Consumer Electronics Daily News

Dragon's Prophet Enters Open Beta In North America

The time to CAPTURE, TRAIN, RIDE and FIGHT hundreds of unique dragons has arrived! Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announced that Dragon's Prophet has entered its Open Beta period in North America. Players journey through the beautiful, vast realm of Auratia to see if they have what it takes to become the next Dragon's Prophet in the free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

"Whether they are terrorizing towns, serving as mighty companions, or swooping in to save the day, dragons unfailingly fascinate us, and pop culture's interest in these mystical beasts has become insatiable," said Todd Carson, Senior Producer of Dragon's Prophet. "Dragon's Prophet answers this community call for more dragons and is an extraordinary addition to the MMO fantasy genre, granting players access to hundreds of different types of dragons and offering a captivating combat system with high levels of customization – for characters and dragons alike!"

In Dragon's Prophet players must choose from four distinct player classes – ranger, sorcerer, guardian or oracle – and band together to battle a variety of legendary creatures as they work to restore order to the land from the evil Black Dragon that has escaped his eternal prison, and is more dangerous than ever. Featuring an action-based combat system, Dragon's Prophetgives players visceral battle action gameplay, with a higher degree of control and wider range of tactical options than traditional MMOs.

Developed by Runewaker Entertainment, creators of Runes of Magic, Dragon's Prophet will begin Open Beta in North Americalater today and be available as a "Free-To-Play. Your Way.™" title with optional content available for purchase to customize characters and weapons, and enhance gameplay experience on PC systems. Players will be able to continue with the character and in-game items earned through the commercial launch later this year.

For more information on the game, visit:

Website:	www.dragonsprophetthegame.com
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/DragonsProphetGame
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/dragons_prophet
YouTube:	http://www.youtube.com/dragonsprophetgame
Twitch:	http://www.twitch.tv/dragons_prophet
Google+:	http://gplus.to/dragonsprophet
Wiki:	http://dragons-prophet.wikia.com

Blackboard Offers Anti-Bullying Texting Service for Free to Every K-12 School in America

 Blackboard Inc. has launched TipTxt^™, a two-way texting service that encourages students to confidentially notify school officials of activity related to bullying or school safety, and will offer the service for free to all K-12 schools and districts in the country. In addition, Blackboard has partnered with the National PTA^® to bring visibility to the program and help address the nationwide dilemma of bullying in schools.

TipTxt is a tipline that allows for confidential text conversations between students and school officials about critical challenges that students experience such as bullying and issues that relate to bullying, such as abuse, self-esteem or confidence problems. Armed with this insight, officials can provide resources, advice or other follow-up to help on a case-by-case basis.

"Some students tend to not be as comfortable with face-to-face and text is how they communicate," said Dr. Lisa Andrejko, Superintendent of Schools for Quakertown Community School District, one of the first districts to pilot the service. "Using technology to report situations and alert school officials without having to be in their presence or be seen is a very effective means of communication and helpful in anti-bullying efforts. With TipTxt, we can help students report bullying without fear of retaliation."

Blackboard is offering TipTxt at no charge to every public, private and parochial K-12 school in the country. Participating schools will receive access to the service, a TipTxt mailbox and implementation and support services. The TipTxt service also includes the cost of each school's text messages. Schools will just need to purchase a dedicated TipTxt line at a cost of $125 per year to enable the service.

"More than 3 million students are victims of bullying each year, and almost 4 million participate in it," said National PTA President Betsy Landers. "The epidemic scale of this problem can be paralyzing, but when students, parents, and school officials are equipped with the tools to tackle it, they can banish bullying from the classroom to the chat room, one incident at a time."

"The vast majority of students already have a bullying prevention tool in their pocket – we just need to give them a way to use it," said Jay Bhatt, Blackboard CEO. "Helping them communicate with trusted adults in the same way they communicate with each other helps increase the likelihood of engagement. Just as we strive to give students a voice in the classroom, we also want to give them a voice in the hallways, on the playground, and in the lunchroom. We hope this effort can be a small step toward making school and students safer."  

For more information about TipTxt for K-12 or other institutions, please visit Blackboard.com/tiptxtK12 and follow #TipTxt on Twitter.

Kickstarter Launch for Wi-Fi Enabled Teddy Bears

MessagePetz, the Wi-Fi-enabled smart Teddy Bears , have launched on crowd-funding site Kickstarter with early "bear" specials starting from $89. MessagePetz is a huggable, soft Teddy Bear that allows parents and children to communicate whilst they're apart via Wi-Fi messaging.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/messagepetz/make-your-text-messages-huggable

MessagePetz is hoping to raise $45,000 in funding on Kickstarter, where people can "back" the project to receive their own MessagePetz Teddy Bear. Parents are able to send their child's MessagePetz Bear a 'hug', a 'kiss', an 'I love you' or a personalized message from the free companion app on their smartphone. The bear's LED heart lights up to let them know you're in touch and displays the message on the bear's screen, no matter where you are in the world.

Glenn Jones, Co-Founder and CEO, explains: "Families want to stay in touch and messaging apps are very popular, but parents have concerns about when to give their children smartphones. We've created a huggable messaging platform for kids four years old and up that is fun, private, safe and secure that solves that problem. Kids instead can send and receive messages with our Teddy Bear - no smartphone required."

Simply by hugging their MessagePetz, your child lets you know they've received your message and can automatically reply without the need of a smartphone. Custom replies from your child can be written in advance such as 'Peter loves you too!', and older children can use the free iPhone app or MessagePetz iPad app to compose custom replies. Your special Teddy Bear could also be perfect for you and your partner if you have to spend time apart.

The MessagePetz Bear:

• Is available for early backers at $89
• Suitable for ages 4+
• Is 21 inches tall, made from soft plush textiles
• Is powered by a re-chargeable lithium-ion battery
• The bear itself does not need a SIM card; the person sending the message needs a phone with a SIM.
• Is supported by the free MessagePetz smartphone and iPad apps, available on iPhone. A native Android app will also be released later this year.
• The MessagePetz apps are private, so only your loved ones can send and receive messages. MessagePetz privacy and security standards are COPPA compliant.
• Multiple MessagePetz Teddy Bears can be associated with one MessagePetz family account - so suitable for larger families

MessagePetz is expected to start shipping by December 2013. You can pre-order your MessagePetz now on this Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/messagepetz/make-your-text-messages-huggable

VectorNav Technologies Introduces New VN-200 GPS/INS Features

VectorNav Technologies is introducing an improved firmware version for its VN-200 GPS-Aided Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS).

Nominated for the Innovation Award at this year's Sensor Expo, VectorNav's VN-200 is the world's first GPS/INS available in a surface mount package. The VN-200 incorporates a suite of individually calibrated, MEMS-based 3-axis accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers, along with a barometric pressure sensor and a high-sensitivity GPS module, providing users with a coupled position, velocity and attitude solution at rates of up to 200 Hz.

Among the new features of the VN-200 GPS/INS to be introduced include the following:

• AHRS aiding and improved attitude performance during GPS outages and static conditions.
• Addition of the World Magnetic Model and Gravity Model into the INS algorithm.
• Binary protocol output.
• Higher INS output rates (up to 400 Hz).
• Higher IMU subsystem output rates (up to 1 kHz).
• Low latency (< 2 ms) for real-time applications.
• Delta Angles and Delta Velocities (Coning & Sculling).
• Improved robustness to multi-path issues.
• Improved GPS receiver sensitivity.
• Support for external GPS input.

VectorNav's VN-200 can be used in a wide variety of industrial and military applications and are well suited for size, weight, power and cost (SWAP-C) constrained applications such as UAVs and other unmanned vehicle systems, camera/platform stabilization, guided munitions, heavy machinery monitoring, augmented and virtual reality, robotics, primary/secondary flight navigation, and flight simulation, among others.

Razer Introduces the Blade -- The World's Thinnest Gaming Notebook

Razer™ today unveiled Razer Blade, the world's thinnest gaming laptop. The Razer Blade, measuring in at just 0.66-inches thin, packs more power-per-cubic-inch than any other laptop in the world.The Razer Blade is powered with a future 4th gen Intel® Core™ processor, the latest NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M GPU and utilizes solid-state storage technology with boot speeds of up to four times faster than a traditional 5400-RPM notebook hard drive. The Razer Blade has a rigid all-aluminum chassis, with a stunning 14-inch LED-backlit HD+ display and features a custom-designed trackpad and backlit gaming grade keyboard.

"We've designed and built the thinnest, most powerful 14-inch laptop in the world," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. "Thinner than a dime and more powerful than other traditional desktop replacements today, we've created an entirely new category of thin and powerful laptops that is generations ahead of other PCs."

Designed entirely in-house by the multi-award winning Razer design team, the Razer Blade has an incredible 14-inch LED-backlit HD+ display with a native resolution of 1600 x 900 and its custom-made gaming grade trackpad offers multi-touch gesture support. The Razer Blade also features a full-size backlit gaming keyboard that has full anti-ghosting capabilities and programmable keys powered by the revolutionary Synapse 2.0.

"Incredible innovation is happening across the computing landscape, and the new mobile gaming experience Razer is delivering with the Edge, and now its Blade, is remarkable," says Navin Shenoy, Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Mobile Client Platforms. "Powered by a future 4th gen Intel Core processor, people can expect the highest level performance from the Blade for the most discerning gamer."

The ultra-portable laptop features 8 GB of fast 1600 MHz DDR3L memory and comes standard with 128 GB of total solid-state storage with options for a 256 GB or 512 GB SSD. The Razer Blade also comes with Dolby® Home Theatre® v4, featuring immersive audio-quality output that is custom-tuned to deliver a cinematic sound experience.

The Razer Blade delivers up to six hours of battery life and includes a Killer™ Wireless-N high-performance wireless networking adapter, combining intelligence and control along with up to five-times the wireless networking speed of competitive wireless adapters.

"The 14-inch Razer Blade packs a ton of horsepower into a very small chassis," says Rene Haas, Vice President and General Manager of Notebook GPUs at NVIDIA. "The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M GPU delivers blazing performance with incredibly efficient power usage to this ultra-portable gaming machine."

The new 14-inch Razer Blade embodies Razer's continuing goal to design the world's best gaming laptops for those that need insanely powerful performance in the thinnest form factors to game anywhere, anytime. Razer sets out to do the impossible without compromising performance and, with the new Blade 14-inch laptop, users are able to game more and do more than ever before on an ultra-portable system.

The Razer Blade will be available for pre-order June 3. For more information, go to www.razerzone.com/blade.

Price:
Starts at $1,799

Availability:
Razerzone.com – Pre-Order June 3
United States and Canada

Product features: 

• Future 4^th gen Intel® Core™ processor (formerly codename 'Haswell')
• 8 GB Onboard Memory (DDR3L – 1600 MHz)
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M (2 GB GDDR5) & Intel HD4600
• Windows® 8 64 Bit
• 128 GB SSD, with optional 256/512 GB SSD (mSATA)
• Qualcomm® Killer™ NIC N1202 (802.11a/b/g/n + Bluetooth® 4.0)
• 14.0 in. HD+ 16:9 Ratio, 1600 x 900, with LED backlight
• Built-in stereo speakers
• 3.5 mm audio microphone/headphone combo jack
• Array microphone
• (3x) USB 3.0 port (SuperSpeed)
• HDMI 1.4a audio and video output
• Dolby® Home Theater® v4
• 7.1 Codec support (via HDMI)
• Built-in full HD webcam (1.3 MP)
• Compact 150 W Power Adapter
• Built-in 70 Wh Rechargeable lithium ion polymer battery
• Razer™ Anti-Ghosting Keyboard (with adjustable backlight)
• Razer™ Synapse 2.0 Enabled
• Kensington Lock
• 13.6 in. / 345 mm (Width) x 0.66 in. / 16.8 mm (Height) x 9.3 in. / 235 mm (Depth)
• 4.135 lbs. / 1.876 kg

Strategy Analytics: Mobile Industry Players Must Position Now to Win 5G Race

Momentum is building as leading companies engage in the first round of 5G technology development, according to Strategy Analytics, which recomends that companies start planning now to influence the definition of the requirements for the new systems. Samsung is the latest industry player to have announced its 5G demonstration. The traditional technical leaders in the radio transmission technology area, Ericsson and NTT DoCoMo, also revealed their progress in 5G research. Chinese industry players even formed an industrial group to promote the research and development of 5G technology.

"The official process of 5G standardization should be launched in 2015-2016 time frame, to be kicked off at ITU-R WRC-15. So all current '5G' activities are only a warm-up before the official process," noted Guang Yang, Senior Analyst for Wireless Networks & Platforms for Strategy Analytics. "But these warm-up activities are important for the industry to build technical consensus and to prepare the ecosystem. It is also a key period for the technology giants in the industry to predict the core components of the future system and to secure related patents."

"The next two years will see significant movement between industry players as the building blocks of 5G are researched and defined," added Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Director Wireless Networks & Platforms. "Big EU companies and East Asian players (China, Japan and Korea) are already developing their 5G visions. It will be interesting to see what strategies emerge from North America. In particular, the plans of Qualcomm and Intel, the two chipset giants, should be closely watched."

Improved data transmission rates are still a focus of the next generation 5G system, just as faster data was a focus for today's 4G LTE. Other requirements for 5G that are beginning to emerge in industrial and academic research include support for a higher number of connected devices, longer battery life, and reduced end-to-end latency, among others.

Gameloft & Mattel Team-up to Launch 'UNO & Friends'

Available for free on Android, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, UNO™ & Friends brings an entirely new social dimension to the classic, fast-paced, and competitive gameplay of UNO. With engaging multiplatform play, which promises fast fun for everyone, UNO & Friends is a game that can be played anywhere at any time.

Originally created in 1971, UNO has been a favorite card game amongst friends and families of all ages for the past 40+ years. Since 2008 UNO has become one of Gameloft's most popular franchises with over 74 million downloads across various digital platforms. In this all-new edition, the revolution in playing UNO on a social platform has arrived as fans can now drop Wild Draw Fours and Reverse Cards on friends, family and UNO players the world over via smartphones and tablets. Invite and challenge up to three other players in real-time using your favorite social networks, and explore unprecedented customization for the most complete UNO experience on digital devices.

A complete list of features includes:

• Create games and invite your friends and family to play, or challenge millions of UNO fans worldwide!
• Customize your game with fun backgrounds, themed card deck designs & special effects!
• Utilize Boosts and Super Boosts to diversify your strategy to win!
• New weekly and all-time leaderboards let you see how you stack up against your friends and other UNO players!
• Challenge up to three other players in real time with online multiplayer matches over 3G or Wi-Fi!
• Compete against iOS & Android players, with a Facebook version coming soon!
• Connect via Facebook Connect & Game Center on iOS and Facebook Connect on Android!

UNO & Friends is now available for download for free on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android phones and tablets, with a Facebook version coming soon. For more information about Gameloft and to play UNO & Friends, visit booth 5522 in the West Hall from June 11 to 13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

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Synaptics to Showcase SmartPhone, Tablet and PC Solutions at 2013 Computex Taipei

Synaptics Inc. today announced it will be showcasing the latest in touch technologies at the 2013 Computex Show in Taipei, Taiwan. An expansive mobile device lineup equipped with Synaptics' ClearPad® family of capacitive touchscreens solutions will be on display alongside the latest TouchPad™ and ThinTouch® solutions designed for the PC and tablet markets.

Synaptics harnesses its innovation-driven culture and deep systems-level engineering expertise to deliver the industry's most advanced touch technologies, enhancing  how consumers interact with today's electronic devices. These technologies have now shipped in more than one billion devices from the world's top-tier OEMs. Devices featured at Computex will include:

Notebook PC

• Lenovo Z400 featuring Synaptics TouchPad and 14.1" ClearPad touchscreen solution
• TouchPad family of interface solutions in devices from  Dell, HP, and Samsung
• External TouchPad solutions from Dell, HP and Logitech
• ForcePad™ and ThinTouch keyboard implementations

SmartPhones and Tablets

• Samsung Galaxy S4 featuring Airview
• Huawei Ascend P2, Pantech Vega Iron and Oppo R809T featuring In-cell technology 
• Nokia 820 and 920 Lumia smartphones, featuring glove support
• Google Nexus 4 and HTC One flagship smartphones
• Samsung Note 8, Sony Experia Z and Razer Edge tablets

Put a Cell Phone Signal Booster in your Go-Bag

Of the 1,272 federal disaster declarations issued in the last decade, more than half were classified as major disasters. These include calamities such as floods, hurricanes and tropical storms, winter storms, and others. In the last 10 years, every state has had a least two events designated as a major federal disaster.

"Most major disasters displaced hundreds or thousands of people from home and work, and nearly all involved a temporary or prolonged loss of major services and necessities, including power, communications, and running water," said Jonathan Bacon, Director of Marketing at Wilson Electronics, a maker of communications equipment in St. George, Utah.

"We began thinking about what has changed in technology and society, and how that would affect what we would want to have in an emergency 'go-pack'," Bacon said. "A lot of what we would take with us hasn't changed, but some of what we'd desire today had not been invented 10 years ago. We came up with six items that were either invented or radically improved in the last 10 years. We call it the 21st Century Survival Kit."

1. Cell phone signal booster: "We're all extremely dependent on smartphones for voice and data communications. Already widely used by first responders and news crews when initially entering disaster zones, the Sleek 4G, a portable cell phone signal booster from Wilson Electronics, helps to transmit and receive calls and data via cell towers unaffected by a disaster. In a severe situation like Hurricane Sandy where all communications were compromised for several days, having a cell booster could save precious hours of driving time to find a strong cell signal."

2. Batteries: Two portable lithium-ion batteries, each with a minimum capacity of 10,000mAh, is enough for one battery to fully charge at least three smartphones or to power a tablet, netbook, or cell booster for several hours.

3. Portable solar panel: "These solar panels weigh only about a pound and are very practical for charging portable batteries and devices," said Bacon. He recommended a panel capable of producing at least 10 Watts of power and one amp of current.

4. LED headlamp: Also powered by rechargeable batteries, the latest generation of these types of lamps have adjustable brightness to maximize battery life and can be made bright enough to cast light more than 100 feet. 

5. Two-way FRS/GMRS radios: "When even a Wilson booster can't find a cell signal, these radios provide a communications range up to 30 miles," said Bacon.

6. Microbial filter straw: This is used for drinking water that may be contaminated with bacteria, organic and waterborne chemicals, and other harmful elements. One filter straw can filter 30 gallons of water.

"A lot has happened just in the last 10 years to make keeping in contact and avoiding health risks easier under adverse conditions," said Bacon. All of these products are readily available, weigh less than five pounds total and take up little room in a backpack.

Consumers Chat on Smartphones, Shop on Tablets

People connect with their social networks via their smartphones, but when it comes time to buy, they turn to their tablets, according to a new analysis by Flash Networks, a provider of mobile Internet optimization and monetization solutions. The study was based on an analysis of identifiable mobile data traffic from the Flash Networks installed customer base.

Based on Harmony Analytics, Flash Networks discovered that people who browse on tablets are twice as likely to go to shopping sites, and three times more likely to browse news sites than people who browse on smartphones. Conversely, those who browse on smartphones are more than twice as likely as tablet users to engage in social networking activity, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

This research suggests that although tablets are also a mobile device, consumers tend to behave more like PC users than smartphone users when they browse and engage with shopping and news sites. Yet, when it comes to checking in and updating social networks, subscribers are more likely to do so on the move, using a smaller device.

Flash Networks collected this data using Harmony Analytics which provides the ability to drill down and analyze traffic based on devices, domain, bearer (e.g. 3G, 4G), data plan (e.g. prepaid, postpaid), application, or any combination of these factors. This analysis is helpful for identifying browsing behavior for advertisers to monetize the mobile Internet.  

"We are continuously evolving our analytics to help operators have a greater understanding of application level trends and subscriber behavior," said Merav Bahat, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Flash Networks. "Mobile operators are currently in a position to share valuable information about subscriber preferences that can unlock the key to realizing the potential of mobile advertising."