Agent Smart Watch SDK now available

The SDK for the Agent Smart Watch is now available to download. Developer Mike Hole has posted a brief tutorial on connecting a Windows Phone to the emulator for the accessory via Bluetooth, and is working on a Sample Project which should help other prospective Windows Phone developers get up and running rapidly.

Unlike most smart watches the Agent smart watch is a proper development platform, and runs on the .Net Micro framework, with developers coding in Visual Studio 2012 and able to deploy apps to an emulator to get up and running without actually having the watch, which will only become available in December 2013.

Interested developers can find the SDK here, and read more at Mike Hole’s blog here.

Nokia HERE Maps Now Features Indoor Maps Of 49,000 Buildings In 45 Countries

Nokia today announced some details on the HERE Venue Maps available for Nokia Lumia devices and Bing Maps. Nokia HERE Maps now features 49,000 buildings in 45 countries. This doesn’t only include shopping malls, but also stadiums, theme parks, historic streets, or other outdoor spaces, such as Carnaby Village and golf clubs.

We create precise Venue Maps by not only collecting floor plans, but by also physically visiting venues to ensure that our data is more accurate than those from competitors.

When the HERE team visits a venue they make sure the shapes and dimensions of the buildings and their facilities are correct so that what you see in our Venue Maps reflects what you see in reality. If the building has multiple floors, we also include those. This means that you can find what you’re looking for, no matter what floor it’s on.

We also add the useful attributes, such as ATM locations, escalators, different stores, gate numbers, and restrooms, across all floors.

Nokia has also posted a short guide on how to use this Venue maps on your Nokia Lumia device. You can read it with screenshots from the link below.

via: Nokia

Windows 8.1 lets users shut down from the Start button

The Start button is making a comeback in Windows 8.1 (formerly codenamed Blue) and it looks like it is going to bring back functionality that has been sorely missed by users in Windows 8.

Microsoft’s decision to not include the Start button has been heavily criticised, and although there were a lot of alternatives by vendors that offered an alternative, with Windows 8.1, the Start button is officially set to return.

In Windows 8.1, users can right-click the Start button and see the option to shutdown or restart Windows. This is sure to come as a welcome addition to many users who were befuddled with the lack of such a shutdown button till now. Also included in the right-click context menu are settings to disable the hot corners that enable the Charms, and the ability to boot directly to the desktop instead of having to navigate to the Start screen.

Windows 8.1 client preview is expected to be announced at Microsoft’s Build conference in San Francisco on June 26th.

Via: The Verge

Huawei Honor 3 live photos leak out

If you like your phones stylish, slender and decently fast, you don’t have to look further than Huawei’s newly unveiled Ascend P6. But what if you want something a little more robust, with a bigger battery and a lower price point?

That’s a tough one, but lucky for you Huawei has just the handheld in the pipeline – the Honor 3, aka HN3-U01. Spotted getting Tenaa’s stamp of approval not long ago, the thing has allegedly been caught on camera earlier today by a Chinese blog.

The photos look legit to me, so Honor 3’s commercial release seems just a matter of time. As far as the actual design goes, the similarities between this and its predecessor (last year’s Honor 2) are uncanny, but there are some common points between the Honor 3 and the Ascend P6 as well.

After all, it appears the Honor 3 will sport a 4.7-inch HD screen (1,280 x 720 pix res), which is the exact same display of the P6. In terms of dimensions, the Honor 3 is not tipped to be much higher or wider than the P6, so the bezels are still fairly slim, but it will be significantly “fatter” than its distant cousin.

While the Ascend P6 measures a (still) record-breaking 6.2 mm in thickness, the Honor 3 is said to come with a 9.9 mm profile. Another major difference between the two is the soon to be unveiled phone comes with an all-plastic exterior instead of the very elegant aluminum chassis of the P6.

If that’s the case though, why would anyone really want the Honor 3? Two reasons actually – pricing and a bigger battery. Rumor has it the Honor 2 follow-up will go for just 1,999 Yuan in China, which is roughly $320. Meanwhile, the P6 is expected to cost 2,680 Yuan, or $430.

The battery’s capacity, unknown at this point, is likely to considerably top the 2,000 mAh of the Ascend P6, while the rest of the features should at least be on-par. That means a quad-core 1.5 GHz processor, 2 gigs of RAM, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, 8 GB of on-board storage and microSD support are all in the cards, as is a 13 MP rear cam (vs. just 8 on the P6). Hmm, this Honor 3 is starting to sound interesting, right?

Via [Ameblo] and [Mobile PC Online]

Home built 8-bit PC has 16-cores, excels at multitasking

Hobbyist hacker Jake Eisenmann builds a multicore homebrew PC in his basement. It’s not a powerful machine, but it’s a cool experiment demonstrating multicore computing.

These days, a single-core device is simply outdated. Everything from PCs, notebooks, to smartphones are multi-core.

So, why should a single-core home built PC be good enough?

Jake Eisenmann, who earned his fame developing a homebrew 8-bit PC in his basement while in high school, has now completed a 16-core 8-bit homebrew PC. Called the DUO Mega it has 16 ATMega328p microcontrollers, linked together via a 8-bit data bus.  Each core is clocked at 16MHz. Because the hardware he chose to use is proprietaty and non-standard, the machine requires custom bytecode that was developed by Eisenmann. Eisenmann’s DUO Mega comes packed with 32kb of SRAM, 512kb of flash memory, and a VGA display port.

While the computer is primitive by any extent of the imagination, the point of Eisenmann’s exercise was to bring multicore computing — and with it the ability to multitask — to the ATMega328p processor. He probably won’t be able to play Crysis on his new creation, and the modern SoCs found in most cellphones probably have more FLOPs. But that’s not the point. As the video below shows, the 16 cores handle that task with relative ease:

Source: Hackaday

Fresh cyber attacks on South Korean websites blamed on N. Korea

South Korea has reported that many of their official government websites have been hit by powerful cyber-attacks that also coincide with the 63rd anniversary of the Korean War. 

As of 0300 GMT, the official South Korean presidential Blue House website was shut down, with a message reading, “Under Maintenance”.

On Tuesday, June 25th the South Korean science ministry announced that a ‘five-stage’ national cyber alert was raised from level one to level two.  “The government can confirm a cyber attack by unidentified hackers that shut down several sites including the Blue House,” the science ministry announced.

Hackers starting around 10:45 am GMT successfully hit a number of government websites including many news media sites. The office for Government Policy Coordination and the ruling New Frontier Party pages were hit in the attacks as well.

Strangely coincidental or possibly incidental, the multiple website attacks coincide with the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War that began on June 25, 1950.  Currently both North and South Korea are still in armistice, which is only a cessation in fighting, the implication being that the two are still technically in a state of war.

North Korea’s current leader is Kim Jong-un (“The Great Successor”) took immediate control over the hermit kingdom when his father, Kim Jong-un, passed away on December 19, 2011.

Almost immediately after the attacks began the South Korean ministry did not hesitate pointing the finger at their North Korean adversary.  Other recent large-scale cyber-attacks on numerous South Korean media groups and banking sites were successfully traced to originate from North Korea.  The South Korean government said there is no reason to think these sophisticated attacks did not come from anywhere else.

Some tried to say the hacktivist group “Anonymous” was behind the attacks, but those claiming to be connected to Anonymous denied any involvement, but have cheekily admitted hacking into many North Korean sites, such as the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and Rodong Sinmun website, which is North Korea’s official party newspaper.

South Korea suffered a large-scale attack on on March 20th earlier this year where numerous TV broadcasters such as KBS, MBC and YTN were taken offline.  Many banking institutions were hit hard as well.

Soon after the attacks, the South Korean government working along side private and contract Internet experts traced the attacks directly to six computers used by North Korea’s military intelligence agency.

The United States has backed up South Korea’s assumptions that North Korea is behind the attacks and said the reclusive communist North was employing numerous “sophisticated computer hackers” that were expertly trained for cyber attacks.  This testimony came directly from the U.S. Congressional Armed Services Committee and the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, Gen. James Thurman.  “Such attacks are ideal for North Korea” because they can be done anonymously,” Thurman said.  She further iterated that the North was, “employed against a variety of targets including military, governmental, educational and commercial institutions.”

Sony: PlayStation 4 coming to India this year

Sony has announced that the PlayStation 4 will launch in India by end of this year.

PlayStation India country manager Atindriya Bose said in an interview that the PlayStation 4 will launch at the same time as it does in Europe. Bose has confirmed that the console will hit store shelves in India by end of 2013.

“It will be matched with the European launch; give or take a bit to account for Indian logistics. The consoles have to be shipped in advance and all consoles also require certification for the Indian market. In terms of targeting, we’re looking to synchronise with the European launch,” Bose said.

When asked about the delays that hit the PS3 console and whether the same concerns would once again be seen in the PlayStation 4, Bose said, “It’s unfair to compare the PS4 with PS3 because we have come a long way,” he said. “With PS3, first the world launches took place and then we started looking at the other markets we wanted to go into. For PS4, it will have a timeline that is more aligned with what we had on PS Vita. Being a portable, the logistics had made it easier for us to launch day-and-date [with Europe]. Once we know the European date for PS4, we will work towards that, but there will be some gap, depending on the logistics.”

Rumours suggest that November 13th is the launch date for the PlayStation 4, so the device should be available in India by mid-December. This would mean that the PlayStation 4 will be available in the country a full year ahead of the Xbox One, as Microsoft had announced that the Xbox One won’t be launched in India till late 2014. Also, the PlayStation 4 costs a $100 less than the Xbox One.

Source

Alcatel announced its first Firefox OS based device, One Touch Fire

In a market dominated by Android and iOS devices, Alcatel has announced an entry-level handset running Firefox OS. The first Firefox based device is expected to launch in Europe and Latin America later this summer.

The device features a 3.5-inch HVGA display sporting 320×480 resolution, 3.2 MP camera, 1 GHz MSM 7227A CPU, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB internal storage with microSD support, and will be available in a variety of colors. The device packs a small 1400 mAh battery with an expected talk time of 6.7 hours on 2G and half of that on 3G.

The device doesn’t bring too much to the table compared to its competitors but it can be a good option for those people who are looking for a budget smartphone. We also reported earlier that Foxconn hired extra workforce to make sure the components are available in time for the launch of Firefox based devices.

We don’t know how successful the device will be, as the competition is tough even in the entry level market. Currently, the pricing and exact release dates have not yet announced yet.

I don’t know if I will even consider adding a Firefox OS based device in my buying list as there are so many good, entry level Android Smartphones available in the market that offers way more features compared to the Alcatel One Touch Fire. What do you people think? Can Firefox OS in any way, compete with the giants and minnows who are already serving the market?

Source: Alcatel via PhoneArena

OS X Mavericks Preview 2 seeded to developers

Apple has now seeded OS X Mavericks Preview 2 to developers, the release comes shortly after iOS 7 beta 2 was also seeded to developers. 

There are two ways through which registered developers can download OS X Mavericks Preview 2 for their compatible machines. If they already have Preview 1 up and running, the update will be available via the Mac App Store. Those developers who willing be installing OS X Mavericks Preview version for the first time can get this latest pre-release seed from the Mac Dev Center. Such firmware is only meant for developers, Apple does not release these builds for the public.

Announced at WWDC 2013, Apple calls OS X Mavericks “the most powerful OS X ever” as well as the most power efficient. The OS has a envy of energy saving technologies that developers’ apps are said to benefit from. OS X Mavericks brings a host of new features such as support for multiple displays, greater notification support and deep integration of LinkedIn. Apple hasn’t provided a specific public release date for this latest OS X platform update, only saying the release will take place this fall.

OS X Mavericks Preview 2 is now available for download from Mac Dev Center.

Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/os-x-mavericks-preview-2-seeded-to-developers/40990.html#ixzz2XEikacUW

Google index privacy gets thumbs-up but publishers decry “abusive” search

Google faces good news and bad in Europe this week, with potential vindication over what personal data it can index but vocal rejection of its proposed concessions around equality in search. The search giant has been facing attacks from multiple directions in recent months, with the EC investigating whether it contravened privacy laws or acted in an anti-competitive manner over search results and how data from rival companies is indexed and presented. Good news on one front has coincided with bad news from another.

At issue in the privacy case is whether Google should be able to gather publicly available information, with users in France and Spain arguing that it infringes their personal rights to have such data included in the company’s index. Several requests for information – gathered during crawling of public sources, such as local newspapers – to be deleted from the index have been made by users in Europe.

However, European Union privacy adviser Advocate General Niilo Jaaskinen says, Google shouldn’t be held accountable. “Requesting search engine service providers to suppress legitimate and legal information that has entered the public domain would entail an interference with the freedom of expression” he wrote in a statement on the case.

‘This is a good opinion for free expression” Google spokesperson Bill Echikson told Reuters, though it remains to be seen whether the EU court will agree with Jaaskinen. A decision is expected before the end of the year, and it’s common for courts to side with the Advocate General’s opinion.

However, there’s bad news on other fronts. Google had been hoping that its voluntary concessions – which include highlighting which search results are pushed from its own services, and flagging up content from rival providers – would meet with approval and allow it to escape censure, but the complaints have come thick and fast. Even as soon as Google made them, arguments that they were insufficient were being made, but now the European Publishers’ Council has weighed in as well.

In a statement from the organization – which represents hundreds of international and local publishers including News International, Thomson Reuters, and Guardian Media Group, TechCrunch reports – Google’s proposals are described as potentially more dangerous than the current system. For instance, the suggestion that its own links be more clearly labeled to highlight what content is coming from Google itself is being seen as a disadvantage.

“Publishers say that this will mislead consumers into thinking these [highlighted results] were somehow tailor made results to their search queries and interests, thereby causing even greater harm to competition” the Council says.

Google, meanwhile, argues that it is focused solely on giving its users the best results, and dismisses the criticisms by rivals as being made in their own self-interest rather than for the good of actual users. “Our proposals are meaningful and comprehensive, providing additional choice and information while also leaving room for future innovation” senior VP and general counsel Kent Walker said this week. “As we’ve always said, we build Google for users, not websites. And we don’t want to hamper the very innovations that people like best about Google’s services.”