In an effort to reduce smartphone thefts, California Governor Jerry Brown has signed the “kill switch” bill which requires all smartphones sold in the state be disabled by the owners in the case of a robbery.
The bill ( SB-962 ) was introduced by Senator Mark Leno in February of this year and will go into effect on July 1, 2015. At that time, all smartphones sold in the state will require technology that effectively bricks the phone after it has been reported as stolen.
Senator Leno represents San Francisco in the California state senate. According to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, at the beginning of 2014 iPhone thefts accounted for 67 percent of all robberies in the city.
By killing phones after they have been stolen, thieves can no longer sell or use pilfered devices. The idea is they’ll be less likely to steal smartphones in the future.
➤ Via The Verge
Neptune Duo puts a phone on your wrist and a screen in your pocket
We’re now used to the idea of smartwatches relaying information from our phones to our wrists. The Neptune Duo is turning the concept on its head: it’s a wearable smartphone with a secondary display you can stash in your pocket.
The Neptune Duo consists of two parts. The Hub is a device you wear on your wrist that runs Android Lollipop to make and receive calls. The Pocket is a 5-inch touch display that connects to the Hub, allowing you to view and interact with apps and content.
The thinking is that the Hub will be less easily misplaced than a traditional smartphone, meaning your primary mode of communication and the information you store on it is safer.
The Hub has a 2.4-inch touchscreen, a quad-core processor, 64GB of storage, supports 3G and 4G networks and runs off a 1,000mAh battery. Like most wearables, it’ll also track your health and fitness stats
The Pocket screen combines an 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front-facing shooter with a 720p display. It’s also able to charge the Hub. When combined, the creators, promise “users should get a few days of normal usage from a single charge
Those specs are none too shabby, and could possibly make Neptune’s offering the first wrist-based phone that people will actually use. However, we’ll have to wait till the Duo begins shipping late this year to see if customers find the idea as intuitive as the company hopes.
This is the company’s second stab at building a wearable phone. Its first, the Pine , exceeded its funding goal on Kickstarter and all 3,000 orders were delivered to backers. It’s still being sold online, but remains an early-adopter’s delight and not much of a mainstream success.
If you’d like to try the Duo for yourself, you can reserve one now, paying nothing upfront and coughing up $798 when it arrives — or pledge $199 now and pay $399 later, saving $200 in the process.
➤ Neptune Duo
Ideal Gifts: Sol Republic’s Tracks Air deliver the ultimate in headphone convenience
In the Ideal Gifts series, The Next Web team shares personal recommendations for gifts to give this holiday season.
Convenience might not sound like the most exciting reason to give a gift, but the gadget I’ve had the most use out of this year is undoubtedly the Sol Republic Tracks Air wireless on-ear headphones . And what could you want more than the person receiving your gift actually using it.
Announced in the US around this time last year, the Tracks Air headphones then made their way into Europe and onto my ears in around April 2014. Since then, I’ve worn them pretty much every day.
While the sound quality isn’t as good as you’d find on more expensive, wired studio headphones, it’s still pretty darn good – and offers some kick across the range without becoming too ‘muddy’ sounding.
However, probably my favorite thing is the battery life. I’ll easily get multiple sessions out of a single charge (the company claims 15 hours, but I’d say closer 12, depending on volume), and when the battery does run down, a few minutes plugged into the wall gives me enough juice to keep going for another few hours. If there’s no power socket available, you can still use them as regular wired headphones too.
It’s the combination of being wireless and the battery life that really drives the overall convenience. They’re easy to use for short stints and comfortable enough for longer ones. Plus, when I’m doing the dishes in the kitchen, I don’t even need to find my phone (let alone take it) to continue listening to a podcast, as the Bluetooth range is pretty good too.
They’re not perfect, but all-in-all, the Sol Republic Tracks Air headphones are easily one of my favorite gadgets this year and one that I’ve used the most.
➤ Tracks Air [$199 – Sol Republic]
You can see the rest of the Ideal Gifts in this series here