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Nokia’s offline maps for Android: We go hands-on

Sep30
by on September 30, 2014 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Product Launches, Product Reviews

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Late in August, Samsung unveiled its new Gear S smartwatch, a Tizen-powered timepiece capable of making calls and going online without a smartphone. Other features, as noted at the time, included turn-by-turn navigation provided by the Nokia-owned HERE mapping platform, which brings genuine usefulness to the wrist-worn contraption. Since then, Nokia has been continuing to flex its mapping muscles following its new-found freedom from the smartphone bustle, teasing a refresh of the Web-based version of HERE, while also revealing it will be used on Tizen smartphones and wearables. But perhaps most crucially out of all this, was the news that…

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Basis unveils the Peak, a sleek $200 fitness and sleep tracker that can measure your heart rate

Sep30
by on September 30, 2014 at 11:32 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Product Launches

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Basis, a wearable company acquired by Intel earlier this year, has announced a new fitness and sleep tracker called the Basis Peak. The key selling point for ‘geeks in sneaks’ is its ability to measure heart rate without any external hardware, such as a chest strap or smartphone. A plethora of sensors means it can track your body movement – including walking, running and biking – perspiration and skin temperature, all while sporting a sleek design that doesn’t look ridiculous on your wrist. It’ll be available for $199.99 next month in two designs. The first is a matte black watchface…

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eBay and Paypal will split into separate publicly traded companies in 2015

Sep30
by on September 30, 2014 at 11:07 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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EBay has announced that it’s to spin out PayPal as a separate publicly traded company in 2015. The e-commerce giant acquired online payment provider PayPal for $1.5 billion back in 2002, but many have argued that PayPal is too big and significant an entity in its own right to be ‘owned’ outright by eBay. Indeed, today’s move has been mooted for a while already, with notable voices in support of the split including investor Carl Icahn. This marks a significant shift in the online payments space, and basically frees PayPal from its master’s shackles to capitalize on its own popularity…

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Spotify officially arrives for everyone in Canada

Sep30
by on September 30, 2014 at 10:18 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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It was a long time coming, but Spotify is finally live for one and all in Canada. Following an invite-only period that kicked off earlier this summer, Canadians can now access the music-streaming service that has steadily been taking the world by storm over the past six years. Today’s full public launch comes more than 3 years after it finally arrived in the US. As with other markets, Canadian subscribers can access around 20 million songs across mobile, tablet and desktop, with audio-quality of up to 320Kbps. The free ad-supported tier is limited to shuffle only on mobile devices, though…

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Google is closing Orkut, its first social network, today

Sep30
by on September 30, 2014 at 10:04 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Google

We knew it was coming. Google is shutting down Orkut today, its first attempt at a social networking service. The decision was announced in June and users have had a few months to export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout. Orkut was popular in a few markets such as Brazil, but in recent years Google has clearly shifted its focus toward its other social network, Google+. While the success of its younger platform is open for debate, it’s clearly a more comprehensive product with unique photo storage and editing features, as well as deep integrations with Google’s…

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