Vachen Smartwatch: Traditional Look with Smart Features
While all major tech companies trying to come up with high performance smartwatches are cramming them with as many features and apps as possible, this new product takes pride in taking wearable timepieces back to basics by maintaining the looks and feel of a traditional wristwatch. And a very elegant looking one, while we’re at it.
Instead of creating a smart device and add clock functions to it, the creator of the Vachen smartwatch, Won Rhee, came up with a timepiece to which he added various smart features such as email and text notifications.
The Vachen smartwatch retains the esthetics and foremost functions of a traditional timepiece, but it offers some very interesting features that really make buying such a gadget worth it. The Vachen connects for both Android and iPhone devices, and it runs on Android Gingerbread. It is equipped with a 1 GHz processor, but also with WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.
With a battery life of 48 hours, the watch’s LCD display measures 1.54 inches and has a 240×240 resolution, basically the same pixel density and size as the sixth iPod Nano. The device displays the time but also SMS, call and Google alerts. Other useful features are the alarm, timer, moon data and tide graph, compass, stopwatch and the possibility of using it for motion-based control of various smart devices, smart TVs included.
What makes the Vachen really irresistible is the fact that users can customize its appearance anyway they like. Buyers will have access to over 100 different watch face designs when the device is launched. But the Vachen website also offers access to a free tool with which users can create their own designs and then upload them to the product’s app store. The watch also comes with different straps, to match the various face designs.
The Vachen app store has not yet been opened, but this is scheduled to happen in the very near future. The developers are also planning to give the watch Facebook app and Windows phone support after the launch.
Until then, the project still has to secure its $100,000 goal on Kickstarter. The crowdfunding campaign is currently at over $76,000 and has one week left. Backers can get their own Vachen smartwatch with a unique case, for prices ranging from $169 to $279.
[Images via Kickstarter]
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via TechBeat http://techbeat.com/2013/05/vachen-smartwatch-traditional-look-with-smart-features/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vachen-smartwatch-traditional-look-with-smart-features
World War Z Game to Be Released May 30
Zombies! Brad Pitt! And a lot more zombies! Okay, so we’re very excited about the upcoming zombie invasion movie World War Z, out June 21. Based on a 2006 novel by Max Brooks, the movie stars Pitt as a UN employee and features, well, you guessed it, hoards of zombies. And if that’s not enough to get your attention, try the World War Z game, to be released May 30.
The game continues the trend of movie-video game tie ins, although history has shown us that the sooner this trend disappears, the better. Virtually all video games that tie in with a film are more or less epic failures. But World War Z seems intent on changing this fact.
The game was developed by Chicago-based Phosphor Games and will be released for iOS and selected Android devices on May 30, Paramount Digital Entertainment announced. This is encouraging news, since Phosphor Games has an impressive track record and its latest title, critically acclaimed Horn, won several Game of the Year awards last year.
The trailer for the World War Z game looks good too, almost comparable to the quality we see in some PC and console releases. The game was built around Unreal Engine 3, Phosphor Games said, promising to offer a fully immersive gaming experience, top notch graphics and the studio’s trademark multipass blended textures and ambient occlusion lighting.
The game is set in the same universe as the movie and the player seems to be pitted against even more zombies than we would have thought possible after seeing the feature film’s trailer. Players will have to go through 28 levels and battle zombies in various scenarios and with different kinds of upgradeable weapons.
We really hope this release will prove game-film tie in naysayers wrong and actually offer players a quality gaming experience. Especially after the previous release from Paramount Digital Entertainment, Star Trek The Video Game was a not so enjoyable an experience, other than the voice acting from the cast of the movie Star Trek: Into Darkness.
[Image via lytherus]
The post World War Z Game to Be Released May 30 appeared first on TechBeat.
via TechBeat http://techbeat.com/2013/05/world-war-z-game-to-be-released-may-30/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=world-war-z-game-to-be-released-may-30
Top Charts in Google Trends—The most searched people, places and things
Top Charts—a new monthly "spirit of the times"
Top Charts are lists of real-world people, places and things ranked by search interest. They show information similar to our Year-End Zeitgeist, but updated monthly and going back to 2004. To check them out, go to Google Trends and click "Top Charts" on the left-hand side. For example, you can see the 10 most-searched cities, movies and scientists in April:
Top Charts is built on the Knowledge Graph, so the data shows interest in real-world things, not just keywords. When you look at a chart of sports teams and you see the Golden State Warriors, those rankings are based on many different related searches, like [gs warriors], [golden state bball] and [warriors basketball]. That way you see which topics are most popular on Google Search, however people search for them. Top Charts provide our most accurate search volume rankings, but no algorithm is perfect, so on rare occasion you may find anomalies in the data. You can learn more about Top Charts in our Help Center.
Hot Searches, now in hot colors
In addition to Top Charts, now there's a vibrant new way to visualize trending searches as they happen. On the Trends homepage in the left-hand panel, you'll find a new link to "Visualize Hot Searches in full-screen." You’ll see the latest trending topics appear in a colorful display:
You can customize the layout by clicking the icon in the upper-left corner and expanding it to see as many as 25 searches at a time. You can also pick any region currently supported by Hot Searches. Use fullscreen mode in your browser for the biggest, purest eye candy.
...and a few design updates
We’re also continuing to spruce up our site. Among other things, now the homepage shows you more interesting stuff up front, and the search box is always available at the top:
We hope you enjoy bringing new stories to life with Google Trends. We love feedback, so please feel free to let us know what you think by posting online or by clicking "Send Feedback" at the bottom of any page in Google Trends.
via The Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/top-charts-in-google-trendsthe-most.html