SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Motor Authority

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A set of Flickr images and a video posted by designer F. Bianco shows a pretty cool iOS 7 concept, that includes a new lockscreen, widget mode for apps, mission control and lots of other interesting tweaks. I honestly think Apple should have a look at this one and possibly grab a few hints as well.

What I like the most about this concept is that double tapping an app’s icon brings up its widget mode, while a single tap opens the app itself. Similarly a quickly accessible preferences screen makes turning Bluetooth / VPN / WiFi on or off a whole lot easier.

Check out the following video and tell us what you think!-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Iphoneincanada

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The New York Auto Show is currently going on in New York City until this Sunday, but Hyundai decided to show off its newest in personal mobility vehicles at the Seoul Motor Show last week. Hyundai’s E4U is a concept vehicle which was designed by the company’s Advanced Design Department and can actually be driven in any direction.

The E4U doesn’t use tires like a traditional vehicle would. Instead, it uses a rotating semispherical  part that spins horizontally. The semisphere is in a titled position to help generate drive, while two stabilizing wheels located at the rear of the vehicle keep it moving straight. Two pedals are located inside of the driver’s cockpit which allow the E4U to tilt in a certain way where it can be moved forward or backwards, depending on the pedal that has been pushed. The driver of the vehicle admits it does take some getting used to.

Hyundai’s E4U is still an early concept and is only able to deliver speeds that are similar to a walking pace, but hopefully Hyundai continues to research its concept to hopefully give us the egg-shaped personal transporters that we dream of having in the WALL-E film.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Ubergizmo

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Just last week, we heard a rumor of the iPhone 6 featuring a polycarbonate body and a 4.5-inch screen. Even though the iPhone 6 is most likely a year away from officially being debuted as many people are expecting the iPhone 5S to be released this year, a set of concept images for the iPhone 6 have been released today, and they look mighty impressive.

The concept images created by Martin Hajek feature an iPhone 6 with a 4.8-inch screen, no home button and a look that resembles the iPad Mini. The iPhone 6 in Hajek’s concept isn’t as large as the Galaxy Note 2, but could certainly compete with the rumors 4.99-inch Galaxy S4 and the 4.8-inch display of the HTC One.

Removing the home button on the iPhone 6 may be a bit of a stretch considering how much iOS relies on it. If Apple considers making any changes to its home button, we think they’d introduce a slimmer button rather than nixing it from the iPhone altogether. Seeing how Apple updated its 30-pin dock connector with the slimmer Lightning connector, we think the company knows slim is in.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Ubergizmo

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – If the rumors are to be believed, Apple could be working on several new devices. This includes a low-end iPhone made from plastic, a new iPhone that could sport a whopping 4.5” display and at one point in time, there was even rumblings of an iPhone mini. Safe to say all those rumors should be taken with a grain of salt, but if you were ever curious as to what those devices could look like, designer Peter Zigich has come up with a host of conceptual designs of what he thinks future iDevices might look like.

As you might be able to tell at first glance, these photos are based heavily on the design of the iPhone 5. Some of the designs are missing a home button but fret not, it’s still there albeit at the side of the phone instead of at the bottom. It’s quite an odd placement but since these are his designs, we guess he can do as he pleases. There’s even a concept where he imagines that future iPhones could be large enough to support seven rows of icons (last row not withstanding), although we have to say that looks a little odd. We have to say that the excessive amount of rows is a bit ridiculous and we’re glad Apple thought about that with larger devices like the iPad and iPad mini, but what do you guys think?-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Ubergizmo

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — I’ve never really been a fan of tapping a “Like” button on Facebook. Mostly because it doesn’t always mean that I like something. I use that button as a way to say “hey I looked at this and it meant something”, but maybe I use Facebook incorrectly. Today, The Next Web surfaced what seems to be a test on Twitter, with the labels of “like” and “star” instead of the word “favorite” when it comes to tweets.

I’m not really digging it, but take a look:— www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Ok, so it’s not a huge deal and it’s not a test that’s reaching all users as of yet, but it’s a direction that I’m not sure that Twitter should go towards. The word “like” just makes users think too much before using the button, plus it could change the meaning and usage of the button moving forward in the future. I’m sure Twitter is thinking about all of these things, that’s why the company seems to be testing this in a limited fashion.

Twitter has no comment on it at the moment, so I won’t dive into a rabbit hole here, companies test things all of the time. An A-B test helps big networks decide what’s good and what’s not, and it’s probably a case of Twitter just interested in seeing if a change of language moves the needle on engagement. See this post from May about experimentation on Twitter:

In order to offer you the simplest and most engaging Twitter experience, we frequently test hundreds of variations of new features and designs with small groups of users. We test everything from subtle tweaks in the language of our sign-up pages and removing the search box from our homepage to big shifts in navigation elements. These experiments help us understand what experiences people like best or use most often. When an experiment ends, we study the results and roll out the most successful variation to everyone as soon as we can.

Having said that, I like the word favorite, but not as much as I like “star.” To me, Star means bookmark, which is a general term that means I want to save something for later, or say that I really dug what was said. The word like locks me in…as I could “like” something that I really “hate.” Testing doesn’t lie, but I really hope that the test on “like” fails, because that’s Facebook’s game, and I’m not really a fan of it.

Facebook started adding other actions through Open Graph, so perhaps this is a sign that Twitter might be heading in that direction, too. Google went the opposite direction with +1 on Google+. Could we see a “watch” button for videos, or “view” for photos on Twitter? It would be interesting to see.

I still see “Favorite” on Twitter’s site, and I’m ok with that.:— www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Techcrunch

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Mercedes-Benz took a moment at the Paris Motor Show to display its Aesthetics S Concept. Built as a combination static, physical sculpture and audio-visual presentation, the design exercise lends a glimpse at what we can expect to see from the next-generation S-Class. Mercedes-Benz projected a number of scenes onto the relief to highlight the design's lines and lineage, including images of W189, W108 and W126 S-Class models. Aligning the images of the S-Class ancestors with the new designs is a clever way to draw parallels between new and old.

Gordon Wagener, head of design for Mercedes-Benz, says the Aesthetics S Concept does more than point toward what's coming down the pike for the S-Class. The display also outlines what's in store for the rest of the company's products. Take a look at the Aesthetics S Concept in the video below for a better idea of what the next-generation of Mercedes-Benz products may look like.— www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Autoblog

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Battery packs for smartphones tend to add unnecessary bulk to the device, making it thicker and heavier than it already is. Mobile chargers too can be quite bulky and heavy and do not always fit into your pocket, thus requiring you to bring a bag wherever you go. However thanks to designer Ping-Yi Li, this Chewing Gum Battery concept was conceived where the battery is shaped as thin and flat as a chewing gum, just minus the sugary goodness and edible nature. As pictured in the rendering above, the Chewing Gum Battery can be slapped onto the back of our gadgets, thus giving them the extra boost in battery life. They will be sold at solar-powered dispensing stations and will come like chewing gums do, in a pack. Sounds pretty novel but the idea of being able to purchase batteries from a vending machine that will give our phones, cameras, or laptops that extra hour or two of battery life sure seems rather handy! What do you guys think? —www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Ubergizmo

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Imagine a viewfinder that follows your eye, focuses wherever you look and then snaps a photo when you blink twice. That’s the idea behind IRIS, a new concept by Mimi Zou.

“I was thinking, ‘What’s the middle ground between the convenience of a cameraphone and the performance of a DSLR?’” says Zou, 24, who came up with IRIS as a master’s student at the Royal College of Art in London.

The camera pictured is an ideal version of what Zou hopes to build, although she has developed a slightly larger prototype that’s capable of eye-tracking and taking pictures when you blink. The biggest challenge will be moving the computing functions from her computer to the device itself.

So, what will the finished version hopefully be capable of?

First, as you hold the camera to your eye, it will scan your iris to identify you. As soon as it knows who you are, it will download all of your preferred settings: ISO, aperture, adjustments for conditions like nearsightedness or farsightedness. It also will continuously upload all of your photos whenever you have a Wi-Fi connection.

Zou says her software is so efficient at tracking eye movements that it can focus the camera in real time to record video. Whether or not Zou ever gets the funding she needs to build a working model, it’s hard to imagine someone won’t use similar technology in something like Google’s Project Glass.

All I know is that whoever releases this technology to the public first may have a line of people ready to shove cash at them.—www.shafaqna.com/english

source: Techland.time

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Phablets seem to be the in thing these days, and if you’re wondering what that is, it’s basically a phone + tablet, i.e. a device that blurs the line between smartphone and tablet. The Samsung Galaxy Note is a perfect example of such a device. However if you’re the sort that believes that 5.3”-5.5” is still too small for a tablet, then this concept design by Patrik Eriksson might be worth checking out. Pictured above is a folding device that when folded together resembles a smartphone. However when unfolded, it becomes a tablet thanks to its flexible OLED display that hides the hinge in the middle. This allows users to slip the device into their pockets and transform it into a full sized tablet when needed. We’re not sure why the designer chose Sony as the brand, perhaps he was inspired by the Tablet P, who knows? In any case foldable devices have been done before, like the Sony Tablet P and the Kyocera Echo, but we admit that we like Eriksson’s design and the use of a flexible OLED. What do you guys think? Would you be interested in such a device, or would you rather keep your smartphone and tablet separate?—www.shafaqna.com/english

source: Ubergizmo