LG G Watch burning and skin irritation concerns nixed by OTA update
LG has rolled out a firmware update for its LG G Watch following concerns that the gold terminal pins on the back of the device were causing skin irritation and even burns for some wearers.
The problem, as reported by Android Police, is a constant electrical current that is sent through to the exposed POGO pins while the device is being worn.
Other users have complained about discolouration and corrosion of the pins, which has is caused when sweat meets the live POGO pins on the Android Wear device
The update from LG, which is yet to be officially acknowledged by the company, has been sent to stop that current while the device is in use.
Disabling the current
An LG customer support representative did told one G Watch owner: Recently it has come to our attention that a small number of G Watch devices have been reported to have developed discoloration and residue buildup on the terminal pins located on the back."While completely safe and unlikely to affect charging, LG will be rolling out a maintenance release over the next few days that will disable the current when the G Watch is not in the charging dock. The maintenance release will be rolled out automatically over-the-air to all G Watch owners. We thank G Watch users for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
Have you noticed discolouration of the pins on your G Watch? Any skin irritation? Let us know if this stops now the update has rolled out.
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Flappy Bird is back with multiplayer mode, exclusively on Amazon
Flappy Bird, the hit mobile game which caused a bit of a storm when the developer withdrew it at the peak of its success for being too addictive, is back, but right now appears to be an Amazon exclusive.
The new game Flappy Birds Family game has arrived on the Amazon App Store for Android, promising compatibility with the Amazon Fire TV box, remote and dedicated controller.
This time you can get your mates involved as there's a versus mode to enjoy, while floating ghosts will also obstruct your progress as well as those Mario-esque pipes.
More put-down-able
Developer Dong Nguyen also promises this version will be a little less addictive than the original.Nguyen, who had sleepless nights over how much time people were spending playing the game, has pledged to offer players satisfaction after a few turns rather than hours of gameplay.
There's no news yet on whether the game will be available for iOS or Android devices.
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Google Now launcher becomes available on all Android Jelly Bean devices
The Google Now Launcher is now available on the vast majority of Android devices, thanks to a new roll out this weekend.
The tool, which allows users to view upcoming appointments, weather, traffic conditions, public transport, sports scores and more, can now be downloaded for all devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and up.
Previously the launcher, which arrived as a standalone app in February, had only been available for the Nexus and Google Play Edition family of devices.
The arrival of the app for all Jelly Bean devices means users can get the Google Now launcher directly on their homescreens and say "Ok Google" to launch voice searches.
Swipe right
Once installed, Google Now cards can be accessed by swiping right on the home screen.The launch also offers one tap searches, access to Google apps like Maps, YouTube, Mail and more.
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Google is reportedly ready to free its photo service from Google+ shackles
According to a report this weekend, Google is about to scrap the need to sign up for Google+ in order to use the Photos part of the service.
Bloomberg sources claim the company is spinning off Photos, which allows people to store, share, edit, and enhance their snaps, into a standalone product in an attempt to generate growth.
It may be re-branded, but will still be available for current Google+ members, the sources said.
The news comes after Google announced it was allowing some business users to access the Hangouts service without signing up for Google+.
Say cheese
It appears, following the departure of Google+ boss Vic Guntora earlier this year, Google is beginning to realise that forcing Google+ sign-ups to access its services may have been misguided."Over here in our darkroom, we're always developing new ways for people to snap, share and say cheese," Google said in a statement without confirming the plans.
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In Depth: 10 iPhone speed hacks: great ways to be more efficient on your handset
10 iPhone speed hacks
Apple's iPhone is designed to be efficient, the minimal operating system mostly getting out of your way and providing fast access to content.However, various settings and shortcuts can speed things up even further, resulting in a more usable and streamlined iPhone experience.
1. Prune Spotlight
Even on an iPhone 5s, Spotlight is sluggish. Search for something and as you go to tap a result, it might have changed to something else, launching contacts rather than an app. In settings, go to general > Spotlight search and turn off everything you don't access through Spotlight.The more you get rid of, the more responsive Spotlight will be. Leave only applications ticked and Spotlight will become a speedy app launcher.
2. Use dock folders
Folders in iOS are a useful way to stash a number of apps in a small space, but you can also drag folders to the dock. Doing so means that you always have two-tap access to any of the apps within. That's potential speedy access to 36 apps rather than just four.
3. Create a bookmarks grid
In Safari any new tab will initially display a grid of tappable icons that represents pages or folders stored within the favourites location within bookmarks. When using iCloud, these appear within the optional favourites bar in Safari for Mac.For very commonly used websites, also consider adding them to your home screen (via the 'add to home screen' option found in Safari's share menu).
4. Turn on Reduce Motion
In settings > general > accessibility > reduce motion, turn on reduce motion. This replaces folder zooms with simpler cross-fades and at least gives the impression of a faster and more responsive system. (In admittedly unscientific tests with a stopwatch, using the interface with the cross-fades does also seem a touch faster.)
5. Edit mailboxes in Mail
Tap the top-left button in Mail until you're in the mailboxes view, and tap edit. Tick mailboxes you want to see and reorder them to have those most useful to you appear at the top. If you never use VIP, get rid of it; if you'd find it useful to have fast access to unread emails, turn that option on and drag it upwards.6. Share photos using iCloud
If you have friends, family and coworkers with iOS devices or Macs, consider using iCloud Photo Streams to share photos and other images. You can set up a shared stream in the shared tab of Photos, and then invite people to it via their Apple ID emails.Optionally, you can allow subscribers to post, show notifications when someone comments or adds an image, and define whether you want the images to be shared publicly online as a website.
7. Use your Mac's keyboard to type on your iOS devices
If you have an iOS device docked during the day while working on a Mac, and yet regularly have to type on the device, install 1Keyboard. The app communicates with your device via Bluetooth and enables you to type using your Mac keyboard rather than the fiddly on-screen equivalent.
8. Hide unused apps on a folder's second page
If you use folders to manage apps, don't bung unused stock apps into a folder called "Apple" that distracts and hangs around like a bad smell. Instead, stash them on the second page of one of your other folders, whereupon you'll never have to see them again. On the rare occasion you need one of the apps, find and launch it using Spotlight.9. Define typos within typing shortcuts
If you're forever misspelling certain words make use of iOS auto-correct. In settings, go to general > keyboard, and scroll down to shortcuts. Add any common misspellings using the add new shortcut option. In each case, the phrase should be the correct spelling and shortcut should be the typo.
10. Add several Touch ID fingerprints
Apple's Touch ID is a great way to quickly unlock an iPhone or make an App Store purchase, but one thumb isn't enough. To speed things along, make it so you can use Touch ID however you're holding your device. It's a smart idea to register both of your thumbs and index fingers.
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Week in Gaming: The Last of Us Remastered, the woes of Sega, and the fate of TimeSplitters 4
At TechRadar, we like to think we're duly prepared for the zombie apocalypse. Not a day goes by of which we don't lend a small part to discussing the best weapons (crowbar), best modes of transport (mountain bike: fast, agile, good for off-road) and best locations to fortify in (riverboat) should an outbreak occur at any moment.
But truth be told, when the day comes, I'll be the one found in the local shopping mall wearing nothing but a banana hammock and driving around in a homemade zombie death chair.
This week, TechRadar asked Naughty Dog for a few tips for facing an apocalyptic outbreak, but more importantly, to find out how The Last of Us Remastered on PS4 has been improved. If you've already played the original, is it time to revisit? Read these 10 ways that The Last of Us Remastered is better on the PS4, and decide for yourselves.
Time to split?
There was an industry shakeup this week that sent tremors through the TimeSplitters fan community. But whether those tremors was good or bad, we're still not sure.Deep Silver announced it had bought the Homefront franchise from Far Cry developer Crytek, meaning Crytek would no longer be working on Homefront: The Revolution.
The result of this (and ongoing financial woes) is that Crytek UK will effectively close its doors and be repurposed into Deep Silver Dambuster Studios, while Crytek USA, the team working on Hunt: Horros of the Gilded Age, will also shut. Hunt will instead be developed by Crytek's German division.
It's all very messy, but what you might not have realised is that the fate of TimeSplitters now hangs in the balance. Crytek was at one time TimeSplitters developer Free Radical, which was later snapped up by Crytek in 2009 after filing for bankruptcy and transformed into Crytek UK. No TimeSplitters games have been developed since.
In light of this week's news, the question now is: who the hell gets the rights to TimeSplitters? And what are the chances of us ever seeing TimeSplitters 4?
Crytek owns those rights now, but that may change in the transition. And if Deep Silver obtains the IP, there's a chance we could see a fourth game get put into development.
On the other hand, this could be the worst news ever for hopefuls, with the possibility of the IP being left to rot at the bottom of a filing cabinet somewhere.
What makes things more promising/heartbreaking (depending on the outcome) is that just days ago one Crytek bod told Total Xbox that "everybody" at Crytek UK was eager to work on TimeSplitters 4. "It's just waiting for the right situations and deals to be done," said animator Mark Jackson. "I'm not privy to that, but from everybody working at the studio - everyone, whenever we say what would you like to do next, it's TimeSplitters."
Bad one for Sega
Ouch. It's not a good week to be Sega, which told investors that profits have taken a sharp dive [CVG]. Its net income was £32 million for the three months starting in June, less than half of what it made for the same period last year.Sega's not put out any significant titles in that time (it's been very mobile heavy) and said that a "softening" of the package game business is in part to blame for the results.
Maybe Marc Chacksfield's idea for a 2D Sonic Remastered (???) could be the one to turn things around.
But we'd sooner put our money on Alien: Isolation. Sorry, Chax.
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Beats Music chief may now be on the hook for making iTunes Radio a success
Both Beats Music and iTunes Radio have reportedly struggled to attract the anticipated listenership since arriving on the stream scene and now it appears their fortunes will rest on the shoulders of one man.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ian Rogers, the head of Beats Music will also take the reins at iTunes Radio following the completion of the $3 billion Apple-Beats takeover on Friday.
Rogers, who will join Apple alongside co-founders Dr Dre. and Jimmy Iovine, will "run both teams to create cohesion in Apple's streaming-music options," according to WSJ sources.
It remains unclear whether the services will be united under one banner in order create a free, ad-funced random radio and a paid for pick-your-own streaming service combo to rival the likes of Spotify.
Job losses
The acquisition isn't all good news for Beats, with some 200 jobs going as a result of the take over.Apple has said it'll try to find new roles for those affected.
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The HTC One (M8) running Windows Phone is apparently real and here it is
The rumours appear to be true. HTC will apparently launch a version of its flagship HTC One M8 smartphone running the Windows Phone operating system.
Following reports earlier this week claiming the device would be on the way, a press render of it has been spotted on the server's of U.S. mobile network Verizon, who will presumably be stocking the phone
The photo discovered by PCMag sources comes a little over two weeks before HTC holds a press event in New York on August 19.
Previous reports which dubbed the phone the 'One M8 for Windows' had suggested it will go on sale shortly after the reveal on August 21.
No comment
Speculation had suggested the device would come in silver and would be identical to the Android version, aside from the obvious OS differences.The Windows Phone 8.1 device will also support smart cases like the innovative Dot View cover and would offer voice over LTE in the United States.
Should the device launch, it'll be HTC's first Windows Phone in over a year. Both Microsoft and HTC have declined to comment.
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Microsoft rounds-out Surface Pro 3 line-up as i3 and i7 variants hit US and Canada
The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is now shipping in more and less powerful variants in the United States and Canada.
As expected, the firm has made available the Intel i3 and Intel i7 versions of the high-end post-PC device, to sit alongside the iteration featuring the Intel i5 chipset.
The additions to the line up, which are shipping only in North America right now, lowers the entry level for the Surface Pro 3.
The i3 version can be snapped up $799 (around £475, AU$857) compared with the $999 (around £593, AU$1072) i5 version, which until now had been the lowest priced option.
i7-up
Likewise the newly available Surface Pro 3 i7 pushes the potential spending up to $1,949 for the top end device with 512GB storage (around £1,157, AU$2,092).For their expenditure, buyers get Windows 8.1, a 12-inch display and a flexbile, slim and lightweight tablet/laptop hybrid device.
There's no word on when either alternate version will be available outside of North America.
Will the new entry model level encourage you to hit the Surface like a Pro? Let us know your thoughts below.
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Blip: Yo is not happy with Yolo, Yo Hodor and other copycat apps
The app market can be a vicious place, filled with ruthless and unscrupulous developers willing to do anything to make a quick buck - even if it means ripping other developers off wholesale.
Thus it's no surprise that popular messaging app Yo has allegedly been copied by several apps, many of which have even better names: Yolo, Oi, YoFrom, and even Yo, Hodor!.
"As the pioneer of a concept, Yo has spawned many clones, though most of the clones offer something slightly different, some of them are a complete replication of the Yo app," Yo creator Or Arbel, who's complained officially about this glut of imitators, told TechCrunch.
"Even the App Store description was copied word by word," he continued. "We value creativity and we are in a free market. Improving upon our concept is welcomed, copying us bit-by-bit isn't."
Apple is sending notices to Yo's accused copycats, and some have already been taken down - including, regrettably, the Game of Thrones-themed parody Yo, Hodor!.
More blips
Yo! Check out more of TechRadar's blips!- One of Google's mystery barges is headed for the scrap heap
- Tron Light Cycle is not roadworthy, says China
- Real steel: Japan wants to host first robot Olympics in 2020
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EE's Kite 4G Mi-Fi dongle flying out from today
The UK's biggest 4G network EE has released its recently-announced mobile hotspot gadget, the iPhone 4 lookalike EE Kite.
The 4G LTE dongle, which will allow users to connect their laptops, tablets or any Wi-Fi enabled devices and receive next gen speeds is available free on a two year contract.
Prices start at £15 a month for 3GB of 4G data a month, but for the sake of splashing an extra fiver EE is offering users a whopping 15GB of data for £20.
If you wanna go down the pre-pay route then the well-designed dongle itself is £69.99.
Trio
The release is follows those of the in-car Buzzard device and the less-premium Osprey device, which became available soon after the trio was announced at the end of May this year.Have you snapped up any of EE's MiFi devices yet? Share your experiences in the comments section below.
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Blip: One of Google's mystery barges is headed for the scrap heap
The legend of those mysterious Google barges is half over, and Google definitely didn't get the ending that it wanted for this one.
While the barge floating near San Francisco remains, the other one, which is currently floating in a Portland, Maine harbor, has been sold.
An unnamed "international barging company" will steer the ship seaward and disassemble its containers for scrap, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Wonder which of Google's other bad ideas the company will discard next?
More blips
TechRadar's blips are still afloat - read more here!- Tron Light Cycle is not roadworthy, says China
- Real steel: Japan wants to host first robot Olympics in 2020
- William Shatner has reviewed Facebook's VIP app because you're not allowed to
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Twitter says it's weighing its options against government stonewalling
Twitter has been fighting for a long time to loosen restrictions on disclosure of national security-related information requests, but it's an uphill battle.
As part of its latest transparency report, the company says it's made little headway despite meetings with the US Department of Justice and FBI officials.
"With each successive edition, we aim to provide more meaningful and constructive insight into the global government and copyright requests we receive, and their respective impact, with the goal of making this report more compelling and informative for you," Twitter Global Legal Policy Senior Manager Jeremy Kessel wrote in a blog post.
He continued, "However, one section in particular has been notably absent from our all of our previous reports, including today's: our disclosures on national security requests."
Bureaucracy
Kessel wrote that Twitter has requested it be allowed to disclose information regarding these requests in small ranges and specific categories, if not the actual, full numbers of requests.But the blog post says Twitter made literally zero progress, and the government remains as stubborn as ever.
Twitter even sent the DOJ a draft of a transparency report containing data the company would like to disclose, seeking feedback - and after three months has received no reply.
Weighing options
It's unclear what the next step is for Twitter, but Kessel makes says the company doesn't plan to back down."We are weighing our legal options to provide more transparency to our users," he writes.
Meanwhile the latest transparency report itself reveals rising global requests for account information, content removal, and copyright takedowns across Twitter and Vine, from countries all over the world.
The US portion of the report has also received some enhancements, including a breakdown of requests by territory and state.
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Galaxy Note 4 will be present for back-to-school, says report
Our best guess for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4's release date up to now has been "probably September," and one site has upgraded that estimate to "definitely September."
September 3, to be exact, according to The Korea Times, which quotes an unnamed executive from an unnamed display supplier supposedly working with Samsung.
"Samsung will hold an event to announce the Note 4 on Sept. 3, just few days before this year's IFA trade fair in Berlin, Germany," the executive reportedly said.
According to the site invitations to the event will go out "soon."
Sunshine
Executives at the supplier said Samsung is rushing the Note 4 out to preempt Apple's iPhone 6 release (duh).More interesting is the Korea Times' claim that the Galaxy Note 4 will have a UV sensor that measures ultraviolet radiation within the phone's S Health app. Maybe the app will tell users when to apply more sunscreen?
In addition, while rumors about the Note 4's screen size have been all over the place, the site pegs it with a 5.7-inch OLED display.
It also says the Note 4 will have a metal frame, a claim that could tie in with a late July rumor that Samsung will release two more phones in 2014: one a phablet (likely the Note 4), and the other built from "new materials."
Finally the report says Samsung will also reveal a curved Galaxy Note 4, though it may not be for mass release.
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Twitter introduces a hashtag codebreaker in new test feature
Understanding the meaning behind popular Twitter hashtags can at times be tricky. There's acronyms, no spaces between the words and sometimes people don't even have the common decency to use casing.
Twitter is testing a new feature that could make things easier for those struggling to decipher the message behind trending tags, by spelling them out for some users of the iOS app.
The Wall Street Journal reports popular tags like #tbt and #smh are being explained as 'Throwback Thursday' and 'Shake My Head' when users click on them.
Likewise #OITNB appears as Orange is the New Black and #manutd is expanded to Manchester United, with Twitter giving users the opportunity to rate the interpretation for accuracy.
Small sample
It's not clear how wide the test is right now. It's common for Twitter to trial new features on a small percentage of its use rbase before rolling them out.Sometimes they make it into the main app, sometimes they don't.
In this case a hashtag codebreaker would certainly be a welcome addition to the service.
Via Engadget
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UPDATED: Facebook briefly went down, reports claim people actually spoke to each other
Update: Facebook appears to have recovered from the outage, which it described as "required maintenance" on the login page. As you were.
Original story below...
Facebook appears to be suffering another outage, with users around the world unable to access the mobile and browser-based services on Friday.
As of about 5pm BST on Friday the Facebook.com homepage was redirecting to an error message, while News Feeds within the mobile app were showing network errors.
It's the second time in the last couple of weeks the service has succumbed to problems, following a similar outage last month.
If Facebook goes down and no-one can post about it, did it really happen? We'll keep you posted.
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Updated: Nexus 7 goes out of stock, is Nexus 8 Volantis imminent?
Update: Google has told TechRadar that the Nexus 7 will be back in supply soon, dashing hopes that the depletion of stock is a sign of something else to come.
A spokesperson told us: "Sorry for the inconvenience. Nexus 7 will be back in stock in the Play store in the next few days, and is still available from a host of online and high street retailers."
Original story below...
The Nexus 8 is believed to be Google's bulked-up successor to the Nexus 7, and it could be just around the corner.
The theory stems from the depletion of Google's Nexus 7 on the Play Store: in the UK and US, at least, all models are now listed as out of stock.
From the off, we're donning on our "possible nonsense" caps. While a new Nexus 7 is due (the 2013 model was announced on July 24), we're not convinced that Google would stop selling the current model to make way for it. After all, it sold the 2012 model alongside the updated 2013 tablet for some time.
However, the fact this seems to be a global stock exhaustion on both LTE and Wi-FI model means we're wearing out hats at an admittedly jaunty angle. Plus, the Nexus 10 has also been depleted for some time now.
Volating it about
HTC is widely believed to be building the next Nexus (sorry Asus), which has been skulking around with the nickname "Volantis". The tablet is rumoured to come flaunting an 8.9-inch display, Nvidia Tegra K1 processor and 2GB of RAM.But with Android L not expected to arrive until October, an imminent Nexus 8 would most likely come with Android 4.4 KitKat.
We've asked Google if this, in fact, just a stock shortage. Stay tuned.
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Apple and Beats are now officially a thing
The papers have been signed, the rings have been exchanged. Apple and Beats are now officially an item.
Apple has announced that Jimmy, Dre, Luke Wood, Ian Rogers, and the whole team (sans the 200 Beats employees Apple is said to be laying off) are now part of the family - exactly four months since the story was posted as a bizarrely (but unintentionally) accurate April Fool's joke by music industry expert Bob Lefsetz.
"Today we are excited to officially welcome Beats Music and Beats Electronics to the Apple family," reads a statement on Apple's website.
What comes next?
"Beats cofounders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre have created beautiful products that have helped millions of people deepen their connection to music. We're delighted to be working with the team to elevate that experience even further.""And we can't wait to hear what's next"
Get it? Because Beats make audio, and you hear audio. GET IT?
- iPhone 6, that's what comes next
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HP's luxury smartwatch puts the Moto 360 to shame
Not to be left out of the fun, HP has just unveiled its entry in the smartwatch fight - and it's a bit nice.
HP has partnered with retailer Gilt and US designer Michael Bastian, creating a luxury design that may actually out-fashion current (but unreleased) smartwatch favourite, the Moto 360.
The watch was designed to purposefully give it a luxury-car-interior feel, and will come with interchangeable wrist bands.
As for the smarts, HP will be giving its watch notifications for texts, emails, calls and suchlike, as well as controls for your music.
Suits you
With HP doing all the techy bits, the watch will seemingly come with its own operating system, instead of opting for Google's Android Wear. We're told that there'll be the standard procedure smartphone app, available on both iOS and Android.You'll be able to bag yourself one of these in the fall/autumn, but no word on how much it'll cost. We'd say the clue is in the "luxury" bit.
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The password is dying: identity management in the modern age
As high profile security breaches continue to proliferate it has become increasingly clear that how we manage our online identities is seriously out dated in the ever-evolving digital world.
We caught up with Darren Gross, EMEA Director of Unified Identity Services company, Centrify to find out more about why identity management is now a priority among enterprises and what can be done to rethink how we secure corporate data.
TechRadar Pro: What are the key business challenges driving the identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) marketplace?
Darren Gross: The advent of cloud and mobility has radically overhauled how businesses deliver IT to users and how in turn users access and consume those services. Company data has broken outside of the corporate HQ and is walking around in any one of your employees' back pockets.
Securing that data, without making access to it onerous for employees, is a business imperative. Traditionally businesses have relied on passwords, but you only need to look at the headlines over the last few months to realise that this is a big Achilles heel for corporate security policies.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that even 94% of security professionals we surveyed at InfoSecurity this year admitted to using the same device to access both corporate and personal apps.
This is a concern because given the challenges associated with remembering numerous passwords we tend to use the same one in all aspects of life - professional and personal. For hackers this is a dream come true as it provides a backdoor to the corporate infrastructure.
One password and they are free to roam wherever they like, forage through your bank details or steal confidential customer information from the company database stored on your smartphone.
Against this back drop the global identity and access management market is forecast to grow from $4.4 billion in 2012 to $6.99 billion in 2017 according to IDC.
Such is the demand for this technology that Centrify has quickly grown its business, doubling its headcount in the UK and growing its channel partners by 139% in the last six months alone. Identity is the next big milestone in cloud adoption.
TRP: Why is identity so often overlooked when it comes to the cloud and mobility?
DG: If you think about it, every module and function of a service has morphed to become a different app. Every day it gets worse as more devices are brought into the workplace and more apps are deployed and downloaded. This creates silos that in themselves become new infrastructures that need to be managed.
The complexity is simply staggering and because companies aren't effectively managing identity they have no idea who has access to what data and via what device. If they don't know this, when an employee leaves, how can they possibly tell if their IT footprint has been wiped and that no back doors exist?
TRP: How much of a challenge is it for IT to manage an employee's digital footprint across the organisation?
DG: It's become a huge challenge to manage an employee's digital footprint. If you are not managing identity, you don't know who has access to what data, if they should have access to that data, and also where they are accessing it from. In the digital world, our identity is our currency - it validates and authenticates us to go where we need to go and access the information needed to do our job.
But the more apps and data that get added, and the more passwords created, the harder it becomes to unravel.
TRP: What role are passwords playing in making security complex?
DG: The problem with passwords, apart from their inherent insecurity, is that organisations expect employees to remember multiple different ones. Our research found that over a quarter of companies (27%) expect their employees to remember six or more passwords.
That is a lot of passwords - or password sprawl as we call it. Not only is IT going to be inundated with calls from users who can't remember their password and need it resetting, but how on Earth do you stay on top of which user is using what password?
IT environments are already becoming increasingly complex and passwords are simply adding to this, without adding any value or protection to the business.
TRP: Do you believe that passwords in their current form will still exist in 10 years' time?
DG: What recent breaches have taught us is that passwords in their current form are inherently insecure. We desperately need a new approach, but equally we need to ensure that we don't make things overly complex for employees. They need - and demand - seamless access to company data in order to be productive.
With this in mind, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is starting to gain some real momentum. It allows you to log onto a website without a password, instead of using a system that knows who you are and generates a one-off message or token, in order to validate your identity and send this to the server. Known as 'zero sign on' it provides instant access to the service and delivers a seamless user experience.
TRP: What are the key benefits that a company can realise from better managing identity?
DG: Centrify's aim is to make consuming IT services as easy and secure as possible regardless of whether you are on the train on your smartphone or at home catching up on emails on your laptop.
Users jump from device to device without a second thought and this working culture is something that identity management has to enable. By doing this, companies can benefit from greater end user productivity, improved IT efficiency, better risk mitigation and regulatory compliance, as well as a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) of their identity infrastructure.
TRP: What are your key technology partnerships within the IT industry?
DG: Centrify has a number of key partnerships that we're proud of. We've teamed up with Samsung to improve security and increase productivity for millions of enterprise employees who use Samsung mobile devices.
The Samsung KNOX solution is co-developed with Centrify and leverages its technology and cloud services.
We've also been a long-time partner with Microsoft, offering in-depth knowledge around Active Directory and Office 365. We also provide industry partner integrations and platform support.
Additions in the past year include Zoom, Alfresco, Marketo, Huddle, Dropbox for Business, Red Hat Storage, and NetSuite; and Day One support for the Apple iOS 7 operating system for iPhones and iPads, and the Apple OS X 10.9 Mavericks operating system for Mac.
TRP: Lastly, what is your vision for the future?
DG: At the heart of Centrify's vision for the future is simplicity. We want to make it possible for end users to have access to their information any time, any place and from any device, while at the same time enabling IT to have tighter security and proper oversight and controls in place to ensure that the corporation and its data are being protected.
To deliver on this we will continue to innovate and create new technologies that differentiate us from any of our competitors across the data centre, cloud and mobile.
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Review: Xiaomi Mi 3
Introduction
Xiaomi (pronounced "Shiao Me") has been mentioned a few times before on TechRadar, regularly picked out as "one to watch" for the future as the emerging smartphone brand becomes more widely known.That's for two big reasons: it has a reputation for making good phones at very low prices, and the fact that former Google/Android man Hugo Barra joined the Chinese maker last year to head up an international push.
It's an interesting company. It sells mobiles direct to customers via its website, so the money it saves on marketing pushes is passed on in offering solid hardware at a budget price - it's not too dissimilar to the OnePlus One in this respect.
Xiaomi's current high-end model is the Mi4, but before then it was the Mi 3 and it offers specs similar to those of most of 2013's flagship Android models, combining a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 chipset (as seen in the Nexus 5, LG G2, Xperia Z1 Compact and many, many more top-spec mobiles) with a 13MP camera, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a 5-inch 1080p resolution display.
In terms of what's inside it, the Xiaomi Mi 3 is very nearly as good as it gets in the world of on-paper performance, if you ignore 2014's brand new models with their superior Snapdragon 801 chipsets.
There's a catch, though. Xiaomi hardware is not officially available outside of China, so buying the Mi 3 or its cheaper RedMi model in the UK, US or Australia, means paying someone else to source them, import them, and pass them on at a significant mark-up.
Happily, though, the Mi 3 can be bought from around £229 (about US$390, AU$415) online including taxes and delivery from several import suppliers, meaning that even after eBay and the sellers have made a few quid there's a substantial price saving to be had.
The Mi 3 is pleasingly thin and angular, with a squared-off look from the front accompanied by curved plastic sides, which seamlessly round into the unibody casing.
I like it. It's minimal and futuristic looking, if not more than a little reminiscent of the Nokia Lumia 900. It does manage to avoid the common fate of looking like a Samsung Galaxy clone that afflicts many budget smartphones.
There's a big speaker grille at the bottom, with microUSB connector to the side. I'm not massively keen on this trend of placing speakers in the bottom edge of the phone, as it means sound gets muffled very easily by your hand when holding it in landscape to watch media or play games.
The top edge of the Mi 3 is also clean and sharp, housing access to the full sized sim car, with the 3.5mm headphone jack alongside it. Power button placement is of the standard right-hand variety, with volume up/down toggle above the power button.
The notification light can blink in different colours, plus there's an option within MIUI to specify personal choices. It can blink red for SMS messages, blue for incoming calls and so on. It's great to see hardware and software working together as well as they do in the Mi 3.
It's slimmer and lighter than Sony Xperia Z2 and, for my money, has more to it style wise than the Huawei Ascend P7, the latter of which is probably the nearest competitor to the Mi 3 in terms of budget brand promises.
The Mi 3 feels like a solid, high-end piece of kit. There's a lovely bit of detailing where the glass of the screen meets the bottom of the phone, with the bezel overlapping the corner a little and creating the impression that there's a thick lump of glass on the front of the Mi 3.
The main negative here is the decision to use capacitive touch buttons instead of using Android's on-screen software buttons that have been widely used for a couple of years now.
This is no doubt down to the fact that the Mi 3 runs the popular MIUI software, a thorough and comprehensive reskin of Android 4.3.
It feels like these buttons are organised backwards. When holding the Mi 3 in the right hand there's a bit of a cramped squeeze to get to the back key, a button used much more widely than the easier to reach menu. That said, if you hold your phone in your left hand it's ideal. Perhaps Xiaomi has its eye on the left-handed phone market?
Also, despite Xiaomi going to great lengths to point out that the Mi 3 comes with an "aluminum-magnesium alloy frame, coated with 3 layers of thermal graphite" it feels like it's made from plastic.
Decent and solid plastic, yes, but perhaps not quite up there with Apple and Sony in terms of impressive, premium feel.
Key features and interface
The Xiaomi Mi 3 runs Android, although in places its MIUI interface is barely recognisable as using Google's code and owes quite a debt to some iOS features, too.Much like the Android skin adopted by Chinese rival Huawei, MIUI dumps the key Android idea of the app drawer. Instead there is an icon for every app installed on the phone upon one of its infinitely customisable home screens.
This seems like a workable idea once you've got used to it, although, as with iOS devices, it invariably means you end up with a few folders in which you dump things you know you won't ever use.
One reason to shuffle your icons around is Xiaomi's haptic feedback. The Mi 3 creates the most satisfying sci-fi "badabum" vibration effect when plonking icons on the home screens.
The icons look lovely too. MIUI's key strength is in the design of its home and lock screens, with the icon sets doing a great job of adding uniformity, colour and style to the Android core.
The clocks are great, the many choices of screen transition effect add variety, plus the years of development that's gone into MIUI means the software is ludicrously customisable.
The OS features almost as many toggles and options to play with as the hardcore CyanogenMod code that's available as an aftermarket DIY install option for many phones, or preloaded in the Oppo N1 and OnePlus One.
Creating folders is as simple as dragging one icon atop another. If you're new to Android, Xiaomi pre-loads a "read me" app on the home screen, which provides a checklist of common Android and MIUI features to help newcomers to smartphones acclimatise themselves.
On the Mi 3's MIUI you can customise the name of the network in the top-left of the status bar (or hide it altogether if it offends you), plus there are options to define the actions of the capacitive buttons.
By default, the backlight of the buttons turns off after a few seconds, meaning you have to guess where back or menu is, so it's really nice to have a permanently on option.
One quirk of MIUI is that Google Now isn't accessible from the lock screen. Instead there is a shortcut that turns on the camera flash's torch option behind the home key long-press where Google Now usually sits. An odd choice but one that might suit people who prefer illumination to knowing about local cinema listings.
Despite this being a Chinese model, the fact that the MIUI Android ROM has been in development around the world for years means you get a full English experience. Select English as the system language from first boot and it's perfect, with the Xiaomi phone, managing a better tone and translation than the officially-available-here English Huawei models.
From that point on you can forget it's a China-only mobile, and enjoy direct updates of the MIUI software when they become available.
Performance and battery life
The Snapdragon 800 chipset has been benchmarked to death, seeing as it's inside the majority of flagship smartphones released in the last year or so.The Xiaomi Mi 3 generates a Geekbench 3 score of 2,998 on the multicore test, an impressive number that eclipses the 2,579 scored by the similarly powered Nexus 5.
It also obliterates the 1,792 multicore score of the Huawei Ascend P7, a phone that claims to offer a similar high-end level of performance to the Mi 3.
The phone in operation supports these numbers. The Mi 3 is smooth to use throughout, with the home screens quick to scroll, apps downloading and installing in the background without interrupting performance.
There's also a generally solid performance when using GPS apps, running 3D games and flipping between apps.
The one small hindrance to ultimate smoothness is the lack of a dedicated multitasking button. Android's recent apps tabbed section is accessed through a long-press of the options button, which, depending on where you are on the phone, might mean the phone first tries to open an app's settings tab, before closing it quickly when it realises you're keeping the button pressed for longer than usual.
Battery life
Battery life is impressive for the most part. I was able to get two days of moderate-use uptime out of each charge of the large 3,050mAh capacity battery, but only when being a little careful about screen brightness settings.The standard TechRadar video test involves playing a 90-minute clip with the phone set to full brightness and volume. The Mi 3 battery went from 100% charged to 67% remaining after this, which is quite a whack of power eaten up by playing a clip.
Given that the onboard speaker is very loud and the screen brightness is very high when at maximum, the Mi 3 seems to use more power than its rivals when operating at full brightness and audio output.
If you're a full brightness kind of person, battery life will suffer accordingly. But leave it low or on auto and you'll get two days from most charges without too much effort.
The essentials
The MIUI interface may make the Mi 3 look a little different from most Android devices, but the core experience is much the same underneath.The notifications pull-down bar is completely customisable, with MIUI going so far as to offer two alternative layout options that adjust the size and position of the tabs and toggles on offer.
As is the Android way these system messages can be individually swiped away, leaving some remaining as little reminders, while the toggle bar at the bottom scrolls to let more shortcuts appear.
It's responsive and quick to pull down, plus there's a custom MIUI setting page specifically for adjusting the notifications system. This allows users to deny individual apps from sending you alerts, have it auto-collapse after an action, add a data connection speed display to the status bar and much more. It really is a super-customisable OS.
The calling and contacts section is split into two tabs. The first thing you see when opening the dialler is your recent calls up top, with the actual dial pad beneath.
A second tab at the top lets you access the contacts section, where your lists of everyone you know appears. First on the list are any you've pulled out as favourites by starring them; followed by an alphabetical list of all the other numbers you've amassed.
The settings tab within contacts helps you sort the wheat you often call from the chaff you only occasionally text by accident. From here you can have the list of names sorted by first or second name, choose which social media accounts to mask, or activate the Smart Groups feature that offers to split up your contacts by company name, location or most recently contacted.
The messaging system sees Xiaomi and MIUI offer some nice features. It's nice not to be made to use Google's Hangouts for one, plus there's a nice overlay pop-up notification window that appears if an SMS arrive while you're staring at the phone waiting for it to come.
The default keyboard on the Mi 3 is the TouchPal third-party option. It's not great from a visual or usage perspective, appearing rather clunky and not operating as smoothly as the default Google keyboard. Thankfully, switching keyboards is easy, as long as you know it's possible.
Xiaomi's put on a lot of its own apps here, as smartphone makers tend to do. Many are needless duplicates of the superior Google suite of apps, like the Mi 3's generic music player that offers to play any tunes you've shuffled onto the internal memory. It's really basic, offering just a list of everything, a sorted-by-artist tab and the option to create your own playlists.
Anyone using this over Google's Play Music app would be rather mad, as would anyone who uses the generic webkit browser Xiaomi has pre-loaded instead of the vastly superior Chrome. I found the stock browser would hang while loading pages, taking forever to render even simple sites. There's no such problem using Chrome, which has the Mi 3 functioning perfectly as a swift and usable web browser.
Also exclusive to the Mi 3 from Xiaomi is the Mi Cloud suite. This offers Wi-Fi text messaging, data, photo and SMS backups to some Chinese cloud, remote locking features and more.
Once activated via a password and having a text sent to your phone, the option to sync call logs, contacts, SMS messages, notes and personal notes recorded via the Voice Recorder app to the cloud appears.
Impressively for an import phone from a Chinese maker, this all worked in the UK, with one verification text opening it all up for use, and unlocking 5GB of cloud storage space for photos captured on the Mi 3, too.
There's also a custom gallery as part of the MIUI software, with the developer creating a simple, square-based grid populated with your pics. It looks a little bit like the one Sony sticks in its Xperia models, only without the fancy resizing features.
It's a bit boring, but it's fast and also incorporates a simple editing tool that lets snappers crop and rotate shots, draw over the top of them via a doodle feature, add a selection of vignette and colour/brightness filters and stick the end result in a variety of fairly pointless photo frames.
The email app is a slightly skinned version Google's stock client. It's simple to setup and use, automatically managing account creation for most major providers with only an address and password needed to get it going.
Camera
The camera in the Mi 3 is a 13MP model, outputting its full resolution images at the 4:3 aspect ratio of 4208 x 3120. If you'd prefer widescreen shots, the 16:9 output is cropped to 4208 x 2368 resolution.
You might expect a budget model to skimp on the optics, but that's not the case here. Xiaomi's camera produces superb results, managing to capture good contrast and realistic colours quickly, and with the option of a burst mode too.
The camera app is relatively simple when compared with the feature-packed tools found inside the Samsung Galaxy series and Sony's Xperia series.
You get a toggle to switch between stills and video, with the key features hidden behind a settings button and a quick toggle to switch the flash on and off without having to trawl through menus.
The Mi 3 lets you activate an audio-trigger shutter tool, which starts a three second countdown when it hears a loud noise. It's much better than the usual self-timer feature, as it means you can balance your phone on a rock or table, then run around, get your smile right and shout at it to take a shot.
Also useful is the selection of auto-focus modes. You can have it automatically focus, or choose a manual mode that refocuses only when you tap the screen. This is particularly useful when capturing video, as you can use it to calm down the amount of refocusing you see when shooting moving subjects.
On the MIUI side of things there are more toys to play with. The camera setting lets users allocate shutter or zoom functions to the Mi 3's volume keys, and choose if the long-press shutter button input should activate burst mode or act as a cue to refocus the viewfinder.
You can also have it detect faces and add a reference line to the viewfinder, should you stress a lot about having a nice horizontal horizon in your shots.
It's a straightforward camera app that produces good results and is fast in operation, with extra usability coming via the clever MIUI additions. I like it.
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Hands on gallery
Verdict
Xiaomi has made a superb phone in the form of the Mi 3, offering high-end performance and an interesting, angular physical design that helps it stand out from the masses of other budget Android models.We liked
The Mi 3 feels like a quality device. It's thin, smooth, solid and has a stylish look about it that so many of the budget makers fail to achieve. The use of standalone capacitive touch buttons is a bit of a shame, but overall the feeling is of a phone vastly more expensive that its unofficial import cost.Camera performance is great for a cheaper phone. Outdoors in good light, image quality is up there alongside the output produced by the high-end competition, with only a slight drop in quality when taking shots in low light. The flash saves the day here, though, nicely illuminating scenes without blasting away colour and skin tones.
The 1080p display is superb. Viewing angles are great, colours realistic and it makes the MIUI icons appear vibrant and sharp. It's perfectly readable outside in direct sunlight too, as long as you've got brightness set to auto.
We disliked
The physical buttons aren't as intuitive to use as the software options found on many Android models these days. In most leading apps software menus have long replaced the menu button, so the Mi 3 feels like it's lagging behind the curve a little in having the physical menu option.A long-press on this pulls up the multitasking feature, again making a little less easy to use than on rival phones that have adopted Google's preferred way of doing things.
Import buyers might find the odd bit of Chinese language on here, but it's not a deal-breaker. The Xiaomi themes portal doesn't translate to English, but that's OK as it's mostly populated by local pop-culture wallpapers, which you probably won't to want to install.
The pre-loaded TouchPal keyboard also asks you to buy skins in Chinese, but that's kind of OK too as it's a pretty poor keyboard, and you're best off switching to the stock Android keyboard as soon as the phone powers up for the first time.
Sound quality is patchy. The onboard speaker is very loud, but there's nothing in the way of meaningful bass. It can fill a room in volume terms, but after a few minutes of listening to its tinny output, it starts to grate.
Verdict
It's a lovely phone for the most part, with the Xiaomi Mi 3 combining a surprising amount of style with high-end power and a supremely polished user interface.The fact it's only available on import is the only substantial issue, as buying one from China through a third-party means possible stress and misery should a warranty claim ever need to be made.
Aside from that, though, there's very little not to like. It's probably too late for this particular model to make much of an impact in the US or UK were it to launch now, but the solid and impressive Mi 3 ought to get smartphone fans pumped for Xiaomi's next move.
First reviewed: July 2014
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Video: The TechRadar show brings Half-Life, Microsoft 2.0 and Twitch
As another week draws to its inevitable conclusion, we've put together a cracking TechRadar show for your delectation.
This week we touch on the future of Microsoft as it sheds staff, we talk through the controversial matter of remastered games and decide what we'd like to see given a next-gen sheen, and we get to the bottom of why Google are being linked to Twitch.
And, lest we forget, we also have some amazing footage of our very own intrepid Hugh Langley trying out Honda's glimpse into the future of personal transportation.
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Review: Brother HL-L9200CDWT
Introduction and specs
Printing is supposed to be a simple matter, but the more devices you have to support the more issues you need to consider.Desktops may be perfectly happy with USB or Ethernet connections, but mobile workers expect Wi-Fi in its various flavours – and if you're part of the modern multi-device world, enabling printing from smartphones, Chromebooks and tablets involves yet more standards to support, such as AirPrint and Google Cloud Print. Can you get all of that for an SRP of £659 inc VAT (US$700, or around AUD$745)?
Brother says you can. The HL-L9200CDWT promises high speed, high quality colour and mono laser printing that won't break the bank or frustrate end users. Brother claims both best in class print speeds (up to 30ppm) and the firm's best ever total cost of ownership thanks to what it calls "super high yield toners" delivering up to 6,000 pages at the standard 5% coverage.
You can't fault the HL-L9200CDWT's credentials. It has wired (10/100 Ethernet) and wireless (802.11b/g/n) networking, USB and Wi-Fi Direct, and it supports both Apple's AirPrint and Google's Cloud Print for mobile devices. It's Windows, Mac and Linux compatible, emulates PCL6, BR-Script 3 (Brother's version of PostScript 3), PDF 1.7 and XPS, and promises up to 30ppm print speeds in both mono and colour. It offers automatic double-sided and A5 booklet printing, and it's designed for a maximum of 5,000 pages per month.
It's a hefty thing: 410 x 495 x 445mm of inoffensive light grey plastic with a back-threatening weight of 28.3kg if you include the optional (but included) 500-sheet lower paper tray. Total paper capacity is 800 sheets, split between three paper feeds: the lower tray, a 250-sheet main tray and a 50-sheet multipurpose tray. The multi-purpose tray folds away when not needed, which is useful as it feels a little flimsy – it's not something you'd want to leave extended for fear of someone bumping into it and breaking it.
Ports and setup
Ports and buttons are kept to a minimum. There are Ethernet, USB and power ports on the back and a USB port for printing images from flash drives on the front, and the power button and hidden controls are just in front of a 4.5-inch pop-up colour touchscreen. When the printer is on the controls are backlit through the casing, which is a nice effect, and you navigate the menus and submenus by using the backlit controls and then tapping the screen to make a selection.
Connecting to Wi-Fi, which is often a trying task on wireless printers, is simple enough: the menus provide options for push-button and PIN code WPS and Wi-Fi Direct as well as the usual SSID and network key options. We had the HL-L9200CDWT printing happily on our wireless network in a matter of seconds.
The supplied software depends on your operating system. The installation and documentation disc simply takes Mac users to the Brother website, which at the time of writing doesn't turn up any results for this particular printer (we're clearly better at finding things than Brother is; the appropriate page is here). Linux users don't get anything at all (again, they are expected to use the website), and the Windows documentation for network users doesn't work in Internet Explorer on Windows 8.1.
The printer will work with Macs, which automatically recognise it and install the necessary drivers, but you don't get access to Brother's supplied BRAdmin Professional 3 management software, which is Windows-only. Setting user passwords, page limits and restricting or giving specific users access to particular printing functions on non-Windows devices is still possible, but you need to do it through the web-based administration interface.
Performance and running costs
Printing is fast: a page of text sent wirelessly took 12 seconds to appear, while full page, full colour photographs sent via AirPrint averaged just short of two minutes (115 seconds) each. A more typical business document, a six-page report mixing black text with coloured charts, headlines, illustrations and tables, again sent via AirPlay, was completed in 32 seconds.Text is crisp and clear, and photo quality was surprisingly good for a laser. The 2,400 x 600 dpi prints were akin to photo quality inkjet printing on standard paper and appeared without significant banding or colour issues, but we did find the images to be slightly darker than the originals.
The quality's decent, it's simple enough to set up and the sticker price isn't too frightening. What about the running costs? At the time of writing a black toner with a 6,000 page yield is £54 (around US$90, AUD$100), with 6K-page cyan, magenta and yellow cartridges £117 (around US$200, AUD$210) apiece.
The drum unit has a claimed life of 25,000 pages and costs £112.80 (around US$195, AUD$205) to replace, while the belt and waste toner have lifespans of 50,000 pages and cost £69.60 (around US$120, AUD$130) and £13.20 (around US$22, AUD$24) respectively. All prices exclude VAT. Brother predicts energy consumption of 21kWh per week in average use.
Verdict
If
you find the running costs of colour lasers off-putting, then this
device will come as a pleasant surprise. Print quality is good, the
price tag is decent and the wireless support is excellent.
We liked
The support for wireless printing from Chromebooks, tablets and smartphones is useful (as is the ability to limit what users can do, lest they blow the entire printing budget on full colour smartphone selfies). Running costs are reasonable and it's both fast enough and capacious enough to cope with the everyday demands of an office or department. PIN-protected printing is particularly useful in open offices or environments with lots of visitors.We disliked
This isn't a printer you're going to want to move or spend much time looking at: it's fairly big, fairly ugly and very heavy. We encountered quality control issues with the supplied software disc and Brother's own website.Final verdict
The HL-L92000CDWT is a very capable printer that doesn't cost a fortune, and the high capacity toners mean that the painful process of buying new colour cartridges shouldn't happen too often. However, it's up against fierce competition including one of our current favourites, Dell's C3765dnf, which is faster and has high capacity toners that work out even cheaper per page. Nevertheless, Brother's offering should be on your shortlist if you're looking for an economical and capable colour laser for everyday printing – especially if you need to support more devices than just PCs.
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ComfortClick bOS: uniting the smart home on one platform
As technology advances and us consumers get lazier, the concept of the smart home is becoming more of an everyday reality, with automated devices beginning to proliferate through our households.
The trend is creating an exciting marketplace but with multiple devices launching on multiple operating systems, the smart home is in danger of becoming fragmented, nullifying the convenience smart devices are supposed to bring.
That's why ComfortClick has created an operating system designed to control all our different devices from one app and simplify the situation. We spoke to the company's CEO Luka Persic to find out more.
TechRadar Pro: What is the current state of home automation?
Luka Persic: The number of home devices is increasing almost exponentially. Lately we were able to see a lot of successful projects such as Nest and Philips Hue. However these devices are all operating independently.
You have to get a separate app for each device, meaning different user experience each time. Now imagine the future, if this trend continues – you'll have to switch between 20 or even 50 different apps in order to control your home .
TRP: What is ComfortClick bOS?
LP: ComfortClick bOS is the first building operating system, it's a universal software platform that enables the integration of different home devices and their control via a single app on users mobile device which can be iOS, Android or Windows based.
ComfortClick bOS features also plugins market – ComfortClick Bridge, where users will be able to get plugins for their home devices.
The library already features an array of supported devices and protocols such as KNX, Modbus, S BUS, XBMC, DSC, IP cameras, Global Caché, IRTrans,…We just launched Indiegogo campaign - ComfortClick bOS the first building operating system.
TRP: What is different about bOS in comparison to other home automation solutions?
LP: We would like to give our users the possibility to connect, monitor and control any device, from any manufacturer via a single app. Users will be able to control just one device e.g. room thermostat or all devices at home.
So, the basic solutions will be affordable for everybody and you'll be able to upgrade whenever you want.
TRP: What are some practical usage examples?
LP: One universal platform where all devices are working together offers practically limitless number of different features. Some of the more interesting ones are logical operations - for instance, when you leave home ComfortClick bOS will turn off the lights, lower the shades, reduce the heating, turn off electrical sockets and activate presence simulation.
Another interesting feature is electricity consumption monitoring and automatic alerts if your electricity consumptions exceeds preset thresholds. With logical operations and energy consumption monitoring you can cut your energy bills by around 30%.
TRP: Will third party developers be able to participate?
LP: We are aware one single company can never cover all the devices that are out there. We'll offer a playground for 3rd party developer community and give the developers a chance to earn money for their work by selling their plugins in ComfortClick Bridge.
Anyone who knows a little bit about programming will be able to start developing plugins for ComfortClick bOS using the bOS software development kit (SDK).
TRP: Is ComfortClick bOS intended only for residential buildings?
LP: We don't want to limit only to residential buildings. Automation system offers numerous benefits also for commercial buildings such as office buildings, hotels and hospitals.
Imagine coming into a hotel, you already have ComfortClick bOS on your phone, by entering hotel's ComfortClick bOS username and password you'll be able to control your room.
TRP: How far along are you with your software platform?
LP: We have a fully functional software platform. Together with our partners we have successfully used our software in projects all over the globe. ComfortClick is present in EU, Russia, Qatar, Kazakhstan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, USA and Latin America. With ComfortClick bOS we want to take a step forward.
TRP: Apple has announced its smart home solution. What does this mean for other players?
LP: Home automation is already struggling with too many communication protocols. Apple just announced another one. It's going to take a really, really long time - if ever - before we'll have a standard communication protocol for all home devices and systems.
The solution is universal software platform and that's exactly what bOS aims to be.
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