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.
Posted on

#ATTDevSummit:U-Verse opens API’s for Android Development

att uverse poker night tv appIn bringing more interactive services to our TV’s, AT&T is opening up their API’s to Android devs to improve the quality of Android compatibility. There are currently 15 software titles available for the U-Verse service, and they are working to provide meaningful services for our televisions.

Vice President of U-Verse services GW Shaw showed us around some of the apps after the developer summit. The first example shown was from Splitmo, who created Poker Night TV, allowing people in home and remote to play poker against each other over U-Verse. The TV displays the poker table and your cards are shown on your phone or tablet screens, so you can protect your cards from prying eyes. I’m hoping in a future update the app will engage the cameras so I might see my pals’ tells.

“The AT&T U-verse Poker App is a great way to bring the game to the comfort of your own living room without having to travel to Las Vegas,” said Kasey Thompson, CEO of All In Magazine. “I really enjoy that you can play with your friends using devices to keep your cards private or play with friends remotely.”

Other apps released for this service include Twonky Beam which allows you to find media on an iPad and beam it to a TV, an interactive workout app, and Karaoke TV.

Now with more access to those APIs, there will be more opportunities to produce interactive media and content for the largest screens in our homes.

Full PR below.

Continue reading “#ATTDevSummit:U-Verse opens API’s for Android Development”

Posted on

#CES2014: UPDATED – Pebble Stepping up with Pebble Steel, Classier, Slimmer, Gorilla Glass

pebble-steel

***Now with more pics of Pebble Steel!***

Wearables are hot at CES, and few have as much of a lead as the Pebble. With its quirky charm and developer support, there’s a lot of mind share for this little Kickstarter success story.

Now they’re refining their magic formula with Pebble Steel. Everything we’ve enjoyed is still on board, like the terrific ePaper display and app support. Now though we have a sexier, slimmer frame, in Black Matte or Brushed Stainless. Gorilla Glass will protect your display, and you’ll receive metal and leather straps in the box. It’ll also launch with Pebble

The price bumps up to $249, which even for the nicer premium experience, is still undercutting a lot of the smartwatch market.  Full PR below.

Continue reading “#CES2014: UPDATED – Pebble Stepping up with Pebble Steel, Classier, Slimmer, Gorilla Glass”

Posted on

#CES2014: Sony Wows with Xperia Z1 Compact, “Uncompromising” smaller Android Smartphone

sony xperia z1 compact ces tease announcement android smartphoneI don’t often get excited about phone announcements, but Sony has me very interested.

The biggest problem in the Android ecosystem right now is the lack of premium smaller form factor devices. Smaller screens are seen as entry or mid-range phones. It completely gives the market away to the iPhone when “Premium” only means 4.7″ screens and larger.

Sony is looking to change that with the Z1 Compact. A 720p 4.3″ display is powered by the most bleeding edge guts we can currently pack into a phone.

sony xperia z1 compact ces tease announcement android smartphone camera

The Qualcomm 800 processor is a screamer on larger higher resolution phone screens, so it should be even more of a beast here. 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage with a MicroSD card slot will be handy as the camera bolted to the back is a 20MP shooter with optical image stabilization. Even the battery is class standard at 2300mAh, a capacity often found in larger screen phones.

Not only are the guts impressive, the design is attractive as well, with a solid machined aluminum shell. The Z1 Compact also continues in Sony’s recent tradition of making their phones water resistant, helpful insuring your smartphone might actually last the two year contract you signed up for.

Every bit of this phone is a step in the right direction for those wanting a premium high end smartphone in a smaller form factor. Sony released a video tease of the Z1 Compact embedded below.

Posted on

#ATTDevSummit: Random House playing with AT&T Speech API to eliminate human Audiobook Voice Over recording

Disclaimer: My primary job when I’m not tech blogging is commercial, animation, and video game voice over casting in Hollywood.

attdevsummit random house audiobook speech api demonstration cesOne interesting side discussion during this year’s Developer Summit was the utilization of new speech API’s from AT&T. It’s based on the Watson engine, which you heard as the HAL-like voice which spanked a couple of flesh bags on Jeopardy back in 2011. It’s an alpha API, but is already light years ahead of the basic Text to Speech engines in use for audiobooks.

As a voice over director and producer, I completely understand some of the challenges in recording with people. It’s an endurance match recording a 30 second TV spot, let alone a whole book. I’ve always been shocked by people who listen to the books recorded by artificial voices, devoid of any performance, and with tragically awful emphasis. Those older speech engines will say all the words in the right order, but they can’t tell you a story.

This new speech engine is working to change that. It’s still wholly artificial, but it can now represent several different characters instead of just one voice type. Plus it can be programmed to follow punctuation and energy levels for urgency and emphasis. It makes the act of listening to an audiobook a lot easier when there’s some sense of through line or narrative.

It’s obviously years away from replacing the terrific actors whole labor over these kinds of projects, but computer voices are improving rapidly. We all make jokes about Siri, but Google and Apple have delivered mobile data assistants with voices we would’ve thought impossible at the consumer level even just five years ago. And then there’s Watson, which can even learn the nuance of language well enough to pick up on swearing and other colorful metaphors.

Seth Stell from Smashing Ideas was on hand to demo some of the work they’re doing with Random House to replace humans. I shot video of the demonstration, but unfortunately the Galaxy S4 Zoom I used ate the audio, which is like the most important part of demoing a speech engine. Thankfully there’s a Livestream of the event embedded below.
Skip to 22 minutes to begin the piece on Speech hosted by Random House.

 

Posted on

#ATTDevSummit: LG Flex coming to AT&T soon-ish…

LG_G_FLEX_04The experiment moves mainstream! The curved screened LG Flex will soon be showing up on AT&T LTE in North America.

Flex features a 6″ 720p AMOLED display which can bend completely flat without damage, and it has the near-magical the ability to heal from minor scrapes and scuffs. Just check this crazy video out.

 

 

The rest of the hardware is similar to the LG G2 including processor and camera performance. No pricing or availability as of yet, but full PR below. Continue reading “#ATTDevSummit: LG Flex coming to AT&T soon-ish…”

Posted on

#ATTDevSummit: AT&T Brings Asus Padfone X to USA

20140106_103127_3I’ve been waiting for this one for a while. Asus has experimented with phone and tablet modular systems for a couple years now. Turning Android tablets into laptops, and phones into tablets. Padfone X marks the first Asus modular solution officially supported by an LTE equipped North American carrier.

Padfone merges a 5” 1080p smartphone with a 9” tablet shell. Dock your phone into the tablet, and the services on your phone are instantly transported to a larger screen. A helpful benefit as you can now support a phone experience and a tablet experience over AT&T LTE with only one data plan.

While specific hardware details are slim, we know it will arrive with Android 4.4 KitKat, and it will be one of the first to support AT&T’s LTE Advanced network rollout and HD Voice.

More info at: http://ATT.com/padfonex

Asus-PadFone-2

Posted on

#ATTDevSummit: AT&T to ease the burden of data caps with Sponsored Data

2014-01-06 09.48.57Data mobility often comes with limitations, caps or throttling. This can have a chilling effect on customer use and innovation. Developers might shy away from data driven services if their target audience can only use those apps on WiFi.

AT&T took the wraps off their Sponsored Data program today at the AT&T Developer Summit. Essentially Sponsored Data is a “toll free” data service similar to how a 1-800 telephone number works. Companies sponsor a site or service, and customers wont get hit with data usage on their bill.

It’s a novel model at working around some of the existing business models which often place more burden on consumers’ pocket books. Now various 3rd party companies can provide additional value to their users, while encouraging more data mobility services.

More info at http://www.att.com/att/sponsoreddata/

Posted on

Blue Microphones bringing higher fidelity to Mobile Audio with Mo-Fi

blue microphones mo-fi headphones teaseBlue Microphones is enjoying something of a tech re-branding. From traditional recording solutions, to USB mic powerhouse. Now they’re tackling mobility.

Details are slim, and this video is barely a tease, but the word at Blue is headphones. Mo-Fi is a move towards higher fidelity mobile audio, and if anyone can shake up a market, Blue can. Considering the EQ tweaks and color Blue uses on their recording kit, their headphones could provide some interesting competition to the current crop of designer ‘phones like Beats By Dre, or the Nokia Purity.

Can we at least give Blue a thumbs up for using the accurate term to describe high quality audio? I’m so happy to see them not fall prey to calling their product “High Definition”. Long live “Fidelity”!

Proudly powered by WordPress