FUNKY GREEN: 11/20/13

Wednesday, 20 November 2013

LG G Flex for Sprint reaches the FCC

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Engadget HD Podcast 375 - 11.20.13

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Microsoft Launches Anti-Google Merchandise Line 'Scroogled'

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Middle Earth comes to life in epic Chrome experiment

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Square's updated Register apps tout simpler interfaces, make it easy to tip

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Google Wallet Now Comes With a Debit Card

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Xbox One will have a native YouTube app at launch

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Coin, Kicking Credit Cards To The Curb, Answers A Few Questions

YC-backed Coin, the electronic credit card that stores multiple cards on one Bluetooth device, made a big splash last week blowing past its $50,000 pre-order in less than 40 minutes.

Turns out, people not only want to buy more Coins but they want to know more about Coin, too. That said, the company is responding to consumer feedback, announcing a number of features that will be available in the first release.

Most importantly, Coin will be equipped with an alarm that learns how many times your Coin is being swiped and alerts you if it believes there is fraudulent activity going on.

For example, your card may be swiped once by a merchant or waiter to pay for the transaction, and again to steal the information on your card. Traditionally, your bank or credit card company wouldn't notify you of the fraudulent activity until a transaction was completed in another city or in an odd way using your information.

Coin actually notifies you the moment the information might be stolen, allowing you to make an inquiry about the activity.

You can also lock down one particular card so that friends, waiters, or strangers can't swap to a different card on their own. The team has also revealed that Coin can work without being tied to a phone.

“When we released Coin we wanted to have a succinct message,” said founder Kanishk Parashar. “We just wanted to let our users know that yes, we understand your feedback and we have been designing these features all along, and that they will be available in the first release.”

Beyond the new features, Coin has also updated its FAQ to answer the influx of questions its been receiving since launching the pre-order.

Here are a few helpful answers:

Q. Can someone accidentally change which card is selected on my Coin?

A. We've designed the button to toggle cards in a way that makes it difficult to trigger a “press” unintentionally. Dropping a Coin, holding a Coin, sitting on a Coin, or putting the Coin in a check presenter at a restaurant will not inadvertently toggle the card that is selected.

Q. What if my phone runs out of power or is in airplane mode? Will my Coin be useable?

A. Yes, but you may need to unlock it if the Coin becomes deactivated due to being out of contact with your phone for too long.

Q. How secure is Coin?

A. Maintaining the integrity of your Coin's data is critical to your peace of mind. That's why our servers, mobile apps and the Coin itself use 128-bit or 256-bit encryption for all storage and communication (http and bluetooth). Additionally Coin can alert you in the event that you leave it somewhere.

Parashar also assured us that the Coin will be available throughout the rest of the campaign, for the next 24 days, with no cap on the amount of pre-orders made.

“It actually helps when we have more orders,” said Parashar. “It means that larger manufacturers will be willing to prioritize us and work with us.”

Interestingly, this is Parashar's first time running a hardware business, previously founding a software payments company called SmartMarket. It asked for both merchants and consumers to change behavior entirely by using a mobile only payments product. This is what led to Coin.

After realizing that the app was getting plenty of downloads, but not very frequent use as a payment method, Parashar decided to build a payment solution for consumer side only.

When asked if Coin would eventually morph into his grander scheme for payments, all digital on consumer and merchant side, Parashar simply said that Coin is currently focused on delivering the first version to consumers.

If you want to get some more information on Coin, head over here.

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Nike FuelBand SE Review: More Style Than Smarts

Amazon Appstore for Android joins the modern era with a slicker interface

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Need money for a new Moto X? Motorola's got a financing fix for that

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Feds Adjust Safety Rules After Tesla Touts Record-Setting Rating

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Tumblr gets refreshed for iOS 7, lets you reblog that cat GIF that much faster

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What Happens When F1 Car Designers Build Architectural Models

Waze brings social GPS app to Windows Phone today

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After celebrating its 15th birthday last year, AOL-owned Winamp announced today that it will be shut

Coin eight-in-one Bluetooth credit card adds security features, boosted pre-order availability

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Get Ready to Party at MashBash During CES in Las Vegas

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Sony's Video and Music Entertainment chief wants the PS4 to be your everything

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Cody Adds Personal Training To Its Social Fitness Community With Hundreds Of New Workouts

When it comes to exercise, both motivation and enjoyment tend to be a lot higher when friends are involved. They cheer us on, challenge us and make exercise more social. The App Store is stuffed with exercise, fitness and wellness apps of all kinds, and by this point, eyes roll every time a new fitness app launches.

Two former Microsoft product managers beg to differ. They launched Cody earlier this year because they believe that a key part of the fitness puzzle is still missing: Social. Cody set out to create a mobile platform and community that encouraged people to share their workout-focused content with their friends - be they pictures, images or tips. Basically, an Instagram/Facebook for exercise.

Of course, with Endomondo, GAIN Fitness, Fitocracy and others already trying to build their own permutations of “The Facebook for Fitness,” Cody has tried to set itself apart by reducing the friction. In other words, by become a mobile fitness coach that people aren't frustrated or intimidated by. Rather than cater to hardcore fitness enthusiasts like so many other fitness apps, Cody avoids going to deep into the fitness-tracking world and is far less reliant on graphs and metrics.

When it started out, the app focused on increasing the success and enjoyment level of workouts by using its own friendly robot (named Cody) to provide users with access to their own workouts and curated content (like articles) which Cody aimed to personalize to the individual. (To varying degrees of success.)

With its most recent update, however, Cody has moved in the direction of GAIN Fitness and now allows trainers to post their favorite workouts and fitness programs into the community and your feed (if you're following those trainers). The idea is allow trainers who already have their own followings to leverage that audience and bring it to Cody, which is both a bonus for Cody (its user base grows) and the trainer's audience as it gets access to a new mobile and social fitness community. Or at least that's the idea.

The new version of Cody allows trainers to share multimedia content within Cody as well, bringing video to the app's community, and allowing users to watch these short videos and try 10-day cardio challenges, upper body workouts and so on. The trainers can then add to those videos as they go, providing feedback, pointers or striking up a conversation with their audience via Cody.

At the outset, most of this content was free and curated by Cody's editorial team itself, but as it goes forward, the Cody community will see trainers begin charging for their expert routines, along with more content. By helping its best trainers to start making money, Cody hopes that it can begin generating some revenue as well.

Furthermore, by slowly relinquishing editorial control and allowing trainers to post more of their own content, the founders hope that more multimedia content will start to flow through the network, increasing engagement and enjoyment as a result. As another way to encourage that, Cody has made its “Training Programs” available on the Web, in addition to mobile.

For more, find the startup's announcement here.

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Un Flyboard grabado desde un avión a radiocontrol

Un buen combo de aerotrastorno: el avión a radiocontrol que equipado con una GoPro graba las piruetas del aficionado al Flyboard, el «chorro de agua mágico» con el que puedes hacer como que vuelas.

El autor es Ignacio, y el juegar Nerja. Nos cuenta que la afición al final se le está conviertiendo en un pequeño negocio; a través del a página Málaga Espectacular ofrece fotografía y vídeo a medida para los lugares de la zona que gustan de contar con tomas aéreas espectaculares.

# Enlace Permanente

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Honda introduces the MC-beta, a micro-sized electric car that's smaller than most

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Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 805 processor with 'Ultra HD' mobile video

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MediaTek unveils world's first true octa-core mobile chip, first devices due end of year

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Smart Power Strip brings its home automation dreams to Kickstarter

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Evena's smart glasses offer nurses a through-the-skin view of patients' veins

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Toshiba gives 7-inch Android tablets another shot with the $170 Excite 7 (hands-on)

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These Smart Glasses Could Make Getting a Shot Less Painful

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Street View update maps North America's biggest parks and monuments

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LG Smart TVs could be collecting personal data, even if you tell them not to

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Khosla-Backed LittleBits Connects With $11.1M To Transform Its Lego-Style Electronics Kit Business Into A Hardware Platform

Big things are coming for littleBits - the New York-based startup that makes lego-style electronics kits. The company, originally conceived by founder Ayah Bedir in the MIT Media Lab (and backed in part by its head, Joi Ito), has already picked up traction for its first product: kits for children and hobbyists to create fun objects at home (see more in the video below). Today, it is announcing a Series B of $11.1 million to take that concept to the next level: building out a B2B platform for hardware innovation.

There are a number of science and tech partners already working with littleBits and its platform, although Bedir says it will not be disclosing the names until next year, when the first products come out.

This latest round is being led by True Ventures and new investor Foundry Group, it it also includes new investors Two Sigma Ventures and Vegas Tech Fund (Zappos' Tony Hseih's fund); as well as Khosla Ventures, Mena Ventures, Neoteny Labs, O'Reilly AlphaTech, Lerer Ventures and angel investors. Brad Feld of Foundry is also joining littleBits' board. The company has now raised over $15 million. That includes a $3.65 million in a Series A, and $850,000 in Seed funding. During the Series A announcement in June 2012, littleBits also struck a manufacturing and supply chain management deal with PCH International.

Moving to a B2B model from one targeting consumers was always on the cards, says Bedir. “It was a part of the strategy ever since I raised the seed round.” It was a two step strategy: step one was inventing kids for kids/education “to lower the barrier for entry to make it easier to start with electronics as possible, and the platform is step two. It's about raising the ceiling and putting the power in the hands of designers.

That is because at its heart, Bedir says littleBits “is a tool and platform for others to invent.” Focusing on B2B will help littleBits position itself as “a leading hardware innovation platform in the world that others can use to invent and make their products and designs.”

Interestingly, this is actually a part of a bigger trend we're seeing in the hardware movement, to create products and platforms that help others realise their hardware visions. There is of course NYC neighbor Makerbot, and over in the UK, design agency Berg has launched Berg Cloud, a platform for those making connected devices - interestingly also a progression from a hardware product.

(In Berg's case, it was their Little Printer project that inspired CEO Matt Webb and others at Berg to pivot the company. It's also picked up a $1.3 million seed round from Connect Ventures, Initial Capital, and Index Ventures to realise their ambition of making it as easy to develop connected hardware as it is to develop for the web.)

LittleBits is not revealing any figures for how the electronics kids have sold (we have noted before that they are wonderful but are priced at a premium, with starter kits today costing just under $100). But Bedir tells us that sales have quadrupled in the last year. In fact, part of the funding will be used to help make sure that the company can keep up with the demand its getting for the products - effectively that means more business development and sales people to close retail deals, and developers to continue making more things to add to the modular library to expand that offering. “The number of SKUs that we have is close to 80 and we have hundreds more on the way,” she says.

Back to the platform vision, the idea will be for new prototypes, and perhaps even products, to sit alongside those that are coming from littleBits itself. LittleBits will take a revenue share as part its business model. “We definitely want to support other businesses who want to start their own product lines,” she says. “A lot of game changers start in the hands of large companies these days, and then concepts get democratized and put in the hands of everyday people. But that is changing in areas like game development and manufacturing with the likes of Makerbot. We're doing the same with electronics. It remains a very top down industry, but now we are bringing it into the hands of everyone.”

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Opera's Android browser gets dedicated support for bigger tablets

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El cambio climático visto con datos científicos

El programa de conservación de la Biosfera (IGBP), Globaia y la Fundación de las Naciones Unidas han preparado esta visualización que muestra el estado de salud de nuestro planeta a partir de los datos científicos recabados por sensores, sondas y documentos históricos.

Entre otras cosas pueden verse las extrañas anomalías en la temperatura de la superficie, la capa de hielo de los polos, los territorios que sufrirán inundaciones, un mayor riesgo de huracanes/ciclones/tifones…

Recordatorio: nuestra casa es solo esta pequeña canica azul en en que vivimos y todavía no sabemos siquiera cómo irnos a otro, si es que acaso hubiera uno razonablemente cerca.

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Wednesday, 20 November 2013

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