PayPal goes cashless and cardless in Aussie cafes, bars, restaurants
Although PayPal has a very large user base, it is starting to see competition in the digital wallet space from Mastercard, which launched its MasterPass earlier this year, and Visa, which just announced its new V.me digital wallet service.
But while PayPal doesn't have backing from financial institutions like Mastercard and Visa, it is expanding its offiline payment options by partnering with EatNow, OrderMate and Beat The Q using a mobile app.
"As we continue to work in collaboration with other leading entrepreneurs and innovators of all sizes, PayPal's mobile application will increasingly be seen as a destination for consumers to browse local businesses, order ahead and transact at point of sale," said Hill Ferguson, vice president of Global Product at PayPal.
Retailers can integrate PayPal's app into their existing point of sale (POS) system, like Kounta, Micros, Island Pacific or Vend, which will allow customers to use their PayPal mobile app to simply "check-in" to the store to pay.
The retailer then selects the checked-in customer and confirms the PayPal payment option through their POS.
Where can you PayPal?
PayPal released its API in November last year, with Sonoma Bakery, Mexican restaurant Guzman Y Gomez, fashion retailer Glue store and educational retailer Crayons the first retailers to implement the new payment system."Over the last year, PayPal has been collaborating with hospitality and POS companies to provide more flexible and secure payment options for Australian consumers, making it easier than ever to pay how they want, when they want," said Jeff Clementz, managing director of PayPal Australia, in a media release.
OrderMate's network of over 1000 cafes, bars and restaurants and EatNow's network of 2000 restaurants will be able to accept PayPal payments as well, while Beat the Q customers will be able to place their orders in advance.
Clementz also added that there are currently five million active Australian PayPal accounts, and this new system has meant that Aussies will now have access to over 90,000 merchants both online and offline.
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PAX Aus: The Oculus Rift is going to change gaming, one headset at a time
Something is amiss. Not with the Oculus Rift sitting on my face like a high-tech pair of ski goggles for the blind. No, something is amiss with my brain.
I'm looking around the ruins of a virtual castle and as I turn my head, the world moves around me. I look up and see thousands of snowflakes delicately falling to the ground. Instinctively, I reach out to catch one, but something is amiss. They are not real.
It's hard to believe that seconds after putting on the Oculus Rift HD prototype at PAX Australia, my brain would forget it's looking at a small 1080p screen just centimetres from my face.
Well, perhaps forget is the wrong word - I know that I'm looking at a screen, but the effect is so uncanny that my brain anticipates the other senses to acknowledge the view.
The visuals are far from photorealistic. They still look animated, still look like a game. And if I concentrate, I can still make out the pixels of the screen, a fine mesh of black lines that reminds you that you aren't looking at real life.
But none of that matters, because the device on my head is so lightweight and responsive that I can immediately forgive the Oculus Rift's weaknesses.
Even the fact that the HD prototype has't been optimised, meaning there are two black bars on either side of my peripheral vision, doesn't disrupt the experience.
This is going to change the way we play games, make no mistake.
The path to high definition
The story of Oculus Rift is almost as interesting as the experience of wearing one. Built from existing parts in the garage of founder Palmer Luckey, then turned into a Kickstarter phenomenon that raised $US2.4 million in funding, the product has reinvigorated the prospect of a virtual reality-enabled future.With major publishers Valve, Epic Games and Unity all supporting the platform, the future looks especially bright for the Oculus product.
Initially, the dev kits sent out to Kickstarter backers only featured a 1280 x 800 screen. Because the screen is essentially split into two to create the stereo 3D effect, that meant a relatively low 640 x 800 resolution for each eye.
The new HD prototype, which has been made possible by the development of 1080p screens for smartphones over the past 12 months, fixes the resolution issue.
Running at 60fps and with no lag in the motion tracker of the head unit, the result is an immediate, immersive world that offers a whole new way of experiencing a game.
Kickstarting the immersive game revolution
As someone who can't handle watching 3D at the cinema without being overwhelmed by a sense of nausea, there was definitely a sense of trepidation as the Oculus Rift goggles were wrapped over my head.Even Sony's Personal 3D viewer failed to deliver a sickness-free experience. But somehow, the Oculus Rift managed to trick my brain sufficiently to allow me to bypass the sense of disorientation, although a wave of dizziness did hit me about five minutes after taking the headset off.
Largely, it has to do with the headset's design and the lack of ambient light leaking in to disrupt you from the view on the screen. A tiny amount of light leaked in through the nose cover and air grills beneath the eyes, but not enough to distract from what you're looking at on screen.
But while vertigo may be enough to dissuade some from using the headset, the possibilities of a truly interactive environment will go a long way to sell the technology.
At PAX Australia, there were a number of indie developers showcasing titles specifically designed for Oculus Rift. What's more, we've already seen the likes of Team Fortress 2, Half Life 2 and Skyrim customised to support the virtual reality headset.
And this high-level support has created a market for additional immersive peripherals.
The Omni, for example, which is just about to finish its very own Kickstarter run, works with the Oculus Rift to allow players to walk, run and strafe through three dimensional worlds using special shoes and a low-friction octagonal pad.
From there, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine peripherals that allow for virtual weapons, virtual tools and virtual engagement in the near future.
Coupled with the fact that the team at Oculus Rift still hasn't settled on the technology it will use for the consumer release of the product, and there's still a lot of potential for the technology to move forward.
The prototype headset we used could still be replaced, with the Oculus team admitting that they were looking at all kinds of different technologies, including OLED.
More than a game
But regardless of the technology they decide to stick with, the Oculus Rift is set to deliver a paradigm shift in the way people engage with not just video games, but all forms of entertainment.In one demo, the Oculus placed us in an empty movie theatre. Turn around and you can see the flicker of the projector on the real wall. Look to the left and right and see the exits. Straight ahead, a screen shows off the trailer for Man of Steel.
It's an early prototype of an app for the headset, but it doesn't take a genius to imagine where it can go in the future. Virtual cinema screens, composing your avatar into the app so you can enjoy the cinema experience without the teenage brats talking through your movie.
Or fill up a stadium with virtual front row seats to a live sporting event. All it takes are broadcast cameras in the right place and some intelligent code to make it happen. Sure, it's still a long way away, but it is going to happen.
If you can forgive the pun, the Oculus Rift is a game-changer, in the best way possible.
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Apple takes down developer site after hack
Applehas placed its developer site under maintenance and confirmed that it had been hacked on July 18.
The hacker had attempted to steal personal information, including developer "names, mailing addresses and/or email addresses" according to Apple in a note posted on the site.
The Cuperitno-based tech giant said that it took the site down immediately after the breach was found on Thursday and that it has been working "around the clock" to fix it since then.
Earlier this year, Apple confirmed that Mac computers on its own network had been targeted by hackers.
Developer downtime
While Apple said that all personal information on the developer site was encrypted, it cannot rule out that the hacker was not able to access it."In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we're completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database," it said.
For developers that were to have program membership expire while the system is down, Apple said that memberships have "been extended and your app will remain on the App Store".
Apple hasn't said when exactly the site will be up and running again or if it will be able to determine exactly what data was accessed. And as the breach comes while the company is readying the release of iOS 7, it could potentially push back app development for its new OS.
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Geepers wants to tell you where to go
While Google has shut down Latitude, Geepers is creeping into the geo-location space with plans beyond simple check-ins.
With almost any social network, the "check-in" has become a standard, fun feature, but Geepers allows you to store preset addresses and locations under your own directory, so that you could potentially have something like "!TechRadar_Au.Office" or "!TechRadar_Au.Fishing".
"!TechRadar_Au.Now" can be used as a check-in style feature for a more immediate way for friends to find you at a particular location.
You can choose to share these labels and locations temporarily or for longer periods of time with certain individuals or companies.
But Geepers goes even further than that, especially for logistics like courier and mail services. You could send your ".Office" address to a courier services, but if your plans suddenly change, you could change your location to ".Home" using the Geepers app, and the courier company would be informed immediately.
Currently, Geepers already has Fastway Couriers signed on, but it is also in talks with postal services and other courier and logistic companies worldwide.
The Geepers future
The brains behind the project, David Whitfield, came up with the idea for Geepers while travelling in China."Geepers was actually created sitting in the back of a car in China, because the driver wouldn't move until we had the address of where we were going next into his GPS. It's difficult in a lot of the world because the address and the GPS wouldn't really talk to one another," said Whitfield.
After a lot of yelling and confusion, he kept thinking that there must be a better way of doing things, and so began the creation of Geepers.
"We are to the real world what domain names are to the internet," said Whitfield.
The future for Geepers, Whitfield explained, goes beyond personal addresses for delivery purposes, or simply being able to find friends at a restaurant or public place, as businesses can sign on and have their physical presence placed on the map as well for easy location by customers.
"Geepers is the future of business locations and addresses, delivering significant commercial efficiencies for the logistics industry in particular, and will become a significant tool in location based marketing."
Digital address book
Launched in Sydney last week, the Australian startup is backed by incubator BlueChilli and Internode founder Simon Hackett.Currently, the service is only available through web browsers, but the team is working on an app that is set to be launched in August.
Key backer, Hackett sees the potential uses for Geepers to expand from beyond the personal check-ins or the logistical delivery uses, and instead challenge the roles of the Yellow and White Pages.
"Geepers has the potential to become the most popular way that internet users will dynamically and accurately locate the people, places and things that matter to them, anywhere in the world," said Hackett.
"I for one would love to be able to keep all my contacts appraised of changes in my life, by simply having my Geepers identity represent a dynamic link of personal information beyond physical position."
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'We can spy on you,' says mobile expert who can hack SIMs with texts
A mobile security expert in Germany claims to have discovered a flaw in mobile SIM encryption technology that allows him to hack in to a phone, eavesdrop on calls and even make mobile payments.
Karsten Nohl, founder of Security Research Labs in Berlin, said he has been able to obtain the 56-digit digital key, which allows SIM data to be modified, simply by sending a virus to the device via text message.
Nohl told the New York Times that it took just two minutes to complete the hack and estimated that up to 750m mobile users would be vulnerable to the attack if the method was uncovered by malicious parties.
He told the 'paper: "We can remotely install software on a handset that operates completely independently from your phone."
"We can spy on you. We know your encryption keys for calls. We can read your SMS's. More than just spying, we can steal data from the SIM card, your mobile identity, and charge to your account."
Implications
Nohl has reported the findings of his study to the GSM Association and will present the research in full on August 1 at the Black Hat computer hackers' conference in Las Vegas.He has also advised chip makers to improve their technology in order to block the messages he was able to send to infiltrate devices.
A spokesperson for the GSM Association responded: "We have been able to consider the implications and provide guidance to those network operators and SIM vendors that may be impacted."
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Mozilla promises 'most aggressive' release schedule for Firefox mobile OS
The Firefox web browser is known for pushing out updates quickly and it looks like Mozilla is committing to the same release schedule for its new mobile OS.
In outlining the company's strategy this weekend, Alex Keybl, Mozilla's Manager of Release Management promised significant quarterly updates to the Firefox mobile OS.
Now version 1.0 of the would-be iOS and Android contender is out of the gate, the company said it also plans security updates every six weeks.
In a post on the Mozilla blog Keybl said: "Now that we have our v1.0 behind us and we're moving forward with even more partners, we're going to do our best to bring Firefox OS back into our heartbeat and will make quarterly feature releases available to partners along with six-weekly security updates for the previous two feature releases."
Emerging
He added that the strategy will easily outstrip other OS-makers in the mobile space: "As far as I know, that's the most aggressive mobile OS release strategy out there (and may still require some tweaking)."This sort of alignment across multiple browser products, and now an OS, is unprecedented at the pace we're moving. Keep it up, Mozillians."
Handsets running the Firefox OS are now rolling out in emerging markets, with 16 countries targeted for launch this year. It is unlikely to be available in the U.S. or the U.K. until 2014.
The likes of Sony, ZTE, LG and Huawei have already committed to building handsets for the platform.
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Agents of Shield: Nvidia says console is good to go, will ship July 31
Nvidia has confirmed that its long-awaited Shield handheld games console will be shipped to pre-order customers on July 31.
An unspecified mechanical issue related to a third-party component caused the company to miss its planned June 27 release date and push shipments back until July.
Now, in an email to pre-order customers on Sunday, the company thanked buyers for their patience and reaffirmed its commitment to the 'most vigorous mechanical testing' procedures in the industry.
"We want to thank you for your patience and for sticking with us through the shipment delay of your SHIELD. We have great news to share with you - your SHIELD will ship on July 31st," the company wrote.
"Our goal has always been to ship the perfect product, so we made sure we submitted SHIELD to the most rigorous mechanical testing and quality assurance standards in the industry. We built SHIELD because we love playing games, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do."
Unique form factor
The Shield console piqued our interest when it arrived at CES 2013 in January thanks to its unique form factor and high-end Tegra 4-powered innards.The device, which looks like a slim 5-inch smartphone screen attached to an Xbox controller brings access to Android games and offers the ability for PC games to be streamed via Steam.
The company cut the launch price to $299 (£195, AU$235) from $349 (£228, AU$380) last month in the hope of encouraging more gamers to jump on board.
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Sony DVD recorders lose Freeview access following firmware update
Sony has admitted a 'major technical problem' with its line of DVD recorders after a firmware update caused thousands of users to lose access to Freeview service.
The firmware 1.70 update, sent to Sony's HDX boxes on Friday, seems to be the culprit with users writing to the BBC and taking to Sony's online forums to complain.
Amid moans regarding the lack of an official response, Sony used its official Twitter page to acknowledge it was doing everything possible to find a fix.
"A major technical issue has been flagged to our dedicated team. We will update you asap," the company replied to users of the social network.
Blame Arqiva
Sony also acknowledged the fault on its official support forums, seemingly blaming Freeview owner and provider Arqiva for the problem, while offering workarounds for affected users.A member of the support team wrote: "It appears something has changed in the way that these devices are receiving EPG data from Arqiva, the people who own and operate the Freeview standard for the UK.
"So we are already trying to understand what has happened and how this can be rectified, realising that a large number of people have been affected."
In an update on Sunday morning, Sony also claimed the problem has been resolved for some users.
"Many users are reporting that the issue has been resolved and their devices are now able to correctly re-tune and received correct EPG date. Please post back if you are still experiencing problems," the company wrote.
Are you still receiving problems? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Interview: Why Microsoft decided to put WebGL into Internet Explorer
In the last few years, Microsoft has gone from ignoring the web browser and web standards, to embracing standards and seeing the browser as a way to outdo other platforms.
Internet Explorer head Dean Hachamovitch is as bullish about the strengths of Internet Explorer 11 as you'd expect, claiming that "The best experience of the web is on a Windows device with IE 11". And the fact that you can't get IE on Mac or Linux or Android or iOS devices? That's good news for Windows, in his opinion.
"Other browsers run here, there and everywhere. They don't run with excellence in any one particular place or on any one particular device - and that is an opportunity.
"When you put an old browser and an old browser interface on any of these shiny new devices - on a tablet, on a hybrid - you're going to run into some problems. You're going to run into a little bit of fail. You're going to notice when you browse with these other devices and other browsers that you don't have the responsiveness you have in IE 11, that you don't have the performance you want."
Multitasking in IE 11
And then there's that whole 'post-PC' thing where people want to use touch and tablets. "There are all these sites that don't quite work with touch. They work great with mouse but they don't quite work well with touch. It's really hard to use sites and apps together on these other things - in fact it's really hard just to see two web pages at the same time, which is disappointing."Tabs are limited, not just in how many you can have but in what you can do with them, how you can interact with them. And it just gets more disappointing when you jack in a keyboard and mouse because it just doesn't do what you expect from a notebook, from a full PC."
If you want to do more than look at one website at a time, Hachamovitch thinks IE 11 and Windows 8.1 beat the competition. "IE 11 does more than one thing at a time, it does pages side by side. Sites and apps work well together, you can go back and forth. You can have 100 tabs without really costing you battery or performance or memory in a significant way."
And if you just want to use a tablet? "It's absolutely perfect for touch. It's got stick-to-your-finger responsiveness. And it makes sure that you can do with touch everything you want to do with touch."
Why WebGL is now in
With Windows versions coming out more often, IE versions can come out more often, which should mean faster support for standards. The IE team is picky about standards though, and for a long time it rejected WebGL, using the GPU only for hardware acceleration.The hardware acceleration gets even better in IE 11, Hachamovitch claims. "There are a lot of firsts in IE 11, around using the GPU for panning and zooming and for images. The stuff we're offloading to the GPU in IE 11, we can do now because of what we learned in IE 10."
But IE 11 also adds support for WebGL, and he admits he was the one the team had to convince to put that into the browser. The issue was security. "There is a very interesting security exploit that involved WebGL and Firefox for Mac; basically you went to a malicious site and it could read everything on your screen. It reads the Word document you have in another window. That's a great example of the kind of security vulnerability we were concerned about."
It wasn't until the standard changed that he would consider it. "The WebGL specification now includes technology called CORS that effectively prevents image stealing attacks."
The IE team also put in a lot of extra work to improve security. "We did a lot of analysis of vulnerabilities, we did threat modelling, and we have essentially a pre-screening stage. Think of it like SmartScreen for WebGL content; we screen WebGL content for dangerous and suspicious patterns."
It's also another way that IE relies on Windows. "Running WebGL on top of the latest DirectX technology provides additional security. On other devices and operating systems it's possible to overwhelm the GPU and get all sorts of bad things happenning. On the DirectX architecture there is time-out detection and recovery. If you overwhelm the GPU, instead of taking down the whole system, it will just reset the GPU. So we feel we have defence in depth and, with the changes in the standard, that makes it safe to implement."
Caution advised
He still sounds a note of caution about WebGL, because of the complexity of programming and the possible impact on performance. "Try to imagine being a developer on Halo; try to imagine being a developer for Call of Duty or Forza where you're worried about all your image assets."How many triangles do I need? You're making [low-level] decisions like 'can I have fewer triangles and higher resolution images or can I get by with lower resolution images and more triangles?' to get the skin of the car looking great.
"Think about an aeroplane where you can see the rivets in the skin; that stuff is just flat out hard. OpenGL wasn't particularly easy, OpenGL ES wasn't particularly easy. Making it available to JavaScript didn't make it any easier. It's unlikely you're going to wake up in the morning and have some gorgeous WebGL working. It's hard."
Why doesn't IE 11 have support for WebRTC, the real-time chat and video standard Google is backing? "WebRTC has had so much flux over the last few months," says Hachamovitch. Will IE support it when it settles down? "I'll just say we're very involved in those groups," he notes.
EME is in too
One standard IE 11 does support that hasn't actually been approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) yet is Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), which is a sometimes contentious proposal for browsers to support some forms of DRM. At Build 2013, Microsoft showed Netflix streaming content working in IE 11 without needing a plug-in, using EME.Hachamovitch believes the technologies in the standard aren't going to change, so it's safe to implement. "It seems to be on a good trajectory," he says. But some of the discussions aren't about how EME actually works, they're more about philosophy.
"If you look at the series of technologies involved there are three parts. MPEG DASH is great. You want to have adaptive steaming, you want to be able to adjust to the bit rate that you can muster. There is the web crypto, so that Netflix can go 'hey I want to make sure you really are generating a key for me so that we can do the handshake'.
"No one seems to mind the web crypto one, no one seems to mind the web streaming one. And the last one has a lot more to do with business reality. I don't know if I believe in rights management philosophically. I know Netflix has contractual agreements and I have a choice. I can enable it in the browser or I can condemn everyone to have to go get an app, or a plug-in."
Having a standard way to do protected video streaming would have advantages for users as well as for developers, he suggests. "If you told Netflix 'here is the rate at which browsers are going to be able to just play this content', think about all the time and energy they could save from writing all these apps. You buy a Samsung TV that comes with a sufficient browser that it can do Netflix. Or the browser in my device could take responsibility for handling the GPU so I could watch three movies before running out of battery."
Future for IE
With all the advances made in IE, is it frustrating that there are still sites that treat IE as a legacy browser? (We've seen this with Google, Flickr and other major sites.) "There are a bunch of sites that try to detect the browser and try to special case them. That's why you hear us talk about getting the same markup. When you hand IE the same markup as other browsers, you get great performance and interoperability."There are a bunch of sites that say 'oh, it's IE, I want a legacy mode; here's some code I wrote in the 90s.' Our approach to that has been to build a better browser, provide better developer tools - and we have this compatibility view mechanism. As we find sites with compatibility issues we have to shim them," he explains.
"A sufficiently motivated and technically savvy user can go into the developer tools and try other browser agent strings [to see if a site works]. We try to do some of that with the compatibility view list."
Ironically, the rise of Android is making things better. "It's been great that you have so many different devices come into existence because sites are having to do a better job of dealing with all the different things hitting them. And that becomes a benefit for IE."
If IE 11 is so good, will we see it on other version of Windows? After all, Steve Ballmer was busy on the first day of Build pushing Xbox and Windows Phone as part of the Windows family.
"We work very closely with the Xbox team and the phone team and you can expect everything you see here is working in a secret Batman cave somewhere in Redmond," joked Hachamovitch.
More seriously, he told TechRadar, "We've been very clear about our support for Windows 7. IE 11 will be available for Windows 7." But the one thing he wouldn't even hint at was a date for the Windows 7 version of IE 11.
Liked this? Then heck out Windows 8.1 release date, news and features
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In Depth: 10 things Google should fix on the Chromebook
Chromebook converts already know one thing about Google's computers: they are incredibly fast. There's no OS overhead to slow things down, few drivers, and a powerful browser. Yet sales have been slow, and the lack of user interest is justified, because while Chromebooks get speed right, a lot of things remain glaringly wrong.
For example, there is no easy way to check disk space on current models, no direct USB printing, and no Bluetooth audio streaming. In fact, we came up with this list of 10 things that Google needs to change to make the Chromebook work.
We also checked with Google to see if it had any workarounds or plans to fix these problems. Because until they're fixed, it doesn't matter how fast Chromebooks are - they're not going to take off.
1. Any easy way to check disk space
You might already know the trick to check disk space on a Chromebook. You type "chrome://quota-internals" and can see the space used. However, for Chromebooks to gain mass-market traction, there needs to be a much easier way to see when you are running low on space.
A simple taskbar pop-up could show a percentage of space used. Google says it plans to include a pop-up disk monitor in an upcoming point release.
2. Uploading to Google Music
This one is probably the most appalling of all, because it is a problem related to Google's own music service. Using a Chromebook, there is no way to upload music to the Google Music service. In fact, there doesn't even seem to be a workaround (say, uploading to Google drive first and copying the files over to the music portal).
Yes, you can also use the Chrome Remote Desktop app in Chrome to tap into your Windows or Mac box, but that's not handy. If you download a music file, you have to them copy the file over to the other computer.
3. Google Now in the browser
Google Now is a groundbreaking service. It is included on newer Android phones out of the box, including the Samsung Galaxy S4 (just hold down the menu button).In an instant, the service will pop up a bus route when you are near one or show you flight info as you drive by an airport. It's also one of the best ways to access voice search.
But it's not available on a Chromebook, even though it could easily run in the browser. Google says it has no announcements about making Google Now work on Chromebooks in the near future.
4. Better use of the built-in camera
The HD camera built into Chromebooks like the Acer C7 are handy for holding a quick Google Hangout with friends and co-workers. And, there's a bevy of online video chats tools. The Chromebook doesn't make the best use of this camera, though.For example, you can't run Google Sky and point the webcam to the night sky and see an overlay of star call-outs. You can't do any augmented reality with a site like Yelp (using the Monocle feature). Of course, Google says this is a problem you can resolve on your own using an API.
5. Direct Printing
Here's the oddest missing feature of all. A Chromebook does not really support printing. Granted, you can always use Google Cloud Print and send your print job to a holding bin, and then have that print job routed to a printer like the HP Envy 120.
In many ways, that's a better approach, because you can "print" when you are away from the office. (link) Yet, not being able to just plug in a printer to a USB port and print seems dubious. It locks out non-technical users -- say, those in an office who just need to browse and print.
For instructions on how to print from a Chromebook, watch this video:
6. More USB thumbdrive support
Most recent models like the Chromebook Pixzel have a camera card slot, which makes it easy to move files around, offload camera shots, and (using an SD card adapter) load files onto the card you use with your smartphone.But a standard USB thumbdrive? Most of them do not work at all, and neither do USB portable drive and larger NAS drives with a USB connection. A Google rep says most USb drives should work, but that was not our experience.
7. Check GoGo credits
Chromebooks usually come with 12 credits to use on airplanes over the GoGo inflight wireless service. That's great, but there doesn't seem to be any way to know how many credits you've used. The service essentially tracks this for you so when you connect, it recognizes the Chromebook and away you go.
Since this is a feature related to the Chromebook itself, there should be a way to see how many logins you have left. You can find out when you are on a flight, but not before or after. (Google plans to fix this issue.)
8. Control the laptop by voice
Google Now is missing on a Chromebook. And, in a way, so is voice search. You can go to Google.com and do a search by voice, and this works reliably using the laptop's built-in microphone. But, as with several other features, the voice search is blissfully unaware that you are on a Chromebook.That means you can't control the notebook itself by speaking - asking to open settings dim, the screen, or restart the computer will all have absolutely no effect. This is another problem you can address on your own using an API, but not directly into the Chrome OS.
9. Better Bluetooth streaming
Bluetooth is available on the Chromebook Pixel, and it's a handy way to connect an external mouse or keyboard. Unfortunately, after trying a few Bluetooth wireless speakers, there is no way to connect and stream audio from your laptop.This feature would be ideal since the speakers on most Chromebook models, especially the Acer C7, are not that great. Google says an upcoming release will make Bluetooth audio streaming possible to speakers.
10. Fewer crashes
In tech circles, we know that nothing is fully error-free, but you would expect a nimble, light operating system - one that does not run desktop apps - to be almost crash proof. That's unfortunately not true for Chromebooks.
In our tests of several Chromebook models over the past few months, including the Acer C7 and the Pixel, crashes are more common that we would like. The computer started running slowly, a Javascript-heavy site bogged the OS down, and the file manager stops working.
Fortunately, you can sometimes just reboot the browser and start over (after all, the browser essentially is the OS). In other cases, the only remedy is to reboot the computer itself. It just happens too often. (You can press CTRL-SHIFT-I to report bugs, and the chrome://crashes command in the browser shows the crash ID.)
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In Depth: RFID wristbands vs NFC apps: what's winning the contactless battle?
The future of live events is digital, and soon, your ticket, the way you pay for drinks and even your ability to share the experience on social networks, could all be done with a tap of the wrist.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) wristbands are set to feature at many festivals and events this summer as an alternative to the NFC smartphone.
Most RFID wristbands contain short-range - typically 3-5cm - passive tags and don't require batteries, but instead, are powered when placed near or 'tapped' against an RFID reader.
- Opinion: NFC a killer app? No Flipping Chance
The tags in RFID wristbands can either be personalised with someone's profile (e.g. data is held directly on the chip itself) or they can be used as an access 'key' to a secure database of personal data.
What else can RFID wristbands do?
ID&C is the UK company behind the wristbands at many major festivals including Isle of Wight. The company has also worked with brands such as Adidas.More than 40 festivals around the world have used RFID wristband technology to offer fast-track entry, cashless payments and perhaps the most exciting bit - integration with social media.
Yes – after buying a ticket online, you'll have the option to link your RFID wristband to your Facebook or Twitter account, enabling you to post, Tweet, share and like all your favourite parts of the festival.
Footage from last year's Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, show's how RFID wristbands helped generate 1.9 million Facebook likes.
In the UK, wristbands were used at some festivals last summer including the Isle of Wight, Wireless and Wakestock. An estimated 3.5 million festivalgoers around the word have now used them.
What about using NFC smartphones instead?
The problem with using NFC smartphones instead of wristbands is that not everyone has one. This alienates ticket-holders and brings contactless participation down from an achievable 100 per cent if you issue every attendee with an RFID wristband.Then there's the fact phones run on batteries, and unlike RFID wristbands, will run out at some point during a multi-day festival. And, with limited (sometimes non-existent) ways to re-charge your phone in a field, your e-wallet, e-ticket and the ability to brag to your friends on Facebook, will vanish.
To say there's no place for NFC at festivals is wrong though. The Samsung Galaxy S4 for example, has been used as an RFID reading device and it's a perfect hand-held scanner for smaller events.
It's not just the practical issues mentioned above that affect festival-goers though, but the data integrity and security of any RFID system at a festival crumbles when the contactless device isn't locked to your wrist, synced to your profile and made non-transferable.
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Oculus Rift maker shrugs off consoles, focused on next-gen mobiles
Makers of the exciting Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming headset are more excited by launching the device for use with next-gen mobile games rather than the Xbox One or Sony PS4 consoles.
The CEO of Oculus, Brandon Iribe, told Edge the company hopes to launch the device in 2014 with a focus on games for the next Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone handsets.
While Iribe refused to rule out a console launch completely, he claimed the ongoing innovation in the mobile sector and the ability for users to just plug and play makes it a better option.
While dismissing the possibility of a 2013 launch, the CEO said a 2014 launch will only come "if its right," while also pledging to try and keep the costs under $300 (£196, AU$£26).
More mobile innovation
"I love consoles but internally we're a lot more excited about where mobile's going to go, and being able to plug it right into a next gen cellphone," he told the gaming publication."It's the innovation, and how fast cellphones are now improving – where we'll be with the next Galaxy or the next iPhone compared to where consoles are. Those things are almost doubling every year, compared to a console that's just stuck it out for eight years – it just makes us very excited.
"There's a lot of improvements that can be made on the hardware side for VR that no-one's doing yet because it's a new thing. The mobile rate of innovation is going to be able to make a lot of those improvements."
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