Monday
May252015

iPhone 5c credited for saving man from shotgun blast

An iPhone 5c took the brunt of a shotgun blast that was fired to kill a 25-year old British man. The iPhone 5c's polycarbonate case was deformed but not punctured, and while it received much of the impact, the victim was still seriously injured. 

"[The attacker's] actions that night were extreme and shocking - the victim went outside to speak to the group about the fact they had turned off the water supply resulting in the defendant shooting him with a powerful weapon," Cheshire Police Detective Inspector Gary McIntyre said in a statement.

Launched in 2013, the Apple iPhone 5c features coloured plastic case but is reinforced with a steel frame.

Source: AppleInsider

Sunday
May242015

Control your Android Wear or Pebble Time smartwatch with Aria clip-on

If you find your hands busy with other things or are just feeling a tad too lazy to swipe at your smartwatches’ screen, the Kickstarter project Aria is here to help. The clip-on accessory brings finger gesture functionality to your smartwatch. It clips to the underside of your Android Wear or Pebble Time watch and it’ll let you navigate these wearables with gestures like tapping, flicking your fingers, and opening and closing your hands. You can configure the gestures with the companion app.

Aria makes use of Bluetooth Low Energy and it doesn’t require a battery on its own. The Kickstarter campaign should be up in the coming weeks. It was built specifically for Android developers so it’ll retail for US$169, while the Pebble Time version will only need you to pledge at least $69.

Source: Aria | Via: Engadget

Sunday
May242015

Instagram hopes to keep you in the loop with Highlights email

Instagram is hoping to keep its 300 million users active the old-fashioned way: sending email highlights of some of the best photos from your feed. How they select which photos to show we’re not quite sure. But this is an attempt to get more eyeballs onto their platform. And even see more ads, perhaps. It might serve you a purpose though if you just want to see a few great photos without having to wade through your feed.

Source: Engadget

Sunday
May242015

Festify lets your friends help curate your Spotify playlist

Holding a party with your closest buds? You can have them help you out pick the tunes with Festify. The Windows and Mac app lets you build a Spotify playlist on the app. And then you can invite friends to vote on tracks using their mobile devices. Those that get the most votes will be played next. You will, however, need a Spotify Premium account to make use of this app.

Source: Lifehacker | Download: Festify (Free)