Nissan Nismo smart watch concept creates driver-car connection

Making its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the Nissan Nismo smart watch concept is meant to connect the drivers of Nissan’s Nismo cars with the vehicles by making use of real-time biometric data. The Nismo, like the other smart watches that have recently made their debut, connects to the car via Bluetooth and then connects to a smartphone app, which then creates data for the user to receive and at the same time gathering information about them. 

The simple-looking bangle concept watch is going to provide data to help monitor the car’s efficiency, including its average speed, fuel consumption readings, other vehicle telematics, as well as performance data. It can also monitor your biometric data with a built-in heart rate monitor and show you latest updates from your social media accounts from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Nissan also hopes to add an ECG and EEG monitor to help identify any signs of fatigue, changes in concentration levels, and even skin temperature. Battery life is supposed to last for a week under normal usage but Nissan hasn’t quantified what “normal usage” entails.

Source: Wired UK

Seagate introduces 500GB hard drive for Android tablets

Seagate is giving more computing powers to your Android tablet with its new Ultra Mobile HDD. Pairing the Ultra Mobile HDD with Seagate’s Mobile Enablement Kit, you are expected to get a 500GB drive house in a 5mm form factor with a speedy 8GB flash cache, built-in zero-gravity sensors and gyroscopic motion support, improved system responsiveness and battery life courtesy of the Dynamic Data Driver, and customized mobile storage mounting kit reference design. No official word yet on availability and price.

Roku for Android update lets you play videos directly from mobile devices

Roku just released its latest update for its Android app that allows a few Android devices to directly stream video from the phone or tablet to your Roku player. The models currently supported are the Samsung Galaxy SIII, Samsung Galaxy S4, Nexus 4, HTC One, and 2012 Nexus 7. Video playback also needs these devices to be running on Android 4.0 or later and your Roku player to be running software version 5.1 or higher. The usual stability improvements and bug fixes have also been included in this 2.3.0.2083614 update.

Instagram reaches 150 million users, expects to sell ads in 2014

Instagram announced over the weekend that the photo- and video-sharing site reached the 150 million mark after 50 million more users joined in the past six months. And these aren’t just U.S.-based users, Instagram has said that over 60 percent of its users are from outside the United States.

With this growing number of users, the Facebook-owned online service now wants to cash in. Instagram’s new Director of Business Operations Emily White says in an interview with Wall Street Journal that they should be prepared to sell ads next year. The challenge for White and the Instagram team is to integrate this marketing tool without putting off its members, particularly its large teen and young adult base.