A short feature overview of the current Dark RSS Reader version. You can download this app for free (no ads, no buy-content) from the Windows Store: apps.microsoft.com A smaller version for Windows Phone 7.x & 8 is also available: windowsphone.com
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Editor’s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and writer for Engadget. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals.
Like a Kickstarter campaign, Apple’s embrace of technologies tends to be an all-or-nothing affair. The company was early to support Wi-Fi and now supports Bluetooth throughout its product line. However, it has remained at an arm’s length from technologies, such as Blu-ray, DLNA, wireless charging and NFC. Apple VP Phil Schiller has said it’s not clear what NFC is good for. The answer: lots of things, mostly having to do with initiating different kinds of transactions, including payments and Wi-Fi transfers.
Backed: FloJack
Some of those things should soon be possible with the aid of the Kickstarter project by Miami-based NFC wizards Flomio and its project FloJack. It’s not a device that enables you to track stolen boats with GPS. Rather, in the spirit of the Square credit card reader, it is a small white lollipop of a device that plugs into the headphone jack of mobile iOS or legacy Android mobile device and allows it to read and write data via NFC. The company has wisely avoided getting wrapped up in payments at this point, but it is supporting other NFC functionality, such as tag reading via Samsung’s TecTiles or its own similar Zapps.
The Flomio Kickstarter page includes a four-minute intro video that takes prospective backers through a cutesy “NFC party” in which iOS devices aren’t on the guest list, the standard CAD-drawing development segment and a concept “day in the life” where we see shoppers tapping FloJacks to access special deals. Still, the FloJack campaign started off slow, no doubt leading many backers to wistfully wonder, “Flomio, wherefore art thou?” The Kickstarter campaign has come down to the wire, with about $ 6,000 needed to reach the $ 80,0000 funding goal needed in the next 60 hours as of this writing.
When one breaks down the backers at this point, most have gone for either the $ 99 FloJack dev kit or the $ 49 FloJack pack for NFC enthusiasts. The real boost, though (half of the project’s funding), has come from three backers who have shelled out $ 10,000 each to have Flomio help them create NFC applications and a fourth who shelled out the same amount to have Flomio build them something while they take in a Miami Heat game and relax on the beach — nice work if you can get it done for you.
Like its longer-range radio brethren Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, NFC is best integrated not only into the casing of the phone, but into its operating system as well, which is exactly why Android and Windows Phone have taken that approach. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth USB sticks for laptops lacking those technologies proved that point, and the situation is even worse with a mobile phone, where a need for portability and personal style is at a premium.
Sweetening the deal and taking advantage of a Kickstarter campaign that enables owners to change rewards midstream, the clever Flomio team added a new option, the FloCase. This wraps a FloJack-style NFC reader/writer into an iPhone case. It makes for a far better solution in which you don’t have to be as concerned about the FloJack slipping out of or even breaking off in the headphone jack, which remains free for audio output.
Not only has Flomio been smart about its Kickstarter rules, but it’s also recognized that, for NFC to do anything, it must be supported with an SDK. Flomio’s works across platforms. However, at some point Apple will no doubt support NFC or something like it for transactions, and at that point Flomio will likely have to focus more on its own custom development work. Unil that time, though, developers may be willing to deal with a little protrusion from their iDevices in order to get a taste of at least some of the promise of NFC.
Holy beans! We’re just over a week away from our next big meetup! Yes indeed, some of your favorite Engadget editors will be joined by a concert venue full of readers. Want to be one of them? Great news: we’ve been given the go-ahead to open up some more tickets for the event. Come, hang out, check out the latest gadgets and win some valuable prices. All that can happen by clicking this here link. We’ll see you on November 29th!
Oh, and if you’re interested in sponsoring the event, there’s still time. Just drop us a line at sponsors [at] engadget [dot] com.
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Do you feel that? There’s excitement in the air. The next Engadget reader meetup is approaching. We’re still buzzing from our Seattle event and are excited to bring some of that gadgety magic to the New York area. We’ve also been given the go ahead to open up some more tickets for the event, which will be going down on November 29th at Roseland in Manhattan. Make sure you’re on the list by entering all of the pertinent info here.
Oh, and if you’re interested in sponsoring the event, there’s still time. Just drop us a line at sponsors [at] engadget [dot] com.
Engadget’s next reader meetup is in New York City this month! More tickets available! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Pulse, the mobile news reader app that launched for iPad in 2010 and later expanded to Android, is making the move to web, particularly Internet Explorer 10. An HTML5 web app, launched today, uses the same sleek tile-based design as the mobile app, but also adds a side panel and buttons for navigation. More unusually, the team has partnered with Microsoft to create a version specifically designed for Windows 8 touch devices using Internet Explorer 10. As seen in the video below, using the web app on IE10 adds support for a variety of touch gestures, from swiping between articles to saving or closing them with two-fingered sweeps and pinches.
Pulse co-creator Akshay Kothari tells us that a browser-based version of the tool has been the…
If you’ve been paying attention, you not only knew Lenovo was readying a ThinkPad-branded Windows 8 tablet, but you probably already noticed all the leaked specs, too. Indeed, we first saw this thing all the way back at Computex, where Lenovo gave us a fairly hands-off peek, taking care to conceal most of the device’s specs. Later, it turned up in the FCC and in official documents, letting us know the slate would actually be arriving quite soon.
And here it is! As we previously reported, this is a 10-inch slate running Windows 8 and an Intel Atom processor. And yes, it will replace the current ThinkPad Tablet, which runs Android. Other key specs include a 1,366 x 768 IPS display, a 10-hour battery, optional 3G / 4G, micro-HDMI output and a pair of 2MP / 8MP cameras. For the most part, that cellular connection will take the form of HSPA+ but in the US, at least, the tablet will be available on AT&T’s LTE network. And, as we learned in more recent leaks, this 9.8mm-thick tablet makes room for an NFC radio, along with a fingerprint reader and a pen, which can be stowed in a slot on the tablet. Additionally, it will be sold alongside an optional keyboard, as well as a dock with three USB ports, HDMI-out and an Ethernet jack.
The one thing we don’t know? The price. So far, Lenovo is only saying the tablet will be available in October, when Windows 8 starts shipping. For now, we’ve got a mix of glossy press shots for your viewing pleasure, along with some hands-on photos we took in advance of tonight’s announcement. And stay tuned, because we have hands-on video incoming!
Gallery: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
Gallery: Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 hands-on
Filed under: Tablet PCs
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 official: Windows 8, NFC and a fingerprint reader, arrives in October originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you’ve ever wanted to swing a magic wand around and make things happen (besides encouraging the cool kids to give you a swirly, that is), here’s your chance. A new game on Kickstarter called Incantor promises some real-live olde timey majicke fun for your iPhone.
Built by a Rhode Island company, Movable Code, the game will allow you to cast spells and plan tactics by waving your wand around. The wand is actually a motion control device with haptic feedback and you can “shape” spells in the air to cast them. You can also use the wand to lock onto targets on the screen.
The designers include Nicholas Napp and Kevin Mowrer, formerly head of R&D for Hasbro. Mowrer is also a noted designer and artist while Napp was an “external technology scout” for Sony Ericsson. They have been working on the product for over a year and it’s very close to completion.
A pledge of $ 100 gets you a wand and a copy of the iPhone game. They’re about $ 6,000 into a $ 100,000 funding request.
“The premise is magic made real. It’s a game you play in the real world with a smartphone, a magic wand and your friends. We are aiming to bring the gaming mechanics of an MMOG and the strategy of a trading card game into the real world,” said Napp.
Hopefully we’ll have a hands on with this thing shortly so dry your hair off and stay-tuned.
A color Kindle might be on the way. Industry watchdog publication, Digitimes, says Amazon will launch one in the second half of this year. The report goes on to state that the new models will forgo the traditional infrared touchpanels used in the current model for multitouch capacitive panels. Digitimes expects Amazon to adapt E Ink’s upcoming color EPD panels in their ereaders so don’t expect LCD displays.
This move, if true, would put the Kindle in a strange spot between a full-scale tablet and a tradition b/w ereader. Amazon has so far been very successful in marketing the Kindle’s grayscale screen against full color tablets like the iPad. The Kindle Fire showed that there is a demand for color ereaders as well, though. A color eink display might be the start of a larger content push from Amazon.
Magazines are a hard sell on grayscale ereaders right now. The publications lose all the flash they work so hard to curate. Amazon knows this. However, at $ 200, the Kindle Fire is still out of reach for a lot of consumers and Amazon’s primary goal with its Kindle line is selling content, not hardware. A color eink Kindle would likely allow Amazon to make a big push into digital zines and perhaps even textbooks.
Color eink screens have been floating around industry tradeshows for several years now. But they have so far been unable to make it to the market. If this report pans out, which seems likely, Amazon might release the first color eink ereader — if not, the company always has the glowing Kindle that we know is on tap.
