Win! A brand new Surface Pro 3

The highly-anticipated Surface Pro 3 tablet is currently available for pre-order from Microsoft Store UK – ahead of its UK launch on August 28.

And to celebrate, we're giving one lucky Tech Radar reader the chance to win a Surface Pro 3, complete with docking station and Red type cover – exclusive to the Microsoft Store.

The Surface Pro 3 is the thinnest and lightest in the acclaimed Surface family, barely tipping the scales at 798 grams.

Pre-loaded with Windows 8.1 Pro, powered by a 4th generation Intel Core processor and featuring a stunning 12-inch display, the Surface Pro 3 gives you all of the power and performance a premium laptop in a thin and lightweight design.

Want to enter? Here's our Surface Pro 3 competition

Source: www.techradar.com

Read More

Kindle Voyage sets sail as the thinnest, brightest Amazon e-reader to date

Amazon is out to redefine e-readers yet again with the new Kindle Voyage, a thin and light electronic booklet that won't break the bank.

The Voyage is Amazon's thinnest to date, measuring 7.6mm and weighing less than 6.4 ounces. The Kindle Paperwhite measured 9.1mm thick and weighed 7.3 ounces, to give you an idea.

Retailer listings for the Voyage surfaced earlier in the day, and it turns out it was only a matter of time before this e-reader showed its face.

It's up for pre-order now on Amazon for $199 or £169 (cAU$221), and the Kindle Voyage release date is scheduled for October 21 or November 4 in the UK.

Trippin'

Utilizing a new Paperwhite display, the Voyage counts 300 pixels (the Kindle Paperwhite has 212ppi) in every inch of its 6-inch display. Amazon claimed it has highest marks in three area: resolution, contrast and brightness (39% brighter, thank you very much).

On-board storage measures 4GB, and you should have plenty of time to read all your titles as a single charge can last up to six weeks.

The front light is adaptive, meaning it can be personalized to everyone's reading light preferences. What's more, the display will dim after 30 minutes in a darker setting as the human eye eventually gets used to the darkness.

The Kindle Voyage comes stacked with a new page turning called PagePress. PagePress makes use of a specialty force sensor located right under the e-reader's bezel. Rest your thumb on the bezel, and the page will turn as you lightly press down.

Haptic feedback lets you know the page is actually turning, and both the feedback vibration and amount of pressure needed to turn a page can be personalized.

Amazon is offering free 3G with the new slate as well as a new Origami cover designed just for the tablet.

New old Kindles

The cheap Kindle also got a touch-up, literally, as it now supports your fingers pressing and swiping along its display. The e-reader also now features a 20% faster processor and double the storage, up to 4GB.

Priced at $79 or £59 (cAU$88), the new Kindle is also up for pre-order and will launch October 2.

The Kindle Paperwhite, meanwhile, also doubled up on its storage, probably so it wouldn't feel left out.

Source: www.techradar.com

Read More

The big iPhone is here, with a stunning design and sizeable body

A 5.5-inch iPhone. It's something which will send a shudder down the spines of a collective of die-hard Apple fans, a handset some thought we'd never see from the Cupertino-based outfit. 

Yet here I am, staring down the barrel of the biggest iPhone in history - the iPhone 6 Plus.

It arrived alongside the iPhone 6 - Apple's new flagship smartphone - which measures 4.7 inches, making it more welcoming to a wider array of palms than the supersized iPhone 6 Plus.

Many of you, especially those of an Android persuasion, may be wondering what all the fuss is about. After all the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 turned up with a 5.5-inch display over two years ago.

Take a moment to glance at the history of the iPhone though, and you'll see why the iPhone 6 Plus is such a big deal.

To view full post go to the source website.

Source: www.techradar.com

Read More

We made weed butter with a 'magical' machine

I'm writing this while under the influence of semilegal marijuana. Mostly to replicate my state of mind from multiple weekends ago. I'd gathered a group of coworkers at my North Oakland home to test a single-use kitchen gadget called the Magical Butter, and doing so required that we get high.

Testing a device that looks something akin to an electric water kettle isn't a daily occurrence at Engadget, but Magical Butter claims to be "the world's only botanical extractor." It boasts "fully automatic, microprocessor-controlled program sequences," an "integrated digital thermostat and sensors" for "laboratory-grade temperature control" and something called "Digital Fire Technology." Basically, it's a high-tech weed butter maker.

Both Washington and Colorado recently legalized recreational marijuana; New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd chronicled a candy bar-induced psychedelic freakout, while the paper called for an end to pot prohibition; and Wired's Mat Honan likened the rapid growth in weed-related startups to the Gold Rush in an article entitled "High Tech." This is the time for a technologically advanced "botanical extractor," if there ever was one. And given our position as a trusted voice in consumer electronics reviews, we considered it our duty, nay, our calling to put it to the test.

To view full post go to the source website.

Source: www.engadget.com

Read More

Sony's SmartEyeglass prototype makes Google Glass look chic

As Sony's smartphone division continues to struggle, the company is working out what it needs to return to profitability. Does it concentrate on the high-end market dominated by Apple and Samsung, or does it try to appeal to customers looking to get their very first smartphone? One thing you might not expect is for the company to push forward with the release its own smart eyewear, a Google Glass clone of sorts, that connects to its devices to superimpose images, videos and text into the wearers view. "SmartEyeglass," as it's known, looks like a bulky pair of 3D glasses that have been modified to include a 3-megapixel camera, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, brightness sensor, a microphone and a pretty large battery pack.

Sony says that while SmartEyeglass is currently in the prototype stage, it can already connect to a range of smartphones (running Android 4.1 and up) to deliver hologram-like visuals through its lenses. The lens is just 3mm thick, 85 percent transparent and sucks up less energy thanks to its monochrome display. Unlike Google Glass, which can host its own apps, Sony wants developers to build smartphone apps that can then connect to SmartEyeglass over Bluetooth, so it's opening its software kit today to get things started. It hopes to put the prototype hardware on sale by the end of March 2015, after which it'll look to get it into consumers' hands.

source: www.engadget.com

Read More

Harmony Takes Control of Home Sweet Automated Home

Logitech has announced four new products for the smart home in its Harmony family that let users control TVs, set-top boxes, speakers, lighting, thermostats, door locks, window shades and more.

Users can trigger activities such as dimming the house lights in several ways: by pressing a button on their remote; passing a sensor; using the Harmony mobile app; or by setting up an automatic schedule.

The idea "is to integrate all your home's devices into a single experience and centralized system," Logitech spokesperson Kelsey Sherman told TechNewsWorld.

"What makes Harmony unique is that you can group devices and commands together to create an experience such as "Welcome Home" or "Watch a Movie," she said. "With one touch of the remote's touchscreen, your TV turns on; your Philips hue lights dim; the perfect temperature is set on your Nest Learning Thermostat; and a movie starts streaming through your Roku."

All the companies mentioned are among Logitech's partners for the Harmony family of products.

Harmony Is Such a Lovely Word

The Harmony Home Hub is Logitech's living room hub. It uses RF, infrared, Bluetooth and WiFi to relay commands from Harmony Living Home remotes or the Harmony Mobile App to users' home entertainment and home automation devices.

The Hub is included with the Logitech Ultimate Home and the Logitech Harmony Home Control remotes. People who want to control their entertainment and home automation devices through their smartphones or tablets can purchase it separately for US$100.

The Harmony Ultimate Home remote has a 2.4-inch color touchscreen. It lets users integrate and control all their compatible home automation devices as well as up to 15 home entertainment devices.

It's offered in black or white, including the Home Hub, for $350.

The Harmony Home Control is your standard push-button remote. With the Harmony Hub, it lets users control home automation devices and up to eight home entertainment devices.

It's available in black or white for $150.

If all that automation should still not be enough, consumers can purchase the Harmony Hub Extender for $130.

It extends control to lights, locks, sensors, garage doors, and other devices operating through ZigBee or Z-Wave.

Partnerships and Other Details

 August, Honeywell, Kwikset, Lutron, PEQ, Schlage, SmartThings, Sylvania, Yale and Zuli are some of the companies whose products are among the more than 270,000 Harmony-compatible devices.

Logitech also launched a Harmony developer program for companies that want to partner with it.

Harmony products will be available in the United States and Canada this month, except for the Hub Extender, which will hit the shelves in December.

Hope and Potential

 "The market has yet to really take off," Brian Blau, a research director at Gartner, told TechNewsWorld. "There's a very low penetration of smart home technology Visit the VMware Tech Center today, and ... there is still plenty of opportunity for a company like Logitech to gain market share."

Spending on smart home systems and services in the U.S. alone will hit $18 billion this year, Strategy Analytics has forecast. That figure will shoot up to $39 billion by 2019.

Although Apple and Google loom large, Logitech has "a really good chance," said Bill Ablondi, a director at Strategy Analytics, because the market is still new, and Logitech has distributions as well as intellectual property -- "all the IR codes for billions of different entertainment devices."

Further, the Harmony products "combine entertainment controls with home automation, which is not typical except for high-end systems," Ablondi told TechNewsWorld.

"There's almost always a continuing market for devices that address unique needs," said Jonathan Gaw, a research manager at IDC. "It's the size and scope of those markets that vary."

Apple, Google and others "are fighting over control of the platform that the devices run on, not the devices themselves, while device vendors will choose how they play within the platforms that become established," Gaw told TechNewsWorld. "Google and Apple don't have to lose in order for Logitech to win."

Source: technewsworld.com

Read More

Klarna Announces U.S. Team As It Plans For 2015 Launch In The U.S.

The payments market in the U.S. couldn’t be be more competitive, and now yet another player is entering the mix. Stockholm-based Klarna is set to announce its U.S. team ahead of expansion plans into North America, which will begin in earnest at the beginning of 2015.

Klarna, a European giant, which has raised $282.1 million over six rounds of financing, according to CrunchBase, has set the groundwork for its move into the U.S. by lining up a who’s who of U.S. firepower to guide its expansion on North American shores. Investors in the company include Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, DST and Atomico.

The company recruited Brian Billingsley from Alliance Data as chief executive of North America; former Bill Me Later and PayPal director Carol Hargrave as chief marketing officer; and former Apple payments counsel, Jin Han, as chief legal counsel for North America. Earlier U.S. recruits included chief credit officer Matthew Risley from Treliant Risk Advisors and chief financial officer John Keatley from Green Dot Corporation.

“Can you imagine if 70 to 90 people walked away from the checkout because it’s too cumbersome? That’s exactly what happens online today,” says Billingsley. “Companies spend hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, per-year to get people onto their site, and then they’re losing them.”

Klarna, like U.S. incumbent Stripe, or PayPal, is looking to change that.

Already a powerhouse in Europe through organic growth in the Nordic region (and the acquisition of Germany’s payment service Sofort), Klarna has long been rumored to be eyeing the U.S. market — and now the company is making its move.

Akin to its strategy for growth in the Europe, the company does has its eye on acquisitions here in the U.S., according to Billingsley. “It’s definitely not off the table,” he says. “We have very supportive investors in all of our markets.”

Using Klarna online shoppers enter only have to enter information like an email address and zip code to buy an item. After that, Klarna assumes all the risk from the purchase transaction, pays the retailer, and collects the amount due from the customer within 14 days. In Europe, Klarna has 25 million users and 45,000 retailers. The company is estimating revenues of more than $300 million in 2013 and is used for 200,000 transactions per-day globally.

Behind Klarna’s network is a complicated set of anti-fraud technologies that can help the company assume the credit and financial risks that an individual merchant might have to otherwise carry. This means that when a customer buys a product online, Klarna assumes the risks even before a customer has potentially paid for the product. They have a one-click purchase option that they say allows merchants to see on average a 10-30 percent uptick in sales.

The company says that its technology works particularly well online. The average checkout conversion is between 1% and 10% for typical checkouts on mobile devices, but using Klarna, the company claims conversion rates of roughly 50%.

Billingsley says the service slots into a different segment of the shopping experience than payment solutions like the new Apple Pay feature. “We’re focused on buying. And the customer can pay however they want to pay later,” says Billingsley. “Apple Pay will be a way to pay our settlement invoice.”

Source: techcrunch.com

Read More