Samsung may unveil ‘Gear VR’ virtual reality headset at IFA 2014

Along with smartwatches, manufacturers have begun investing time in other wearables segments like virtual reality headsets too. While Sony is working on Project Morpheus and Facebook sent ripples across the tech world after acquiring Oculus Rift, Samsung is also rumoured to be working on a virtual reality headset.

A report by SamMobile now confirms that Samsung is working on a virtual reality headset, and plans to name it ‘Gear VR’. The report states that the device will be announced alongside the Galaxy Note 4 at the IFA consumer electronics trade show to be held in Berlin in September.

Unlike the Oculus, the Gear VR won’t be a completely standalone virtual reality headset. The company has reportedly developed a modular design that will allow users to dock in a Galaxy device into the Gear VR via USB 3.0. The virtual reality effect will be achieved through head tracking, and the company will also employ its AMOLED display technology. The headset will rely on sensors integrated in the smartphone to track motion, instead of integrating the sensors directly in the headset.

“This design should allow Samsung to massively cut down manufacturing costs and introduce the headset at a low cost. However, it’s Samsung, and Samsung usually doesn’t like to equip its first product in a new product category with an inexpensive price tag. You might say that this is exactly like Google’s Cardboard VR headset, which was handed out to I/O 14 attendees, and you would be right! The main concept behind Gear VR is the same,” states the report.

The Gear VR is likely to come with an elastic head band and soft padded cushions on each side to ensure that it’s comfortable to wear.

Talking further about the design, the report reveals that we can expect a ‘see-through button’ on the right side. It uses the smartphone’s rear-facing camera sensor to offer a video feed of the real outside world. This is said to be the distinguishing factor from others like Oculus, and Sony as users won’t have to remove and wear the headset again and again. One will also find a touchpad under the see-through button to navigate through the user interface on the Galaxy smartphone.

While the hardware is developed by Sony, it has been working with Oculus VR for the software. It also plans to build a separate section of Samsung apps just for the headset. Soon after the announcement at the IFA, Samsung will reportedly make the Gear VR SDK available to developers.

Goodbye mouse? This 3DTouch device could change how you interact with computers

A thimble-like device called 3DTouch that sits at the end of your finger and allows you to interact with the virtual world in three dimensions may render the indispensable computer mouse obsolete.

The way in which humans interact with computers has been dominated by the mouse since it was invented in the 1960s. However, when we use the device, we’re limited to two-dimensional movements.

Anh Nguyen and Amy Banic from the University of Wyoming in the US have created an intelligent thimble that can sense its position accurately in three-dimensions and respond to a set of preprogrammed gestures that allow the user to interact with objects in a virtual three-dimensional world.

According to MIT Technology Review, Nguyen and Banic aimed to create a cheap device that works as a universal input for more or less any computing device. They want to make it as small and unobtrusive as possible so that it can be easily transported. The 3DTouch sits on the end of a finger, equipped with a 3D accelerometer, a 3D magnetometer and 3D gyroscope.

That allows the data from each sensor to be compared and combined to produce a far more precise estimate of orientation than a single measurement alone. The 3DTouch also has an optical flow sensor that measures the movement of the device against a two-dimensional surface, exactly like that inside an ordinary mouse.

For now, the device is hooked up by wire to an Arduino controller which combines the data from all the sensors. The fused data is then streamed to a conventional laptop. ”This wired connection later could be replaced by a wireless solution using a pair of XBee modules,” researchers said.

Researchers have also built in a number of mouse-like gestures that allow a user to interact with 3-D objects, by selecting and dragging them. They have tested their new device to measure its pointing accuracy and say that it is reasonably good.

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Samsung planning Galaxy S5 for January 2014?

Samsung management is making plans to launch its next-generation Galaxy S5 flagship in January, to go on sale in February, a report from Korean site Joseilbo notes. Pocket-lint is unable to confirm the rumour, but there is some evidence as to why Samsung would move the launch up from its usual March/April date.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has sold more than 20 million worldwide, yet insiders note the Galaxy S4 has missed the company's internal sales projections, even though record revenue has been hit. With Galaxy S4 demand declining and the iPhone 5S now on the market, Samsung may want to shake things up a bit earlier.

It's worth noting the Consumer Electronics Show is in January, though we're not too sure if we can see Samsung making a big announcement at such a large event. Then again, we wouldn't put it past the company. Joseilbo says to expect mid-January to help juice sales for its flagship Galaxy line, citing internal Samsung meetings.

It's still early days, but according to reports we can expect Samsung to drop its traditional plastic design and go for an all metal chasis like HTC did with the HTC One. This has long been a complaint for Samsung hardware. While speedy, the plastic build is annoying in the eyes of some customers. Additionally, a Exynos 5430 64-bit CPU and 16 megapixel camera with optical image stabilization are expected.

Facebook asks if you 'really' like it

In a first-ever self examination survey, Facebook will be gauging its users’ attitudes towards the site, and how the attitudes evolve over time.
The social media giant has formed its first ‘feedback panel’, where people will be surveyed for six months to check their level of satisfactions with the site and why they change.
According to Huffington Post, the site will be analyzing how users respond to ads and stories in their News Feed in a bid to learn which ads make its members happiest.

Facebook’s product manager for ads in News Feed, Fidji Simo said that the site wants to understand how users feel about ads, so that as the company grows its business, it is able to maintain the right balance between the advertisers’ needs and the users’ experience.

The site will be inviting certain members of its community and the participants will also be asked if they observe variation in the quality and quantity of ads delivered to them, and how they predict their Facebook usage might change in the future.

As Facebookers are the most irritated by ads, according to the ACSI 2013 survey; developer of the feedback panel and a user experience researcher at Facebook, Judd Antin explained that the real purpose of the survey is to connect changes in attitudes over time to the experience which might be driving those changes.

The report said that the first feedback panel will be limited to English-speaking users in the US, though it will include a cross-section of people who are representative of Facebook’s US population as a whole.

Specs of Samsung's curved screen smartphone leak

Specs of Samsung's rumoured curved screen smartphone
have leaked online.

Image credit: AndroidSAS

NEW DELHI: The race for the first curved smartphones is on and South Korean giants Samsung and LG are eyeing to draw first blood. Samsung has already announced its plans to launch a phone with curved screen this month, while LG has not confirmed plans to unveil such a device yet.

After rumours of LG bringing out the curved G Flex phablet hit the internet, specifications of Samsung's curved smartphone have also leaked online.

Tech website AndroidSAS has leaked the specifications of the upcoming Samsung smartphone. Contrary to earlier reports, it says that Samsung would not be bringing out a curved variant of the Galaxy Note 3, but instead would release an all-new handset.

The report states that the device would feature a 4.7-inch curved display with 1280x720p resolution. This phone is said to be powered by a quad-core CPU and have 2GB RAM as well as an 8MP camera with dual-LED flash.

While there is no word about the battery of the upcoming curved screen Samsung phone, it is expected to run on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) out of the box. The report says that the phone will be part of Samsung's Galaxy line-up.

Recently, media was abuzz with news of LG's 6-inch large G-Flex smartphone, with rumours hinting at a November release.

Curved display is already commercially available in large-screen televisions. LG Electronics and Samsung had started selling curved OLED TV sets this year priced at $9,000.

Samsung is also said to be working on a new line of top-end smartphones, named Galaxy F, rumoured to be launched next year. Phones under this range will have a metal body, which has a more premium feel compared to the plastic casing that the company uses in its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note handsets. Rivals like Apple and HTC use metal casings in their phones.

Tata Nano emax coming this October

New Delhi: The CNG version of Nano will be launched this month during navratras. This version of the car has been named as ‘emax’. A spokesperson from Tata confirmed that the CNG powered Nano is on course to hit showrooms this October.

Tata Nano emax CNG was unveiled at the Horizonext where Tata Motors showcased a total of 8 vehicles. The company also revamped the Nano which received some cosmetic as well as feature changes. The Nano emax CNG sports an automatic CNG cut-off system and fuel quality checking system. The Nano CNG will get 623cc twin cylinder petrol engine which can be tuned to both, CNG and petrol. So this version is equipped with CNG as well as petrol tank. The petrol tank will be helpful to the users to drive the car for longer distances. The driver can switch the car from CNG mode to petrol mode.It is being reported that select showrooms in Mumbai and Delhi have started taking bookings for the CNG variants. With the festive season around the corner, the launch of the Tata Nano emax could be a big boost for the sales of the company.