Author: Juan Carlos Bagnell

Juan has been obsessed with consumer electronics since before computers had GUI’s. Out of college he worked on a JIT computing contract which supported DOE facilities in New Mexico. He’s been featured on numerous podcasts and radio shows lending his tech insights. You can also find him in LA directing voice over actors and producing spoken word recording.
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Facebook to acquire Oculus VR Inc. for $2 Billion

Oculus 3Insert “FarmVille gaming in 3D” joke here.

In a surprising announcement today, Facebook has announced their plans to acquire Oculus VR, makers of the Rift VR gaming headset, for $400 million in cash and $1.6 billion in stock.

Oculus is the indie sweetheart gaming company pushing virtual and augmented reality hardware back into the gaming industry’s focus almost single handedly. Building so much momentum and fan good will that Sony recently announced plans to move into the space with their Morpheus headset, a similar style VR wearable display.

Facebook is taking a gamble in moving VR beyond gaming and into social media, but even if that strategy fails, it’ll give them a unique opportunity to push the Facebook brand further into entertainment.

“Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” said Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”

The buy out should be completed by end of second quarter 2014. What do you think will happen to the Oculus brand? How do you think VR will be incorporated into business and social media applications? Drop us some comments below!

Related:
Your New Reality Is Ready

Full Facebook PR below.
Continue reading “Facebook to acquire Oculus VR Inc. for $2 Billion”

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HTC One (M8) is officially announced! Full specs and details from HTC’s event!

BjlO0lDCEAEv7wzWhat a long strange trip it’s been…

The often leaked “Worst Kept Tech Secret of 2014™®©” is now finally officially official. The rumors and leaks have all been true. The M8 will sport the 5″ 1080p LCD, and the Qualcomm 800. The aluminum construction is similar to the M7, with more rounded edges. The BoomSound front facing speakers return, continuing one of the best multimedia experiences available on any phone.

BjlRAN-CQAISTTrThe M7 was over 70% metal unibody, the M8 approaches 90% while also shaving a little girth for a thinner overall effect. Adding a brushed texture to the body adds a touch of style, while it should help reduce the visibility of light scratches and abrasions.

BjlQWnvCUAATdMyThe dual camera set up captures depth information, allowing for some of the focus-after-the-fact tricks we’ve seen from Nokia or Lytro using true binocular view. This also allows for blurrier background bokeh thanks to that extra depth info. You’ll no longer need 3rd party photo editing apps for the effect.  The camera API will also be opened up for developers to tinker with. Continue reading “HTC One (M8) is officially announced! Full specs and details from HTC’s event!”

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HTC BlinkFeed app arrives at Google Play ahead of new One phone

htc blinkfeed google play screenshotOh HTC. You just can’t time anything for your new flagship phone’s release can you?

Ahead of the announcement for their all new flagship M8 HTC One, what I’m loving calling the worst kept secret of 2014, HTC has taken the wraps off of their new BlinkFeed app.

This is a fantastic play by HTC and something I’ve been literally begging more manufacturers to do. Companies like HTC, LG, and Samsung deliver a TON of features and apps on a phone. Unlike a Nexus which is a fairly bare experience. However those individual manufacturer apps don’t get updated very often as they’re baked into the ROM supplied by said manufacturer. If the tiniest app gets updated at HTC HQ, you have to wait for a FULL OS UPDATE to get the benefits of that updated app. It’s one big lump sum.

Or at least it was until now. HTC is separating out BlinkFeed, and hosting it on Google Play. Now whenever a team at HTC but a little polish on this app, it can be pushed directly to One owners without waiting for a massive ROM download.

Android is still somewhat hamstrung by the carrier approval process, in that there’s still a significant lead time between when Google releases an OS update, the manufacturers customize it, and that update is approved and distributed by carriers. Google has been making a lot of progress in splicing out individual Android services and posting them as standalone apps. A user might not always get the latest Android OS, but all of their services can be up to date. Now HTC is following in those footsteps, and that makes me happy.

HTC BlinkFeed on Google Play (2014 One only)

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Long Term Review: The LG G Flex on AT&T!

This thing is a beast. An absolute monster.

We’ve played with a few large screened phones here, most recently the Lumia 1520, and while I’m still not a huge fan of the phablet, LG has shown they can refine their phone experience and bring a few new tricks to the table. Let’s take a look at their G Flex on AT&T!

Continue reading “Long Term Review: The LG G Flex on AT&T!”

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March Madness Anywhere You Want With the U-Verse App!

image (1)Here’s the dilemma. You’re a college basketball fiend, but you still have to occasionally leave the glow of your awesome TV to do things like go to work, or socialize with the non-college-basketball-fiend friends of yours. Sure you could just track your bracket via some website, but what’s the fun in that? If you’re an AT&T U-Verse subscriber, you could just watch every single game from anywhere you can utilize a data connection…

uverse busI had the opportunity to jump on the U-Verse Bus to try out the service, and aside from a few hiccups in areas of LA where no carrier gets good service, it worked fairly well. A fun example of how we could stream the first day games on the go. I say fun, but it was actually torturous, as my precious Buckeyes were upset in the very first round. My billion dollar bracket hopes down the drain from the very first game.

imageWe had the service hooked up to the Bus’ TV via a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and throughout most of LA and the Valley, we were watching live college hoops in full HD. We’d catch moments of Netflix style down-sampling, but on the whole it was pleasantly stable, and we had full access to all of the info services found on the traditional TV app. We could fire up the bracket to see wins and losses, or while watching a game get expanded coverage pop-up video style.

So while my team is already out of the race, if you’re still going strong on your bracket, the U-Verse app is a handy way to keep up in real time. Full press release below.

Continue reading “March Madness Anywhere You Want With the U-Verse App!”

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Amazon settles eBook Antitrust Lawsuits with credits for customers

amazon ebook anti-trust emailIf you’re an Amazon Kindle customer, chances are pretty good you got an email from them today about your eBook purchasing history, with a nice little surprise.

In December 2013, a federal court approved legal settlements by publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin in antitrust lawsuits filed by State Attorneys General and Class Plaintiffs about the price of eBooks. Those settlements resulted in credits for qualifying Kindle books purchased between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012.

Depending on how many eBooks you’ve purchased, you’ll be issued credits for future Amazon eBook purchases, but that credit is only good for 90 days.

You can catch more info, and if you have any credits waiting for you, on Amazon’s settlement page.

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Qualcomm Toq update improves fitness tracking and notifications

qualcomm toq activity tracker update smartwatchToq owners should see a new update for the smartwatch and companion app. I normally wouldn’t write up a .1 update, but Qualcomm is quickly refining the Toq experience.

Toq software update 1.4 brings a couple new watch faces while polishing up the notifications and activity tracker. You can now see the last five text messages in the watch’s history. Also the fitness tracking has been expanded with better charts for visualizing your progress. You can also set goals for yourself in the Android app, and the watch will show you your progress.

The whole Toq experience is getting cleaner while providing more functionality, and now we’re just waiting out more 3rd party app support. We’ve already seen Toq added to the list of supported watches by Augmented SmartWatch Pro, which adds even more notification customization and support for Fitbit and Withings.

Nice little bit of progress for Qualcomm’s smartwatch tech test bed.  Continue reading “Qualcomm Toq update improves fitness tracking and notifications”

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T-Mobile tries their hand at a Galaxy S5 Unboxing Video

galaxy s5 unboxing video t-mobileFirst Samsung delivers a full hands on video of the Galaxy S5, now T-Mobile is delivering my least favorite flavor of Geek Porn.

The Unboxing Video.

In true unboxing form, over a third of the video is just a pair of disembodied hands holding Samsung’s packaging. If you really needed to hear someone read the specs off the side of the box, and eventually hold the phone in their hands, while also showing you the cable and charger, then this is the video for you!

I have to admit a bit of disappointment though as you’d think that a company like T-Mobile would be able to produce a higher quality video, at least something better than 720p shot on a potato…

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