Monday
Oct192015

Xiaomi enters the Segway game

There will come a time when we will ask ourselves what does Xiaomi not produce? This time the company’s introducing a US$315 Segway called the Ninebot mini. The company’s a major investor in Chinese company Ninebot, which recently purchased Segway. The Ninebot mini represents the first product since the acquisition. The self-balancing scooter looks rather similar to the original but it costs less than a twentieth of the original’s price.

It’s not exactly a toy either, even though it’s targeted towards the youth. It can move up to 16km/h, handle 15-degree hills, and run up to 22km on a single charge. At 12.8 kilograms, it’s portable. It can even fit into the trunk of your car, according to Xiaomi. Firmware of the scooter can be upgraded and it can monitor things like speed, traffic data, and systems via your smartphone. It’s coming to China on November 3rd but there is no word about a wider launch. However, Ninebot updated its French website saying they will inform the public about availability, which means it could be hitting Europe soon and, hopefully, make its way here, too.

Source: Engadget

Monday
Oct192015

Pioneer outs portable HD audio player

There’s a resurgence of HD audio players and Pioneer’s introducing its own take on the trend with the XDP-100R. Made with aluminum, it houses two circuit boards. According to Pioneer, one of them is for the operating system and another for audio components to help “eliminate the effects of digital noise.” It supports lossless FLAC, MQA, ALAC, and DSD audio up to 11.2MHz.

This Android-powered player comes with a 4.7-inch 720p display, 32GB of internal storage that you can increase up to 256GB via two microSD slots that each support up to 128GB. It’s going on sale in Japan later this month for around US$700. There’s no word yet on a Western release at the moment though. But it does seem to be on the affordable side, especially since Sony’s NW-ZX2 HD audio player costs $1,200.

Source: Wall Street Journal | Via: Gizmodo

Saturday
Oct172015

Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup 10/11-10/17

Saturday
Oct172015

Netflix original film ‘Beasts of No Nation’ is now available for streaming

After bringing its original film to TIFF last month, Netflix is finally making Beasts of No Nation available for streaming. The film stars Idris Elba and it tells the story of a young West African boy forced to join a collective of mercenary fighters during the civil war. It’s directed by Cary Fukunaga who has also worked on projects like season one of True Detective, Sin Nombre, and Jane Eyre.

The release on Netflix is causing issues with theatre owners as the company released it on-demand and in some theatres in the US simultaneously. According to Wired, theater owners heard about the release at the same time as everybody else. Patrick Corcoran, vice president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said distributors will usually negotiate a theatre owners ahead of a public announcement. Corcorcan says, “Netflix is not serious about a theatrical release.” He adds, “The purpose here is PR. They want to qualify for an Academy Award.” Because for them to qualify, a film has to be in theatres the same day or before home release. They got help with at least one theatre chain as select Landmark Theaters will be showing the film.

Source: SlashGear + Wired