, movies, music and books provided they are all purchased with the same credit card. To help avoid abuse, all purchases will need to be approved with the credit card holder’s device, so purchases made by a child for example would cause a prompt on a parents device to first approve the purchase.

Apple did not give an exact date of the release but gave a time frame of a few months. September has been a common time frame for Apple with releases of this type, and iOS 8 is available for developers in a beta status right now.