Mobiles @ NCSU

Android 'started over' the day the iPhone was announced

A wise wait to emphasize touch.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Apple's boast that the iPhone changed everything about the mobile industry has received some support from one of Android's original software architects. Chris DeSalvo, who worked alongside Andy Rubin at Danger before joining Google to build its mobile OS, says that the iPhone's announcement forced everyone on his team to realize that they "are going to have to start over."

Already in intensive development for two years by 2007, Android was Google's vision for a mobile operating system of the future. Still, in spite of all the work that had already gone into it, the Mountain View company was sure it couldn't carry on along the trajectory it'd been following — the earliest Android devices looked very much like Googlified BlackBerrys...

The first iOS 7 game controllers: Logitech PowerShell and Moga Ace Power review

Not ready for prime time. Maybe apple needs to act.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Sooner or later, the theory goes, Apple will make its move. The company will flip the proverbial switch that turns the Apple TV into a tiny video game console and mop the floor with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

But it looks like Apple still has a ways to go. The first two iOS 7 game controllers are here, and they’re not worth your money. In fact, they cast doubt on the idea that Apple really wants to build a console at all.

In June, when Apple announced its standardized game controller API for iOS 7 and a "Made for iPhone" certification program, it offered two templates for what a game controller would look like. Today, we have both. The $99.99 Logitech PowerShell follows Apple’s more simplistic design: it’s basically a...

Find: The first smartring has an LED screen, tells time, and accepts calls

// published on Ars Technica // visit site

Forget smartwatches—smartrings are the new thing now. An Indiegogo campaign for a product called the "Smarty Ring" has hit its funding goal. Smarty Ring is a 13mm-wide stainless steel ring with an LED screen, Bluetooth 4.0, and an accompanying smartphone app. The ring pairs with a smartphone and acts as a remote control and notification receiver.

The ring can display the time, accept or reject calls, control music, trigger the smartphone's camera, and initiate speed-dial calls. It will also alert the wearer with light-up icons for texts, e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangouts, and Skype. It supports dual time zones and comes with a countdown timer, a stopwatch, and an alarm. It can work as a tracker for your phone, too—if your smartphone is more than 30 feet away from the ring, Smarty Ring will trigger an alarm.

The ring supports Android and iOS—as long as your device has Bluetooth 4.0, it should be compatible. The creators are promising 24 hours of battery life from the whopping 22 mAh battery, and charging happens via a wireless induction pad.

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Razer Kazuyo looks set to add to iPhone controller options

// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Razer, one of the best-respected gaming peripheral makers, is apparently ready to add to the growing roster of iPhone game controllers. Apple opened the door for third-party accessory makers by adding a controller API in iOS 7, and we've already seen the first couple of efforts emerging from Logitech and PowerA. Like those peripherals, leaked images of a mooted Razer Kazuyo show it to be a wraparound case that envelops the iPhone and provides it with a multidirectional arrow pad and four action buttons. It's very similar in shape and appearance to Logitech's PowerShell, though it adds the extra ability to tilt the iPhone up, potentially offering a more ergonomic gaming experience.

Update: Further disclosures from Evleaks' tipster...

Apple goes all Minority Report. It's opt in, but a bad idea.

// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Apple is switching on "iBeacons" across its 254 US stores today, according to a report from the Associated Press. iBeacons, which use low-power Bluetooth transmitters to offer location-aware services to your phone, were quietly introduced along with iOS 7, and although other retailers have toyed with the idea of adding beacons to its stores, Apple's rollout today represents the first major deployment of the technology.

The Apple Store iBeacons will work in tandem with the Apple Store app. Provided you've got the app on your phone and have given Apple permission to track you, it'll attempt to offer an augmented retail experience tailored to your needs. When you walk into the store and the app will enter "in-store mode." If you're...

Find: Motorola's Ara project will be good for company, user experience, us industry and planet: smart move

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At the end of October, Motorola made a surprising announcement: it was working on an open-source initiative called Project Ara that would allow for the creation of modular, customizable smartphone hardware. It's an ambitious and seemingly unlikely project, but Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside says it's all part of a plan to make consumers more involved with building their smartphones. "Moto Maker was the beginning of a much more exciting and longer-term story," Woodside says in an interview with YouTube personality Marques Brownlee. "Ara is much further out, but you can see how those two things tie together, and how as we introduce new materials into Moto Maker we're gonna pursue that theme across our product line going forward."

"The line...

Find: he State of Smartphones in 2013, Part II: Would you like to play a game?

// published on Ars Technica // visit site

Jason Inofuentes

The old rule for cameras applies to games: the best console is the one you have with you. We play games while we're on the bus. We play them while sitting in waiting rooms and standing in line. We play while our kids cover the walls in snot and crayon. We play whenever and wherever we can, and we've come a long way from playing Snake on our Nokia candy bars.

Google, Apple, and Microsoft have built services to extend the capabilities of their platforms for gaming, so silicon vendors in turn have pushed graphics hardware to startling heights. In 2012, the number of us playing games on our phones exceed 100 million, and we're likely to clear 120 million this year. This industry is generating real dollars, with revenues expected to be well over a billion this year. But growth aside, just what are the major themes of mobile gaming over the last year?

Apple ascendant

Ecosystem remains king, even in gaming. When it comes to game distribution and development, the services offered by the major vendors are hugely important. As mobile gaming matures, players want access to achievements, matching, and cloud saves. Putting that information on centralized servers allows gamers to know that when they buy a new phone or pick up their tablet, their Angry Birds scores will still be there.

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Build your own cellphone for $200

It'd be fun to build a class around this. We could also take apart old phones and repurpose them.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

David Mellis, one of the minds behind the Arduino platform, has released the blueprints to a cellphone that, with time and patience, anyone can build. Mellis used the readily available Arduino GSM Shield, which lets Arduino-based machines access the web over cellular networks, as the basis for his project, but greatly expanded upon the component's hardware and software, adding support for a display, buttons, speaker, microphone, and a full interface. The result is a basic cellphone that can make and receive calls, text messages, store names and numbers, and display the time.

Currently at MIT's Media Lab, Mellis has put all of the plans necessary to build and customize the phone up on Github, and also uploaded the circuit board plans to...

Find: Apple patents Lytro-style refocusable camera

Refocusable camera in a phone? A good idea. If it's not too low resolution.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Apple appears to have some interest in Lytro-style refocusable cameras. In a patent filed in 2011 and granted today, Apple describes a camera that would be able to switch between capturing two types of images: low-resolution images that could be refocused after capture, and high-resolution photographs that can't be changed. To do both, the camera would include an adaptor with a "microlens array" that would slide between the camera's lens and sensor when capturing a refocusable image, and slide away when capturing a traditional photo. The image above depicts the cross section of such a camera while the adaptor's microlens array — labeled "430" — is positioned to shoot a refocusable image.

While a number of companies have attempted...

Find: Putting Pencil to Paper: FiftyThree debuts the best iPad stylus yet

We're people and our tools should be too. Case in point;

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

In the two years since Paper for iPad launched, creator FiftyThree has witnessed dozens if not hundreds of styluses compete for the crown of “best stylus.” Today, the company has finally thrown its hat in the ring with Pencil, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) stylus for tablets. FiftyThree’s first hardware device ships today in two models: walnut hardwood, for $59.95, and aluminum “graphite,” for $49.95. The walnut model has built-in magnets, like the Applydea Maglus, so you can stick it to an Apple Smart Cover, or to your fridge. Each Pencil also has an “eraser” on its top, so when you flip it over, Paper automatically activates its eraser tool. The device comes with an extra tip and eraser, and also ships with Paper’s full...