Latest Pebble update decouples the smartwatches from online servers

With Fitbit’s acquisition of Pebble, one of the biggest concerns was whether Pebble watches would still work in the future, especially since its smartwatches software is mostly cloud-based. To help address that, Pebble released an update that’ll decouple the wearables’ dependence on cloud services. This means when Pebble’s servers shut down, users will still be able to side load apps and new firmware to the smartwatches. Of course this doesn’t address yet questions about how messaging, weather, and dictation features (which are all cloud-based) will work moving forward. But at the very least, the smartwatches can work even when Pebble gets fully absorbed into Fitbit.

Source: The Verge

This wireless mouse also works as a scanner

Now here’s a nifty combo: a mouse that doubles as a scanner. The Zcan Wireless Scanner Mouse looks just like any other wireless mouse out there. It ups the ante though with a built-in scanner that can read documents simply by swiping on them. The Zcan Wireless Scanner Mouse’s accompanying software can then digitize the text and even translate on the fly. It supports 199 OCR languages and can even scan tables, spreadsheets, and offers direct editing of each individual cell in Microsoft Excel. It comes with an A4 Scan Pad to help you scan things like receipts, photos, business cards, and other scraps of paper. A pretty handy gadget that goes for US$148.90 on Amazon.

Source: BGR

Google’s next Pixel devices get codenamed in the Android AOSP gerrit

Google Pixel XL

It doesn’t really say much about the new devices but there might be three new Google-made devices coming out later this year. The rumoured Google Pixel XL replacement, with its codename Muskie, has shown up in the Android AOSP gerrit. Android Police spotted Muskie alongside the other codenames Walleye and Taimen.

Walleye is predicted to be a Pixel-sized smartphone and Taimen is expected to be a bigger smartphone than Muskie. It’s also plausible that Taimen can be a tablet. We really can’t say at this point. But this does point to having three new Google devices coming soon.

Source: Android Authority

Review: Fitbit Alta HR

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Fitbit's most impressive fitness tracker isn't the biggest or the one with the most features, but a perfect mix of reliable activity and sleep tracking, ease of use and a refined design.

With the Fitbit Alta HR, we see the slimming down of the now familiar form factor of the Fitbit Charge 2 as well as the appearance of the heart-rate monitor on one of the smallest bracelets we've seen.

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