We've all done it. Take a few minutes to walk to the mailbox only to discover it's either empty or filled with junk that immediately goes in the trash. The US Postal Service is testing a new tool that will save you a trip if there's nothing interesti...
We've all done it. Take a few minutes to walk to the mailbox only to discover it's either empty or filled with junk that immediately goes in the trash. The US Postal Service is testing a new tool that will save you a trip if there's nothing interesti...
Android's widgets are certainly helpful, but you have to duck out to your home screen (where they also consume valuable real estate) to see them. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just take a quick glance? You can, with the right tools. Francisco B...
Facebook's mobile app practically revolves around the notifications tab, but it can be a pretty insular place. It won't show much about what's happening in your friends' lives, let alone the outside world. The social network wants to change that,...
In 2013, Google added a full-fledged notification center to Chrome for Windows, Mac and Linux that combined rich notifications from web pages with Google Now info. However, it seems that almost no one ever used that notification center, so Google's...
What happens when one of the most wanted men in the world joins Twitter and forgets to disable email notifications? 47GB of emails. As you might expect, Edward Snowden was immediately inundated with followers, replies, favorites, DMs and retweets -...
As the popularity of wearables grows, there are still some gaps in current models. A new startup seeks to add the missing ingredient to smartwatches.
It seems like a new smartwatch is announced or rumored every other day. Most of these watches are all over the spectrum, from powerhouse computing on your wrist, to minimalist functionality. All smart watches up to this point fail to provide a substitute for the most basic function of any watch: to tell the time without a regular charge.
This paradox puts most wearables in an awkward place. A watch is first and foremost a time telling device. If the battery on your smartwatch dies, it’s just an ugly bracelet. The only reason to wear a smartwatch is for the functionality. There has yet to be a smartwatch design that doesn’t sacrifice fashion for size and features.
That’s where Kairos comes in. Kairos is a new startup that aims to close the canyon between mechanical and smart varieties of watches. The Kairos smartwatch appears to be modern, reasonably fashionable–albeit, a little thick–mechanical watch, but hidden in the watchface is a transparent OLED display that lights up to provide the “smart” watch features when relevant
This design would be the penultimate of all smartwatches that have been announced yet, but it is important to note that all releases thus far are merely renders. There is no functioning prototype to speak of, yet Kairos is taking non-refundable pre-orders for various models ranging from $499 to $1,199. I, for one, will wait until I can get some hands on time, because the promise of this watch appears too good to be true, which likely means it is.
Kairos is attempting to produce a product that will contain the best of both worlds in its two halves, mechanical and smart. It’s important to note that this is its first watch model of any type. Kairos doesn’t have a smart watch or a mechanical watch currently on the market, so the ambition to produce a device that is on par with existing smart watches and mechanical watches may be a bit of a reach. It would be one thing if this was a partnership with Citizen, Swatch, or Timex, but this is an independent venture, so it wouldn’t be surprising for this first foray to provide a product that is really the worst of both worlds.
However, Kairos may produce a surprise product when the watch is released this coming December. At the very least, it serves as a great proof of concept. Even if the device is unusable, somebody had to be the first to market and an improvement on the design will likely be out sometime in the next couple of years.
It looks Google is making it more and more difficult to lead a disorganized life with recent news confirming Google Now will notifiy of impending due dates.
Google has always been one of the biggest convenience of the web. By crawling and indexing the surface of the internet, Google has made web browsing accessible to anyone that can access a computer. Additional services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and almost anything else Google does adds massive convenience to every day life.
Google Now is one of the newer Google initiatives and it is the logical extension of Google’s data services. Google doesn’t only crawl the surface web, now. The search giant also crawls and indexes any Google services you use in order to provide updates, notifications, and reminders and presents you with information before you need to seek it out yourself.
Google Now doesn’t only provide calendar reminders and weather updates, though. One of the bigger chunks of data Google Now uses comes from your Gmail account. If someone includes an address in an email or Ebay sends you a tracking number for a package, Google will see that information in your Gmail and turn it into a card within the Google Now application.
It was recently rumored that Google Now would begin crawling Gmail for bill due dates as well, and that rumor has now been confirmed by Android Police. Just like how Google Now knows when you order a package from Ebay it will know when you have bills due.
Obviously this feature depends on you having paperless billing enabled. Google is only able to read information that is in your Gmail account, so if you receive a paper bill, then you won’t get a notification on your phone as well.
This is also dependent on cooperation with the companies to which the bills are owed. Shortly after Google Now started giving delivery notifications, Amazon removed tracking numbers from their confirmation emails, requiring users to go directly to Amazon to get shipping updates. Amazon is a Google competitor with their Kindle family, so it remains to be seen if American Express or Comcast will pull a similar stunt.
Not everyone is comfortable with their information being indexed and used in the way it is for Google. While there are definitely privacy concerns, that’s not stopping most people from taking advantage of the convenience of Google’s various services and likely won’t be a major deterrent in this case either.
Apple's Mac still influences computing today, 30 years after its debut NEW YORK (AP) — Look around. Many of the gadgets you see drew inspiration from the original Mac computer. Computers at the time...
Ever since Jaws hit theaters, the world has not been a safe place for ocean lovers, or for sharks, either. Western Australia has a neat solution where 338 sharks have been tagged with tracking...
We've all done it. Take a few minutes to walk to the mailbox only to discover it's either empty or filled with junk that immediately goes in the trash. The US Postal Service is testing a new tool that will save you a trip if there's nothing interesti...
Android's widgets are certainly helpful, but you have to duck out to your home screen (where they also consume valuable real estate) to see them. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just take a quick glance? You can, with the right tools. Francisco B...
Facebook's mobile app practically revolves around the notifications tab, but it can be a pretty insular place. It won't show much about what's happening in your friends' lives, let alone the outside world. The social network wants to change that,...
In 2013, Google added a full-fledged notification center to Chrome for Windows, Mac and Linux that combined rich notifications from web pages with Google Now info. However, it seems that almost no one ever used that notification center, so Google's...
What happens when one of the most wanted men in the world joins Twitter and forgets to disable email notifications? 47GB of emails. As you might expect, Edward Snowden was immediately inundated with followers, replies, favorites, DMs and retweets -...
