Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to get a retina scanner?

Samsung is looking to one up its competition once again by introducing a new security feature: a retina scanner. Samsung Exynos tweeted something about improving security for the future and showed an image of a retina being scanned by a phone with the words “Unlock the future.” This may or may not make its way into the Galaxy Note 4 and it would be interesting to see how this feature might fair in real-life situations. We're curious, would you want a retina scanner on your device?

Security can be improved using features unique to us. That's what we envision. What would you use? #ExynosTomorrow pic.twitter.com/KLgQ1q9GkP

— SamsungExynos (@SamsungExynos) July 12, 2014

Shazam now lets you stream full tracks from Rdio within the app

If you’ve wanted to listen to a full track on Shazam, then you can now do that with the help of Rdio. A recent update will let you playback an entire song using Rdio’s library. The catch is you have to have a Rdio subscription. If you do, you just need to link the two apps and you are good to go. The tracks you “Shazamed” will be sorted into its own playlist and there will also be an “Add to Playlist” button to put the song into your playlist of choice. The update is already available for iOS devices and will come to Android in the following days.

Source: Shazam

Babak Parviz, the man behind Google Glass, leaves for Amazon

The man behind Google Glass has left the Plex and has moved on to Amazon. Babak Parviz, who was part of the A-Team at the Google X skunkworks (responsible for self-driving cars, Google Glass and other moonshot projects), is the latest of Google's elite to exit the company. His destination is Amazon which has recently released its first smartphone and has a stable of Kindle tablets and TV streaming devices as well as a lot of interest in mobile technology.

Parviz confirmed the move in his Google + bio page.

Having worked at companies ranging from tiny start-ups to huge corporations and universities in Europe and the US, I have found each one to be fun in its own unique way.

I founded and led a few efforts at Google (among them, Google Glass and Google Contact Lenses are public so far :) prior to moving to Amazon and work on a few other things now…

Replacing Parviz as the head of Google Glass is Ivy Ross, formerly of Bausch & Lomb. No word on what Parviz will be working on at Amazon but it should be pretty exciting.

Source: TechCrunch

Raspberry Pi gets first major upgrade with more USB ports and microSD slot

The popular DIY computer is still crazy affordable at US $35.00  but now adds two more USB 2.0 ports and the ability for extra storage via microSD. Aside from this, all other specs remain the same. Raspberry Pi B+ has been used in various applications. it is ideal to teach kids how to code, it can run various Linux operating sytems and be used as a controller for robots as well as be turned into a bespoke GameBoy  Clearly, the new I/O will make the Raspberry Pi an even more versatile nan0-PC.

Source:Raspberry Pi