Years after the Blocks modular smartwatch first popped up on our radar, the company seems to finally be close to hitting assembly lines. The company has at least 5,500 orders from Kickstarter to fulfill, and if you'd like to add to that number you ca...
If you are a fan of Grand Theft Auto V, you play GTA V right? Well, not if your favorite game is actually Minecraft and presumably, you have a whole lot of time on your hands. In that case, what you do is recreate the world of Los Santos completely in Minecraft blocks.
In this video, you’ll witness the entire virtual city of Los Santos replicated, from trees and fountains to buildings. The only thing it lacks is a bunch of cars for you to jack and people to randomly kill for their pocket change.
This whole blocky world is a scale recreation made by someone going by N11cK along with a group of dedicated Minecraft builders. They figure it will span 7500 x 7500 blocks when it’s all done. Check out N11cK’s YouTube channel for lots more videos showing the construction progress.
[via Kotaku]
Today on In Case You Missed It: The U.S. Army is more interested than ever in blowing things up with precision, and that's why it's beginning acceptance testing on a smart grenade launcher that can detonate explosives mid-air. The rest of us can ge...
After two years into development and a promise that it would be launched this year, the Blocks modular smartwatches finally gets a chance to become a reality.
BLOCKS Wearables, the UK-based company behind this modular smartwatch, announced back in March 2014 that it would launch their product this year. This April, when most people had forgotten about that, Pebble showcased its Smartstraps and thus hinted at its plans of making a modular smartwatch. Since that hasn’t happened, yet, we’re going going back to BLOCKS Wearables, who launched today their crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for the world’s first modular smartwatch.
“The development of the Core has been done. Initial designs for Modules are done, components are selected. The Modules are made at prototype stage but the electronics for the Modules for the final product needs to be produced and tested,” explained BLOCKS co-founder Ali Tahmaseb, pointing out that the modular smartwatch is currently in the engineering prototype phase, with a final design ready for testing scheduled for December.
“On the software side, the Android optimizations are mainly done. We have partnered up with a software company with very talented engineers previously in the Google Android team, that are working on even more optimizations and interactions. We have done an initial version of our launcher and menus but are still working on the User Interface.”
The Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign reached its funding goal of $250,000 within a few hours since the project’s launch, so there’s no doubt that BLOCKS will be mass produced. Anyone who has pledged $285 or more (the pledge for early birds was smaller, but those spots are long gone) will receive their modular smartwatch in May 2016. The Core, to which you can later add modules, can be had for $195. Given that the developers have already hit the goal, all that they have to do in the remaining days until the campaign’s end is to add stretch goals. Considering how many modules can be created for a smartwatch, they shouldn’t have problems getting ideas for that.
The first Kickstarter funding phase focuses on five initial modules for additional battery capacity, GPS navitation, heart rate monitor, NFC sensor, and an “adventure module” that transmits to the smartwatch such info as the current altitude, pressure and temperature, details of utter importance for hikers. I’m sure that there will be plenty others coming soon after, making this the only smartwatch you will ever need, as its developers claim, too.
Tahmaseb is quite confident that the company will be able to deliver the modular smartwatches in May 2016: “We have selected components and designs that are reliable, previously tested in other devices, and easy to manufacture. Our ODM has extensive experience in bringing very high quality consumer electronics to market. Our main innovation is in the industrial design, connectors, and communications which have been done by our team. Therefore, it is a good estimate.”
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via TechCrunch
After a long, long development process, Blocks is getting relatively close to releasing its modular smartwatch -- and it wants your help making that final push. The startup has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its customizable wristwear. Ple...
While sushi is most definitely a finger food, you’re still not supposed to play with it before popping it in your mouth. If you’ve been known to play with your food, then you might want to check out this wooden sushi set instead.
This beautifully made set of wood blocks comes from Japanese design firm plaplax, and consists of 45 different bits that look like fish, rice and seaweed wrappers.
Sadly, it looks like the wooden sushi set is sold out, and I don’t know if they’re going to make any more. Guess it’s on to plan B – playing with actual sushi! Here, start with one of these.
[via Spoon & Tamago via Colossal]
Modularity could make as much sense in smartwatches as it does in Google’s Project Ara smartphone, as it would enable people to use only the bits they’re really interested in.
The idea behind the Blocks modular smartwatch is pretty simple: you should be allowed to buy only the modules that you find useful, without paying extra money for the bells and whistles smartwatch manufacturers typically throw in the bundle.
It definitely looks like the world is going back to barebones that can be customized according to the taste and needs of each of us. That’s simply great, as we can create unique combinations of modules that are particular to every individual, and secondly, we no longer have to break the bank when buying a smartwatch or any piece of wearable tech, for that matter.
Needs change in time, and not only because new devices (or in this case new modules) hit the market, but also because humans feel the need to evolve (at least some of us do). Whenever this happens, the owners of a Blocks modular smartwatch would be able to swap their older modules for the newer and better ones, in order to be harder, better, faster, stronger, of course!
In the case of modular smartphones, the modules are found on the back of the device. Taking such an approach would be impossible in the case of smartwatches, so the Blocks timepiece will feature modules in the form of wristband links. This would practically enable people to attach all sorts of sensors (GPS, heartbeat sensors, accelerometers, etc.), cameras, microphones, audio jacks, speakers, and anything else you could think of. If you can’t afford or simply don’t need more than a few modules, you can complete the wristband using dummy blocks. Anyway, this concept could easily open the way for a world of customizations.
The launch date of the Blocks smartwatch is currently unknown, and is only estimated to be sometime in 2015. The price is yet another aspect that hasn’t been disclosed, but the basic package, which includes the display, the CPU and the battery, shouldn’t be more expensive than the $150 Pebble. Rumor has it that Google is going to sell the basic package of Project Ara for $50, so a barebone smartwatch costing three times as much is a bit unrealistic, I would say.
Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Boeing Black modular smartphone and Google’s Project Ara.
