Google Partners With Oakley/Ray-Ban To Make Google Glass Like Eye Wear

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While Google Glass is a truly exciting product all it’s own some may feel that it still lacks that all to classic look of more traditionally styled eye wear. What could be the best way to solve this issue? Well, yes, the frame add-ons for Glass are a nice touch, and definitely serve to make the device look a little more normal, but we were thinking more along the lines of an actual glasses/sunglass brand making something that works in much the same way. As it turns out, Google has apparently just signed a deal with companies Ray-Ban and Oakley to develop and manufacture some Google Glass like product for consumers in the future. I don’t know about you, but if I could all the functionality of Glass wrapped up in a nice pair of classic looking sleek aviators, i’d be a happy camper. For the more sporty individual, Oakley might be a better choice for whatever they have planned.

Although Glass in its current state is more aimed at people who can develop for the platform and people who were interested in being on the cutting edge with new technology while it travels through the early stages, it still doesn’t look half bad. however, it doesn’t quite reach the mainstream consumer market in terms of fashionable looks, and this is where Google is undoubtedly hoping Oakley and Ray-Ban can change things up a little bit. Both companies make some pretty decent looking eye wear, and it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. Will it be more or less noticeable that you’re wearing a pair of web connected tech glasses? Will they function with most of the same features and use the same platform as Glass? Those of us who have been interested in Glass but hesitant to jump on board because of the hefty price tag are surely interested in the answers to these questions, but one thing is for sure, if the companies are working with Google to bring these products forward, they should have some neat little flare to them. Google Glass has been said to potentially get a consumer wide release sometime this year although it is unconfirmed whether that will actually happen. More details about the Google deal with these eye glass companies will most likely surface in the coming weeks ahead.

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The CEO Of Nest Talks About Google Buyout

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By now many of us know about the buyup of Nest. The now Google owned company of web-connected thermostats is on track to offer things we need five to ten years from now, says Nest’s former owner Tony Fadell, who sold the company to Google for $3.2 billion last year. The stance Fadell has on Google is a rather positive one, as he believes that Google is truly developing products that we’ll need in the not too distant future. Google is well-known for grasping at some wild ideas to turn into some sort of product or service, so Fadell’s statement doesn’t sound too far fetched. For those that may be unfamiliar with Fadell from the Nest/Google acquisition, you may know that Tony Fadell was also a big part in developing the iPhone and the iPod, both devices which helped to significantly change the landscape of industries those products reside in, and he’s hoping that he’ll have another chance to change the world again with his latest business decision.

Although people are weary about using their Nest products now because of the Google ownership, Fadell wanted to point out that the information gathered is for Nest internal use only and wouldn’t be shared Google, as their main focus is to take that information to further their own development and help deliver a better product and better experience. In short, he stated that Google has nothing to do with the user data gathered by the thermostats. All of this was laid out on the table while the sale to Google was being finalized, which should at least help to put some consumers minds at ease.

Fadell made it clear that he believes in the vision that Google has to better the world we live in, and commented that he thinks both Google and Nest share the same vision to innovate and change the world. While it’s unclear what both companies have in mind for their life changing aspirations, Google usually has some pretty cool things up their sleeve, and Nest definitely seems to have something to bring to the table as Fadell pointed out that Nest has sold more than what people are aware of.

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Sprint Ads Featuring The Frobinsons Begin To Show In US

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Anyone who has spent any amount of time on the Internet should know that Japan can let loose some pretty quirky commercials from time to time. It’s no different with Softbank‘s line of Otosan commercials promoting Sprint. The wacky commercials feature a dog named Otosan as the head of the Shitaro family, and it’s safe to say that they make for a pretty strange – albeit oddly mesmerizing – way to promote Sprint’s business overseas. They’ve proved to be incredibly popular over in Japan as well, so now Softbank is going to try to bring that level of oddity over to the US.

Starting tonight, the company will begin airing a new set of commercials pushing Sprint’s Framily Plan. The commercials have been tweaked for US audiences, but we can’t exactly say they’re any less weird after the changes. Instead of a dog in the patriarch position, this time it’s a hamster named Tom Frobinson. To make things just that much better, Tom Frobinson is voiced by Andrew Dice Clay.

Some of you who have never seen the original Otosan commercials probably didn’t believe us when we mentioned how weird they can get. Hopefully now you understand, but just in case you don’t, let’s take a look a couple more characters. There’s Heidi, the french-speaking daughter who somehow became friends with a group of animated birds. There’s also Gor-don, a punk rock “question authority” type who seems to have an affinity for ice cream and black lipstick – though, aside from the commercial introducing all of the characters, we haven’t seen much of him yet.

At the moment, the two commercials featured in this post are ready to begin showing, with the promise of more to come. Softbank and Sprint also claim to have a number of celebrity appearances on tap, which makes sense considering the Japanese ad campaign featured familiar faces such as Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt. Will be Sprint and Softbank’s Framily ad campaign be as big of a hit over here in the US? Only time will tell, but for now, head down to the comments section and tell us if the humor is right up your alley or if it misses the mark.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Boost Mobile Now Offering The LG Optimus F3 For $129.99

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If you’re a Boost Mobile subscriber, you might be interested to know that as of today, the Sprint owned carrier will now be selling the LG Optimus F3 for a mere $129.99. Sprint and Boost are calling this their absolute most affordable 4G LTE device, and that price isn’t bad for something that you can buy outright without any contract commitment. For those of you that may be unaware of this devices features or specs, the LG Optimus F3 sports a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and totes a 5MP rear facing camera for photos and full HD 1080p video recording. Boost notes that the phone comes pre-loaded with TalkBack, the Google text-to-speech accessibility feature that is there to assist consumers who are blind or visually impaired. I personally thought this was included with every Android device now a days. They also make note that it is ready to go right out of the box as soon as customers turn on their phone.

The device comes running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, which is a little outdated at this point but Jelly Bean was a good version of the OS and you can’t go wrong with it, especially compared to devices from just a couple years ago that had the same low cost, but were running Gingerbread. The phone comes with a 2,460 mAh battery that is said to boast 16 hours of battery life without a charge. This will undoubtedly change based on the way the device is used, and whether customers are utilizing mostly 4G or a mix of different network connections like 3G or Wifi. The Optimus F3 also comes with a 4-inch IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 2, color coded alerts via the notification LED on the front, and a VGA front facing camera for the video chat and self portraits.

The Optimus F3 also comes with NFC support and the Android beam sharing feature, as well as SmartShare which gives the device DLNA support to wirelessly stream media content to supported devices. It also has WiFi Direct support for those who might have the need for it. You can pick up the Optimus F3 on Boost’s affordable Unlimited plan of $55 a month, with no annual contract. This particular plan also has the shrinking payments in place, which basically can lower your monthly payments down by $5 every six months(which includes the requirement of every monthly payment during that period to be on time)to a maximum of $15 which basically gets you down to $40 a month for the plan once you reach the 18 month mark. Again, each monthly payment has to be on time for the customer to receive the shrinking payments.

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Google Now For Chrome Is Now Available To All

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After what feels like an extremely long time in beta, Google Now cards and notifications are now available and open to all who use the Google Chrome browser, as the feature is now live and no longer part of beta. For those of us that have been using this feature in Chrome during it’s beta phase for some time, you may already know how useful the feature can be, and how great it is to see the google now notifications pop up right on your computer screen as opposed to having to look at your device. It isn’t always the most convenient, but for times when you’re already at your computer it can be useful to look there for something like the Google Now weather card or a sports score as opposed to on your smartphone or tablet.

Pretty much all the same features you’d expect from Google Now on your device are present here now that the feature is part of the stable version of Chrome, like flight information, travel information and travel times via directions,(like say a bike ride to somewhere downtown and the distance/travel time to get there), package information, sports scores, weather, etc. As one would expect, the cards that pop up about location are based on the device location that you have Google Now signed into, and not the location of your computer, so make sure you note that if you’re planning on jetting out somewhere for a bit. For those of you that will be using Google Now within Chrome for the first time, it is extremely easy to access and make sure you have it enabled. First you’ll want to make sure that you’re signed in with the same Google account in Chrome, that you are on the device that you normally use it with.

To access it, all you have to do is look in your OS system tray, for windows users it’s in your taskbar(where ever you have it placed, mine is on the right hand side of my desktop) and look for the little bell icon. If you click on that you should see any Google Now notifications that you have on your device in your status bar, pop up in there as you can see from the image below. While it may not always be needed, it is certainly a great little useful feature to have handy and readily available on the desktop at a moments notice.

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HTC New One M8 Benchmark Stats Leak Out before Tomorrows Announcement

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The day is almost here to where all the leaks and rumors can be put to bed on HTC’s new flagship device, but until then we have nearly a whole day for more little details to come out, and today that’s just what we’re seeing. This time around the leaks are less in regards to phone hardware and specs and more about benchmark scores and tests. More specifically, how the new One M8 performs in the Basemark X gaming benchmark test and the Basemark OS overall benchmark test. Tomorrow once the HTC press event for the announcement of the phone begins, we’ll know more than we know now and it should end with all the cards being laid out onto the table. For now though we can at least see how the new One stacks up on paper against other devices in these two benchmark tests.

In the Basemark x gaming benchmark, the new One comes out on top, inching past all other devices that were pitted against it. With the device still to get its debut, it’s already beginning to look in the performance department. While the new One does come out ahead of other devices in these tests, it is important to remember that benchmarks can be a far cry away from real world performance, and we have to be able to test the device with our own hands using the same tests or in a day to day situation.

The new One did place lower than top rank in at least two of the tests, which were the browsermark test and the Basemark OS test. In the Basemark OS test, the One M8 comes in under the Galaxy S4 LTE by a shy margin for the number two spot as you can see in the image below. Interesting when you think about the fact that an older device like the S4 beats out an unreleased high-end phone. Still, like we said before these are simply benchmark tests that anyone has yet to be able to test for themselves, so actual tests and numbers could end up different from this once consumers get things in their hands. The time is counting down to HTC’s big event, and don’t forget that they are live streaming the entire thing if you can’t make it to either of the locations where the events are being held.

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Verizon Receiving Inventory of the HTC One 2014

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Just because we haven’t seen enough of the All New HTC One. Right? HTC’s event is going down tomorrow morning in New York City and in London, and as always we’ll be covering this event. Now according to Droid Life and their sources, Verizon stores are receiving inventory of the HTC One 2014. Which is supposedly going on-sale in Verizon stores tomorrow afternoon.

Last week, Verizon posted that the HTC One 2014 would be available “in our stores exclusively on 3.25.14″. So we’re thinking that the keyword there is “stores”. As in Verizon is getting the exclusive on it being available in their store, while other carriers will likely start pre-orders tomorrow with the device shipping to them within two weeks. Which goes back to the rumor we heard over the weekend about Verizon getting an exclusive on the HTC One 2014 for two weeks.

Additionally, PDA Plaza on Facebook (hat tip to Droid Life for this find) has posted a bunch of pictures of the HTC One 2014, for those that haven’t gotten enough of this device, well here you go. You can check out their page here for more information.

The HTC One 2014 is being launched tomorrow, at least at Verizon in the US and Carphone Warehouse in the UK. Which coincidentally, both seem to have exclusives for having the phone available on launch day. I wouldn’t worry too much about an exclusive for the HTC One though, because by now HTC should know better than to do an exclusive with just one carrier in the US. That’s part of how they got into this hole that they are trying to dig themselves out of. We’ll likely see it at the other carriers – AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile – within a week or two. Likely around the time that the Galaxy S5 launches, on April 11th.

How many of you on Verizon are looking forward to getting your hands on the All New HTC One tomorrow? Be sure to let us know what you think of the device tomorrow once you grab yours.

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