Sony Xperia Agent hands-on

Sony invited us to its Tokyo headquarters not so long ago and there the company showed us wondrous gadgets. One of them was the Sony Xperia Agent – a personal assistant for your home.

Right now, there are more unknowns than known things about it. Sony hasn’t decided on a final design and a release date remains unclear. But the company is adamant that it strongly plans for this product to go out in the market, as it would be quite helpful to assisting with the management of your busy schedule.

Sony’s currently on the lookout for potential partners, who’d like to expand the Xperia Agent’s capabilities. While we don’t know if Sony has found any yet, the company said that after MWC it had quite a few inquiries about it.

That projection that you saw isn’t really bright and its maximum resolution is just 1366 x 768 pixels. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the Sony Xperia Agent project pans out, though.

 

Will.i.am’s Dial smartwatch now available to pre-order

Remember musician will.i.am’s Dial smartwatch which was unveiled back in February this year? Well, the timepiece is now available to pre-order – Three UK currently has the device listed on its website with an estimated delivery date of May 13.

As for the price, it’s available on a 2-year contract where-in you’ll be required to pay £49.00 up front, followed by a monthly payment of £24.00 for 24 months. The plan includes 500MB data and 100 minutes of talk time each month. Of course, there are other plans as well.

To refresh, Dial is the musician’s second attempt at wearables after the failure of Puls that was launched back in 2014. Design-wise, Dial is more like a traditional smartwatch. It can work on its own without being paired to a smartwatch, allowing you to take calls, messages, play music, and keep track of your health. It also has a voice assistant called AneedA, and a front camera.

Xiaomi smartwatch coming in H2 2016

Along with the Xiaomi Max, we can expect to meet the Xaiomi Mi Band 2 as well as the new MIUI 8 OS at the May 10 event. However, we still haven’t received any official confirmations from the company regarding the existence or the launch of a Mi smartwatch. But that just changed today, as Liu De, the co-founder and Vice President of Xiaomi revealed at a conference in Beijing that the Mi smartwatch does exist and is ready!

He further added that the company will announce the wearable in the second half of 2016, which means sometime after May. It looks like the launch of the smartwatch has been slightly delayed as the CEO of Huami, the company which actually manufacturers the Mi Band had revealed the Mi Band as well as the Mi smartwatch will meet us in Q2 2016. After hearing Liu De’s comment today, it looks like the watch will most likely debut only after a few months.

This is the first time the company has acknowledged the existence of the Mi smartwatch. This comes just after the company released a new smartwatch for kids priced at just 299 Yuan ($46). So, it looks like the company has quite the interest in the wearable industry. Not surprising given that it’s Mi Band wearable is doing so well.

He also revealed that the company currently is not planning to release automobiles, unlike rivals such as LeEco. Instead, it is interested in products catering to the needs of short travel, so we can expect products such as electric bikes and self-balancing walking robots like Ninebot. Finally, he said that the company would focus on establishing offline outlets this year. He also gave a figure, so we can expect around 60 such outlets by the end of the year.

Given that an executive has already confirmed the existence and launch of the Mi smartwatch, we can soon expect more details about the wearable in the coming days. Meanwhile, let’s wait and see what Xiaomi has in store for us for the next Mi Band version on May 10.

Till that time, you can check out the details revealed by Huami CEO, Wang about the two wearables from here.

Google Photos for Android receives new search bar, other useful additions

The Google Photos app for Android is in the process of receiving a new update today. Version 1.19 should already be available in the Google Play Store, and it comes with a few new features.

First off, there’s now a dedicated search bar at the top of the app. This replaces the search floating action button that used to be found in the bottom right side of the app. The search bar lets you find things more easily, and if you tap on it and then scroll down you’ll get a list of faces, places, and picture types from your library.

From this point on, you can customize the movies that Google Photos automatically creates for you. You can add your own music, images, and videos, in order to fine tune the movies that the app pops up after your holidays or trips.

Lastly, device folders you’ve created can be deleted or renamed. Managing photos on SD cards is also better, with support for adding folders, as well as copying and moving images. All of these features are coming soon to Google Photos for iOS.

BBM for Android gains beta video chat support, coming soon to iOS

The latest update of BBM for Android, which should already be out in the Play Store, brings with it a much-requested feature: video chats. BBM has had support for video calls on BlackBerry OS 10, but this is now finally making its way to the two big mobile platforms – a release for iOS is apparently coming soon.

Over in the Android app, the video chat functionality is still in beta, and marked as such. Hence, some hiccups may occur. Also, to make sure nothing will break with its backend infrastructure, BlackBerry is currently limiting the rollout of the new feature to the US and Canada. All the kinks should be ironed out before the global rollout commences. That, by the way, is going to happen in July.

Until then, you can test video calling inside BBM (even cross-platform), but only in North America. It all works in a very simple manner – when you tap the icon to initiate a call with one of your contacts, the app will ask you if you want to make a voice call or a video call. You choose, and then you’re connected. That’s it. Obviously, for this to work the contact you want to video chat with also has to have the latest version of BBM.

Update to Apple Music for Android brings music video support

Apple has updated its Apple Music app on Android, bumping it to version 0.9.8. The update brings support for music videos as well as family subscription option.

“You can now enjoy thousands of music videos on Apple Music—view popular ones featured in New or search for the music videos from your favorite artists,” the Cupertino-based company says in the change-log.

As for the Family Membership, it costs around $15 a month and allows up to six members of a family to enjoy the streaming music service together.

Samsung Gear 360 launched, priced at $350

As scheduled, Samsung has launched the Gear 360 camera. The device is now available for purchase in the company’s home country of South Korea – it’s currently listed online, but will be available in around 450 stores starting next month.

Priced at KRW 399,300 (around $350), the camera – which was announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) – is currently compatible with the Galaxy S7, S7 edge, S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, and Note5.

Aside from South Korea, the device is also expected to made available in select other countries. However, those in the United States are currently out of luck as the tech giant has already confirmed that the US is not in the list of launch countries.

32GB Moto X (2nd Gen) is now down to $199.99 unlocked

The 2nd generation Moto X is undoubtedly very old at this point. In fact, in just a few months it turns two. That’s a lot in the mobile world, as you may know. That said, this was a top of the line offering when it came out, so even today it can measure up to the best mid-rangers out there in terms of performance. Oh, and from this point on it can do the same in price, too.

Motorola is currently offering up the 2nd gen Moto X for $199.99 carrier-free, and we’re talking about the version with 32GB of storage. This is quite the price drop even compared to its previous level of $349.99.

You can take advantage of the deal over at Motorola’s own online store for the US, and you can even use the MotoMaker service to customize your device as you want it (the price may go up, though, depending on what exact options you pick).

Apple drops the iPhone prices in Japan by 10%

Apple has lowered the prices of all iPhones sold officially in Japan by 10%. There is no official statement on the reason for the price cut, but it should be most probably due to exchange rate changes.

The iPhone models currently in circulation are iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, and the iPhone 6s Plus. If you are interested in their new and old prices in Japan, here they come.

• iPhone 6s 16GB: JPY 78,800 (previously JPY 86,800)
• iPhone 6s 64GB: JPY 89,800 (previously JPY 98,800)
• iPhone 6s 128GB: JPY 101,800 (previously JPY 110,800)
• iPhone 6s Plus 16GB: JPY 89,800 (previously JPY 98,800)
• iPhone 6s Plus 64GB: JPY 101,800 (previously JPY 110,800)
• iPhone 6s Plus 128GB: JPY 113,800 (previously JPY 122,800)
• iPhone 6 16GB: JPY 67,800 (previously JPY 74,800)
• iPhone 6 64GB: JPY 78,800 (previously JPY 86,800)
• iPhone 6 Plus/16GB: JPY 78,800 (previously JPY 86,800)
• iPhone 6 Plus/64GB: JPY 89,800 (previously JPY 98,800)
• iPhone SE 16GB: JPY 47,800 (previously JPY 52,800)
• iPhone SE 64GB: JPY 59,800 (previously JPY 64,800)

The most expensive iPhone models got the best benefits of this price cut, but we are sure the Japanese users will be happy with all of them.

If anyone purchased one of the iPhones 6 and 6s models in Japan in the last 14 days, he would be refunded with the difference. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to the iPhone SE.

Samsung Gear S2 Band Adapter now available for purchase

The Gear S2 Band Adapter – which makes it possible for users of the Samsung smartwatch to swap their current rubber wristband with any standard watch band – has been officially launched.

The adapter, which leaked online last month, is now available for purchase in Europe. Specifically, the device is currently being sold in Germany, where telefon.de has it in stock. Carrying a €25.7 price tag, the Band Adapter is available in white and dark gray color options.

The device is expected to hit other European markets as well as North America soon, although the exact date isn’t yet known.