Going Beyond 3D

Technology has come a long way in a short space of time and we can never be sure what lies around the corner. This last 12 months alone we have seen the rise of the 4K TV, the smart watch and a whole host of impressive smartphones and tablets.

Technology just never seizes to amaze us and The Immersive Technology Alliance aim to do it again. They have plans to rebrand the former Stereoscopic 3D Gaming Alliance, which will form a new virtual reality technology.

The Immersive Technology Alliance (ITA) is a new supergroup created by the biggest and smallest companies around the globe that specialise in gaming, who have all come together to improve ‘augmented reality, virtual reality, stereoscopic 3D and everything in between’, according to their official website.

This group is made up of companies likes Electronic Arts (EA) who are known for their influence in the gaming industry, so it is a real forward-thinking group that want to continue improving the industry and the technology on offer.

ITA plan to meet at the annual Game Developers Conference next week (March 18th) in San Francisco. Although it seems like it is all about gaming, it’s not. In fact, the ITA is a not-for-profit and it also aims to be a ‘non-proprietary representative’ for the whole VR industry, which also includes a number of film makers as well as game studios.

With such a vast blend of big names and interesting skills, we could be looking forward to an interesting future for gaming. Gaming, similar to other forms of technology, has grown tremendously over the last couple of years, with the likes of Sony and Microsoft creating high-spec consoles. But, the ITA aim to go beyond playing games with a hand-held controller, they want gamers to experience their gaming as if it were real life.

Exciting stuff, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, the Game Developers Conference next Tuesday is only the launch of this supergroup, so we will have to wait some time before we can enjoy playing real-life simulator-type technology in our living rooms. Still, the future of gaming looks bright!

'Watch' This Space

2013 bought a revolution to us in the smart watch, but 2014 could bring an even better mobile revolution.

During CES 2014, it looked like the smallest gadgets were going to steal the big show when huge focus was turned towards technology worn around the wrist.

Wearable technology isn’t a new thing but CES 2014 gave us an insight into exactly where wearable technology is heading and how devices look to move beyond just a wristband with limited functionality.

Many people may already own the likes of Nike Fuelband SE and JawBone Up, but with the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Gear last year, we could be in for some exciting gadgets. The LG Lifeband Touch, for example, comes fitted with a sensitive OLED display allowing you to track your distance walked, how many steps you have taken and is able to keep a close eye on your heart rate too.

This clever wearable is more than just a fitness sensor though, in fact, it can be paired with an Android or iOS smartphone through Bluetooth to show your incoming phone calls and your message alerts.

Another clever bit of kit that gained a lot of interest was the Razer Nabu. This water-resistant wristband is jam-packed with sensors tracking your movement and even allows you to monitor your sleep quality. This device also shows calls, messages and emails, but the Razer Nabu stands out because it possesses not one, but two screens.

When it comes to technology, Sony are never that far away and they too introduced a new wearable piece of kit in the Sony Core. Although it also focuses on fitness tracking, Sony hopes to launch an app alongside this wristband to keep a log of your life. This will allow you to keep track of the music you have listened to, the pictures you have taken and the social updates you have posted.

There were more wearable’s other than wristbands on show though and one of them was Epson’s cheaper alternative to Google Glass, the Moverio BT-200. This pair of smart glasses are fitted with motion sensors, Dolby Digital surround sound and a decent resolution display.

Well, 2014 looks like it could be the year for wearable’s.

The Console Battle - PS4 vs Xbox One

A couple of weeks ago we wrote an article ‘What’s On Your Christmas Wish List?’ – If you haven’t read it, check it out.  If you have, you’d know that one of the desired presents was a PS4, even though it hadn’t quite been released yet.

Well, it is available now and has been for a week or so and has caused quite a stir. In fact, in its first week of release it broke all records for any console released before it, much to the misfortune of the Xbox One.

The Xbox One was release before the PS4, selling over 2 million consoles in just 18 days, which is still a pretty impressive figure, even if the PS4 is predicted to break this number when it reaches the 3 week mark. The Xbox One has averaged 111,111 units shifted per day since its release so the PS4 has some serious selling to do, but Sony do look likely to beat that total.

But, which one is better?

In terms of pure units shifted, the PS4 is likely to take the crown come Christmas morning, but that doesn’t answer the question of performance. Games for both consoles are always very similar with each having their own individual claims – the Xbox with Forza Motorsport 5 and the PS4’s answer to that, DriveClub (due in 2014). So, there is no real telling them apart from this.

The pricing might help decide … the Xbox One costs £429, while the PS4 is a snip at just £349 – not much difference but the difference equates to the price of a game plus accessories.  PS4 wins this battle!

The controllers have been adapted too, although the Xbox’s has only been modified slightly.  Sony has changed their appearance quite a bit and it looks rather futuristic, whereas the Xbox has opted for a very similar design to their previous console. Winner – PS4.

The console design is where the Xbox really comes into its own, putting the word box in Xbox. Although boxy in shape, it is sleek and stylish and will look great settled next to your LED TV. Winner – Xbox One.

So, with no real difference in performance, games or price, we have to say the PS4 might just pip it this time around. Well done Sony!

Does the PC have a future?

It is common knowledge that tablets are on the rise and more and more technology giants are opting to produce more cutting edge products, but what does that mean to where it all started; the PC?

PC’s, less commonly known as personal computers, effectively began in 1977 with their clunky design and extremely slow functions.  They didn’t have such luxuries as the internet. Thirty-six years on and although PC’s have definitely improved, so has newer, more convenient technology like the tablet for example.

Tablets have sold like hotcakes and many companies like Apple, Sony and Acer are opting to divert more of their time and budget towards their tablet market rather than their traditional personal computers.  So where does that leave the future of the PC?

Well, many believe that PC’s are getting closer and closer to extinction, but in actual fact that’s not the case. Granted, the cheap and lower end PC models might be on the way out, but the higher end versions still have a lot more to give. In fact, the sales of NVIDIA’s high performance graphics are on the increase, as are the profits from PC game-producer EA. Growth is growth and surely this contradicts claims that this is a device on the decline?

The truth is, the PC is a very mature device and it’s too stubborn to just fade away in the tablets’ wake. Of course, many consumers are choosing to go walkabouts with their new tablets but there are still many people that stand by the PC and for good reason.

Sure, tablets are going to become better and stronger sieving out more and more of the competition but a good quality PC will still pack a stronger punch when it comes to performance for a little while longer yet.  PC’s on the whole might be on a long decline and tablets on a massive high, but that doesn’t mean that the PC is dead and buried.  Well, not for a good few years at least.

We would like to know what you think about the PC and its future, so share your thoughts and comments below. Do you think the future of the PC is in trouble or do you see PC’s fighting back?

What You Need To Watch

When it comes to technology, there have been a lot of new introductions already this year but there is one product that has been on everyone’s agenda, a smart watch.

Smart watches have been one of the hot topics of the last few months and with Samsung announcing their Galaxy Gear, more technology bigwigs are starting to give us something to think about.

Rumours surrounding the Apple and Google headquarters are becoming louder and louder and we have already seen a number of concept ideas from the former.  In fact, only recently did we feature an article about Apple’s iWatch.

Google themselves are being closely watched too. When they bought Wimm, a maker of Android-based smart watches, back in September, many technology enthusiasts thought it was inevitable that the search-engine giants would be rolling out a new smart watch very soon.  Google actually look set to be the next tech giant to launch a smart watch following on from Samsung’s introduction.

According to reports surrounding this topic, the smart watch from Google will use many of the utilities that are commonly found in the Google Now software, which is an intelligent mobile digital assistant, so it could be a very useful watch indeed.

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear already has a 320 x 320 pixel Super AMOLED screen in 1.63-inch and a 1.9-megapixel camera installed too. It also boasts a 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage, so it will take some serious technology from Google and Apple to knock it of its perch.

These three techno-wizards have a rivalry that far surpasses just watches though, as we all know, and they are constantly trying to out-do one another.  So Google and Apple, we’re sure, will be using the release of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear to their advantage in order to create a model of smart watch that is all singing, all dancing.

There are other smart watches available on the market already though, like Sony’s Smartwatch 2 and the Pebble Smartwatch, so we can fully expect to see more and more companies crawling from the woodwork and jumping on the bandwagon.

Samsung's Galaxy Gear

The great smartwatch battle continues to loom on the horizon and one company that are looking to get things moving is Samsung.

We recently mentioned that Samsung were looking to release their wrist-based wearable’s which will coincide with their smartphones, so we thought it was only fair we gave them a full feature.

The South Korean tech giants are looking to launch this new watch at the end of September or start of October. A new rumour has been released saying that we might actually get to see the official release date as early as September 4th at the IFA 2013.

This release will complement the Galaxy Note 3, which is also due to be launched on the same day.

So, what can we expect from the Samsung Galaxy Gear you ask? Well, it’s wearable like a watch and is likely to come in up to five colours – white, orange, grey, black and, a week later, gold! Some of the previous designs also suggested that the screen may in fact be flexible too, but we will have to wait on that as Samsung have not confirmed these rumours. Sorry!

The screen itself is likely to be 2.5 inches in a square shaped face, boasting OLED display technology. Another feature which will make more sense to those technologically minded is that the Gear could feature a Exynos 4212 SoC along with 1GB of RAM.

The operating system that we believe is set to be on the device is Android, which would make sense seeing as this is the software that binds its Galaxy devices together. We expect that it will be fitted with 4.2 when it is eventually released.

This device is highly anticipated by many people, not just those that want to buy it, but those that are interested in technology. Sony released its Sony Smartwatch 2 in June of this year but that didn’t really cut it for many technology geeks, but we expect that Galaxy Gear will make some serious waves among the market.

If so, then we can look forward to Apple starting to get us excited about their iWatch which is due sometime next year. So, keep your eyes and ears open for the release of this one, it could be good!

Another Apple iWatch Concept Is Released

Apple has released another concept of its wearable wrist watch that is also a computer, named the iWatch.

A few posts ago we wrote about having your smartphone on your wrist and Apple has every intention of making this happen. We have seen a few concepts around the web but this one looks the sleekest yet.

It is smooth and incorporates what looks like the current iPhone into a white watch that futuristically bends the screen to create an exciting Apple product.

We shouldn’t get too excited though, we are told not to expect the final product to be launched until late in 2014 at the very earliest.  Fedrico Ciccarese, who has been responsible for a number of previous Apple product mock ups, has also designed this concept.

Apple are not the only company to announce that they are in the process of making a smartwatch though, Apple’s biggest rivals Samsung have announced that they will be releasing their smartwatch on September the 4th. So that is something to get excited about now. This is rumoured to be named the Galaxy Gear and will come with your Samsung mobile phone.

Sony has also already introduced a watch-style product to go with its smartphones, but the Samsung is going to be filled with much more technology and capability. You will be able to make phone calls, surf the internet and reply to your emails, all from one screen (which is smaller than their smartphones).

Both technology bigwigs have been busy as of late and there is no sign that that will stop anytime soon, with Apple likely to launch their new iPhone 5S later this year. We can expect a few more features and an overall improved model like we saw from the iPhone 4 to the 4S.

This improvement in software is only a fraction of what we can expect to see in Apple’s iWatch when it is finally released in late 2014, but until then we can only dream about what the final product will actually look like. All we know, is we will have to join the queue of people who will want one!