Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch prototype leaked ahead of September 4th launch
Alt-week 08.31.13: We're all Martians, Mega Drive music and reinventing the ruler
HTC's exiting designers interrogated for expense fraud and stealing trade secrets (updated)
Google quietly acquired smartwatch maker WIMM Labs
Engadget Podcast 358 - 08.30.13
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
The announcement of Steve Ballmer's impending retirement from Microsoft cast a spotlight on the company's transition to becoming a devices and services company. While it's unclear how progress toward this goal will be measured, the success model for the "devices" part of its quest is Apple. (Indeed, Apple, leading with iCloud, is seeking to diversify into more of a "devices and services" company itself.)
Apple's current revenue champions -- the iPhone and iPad -- are in categories that Microsoft recognized the potential of long before Apple's market entry. When the US smartphone market consisted of Microsoft, Palm and RIM, Windows Mobile had been powering smartphones -- and doing respectably in terms of US market share -- for years before Apple changed the game. Now, Windows Phone scrapes by with a few percentage points of the market. And the Tablet PCs that ran Windows a decade ago were introduced as the future of the notebook. While today's Windows tablets and convertibles are much thinner and lighter than they were back then, it's amazing to see how recalcitrant PC vendors have been in their design, with few pursuing pure slates and some using twist-hinges similar to those used in Tablet PCs.
Looking into Microsoft's ID@Xbox program for independent developers? You'll be happy to hear that the company won't be placing any restrictions on your desired distribution model. Speaking to Joystiq at PAX Prime, Microsoft portfolio director for digital games Chris Charla explained that independent developers are free to utilize "every business model that any other game on Xbox One has." This means that independent self-published games won't be restricted to a different price structure than games from mainstream studios, opening up the possibilities for indie games with premium pricing, micro-transactions or free-to-play models. Charla explained it as a fundamental tenet of the program, clarifying that ID@Xbox titles have access to all the same features as any other game. "They have full Gamerscore, full Achievements, can take advantage of SmartGlass, Kinect – if you can do it with an Xbox One game, you can do it with anything that comes through the ID@Xbox program." It's a smart policy, one that takes full advantage of the growing popularity of the indie gaming scene. Check out Joystiq for more PAX Prime coverage.
Been wondering what Samsung's upcoming smartwatch was going to look like? Take a seat, VentureBeat got a first look at the upcoming wearable over the weekend. According to the outlet, the prototype device features a three inch display, built in speakers and a 4-megapixel camera built directly into the watch's wrist strap. VentureBeat describes the Samsung Galaxy Gear a lightweight, but somewhat dwarfing, featuring a "clunky" and large wristband and quite a bit of bulk. Although VentureBeat wasn't allowed to take pictures of the alleged prototype, it did manage to snag a few screengrabs from an internal promotional video -- showing off the device's camera, screen and touch menu system. The watch also is said to support Samsung S Voice commands as well as an assortment of pre-loaded health apps that include heart and calorie monitors, as well a pedometer. Users can also take pictures of food and categorize it for later review.
Although the prototype seems to suggest that Samsung is marketing the device as a health accessory, its features also fill the bill for a standard smartphone companion. VentureBeat noted social media features, a functional call log and independent internet access via WiFi, allowing users to use the watch without a smartphone if needed. The watch is also reportedly rated to last for more than ten hours on a single charge -- a little shy in longevity if it's your primary timepiece, but perhaps enough for a fitness focused accessory. We'll find out more when Samsung officially reveals the wearable on Wednesday, but if you're itching for more info, check out the attached source for more images and VentureBeat's own artistic rendition of the prototype.
Vodafone and Verizon might finally be "resolving" their business relationship, according to Reuters: the pair are said to be striking a deal this weekend. The typical folks "familiar with the matter," say that the firms' respective boards are voting on a $130 billion buyout that would put Vodafone's 45 percent stake in the network back in Verizon's hands. The price has gone up since we last heard about this deal, though the plan is essentially the same -- Verizon will finance half of the purchase through bonds and bank loans while covering the rest with cash on hand. Neither Verizon or Vodafone were willing to comment on the report, Reuters stated, but it's no secret that the two companies have mused over breaking their partnership in the past. We'll let you know if we hear anything official; until then, check out the source link to get the story from the horse's mouth.
Update: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the deal has been finalized behind closed doors, reiterating that an official announcement could come as early as Monday.
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
As if the Hyperloop and Tesla weren't enough to keep him busy, real-life Tony Stark Elon Musk revealed this week that he felt the futuristic hologram UI from Iron Man could be built and that he might just be the one to do it. Over in Denmark, Inhabitat was on the scene covering the 2013 INDEX: Awards honoring groundbreaking inventions that make life better. Get the scoop on all of the winners -- from a life-saving smart highway that wirelessly charges cars to a birth simulator that could save millions of babies a year to Copenhagen's comprehensive Climate Adaption Plan to reduce flooding.
But Copenhagen wasn't the only city that had rising tides on the mind as the world reflected on the eight-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. While catastrophic flooding may have seemed like an isolated incident at that time, the threat of future storms is now matter-of-fact and ideas on how to protect against them, like this dam that uses the power of floodwater itself to inflate, have been popping up left and right.
Levant Power's energy-producing GenShock suspension has been stuck in limbo for a while, but the company has just announced a deal that could finally put the technology in passenger cars. Automotive component firm ZF has agreed to help develop a GenShock-based active suspension that will both convert road bumps to electricity and smooth out its host vehicle's ride. The system will theoretically offer the comfort of a luxury sedan, the power efficiency of a hybrid and the nimble handling of a sports car. It might even simplify repairs -- since GenShock recovers energy through pumps, it can raise each wheel without needing a jack. ZF doesn't yet know when we'll be driving cars with the new suspension, but the technology is reportedly inexpensive enough that buyers won't require a supercar-level budget.
If you can't get enough digital video storefronts, there's one more on the way -- Target's Ticket service. The video on-demand service has been in closed beta for awhile now, and, according to TechCrunch, employees have been told that it will be launching to the public soon. Prices vary by program, but TV episodes cost around $2.99, or as much as $34.99 per season. Movies sell for about $15, give or take a few bucks, and rentals are $3.99 and $4.99, which closely matches the prices of Google Play, Amazon and iTunes. The use model is familiar too, granting users 30 days to activate a rental and 48 hours to watch after pressing play the first time.
The service is only available for the company's employees and REDcard holders at the moment, but Target hopes to open access to more customers soon. Apps for Android, iOS, smart TVs and game consoles are in testing too, so you should be able to watch virtually anywhere. The retail giant is offering a few flicks for purchase ahead of home video too, so if you're impatient, yet somehow missed Star Trek: Into Darkness in the theater, now is the time to buddy up to a redshirt.
To make sure Google's Project Loon is more internet via balloon than pie in the sky, the search giant turned to data simulations. Loon Rapid Evaluator Dan Piponi's goal was to determine the possibility of a "nicely spaced flock of balloons" to provide reliable airborne internet. Proper spacing is key for this because if the gaps are too wide, coverage will be spotty -- the opposite of what the initiative is hoping to achieve. He iterated "hundreds" of times using publicly available wind info to visualize how different stratospheric factors would affect balloon travel and found that yes, they could indeed be evenly distributed. Piponi posited that in the future, the balloons could have information about what other balloons are doing around them and adjust spacing on their own, accordingly. If you ask us, that sounds like the internet of things is taking to the clouds.
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Zoe, who needs to help out her mum (she's in the UK) with a tricky WiFi problem. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.
"My mum's retirement community offers a municipal WiFi service for £130 per year, but only provides a login that can be used on a single device at a time. More annoyingly, that device has to use a web browser, which means that you can't access it using an Apple TV at all. To get around that, I've leant her my Mac Mini, and then I share the WiFi connection over Ethernet to an Airport Extreme. Unfortunately, this only works for short bursts at a time before the DHCP or connection sharing goes screwy and needs to be reset. My question, therefore, is what can I buy that will connect to this crappy WiFi and share that connection to the other wireless devices around the home? Would it be possible to use Raspberry Pi or some other small device to do the job? All it has to do is be stable and have an uptime longer than 2 hours. Thanks!"
This is the sort of question that most geeks love getting their hands on, because it's a good old-fashioned problem. You'll just have to ignore all of the people who tell your mom to move house instead of coming up with a useful solution. Either way, we did think that perhaps there was a way to share this connection using a hotspot device, but they primarily use Ethernet. As such, we're going to turn this question open to our community for some sage advice. Surely there must be a simple way to do this without depriving Zoe of her Mac Mini?