Lily is a compact drone camera that flies automatically and follows you around

Drones with cameras in them aren’t new, but all of them require someone to fly the drone around so if you want to record yourself doing something cool you need someone to control the drone. 

Not with Lily. This compact drone will automatically follow you around and shoot video without any manual assistance. Lilly flies by simply tossing in the air. It detects fall and kicks into life instantly. It will then follow you around and shoot video for up to 20 minutes on a full charge.


Lily requires the help of the wireless control module that needs to be on you for Lily to follow you around. The control module also has buttons to access basic functions of Lily, like the shooting modes it is capable of. The module is small and can be attached to the wrist using the waterproof strap they provide.

Speaking of waterproof, Lily itself is waterproof but it’s not recommended you try to fly it underwater (because it won’t). Once in air, it can record 1080p video in 60fps or slow motion 720p videos in 120 fps. You can also take 12 megapixel still images. It has a microSD card slot for storing videos and photos.

Lily can fly to a height of 50 feet, and can fly at up to 40 km/h top speed. It can go as far as 100 feet from the tracking device. It has an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, GPS, and front and bottom facing cameras. It has digital gimballing to keep itself steady all the time with image stabilization. It can interact with your phone through an app and show you a low resolution live feed on it. 

Lily is still in the pre-order phase, where the creators need support to actually make these. For your $499, which is the asking price of this device, you get yourself one and also help support the company. You can pre-order it now from their website, which allows international shipping.

 

Samsung Galaxy S6 review

Choose one word to describe the Samsung Galaxy S6. Gorgeous. Powerful. 

Anyway, the Galaxy S6 was redone from scratch and bids farewell to plastic. Glass and metal is a critically acclaimed combination. Another way of saying it is - depending on how upset you are with the missing card slot and sealed battery - they're copying Apple and Sony. Alright, memory, battery and waterproofing are easy things to get upset about, so let's see what the Samsung Galaxy S6 offers in exchange.
The new look is impressive and exciting and Samsung's trademark AMOLED is the perfect match. It's an immersive 5.1 incher of QHD resolution, for the amazing 577ppi - though "amazing" doesn't work for Samsung. They'll call it "the best ever" - and will be right. And that's just the beginning.

YotaPhone 2 review

It may look like the YotaPhone 2 has lost the element of surprise but the sequel is actually trying to please the users the original wowed - and get a bigger crowd interested. The first generation was unexpected and fascinating but high price and low awareness didn't help it get its message across.

Number 2 isn't going to be a bestseller either, not in its wildest dreams, but it does well to fix a lot of things that didn't quite work the first time around. Yota Devices announced the YotaPhone 2 almost a full year ago for it to only recently become available. And, of course, we couldn't miss the opportunity to review one of the most intriguing gadgets in the market.

On a first glance, the YotaPhone 2 looks just like a regular Android flagship - even a bit old-fashioned, as in curvy and not too slim. The specs mean business though: a gorgeous FullHD AMOLED display, 32GB of storage, LTE, a solidly-built body and buttery-smooth experience courtesy of a Snapdragon 800 chip.
However, your perception of it will change completely once you turn it around. The unique feature is the always-on e-Ink display mounted on the back, safe under a layer of curved Gorilla Glass 3.

Think of all the possibilities that the battery-efficient screen opens - a power-frugal, pocket-sized e-reader for those sunny days on the beach or those long commutes; instant access to your smartphone's most important features - notifications, the time, calls, messages and email, the web and your favorite contacts, and even games. An ever changing battery cover style for your phone too, if you will.

There is a lot to discover about the new YotaPhone 2 but before we proceed to the key features, we must say we really like the YotaPhone 2 concept. It managed to get us excited as few devices have - let's hope it's not just in it for the points for trying.

Key features

• 5.0" 16M-color 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, 442ppi
• Always-on 4.7" 16-level grayscale e-Ink display (540 x 960 px, 235ppi)
• Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on both screens
• Android OS v4.4.3 KitKat with Yota Apps
• Quad-core Krait 400 CPU at 2.3GHz, 2GB of RAM, Adreno 330 GPU; Snapdragon 801 chipset
• 8MP autofocus camera, LED flash; HDR, panorama; 1080p@30fps video capturing
• 32GB of built-in storage (25GB user-accessible)
• Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.0; NFC; GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou; FM radio; microUSB (SlimPort)
• 2,500mAh battery
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic

Main disadvantages

• No high-end video recording (either 4K @ 30fps or FullHD @ 60fps)
• No microSD card slot or higher storage capacity option available
• Always resting on a screen regardless how you put it down and double the chance of breaking a screen if you drop it

The YotaPhone 2 wasn't meant to compete with the current crop of flagships in terms of productivity and value-added features. On a second thought though, the extra screen has more added value than most.

Anyway, it was obviously built with smooth performance in mind. The lack of 4K video recording or a microSD card slot are not that much of a problem and surely won't be tough to swallow having in mind the YotaPhone 2's unique skill and character.

4GB RAM smartphones and tablets are coming! Samsung ups its memory module game to 4GB LPDDR4, available early 2015

It's official, dear readers - we're entering the age of mobile devices that have as much random access memory as the average laptop nowadays! Samsung just announced it has begun mass production of the industry's first 4 Gigabyte LPDDR4 mobile DRAM modules for smartphones and tablets. They are built on the company's 20nm process technology and offer an input/output data rate of up to 3200Mbps (megabits per second), along with UHD video recording and playback, continuous shooting of high-res images over 20MP resolution, and up to 40% lower power consumption compared to LPDDR3 units. The power savings are eligible for all LPDDR4 modules, so 2GB and 3GB RAM devices are getting the goods too.

                                 

Samsung is already selling 2GB and 3GB LPDDR4 RAM modules to global application processor vendors and mobile device makers, which means tomorrow's smartphones and tabs will be treated to cutting-edge RAM memory. As for those 4GB chips, Samsung expects they will become market-ready in early 2015. So it looks like it's time to place the bets - is the 4GB module going in the Samsung Galaxy S6 or the Galaxy Note 5? Heck, why not both? 

Additionally, there's this interesting quote fom Samsung's VP of Memory sales & Marketing, Joo Sun Choi: "By initiating production of 20nm 8Gb LPDDR4, which is even faster than the DRAM for PCs and servers and consumes much less energy, we are contributing to the timely launch of UHD, large-screen flagship mobile devices." Are 4K smartphones coming already? To be honest, we believe tablets will be the first to utilize ultra high definition because it makes more sense - their displays are sufficiently larger. But if Samsung wants to cram such an ungodly amount of pixels on your 5-or 6-incher, who's there to stop it?

Moto 360 review: Eye catcher

Announced back in March, Motorola's Moto 360 is undoubtedly one of the hottest wearable devices of the year. The Android Wear flagship is the first device of its kind to effectively blur the lines between a smartwatch and a regular mechanical timepiece in terms of design.

We call the Moto 360 an Android Wear flagship for a good reason. The gadget is the first and will probably remain the only smartwatch developed with direct input from the search giant. Motorola only recently changed ownership from Google to Lenovo.

Moto 360 is unique not only because of its appearance, but internals too. Motorola's creation is the only Android Wear device to swap Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 for a Texas Instruments chipset. Check out the device's key features below.

Key features

• 1.56" LCD display; 320 x 290 pixels; 205ppi; Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• TI OMAP 3 chipset; 512MB RAM; 4GB of built-in storage
• 320mAh battery rated at a full day of mixed use; Qi wireless charging with bundled cradle
• 46mm in diameter; 11.5mm thick
• Stainless steel case with IP67 rating
• Available in different finishes with metal or genuine leather band (off-the-shelf standard 22mm band)
• Bluetooth 4.0 LE connectivity
• Dual-microphone setup for voice commands
• Built-in optical heart rate monitor and pedometer
• Android Wear OS with Google Now integration
• Incredibly light at 49 grams with the leather band

Main disadvantages

• The screen is not fully circular
• There are competitors with more pixel-dense displays
• Android Wear tries to do too many things at once
• Battery life could be better

Motorola Moto 360 lags behind some of its competitors in terms of hardware specs, though this is hardly a surprise. After all, the device is one of the first Android Wear products to hit the market.

The smartwatch appears to make up for its hardware shortcomings with looks and broad appeal. None of its competitors can match the variety of styles that Moto 360 is available in.

World's Fastest Camera Claimed to Capture 100 Billion Frames Per Second

A team of biomedical engineers has developed the world's fastest camera, a device that can capture events up to 100 billion frames per second.

The current ultrafast imaging techniques are limited by on-chip storage and electronic readout speed to operations of about 10 million frames per second.

"For the first time, humans can see light pulses on the fly," said Lihong Wang, professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Because this technique advances the imaging frame rate by orders of magnitude, we now enter a new regime to open up new visions," said Wang.

The team used a technique called compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) to make movies of the images they took with single laser shots.

This is a series of devices customised to work with high-powered microscopes and telescopes to capture dynamic natural and physical phenomena.

Once the raw data are acquired, the actual images are formed on a personal computer.

"These ultrafast cameras have the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of very fast biological interactions and chemical processes and allow us to build better models of complex, dynamical systems," said Richard Conroy from National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, US.
The camera may have wider application in areas like biomedicine, astronomy and forensics.

"Combine CUP imaging with the Hubble Telescope, and we will have both the sharpest spatial resolution of the Hubble and the highest temporal solution with CUP," said Wang.

"Each new technique, especially one of a quantum leap forward, is always followed a number of new discoveries. It's our hope that CUP will enable new discoveries in science ones that we can't even anticipate yet," said Wang.

The research appeared in the journal Nature.

Android 5.0 Lollipop Update Roadmap for Samsung Phones Revealed

While earlier this month Samsung Galaxy S5 started receiving the Android 5.0 Lollipop update in some regions, a new page on the Samsung Finland website has revealed a few more devices that are in line. The Android 5.0 Lollipop update list also includes couple of devices that were launched back in 2012.

First in line for the Android 5.0 Lollipop update is the Galaxy Note 4, which Samsung already teased in October. The flagship phablet's predecessor, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is also scheduled for the update.

Interestingly, while the page (via GSMArena) shows the Galaxy S5 Mini to be in line for the Android 5.0 Lollipop update, it shows "no information" for its bigger version, the Samsung Galaxy S5. However, the update for the Galaxy S5 has reportedly already rolling out in some regions, and the device also falls under the South Korean smartphone maker's two years or two major updates (whichever comes first) criteria for eligibility.

Talking about Samsung's update eligibility criteria, the page also surprisingly shows Galaxy Note II also scheduled for the Android 5.0 Lollipop update. It is worth mentioning that the device was launched in September 2012 and has crossed its two years. The metal-clad Galaxy Alpha and the last year's flagship Galaxy S4 are also in the list of devices due for updates on the Samsung Finland site.

Last month, sources close to Samsung also confirmed the Galaxy S4 would be receiving the update early next year, though the timeline may change. Android 5.0 Lollipop will notably be the third major update for the handset, after Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and Android 4.4 KitKat, which puts it outside of the firm's update criteria.

LG G Watch R review: A full circle

Smartwatches have been around for a long time now, ever so reluctantly trying to infuse the tech spirit into one of the oldest accessories in the history of the world - the time piece. But a wrist watch is meant for more than telling the time - it's also a fashion statement. And as cool as the square smartwatches may be, they can only get you so far. With that in mind, Android Wear has inspired the introduction of the first wave of round smartwatches - the Moto 360 and LG G Watch R.

Unlike Motorola, LG has managed to make the display on its round smartwatch perfectly round, without the "flat tire" visual effect.

And even though there is no mechanism inside, just like a classic watch, what's on the inside matters. The G Watch R makes use of an interesting combination of parts. If they sound familiar to you, that's no coincidence. Check out what we mean below.

Key features

• 1.3" Full Circle P-OLED display, 320 x 320 pixels, 246ppi, 33mm screen diameter
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8226), quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 CPU, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage (3 GB user available)
• 410mAh Li-Ion battery, rated at 2 days of usage
• 46.4 x 53.6 x 9.7 mm, 62 grams, genuine leather strap, changeable
• Stainless steel casing, IP-67 certified, water-resistant for 30 minutes up to depth of 1 meter
• Android Wear with Google Now integration
• Heart rate sensor, gyro, accelerometer, compass, barometer
• Bluetooth 4.0 LE
• Vibration

Main disadvantages

• Leather band is a bit on the cheap side
• The screen is too easy to accidentally turn on
• Android Wear needs more polish, and more functionality
• No choice for casing colors

As you can see from the quick glimpse at the key features, the G Watch R has the innards of a mid-range smartphone. It doesn't have an earpiece though, like its main rival from the Samsung camp does, but it sports a microphone through which you ask Google Now for directions, music and whatever tickles your fancy.

Let's head over to the hardware overview of the smartwatch to inspect its prospects for becoming a timeless classic.

GPS-enabled shoes that point you in the right direction

Inspired by Wizard of Oz, a British designer has developed a pair of GPS-enabled shoes that can guide you in the right direction.

Designer Dominic Wilcox who was inspired by Wizard of Oz, the 1939 classic where Dorothy could click her shoes to get home, decided to combine cinema nostalgia with high-tech wizardry, the Daily Mail reported.

"I decided to make a pair of shoes that can navigate you home where ever you are. I thought about the Wizard of Oz and how Dorothy could click her shoes together to go home," he said.
The new shoes will guide you home from wherever you are.

They come with PC software and a USB cable, so that, once you have got home and tried your shoes on, you can then simply upload your home address, and from then on your shoes will tell you which way to walk.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna is embedded in the heal of the left shoe, which also contains a ring of light-emitting diode (LED) which form a compass.

The shoe meanwhile communicates wirelessly with the right shoe, which contains a progress bar, showing you how much further you need to stroll.

auto&tech©2012

New Mixtrax from Pioneer AVH-P8490BT Go Clubbing inside your Car

MIXTRAX is not a specific individual software or a product, but a name of technology “to provide continuous uplifting feeling through Mix & Play like presented by DJ” for customers.
Pioneer Electronics continues to offer innovative audio technologies and today introduces MIXTRAX, a proprietary technology which creates a nonstop mix of an entire music library to create a club-like atmosphere. Designed for music lovers and the club-going audience, MIXTRAX takes the music from an iPhone/iPod or USB/SD device and plays it back with added transitions and effects creating a virtual DJ inside select Pioneer products. Derived from Pioneer’s experience in developing world-renown professional DJ products, MIXTRAX is implemented in a variety of worldwide Pioneer car audio products.

Features:

MIXTRAX EZ: Pioneer applied its unique expertise to keep car entertainment flowing smoothly without interruption, you can experience the intimate euphoria of listening to music that sounds as if a club DJ is there playing it.
Flashing Color: The receiver’s cool flashing color function enhances the mood with a dynamic dance club-like lighting effect. As MIXTRAX begins, light starts pulsing to the beat of music livening up your in-car entertainment.
Sound: Sound level mode synchronizes with sound signal level.

The Technology:

Pioneer’s MIXTRAX technology transforms a consumer’s music library into customizable tracks that can be processed by select Pioneer products. Using Pioneer’s free MIXTRAX music management software, the user’s entire music collection is analyzed and various musical attributes including tempo and beats per minute (BPM) are identified. The software then tags each song and creates an assortment of playlists categorized in different genres and musical styles such as Beat, Chill, and Thump. The advanced analysis of the software identifies the best transition points of each song in the music library and seamlessly mixes and blends the tracks together, much like a DJ performing live.
Additionally, the Mix Style can be selected between Active, Standard and Simple, adjusting the intensity of the effects and transitions used, and the duration of each track within the mix. The custom MIXTRAX playlists can be transferred to a USB/SD memory device (not included) and played through an assortment of Pioneer in-car Audio Video products. Pioneer’s in-car Audio Video receiver takes advantage of its large LCD touch-screen by animating the album art of the currently playing track in time with the mix, creating a truly unique in-vehicle music experience.
To easily and quickly enjoy nonstop mix of music, a simpler version of the technology called MIXTRAX EZ is built-in to several Pioneer in-dash products for both in-car CD receivers and in-car Audio Video receivers. Featured in new in-car CD receivers, different types of DJ-style transitions (Flanger, Echo and Crossfade) and different sound effects (Backspin 1 and 2, Echo, Trans, Roll and Scratch) are automatically added between songs for a nonstop, continuous listening experience.

Mixtrax Benefit:

Pioneer presents the magic of MIXTRAX- delivering the Non-Stop MIX experience at home or on the go with technology based on Pioneer’s history of innovative professional DJ product development.

auto&tech©2012

TECHNOLOGY

TO COMPLEMENT ITS MODERN INTERIOR, THE CONTINENTAL GT BOASTS ADVANCED TOUCHSCREEN TECHNOLOGY.

The new system – designed specifically by Bentley – uses a combination of touchscreen controls and classic knurled rotary switches to offer instant usability and crystal-clear feedback. Even the graphic interface of the touchscreen was created in-house to ensure its visuals were completely in keeping with the style of the whole interior. Look closely and you will see that the knurled switches on the screen are ‘virtual’ echoes of the real knurled switches below.
The 8-inch touchscreen possesses the latest navigation technology, and places the car’s audio system, telephone and comfort settings at your fingertips.
The new infotainment system provides the ultimate in audio sound systems. The Naim for Bentley Premium audio system continues to set new standards for in-car entertainment. Created exclusively for the Continental GT by British audio specialists Naim, it offers an industry first, the latest Balanced Mode Radiator speakers and Dirac Dimensions™ digital processing that ‘virtually’ alters the position of loudspeakers to transform your car’s cabin into an auditorium.

auto&tech©2012