BlackBerry issued a press release today that amounts to little more than “Look! We’re selling handsets!” The four paragraph release hit the wire at 3:17 ET, and shares (which had been down on the day on the NASDAQ) shot up immediately afterwards. BlackBerry provides no details about who placed the order or why, noting only that it’s the single largest purchase order for the devices “in history.” They ended the release with a reminder that BlackBerry’s fiscal 2013 fourth quarter earnings results will be reported in two weeks time. From the release: BlackBerry® (NASDAQ:BBRY)(TSX:BB) announced today that one of its established partners has placed an order for one million BlackBerry 10 smartphones, with shipments starting immediately. This order marks the largest ever single purchase order in BlackBerry’s history.”An order for one million devices is a tremendous vote of confidence in BlackBerry 10,” said Rick Costanzo, EVP Global Sales, BlackBerry. “Consumers are ready for a new user experience, and BlackBerry 10 delivers. With strong partner support, coupled with this truly re-invented new platform, we have a powerful recipe for success.” So, to recap: BlackBerry says ‘Here’s a wildly sizable order we got, with no real information provided (and no timeline for the delivery of the order, either), at a crucial time for our company when stock was slumping based on a dip after an earlier surge about acquisition rumors, ahead of quarterly results which will almost certainly be disappointing because they don’t yet represent and incorporate the launch of our new platform.” BlackBerry told us via an emailed statement that they can’t reveal the identity of the buyer due to confidentiality agreements with the partner. The release itself was pretty hilarious, but the chart of what happened to stock price immediately following the news is even better: The jury is still out whether Blackberry is simply whistling past the graveyard here or if the nascent trend of major buyers upgrading their BB fleets (and bolstering the stock) will hold.
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Amazon just announced that it would be dropping the price of the 8.9-inch version of its Kindle Fire HD. The tablet will now cost $269 for the Wi-Fi only version and $399 for the Wi-Fi and LTE version. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is now available in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan as well. Canada won’t get the device this time around. The Kindle Fire HD was already available in Europe, but only the 7-inch version. With today’s news, Android tablets will become more widely available and could represent a bigger market share in Europe and Japan. Amazon may have needed more time to ramp up production before releasing the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ in other countries. Even though it is less popular than its cheaper brother, the tablet received a price cut. Developing…
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Despite years of chewing the digital cud — not to mention a global financial downturn — there’s no sign of the U.S. or European ecommerce cash-cows ailing, according to two new forecasts from Forrester. In the U.S. Forrester is projecting online retail sales will reach $370 billion by 2017, up from $231 billion in 2013 — a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. The ecommerce growth rate in Europe is expected to be fractionally higher over the same period, although the overall market is obviously smaller. Europe’s online retail sales are projected to hit €191 billion ($247.1 billion) by 2017, according to Forrester, up from €128 billion ($165.6 billion) in 2013 – a 10.5% CAGR. In the U.S. Forrester notes that online retail will continue to outpace the growth of physical retail stores — something the category has done since its inception, so no change there. The analyst notes two “notable changes” have helped prop up ecommerce growth in recent years: firstly the rise of smartphones and tablets, which is says are boosting the amount of time consumers spend online and generating more buying opportunities. Forrester’s report notes: Consumers are more likely to use their phones not only to research purchases — both to learn about products and store options — but also to find the best price for a given item. But it’s not just phones that drive retail web traffic; virtually all retailers report that traffic to their sites from tablets spikes during evening prime-time hours, when consumers are in a leisure state of mind. This also suggests incremental web sessions and conversions, because web retail traditionally spikes not in the evening, but during business hours. And secondly, Forrester notes that traditional retailers have invested heavily in their web divisions — including by offering hybrid online/offline capabilities such as in-store pickup for online purchases — which it says is also helping to grow ecommerce. U.S. ecommerce growth is not coming from newbies, according to Forrester, which said it expects only four million people to shop online for the first time in 2013. But rather growth is down to existing web shoppers spending more of their time and money online — and spending it on a variety of goods. Forrester notes that online loyalty programmes such as Amazon Prime and ShopRunner are “one driver”, but the wider driver here is web shoppers getting more accused to spending their cash digitally, and therefore becoming more comfortable buying “high-touch, high-consideration goods like furniture or appliances online”. The report also notes that ecommerce is also helping to boost the U.S. jobs market — with Forrester and Shop.org estimating that more than 400,000 individuals are currently employed by ecommerce companies in the U.S., projected to reach 500,000+ by 2017. And of course more people in employment means more disposable income that can be spent buying goods online (so arguably that could be another factor fuelling online retail). European Ecommerce In its European forecast, Forrester includes a breakdown by country of online retail spend — noting there is considerable variation in the landscape across key markets in Europe. Despite this, it’s projecting CAGRs from 2012 to 2017 of between 9% at the low end, for the Netherlands, jumping up to 18% and 16% for Spain and Italy respectively, the fastest growing European markets over the forecast period: The ecommerce growth disparity between European countries is generally down to a divide between more mature markets in Northern Europe, where Forrester says online shopping is “the norm”, vs markets in the south where ecommerce has yet to become a mainstream activity — but is projected to grow to become one by 2017. In more mature Northern European markets, such as the U.K. and Sweden, Forrester forecasts that ecommerce growth will continue to outstrip physical retail growth but will slow, as the markets enter what it calls a “new phase of competitive expansion”. In this phase online retailers will need to optimise and innovate, by creating more personalised shopping experiences across “new touchpoints”, in order to stay ahead of the competition. The report notes: Mobile presents an opportunity to reach out to shoppers in new ways, influencing the decision to buy at a critical moment. eBusiness execs must support their online strategies with a mobile strategy that considers mobile as more than just another transactional touchpoint. Instead, they must use features like barcode scanning and augmented reality to capture and analyze offline activity in order to more accurately personalize future online interactions and drive web sales. European markets currently display considerable variation when it comes to “multiple touchpoints” for online shopping, according to the report — with increasingly sophisticated and complex behaviours in some but not all Northern markets. For example, Forrester notes that Germany has “notably lower” mobile shopping adoption than elsewhere in Europe, and few “multichannel customer offers”.
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Just as we share all sorts of tidbits about our lives over the web, The scientists over at RoboEarth have created an open source network that robots can use to share and reuse knowledge amongst themselves. Called Rapyuta, think of it as an Facebook for robots. Smarter robots with higher computational abilities require more memory and hardware. That’s just Robotics 101. RoboEarth offers to take all of that heavy-duty computation and upload it into the cloud, where any robot might be able to interface with it at any time to learn from other robots how to deal with any given situation. The catalog of behaviors can make dumb robots smarter without a lot of on-board computing. Rapyuta, which was publicly released last month, will eventually hold an ocean of information robots can access. They write: Data stored in the RoboEarth knowledge base include software components, maps for navigation (e.g., object locations, world models), task knowledge (e.g., action recipes, manipulation strategies), and object recognition models (e.g., images, object models). So yes, soon two of these mechanical monstrosities will be able to communicate with each other, learn from prior experience, and effectively work together to kill you. Or complete all of your household chores, depending upon which futuristic scenario you’re thinking about here. Sci-fi fans will note that this all sounds pretty ominous and the company isn’t doing us any favors. If they want to assure us that Rapyuta won’t become a precursor to a real-life Skynet, they might at the very least stop with the cultural touchstones. Never mind that the robots in the flying island Laputa (a few letters away from Rapyuta) from the Japanese animated feature Castle in the Sky threaten to annihilate human civilization, but RoboEarth calls the robots that interface with Rapyuta as Hardware Abstraction Layers AKA HALs. Maybe a robopocalypse is in the offing after all.
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The Xi3 Piston opened for pre-orders on Monday, and seemed to be the first of many Steam Box type devices powered by Valve’s online gaming store and service. But Valve quickly came out and said that despite their investment in Xi3, the company has no “official involvement” in the development of the Piston itself. Now Xi3 is firing back, admitting that while it received investment and the Piston console was built as the result of a request to build a device specifically for Valve, Valve isn’t currently involved in the project. Xi3 says that Valve president Gabe Newell personally asked its founder and CEO Jason A. Sullivan not to disclose any info about the relationship between the two companies, and that’s just what it has done. The Piston was never an official “Steam Box,” Xi3 says, which is also what we pointed out in our article. Instead, we suggested it would be one of many devices from third-party OEMs that could fit the generic description of a PC console designed for Steam. The release from Xi3 also goes on to claim that the Piston can actually do one better than any official hardware, since it’s fully open to support a whole host of different gaming platforms, not just Valve’s. Xi3 also says that it’ll ship with Windows initially, since that’s where the “vast bulk of game software and computer gamers are today,” not Linux (thought it is Linux-compatible). Xi3 says this is where Valve and it have a philosophical difference, and where the Piston will be able to offer consumers more choice than any officially blessed Steam Box. Sullivan says in the release that pre-order demand has been very strong so far, and the company is actually concerned it won’t be able to meet holiday 2013 demand for the console. But the tone overall seems a little like that of a child whose affection was spurned: it gives the impression that Xi3 was slightly taken aback at the force with which Valve distanced itself from the Piston project. Whatever the situation between Xi3 and Valve, the upshot is that there will be ‘Steam boxes’ and there will be ‘Steam Boxes,’ (Official) and Valve might have trouble keeping the public educated as to which is which. And in the end you have to wonder if it matters, so long as both provide full access to Steam and its games in a console-style environment.
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Apple has indeed managed a significant turnaround in India’s smartphone market, according to new figures out from IDC today (via CNN). The Apple smartphone grabbed 15.6 percent of India’s smartphone market in Q4 2012, according to new data from the research firm, just behind market leading Samsung with its 38.8 percent, a significant change from the third quarter of last year, when IDC showed that Samsung had 46 percent share and Apple didn’t even crack the top five. The about-face from Apple comes after IDC said in early February that the Mac maker had turned on the juice with respect to sales in India, growing its share by as much as 400 percent. At the time, no specific details about Apple’s actual change in percentage were released, but today’s update indicates that that growth has been impressive in absolute terms, as well as relative. Apple’s move up has been prompted at least in part by a major change in the way it sells the iPhone in India, by employing the help of small local retailers to distribute the device, and creating amortized payment plans that defray the significant upfront cost of buying an iPhone in India. Changing the cost/value proposition was key, since Apple’s iPhone is often much more expensive in India than it is elsewhere in the world, and actually getting it to customers proved very difficult using Apple’s previous distribution channels. The iPad mini and iPad 4 launched in India only shortly after its North American release, however, indicating Apple is trying harder to get products to that market early. The Apple Store itself still doesn’t have a presence in India, either in physical retail or online. Apple did launch the iTunes Store in India in December, however, which is a big step in helping make sure the device has an ecosystem, but Apple still doesn’t offer the iPhone with carrier subsidies there the way it does elsewhere in the world. Despite the challenges that remain, these IDC figures suggest it’s doing something right, though it’s worth keeping in mind that smartphone adoption in India remains low, at around just 10 percent of the population.
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The Acer C7 Chromebook is now a bit more powerful. With the RAM doubled to 4GB, the latest flavor of Acer’s inexpensive but still tasty Chromebook should be able to handle a few more simultaneous tasks. Plus, the new model ships with a 6 cell battery able to last 6 hours rather than the 4 cell found in the original. Too bad Acer couldn’t manage these upgrades without inflating the price from a cute $199 to a slightly intimidating $279. Acer previously noted that the C7 was a huge hit with the education crowd, once accounting for 5-10% of all of its US shipments. The C7 is now more expensive than the Samsung Chromebook. For $249 the Samsung Chromebook is less expensive, thinner, and sports a longer battery life. However, the Acer still tops the Samsung in some areas. The Samsung Chromebook only contains a 16GB hard drive where the Acer rocks a 320GB HDD. Plus, with an Intel Celeron 847, now backed with 4GB of RAM, the system is a touch more powerful than the Sammy’s ARM SoC — an important fact for those looking to put Linux on the little notebook. The new C710-2055 is priced at $279 and initially headed only to Acer’s commercial market. At that price it’s sadly out of the impulse buy range, but still a good deal for a platform quickly gaining traction. The original C7 was a huge hit with the education crowd; a repeat performance is likely in the cards.
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Geeks rejoice! Hot off exciting news from SXSW, Google just confirmed via the Google Glass G+ page that Glass will, of course, work with prescription lenses — that is, in future models. The design is still in the works. Apparently the Explorer Edition is not compatible with custom lenses, but Google says to expect the new design this year. As noted in the posting, the Google Glass design is modular, allowing for a wide range of options, including prescription lenses. Shown here is Greg Priest-Dorman, a member of the Glass team and an early pioneer in wearable computing, wearing one of the prototypes currently in testing. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The team acknowledges that they understand it’s an important design consideration. Because, well, a lot of people have to wear glasses.
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Despite being such a (relatively) new category of device tablets are racing up on their smaller cellular cousins, with rapidly growing user adoption and smartphone-surpassing web page traffic generation. Little wonder then that tablet apps are also generating increasing amounts of revenue — predicted to pass smartphone app revenue within five years. Making a forecast in a new report, analyst ABI Research predicts tablets will account for more than a third (35%) of total app revenues this year, or some $8.8 billion out of a total pool of $25 billon. That’s still a way behind smartphones of course — projected to generate $16.4 billion this year, or just under double the amount generated by tablet apps — but the revenue share is growing and ABI reckons tablets will surpass smartphones in app revenue generation by 2018. The reasons for tablets to become ultimate app revenue winners are down to their larger screen, which offers plenty of scope for developers to build attractive wares, and also lower cost slates helping to ramp up tablet ownership and increase app downloads, reckons ABI. “The larger screen makes apps and content look and feel better, so there are more lucrative opportunities,” says senior analyst Aapo Markkanen in a statement. ”One might think that the bigger installed base of smartphones would compensate for the disparity, but that notion fails to take into account the arrival of low-cost tablets, which hasn’t even started yet at its earnest. The smartphones paved the way for them, but in the end we believe that it’s the tablets that will prove the more transformative device segment of the two.” The analyst adds that the tablet category is also well placed to open up the computing market by addressing underserved demographic groups such as the elderly and children. “The really big deal about tablets is how they will help to finally bring the computing age to, for instance, children and the elderly,” says Markkanen. ”The business opportunity associated with them is undeniable, but at the same they can also bring about very significant social benefits.” On the OS front, ABI predicts that the lion’s share of the app wealth this year will continue to be generated within Apple’s iOS ecosystem: it expects 65% of the combined $25 billion to come from iOS vs just over a quarter (27%) from Google’s Android ecosystem. While “the other mobile platforms” will generate the remaining 8% between them (ABI does not break this out). Despite dominating app revenue, ABI recently predicted that Apple’s iOS will only account for 33% of the smartphone app downloads this year, vs. 58% being Android apps. However Apple’s tablet lead with its iPad devices continues to be a big one, with ABI expecting 75% of the tablet apps downloaded this year to be iPad apps, vs. just 17% being Android apps. Amazon (with its Kindle Fire tablet) is projected to get around 4% app share, while Windows tablets are relegated to around 2%.
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Gesture control is heating up, with a host of new entries finally following Microsoft’s example with the Kinect, including Leap Motion and MYO. A German company called pmdtechnologies has also been in the space for a few years (they’ve been working on their tech for 10 years, in fact), and their latest reference design, the CamBoard pico, is a 3D depth sensor based on what pmd calls its “time-of-flight” tech to delivery extremely accurate depth measurement for gesture control of PCs. The CamBoard pico follows the CamBoard nano, the company’s previous reference design, and improves on pmd’s existing depth sensor by offering more accurate, touch-free gesture control. It works by offering a “3D interaction volume,” made up of a point cloud, which pmd says means it can be more accurate than Leap Motion, which just identifies points for fingertips to help it determine relative spacial distance. pmd offers its designs for sale to consumer electronics companies and other clients (it creates a lot of car safety and industrial robotics sensors, for instance) to help them build their own gesture sensing devices, which means the tech found in the CamBoard pico reference design could find its way to modules integrated into notebooks, into webcams, or into dedicated motion controllers from to OEM brands. The gesture control market is definitely picking up steam, and that means some companies like pmd which have been around for a long time but have largely served niche industries will get a chance to move more to the foreground. With something like a new mode of interaction, quality of experience is the key to stickiness, however, so both veteran and rookie players here will sink or swim based on how pleasant or frustrating using their devices proves to be.
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After yesterday’s photos posted to a Chinese forum of a device claimed to be the Samsung Galaxy S IV, a video of what looks like the same device has landed on YouTube —  again purporting to be the sequel to Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III. As with the leaked photos, the video was spotted by SammyHub. The video shows a large handset, initially with the back off and the battery removed, before the battery is inserted, the plastic back snapped on and the phone turned on. As it boots up, it displays Chinese carrier China Unicom’s Wo logo before loading what appears to be a version of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. The design of the device looks very similar to the Galaxy S III, with a high gloss plastic casing — tallying with other S IV reports – and metallic looking bands around the edges. The physical home button is present and correct, below a screen that looks longer than the S III’s pane — in keeping with rumours that Samsung is upping the touchscreen inch count to 5 inches (from the 4.8 inch pane on the S III). A five inch screen will push Samsung’s flagship handset into phablet territory, alongside Samsung’s Galaxy Note range. The demo of the device goes on to showcase the camera function, the dialler and the settings menu — including the about page (in Chinese) which shows it’s apparently running Android 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean). In the background of the video, another video can be heard (and briefly seen reflected in the device’s screen) running Apple’s iPad Mini promo — doubtless to suggest that the Galaxy S IV is hoping to tread on the mini iOS tablet’s toes. As with all such leaks, it’s not possible to confirm whether this is the real deal — although, being a video, it’s certainly more elaborate than many of the blurry leaked photos that crop up online ahead of flagship product releases. Either way, Galaxy fans don’t have long to wait as Samsung is due to unveil the real deal at an event in New York on Thursday. Update: For a bona fide glimpse of the real deal, Samsung’s US Twitter account tweeted the following graphic, ahead of Thursday’s event:
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Austin-based re:3D just started a Kickstarter campaign for the Gigabot, a large-format 3D printer designed to build things on a 24x24x24 inch built envelope, allowing you to make much larger objects than you can with similar printers like the Makerbot. You can get the bot kit for $2,500 or a pre-assembled unit for $4,000. The company was looking for a $40,000 pledge and has already surpassed $60,000 so there’s a good chance this thing will ship in time for your the time when you need to build a 13,824 cubic-inch Christmas present. The team launched the project at SXSW and the company is founded by Samantha Lynne Snabes and Matthew Fiedler and a number of others with experience in manufacturing and design. They write: At re:3D, we believe that the biggest problems in our world are solved by taking a bigger view. That’s why our project is aimed at designing the first large-format 3D printer… that you can take home with you. It’s not only about taking the amazing technology of 3D printing and amplifying it. If we’re successful, we can envision entire markets opening up to use this technology. Markets which have struggled to maintain the status quo, let alone use some of the cutting-edge technology that for the rest of the world is an overnight delivery away. We believe that by making a production-quality model of our 3D printer, and putting it in the hands of small businesses anywhere on the planet, will give them the flexibility to sustain their community, their business, and ultimately, the world we live in. It prints primarily in PLA right now because it does not have a heated build plate but there are plans to offer that option in the future. While PLA isn’t ideal for some industrial situations, the plant-based plastic is still very usable and workable. You can check out the project here or just imagine what it would be like to print out your own head, to scale, in corn-based resin. document.getElementById('wpcom-iframe-form-ddaef7583f26f6b9d01d0ebd28c35f75').submit();
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It was something of a black eye for BlackBerry when it came out that Sprint wouldn’t be carrying the all-touch Z10 BB10 smartphone. A huge relaunch, integral to the company’s future success, and one of the four major U.S. carriers was taking a pass on the first hardware. But the carrier is going to sell the keyboard-toting Q10, and will also sell what could be a Z10 successor, complete with touch-only interface, later in 2013. AllThingsD reported earlier today that Sprint would have an all-touch device, which it described as not just a slightly modified Z10. This new phone is being launched in the second half of the year, according to AllThingsD’s sources, likely well after the launch of the upcoming Q10 with its hardware keyboard. The Verge followed up this earlier report with a supporting claim that describes the Sprint handset as a “version 2.0″ of the Z1o, according to its sources. Sprint’s decision to pass on the Z10 while all its competitors look poised to offer both that handset and the Q10 makes a little more sense in light of this rumor. The device may be a carrier-exclusive variant, which is something BlackBerry has been known to do in the past in its former guise as RIM. But both sources of these new reports seem to indicate that what we’ll see won’t be simply a refreshed Z10 with some different specs, but a different all-touch device. No word on where it might fit in term of appealing to upscale or more budget-minded consumers. A Z10 follow-up might actually be worth waiting for those interested in BB10, since the Z10 itself was impressive, but nonetheless a little rough around the edges. Some more time to bake might be just what the doctor ordered for an all-touch BlackBerry 10 device, and Sprint might be banking on that to help it become the carrier of choice for RIM’s next-gen mobile OS. We’ve contacted BlackBerry to see if there’s any official comment about device release plans for Sprint, and will update if any is forthcoming.
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Spoiler: The video above shows SpaceX’s 100-foot-tall Grasshopper rocket blasting off, hovering in the air for about 30 seconds and then descending back to terra firma. And it’s set to Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. That’s it. There’s no drama, fireworks or anything shocking, but it’s still absurdly important and totally worth watching. This launch marks the reusable rocket’s most significant flight yet. It reached a record 262.8 feet before lowering itself back down on its own launch pad. Elon Musk called it the Johnny Cash hover slam. Designed to launch and land vertically on its metal legs, the Grasshopper is part of SpaceX’s long-term roadmap. The company has yet to reveal when it intends to use the model — or its successors — for space flight. The rocket has been in testing since September 2012, with each test launch reaching a bit closer to the stars above. “The US is a country of explorers,” stated Musk at his SXSWi keynote adding “People need to believe that [space travel] is not going to bankrupt them.” For several years Musk has championed the idea that humans must be a multi-planet species and a reusable rocket, like the Grasshopper here, is a big part of his grand vision.
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Valve’s Steam Box initiative will probably not end up being a single device, but a platform approach which includes a variety of hardware from different OEMs. The first such device is available now for pre-order from Xi3, for the hefty price of $999.99 (or $899.99 right now with a $100 pre-order discount). At that price, it’s not likely to sway anyone considering an Xbox, but it shows that Valve and its partners might be pulling a Google by showing the world the top end of the market before they launch more practically priced gadgets. The Xi3 Piston is a gaming-optimized personal computer, with a small, portable enclosure that contains a 128GB SSD and 8GB of RAM within, with upgrade options to either 256 or 512GB of flash storage (for a price). The Piston is set for a late 2013 delivery date, and boasts a 3.2GHz quad core processor. Little else is know about the gadget, but it will be designed specifically to play nice with Steam and that software’s Big Picture mode, thanks in part to an investment from Newell’s company. Other details of what’s inside the hand-holdable case (and how exactly it’ll integrate Steam) will come as the official launch date nears, so this isn’t only a pre-order for big spenders, but for gamblers, too. The Piston will most likely be among the top-tier of upcoming devices that can wear the “Steam Box” moniker according to the Verge, so don’t get too freaked out if you don’t have $1,000 to spend on a gaming rig. Newell’s approach to the Steam Box seems to involve creating a platform that’s all about extending the reach of Steam to as many as possible, not shutting it down behind a high cost of entry. It’s also worth noting that despite the Piston’s small size, it’s also going to be upgradeable, which is a big selling point when you’re talking about a home console, which often has a shelf life of 10 years or more. Just last week, Newell told the BBC that Valve is currently working on Steam Box prototypes to release to testers in the next three or four months, and this could be part of that project, though it’s also possible that Steam will contribute own-branded hardware to the ecosystem as well.
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Sensors are quickly becoming a category of external hardware gadgets unto themselves, and Slovenia-based CubeSensors is creating a set that essentially monitors your living space to provide you with aggregate data about noise, temperature, humidity, light, air quality and more to provide clues about how your environment might be affecting you and those around you. CubeSensors are small hardware cubes that pack a bevy of sensors within, at just 2-inches long, wide and tall. They’re powered by an internal rechargeable battery, so that they don’t need nasty plugs to work, and they stream their data over Wi-Fi to a cloud-based dashboard to track information and provide it to users in real-time. They can be set to provide alerts, and the data can either be made public or set to private access for keeping it within the household. The info collected by the CubeSensors, which ship in a starter pack with either two or three devices and a bridge to link them to your home network, can be viewed through a single app that resides on a user’s smartphone. The Cubes can be set to send alarms when certain conditions are met, like when noise or temperature reaches a certain level, and you can view historical data to track the effectiveness of any methods you take to change the influence of environmental factors. Each sensor includes an accelerometer, a thermometer, a barometer, an air quality meter, and a humidity sensor. They’re being sold with the pre-order model that has become popular for hardware creators, with the MYO armband and Lockitron being two recent similar examples. The difference here is that CubeSensors is asking for $10 up front as a down payment, whether your order the $249 starter pack with two cubes, or the $349 pack that comes with four. CubeSensors CEO Ales Spetic says that $10 is fully refundable, however, and the startup did win the Best Hardware award at this year’s Launch Festival. This kind of environment monitoring devices aren’t entirely new: Russian startup Lapka offers sensors that contain similar detection capabilities, which we saw at CES this year. But the unobtrusive wireless design, with a system that’s expandable to accommodate a variety of different types of environments is very interesting. There’s also the possibility that the data gathered by the CubeSensors could eventually be made to integrated with other devices and apps, adding to the dream of a sophisticated connected smartphone.
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Just days after Bloomberg ran a report claiming that AT&T would release BlackBerry’s long-awaited Z10 smartphone on March 22, AT&T has issued a statement confirming that launch will indeed go forward as reported. Prospective BlackBerry owners will have to shell out $199 for the Canadian company’s new flagship and (for better or worse) sign a two year contract. In the event that you absolutely need to have one (a sentiment that our own Darrell Etherington didn’t share in his full review), AT&T will kick off the pre-order process starting tomorrow, March 12. This makes AT&T the second of the three major U.S. wireless carriers to announce availability for the Z10 — T-Mobile announced late last week that its business customers would be able to get their hands on the device starting today, though it remained decidedly mum when it came to general consumer availability. Verizon on the other hand is widely expected to push BlackBerry’s Z10 out the door sometime in April, and Sprint has decided to focus solely on the QWERTY keyboard-packing Q10 (see our hands-on impressions here). With any luck, BlackBerry will see a surge of U.S. customers joining the fold shortly, but the experience they’ll be treated to upon arrival may not be as complete as they would hope. There’s no question BlackBerry 10 plays home to some neat concepts and impressive UI flourishes — I’ve grown quite fond of fiddling with the demo Z10 the company graciously handed out en masse at its launch event — the distinct lack of certain popular applications that has forced some developers to take matters into their own hands. The tepid app environment (sideloading notwithstanding) could leave some curious consumers cold on the platform as a whole, and that’s exactly what RIM can’t afford right now. Then again, this just leaves room for upstart developers and entrepreneurs to make their mark by targeting a segment of the smartphone market that’s currently underserved, so BlackBerry 10 may hit its stride soon anyway.
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Apple has been working on the iPhone since long before it hit the market in 2007, and today a new developer prototype has come to light that shows how it might have looked if they’d rushed it to market earlier. The 2005 internal prototype is pictured in photos obtained by Ars Technica, from an unnamed former Apple employee. The prototype iPhone doesn’t look like an iPhone as we know it at all, aside from the fact that it boasts a rectangular screen. The device is 5″ x 7″, closer to the current iPad mini than anything else, which is 5.3″ by 7.87″. It’s also two inches thick, which is around the depth of six iPad minis stacked, but that was necessary for including all the ports the iPhone prototype had on board. Yes, ports. The early iPhone design had a USB port, Ethernet and serial. They weren’t included so that you could hook up to your dot matrix printer – Ars’ source says the development team was simply making the gadget as easy to work internally with as possible in its early, pre-release form. The unit itself was designed completely around helping the internal team refine the product; a large display also makes it easier to work with. But back then everything was up in the air, meaning it was still arguably a real possibility that the iPhone could have shipped with wired Internet on board. Ars notes that the chip used in the prototype is the older, slower antecedent of the Samsung-made ARM design used in the actual first iPhone, so the partnership was in place long before Apple went into full-scale production. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said in 2010 that Apple actually worked on the iPad before it ever began work on the iPhone, so it makes sense that an early prototype for an Apple phone would largely resemble the Apple slate that would later follow. And in basic engineering terms, it’s easier to work big before working small. And even though they never would’ve shipped it, it’s funny to imagine that Apple was making phablets long before Android OEMs were stretching the limits of what sized device can comfortably be termed a “phone.”
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The Samsung Galaxy S IV is being announced later this week at a special event, but we’ve already seen plenty of leaks regarding the flagship phone’s hardware, but now there’s a new one (via SammyHub) that claims to depict the phone in the flesh, giving us an idea of what it could look like. If these leaks are accurate, the GSIV changes little from the previous generation and Galaxy Note II designs. Posted to a Chinese forum, it’s still very possible that these are images of another yet-to-be released Samsung device, or simply elaborate fakes, but if that’s what they are, then they’re very well done. The images show a Samsung-branded phone with a 5-inch display, a metal look band surrounding the phone, and what looks like slightly textured front and back surfaces. The rear is a glossy white, the slab has rounded rectangle edges, and the screen looks to extend closer to the bezel than in any previous Samsung handset, meaning it could manage not to have grown that much in terms of physical size despite the larger display. The leak fits with reports that the Galaxy S IV will retain its plastic outer case, and agrees with other recent rumors about software and internal specs, since it’s shown to be running Android 4.2.1, has a 1080p displays, runs 2GB of RAM and offers a 13-megapixel camera. The CPU numbering also suggests that it has a Samsung Exynos Octa chip on board as previously reported. Samsung has been known to epically troll its fans, as it did last year with a disguised version of the Galaxy S III which was covered in an outer case that hid its true design. We could be seeing that sort of thing again, but this leak looks much more convincingly like a shipping device, not encased in any disguise. Regardless of whether it’s the real thing or not, we’ll find out for sure what Samsung’s latest flagship looks like on Thursday.
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Philips Hue is a lighting system that changes the definition of what your standard home lighting setup is, and now there’s an official developer program for the innovative Wi-Fi-connected bridge and bulbs, so that third-party apps and hardware can pick up what Philips has started. To be clear, people have developed apps for the Philips Hue system already; we covered one two Hue hacks just last week, including an iOS app that turn your Hue home lighting into a dance party, and a software add-on for Minecraft that changes your ambient lighting to match the day/night cycle in the world building game. But those, and other Philips apps to date, have been built mostly by developers who are reverse engineering their own solution. Philips recognized that devs wanted to do different things with the Hue, and decided to help them out, by opening up an official developer program, complete with an SDK for iOS developers, and APIs that allow both software and hardware makers to take advantage of the Hue’s connected features. The official tool means that developers can depend on it as a stable channel through which to build Hue integration into their products. Hue uses the ZigBee standard for home automation, which means that they can talk to each other, as well as motion detectors, connected thermostats, connected appliances and more. The new developer program will mean that hardware makers using these standards can build in Hue-compatible features, so that the lights can be triggered by various actions. You could have a specific light recipe come on whenever you open the door, for instance, or when a thermostat is set to specific climate setting. Other potential uses of the developer tools include apps for amateur and professional photographers, which could help them optimize lighting for a shoot with a simple app attached to a device with light level detection capabilities. Philips also plans to release future features around geo-fencing, scheduling and other smartphone sensor capabilities that could expand what developers can do with them. “We’re now at a point where there are already about 10 applications that have been shared and built from the unofficial developer community for new applications around Hue,” explained George Yianni, HUe System Architect in an interview. “Now what we want to do as Philips is we actually want to help and grow and encourage this community, and give them tools and proper documentation. Also, we want to give them commitment that this is the API and we’re going to support it and it won’t change overnight.” Yianni says that’s been the big roadblock stopping bigger developers and companies from creating apps and accessories for Hue so far. Specifically, it’s been holding up hardware development, he says, and that means you can probably expect to see some big names start to integrate Hue into their own lines of connected home devices. The developer tools will be available free to anyone who wants to create applications and devices that connect to the Hue system. Philips will also continue to work on expanding the Hue line, Yianni said, with new lightbulb types to follow soon. With new third-party investment in the Hue ecosystem, as well as more from Philips itself, it’s about to become a lot more than just a different kind of lightbulb.
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LovePalz, the virtual sex gadget designed for long-distance couples, has finally set a launch date for both its products and Web-based control center. On March 29, you can get your hands (and other parts) on Hera and Zeus, the two devices designed by Taipei-based company Winzz. The titillating wireless gadget has been generating buzz since announcing pre-orders in September. Winzz says that they received over 5,000 pre-orders within two months, back when the LovePalz set of two devices was available for $94.95. Now that the pre-order special has ended, each piece, called the Hera and the Zeus, are available separately for $189. Despite the higher price, Winzz reports that they have sold 1,800 items since February 28. Lovers can control their LovePalz devices during a cybersex session by using the LovePalz Web site, which also has a mobile version. A spokeswoman told me that the company is still working on launching a LovePalz iOS app, but progress has been delayed because of the App Store’s restrictions on selling adult-themed content. The Hera resembles a dildo, while the Zeus is like a sleeker, high-tech version of the infamous Fleshlight. (The names are interesting because although ancient Greek deities/husband-and-wife Zeus and Hera were often separated by long distances, that’s because Zeus has off having sex with everyone in the universe besides Hera). Both toys have multiple pressure and speed sensors that work without buttons and allow partners to feel what each other is doing to them in real time. The devices are waterproof, rechargeable, and are engineered with an air pump and automatic piston. Why, you ask? Well, the air pump means the Hera toy can “get bigger when you are bigger,” as the LovePalz Web site puts it, and the air pump allows the Zeus to “tighten up.” The company ensures users that it has tested the air pump many times to make sure “the speed is ideal and stops when it’s getting too tight,” so there will be no news headlines screaming “LovePalz, the genius of penis explosion.” The LovePalz’s painstaking engineering sets it apart, but there have certainly been other virtual sex toys. The Virtual Hole and Stick set (yes, that was its real name) was designed back in 2007 as one of the earliest “teledildonics” products. Web site HighJoy bills itself as “the premier online destination where you can find the necessary tools that allow you to control another’s personal massager over the Internet.” Other virtual sex toys have been a bit more one-sided, like the RealTouch, which allows users to interact with porn.  
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Electrostatic interfaces – systems that make your fingers “feel” textures on a smooth metal plate – have been around for a long time. They haven’t quite caught on because the sensation is a little creepy and it’s not quite foolproof. However, a researcher at Disney Research in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Olivier Bau, has created a unique system that creates these sensations on any surface using a special wearable system that actually controls the electricity sent to nerves in your skin. His Revel project is an example of this technology in action. An object is treated with a special paint and then a “generator” attached to the body. As you move your finger along a surface, the system changes the way the surface feels to the touch and can recreate ridges, etched lines, and other sensations. It’s the first step in true universal interaction with objects. Bau also discussed other projects in the works including one in Tokyo that allows you to create invisible physical objects by controlling the muscles in your hand. That’s right: you could pick up an invisible chess piece and your fingers would freeze at just the right spot so it would feel like you’re holding something sold. Bau now lives in Los Angeles but is continuing work on the “invisible” for Disney’s research arm. I asked him if he had to wear mouse ears at work and he very demurely refused to answer.
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document.getElementById('wpcom-iframe-form-1709c95a27ee6a1b32811ff6e89b0893').submit(); After I shelled out something like $200 for a Kinect bundle that I ended up shoving in a closet, the team at 4tiitoo may have finally given me a reason to dig the thing out. The Munich-based company recently kicked off a Kickstarter campaign to let Kinect owners control their PCs with little more than some subtle glances, thanks to a $50 add-on they’re calling the eyeCharm. But first, a bit of back story — 4tiitoo is the company behind NUIA, a software suite that makes it possible for PCs to interpret eye movements and staring as valid inputs. 4tiitoo has shown off a slew of applications that have been modified to accept this new kind of input, from eye-tracking versions of games like Angry Birds and perennial geek favorite Minecraft to utilities like VLC Media Player. So far, though, those eye-friendly apps have mostly been demoed with pricey hardware courtesy of the Swedish camera buffs at Tobii. They’re not exactly meant for consumer use, so crafting a reasonably inexpensive add-on for a popular console accessory is a rather savvy move. Speaking of the add-on, the eyeCharm itself is actually rather modest — it’s essentially a large plastic clip that sticks onto the Kinect to provide “the necessary optics and special infrared illumination” to properly track people’s eyes. Once the included setup software has been run, users can attempt to navigate Windows 7 or 8 (Windows 8 and some of its touch-tailored UI elements seems to be easier to deal with), or fire up some of the included NUIA-enabled apps that backers get as part of the deal. More importantly, all but the cheapest backers get access to the NUIA SDK, so they can (hopefully) get cracking on the next generation of eye-tracking PC apps. 4tiitoo is looking to collect a total of $100,000 in funding and is currently hovering just under $10,000 in contributions after two days. I’ll be the first to admit that Microsoft’s original vision of full-body gaming is one that hasn’t yet been fully realized, but the Kinect has emerged as an intriguing tool for developers and entrepreneurs alike — startups like Personify and Disrupt Battlefield alum Kinobi were quick to embrace the technology, and Microsoft has sought to nurture those Kinect-centric ventures. If some particularly sticky rumors hold true, the next Xbox will be so reliant on the Kinect concept that an upgraded Kinect will come with each console, so 4tiitoo’s vision for reshaping how the masses interact with computers could become a reality sooner rather than later.
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Meet Google’s “talking shoe” that aims to translates movement data in witty messages to users and their friends. The concept apparel, showcased at the search giant’s swanky SXSW Interactive headquarters, is part of a new arts project, “Art, Copy, Code,” aimed breathing a social, life-like experience into everyday objects. “If standing still was a sport, you’d be world champion,” the trash-talking shoe projects on a monitor hanging over a rainbow-colored obstacle course, after it senses I’ve been standing still. At a distance, users seem a tad pathetic trying to trigger positive feedback from the shoe. But, when I strapped it on, I felt oddly compelled to impressive my new automated coach. Combining coaching (even robotic coaching) made lifeless data unexpectedly motivational. Essentially, it’s Richards Simmons in shoe. In case critics think this is another one of Google’s flights of profitless creative fancy, Arts Copy Code is deliberately about improving advertising. “It’s explicitly aimed at how translating how Silicon VAlley thinks about technology into how creative agencies thinks about advertising,” says project lead, Aman Govil. Brands such as Nike, who outfit professional athletes with health-tracking shoes and bracelets, could broadcast their spring training performance in realtime. Rival athlete’s apparel would literally trash-talk one another automatically. It’s still (very) early days for the arts project. The talking shoe (and shoe strap) concept was developed through a grant to electronics agency, Yes Yes No. Google plans to open up the project to more everyday objects in the near future. One hypothetical use-case, imagines Govil, is an alarm block that sends snarky messages to co-workers if users have to hit the snooze on their alarm clock more than 3 times. There’s been heightened attention to research that quantifies how much our friends affect our weight, success, and personal life. University of San Diego Political Scientist and Connected author, James Fowler, found that having an obese friend can significantly increase people’s chances also having their own set of marshmallowy love-handles. It’s no secret a spirited friend can get us up at 5am for a morning run as much as they can tempt us into finishing their plate of fries. Health startups have attempted to “gamify” good behavior by encouraging users to share personal goals with friends. Nike+ Fuelband, for instance, shares users exercise habits with their friends on the personal social network, Path. This project attempts to remove the barrier presented by current products. The social aspect has always required one extra step of human effort. However fast a 1-word message of encouragement could take to type about a friend’s morning run, the minor inconvenience is enough to seriously limit engagement. This new automated personality seems to have a place, especially when we’re all too busy to be personal. Currently the project is just a concept. There’s no need to jump over to the Google Play store and find the buy link. But Google Glass was just a concept at one point, too.
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Bre Pettis, founder of 3D-printer manufacturer MakerBot, announced their first desktop 3D scanner, the Digitizer, at a SXSWi keynote today. Pettis was coy about availability or final design but instead was focused on making a splash at the event. “We’re excited to put ourselves out there with the announcement. I have a tradition of announcing things at SXSW. I don’t think there are many actual physical products announced at SXSW, so it’s special,” he said. Officially called the MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner, the device will work in concert with the MakerBot printer to complete the constellation of services MakerBot offers. For example, you will be able to scan an object and print it immediately on a MakerBot printer. According to today’s release, the design shown at SXSW is a prototype and there is no launch date slated although Pettis said it would be available “this Fall.” Pettis, for one, is excited. “It’s a natural progression for us to create a product that makes 3D printing even easier. With the MakerBot Digitizer, now everyone will be able to scan a physical item, digitize it, and print it in 3D – with little or no design experience.” “It’s going to be another pathway for people to make 3D models,” he said. UPDATE – I’ll be posting live photos from the event. The scanner uses two lasers to map small, breadbox-sized objects and a webcam to create a digital model of any object.
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