uBeam’s working prototype will charge devices via ultrasound across the room

I often wonder if wireless charging hasn’t caught on because people are waiting for what I call “true wireless charging.” The only working method we have right now is by placing your device(s) on a charging mat, which doesn’t feel all that wireless. Sure, you don’t have to “plug” a wire into your device, but there is one connected to the mat that your device is sitting on.

We have been hearing that wireless chargers will eventually be able to charge our devices across the room, and it looks like we are one step closer to that happening. A company called uBeam has a working prototype that uses ultrasound-based technology to charge your device. So you could have the charger in your living room, but your phone could be with you in the kitchen and it will get charged. You will need to attach a receiver to your phone though, and don’t expect it to transmit through walls.

We’re not sure when we will actually see this hit the consumer level, but I suspect we are still a long way off. It’s likely these types of chargers will have a lot of safety concerns and hurdles to jump through.

source: uBeam

via: Engadget

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HTC Updates Gallery App To Share Interactive Duo Camera Images That Can Be Refocused And Saved

For all the issues with the Duo Camera on HTC's flagship One M8, the selective focus thing is pretty fun to play with. With the newest update to the HTC Gallery app in the Play Store, M8 owners can share Duo Camera images to the web that anyone can use to change the focus. It's sort of like those Lytro camera embeds. We have one below you should try out.

HTC's Ufocus editing tweak uses the depth information acquired by that secondary lens on the back to generate a blur effect that makes it look like you took it with a nice lens with shallow depth of field.

HTC Updates Gallery App To Share Interactive Duo Camera Images That Can Be Refocused And Saved was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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Google Fit now available to developers as a preview SDK

Google announced Google Fit at Google I/O, which will gives developers the tools to build amazing fitness apps. The set of APIs can store and access data from fitness apps and sensors on Android devices or other wearables. With the user’s permission, apps will now be able to access fitness history data allowing for detailed insights, personalized coaching, recommendations, and more.

The preview SDK is now available so developers can start building apps today. There are three sets of APIs…..

• Sensors API provides high-level access to sensors from the device and wearables—so with one API your app can talk to sensors, whether on an Android device or a wearable. So if you’re making a running app, you could register it to receive updates from a connected heart rate monitor every 5 seconds during a user’s run and give immediate feedback to the runner on the display.


• Recording API allows apps to register for battery-efficient, cloud-synced background collection of fitness data. For example, a running app could ask to store user’s location so it can map the run later. Once it registers for these data types, collection is done by Fit in the background with no further work needed by the app.


• History API allows operations on the data like read, insert and delete. When the exerciser finishes her run, the running app can query the History API for all locations during the run and show a map.

Hit the source link for more information on how to get started.

source: Google Developers

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Amazon Puts all Chromebooks on Sale, for Back-To-School

Here’s another back to school sale, this time it’s from Amazon and for their Chromebooks. They have taken $20 or more off of all the Chromebooks listed on Amazon’s website. So you can pick up the Acer C720 for $179, or the HP Chromebook 14 LTE for $316. There are some pretty decent deals here, and plenty of Chromebooks to choose from as well. Also both the ASUS C200 and C300 are on sale for $229 right now, so you can pick your poison for the same price. Chromebooks are great for school because they are light-weight and portable. They also allow you to take notes easily and do all kinds of other things. But if you can’t do everything for school you need to do in a web browser, than a Chromebook isn’t for you. As that’s all that’s in a Chromebook, is just Google Chrome. So watch out for that. Otherwise, head to the link below and pick up a Chromebook of your choosing.

Amazon Chromebooks

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HTC Gallery update now lets you share UFocus Duo Effects photos to the web to share with anyone

It’s easy enough to share your HTC One M8′s UFocus photos (taken with the device’s dual cameras) with friends after they’ve been manipulated and exported, but what if you wanted to allow your friends to manipulate the photos themselves? They’d typically need an HTC One M8, but the latest update to the HTC Gallery update changes all of that.

You can now share your UFocus photos with friends on the web. Sharing a UFocus-equipped camera shot will allow you to upload it to a public gallery. Simply share the link with your friends, and they can manipulate things such as focus, the foregrounder tool and more.

It’s not the most groundbreaking feature you’re ever going to see, but if your friends were wondering how you were able to get different focus levels on the same shot you can now show them without having to hand them your phone. Neato. The upgrade is sitting in the Google Play Store if you own an HTC One M8.

HTC Gallery (Playboard) | HTC Gallery (Play Store)

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Android L gets updated preview images for Nexus 5 and 7 (2013)

Last month Google’s Rich Hyndman responded when a user on G+ asked him if we could expect any new updates for the Android L preview. At the time, he was vague and didn’t commit one way or the other. Now it turns out that Google has in fact updated the Android L builds for both the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013).

The new builds carry version number LPV81C (versus LPGV7 on the older one) bringing support for the Google Fit platform. Aside from this, there aren’t believed to be all that many changes, but we cant say that for sure just yet. For those that already have Android L on their devices, we’d wait off before installing this to make sure there are enough major changes to justify the ‘upgrade’, especially since a full wipe is likely needed.

The bigger takeaway is that Google may in fact bring us new builds before the final release, though nothing is set in stone. If you really want to give this one a try, you can find the images on the Android Developer’s site.

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Android L Preview updated to build LPV81C, now available to download for Nexus 5 and 7 2013

Well that was unexpected. Seems Google has just uploaded new Android L builds for both the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013 (WiFi). Build LPV81C for the Nexus 5 weighs in at 431MB and although we’re not sure exactly what’s new, you can be sure we’ll be flashing it to our phones in the coming minutes. For those with knowledge in flashing factory images, you can get started by visiting the link below.

[Google Developers (Android L Preview) ]

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