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Google Glass developer presentation from SXSW finally available to stream in full
If you're still thirsting over details about life with Google Glass, you can now sit back and experience the presentation (though not filmed in first person with one of the units -- opportunity missed) from SXSW last month. We covered it in our liveblog and dug up news on various apps already working with Google's Mirror API to present their information in ways that are designed for the wearable units, don't get in the way, and don't pop up at bad times. These are relatively new and unique issues to deal with since the information is being presented on a device that's in your face, so it will be interesting to see if developers are up to the challenge. Check after the break for 50 minutes of Googler Timothy Jordan showing the people what the Glass team has learned and implemented so far.
SXSW 2013 wrap-up: Google Glass, Elon Musk, robots, instruments and more!
When we attend a trade show, we typically spend an entire week jumping from one exhibition hall to the next, surrounded by thousands of suit-clad corporate execs. That's the case at MWC in Barcelona, IFA in Berlin and CEATEC in Japan -- at SXSW in Austin, however, bars, tents, parking lots and even single-family homes host manufacturers large and small, and instead of starched button-downs and cufflinks, attendees sport t-shirts and tattoos. People are friendly, the weather is fantastic and there's live music and hot food at every turn -- we have to admit, we're in love, and we're devastated that it's time to leave. At traditional mega-shows, we arrive with clear expectations and even a list of products to check out. We didn't quite know what would come of SXSW. What we found were insanely awesome products like the Roli Seaboard digital piano and Leap Motion, paired with presentations from industry legends like Elon Musk and Al Gore. We also had a chance to take a closer look at Google Glass, and, after an awesome night at our very first Engadget+gdgt event, we even caught a free ride home in a Tesla Model S. It was a week we'll never forget, and, thanks to the power of the internet, you've had a chance to join in on the fun, even if you're thousands of miles from Central Texas. Our content-packed event page is the place to be for anything and everything gadget at SXSW, but we're happy to share a recap of sorts here as well. Join us past the break to relive the magic that was South by Southwest Interactive 2013.%Gallery-181445%
Memoto lapel camera turns your life into one big photoblog
There likely aren't too many people in the world crying for ways to exponentially increase the number of digital pictures in their collections, but Memoto's hoping to help wearers rethink picture taking as they know it. The device, which is roughly the size of an SD card case, clips on a shirt collar, taking five-megapixel pictures every 30 seconds without prompting, running on a battery that'll last around two days. The idea is to create a lifeblog -- an encapsulation of what you did during a given day, told through still photos. Those images are served up to the company's proprietary software application, which uses an algorithm to group them into clusters. Visiting a user's page presents a sampling of photos from throughout the day. From there, you can drill down into the clusters to see the group of shots taken 30 seconds apart. And, of course, there's sharing on the thing, letting you post those images and groups to places like Twitter and Facebook.%Gallery-181391%
Roli's Seaboard is a rubber-keyed piano that may redefine the way you play
Synths are nothing new, of course -- so what makes Roli's digital piano so novel? The instrument has a patent-pending rubberized surface that lets you bend and twist the keys as you play, freeing you from fiddling around with knobs, so you can directly, physically affect the way it sounds. Think of it as the difference between bending a string on a guitar, rather than stepping on the wah-wah pedal. It's the sort of thing you really have to see in action to appreciate -- thankfully, we've got the instrument's creator Roland Lamb giving us a demo after the break.%Gallery-181387%
The Engadget Interview: Wes Craven and Joe Swanberg
We're here in Austin for SXSW Interactive, but it's impossible to avoid a little bleed over from the film and music portions of the event -- particularly when you get invited to cover the latest webstreaming news from AMC Networks. The company set up camp in the IFC Theater on 6th Avenue to unveil its new online offering, Yeah, a rental service that provides the viewer contextual information on movies mined from interviews with the filmmakers and cast, along with two months of research for each of the titles. According to the company, each curated movie features some 400 to 500 new pieces of content. Of course, what we were really looking forward to at the event was the chance to speak with a couple of filmmakers tied to the service, beginning with the great Wes Craven, who provided new interviews for his early films A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Last House on the Left. Craven, it turns out, is one of the new service's biggest cheerleaders, with a genuine enthusiasm about the opportunity to offer some new insight into works that have, admittedly, been fairly well-tread by both film historians and fans.
AMC launches Yeah! movie service, promises exclusive content and enthusiastic punctuation (video)
In this post-DVD world, it can be tough to really enjoy a film without having a director talk on top of it. AMC's looking to fill in the void of contextual information left as many of us have moved from physical to streaming media, with the launch of Yeah! today at SXSW, an online streaming movie service featuring curated supplementary features for classic movies like Superman, Reservoir Dogs, Clerks and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The offering includes interviews with folks like Wes Craven and Richard Donner, facts about the films and quizzes -- there's 400 to 500 new pieces of content per film, according to AMC, which you can access "without obscuring the movie." Yeah! is available now in the source link below -- movies will run you $5 for a 48-hour rental. An iPad version of the service is hitting this summer.
Google shows off Glass apps: New York Times, Gmail, Path and more
Google just took some time at SXSW to show off Google Glass, and it's pulled back the curtains on some apps that are currently in the works. As it turns out, Page and Co. have been working with the New York Times to build an application. Just ask for some news and Glass will deliver a headline, a byline, an accompanying image and the number of hours since the article in question was posted. What's more is that users can tap and have the eyewear read the story's text aloud. The duo are also testing a breaking news feature where notifications regarding fresh stories will appear as they're published. Gmail also got some time in the limelight with its very own app. An email sender's image and subject line will appear on the device's screen, and users can reply by dictating their messages. Evernote and Skitch received some love from the folks in Mountain View too, with the ability to send images to the services through Glass' share functionality. Social networking app Path has found its way onto the wearable computing bandwagon as well. Not only do Google's spectacles receive curated updates from the network -- to keep you from being bombarded, of course-- but they allow users to add emoticons to a friend's post and reply with comments. Not impressed? "This is just where we started with a few friends to test the API in its early stage," says Google Glass developer evangelist Timothy Jordan.
We're Live at Google's SXSW Glass panel
We've already seen a number of folks roaming the halls of the Austin Convention Center this week, rocking Google's much anticipated wearable -- and now it's finally Glass' time to shine. We've got a front row seat for SXSW's Building New Experiences with Glass session. Just us after the break, won't you?
Visualized: Sonos' speaker-building, light-showing, neon-couching SXSW house
House parties are really the rule, not the exception here at SXSW -- it's an outgrowth of the show's Austin roots. But Sonos has gone a ways toward providing a unique experience for visitors to its Studios space. For one thing, there's a room with a custom-built light show that utilizes a Sonos soundbar, several projectors and a Kinect camera, generating a dynamic light show based on the music and user movement. Even cooler is the speaker-building workshop created in partnership with Moog, which features boxes and Sonos Play:3 components. Also on-site is a neon living room designed for an add with rodent-headed DJ, DeadMau5 and a museum of cool analog instruments (as Mike Love will happily tell you, playing a theremin is a lot harder than it looks). And since this is SXSW, after all, there's a beer fountain and a stage featuring the likes of Surfer Blood and Thurston Moore.%Gallery-181296%
The Engadget Interview: Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald
At a show where developers are rock stars, Leap Motion just might be this year's Beatles. SXSW isn't the first time the company has given demos of its motion-controlled input devices, but it really seems to be the moment the world is taking notice -- and realizing the potential -- of its offering. Over the weekend, co-founders Michael Buckwald and David Holz addressed a packed Austin Convention Center hall, ahead of keynote conversations with Al Gore and Elon Musk. The company set aside some time this morning to speak with us and offer up some demos of the technology, expanding upon what we saw on stage the other day. At present Leap Motion's primary offering is a small box that sits by a PC, just in front of your keyboard. The little sensor detects the motion of your hands with a precision that allows it to distinguish the movement of individual fingers.
Ube WiFi Smart Dimmer to receive customized multitouch gesture control
Here's a cool little addition to the increasingly competitive world of home automation. Ube's got a WiFi Smart Dimmer that utilizes multitouch functionality to control the lights in your house -- use one finger to turn off a single light, or use two to turn off a set. The company picked SXSW as the venue to announce the forthcoming launch of customized gestures for other smart devices -- in the example given to us by CEO Utz Baldwin, a user can input a "W" to turn on the sprinklers -- or an "A" plus up swipe to turn on an alarm and an "A" plus a down swipe to disable it. Sadly, the functionality won't be available for the launch of the first generation, though it's likely to come in time for the second generation, along with a software update for early adopters. Interested parties can support the company via Kickstarter right now -- Ube's a bit over halfway to its goal of $280,000, with 24 days to go. You can also watch Baldwin discuss the product and today's news in a video after the break.
The Engadget Interview: BlackBerry developer evangelist Tom Anderson (video)
We'll be honest, we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into when we headed to BlackBerry's SXSW event. Gone are the business-suited low key gatherings traditionally tied to trade shows. The smartphone maker is here to meet developers on their own turf, putting together a bumping house party with a backyard DJ and a velvet rope line up front. The event is certainly in line with the company's shift toward a larger lifestyle focus in its latest operating system, along with an attempt to deal with potential developers on their own level. Tom Anderson, the company's Manager Developer Evangelists Team Americas is one of the individuals tasked with leading that charge -- a central focus if the operating system is going to turn around its fortunes. BlackBerry knows that better than anyone, hitting the pavement here at SXSW to convince developers of all sizes that they need to be a part of the operating system. It can certainly be an uphill battle, with a user base that pales in comparison to the iOSes ad Androids of the world -- and then there's the fact that the OS hasn't actually launched in the States yet.
TI shows off LaunchPad-based prototype mouse, hints at a big follow-up
If you've been needing a little inspiration for your next TI LaunchPad project, look no further than the company itself. Texas Instruments set up shop in the maker tent across from the Austin Convention Center this week, showing off creations built atop its line of microcontrollers. The rep we spoke with was particularly excited about this mouse hack that the company put together in a few hours, while getting ready for SXSW. The creation utilizes the Stellaris board's accelerometers to control the cursor of a Windows machine on X, Y and Z axes, via USB. The project is more than just a hack, according to the company -- it's actually a prototype of something it's set to unveil later this year. No specifics on that front, but TI promised a "big surprise." In the meantime, you can check out video of the project after the break.%Gallery-181193%
Gigabot is a huge consumer 3D printer awaiting your Kickstarter dollars (video)
The standard crop of 3D printers are all well and good, but what about those times when you need to print something really, really big? Gigabot's hoping to fill in that gaping void with a build envelope of 24 x 24 x 24 inches -- 30 times the volume of a standard consumer device, by its calculations. The device is a beast, naturally -- and metal one, at that. It's so big, in fact, that it can support a full-sized laptop sitting atop an attached arm. The project is the brainchild of re:3D, an Austin-based startup, which has turned to Kickstarter to help bring the Gigabot into the world -- and from the looks of it, the company should hit its $40,000 goal, no problem. You can pick one of these up for a $2,500 pledge, which gets you everything you need to build one at home. Video of the printer in action after the break.%Gallery-181192%
GE's Barista Bots are exactly what SXSW needs: coffee-printing robotic arms
The best way to get the attention of a bunch of sleep-deprived, possibly hungover SXSW Interactive attendees? Coffee-slinging robotic arms, naturally. GE's fully embracing Austin's caffeinated food trick culture with a pair of Barista Bots, arms that operate similarly to your standard 3D printer, moving along the X, Y and Z axes to extrude coffee through a syringe, atop a latte's foam. The process starts when one of the robot's human barista counterparts takes a shot of an image with a webcam, digitizing it on a nearby computer. Then the arm goes to work. It's an imperfect science, of course. For one thing, foam is a really difficult canvas to work on, what with all the unevenness of constantly popping bubbles. There's also an awful lot of wind in Austin today, and with all those people inside, the van did a little bit of rocking. We saw some more complex images that didn't come out particularly well (facial scans, for one thing), so we decided to throw something a simpler at the 'bot, drawing our "e" logo on a sheet of paper. %Gallery-181191%
Necomimi cat ears' creators branch out into brain-controlled headphones (video)
While we've always thought that brain-controlled cat ears are a perfectly viable business model, it's usually in a company's best interest to diversify, in case, you know, the bottom ever drops out of the furry accessory market. Neurowear, the company behind the Necomimi, which provided some of the more memorable moments at this year's CES, showed off its latest project, the Mico, which continues the company's core competency of letting people do stuff with mind waves. In this case, it's music control. A big white pair of headphones are connected to a sensor that rests on your forehead and a dangling clip for your earlobe (a la the Necomimi). The cans connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth, using your current mood to select a song from the company's app, which currently contains about 100 tracks. According to the company, the songs have been "neuro-tagged," based on its testing, to ensure that they match up to perceived mood. If your mood changes, just give the phone a shake and it will clean the musical slate Etch-a-Sketch-style.%Gallery-181189%
Tesla gives Uber a Model S boost at SXSW, so come on and take a free ride
The number of cabs per capita in Austin is probably quite reasonable for a city of under a million, but during SXSW, taxis can be difficult to come by, plagued by ridiculous traffic and a surge of carless visitors. So, to make our way from last night's Engadget+gdgt event to our hotel -- a roughly 15-mile drive north of the city center -- we turned to Uber's Android app. Selecting the UberX option, we were told, would net us a free ride, but we were expecting a clunky cab to pull up; instead, we got a brand new Tesla Model S, with a tie-clad chauffeur to match. The driver, we learned, was on loan from Dallas, while the gorgeous all-electric car was likely to quietly roll its way to distant roads following this week's Central Texas geek fest. But we weren't leaving Austin without our ride.%Gallery-181188%
Palm Top Theater turns your iPhone into a mini-3D display
"Pepper's ghost" isn't the sort of phrase you hear very often at a show like SXSW. In amongst all the latest-generation technology, there aren't too many folks discussing optical concepts hundreds of years old. But the idea's a driving force in the Palm Top Theater, an iPhone case that turns smartphone videos into a miniature 3D-viewing experience. The peripheral utilizes three small drop-down displays -- the rear is a full mirror with two half mirrors in front it, reflecting images from the phone display into what appears to be a three-dimensional object -- and really, it a stunning little effect. The Palm Top requires the use of a proprietary file format that essentially splits the displayed image or video into three parts. The company's providing some video for users, as well as a converter app to make custom footage. The device is available now for around $36 -- not super expensive, though it's hard to see such a device as anything but a niche product, especially since the opening makes for a fairly limited viewing space. It would be extremely cool to see this on a larger space, but in the meantime, you're stuck with a little window into the technology. %Gallery-181170%
Xi3 starts Piston pre-orders: buy an early Steambox for under $1,000
While Xi3's Piston may only be a Steambox through its software optimization, that still leaves us with a milestone on our hands now that the system is available for pre-orders: it's the first Valve-blessed PC on sale. If you're willing to set aside just under $1,000 ($900 during SXSW), you can claim a Big Picture-friendly mini PC with an embedded, 3.2GHz version of AMD's quad-core A10 in addition to 8GB of RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive. There's no mention of the conventional spinning storage referenced at CES. Expansion is limited to larger-capacity SSDs, although that's not surprising when the entire computer is smaller than a GeForce GTX Titan. The real jolt will be the launch timing. Xi3 won't have Pistons shipping until around the holidays, which could leave some of us hunting for less-than-official (if considerably larger) substitutes for the full Steam experience.
Google shows off hacked speaking shoe at SXSW, promises it's not getting into the footwear business
All the hype of Google's presence at this year's SXSW has, not surprisingly, largely revolved around the company's Glass project, but much to our surprise, the software giant used the show to take the wraps off yet another wearable. We spoke to a rep who kicked off our conversation with the express disclaimer that "Google is not getting into the shoe business," so you can tamp down those expectations right now. Of course, the company is still firmly in the business of creating cool projects for the purposes of promoting creativity and supporting the developer community and ethos that are the driving forces behind its Art, Copy & Code project.%Gallery-181165%
