Jason Gilbert 2013-05-20T15:52:11-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=jason-gilbert Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Jason Gilbert Good old fashioned elbow grease. Facebook Phone Event Rumors And Predictions: What To Expect From The Big Android Unveiling tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-04-03T17:29:19-04:00 2013-04-04T15:47:07-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/ this on your timeline, Facebook watchers: Rumors are rampant that Facebook will announce its own smartphone on Thursday, an "fPhone" to compete with the likes of the iPhone and the Galaxy S 4.

This Facebook phone rumor has been bandied about by journalists and speculation-mongers for several years now, and it appears that on the Thursday following April Fools' Day, the mythical FacePhone will finally arrive for real.

What can we expect? Below, we've collected all the rumors and speculation in one place, for your convenience. Get ready, friends: Facebook's about to poke the smartphone business with something special.

1. "Facebook Home"

The core of Facebook's announcement, according to TechCrunch and 9to5Google, will revolve around a new "skin" or software presence on Android, centered on Facebook experiences. Essentially, Facebook has designed a new look, called "Facebook Home," on top of the existing Android operating system to give the user easy access to Facebook, Facebook Messenger, the Facebook camera and other Facebook-centric functions, as well as the apps like the telephone, web browser, text messaging and Google Play app store you would expect from an Android phone.

In other words, the Facebook phone isn't just going to be a smartphone that can visit Facebook (as you might immediately assume when you hear "Facebook phone"). It will be a phone that is built to accentuate what Facebook can do. As Josh Constine at TechCrunch writes, it's similar to what Amazon did with the operating system for the Kindle Fire. That "forked" version of Android puts your Amazon content and its store up front. The Facebook phone would do that with Facebook.

Imagine, Constine writes, if your phone's homescreen featured updates from your news feed. You wouldn't need to open your Facebook app! Super convenient for Facebook users, and obviously desirable for Facebook itself.

9to5Google has an alleged screenshot of what that -- and the user experience on "Facebook Home" -- might look like:

facebook phone

On a Facebook phone, quite simply, your newsfeed and Instagram updates are given the same precedence as a missed phone call or new text. 9to5Google has more screenshots here, showing what is a quite beautiful design for a Facebook-first mobile device. As you can see, Facebook updates live in tandem with updates from the phone's other core features.

Which reminds us: is this going to be a smartphone, or just something Android users can download on top of their operating systems? The answer: Maybe both!

2. A Facebook Home Phone (Facebook, Phone Home?)

So, you've seen the screenshots, but what surrounds the screen? What are the specs on this monster?

Well, first, multiple outlets are reporting that the Facebook phone will resemble an iPhone, in screen size and with a central home button. The mysterious, oft-accurate Twitter feed @evleaks posted a photo of the so-called HTC First, which many are assuming is the rumored HTC/Facebook collaboration that will be unveiled on Thursday:

htc first

Again, this is a collaboration long in the making, with early reports of a Facebook-HTC collabo springing up in 2011. In November of that year, for example, AllThingsD's Ina Fried and Liz Gannes reported that "[a]fter years of considering how to best get into the phone business, Facebook has tapped Taiwanese cellphone maker HTC to build a smartphone that has the social network integrated at the core of its being."

That smartphone with a social network at its core could be unveiled on Thursday. There are some other rumored specs flying around: Unwired View claims what it calls the "HTC Myst" will have a 4.3-inch, 720p screen, 1GB RAM, a 5MP rear camera and Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 (full spec list here).

It's also pretty widely rumored, and prominently on the website Android Police, that Facebook will make its software available to download for any Android users who want it, and that its presentation will be a kind of pitch to other smartphone manufacturers, too.

The main draw of a Facebook phone, of course, will be its Facebook-ified central functions -- not the specs or the manufacturer name on the back -- and whether having Facebook right up front makes sense for smartphone owners. Mark Zuckerberg is going to have to eat his Wheaties on Thursday morning and really sell a skeptical global audience on the concept, which, judging from comments sections around the Internet, does not have broad support. (Popular Science puts what seems to be the national consensus bluntly: "Nobody Wants A Facebook Phone.")

So the one thing that you can definitely expect at Facebook's Phone event? Persuasion.

3. A Lot Of Explaining Why You'd Want A Facebook Phone

This isn't a knock at all on Facebook, but the question clouding its event is this: Why the heck would anyone want a Facebook phone in the first place?

Look for Facebook execs to be proactive, explaining why a phone with Facebook baked deeply into the guts of its operating system is superior to an iPhone or Android device with a Facebook app and social sharing. That's the central issue: convincing a large swath of consumers that there is something elementally worthwhile about committing their homescreens (not to mention $200 and two years of a wireless contract) to Facebook and its various services.

If Facebook can make a compelling case, its long-gestating smartphone and smartphone operating system will prove a worthy pursuit; if not, then it could go down as just one more thing Facebook users request a dislike button for. ]]> Fritz, The Robot Puppet Head You Can Control With Your Computer, Wants Your Help On Kickstarter tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-04-02T15:27:32-04:00 2013-04-02T15:27:34-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/
The robotics startup XYZBot has launched a Kickstarter project for a new bot called Fritz, a robotic puppet head whose facial expressions can closely mimic those of a human, and who can be controlled remotely via computer, joystick or gaming controller. Fritz also has a text-to-speech feature, allowing a new breed of robo-ventriloquists to make their computerized puppet "talk."

Fritz will ship to Kickstarter backers as a build-him-yourself kit, to teach youngsters about the basics of robotics; once constructed, Fritz's facial features can be manipulated using a Windows app, either in real time or by recording a sequence of movements that can be replayed on command. The jaw, eyebrows, eyelids and neck of the puppet can move, so that Fritz convey a wide range of emotions.

You can watch Fritz in action -- and receive a pitch on why you should back this nascent Kickstarter project -- below:



A "basic Fritz" will sell for $125, though other kits with bonus features will be available for more. Those who have already purchased a 3D printer -- like another popular Kickstarter project, the Formlab -- also have the option of paying just for the files to control Fritz and printing their own parts.

Fritz is the brainchild of Kerwin Lumpkins and Steven Gentner, two engineers with an extensive history in robotics; Gentner, in fact, was a member of the historic Mercury Project, way back in 1995, which the project website claims was the first to allow "WWW users to remotely view and alter the real world via tele-robotics." Together, the two started XYZBot, whose first venture is Fritz. Lumpkins wrote in an email that the team hopes to expand Fritz into a more fully-featured humanoid robot, perhaps as "a robotic receptionist with face recognition capabilities."

XYZBot has made all the Fritz software open-source to speed that process along. For now, you'll need a Windows computer to run the application that controls Fritz, an example of which you can see below:


A simple interface for controlling different emotions on Fritz' face. You can also manually change the robot's eyebrows, mouth, eyelids and neck.


XYZBot is hoping to raise $25,000 on Kickstarter to mass-manufacture the first set of Fritzes. As of this writing, the company is about a third of the way there, with a month to go. But even should the Kickstarter project fail to raise that sum, Lumpkins won't be too disappointed.

"If Fritz is not successful," he wrote, "oh well, it is still the coolest thing I have ever worked on."

You can read more about, and perhaps make a pledge to, Fritz the robotic puppet head here. ]]> iPhone 5S Release And A Possible (Not Possible) Launch Date: This Week In Apple Rumors tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-31T13:00:18-04:00 2013-04-01T13:24:48-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/ Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to This Week In Apple Rumors, our regular look back at all of the week's unconfirmed gossip, questionably sourced reports and blatant speculation about future Apple products from around the Web! Let's take a look back at what the various Apple blogs and websites were excited about in the past week, from March 24-30. Check out our previous edition of Apple rumors here, and for all the latest you can follow me on Twitter right here.

*

1.Hi, June!

Let us now consider the notable birthdays of June. Comedians Wayne Brady, Ricky Gervais, and Donald Trump were all born in June, as were notable hip-hop stars Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube, and Donald Trump. President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis was born in June, and, coincidentally, so was Donald Trump.

Could we add to this list of noteworthy June introductions the eagerly-anticipated iPhone 5S?

It's another Week In Apple Rumors, folks, and the predictions about when the next iPhone will be released are flying like Atlanta Braves homeruns out of Turner Field will this year (this fan hopes so, at least).

The latest rumor comes from friend of TWIAR John Biggs, a writer at HuffPost's AOL sister publication TechCrunch. Biggs got his eyes on a presentation from a case and charger manufacturer in China who are apparently prepared for a June launch of the iPhone 5S. The manufacturer, writes Biggs, "has an interesting inside track to Foxconn, promising “synchronization” with the Apple release in June."

That's a little earlier than the other prominent release date rumors, which have placed the release date in July and August. Perhaps most notably, the well-sourced analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has been predicting July for a few months now, with an introductory event in June. Other, less reliable outlets -- Digitimes, for example, and the Apple analyst Gene Munster -- are also forecasting a summer debut for the iPhone 5S.

We might not have the specific date nailed down quite yet, but it's looking more and more likely that those fanboys waiting in line outside the Apple store better pack some sunscreen. At this point it seems like the iPhone 5S will be Apple's big summertime device.

2. Precisely When?

Given that we now so strongly think the next iPhone will be out some time during the summer, our next step in this detective case is to nail down the exact date of Apple's keynote presentation. One small Apple blog claims it has the juice, but we remain -- in a word, my dear readers -- skeptical.

The Japanese Apple website MacFan -- and I'm told this site has nothing at all to do with overzealous McDonald customers -- claims in part of its 20th anniversary coverage that Apple will be holding its iPhone 5S event on (wait for it) June 20th. Isn't that convenient?

Eric Slivka at MacRumors rips this rumor to tiny little shreds, and then picks up those shreds and showers them down onto the floor. There are many good reasons why MacFan's June 20 prediction seems off, the simplest one being that the 20th is a Thursday and Apple almost never holds its events on Thursdays. Read Slivka's evisceration of MacFan here.

In other words: We're still waiting on a date. It's like high school all over again, am I right, fellas???

*

That's all for this week in Apple rumors. Join us again next week, when we'll have more rumors for you and when the Braves will already be well on their way to another season of soaring promise and inevitable, crushing defeat. Or, if you can't wait until next week (for the Apple rumors, anyway), you can always get the latest by following me on Twitter right here.


CORRECTION: The original version of this article listed June 20th as a Monday. It is, in fact, a Thursday, another day Apple does no commonly hold events.]]> Windows Phone Beating iPhone In 7 Countries: What That Means For Microsoft And Apple tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-28T15:39:32-04:00 2013-03-29T15:49:53-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/
According to a new report from the research firm IDC -- as shared by Microsoft's Frank Shaw in a recent blog post -- Windows Phone has topped BlackBerry in 26 markets and the iPhone in seven. Shaw didn't divulge those seven mysterious markets in his blog post, but when The New York Times contacted IDC, an analyst named Kevin Restivo shared their identity.

And the countries where Windows Phone has topped the iPhone are -- drumroll, please --

  1. Argentina!

  2. India!

  3. Poland!

  4. Russia!

  5. South Africa!

  6. Ukraine!

  7. A market IDC identifies as "the rest of Central and Eastern Europe," which includes Croatia!


None of these markets, obviously, bring in the sales numbers of the United States or China; indeed, three of them, the Times notes, meant less than 100,000 handset shipments for Microsoft. And, also, we're talking about shipments and not sales, meaning that Microsoft is bragging about how many devices it sent to retailers, and not how many phones it had actually sold to end users.

Still, though, topping the iPhone anywhere represents a small victory for Windows Phone, Microsoft's late-to-market mobile operating system which really only debuted in its current form about three years ago. Since then, the story behind Windows Phone has been that it has struggled to gain market share from industry leaders iOS and Android, despite huge advertising spending campaigns; enthusiastic reviews from tech critics and journalists and a partnership with what was the world's largest mobile phone maker, Nokia.

And yet even with all that firepower, Windows Phone has languished in the single percentage points for market share, both worldwide and in the United States, failing to catch on with a broader populace in any meaningful way.

So while winning Poland might not seem like anything to brag about (especially for a mega-corporation like Microsoft)), Microsoft and its Windows Phone division will surely accept and blast out any kind of victory, no matter how minor it might appear. If all those Jessica Alba and Cam Newton and Gwen Stefani Windows Phone advertisements start paying off in America, there is no doubt that Microsoft will be sharing those accomplishments as well.

Apple, meanwhile, probably isn't shaking in its figurative boots over this news. These markets are small and business is quite robust elsewhere.

There is some reason to pause, however: Apple's failure to infiltrate markets like India (where it is apparently losing to Windows Phone) speaks to a wider issue facing the iPhone in emerging economies. In countries like China and India, carriers do not subsidize the cost of the phone for the customer like they do in the United States, which means that shoppers are paying full price for the phone upfront. In other words, a new iPhone 5 costs something like $700 instead of $200, which has proven prohibitive for many Indian and Chinese shoppers and has, at least in part, prevented Apple from gaining a foothold in those markets.

A budget iPhone -- or iPhone nano, or iPhone mini, whatever you want to call it -- is Apple's long-rumored solution to that problem, an iPhone that is cheaper to make and that would cost less upfront money. Apple has once again been predicted to release a budget iPhone in summer 2013, thereby attacking Android's dominance in China (and in all seven of the countries listed above). If the appeal of the iPhone is so weak in those countries that it is getting defeated by Windows Phone, then Apple will need a different approach to secure any kind of momentum there.

And so we will wait to see if Apple does indeed out an iPhone nano this year, or if it is happy to surrender those emerging markets to Google and Microsoft in return for continued appeal in the West. In the meantime, grab a plate of varenyky and wash it down with a nice glass of Slavutich, Microsoft execs: You are winning over customers in the Ukraine. All you have to do now is win over the rest of the world.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that Vince Young had appeared in commercials for Windows Phone. He has not. Cam Newton, however, has appeared in Windows Phone advertisements. ]]> Carly Foulkes, 'T-Mobile Girl,' Looks Like She's Been Fired tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-27T17:04:17-04:00 2013-03-27T19:13:42-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/
Carly Foulkes -- otherwise known as "T-Mobile Carly" or "the T-Mobile Girl" -- does not appear in the company's most recent advertisements, which debuted on Tuesday, nor was she present at the New York City event announcing the wireless carrier's aggressive new pricing strategy, two ominous signs that the familiar promotional character has been axed.

Unlike virtually every T-Mobile television commercial and print advertisement since 2010, when Carly debuted as a pink-dress-wearing spokeswoman for the fourth-largest mobile carrier in America, Foulkes was nowhere to be seen in T-Mo's "UnCarrier" promotional material. A T-Mobile spokesperson told Business Insider that Carly will not appear in this round of ads, which BI writer Jim Edwards takes to mean that the actress's association with T-Mobile is kaput.

We followed up with T-Mobile, asking specifically in an email and over the phone whether Foulkes was out at T-Mobile, and a spokesman sent us this response:

As T-Mobile un-leashes its bold new plans to reinvent the way people purchase wireless, we’ll be launching a new brand and advertising campaign to clearly show consumers how T-Mobile is shaking up the restrictive industry model. This campaign represents a new direction for the brand -- offering consumers a simple choice. As such, the current campaign will not feature the character of the T-Mobile Girl, however she is still a part of the company’s brand family. We’re shooting from the hip and think you’re gonna love our cage-rattling approach.


That "new direction for the brand" line -- a beautiful bit of corporate-speak -- likely means that the T-Mobile Girl is T-Mobile Gone.

For those of you a bit foggy on who this "T-Mobile Girl" is, here are several of her advertisements for the company, back to back to back. A greatest hits compilation, if you will:



Now, there is some hope. As the T-Mobile spokesman wrote, Carly is "still a part of the company's brand family," which means the door is still open for her return, should she choose to make a grand, Hulk Hogan-esque reemergence after a few years. Reading between the lines, however, it would seem as though T-Mobile is taking its new marketing campaign in a direction that does not include the T-Mobile girl and her motorcycle.

Dumping Carly makes sense from a logical standpoint, given T-Mobile's announcement. In case you missed it, the wireless carrier said it would essentially drop the two-year contract model that is familiar from competitors AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, and instead adopt a model that is less expensive per month for many consumers.

"We're canceling our membership in the out-of-touch-wireless-carrier-club," a large banner on T-Mobile.com reads. In other words, T-Mobile is reinventing itself and attempting to re-program the way most people think about it. Cutting ties with its highly-recognizable spokesperson feels like a rational move.

If you want your Carly fix, then, you might need to start looking elsewhere. The actress Carly Foulkes is on Twitter, and you can follow her right here. ]]> BlackBerry Z10 Review: A Smartphone Born Too Late, Good But Not Great, Cursing Its Fate tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-22T12:53:59-04:00 2013-03-22T12:54:02-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/ released for the first time in America Friday on AT&T for $199 on contract, for the same price (and in the same year) as the far more polished iPhone 5, Galaxy S 4 and HTC One.

Here is a smartphone that was born too late, that should have debuted years ago when Apple was still refining iOS and Android was still a laggy, unattractive, pixellated goop of icons and widgets.

So while the Z10 brims with solid ideas about smartphone productivity and the best touchscreen keyboard I've ever used, its glitchy software, unimpressive app section and general, unavoidable rawness render it virtually un-buyable for all but the most devoted BlackBerry zealots and bravest early adopters.

THE PROS

1. The on-screen keyboard is, I think, the best I have ever used on any smartphone. It is fast, accurate, responsive and very easy to get accustomed to. While I never found an occasion to use the automatic word suggestions that pop up above each letter as you type, it didn't really matter: Typing on the QWERTY was quick enough. If only Google or Apple could figure out how to make such an excellent keyboard.

2. The Hub is BlackBerry's smart take on the Android Notifications Bar (and, uh, Apple's not-at-all stolen Notifications bar), and it appears to have a much smarter organization. Instead of a list of updates segregated by app, if you swipe all the way to the left on the Z10 you get to the Hub, which is a column that quickly shows you the number of new updates you have in each of your primary apps. If you have a new update, you tap on the name of the app and it takes you there. Simple, smart, fast.

blackberry screenshots copy

Two screenshots: The BlackBerry Hub, on the left; the fantastic BlackBerry Z10 keyboard, on the right.



3. Sleep! From the homescreen, you can swipe down from the top and turn notifications off for a set amount of time, which is similar to Apple's Do Not Disturb function but can be accessed much faster. Again, a nice feature that, hypothetically, increases your productivity by decreasing the amount of time you have to spend on your smartphone.

4. One-Handed Use. There is a fairly persistent argument in the nerdier corners of the web about the importance of one-handed smartphone use, and just how important it is to be able to completely operate your smartphone using one hand while you drive or walk down the street or otherwise keep one hand occupied elsewhere.

Well, the BlackBerry Z10 is easier to operate with one hand than the iPhone is, which was heretofore the easiest. There is no home button on the Z10, only a button on top to power the display on and off. All navigation is accomplished by a new system called Flow, an apt name for the series of cross-screen swipes needed to access absolutely anything on the Z10. Swipe all the way right to get to your familiar tray of icons; swipe all the way left to view the Hub; swipe up from the bottom to zoom out and go to any screen; swipe down from the top to access settings.

This was a bit harder to master than the keyboard, but I found myself comfortable with Flow in a few days. It's not perfect -- sometimes I longed for a home button to just get me to the icons already -- but if you're someone who is constantly trying to get things done with one hand, you would appreciate the speed with which Flow allows you to switch between apps, screens and accounts.



THE CONS

The Z10 represents BlackBerry's first real attempt at a modern smartphone; as such, most of its faults result from its newness. Apple, Samsung and HTC have been building versions of its current smartphones for years, and are on their sixth and seventh generations. This is a first-generation device with first-generation issues.

1. The Apps. BlackBerry is boasting that it has 100,000 apps in its BlackBerry World store, but there are two problems with this brag:

a) Apple's App Store has 900,000 apps, and Android's has 800,000.
b) The apps in those app stores are much, much better than those in BlackBerry's.

I had problems loading and refreshing Twitter on my Z10; Facebook often updated with friends' statuses from months ago; BlackBerry's Maps application failed to locate three different establishments -- one of which was the Barclays Center in Brooklyn -- when I searched for them. These are the apps that are pre-loaded on the device; again, they are all first-generation, so they will take time to improve. On iOS and Android, these apps are far more refined.

And, too, the absences: There is no Spotify, or Netflix, or Instagram. When will these arrive, if they ever do? It depends on device sales, I'd guess, which fans of Windows Phone know is never a guarantee.

2. General glitchiness. Apps crashed; the device registered touches I wasn't making; connectivity would be lost and then recovered without warning. All of this could be fixed by a subsequent update to the firmware, which manufacturers push to customers all the time. Here's hoping. The level of glitchiness I experienced was unacceptable when measured against competitors' devices.

3. General Ugliness. Windows Phone and iOS both pride themselves on gorgeous design choices, and even Android is showing some signs of beauty; by those standards, BlackBerry's OS is hideous. Everything just looks very flat and uninspired, like BlackBerry chose the layout and then forgot to clean up the font and images. This is especially true of the icon tray, which looks like a rough sketch of the first generation of Android. BlackBerry 10 is an office of fluorescent lights, cubicle farms and moldy carpeting in an age of soft lighting, standing desks and wood floors.

blackberry ugly
Berry ugly: BlackBerry needs to up its design game, fast.


4. Battery Life: Was a bit disappointing. Lasted through the day, but only barely.

*

Summing up: The Z10 is a good first effort for a company that should be making its fifth effort by now. And while the company shows enough promise and fresh ideas to make us excited for the Z11, it did not execute the Z10 well enough to make us want to purchase it. Stick to the iPhone 5, Galaxy S4, HTC One or Nexus 4.

For two more in-depth reviews of the Z10, check out our partners at TechCrunch and Engadget. For further reading, see "Miniver Cheevy" by Edgar Arlington Robinson.



]]> Google Maze: New Game For Chrome Turns Your Favorite Website Into A Ridiculous Marble Maze tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-21T10:31:24-04:00 2013-03-21T15:50:21-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/
The ever-busy tech giant has launched World Wide Maze, a funky interactive game that turns any website into a 3D maze that you must navigate a marble through using a smartphone as a controller. The game is specially-made for Google's Chrome browser and if you want to get the full experience, you have to download Chrome for both your desktop and your smartphone and then sync the two together so that the game works on both devices.

That may sound a bit confusing, but it's really quite simple once you get going. Google Chrome Japan has created a video that shows you the basics of gameplay.



Get it? Sync your smartphone and desktop and search for any website your heart desires. Google will render it into a 3D maze with little crystals you must attain on your path to the finish line; just tilt your smartphone to control the direction of the marble. You'll need iOS 5 or above or Android 4.0 or above in order for the game to work; I was able to get it running on both an iPhone and Nexus 4 here at the HuffPost offices, where I have been bothering my coworkers for the last thirty minutes with my giggling and squeals of delight.

To try World Wide Maze at your own home (or office), you can visit chrome.com/maze. You will need to download the Google Chrome browser for either iOS or Android; you can download the iOS version here, or the Android version here.

Once you've done that, you can marble-maze your day away. Might I suggest a game of World Wide Maze on the Huffington Post homepage?

chrome maze]]> Bombproof Watch: Kaventsmann Triggerfish Bronze A2 Can Survive An Enormous Explosion tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-21T09:13:43-04:00 2013-03-21T10:14:03-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/
"I think if you’ve got a T-shirt with a bloodstain all over it," Seinfeld quipped, "maybe laundry isn’t your biggest problem."

And thus we introduce you to the Kaventsmann Triggerfish Bronze A2, a wristwatch that can sustain the impact of 10 pounds of C-4 exploding just feet away from it. We don't suppose that "bombproof" is one of the key selling points of the Triggerfish, but if it is -- well, if you need a wristwatch that can survive a C-4 explosion, then maybe finding the right wristwatch isn't your biggest problem.

Anyway, the German watch designer Kaventsmann (actually just a one-man shop in Berlin, according to Gear Patrol) wanted everyone to know just how impervious its watches are to even the mightiest crashes and falls. So, Kaventsmann shipped a few Triggerfish Bronze A2 models to the U.S. Special Forces and had them attempt to blow up the watches with 10 pounds of the plastic explosive C-4.

The crew strapped the C-4 to a metal pole and then placed the watch about three feet away in the dirt. After they were a safe distance away, they detonated the C-4.

Here are a couple photos of the results, via Kaventsmann's Facebook page:

watch kaventsmann

First test.


kaventsmann watch
Second test. One of the straps was blown clear, but the watch remained in tact.


If you find yourself in need of a bombproof watch for any reason, you better act fast: Kaventsmann hand-makes its watches and is only hand-making 30 Triggerfish Bronze A2s. It appears that only 15 are available as of right now. No price is listed, but the Daily Mail reports that one watch will set you back 1,600 euros, or about $2,071. You can find out more, and perhaps place an order, on the Kaventsmann Facebook page. ]]> Watch Apple's Latest Hire, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, Steamroll And Explode An iPhone (VIDEO) tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-20T13:28:13-04:00 2013-03-20T13:28:15-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/
Yes, you may have already heard that Apple has poached former Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch to be its new VP of Technology; and you may have already read that Lynch has a history of bashing Apple products. But what you may not know is that Lynch also once filmed a video of himself and another Adobe employee destroying the iPhone using a variety of increasingly sadistic methods.

As pointed out by the Apple-obsessed blog Daring Fireball, this YouTube video from 2009 shows then-Adobe CTO Lynch and former Adobe executive John Loiacono inventing creative ways to "merge" Adobe Flash and the iPhone in a promotional video for that year's AdobeMAX conference. All of the methods involve the complete destruction of the iPhone, which -- you might recall -- famously never supported Flash.

Watch Apple's latest hire shattering several iPhones below:



At least he'll have something to talk about on his first day!]]> Zoe, Creepy Floating Woman's Head, Could Read You Your Text Messages In The Future (WATCH) tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-19T17:30:56-04:00 2013-03-19T17:30:59-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/
Well, friend, that crazy dream of yours might just be closer to reality than you think. Researchers at the University of Cambridge have unveiled their latest progress on Zoe, a "digital talking head which can express human emotions on demand" with "unprecedented realism." Gizmag pointed out the disembodied head to us.

In other words: Something like the head in the video below could be the embodiment of your next personal assistant like Siri; a human representation of the reader of your next audiobook; or just the big face that reads you all of your text messages from now on.

Watch below to see who might be waiting in your SMS inbox in the years to come:



As you can see in the video, for any given sentence or phrase, the developers of Zoe created a sliding scale of emotions that can be plugged in and represented facially in the resulting line read. In a perfect world you'd be able to access this face, and this technology, on your smartphone, so that a lifelike avatar could read out any text on your screen with the correct corresponding emotion.

Eventually, too, the Cambridge researchers hope to integrate technology that would allow you to import a model of your own floating head, perhaps by uploading several photos. In that case, you could have a floating, talking head for each of your phone contacts, individually reading each of his or her text messages or emails to you, on the screen.

This could usher in a new era of what Zoe's creators call "face-messaging": Essentially, a text message you send that is then spoken by an animated, anatomically-realistic 3D likeness of your friend's face.

There are many, many companies both large and small working on natural human-computer interaction. The most famous is perhaps Apple, who programmed its personal assistant Siri to understand normal spoken language and to occasionally respond to queries with snark and wisecracks. IBM's Watson computer has also proven to be quite the quick learner, and there have been somewhat persistent rumors that he would show up in a smartphone sometime soon.

Where Zoe separates herself from those more refined projects, however, is in her facial expressions, especially ones she can make on the fly while gleaning meaning from written words. And now the real question: If you could cast any actress to play Siri on your smartphone, who would it be? Dame Judi Dench gets my vote, but I'm open to reasonable outside suggestions. ]]> BlackBerry Music Video: Employee Band Celebrates Z10 Release With Horrible Song tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-19T13:03:13-04:00 2013-03-19T13:04:25-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/ Maybe instead of hiring Alicia Keys as its new creative director, BlackBerry should have gone with Weird Al?

To raise awareness of the imminent American release of its Z10 smartphone, the embattled handset maker has put out a music video covering the Etta James jazz classic "At Last," with the words changed to celebrate the launch of BlackBerry's long-delayed, company-saving phone. (Sample lyrics: "At Last/Oh, the promise has come true/Your games and apps are in the storefront/On our new platform built for you.")

The song was recorded by real-life, honest-to-goodness BlackBerry employees, all three of them with the title "vice president"; you may remember a similar video from September 2012, with the same VPs wailing away on a cover of the REO Speedwagon number "I Just Wanna Keep On Lovin You."

You can watch the BlackBerry version of "At Last" below. Note that you might be muttering the title of the song when the video reaches its end:



To be charitable, that REO Speedwagon cover -- regardless of its artistic merits -- did succeed in attracting attention to BlackBerry's new phones: "Devs, BlackBerry Is Going To Keep On Loving You" has currently scored almost 450,000 YouTube views. Granted, much of the press coverage of the video tilted toward the negative, but, hey, all publicity is good publicity, right?

That we're even talking about BlackBerry as a viable alternative to the iPhone or any number of Android smartphones represents something of a coup for the manufacturer, whose premature obituary has been written more frequently than perhaps any other tech company's.

blackberry z10 model
A model poses with the BlackBerry Z10 during a launch event in Indonesia. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)


The new BlackBerry smartphones have begun to ship overseas, and early signs are at least somewhat encouraging. Reviews have been, if not overly enthusiastic, at least respectable. An anonymous customer bought 1 million BlackBerrys, launching an intriguing detective search into that mystery man, woman or corporation's identity. There are at least pulses of life, in other words, which is something we might not have been able to declare six months ago, when it appeared that BlackBerry 10 might be released at the same time as the next Harper Lee novel.

We should know in the coming months whether the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone is the company's last, or whether, at last, BlackBerry has saved itself. Having used the Z10 for the past week, I can at least say this: BlackBerry is better at making smartphones than it is at making music videos.]]> BlackBerry CEO, Of All People, Thinks iPhone Has Gotten Stale After 5 Years Without Change tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-18T16:47:05-04:00 2013-03-18T17:47:10-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/ growing chorus of Apple and iPhone skeptics.

In a widely-circulated interview with The Australian Financial Review, Heins implies that Apple, while deserving credit for inventing the smartphone as we know it, has not innovated enough since the iPhone's 2007 debut. The iPhone is now old and stale, Heins says.

The money quote:

“Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market … They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon. There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that,” Mr Heins said.

“History repeats itself again I guess … the rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.”


BlackBerry (formerly known as Research In Motion) just released its BlackBerry 10 operating system, which Heins naturally offers as the antidote to the iOS stagnation. BB10 is based on an innovative concept called "Flow," which means, in part, that the user never has to hit the home button to return to the start screen. You can read more about BlackBerry 10, and get a sense of how it's different from Apple's iOS, here.

Heins joins a growing list of mobile tech execs taking to the press to lash out against a competitor -- though most of the smack talk has been directed at a the latest Galaxy S phone. Phil Schiller, a VP at Apple, bashed Android in interviews with The Wall Street Journal and Reuters prior to the launch of the Samsung's Galaxy S4; after the launch of the GS4, execs at HTC told journalists that Samsung's latest was "more of the same."

Apple has been the target of executive criticism in the past, however. Last year, the acting president of HTC America criticized the iPhone's waning coolness, calling it the phone that everyone's dad uses. Most notably, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer predicted in 2007 -- back when iOS was designed and first launched -- that the iPhone would be a flop, and that it would never garner significant market share.

Publicly criticizing the opponent is a more regular practice than you might think, in other words. If there's anything striking about Heins' comments, it might be that one of the causes of BlackBerry's downfall was, in fact, a failure to innovative. A writer at the tech site GigaOM called out Heins for pot-calling-the-kettle-back syndrome.

If Heins was trying to drum up publicity in advance of BlackBerry 10's United States debut, however, he seems to have accomplished just that (which is more than you can say about other publicity stunts). elsewhere in the interview with the AFR, Heins mentions that he expects BlackBerry's app store to feature 100,000 apps by the time BB10 is made available in America later this week. Convenient timing for a salacious quote attacking one of the industry leaders to appear in the press, no?]]> New iPhone To Bring The Color, The Fingerprint: This Week In Apple Rumors tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-17T16:47:12-04:00 2013-03-17T23:37:47-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/ Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to This Week In Apple Rumors, our regular look back at all of the week's unconfirmed gossip, questionably sourced reports and blatant speculation about future Apple products from around the Web! Let's take a look back at what the various Apple blogs and websites were excited about in the past week, from March 11-17. Check out our previous edition of Apple rumors here, and for all the latest you can follow me on Twitter right here.

*


In new rumors that may or may not be "Based On A Tru Story": If all you want for your birthday is a big new iPhone, then you might be in for a treat: Two Phonez!

Yes, we're shamelessly popping off some half-hearted 2 Chainz puns for This Week In Apple Rumors, as all of the conversation is once again surrounding the impending summer launch of the next generation of (two!) iPhones.

2 phones

It was a slow week in Apple rumors, of course. Samsung stole most of the spotlight, releasing a Galaxy S4 with some innovative new gesture controls: You can fast-forward to the next song in the music player by swiping your palm over the display, pause a video by moving your eyes, forward an email by licking your lips seductively, send a tweet by popping your booty over the front camera, and more. Inventive stuff. Transformative.

So, how will Apple respond? Not much in the way of new rumors, but we heard another report that the next flagship Apple smartphone will include a fingerprint sensor underneath the home button, for increased device security and perhaps Apple's launch into the payments space. (A fingerprint sensor is far harder to crack than a numerical password and might make buyers more comfortable storing credit card information on his or her phone; you can read all about why we think the next iPhone will include a fingerprint sensor right here).

This new report comes from the sketchy-ish Chinese language news source the China Times, which says simply that the new iPhone will include NFC (the technology that allows you to bump your device up against another device to swap information; it's in the Galaxy S4, of course) as well as a fingerprint sensor for increased security. You can read the English-language version of the report at the redoubtable 9to5Mac.

The basis of the fingerprint sensor rumor, by the way, is the respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who is thought to have excellent sources in the Apple supply chain. And speaking of Kuo, he was back with another rumor this week -- this time concerning the other iPhone we're expect this year.

Yes, that's right: We're looking for Apple to release two new iPhones in 2013, at roughly the same time. One -- the one with the fingerprint sensor -- would be the top-of-the-line, premium iPhone 5S. The other one would be a cheaper, budget iPhone aimed at emerging economies where smartphone sales aren't subsidized by service providers, and where an $800 iPhone is way too expensive for most shoppers to consider, whether they fancy an Apple product or not.

Now then: A lot of analysts think this budget iPhone is arriving this year (finally). And Kuo told AppleInsider this week that he expects the iPhones to resemble the iPhone 5, with a 4.0-inch screen, and to arrive in "four to six colors," to differentiate them. He expects them to have a less premium feel, though, with a case made of a plastic compound, so that Apple can save some dough on the production and pass those savings on to the consumers. AppleInsider has more.

(Here is the part where we tell you that analysts have been predicting a budget iPhone since 2007 and it hasn't happened yet, and so don't get your hopes up).

Anyway, as of now, the common wisdom says that Apple will release two new iPhone this summer, some time between July and August, one of them internal upgrade on the iPhone 5S, perhaps with a fingerprint sensor; and one of them a cheaper version of the iPhone 5, with several different color cases, especially aimed at China and India. And that's all we think we know so far.

And also: That's all for This Week In Apple Rumors! Make sure you join us next week for all the latest in Apple rumorology; or if you can't wait a week, you can always get up-to-the-minute Apple rumors by following me on Twitter right here.

]]> Samsung's Other New Products: A Scale, A Game Controller And Flip Cover With Viewing Window tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-15T15:17:39-04:00 2013-03-15T15:18:43-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/ Galaxy S4 may have stolen the show -- and indeed, constituted the entirety of it -- but Samsung also unveiled several accessories to go along with its new smartphone on Thursday night.

Three of the new devices are related to S Health, a fitness tracking app that debuted with the Galaxy S4. Samsung will sell a connected wristband (similar to the Nike+ Fuelband or Jawbone Up) called the S Band, which will act as a pedometer and distance tracker, and will also tell you how much you moved during sleep. It will sell for $100. The Samsung Body Scale is a bathroom scale that will also sell for $100. Another device, called the Health Rate Monitor (or HRM), will measure your heart rate as you sleep, and will sell for $70. Each of the devices is Bluetooth-connected to send its data to your Galaxy S4 and sync directly into the S Health app.

Samsung pitched the S Health as a unified calorie counter and fitness diary, where users can log the food that they ate and input stats like weight, blood pressure and pulse. The S Band, Body Scale and HRM will apparently augment the usefulness and accuracy of that app's figures and analysis.

While we usually don't flip for covers (ha!), Samsung also introduced a neat new take on the tried-and-true flip cover at its event on Thursday. Like other flip covers, the S View flip cover powers down the phone's screen when it is covering the display. But unlike other flip covers, the S View contains a small window across the top of the device that shows a few vital notifications -- like the time, unread message count and missed calls.

Samsung will also sell a wireless charging pad. As on the Nokia Lumia 900, wireless charging capability is built directly into the Galaxy S4, so no cover or case is needed. No price was announced at the event.

Finally -- and perhaps most intriguingly -- Samsung also showed off a a Bluetooth-connected gaming controller and cradle at its event on Thursday. TechCrunch has a pretty thorough look at the controller, which it aptly compares to an Xbox controller. Curiously, the controller runs on AAA batteries and only works with games downloaded from the Samsung app store. It's also not compatible with any device other than the Galaxy S4 quite yet. No pricing was announced, though the controller will apparently be released by the end of the summer.

Engadget has video of the new controller in action.



For more about the Galaxy S4, check out all of our coverage here. You can find additional information about all of the accessories we mentioned above on Samsung's official website, though preorders have not yet begun. ]]> Galaxy S4 Features: All The New Things That Samsung's Latest Smartphone Can Do tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2013-03-14T19:30:01-04:00 2013-03-14T20:27:44-04:00 Jason Gilbert http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-gilbert/ our primary wrap-up about the S4 launch (with photos here), which happened Thursday evening in New York. Here is your unabridged and alphabetized version of every new feature -- or, at least, the really important ones -- you'll get with Samsung's latest volley in the smartphone wars:

Air Gestures: Refers to hand movements made above the phone's display, without coming into contact with the display, that controls the phone. Common gestures include waving your hand over the display to skip a track or waving left and right to switch between open web pages in the browser. These gestures only work with specific Samsung apps.

Air View: Like the stylus on the Galaxy Note 2, you can hover over the display with your finger to view information about certain pieces of content. For example, hovering your finger over an email shows you a longer preview without opening the message; hovering your finger over a date on the calendar shows you a quick view of what to expect on that day.

Drama Shot: Camera feature that shoots 12 photos at once and shows you a time-lapse of all the action in those photos combined into one picture.

Dual Camera: Activates both the rear camera and the front camera, so that the photographer can superimpose himself or herself into the subject of the photo. Samsung gave as an example someone watching football superimposing himself or herself into the game.

Dual Video Call: While video-chatting with someone, you can show them both your face and the view from your rear camera while you chat.

Group Play: Allows multiple Galaxy S4 owners in close proximity to join a private network in which they can, among other things, play a game.

S Health: New app that acts as a fitness tracker and food diary. The Galaxy S4 has a built-in pedometer to count your steps, and you can take photos of your meals each day to keep count of your calories and eating habits. Samsung will also sell a fitness bracelet, a digital scale and fitness belt to measure blood pressure, pulse, glucose levels and weight for those interested.

S Translator: An app in which you can input any of 10 languages and receive a translation, either spoken or in text. Also works to translate text on your email, text messages and a few other Samsung apps.

S Voice Drive: New hands-free function for drivers that allows the driver to operate the phone with his or her voice.

Samsung Adapt Display: The Galaxy S4 "learns" what you are viewing and adjusts the display's brightness accordingly. If the phone senses you are reading an article, for example, it will illuminate from a more muted brightness.

Samsung Adapt Sound: Similar to Adapt Display, your audio can adapt to the content you're listening to (video, music, etc.) and optimize itself to that content.

Samsung Optical Reader: Camera feature that can snap a photo of a business card and import that information into a new contact in your phonebook. Was not working as of demo time, but Samsung reps assured me it would be fixed by the time it shipped to consumers.

Samsung Smart Pause: When watching a video, the front camera can sense when your eyes move away from the screen and pause the video automatically if you aren't looking.

Samsung Smart Scroll: When you are reading an email or article on the web, you can scroll up and down by tilting the device up and down rather than swiping with your finger.

Samsung WatchON: A built-in IR sensor lets you control your television set with your smartphone. Comes with a standard remote and a program guide depending on your cable provider. Can also control certain cable boxes and DVD players.

Share Music: When linked with Group Play, multiple Galaxy S4s can work as surround sound speakers, all playing the same song at once.

Sound & Shot: Allows you to record up to nine seconds of audio at the time of taking each photo.

Story Album: Templates that allow you to create a digital photo journal or scrapbook from a certain event. You can also then order and print out that story album for a fee.

*

Phew! So, what do you think? Do any of these jump out at you, or are all of these destined to be unused features for Galaxy S4 owners? Fight it out in the comments below. (And, in case you were wondering: A Samsung spokeswoman told me that some of these features *might* be made available to older Galaxy S phones but declined to name which features, or when).
]]>