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New-look Boris bikes start hitting London's street
With all the newfangled, dockless cycle-hire schemes popping up in London, TfL couldn't have chosen a better time to give Boris bikes -- officially called Santander Cycles -- a makeover. The transport authority announced that redesigned Boris bikes have begun hitting the capital's streets today, with thousands more to follow this first batch over the next few years. The new model has smaller wheels for faster acceleration, improved brakes, a tweaked frame and fork design for better handling, a comfier gel seat and harder-wearing tyres. Blaze -- the company that created the laser projection light now present on all existing Boris bikes -- has also been involved in the design.
Fitbit faces ill-timed lawsuits over haptic feedback
Fitbit is facing hard times between slowing fitness tracker sales and a reportedly floundering smartwatch project. Unfortunately, there's more bad news to add to the pile. Immersion is suing Fitbit in China and the US for allegedly violating multiple patents (three in each country) for haptic feedback. Supposedly, devices ranging from the original Flex to the Blaze all borrow Immersion's approach to vibrating a device in response to commands and for alerts. Fitbit rebuffed "numerous attempts" to strike a licensing deal, Immersion claims, so this is considered a last resort.
Fitbit is reportedly still struggling to make a smartwatch
When Fitbit launched the Blaze fitness watch in 2016, it made sense that the company might also be working on a more full-featured smartwatch, too. When Fitbit bought Pebble, Fitbit's CEO confirmed that fact. Unfortunately, the product was reported by Yahoo! to have a ton of issues that pushed the planned launch from this past spring to the fall. Bloomberg is now reporting that the project has lost several people who were working on the smartwatch. The sources also say that Fitbit was unable to close a deal with Spotify and that technical challenges have delayed the completion of an app store, an essential component of any smartwatch ecosystem.
Ethan Hawke shot most of his forthcoming biopic with DJI gear
Ethan Hawke's forthcoming biopic, Blaze, sees the actor make the move from center stage to the director's chair. The movie tells the story of the late country and western artist Blaze Foley, and is being filmed in almost entirely with DJI products. That doesn't mean most of the movie is filmed from the air, though. DJI drones are part of the production, but the company's non-flying camera gear, including the Osmo RAW and the Ronin DSLR stabilizer, were used extensively throughout the production. DJI was at SXSW in Austin to talk about its involvement in the film -- all part of its DJI Creative Studio initiative.
New York's Citi Bikes are getting laser safety lights
Cyclists have to be wary of everything in big cities, even robotic cars. To help its sharing-service users, Citi Bike in New York is outfitting 250 bicycles with "Laserlight" safety lights from UK company Blaze. They project a bright green bicycle outline 20 feet ahead, effectively giving you a personal bike lane symbol. That helps alert motorists, pedestrians and other cyclists of your presence 30 percent more often than without them, Blaze says.
Fitbit updates help you meet fitness goals through your friends
Fitbit knows that maintaining a good exercise regimen is as much about motivation as anything else. To that end, it's launching multiple updates to help you stay focused. To start, its core mobile app now has a Community area that makes it easier to keep yourself going. There's a social feed where you and your fitness-minded peers can compete, find nearby workouts, join groups and share achievements. You'll also get advice from Fitbit experts to help refine your routines, and there's a Personal Goal Setting option in the app to help set realistic goals based on your activity.
Fitbit Blaze review: A smartwatch in looks only
When Fitbit introduced its Blaze smartwatch back at CES, many people hyped it up as an Apple Watch competitor. It's $150 cheaper, but still features a color touchscreen, notifications, a host of fitness-tracking features and impressive five-day battery life. It's also the most stylish Fitbit yet, with interchangeable watch bands that include leather and metal options. But in the week I spent testing the Blaze, I realized it's not a smartwatch in the conventional sense of the word. The Blaze is a fitness-first device that does most of the same things as Fitbit's Surge fitness band, just in a more stylish package. It looks and acts like a smartwatch, but if you expect it to have as many features as the Apple Watch or most Android Wear devices, you'll be disappointed. But does the Blaze at least bring enough to the table to succeed on its own merits?
Fitbit's low-profile Alta tracker is up for preorders
FitBit announced on Wednesday that its newest fitness tracker, the Alta, is now available for preorder. Unlike the recently announced mid-level Blaze (which we weren't too impressed with) or top-end Surge -- both of which feature large displays -- the Alta is designed to discreetly track your activity.
Fitbit Blaze is a $200 smartwatch with a focus on fitness
With the advent of smartwatches, barebones activity trackers from the likes of Fitbit might seem like a relic of the past. Well, Fitbit must have thought so too. Today, the company that built its riches from those very same activity trackers is unveiling the Fitbit Blaze, a real bonafide smartwatch that's much more advanced than anything Fitbit's ever done. It comes complete with a color touchscreen, interchangeable watchfaces, a slim design and lots of different strap designs. But unlike most of its rivals, it won't support a slew of apps and it has a proprietary OS, not something like Android Wear. Instead, the Blaze pares down the typical smartwatch functions to the bare necessities of call management, text and calendar alerts plus music controls. The rest of the watch is dedicated to the feature that Fitbit knows best: Fitness.
London's Boris bikes kitted out with lasers in the name of safety
If there's one universal truth, it's that everything is better with lasers: sharks, dinosaurs, Facebook, and now... Boris bikes. Under a new safety trial, Transport for London has fitted 250 of the capital's pushbikes-for-hire with a laser-projection system that beams the familiar stickman bicycle logo onto the ground ahead of the cyclist. With a six metre lead on the rider, the projection is intended to alert motorists to the close presence of the cyclist, who could be cruising in the driver's blind spot at the time. In early tests, the laser projection was said to improve the nighttime visibility of bikers when compared with the regular LED headlamps currently in use. The tech itself is being provided by UK upstart Blaze, which already sells the Laserlight as a handlebar add-on for any bicycle. Should the 10-or-so week trial be deemed successful, the plan is to retrofit all 11,500 Boris bikes with the dynamo-driven projection system.
Neo Geo X hacked to run Unibios, unofficial game ROMS
After witnessing the fall of the DS, DSi, 3DS and PlayStation Vita, it's no surprise to hear that the Neo Geo X has succumbed to the talents of the homebrew community, but it is a little shocking how easy the handheld was to conquer. Upon cracking the device open, enthusiasts were surprised to find no copy protection to speak of -- just a lightly glued MicroSD card. The folks on the Neo Geo forum wasted no time experimenting, and soon found that the handheld's Bios and game ROMs can be successfully swapped for new games or custom loaders. Substitute files need to retain the name of the file they replace, and swapped games remain mislabeled in the Neo Geo X menu, but the trick has already allowed some users to install the popular AES Unibios. The community hopes that the discovery will eventually allow them to tweak the handheld's TV-out resolution and enable manual switching between AES / MVS game modes. It's hardly a "hack," considering the SD card is completely unprotected, but it's a good start. Check out the source link below to peer at the device's insides, or just to watch the community in action.
Neo Geo X coming to Europe December 6th for £175 / €199
As we pointed out, European gamers will be able to pew-pew or grapple on the go with the Neo Geo X alongside their US counterparts on December 6th, and now we know for how much and where: £175 in the UK and €199 elsewhere at Funstock. For that sum you'll get the handheld with a 4.3-inch screen, joystick, game card, AES-style charging dock with HDMI output and 20 pre-installed retro games -- with more arriving soon. So, if you're up for kicking it 1990s style that side of the pond, grab it at the source.
Neo Geo X out December 6 in Europe for £175/€199
The Neo Geo X will be released in Europe on December 6, concurrent with the North American release of the retro handheld (and its attendant Neo Geo AES-style dock). Neither continent will have to wait longer than the other to play twenty-year-old games.According to the listing on retailer Funstock – to which the official website links – the "Limited Edition" bundle, with the dock, a joystick, and the Ninja Master's game card, will retail for £175. Eurogamer notes a €199 price in Euros.
Neo Geo X goes official, celebrates Grandpa's 20th anniversary
We've already seen the device in the real world, but now it's confirmed -- this portable Neo Geo is legit and heading to both the US and Europe. Blaze is crafting the retro gaming handheld with SNK's blessing and 20 baked-in titles confirmed, including Metal Slug, King of Fighters '94 and -- yes -- King of the Monsters. It'll tie into the Neo Geo's 20th birthday and the manufacturer promises that the new device will deliver the same arcade thrills "in a more affordable manner," although there's still no pricing specifics. Check the press release below for the full game selection and expect a release some time in Q2.
The Neo Geo handheld is real, coming out worldwide in Q2
That "Neo Geo Portable Device" we were all cooing over? What? There was cooing. We cooed a little. Anyway, it's really happening! And it's happening soon! And worldwide. Blaze, who you might know from various Megadrive/Genesis handhelds, is producing the "NeoGeo X" handheld under SNK's license, shipping the device in Q2 with a pre-loaded selection of 20 Neo classics -- a couple of Fatal Furies, King of the Monsters, Metal Slug, and more.Other features include an SD card slot (for additional games?), and AV out. There's no price for the "limited edition" console yet, but a Blaze rep says in the press release that the company hopes to spread excitement about the Neo Geo "in a more affordable manner, to a much wider audience." That sounds to us like it's going to be cheaper than the $649 SNK asked for the home console at launch.
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G hands-on
It's half-2011, half-2010. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G is what appears to be in many respects a hybrid device that blends a majority of specs from the original Samsung Galaxy S series with the processor found in the T-Mobile Galaxy S II. It's got a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 CPU, 4-inch Super AMOLED panel, 42Mbps HSPA+ radios and a 5MP rear camera capable of producing 720p video and a 1.3MP front-facing shooter. It's using Android 2.3, and its eventual graduation to ICS was confirmed.T-Mobile insists the Blaze is a great lower-end complement to the $200 Galaxy S II, though to that end we'd have to disagree with the phone's $150 price point. Even though the processors are the same in both handsets and the two devices offer the same HSPA+ radio and TouchWiz UI 4.0, most of the phone's other components are still rolled over from the original series. That said, our only real concern here is the price -- the Blaze itself is well built, and most folks looking to keep their cellular telephones in the mid-range will find its performance and specs quite reasonable. You'll want to peel those eyes to the gallery and our video down below.%Gallery-148869%Sean Cooper contributed to this report
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G making its way into T-Mobile stores in March for $150
We heard about Samsung's Galaxy S Blaze 4G -- a device that wins second place for longest name behind the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch -- last month at CES, but details were incredibly scarce. Of course, leave it to T-Mobile and Sammy to toss in a few extra nuggets in the lead-up to Mobile World Congress in the midst of so many other product announcements. It turns out that the Blaze 4G will be making its official debut on the carrier sometime near the end of March for $150 on a two-year commitment. The device sports a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 CPU, 4-inch Super AMOLED panel, 5MP rear camera with 720p video capture, a 1.3MP front-facing shooter and -- shocker -- Android 2.3. It also supports 42Mbps HSPA+. Definitely sounds like a healthy mix of 2010 and 2011, no doubt. Want more details? We've got the press release after the break ready and waiting for you.
Blaze's U-Move controls your Wii, makes you jog to play effectively (video)
Now that your Wii Balance Board is safely tucked underneath the couch and you've long ago discovered that every standard Nintendo title can be played with the flick of a wrist, you might be wondering how you'll ever convince yourself to exercise again. Well, there are certainly a few dangling-carrot solutions to your problem, and here's one that actually makes sense -- the Blaze U-Move, a Nunchuk replacement (with built-in pedometer) that effectively locks your joystick in place. The idea is that unless you're moving, your avatar can't move, and when you do, it can -- each time you jog in place, you're building up virtual momentum. That certainly sounds like a much more graceful and practical solution than others we've seen, which turn off the entire controller or (Miyamoto forbid) cut power to your entire game machine. This way, you can stop running when you need to do some precision aiming, and set your mind at ease regarding your save game. Yours for £20, or about $32 in US currency.
Blaze PS3 Move Gun attachment for perps lacking a second amendment
Know what's awesome? Guns! Especially when they're capped with a glowing pastel ball. This more "realistic" alternative to the $20 Sony PS3 Move gun attachment is from Blaze and will set you back £9.99 (about $16) when it begins shipping at the end of February. Bring it to a Texas bar and we hear you'll get a complimentary Shirley Temple. Yeehaw!
Blaze announces its own Move gun attachment
You know what they say: You can never have too many gun-shaped peripherals in which to dock your PlayStation Move controller, unless, of course, you already have two, in which case, you do in fact have too many. (Trust us, people say that all the time.) However, assuming you haven't already indulged in one of the Move gun attachments already on the market, you may want to take a look at Blaze's recently revealed stab shot at violence-ing the peripheral. As you can see by the product image above, it's replaced the sci-fi blaster feel of Sony's first-party gun attachment with a slightly more realistic pistol motif. Well, there's still a huge, colorful ball at the end of the whole production, which we're pretty sure real guns don't have. Regardless, this bad boy will arrive next month at British retailers for an asking price of £9.99.
