PayPal awards first winners of Battle Hack in Toronto

The winning developer team of Maya Kenedy, Alex Christodoulou, Christopher Larsen, and Ernst Riemer from Pivotal Labs took home the coveted Viking axe trophies and a paid trip to the Battle Hack World Finals later this year.

PayPal just announced the winners of its inaugural Battle Hack competition in Toronto. Local developers were tasked to develop mobile apps that incorporate PayPal’s application programming interface or Braintree or Venmo Software Development Kits to solve community issues. Team Angry Kittens won the Toronto competition and has secured a spot at the PayPal Battle Hack World Finals in San Jose, California in November. They will compete with winners from 13 other cities including Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Istanbul, London, Miami, Mexico City, Moscow, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Tel Aviv, and Warsaw. The winner of that global competition will take home US$100,000 and be named the “Ultimate Hackers for Good.”

Team Angry Kittens created the Security Blanket mobile app with the use of Beacon, Bluetooth Low Energy technology, and Twilio to help parents track missing children. PayPal is used to have people donate to help locate the children or supply sensors to help find them. The team also hopes to use the app to monitor the whereabouts of Alzheimer’s patients and even pets.

Intel debuts next-gen chip in a new mobile device

Intel has brought its next-generation Broadwell chip to Computex in a new mobile device they call Llama Mountain. Intel President Renée James introduced Broadwell as the “world’s first 14 [nanometer] fanless mobile PC reference design. Broadwell is said to be a 14-nanometer “shrink,” which means its transistor geometries have been reduced. This will enable manufacturers to create more compact devices.

The Llama Mountain uses Broadwell Y series silicon, which the company intends to brand as “Core M” processor. Intel says it will be the company’s most energy efficient processor to date. The Llama Mountain is 12.5-inch device with a detachable keyboard. It is said to demo the future of devices that will run on this new processors. According to Intel, the new designs that will use Broadwell are expected to be fanless. This will help create “lightning-fast” tablets and “razor-thin” laptops.

Source: CNET

Samsung debuts first Tizen-based smartphone

After years of getting used to seeing the Galaxy brand on a Samsung device, the Korean company wants you to get used to its new naming convention. Samsung has unveiled its first Tizen-powered smartphone, the Samsung Z. The phone is powered by an unnamed 2.3GHz quad-core processor, Tizen 2.2.1, 2GB RAM, and 16GB or 32GB of storage with microSD card expansion up to 64GB. It has a 4.8-inch 720p display; 8-megapixel rear and 2.1-megapixel front cameras; sensors like accelerometer, fingerprint scanner, heart rate sensor, and gyroscope; as well as LTE connectivity.

The Z has a 2600mAh battery and features the familiar faux-leather back. It is yet to be seen how much of an impact a Tizen device will make on an iOS and Android dominated market. This device will first launch in Russia and Samsung is trying to entice developers to create apps for the OS with local app challenges in the country. It will be available in the third quarter there in either black or gold. There will be a wider release later but there is no word when this will be. Price for the device hasn’t been announced yet either.

Source: Gizmag

HP introduces SlateBook, an NVIDIA-powered Android notebook

HP’s new SlateBook brings NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 4 processor and Android operating system to a laptop. This new touch-based device features a 14-inch Full HD display and an “ultra slim” and light profile with its 16mm body and 3.71 lbs. It is said to feature a slightly modified version of Android and will have access to HP’s apps, Google Play Store, and NVIDIA TegraZone for games. It will be available on the market starting August and will retail for US$399. It will come in one colour HP calls Sweet Yellow.

Source: Slash Gear