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- Samsung Galaxy S III gets Quick Tap mobile payments system from Orange and Barclaycard, works with most UK bank accounts
- There are just four days left to enter our back to school sweepstakes with nearly $50,000 in prizes!
- Nokia Lumia wireless charging pad breaks cover
- LG teases Splendor for US Cellular, brings Optimus L7 to American shores
- Is the Nokia Lumia 920 coming with 8-megapixel FauxView?
- S Cloud spotted on Galaxy Note II, reveals Dropbox integration (video)
- Samsung finishes initial Chinese factory audits, plans long-term solutions to labor woes
- Hate Windows 8 already? The Pro OEM edition will let you downgrade as far back as Vista
- Nokia City Lens exits beta, gives a window on the world to Lumia owners
- AMD's top-end Trinity desktop chip could cost just $130, the same as a budget Core i3
- T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 lands Ice Cream Sandwich update
- O2 UK denies Xperia Ray, Arc and Neo owners Ice Cream Sandwich
- Engadget UK Giveaway: win a Samsung Galaxy S III courtesy of Expansys!
- MLB At Bat 2012 app update brings new stats overlay, Ford SYNC integration and more
- Netflix coming to future Freesat satellite TV boxes
- Max Planck Institute sequences genome of Siberian girl from 80,000 years ago, smashes DNA barriers
- Stanford researchers make heart implant powered by radio waves, put batteries out of a job
- How would you change the Lytro?
- Refresh Roundup: week of August 27th, 2012
- Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE surfaces for Sprint
- Switched On: The Old Adventures of New 3D
- LG Chem develops very flexible cable batteries, may leave mobile devices tied up in knots
- Nokia's Purity HD stereo headset by Monster goes Pro, gains Bluetooth, NFC and noise cancellation (update)
| Posted: 03 Sep 2012 10:14 AM PDT We've barely heard from Orange's Quick Tap payments system in over a year, but now the UK phone network has decided to dump the underwhelming Tocco Lite and add its mobile payments service to the NFC-capable Galaxy S III. Tying into any British MasterCard, Visa, Debit or credit card, you'll be able to pay up to £20 from your account without the need for PIN entry. New users on Orange SIM-toting Galaxy S IIIs will also pick up a 50 quid bonus when they activate the feature, which kicks off this Wednesday. Check the press release below for all the details. Orange and Barclaycard announce first Quick Tap Android Smartphone with the Samsung Galaxy SIII · Orange Samsung Galaxy SIII to be the first Android device to feature Quick Tap contactless payment technology · New and upgrading customers taking the Orange Samsung Galaxy SIII from 5th September will be able to load money securely onto their handset using any UK MasterCard, Visa, Debit or Credit Card · New and upgrading Orange Samsung Galaxy SIII customers who activate the service between 5th September and 5th October receive £50 to spend free
Orange and Barclaycard today announced plans to launch the first Android smartphone compatible with the Quick Tap contactless payments service. From the 5th of September, new or upgrading Orange Samsung Galaxy SIII customers with a UK MasterCard or Visa card can now use Quick Tap, enabling them to make mobile contactless payments nationwide. Simeon Bird, Director of Propositions, Orange UK, said: "We are really excited to be launching Quick Tap payments on one of the most popular smartphones of the year. Contactless mobile payments are a secure and convenient alternative to cash and cards and we are pleased to be the first network brand in the UK to offer its customers such an innovative service." Tom Gregory, Head of Digital Payments, Barclaycard, added: "Barclaycard is committed to making paying for things faster, safer and easier. With the launch of Quick Tap payments on the Samsung Galaxy SIII, Barclaycard is bringing a safe and secure new way to pay to customers of all UK banks. Mobile payments are safe and have a full fraud guarantee and we've seen ever growing numbers of people using contactless to make quick and secure payments of up to £20."
The Samsung Galaxy SIII with Quick Tap will be available from Orange shops, www.orange.co.uk and via Orange telesales from 5th September 2012 on Pay Monthly plans. For £36 a month customers will receive unlimited minutes, texts and 1GB of data.
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| There are just four days left to enter our back to school sweepstakes with nearly $50,000 in prizes! Posted: 03 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT During the month of August, we published 14 back to school guides, covering product categories ranging from cameras and printers, to smartphones and ultraportables. With each post, we offered a selection of gadget must-haves, but we also gave you an opportunity to enter our massive back to school giveaway, including 15 identical bags stuffed to the brim (and far beyond) with some of the hottest devices of the season. You want these gadgets, and we want to help! The contest runs through noon (ET) on Friday, September 7th, so there's still plenty of time to enter -- simply leave a comment at each of our category pages, along with the giveaway post, to secure 15 chances to win. And to make things even easier, we're including links to all of our posts just below. Good luck, and have a fantastic semester!
Note: You may enter our back to school contest on the giveaway page, and at each of the category pages listed above as well. Comments left on this page will not be considered, however. |
| Nokia Lumia wireless charging pad breaks cover Posted: 03 Sep 2012 08:44 AM PDT That was quick: we'd heard rumors through The Verge of wireless charging coming to the repeatedly leaked Lumia 920 alongside a pseudo-PureView camera, and the mysterious @evleaks has come through with what looks to be press photos showing the wireless charging pad in action. As long as they're more than just wild imaginings, they reveal a puck-like surface that could juice up both the Lumia 920 and the less ambitious 820. We don't know much more about the charger, although it's expected to use Qi and wouldn't limit the phones and pad to coupling solely with each other. We'll know the bigger picture on September 5th; in the meantime, check after the break for a bonus picture showing both Windows Phone 8 devices with an unnamed Bluetooth headset (likely a Luna variant) that might join the charger in Nokia's accessory line. |
| LG teases Splendor for US Cellular, brings Optimus L7 to American shores Posted: 03 Sep 2012 08:10 AM PDT We've wondered if LG's L-series style phones, like the Optimus L7, would ever reach the US; we just didn't think LG would be the one to leak its own plans. Astute watchers at Smartphenom caught both a since-pulled LG product page and a brochure that have inadvertently confirmed the bigger (though not biggest) model in the Android 4.0 budget line arriving on US Cellular as the Splendor. The American voyage doesn't involve much of an overhaul, mind you -- the switch to the CDMA network and a conspicuous carrier logo are the biggest changes to the 4.3-inch handset. No word has emerged as to just how soon the Splendor will appear or how much it will cost, although the official documents and the L7's budget nature could put it in stores relatively soon with a low price tag. |
| Is the Nokia Lumia 920 coming with 8-megapixel FauxView? Posted: 03 Sep 2012 07:15 AM PDT Yes, we want PureView technology in at least one of Nokia's forthcoming Lumias. But let's be specific: it needs to be that same type of PureView that helps the 808 to take such amazing images, with something at least similar to that 41-megapixel sensor. That's why it's slightly perturbing to hear The Verge's suggestion from "sources familiar with the matter" that the Lumia 920 will ship with a paltry 8-megapixel version of PureView, which doesn't sound like it could deliver the same noise reduction or lossless zoom or other powers. With the expected announcement just two days distant, let's hope it ain't so. |
| S Cloud spotted on Galaxy Note II, reveals Dropbox integration (video) Posted: 03 Sep 2012 06:25 AM PDT We're still recovering from the onslaught of goodies shown off at IFA 2012, but there's one thing we didn't notice while perusing Samsung's gadgetry. The team at German site BestBoyZ discovered S Cloud in the settings menu of the Note II, which included the option to sync user data with Dropbox. Apparently, Samsung reps didn't have much to say on the matter, and BestBoyZ believe that's because it's not quite working yet (we're willing to agree, given the various delays). It's looking like the feature might be ready in time for the Note II's launch, which ties in nicely with the 50GB of free Dropbox storage you'll snag if you pick one up. Owners of other Samsung gear needn't be disappointed though, as it's suggested that S Cloud integration will be part of the Jelly Bean upgrades expected soon. We've embedded the reveal vid below, and don't worry if you can't speak German -- you'll still get the gist.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Samsung finishes initial Chinese factory audits, plans long-term solutions to labor woes Posted: 03 Sep 2012 06:01 AM PDT Samsung faced some serious allegations surrounding the plants of its Chinese contractor HEG Electronics earlier this month, including potentially dire accusations that HEG was employing child labor. The Korean firm promised audits to set the record straight, and we're seeing the first fruits of those inspections today. The results were decidedly mixed. While there weren't any underage workers when Samsung visited, it did find HEG staff working excessive overtime, some unsafe practices and a system that punished late workers with fines. Samsung's response will go beyond just asking HEG to shape up, though: it plans to finish auditing all 105 of its exclusive Chinese contractors by the end of September, determine whether inspections of non-exclusive contractors are needed and set up a long-term audit schedule past 2013 that includes tougher requirements. While there's no certainty that the reforms will lead to the intended results, we're glad to hear that Samsung wants to turn things around at such a rapid pace. |
| Hate Windows 8 already? The Pro OEM edition will let you downgrade as far back as Vista Posted: 03 Sep 2012 05:45 AM PDT Relax, Gabe Newell. If you buy a new Windows 8 Pro PC and discover that you really do detest the OS that much, you may be able to switch back to an older version -- either Windows 7 or Vista, but not near-death XP -- under the same OEM license. Will many folks want to do that? Probably not, and in any case these so-called downgrade rights are actually only helpful in specific circumstances and they don't come with boxed retail versions of the software. The main practical benefit (albeit still a niche one) is that a manufacturer could technically offer a Windows 7 disc in the box with a new Windows 8 machine and give customers a choice of OS. Alternatively, the manufacturer could install Windows 7 by default (effectively a factory downgrade) and supply Windows 8 Pro installation media so that customers can upgrade for free when they feel good 'n ready. At some point, of course, staring at a redundant UI-switching button is going to grate. |
| Nokia City Lens exits beta, gives a window on the world to Lumia owners Posted: 03 Sep 2012 05:31 AM PDT Nokia first kicked off the City Lens beta back in May. That was just four months ago, but it feels like an eternity in the mobile space. The wait has come to a welcome (if abrupt) end with the finished version quietly reaching the Windows Phone Marketplace for Lumia owners. From initial appearances, the augmented reality app is functionally the same as its test edition. Point the camera and you'll be shown points of interest in your field of view, with ratings and directions to get you on your way -- if you've seen Yelp's Monocle mode, you'll know the score. Don't be surprised if the source link doesn't initially work, as City Lens is slowly trickling out to Microsoft's servers, but do expect a quicker trip to the sushi bar when the app is in your hands. |
| AMD's top-end Trinity desktop chip could cost just $130, the same as a budget Core i3 Posted: 03 Sep 2012 04:46 AM PDT You can't get a Core i3 on Newegg right now for much less than $130 -- a sum that'll put you almost at the bottom of the Ivy Bridge league with a dual-core processor, 3MB cache and HD 2500 (i.e. not HD 4000) integrated graphics. That's why it's interesting to see these leaked AMD Trinity prices over at retailer BLT. If they're accurate, they indicate that the same amount of cash might afford a top-end Trinity A10 processor with overclockable 3.8GHz quad-cores, 4MB cache and vastly superior Radeon HD 7660D graphics. At the other end of AMD's range, a dual-core A4-5300 APU could cost as little as $60. The only catch we can see -- aside from the issue of accuracy -- is that by the time these processors actually become available rival Intel may well have seen fit to adjust its own prices. In fact, Chipzilla just launched some new Ivy Bridge processors over the weekend that brought the cost of entry down to $117 -- which goes to show that nothing stands still for long. Head past the break for some official gaming benchmark claims about the A10, or see More Coverage for extras. |
| T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 lands Ice Cream Sandwich update Posted: 03 Sep 2012 04:04 AM PDT After more than a month of waiting, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 for T-Mobile has finally joined some of its brethren with an Ice Cream Sandwich update. Big Magenta has posted the Android 4.0.4 download for those who'd like to install the OS manually via Samsung Kies. While the carrier says the Android flavor won't be delivered over-the-air, TmoNews reports that some users have loaded up their hardware with an OTA update. Ready to hop on the ICS bandwagon? Check your slate for an upgrade notice or hit the source link below for instructions and the appropriate download. |
| O2 UK denies Xperia Ray, Arc and Neo owners Ice Cream Sandwich Posted: 03 Sep 2012 03:03 AM PDT It's bad news for Xperia Ray, Arc and Neo owners on O2's UK network, as the carrier's reported it won't be updating these Sony handsets to Ice Cream Sandwich. O2 claims it has tested three versions of the OS update and decided not to approve it, due to increased hardware requirements resulting in "speed and performance" issues. This is curious, since Sony itself had no problems getting Android 4.0 up and running on the devices -- even if it did take a while. If you know your way around a ROM, you probably stopped scoffing Gingerbread a long time ago. However, if you're yet to tinker and ain't scared by O2's "you can't go back" warnings, an hour or two on some specialist forums should have you sticky in no time (at your own risk, of course). Update: O2's been in touch assuring us the decision was not taken lightly, and that although Sony has released ICS for these handsets, they did so with clear disclaimers on performance concerns (see the Sony source below). |
| Engadget UK Giveaway: win a Samsung Galaxy S III courtesy of Expansys! Posted: 03 Sep 2012 02:00 AM PDT If you live in the UK, and you've more than a passing interest in mobile phones (we're guessing that's a given), then you are probably already familiar with Expansys. The online store, known for its wide range of gadgets, and geek-friendly pricing, has kindly given us one of Samsung's Galaxy S III handsets to give away. For the uninitiated, all you have to do to win this piece of tech nobility is leave a comment below. Well, along with reading, and complying, with the rules set out below. Most importantly, on this occasion, you must be a UK resident. Good luck! Update: We've gotten hold of the actual handset we'll be sending out, and it turns out to be Pebble Blue rather than the Marble White originally shown above. Do you still want it? The rules:
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| MLB At Bat 2012 app update brings new stats overlay, Ford SYNC integration and more Posted: 03 Sep 2012 01:07 AM PDT If you're a fan of the MLB At Bat 2012 app on iOS, a new update brings a few noteworthy treats. First of all, iPad users are gifted with a new overlay that puts live stats on top of the action, meaning you won't miss a swing of the bat. Also, Ford SYNC users can now hook it up via AppLink, and get scores, schedules and live audio on the move. There are a handful of other new features, such as social sharing of video highlights and a re-designed news headline (iPhone only). No word on whether Androiders will get the same treatment yet, but for those on the iOS team, strike out on the source link for the goods. |
| Netflix coming to future Freesat satellite TV boxes Posted: 03 Sep 2012 12:20 AM PDT Netflix making good on those investment promises for its UK viewers, with the streaming service set to be included in a new set-top box coming tomorrow. According to The Telegraph, the new device will link straight into Netflix services. Freesat's satellite TV offering launched back in 2008, with both BBC and ITV behind the project, while the new set-top box is rumored to add on-demand downloads and the ability to view programs up to eight days since they first air -- catching up to similar services from BT, Virgin and Sky. We're likely to hear more tomorrow, but Freesat's hoping it will be enough to make Brits reconsider those wallet-thumping Sky subscriptions. |
| Max Planck Institute sequences genome of Siberian girl from 80,000 years ago, smashes DNA barriers Posted: 02 Sep 2012 10:42 PM PDT We've known little of the genetic sequences of our precursors, despite having found many examples of their remains: the requirement for two strands in traditional DNA sequencing isn't much help when we're usually thankful to get just one. The Max Planck Institute has devised a new, single-strand technique that may very well fill in the complete picture. Binding specific molecules to a strand, so enzymes can copy the sequence, has let researchers make at least one pass over 99.9 percent of the genome of a Siberian girl from roughly 80,000 years ago -- giving science the most complete genetic picture of any human ancestor to date, all from the one bone you see above. The gene map tells us that the brown-skinned, brown-eyed, brown-haired girl was part of a splinter population known as the Denisovans that sat in between Neanderthals and ourselves, having forked the family tree hundreds of thousands of years before today. It also shows that there's a small trace of Denisovans and their Neanderthal roots in modern East Asia, which we would never have known just by staring at fossils. Future discoveries could take years to leave an impact, but MPI may have just opened the floodgates of knowledge for our collective history. |
| Stanford researchers make heart implant powered by radio waves, put batteries out of a job Posted: 02 Sep 2012 08:56 PM PDT Batteries used to be the only way to power implantable gadgets, but additional surgeries are needed to replace the power packs once their juice runs out -- a less-than-ideal solution for patients. Recent discoveries, however, have such medgadgets being powered by photons, hip hop and now high-frequency radio waves. Electrical engineers at Stanford built a cardiac device that uses a combination of inductive and radiative transmission of power, at about 1.7 billion cycles per second, to its coiled receiving antenna. Previous prevailing opinion held that the high frequencies needed for wireless power delivery couldn't penetrate the human body deep enough, and the lower frequencies that would do the trick require antennas too large to work as implants. That conundrum was solved by getting the high-frequency signals to penetrate deeper using alternating waves of electric and magnetic fields. That allowed a 10x increase in power delivery -- up to 50 microwatts to a millimeter radius antenna coil -- to an implant five centimeters below the skin. That antenna also was also designed to pull power regardless of its orientation, making it ideal for applications inside always-moving human bodies. Of course, the implant's really just a proof-of-concept at this stage, but hopefully it won't be long before battery powered implants go the way of the |
| How would you change the Lytro? Posted: 02 Sep 2012 07:17 PM PDT Few products make everyone here at Engadget quite as giddy with excitement as Lytro's light-field camera. Given how regularly we need to photograph things, we were desperate to know if this was going to revolutionize the way we snapped pictures. It had more than a few things going for it, innovative product design, great engineering, it was fast, responsive and had a great UI. However, the pictures themselves were of a low resolution, and the depth-of-field trickery only works with extreme close-up-and-background shots where you can mess around with your bokkeh. As nice as it is in theory (and practice, on a well-lit day), it's certainly not going to replace your DSLR any time soon -- but given that the company's presumably working on version 2.0 of the device, what would you suggest they tweak? |
| Refresh Roundup: week of August 27th, 2012 Posted: 02 Sep 2012 06:00 PM PDT Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy! Official Android updates
Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery
Refreshes we covered this week
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| Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE surfaces for Sprint Posted: 02 Sep 2012 05:03 PM PDT If you found yourself on the wrong network for Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Stellar smartphone, consider this: The Galaxy Victory. This little slab was leaked to Android Central recently, sporting similar specs to Verizon's upcoming budget device. Like its cousin, the Victory appears to have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a TouchWiz flavored serving of Ice Cream Sandwich and a 4-inch 800 x 480 display -- but it sets itself apart with a five-megapixel rear facing camera and quad-band GSM support. The handset also plays nice with Samsung's TecTiles accessory, as well as Google Wallet, Beam and other NFC standards. An internal employee promotion from Sprint pegs the device for a September release, but makes no mention of price or specific availability. |
| Switched On: The Old Adventures of New 3D Posted: 02 Sep 2012 02:53 PM PDT Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. In the unmarked office of 3-D Vision, Inc., you can see a television or PC display a videogame or movie with a convincing stereoscopic effect. That might not seem very unique. However, the television is a CRT from the 1990s, the video game is Super Mario for the Nintendo 64 and the movie is The Wizard of Oz, made in 1939. Despite the growth in 3D television sales, the requirement to wear 3D glasses has loomed as one of the most significant barriers to adoption. 3-D Vision's technology still requires glasses, at least for now. However, with some caveats, it overcomes some of the other, oft-overlooked barriers to 3D adoption by creating 3D video from 2D content on 2D (or 3D) displays. On televisions, this is achieved via a small set-top box -- a prototype of which approaches the size and noise level of a mini-fridge -- that plugs into the video source and the TV and converts the video in real-time with virtually no latency. The box should be available early next year. 3-D Vision's technology works by extracting 3D data in the video as opposed to having humans make judgment calls, as is the case with converted 3D movies. It is impressive in both the quality of the 3D effect and the range of devices with which it can work. These include virtually any video source although there won't be much to work with in, say, 2D games from the Super Nintendo era or even today's talking-head news programs. Rendered animation shows, however, like Thomas and Friends, work well. As for output devices, even analog tube-based televisions can display convincing 3D content from 2D films, although the system generates a fair amount of flicker as it struggles to overcome the low refresh rate and interlacing of the once-ubiquitous technology. More InfoIt can also work with PCs, tablets and smartphones, although the processing box is not an option when those devices aren't attached to an external display. These viewing platforms require the use of passive glasses as opposed to the active shutter glasses used with televisions. However, even here 3-D Vision's technology has a few advantages. The company claims it is the first approach to generate color 3D with anaglyph-style paper 3D glasses. Also, video remains viewable without the "double-vision" effect when viewed without the glasses, although there is some softening. If 3-D Vision's demos have a fatal flaw, it's ghosting. It's everywhere -- on PC monitors, CRTs and plasma televisions -- and can be severely distracting. The company offers a range of reasons for this depending on the scenario -- older versions of its processing technology, suboptimal white balancing and ultimately a limitation of today's display technologies. One way to address it might be to dial down the intensity of the 3D effect, a feature offered by the PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS and TVs that can perform in-set conversion. If 3-D Vision can improve on that front, or if consumers are willing to accept it, its technology could welcome a wealth of shutout content and devices to a 3D experience. Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) is principal analyst at Reticle Research, an advisory firm focused on consumer technology. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. |
| LG Chem develops very flexible cable batteries, may leave mobile devices tied up in knots Posted: 02 Sep 2012 01:03 PM PDT The world is no stranger to flexible batteries, but they've almost always had to be made in thin sheets -- that doesn't amount to a long running time if you're powering anything more than a watch. LG Chem has developed a flexible lithium-ion battery that's not just better-suited to our bigger gadgets but could out-do previous bendable energy packs. Researchers found that coating copper wires with nickel-tin and coiling them briefly around a rod results in a hollow anode that behaves like a very strong spring; mating that anode with a lithium-ion cell leads to a battery that works even when it's twisted up in knots. Join multiple packs together, and devices could have lithium-ion batteries that fit many shapes without compromising on their maximum deliverable power. Some hurdles remain to creating a production-grade battery, such as a tendency for the pack to shed a small amount of capacity whenever it's put under enough stress. LG Chem is fully set on turning these cable batteries into shippable technology, however, and could ultimately produce mobile devices and wearables that really do bend to their owners' every whim. |
| Posted: 02 Sep 2012 12:04 PM PDT If Nokia doesn't show off at least one banana-hued Lumia smartphone come September 5th, we're going to be extremely confused. Say howdy to the Pro-monikered followup to its corded Purity HD stereo headset by Monster, which gains Bluetooth (no word on what version), NFC for pairing and active noise cancellation. Similar to its recently revealed PlayUp speaker, the company's teasing the the Purity HD Pro as an audio accessory that'll "perfectly match your Lumia" in a choice of black, white, red and yellow. The Pro is essentially identical to its predecessor, but now the folding earcups also serve as a pseudo-on/off switch Update: You'll find a video hands-on by way of The Nokia Blog here. According a Nokia rep in that video, the earpads have a head detection sensor for automatically enabling ANC (similar to the Zik), while plugging in an included cable will let the headphones function sans Bluetooth. Furthermore, the company also noted to TNB that the battery should last about 24 hours for music or calls, with a week's worth of life on standby. |
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