A personalized video viewer for everyone

The good: Vodio comes with over 100 curated channels, so you can personalize your video-watching experience. The video history and watch later queue both come in handy.

The bad: If you view a search result, Vodio annoyingly saves it to your dock without asking. Also, there's no way to rearrange channels in your dock once they're added.

The bottom line: Vodio's customization options and huge selection of curated channels make it an attractive download for finding and watching videos online.

Similar to the popular Showyou app, Vodio aggregates videos from across the Web and serves them up all in one place. Playback in the app is smooth, and Vodio doesn't degrade the video quality, whether in portrait or landscape mode.

With so many different video sources and channel options available, Vodio can get a bit overwhelming. So, when you first launch the app, be prepared to take a few minutes to set it up. If you'd rather not take the time, then you can, of course, use Vodio with only its default channels set, but then you'd be missing out on a completely customized video watching experience, which is really the biggest draw of the app. Good thing is, you don't have to set up an account to use the app. But I would suggest connecting your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts if you want to get the most out of it. Doing so helps the app to better recommend and categorize content.

Vodio comes with over 100 curated channels so you can customize your lineup according to your taste.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jaymar Cabebe/CNET)

If you skip the setup, Vodio starts you off with five channels: Music, Sports, Entertainment, Tech, and Highlights. Each channel pulls in appropriately categorized videos from different sources around the Web, and the intuitive swipe controls makes it easy for you to scroll through it all and watch what you want. While I don't find Vodio's interface particularly attractive (it can feel a bit cramped), I will admit that it's easy to use, and it functions smoothly. You can switch between channels by swiping laterally, or you can pull up the channel dock from the bottom of the screen to jump directly to a desired page.

The best thing about Vodio is that it lets you customize your channel lineup. The five default channels are a helpful start, but it also offers over 100 more to supplement your dock. All you have to do is hit the "+" button to see the different curated channels available and put a check next to any item that you want to add to your lineup. You can add channels for general categories like Viral and Android, or channels from individual sources like Facebook, CNET, and Rolling Stone. And if you don't find what you're looking for, you can always run a search and add individual channels that way. You can even add smart channels to your dock, so you can keep track of your watch history, videos you've shared, videos you want to watch later, and more. Altogether, these customization options make Vodio an attractive for video lovers.

While Vodio's many customization options are certainly a good thing, the controls involved are where I found problems. For instance, if you run a search, and tap on a search result, Vodio automatically adds it as a new channel. This means that if you're only trying to run a one-off search, you'll have to go in and fix your channel lineup when you're done, which can get annoying. It's also worth mentioning that there appears to be no way to rearrange the order of your channels.

Despite its interface issues, Vodio is still an impressive app. It comes with over 100 curated channels to choose from, and it lets you create your own custom channel dock. It even offers a couple of features that its competitor Showyou doesn't (video history and watch later queue). If you're looking for a personalized video watching experience with only the video sources and categories that you love, this app is as fine an option as any.

(source: cnet)

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Microsoft has 'no plans' to revisit Xbox One's $499 price

Even as the company backtracks on its unpopular game-sharing policy, a company executive tells CNET that it won't budge on the price for the console, some $100 more than the rival PlayStation 4.

Microsoft's Marc Whitten at the Xbox One reveal event in Redmond, Wash., last month.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Microsoft may have just backtracked on its derided policy that had restricted game sharing in its Xbox One console that goes on sale later this year -- but don't count on the company to revisit other unpopular features of the upcoming console.

In an interview with CNET, Marc Whitten, the chief product officer for Xbox, said the company has "no plans" to lower the $499 price tag for the console, even though Sony's rival PlayStation 4 will debut at $399. He echoed previous statements from the company that the Xbox One will offer features not found elsewhere, such as its Kinect motion-sensing, voice-detecting controller.

"We are really, really excited about the value we're going to deliver on day one," Whitten said.

What's more, Microsoft has no plans to change its decision for the Kinect to be on by default, something some users worry might be creepy. Microsoft tried to diffuse some of those privacy concerns earlier this month, telling gamers that the system is "only listening for the single voice command -- 'Xbox On.'" But gamers can turn that feature off if they choose.

Microsoft says it thinks the Kinect is too central to the Xbox One experience, and the way that developers are creating games, to change the way it works.

"It's part of the Xbox One architecture," Whitten said.

The new policy announced earlier today does away with the much-loathed plans that would have required Xbox One gamers to connect their consoles to the Internet once a day to prevent game piracy. Gamers no longer will be required to do so.

But that policy also means gamers who purchase physical discs won't get some of the benefits of that Web strategy. Gamers were going to be able to access games from any console once they loaded the disc onto their Xbox One.

"You won't see that content now," Whitten said, though gamers will be able to see all the content they purchase digitally.

What's more, Microsoft is doing away with the policy of allowing up to 10 family members to share disc-based games even if they didn't have the disc in their console.

"We won't be delivering that," Whitten said.

Microsoft decided to alter the policy after the company recognized that it would be a "blocker" for some customers to buy the console, Whitten said. Gamers had voiced antipathy toward the idea of requiring a Web connection when rumors flew earlier this year, even before Microsoft announced the plan. But Whitten said the rancor didn't become clear to the company until after it discussed the policy at the E3 video game conference earlier this month.

"E3 was the first time our complete program was out there to get complete feedback," Whitten said. "We heard that people valued the flexibility of physical discs."

(source: cnet)

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LG to mass-produce flexible displays for smartphones

Looking to get a leg-up in the bendable display market, LG Display is going full throttle ahead with production of the new technology for mobile devices.

A flexible OLED display inside a protective covering.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

LG Display is about to embark on the mass production of smartphone display panels that reportedly don't break, crack, or shatter -- because they can bend.

By the fourth quarter of this year, the electronics company plans to be supplying the flexible displays to a host of major clients, according to The Korea Times.

"We have completed the development of our first flexible displays. We will mass produce flexible displays from the fourth quarter of this year," the company told The Korea Times. "We will apply a 4.5th generation glass-cutting technology for the OLED flexible displays. Monthly capacity for the line was set as 12,000 sheets."

The push for flexible displays comes at a time of growing demand for new screen technology. LG spokesman Frank Lee told The Korea Times that one of the reasons the company was heading toward mass production was to meet "the rapid need for display advancements."

Flexible displays could be the new frontier for electronics; and, it appears that LG wants to get a leg-up on the market and become the first company to mass-produce the display panels for mobile devices. In April, LG Electronics (a stakeholder of LG Display) announced its plans to debut its first flexible smartphone sometime this year.

The OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology used in the LG bendable display screens is apparently thinner, lighter, and more flexible than conventional LCD displays. And, besides being unbreakable, bendable smartphones could curve with a user's body movements so that the devices sit more comfortably in a pocket or pack into any number of compartments.

LG isn't the only company working on the bendable displays. Samsung, Nokia, and even Apple have been working on flexible smartphone and tablet screens for years.

(souurce: cnet)

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Huawei unveils world’s slimmest smartphone – again

The Huawei Ascend P6 is touted as the world's slimmest smartphone

With all the different makes and models of smartphones available, manufacturers are always looking for something to make their handsets stand out. China’s Huawei chose size as its differentiating factor at CES in 2012 when it unveiled the Ascend P1 S, touting it as the world’s slimmest smartphone. The company is at it again with its new Ascend P6, which it is calling, you guessed it, “the world’s slimmest smartphone.”

Unveiled at an event in London last night, the Ascend P6 is just 6.18 mm thick, but manages to cram plenty of features into its metallic body. Running the latest version of Huawei’s Emotion UI over Android 4.2.2, the device is powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm processor and comes with 2 GB of RAM. Its 4.7-inch display packs 1,280 x 720 pixels at a density of around 322 ppi. The 8 GB of built in storage can be expanded upon by an additional 32 GB via microSD card.

There’s also front and rear snappers, with a 5-megapixel camera up front and an 8-megapixel backside illumination (BSI) camera with F2.0 aperture and 4 cm macroview on the rear. These will benefit from the panoramic and facial recognition photography functions that have been added to the aforementioned Emotion UI for the first time.

Huawei claims the phone’s 2,000 mAh lithium-polymer battery offers 30 percent better performance than other smartphone batteries of equal size thanks to the company’s Automated Discontinuous Reception (ADRX) and Quick Power Control (QPC) battery optimization and power saving technologies. However, Huawei hasn’t yet provided battery life estimates for the P6, saying only it should recharge in under four hours.

Aside from the 6.18 mm thickness, the P6 measures 132.65 mm high, 65.5 mm wide, and weighs 120 g (4.2 oz) including the battery. The current model doesn’t support 4G, but Huawei says it plans to release a 4G model in October.

The Ascend P6 will come in black, white or pick and will begin shipping in China this month, followed by a release in countries including the UK, Australia, Italy and Spain in July at around €449 (US$600) SIM-free. Other markets will follow but no word on a US release date as yet.

Source: Huawei

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Emopulse Smile SmartWatch goes up for pre-order

Emopulse has hit Indiegogo to take pre-orders for its Smile SmartWatch

Many of the communication devices that attempt to make the jump from our hands to our wrists tend to follow the same form factor as mechanical watches (think Pebble or the much-rumored Apple iWatch, for example). The Smile SmartWatch from Emopulse is quite a different proposition. If the company manages to transform its working prototype into an actual commercial product, the Smile will be a smartphone, entertainment and gaming hub, social network and news feed, personal assistant, digital watch, and a stunning piece of wrist bling all rolled into one futuristic device.

Basically a twin-display smartphone you can wrap around your wrist and wear like a bracelet, the working prototypes are reported to have made use of experimental flexible displays. The first batch were monochrome, but the latest are full-color OLED. The upper screen auto activates as the arm is raised, while the lower screen turns on when it's pointed upwards by twisting the wrist. The displays are housed within an aluminum enclosure, topped by waterproof and shock-resistant glass from Schott.

"We have two manufacturers of flexible screens at the moment and each of them is in a hurry to be the first on the market," says the Californian company's founder Nick Koloskov, who has been working on the device for the last four years. "Our partners guaranteed us a delivery of flexible screens by the end of the year (this is the main reason why we have not released products at the beginning of this year)."

Koloskov told us that the Smile will be no Pebble, and should have a display more comparable to the quality offered by the iPhone. Each display will have a screen size "the same as 3 icon rows on the iPhone 4S screen."

He admitted that Emopulse may get beaten to market by the likes of Apple and Samsung, but said that meeting customer expectations in terms of high-quality display and functionality is the driving force behind product development, rather than being first out of the starting blocks.

The Smile runs an algorithm-based, custom Linux AI operating system, and uses biosensors embedded in the device to gather information about its wearer and uses the data to help automate certain processes.

After watching a few movies or listening to streamed music, for example, the system will recommend more content based on user tastes and/or emotional responses. The accuracy of the predictions will increase over time. The sensors could also be used alongside virtual physical trainers to help keep users in trim with personal, monitored workouts.

The device will be powered by the yet-to-be-released low-power, high-speed OMAP 5 processor from Texas Instruments, which has built-in graphical processing for high-definition playback that should be able to comfortably cope with on-wrist gaming. The Smile boasts 2 GB of system memory, and either 128 or 256 GB of included solid state memory.

Other key specs include a nano-SIM card slot, allowing the device to act as an LTE-ready smartphone in its own right, or be paired with an existing smartphone via Bluetooth. The main display will auto switch between day- and night-time modes, but the phone part can remain active while you slumber, and the Smile will auto-direct incoming calls to voice mail or play a message advising callers to ring back later.

In addition to being Wi-Fi-capable, it's also said to be NFC-capable for instant, single-touch device connectivity, though its inclusion seems to be more geared toward making the Smile your mobile virtual credit card wallet or electronic lock opener. All keys and payment information will be encrypted, and as an added security measure, the data will be blocked when the Smile is removed from the wrist.

Physical connectivity comes in the shape of a sliding USB 3.0 connector, which is also said to help keep the Smile from sliding off the wrist. Though the website currently mentions the inclusion of a Thunderbolt 10 Gbps communications port, Koloskov has told us that prototype testing has revealed unexpected issues, so the first production units will not include this technology.

According to its developers, Smile's current 2,500 mAh battery should be good for two days of intensive use between charges, or seven days in power-saving mode. They are reportedly looking at producing a high-end version of the device that will sport a 3,000 mAh battery.

Proprietary Purepath audio technology is claimed to offer users a fuller wireless sonic playback experience. There's no audio jack for headphones, so users will need to use wireless headsets for private music listening. Dropout-free, hi-fi enthusiast-pleasing 16-bit, 44.1/48 KHz CD quality audio is what's being promised here. Stereo speakers feature for more public sharing.

The Smile goes one better than modern smartphones by offering three integrated cameras and three microphones. There's a face-tracking webcam at the top of the main display for web chats and video-conferencing. The top edge packs a 12-megapixel snapper that's capable of recording 1080p high definition video, while a third camera "designed with unique optics" is mounted on the side of the smartwatch.

This functions like a scanner/reader. Pointing it at bar codes, QR codes or URLs will result in the relevant information being displayed on the device's screen. Emopulse says that this camera will also follow the path of a finger as it runs below text on a printed page, and capture the fragment in the device's memory for later recall.

The device will also benefit from Siri-like speech recognition, and be able to recognize a user's natural language. There'll be an avatar-based digital personal assistant to help with searches, setting reminders, making notes and the like, and the system will learn from the kind of searches made, commands given and requests made.

Buying flowers for a colleague is the example given by Emopulse. The first time that the Smile is requested to seek out a florist and make a purchase, it will offer a number of suggested outlets. Subsequent requests can then be automated based on the actions taken in the first instance. Of course, you could just opt to use menu-driven onscreen navigation to organize your life instead.

To get these futuristic devices onto the wrists of consumers, Emopulse has launched an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign, where two flavors of the Smile SmartWatch are available for pre-order. Pledge levels start of US$480 for the 128 GB models. They're available in black with blue accenting to the side, come in four sizes, and in left- or right-handed orientation. A 256 GB version can be yours for a pledge of $550. The campaign runs until July 11.

The first batch (for developers) will not include wireless charging capabilities and should be ready for release by October. Serial production is due to start by the end of 2013 (pending delivery of flexible displays). Emopulse is planning to open a Smile app store in early 2014, along with a software development kit for the production of third party apps.

Considering all that the Smile SmartWatch wants to be, it will be quite an achievement to actually pull this off, but we're gonna have to wait until the end of the year for any glimpse of actual product. Though Koloskov claims to have working Smile SmartWatch prototypes in the bag, none were ready in time for the promo video shoot. As a result, the actors in the video below look to be wearing plastic bracelets which have had display functionality digitally overlayed in post-production.

"We apologize about the video as it was filmed a year ago, while many more interfaces were not created, so some interfaces were replaced by computer graphics," he says. "Today things have changed, but we will show it in October, when the product will be officially presented to the general public."

Sources: Emopulse, Indiegogo

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School iris-scanned students without telling parents

A Florida school admits that it made several mistakes when it allowed a security company to install iris scanners without telling parents -- and without even having a contract with the company.

The eyes have it? Or the eyes were had?

(Credit: Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

There's a quaint concept that seemingly every technology company dismisses as outdated.

It's called opting in.

Should you not be familiar with it, it's the notion that you ought to choose before, say, all the people in your address book are contacted by a company they've never heard of.

And wouldn't it be lovely to have a choice over whether your kids should have their irises scanned, as they get on their school bus?

The parents of around 750 kids in several Florida schools never got that choice -- because of what might be politely termed a series of errors and less politely as "what the hell is going on around here?"

Here was what one parent, April Serrano, told the The Ledger when she found out that her 8-year-old son had been made to stare into a blue light until it changed color when he got on a bus: "Just repeating that story makes my skin crawl."

Peculiarly, no one at the schools district seems entirely sure how a security company called Stanley Convergent Security Solutions was allowed to install and operate the scanners without parents being told. Or, indeed, without a contract being signed.

Rob Davis, a Polk County district administrator, admitted to the Ledger that several mistakes were made. He said that he had no idea who (if anyone) had ultimately authorized Stanley Convergent to insert the iris scanners, which the company says have an accuracy rate of 200 times that of fingerprints.

He said that his secretary had sent letters to school principals explaining the idea (and offering merely an "opt-out" option), only after it had started. There seems no clear explanation of why this might be.

What is alleged, though, is that Stanley Convergent appeared on three East Polk campuses without any legal agreement in place.

The final decision ought to have been that of interim school superintendent John Stewart. Oddly, he seems also not to have been informed -- another piece of communication that either was late in arriving or was never sent.

The Ledger quotes Ann Marshall, a safe schools specialist who seems to have been responsible for the iris scan scheduling, as saying: "It's just a busy place. And unless you have an appointment to move something ahead, it's not like you have an opportunity to chitchat. It's not that anyone didn't want to tell him (Stewart)."

It seems as if not one school lawyer looked through the proposed contract and approved it.

This has left some parents suspicious. Connie Turlington, parent of an 11-year-old, told The Ledger: "It sounds like a simple case of it's better to ask forgiveness than permission."

Some might find it touching that a concept seemingly born in Silicon Valley has made it all the way to Polk County, Fla.

You might remember Polk County. This is the same place where 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot was expelled for putting toilet cleaner and tin foil in a water bottle and watching it go "pop."

Could it be that the very same Polk County Schools District tried to conduct a scientific experiment of its own?

I have contacted Stanley Convergent to ask whether it is normal to install iris scanners before the signing of a contract. E-mails obtained by The Ledger under a public records request reportedly show that the company tried to get a contract signed.

However, these e-mails also show that Lum Thornhill, assistant director of operations at the schools district, had allegedly been told by Stanley Convergent that it could "do the registration and keep the files on a computer until we get the clearance."

The schools district now admits that its enthusiasm for any biometric security has somewhat waned.

Davis told the Ledger: "We learned a valuable lesson here, to say the least. It was truly not to fast track or invade anyone's privacy."

I am sure that many parents won't feel quite so grateful for the learning experience, even though Stanley Convergent has said the scanning information has been deleted.

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Google's low-cost Chromebooks coming to 6,600 more stores

Once primarily sold in Best Buy and on Amazon.com, the laptops will now be available at Walmart, Staples, and other stores worldwide.

The Acer C7 Chromebook.

(Credit: Google)

While Google hasn't done a lot of promotion around its Chromebooks, there's no doubt that the company is still working on bringing the low-cost laptops to more people around the world.

The tech giant announced Monday that it's bringing Chromebooks to more than 6,600 new stores worldwide -- that's three times as many stores as before.

The lion's share will go to Walmart and Staples. Walmart will sell the $199 Acer C7 Chromebook in about 2,800 of its stores across the U.S. And Staples will bring Chromebooks from Acer, HP, and Samsung to all of its 1,500 U.S. stores. Specific Office Depot, OfficeMax, Fry's, and TigerDirect will also sell the laptops in the U.S. Previously, Chromebooks were sold at Best Buy and Amazon.com.

Google is also expanding its Chromebook sales in 10 other markets worldwide, including the U.K., Holland, France, Sweden, and Australia.

Google first launched its Chromebooks in May 2011. The laptops are known for having an all-day battery life and built-in Net connectivity. They also get updates every few weeks, just like Chrome.

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