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Sony introduces smartwatch compatible with Android phones
SmartWatch 2 is designed to complement a phone – specifically those running Android 4.0 or later.
Image courtesy of Sony
NEW YORK – Sony says its new computerized wristwatch will sell for $200 in the U.S. and will work with a variety of Android phones.
Sony’s SmartWatch 2 hasn’t gotten as much attention as Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Gear, but it’s cheaper and compatible with a broader range of phones. The Gear costs $300 and currently works only with the company’s Galaxy Note 3 phone.
Read More: Galaxy Gear smartwatch earns points for app ecosystem, but lacks in battery life
Unlike the Gear, however, Sony’s watch doesn’t let you make phone calls directly through the wristwatch. You can answer calls using the watch, but you need a Bluetooth wireless headset linked to the phone if you don’t want to hold it to your ear.
Sony Corp. said Tuesday that the watch is available immediately through the company’s physical and online stores. Other online retailers will also sell it.
As more people own smartphones and tablets, consumer-electronics companies are creating a new category of products to give consumers more ways to stay connected — and to spend money. Qualcomm Inc. also plans to release a smartwatch in time for the holidays, while Apple is widely believed to be developing an iWatch.
The company said its smartwatch is designed to perform common tasks such as checking texts and email, liking Facebook posts and getting calendar reminders. Reply capabilities will be limited; you can respond to a text from a list of emoticons or preset messages, for instance.
“The average smartphone user reaches for their device more than 100 times per day to check text messages, read emails and social network notifications and of course, to check the time,” Ravi Nookala, U.S. president of Sony Mobile Communications, said in a statement.
“SmartWatch 2 makes these core tasks easier, and does much more with apps available, for everything from productivity to fitness and games.”
SmartWatch 2 is designed to complement a phone — specifically those running Android 4.0 or later. Sony promises three to four days of battery life between charges, compared with about a day for the Gear. The display measures 1.6 inches diagonally, the same as the Gear.
Separately, Sony announced the U.S. availability of two new phones:
— The Xperia Z Ultra is a larger version of its Xperia Z waterproof smartphone. It has a 6.4-inch screen, among the largest out there. A standard version will retail for $650, while a faster, 4G LTE version will sell for $680.
— The Xperia Z1 is a 5-inch phone that sports a massive 20.7-megapixel camera and is capable of attaching better lenses. That retails for $670.
The phones won’t be locked to a specific wireless carrier, but they won’t work with Verizon or Sprint’s network. Sony did not announce plans for locked, subsidized versions that require two-year service agreements.
© The Canadian Press, 2013
Here’s what an Apple Watch try-on appointment is like
During the initial launch, the smartwatch will be sold “exclusively online” and potential buyers are being invited to book special try-on appointments to see the watch before ordering. But what exactly is a try-on appointment?
Apple describes the Apple Watch as its “most personal device yet” – and what could more personal than having someone delicately slip an Apple Watch onto your wrist?
READ MORE: Apple Watch is now available for pre-order
When you first start your try-on appointment, the Apple specialist will ask what Apple Watch models you are most interested in – like the 38mm stainless steel case with the Milanese loop strap, for example.
The watches are housed in a hidden drawer in the Apple Watch try-on table. Apple employees open the drawer by holding up their mobile payment device to the drawer.
Here’s where things get fancy. The specialist will remove a watch from the case, hold it up for you to see and then promptly whip out a cleaning cloth to carefully wipe off any fingerprints on the screen.
“Is it okay if I put the watch on for you,” asked the specialist before slipping it on my wrist for the first time.
Once on, the specialist will turn on the screen, which runs through a basic demo.
The watch will scroll through some features, showing you watch faces, screen savers, the contacts app and messages. You’ll also get to experience the watch’s haptic feedback feature – which vibrates to notify you of messages or even send your heartbeat to someone.
But this demo is mostly visual – you aren’t able to do much else but scroll through the various demo items.
WATCH: Release of the Apple Watch
Once the demo is over, the specialist will ask what other watch models you would like to try on.
If you choose, you can try on both the 38mm and 42mm version of your desired watch to judge size.
Once your 15 minutes is up, the idea is you will have a better understanding of what watch you will go home and order online. There will be no walking in and walking out with a watch.
But for some, the appointment may feel more like a suit or dress fitting, rather the first step in buying a gadget.
Apple’s employees appear to have been instructed to provide style feedback – they may offer advice on what watch size will look best on your wrist, or what band suits your “look.”
During my appointment, the specialist thought the larger 42mm case looked good on me. I preferred the smaller 38mm version.
READ MORE: Buying an Apple Watch isn’t as simple as you may think
Trying on the top-of-the-line 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition, however, is an entirely different process.
Those who want the experience will have to book a specific Apple Watch Edition appointment. According to reports from 9to5Mac, these customers are brought into a different area of the store and the watches are presented in special leather boxes. It’s been said these customers will get more than 15 minutes with the watch.
Only two Canadian stores will be offering the Apple Watch Edition try-on appointments – Toronto’s Eaton’s Centre and Montreal’s Sainte-Catherine location.
Apple said everyone who comes into the store is welcome to try the watch, but they encourage making an appointment to cut down on wait times.
Of course, you can skip all of this by ordering your device online, if you know exactly what configuration you want – keeping in mind there are 54 possible configurations in all.
© Shaw Media, 2015
American Head Shapes Have Been Changing, But Why?
White Americans’ heads and faces have been changing in shape on average, and no one knows quite why, according to new research.
In a trend that can be identified going back to the mid-1800s, U.S. skulls have gotten bigger, taller and narrower as seen from the front, said Richard and Lee Jantz, a husband-and-wife team of forensic anthropologists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They also found that faces have become significantly narrower and higher, though this shift is less pronounced than those affecting the whole cranium.
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An 1847 photo of famed Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster (left) and a modern photo of presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (right). Their faces may be illustrative of general trends affecting American skulls and faces: they have become taller and narrower on average since Webster’s time, according to anthropologist Richard Jantz. The selection of these two faces and photos is unscientific and they have not been scaled to show their true relative sizes. |
The changes continue into the generation born in the 1980s, from which come the latest skulls available for the research, according to the Jantzes, who presented their findings April 14 at the annual meeting in Portland, Ore. of American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
“I don’t have any reason to believe” the changes have stopped, said Richard Jantz in an interview.
He cited dramatic increases in the availability of nutrition, better medical care and lower infant mortality as possible factors behind the changes, but expressed pessimism that a definitive reason can be identified. The sheer number of changes that have swept American life make that an “endlessly complicated” proposition, he said.
“We are living in an environment that’s totally different from what’s ever existed in the past. It’s like putting experimental animals in an extreme environment.”
A larger head could allow for greater intelligence, but it’s unclear whether the increases are related to improvements in intelligence scores, Jantz said. Some aspects of the shifts in skull shape aren’t necessarily healthy. Earlier puberty, which has led to reports of girls getting pregnant before their teens, may be reflected in the earlier closing in youth of a separation in the bone structure of the skull called the spheno-occipital synchondrosis, he observed. America’s obesity epidemic is the latest development that could affect skeletal shape, Jantz said, but its precise effects are as yet unclear.
Although the changes in skull structure may be likely to go on, “they don’t necessarily have to continue in the same direction,” he added.
The research only assessed Americans of European ancestry because these provided the largest sample sizes to work with, said Jantz. Over 1,500 skulls were included in the research, many of them coming from the donated collection at the University of Tennessee.
The average height from the base to the top of the skull in males has increased by 8 millimeters (0.3 inches), the Jantzes found; skull size has grown by 200 cubic millimeters, a space equivalent to a couple of small peas. In females, the corresponding increases are 7 millimeters and 180 cubic millimeters.
Changes in skeletal structure are taking place in many parts of the globe, not just the United States, Jantz said. But they tend to be less well studied elsewhere, with the exception of a well-documented increase in human height across the industrialized world in recent centuries. “From what we know, in Europe there are some” shifts in skull shape, Jantz said, but “not as dramatic as seen in the U.S.”
Jantz tends to focus on lifestyle as a principle reason for the changes, not human evolution, although he said he doesn’t rule out the latter. The trend in skull shape “tracks calories available pretty strongly” in the industrialized world, he noted.
The observed growth in skull height is to some extent part of an overall documented increase in whole-body height. But Jantz has found that the skull-height increases are considerably out of proportion to those elsewhere the body, and also have continued whereas the overall heightening has slowed or stopped in recent years.
Adapted from: World Science
People prone to rage attacks found to have smaller “emotional brains”
People who are prone to rage attacks have smaller “emotional brains,” according to a new study based on brain scans.
Researchers concluded that people with this condition, called intermittent explosive disorder, have less “gray matter”—brain tissue made of nerve cells—in the so-called frontolimbic regions of the brain, structures that regulate emotions.
These brain areas play an important role in the biology of aggressive behavior, according to scientists. An article on the new findings is published in the inaugural issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
The findings “suggest that disrupted development of the brain’s emotion-regulating circuitry may underlie an individual’s propensity for rage and aggression,” said the journal’s editor, Cameron Carter of the University of California, Davis.
Intermittent explosive disorder is defined as “recurrent, problematic, impulsive aggression,” explained Emil Coccaro of the University of Chicago, the article’s lead author.
“While more common than bipolar disorder and schizophrenia combined, many in the scientific and lay communities believe that impulsive aggression is simply ‘bad behavior’ that requires an ‘attitude adjustment.’”
But the new data confirm that the condition is “a brain disorder and not simply a disorder of ‘personality,’” he added. More generally, smaller frontolimbic gray matter volume correlates to more aggression, he said.
The investigators collected high-resolution brain scans in 168 people, including 57 subjects with the disorder, 53 healthy control subjects, and 58 psychiatric control subjects. Using the scans, taken with the technique known as magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers said they found a direct link between history of actual aggressive behavior and smaller gray matter volume.
Adapted from: World Science
“Humanized” Mice!
Introducing a “humanized” version of a language-linked gene into mice accelerates their learning, according to a study.
The gene, called Foxp2, is of a type known as transcription factor—a gene that controls the activity of other genes. It has also been linked to the development of human speech and language. The gene is found in both humans and mice, in slightly different forms.
In the new study, researchers created mice whose version of the Foxp2 gene had changes in two key amino acids—somewhat equivalent to two “letters” of its genetic code. The changes were designed to make the gene more similar to human Foxp2.
The study aimed at learning “how genetic changes might have adapted the nervous system” to language and speech, wrote the scientists, Ann Graybiel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues. The report appeared Sept. 15 online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The report, however, didn’t address what some scientists have described as ethical questions posed by the mixing of human and animal genes. One concern, for example, is that humanity might eventually have to confront the weighty issue of whether an animal with some human genes deserves human rights.
Graybiel and colleagues found that the two-“letter” change affected a part of the mouse brain known as the striatum and related circuits called the cortico-basal ganglia. These areas are “known to be essential for motor and cognitive behaviors such as speech and language capabilities in humans,” explained a summary of the report issued by the journal.
Different portions of the striatum underlie two modes of learning considered crucial for speech and language, the researchers said. One is a conscious form of learning called declarative learning; the other, a non-conscious form called procedural learning.
In a series of maze experiments, mice with the “humanized” gene learned stimulus-response associations more rapidly than regular mice when both declarative and procedural forms of learning were engaged, the investigators reported.
Parts of the striatum associated with these two modes of learning were found to respond differently in the mice, as judged by levels of dopamine, a messenger chemical in the brain; by gene activity patterns; and by changeability in the strength of brain connections, known as synaptic plasticity. The findings suggest that the humanized gene differently influences how different regions of the striatum contribute to learning, said the researchers, who speculate that these effects may have contributed to the emergence of human language.
Adapted from: World Science
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