Motorola’s idea for the ultimate smartphone looks more like a set of Legos that make up a smartphone.
The company announced on Monday that it was moving forward with an experimental phone called Project Ara, which it says is a modular smartphone platform.
Motorola added a landing page to its website on Monday, teasing an announcement related to its upcoming Moto G smartphone.
Although details are limited and no photos were posted, the company, which is a unit of Google, lists Nov. 13 as the announcement date. The Moto G is rumored to be a low-cost version of its flagship Moto X smartphone.
REMEMBER the vending machines in New York City subway stations, even on platforms? (O.K., maybe not, as it was decades ago.) Among the products straphangers could buy were cigarettes, candy and gum; there were also scales proclaiming, “Horoscope and weight 1¢.”
The beauty giant L’Oréal wants to revisit that era in a high-tech way with a project it is sponsoring inside the 42nd Street-Bryant Park station from Monday through Dec. 30. Passers-by will see screens and a mirror that use cameras and sensors to recommend women’s cosmetics bearing the L’Oréal Paris brand name, which can then be purchased.
Domestic passengers flying from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane airports can now download movies, music, apps and books direct to their Android device using Near Field Communication (NFC) and Quick Response (QR) technologies.
Google has integrated the technology into 39 digital advertising screens at the three airports. Passengers simply have to tap their NFC device against the screen or scan the QR code to connect to the Google Play Store. They can then control the digital billboard using their device and download content using the airport’s free Wi-Fi.
Victoria’s Secret is one of a few different retailers this holiday season that is incorporating augmented reality into its own branded application for both driving sales and engagement.
Toys “R” Us made numerous improvements to its mobile site in the past year, including streamlining the checkout process. As a result, the toy store chain now delivers the best mobile site user experience with a score of 83.5 out of 100, according to a new report from the e-tailing group.
We've seen touch-friendly tables before, but they're rarely so slick as the Multi Surface Experience, a newly launched collaboration between design firm Gensler and ad agency The Hive. The installation lets guests explore Gensler's architectural portfolio (the book you see above) just by walking up to a wavy table.
Disney is going for a ride on the augmented-reality bandwagon, and it's betting the future of play will involve digital imagery that interacts with tangible objects—what the company describes as "traversing the digital-physical divide."
The concept is being developed at Disney Research labs with a new prototype device called HideOut. It's a handheld pico projector that projects digital images onto pre-marked surfaces, bringing children's books and board games to life as you move the device.
Computer scientist Michel Ferreira of the University of Porto in Portugal developed a system that assists drivers in overtaking large vehicles on the road. Ferreira adapted and modified the existing ‘Vehicular Communication Systems’ technology, that allows cars to communicate and update each other with traffic information.
“The See-Through System" makes innovative use of these systems by tapping into the visual data being recorded by the forward-facing webcam that some vehicles have installed on their windshield.
To promote the “happy health insurance” of Swiss company KPT, the agency Webguerillas created a pinball machine which can be controlled by smiling.
Using a face tracking algorithm, each end of a person’s smile controls the "fingers" on the pinball machine, making this game of pinball a lot more challenging and fun.
This is a challenge to create a future for the old media newspaper. The Tokyo Shimbun (Newspaper) created a new service where a smartphone changes articles for adults into ones for children. Then the newspaper became a media read by both parent and child and an educational tool for children.
Deaf and severely hearing impaired people communicate in sign language. For most it is their first language and is considered by many as their native language. It is a(an independent) separate language and is very different to the spoken and written language. The DEAF MAGAZINE communicates in both of these languages. It is a lifestyle and society magazine about the culture of german sign language. Through the use of mixed media and augmented reality technology, it links the written language directly with the german sign language and makes it easier to his readers to affiliate information and allows to a better understanding of the written language. It also opens up even hearing readers, access to the german deaf culture. The DEAF MAGAZINE constitutes, articles about events and trends of the culture of german sign language, special personalities, news and opinions to the accessibility in Germany and trips to the deaf culture of other countries.
The tablet market is still growing. Q3 2013 saw 47.6 million units ship worldwide, up from 34.8 million the same quarter last year. Apple’s iPad once again took first place, although it dropped to 29.6 percent market share, while Samsung grew its share to 20.4 percent to keep second place. The other three players in the top five also all grew: Asus kept its third place position by grabbing 7.4 percent, Lenovo jumped to 4.8 percent to take fourth, and Acer took fifth with 2.5 percent. Amazon notably fell out of the list.
Magazines often focus on the big picture - the complete magazine in all its glory. As mobile readers tend to have short attention spans, content creators should think about how to tell stories in a snack size format. Read more.
The coffee giant is launching a beta program called Tweet-a-Coffee that lets you buy a $5 gift card for a friend through the social network. To do so, you first need to sync your Starbucks account to Twitter here and link a credit card to your account. Then, tweet "@tweetacoffee" with the Twitter handle of the intended recipient, and that person will receive your gift card. To entice consumers to try the program, the first 100,000 who link their accounts with their Visa cards will receive a $5 gift card for themselves when they tweet a gift card to someone (a perk for Visa cardholders). Read more
It seems like half of Google's experimental projects are high-minded attempts to change the world, and the other half are goofy ideas that an engineer thought up after watching a particularly absurd episode of Dr. Who.
Either way, Google’s inventions always draw attention, as was the case with a talking shoe the company showed off at SXSW last week as part of a showcase of its Art, Copy, and Code project.
Every mobile user has been there—trying to look up a piece of information only to be confronted with terrible usability (a tiny page, minuscule font, or graphics that never load). As smartphones and tablets become more mainstream, users and businesses alike stand to benefit from websites that translate well to mobile. To make websites user-friendly across multiple devices, designers generally employ one of two methods: adaptive web design or responsive web design. When redesigning your website to be “mobile friendly,” knowing the differences between these approaches will speed up the conversation between you and your design team.
Augmented reality -- a live view of your environment with elements enhanced by computer-generated input -- will undoubtedly revolutionize the way we interact with the world, and even the way we drive.
Chevrolet Volt owners are already experiencing game-changing advanced technology (via two interactive color LCD screens that monitor and provide efficiency feedback based on one's driving style), but there are already products like Google Glass on the cusp of mass-market adoption -- essentially a wearable smartphone that looks like a pair of glasses, with a smart display imposed on the user's field of vision that can record video, take pictures, send texts and more, all controlled by voice command.
Luxury marketers used digital tactics to foster intimate connections with consumers during the third quarter of 2013.
Digital enabled marketers to engage with target consumers on a personal level through microsites, branded hashtags and digital touch points. These experiential and educational tactics integrated consumers into what felt like the brand’s inner circle, which ultimately drove brand loyalty.
While search continues to be the most profitable channel for marketers with a 7.4 percent increase in the first half of 2013, mobile is quickly establishing itself as the marketing medium of the future, according to findings from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
