HTC has confirmed that US customers wanting to get in on the new HTC One M9 action will be able to pre-order the device directly for $649 from midnight (ET) tonight.
According to Engadget , people who pre-order early will get the devices before the general release date on April 10.
Of course, if the thought of shelling out $649 for a SIM-free handset doesn’t really seem viable, then you can always wait to see what sort of subsidies operators are offering on their own price plans.
Whichever route buyers take to end up at the HTC One M9, it will include a year of HTC’s new Uh Oh protection , which allows for a replacement handset if you accidentally break or damage your phone.
➤ HTC [via Engadget ]
Read next: HTC One M9 review: An incredibly capable handset that just isn’t very exciting
Watch two developers swap faces in real time with Kinect
Have you ever wondered how it would feel like to swap bodies with your friend? Now you don’t have to wonder anymore. The second-generation Kinect sensor for Windows is powerful enough to let you trade faces:
The project comes from Apache , and in the video description the team notes an important caveat: “As the Kinect doesn’t track head rotation it means that both users need to be looking in the same direction for the illusion to work best.” Still, we can imagine many use cases for this technology, such as the Kinect capturing multiple faces in real time and putting them onto characters in a game.
See also – Microsoft starts delivering Kinect for Windows v2 Developer Preview kits, including pre-release hardware and SDK and Microsoft releases three videos showing off how Kinect for Windows can work for retailers
Image Credit: Microsoft
LightFreq’s crazy light bulb combined with a speaker lands on Kickstarter looking to raise $50,000
We get a lot of crowdfunding pitches, but it’s not that often we get ones that promise to combine a fully smartphone-controllable light bulb with an HD audio speaker. The LightFreq promises exactly that, provided it reaches its $50,000 crowdfunding goal.
Although it sounds a bit odd at first, there are actually a few good reasons you might want to combine a speaker and light bulb beyond the “space saving” touted by the company. Perhaps you like to be met by a specific song and hue each time you step into your house? Well, now you can be without having to spend cash on more expensive ‘smart home’ technologies.
In order to ensure compatibility with your existing sockets and light fittings, the LightFreq has a standard fixture and can simply be swapped in place of any regular bulb to provide you with a fully controllable light and music package.
Users can control the color and hue, as well as volume and music playback, via the LightFreq companion app for Android and iPhone. Additionally, if you have more than one unit in the house, you can program them to work in sync, so that they all show the same color or play the same music, for example.
There’s also a ‘follow me’ feature which will automatically switch on music in a room you’ve just entered and switch off the lights and music in a room you’ve just left. And if you don’t have the LightFreq app to control the music, you can always connect directly to the bulb via Bluetooth to keep the tunes flowing.
The company says that each 17w bulb has a 40,000 hour lifetime and can display 16 million colors. The on-board speaker is 5 watts, and naturally, you can use the LightFreq for just music or light separately at any time too.
Perhaps most interestingly though, the bulbs also have a built-in microphone, which turns them into a sort of virtual intercom for your house or office – simply, speak into the LightFreq app and your voice can be transferred to any of the LightFreq bulbs around you. The system can also be used as a call alert monitor if you sync a LightFreq to your phone. For example, if you leave your phone on silent or in another room, you can set a specific color to flash on the bulb if you receive a call or SMS.
As we pointed out last week , we don’t cover that many crowdfunding campaigns, but when we do we make sure they are on the level as best as possible . Given that we know these units to exist and there’s a video of the actual devices (not renderings) working, then we’re pretty sure that the project is legit. Still, as with all crowdfunding campaigns, sometimes things go wrong, so it’s caveat emptor if you decide to put your hard-earned cash behind it.
The lowest tier available to get your hands on one of the LightFreq units when they start to ship at the beginning of next year is $55, but there are only 50 units available at that price. After those are gone, the next tier is $70 for a single device or $125 for the ‘Early Bird’ pair price. For a demo of the raw sound, check out the video above.
➤ LIGHTFREQ: The First Genius Light Bulb With HD Audio [Kickstarter]