This e-ink watch can change its design at the touch of a button

This e-ink watch can change its design at the touch of a button

It's not like we haven't seen e-ink watches before, but we've never seen one quite like this. FES Watch uses e-paper not only for its face, but its entire strap, allowing the wearer to change its design with a simple button press. By combining different upper- and lower-strap choices with a variety of face designs, you'll have a total of 24 designs to choose from. This isn't a smartwatch (it won't do anything other than tell you the time and date), but thanks to that fact, it'll last around two months on a single charge.

FES Watch is currently being funded on Makuake, a Japanese crowdfunding site for startups. It's actually the second such campaign: its makers successfully raised 2.7 million Yen (about $23,000) back in September, but are back again by popular demand asking for a further 1 million Yen ($8,400). So far they've reached about 40 percent of that goal, and with 98 days left to run on the campaign it seems likely to be another success. Unfortunately, only local residents can pledge, so unless you have a friend in Japan willing to ship you one (and $167 to spare), you'll have to admire FES Watch from afar.

Original Article at: Engadget

Opera Max can now save Android mobile data in 16 more regions

Opera Max can now save Android mobile data in 16 more regions

Over the last few months, Opera's been slowly rolling out Max across the world to save mobile data -- apparently by up to 50 percent, including images and videos -- on Android devices, and its recent collaboration with MediaTek is no doubt a big boost to the service's street cred. But the Norwegian company isn't done yet. While Opera Max is already available to users based in most parts of the Americas, all European Union countries, Russia and others, today Opera added 16 more regions to the list. Just to name a few, these include Australia, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Myanmar, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. You can see Opera's full list after the break, and then head to Google's Play Store to grab the Android Lollipop-ready data compression app.

Existing regions: USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, All European Union countries, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, CIS countries, Norway, Turkey, Latin America and South America.

New regions: Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

Original Article at www.engadget.com

Toshiba joins other tech giants in growing super-clean vegetables

Toshiba joins other tech giants in growing super-clean vegetables

The name "Toshiba" conjures images of stacks of laptops piled high and maybe the occasional television, but the Japanese electronics giant is turning its attention to something just a little more humble: lettuce. Well, spinach too. And swiss chard. Quartz's Dan Frommer tells the tale of a Toshiba-owned clean room nestled in the industrial corners of Yokosuka where people clad in special suits dutifully plant seeds and plop them on tall racks under an array of fluorescent lights. The end result? Tasty veggies that you won't need to wash (though if you're a mild hypochondriac like your author, you'd probably give 'em a quick rinse anyway).Toshiba isn't diving into the world of clean cuisine just because it wants to appease Japan's gourmands. No no -- it aims to produce some 3 million bags of greens a year to help firm up its position as an end-to-end healthcare company. It's actually pretty brilliant, if a bit paradoxical: Toshiba wants to sell those healthy, pristine greens and the technology (mostly centered around internal imaging for now) that'll help when something ails you. It's not the only Japanese megaconglomerate to dabble in a spot of indoor agriculture, either. Sony converted a closed semiconductor factory in Miyagi prefecture into an elaborate growing operation that churns out specially tweaked lettuce that's chock full of extra beta carotene, and Fujitsu -- a massive company that dabbles in some really obtuse stuff -- has a room in Wakamatsu churning out low-potassium lettuce for folks with chronic kidney disorders. Forget about hacking gadgets together, maybe the future is in hacking the very stuff that keeps us going.

Original Article at www.engadget.com

The DekaVita is a seven-inch 'handheld' with a Vita TV slid into the back

The DekaVita is a seven-inch 'handheld' with a Vita TV slid into the back

When the not-exactly-small five-inch PlayStation Vita just isn't enough handheld for your... hands, it's time for the DekaVita 7 -- literally "huge Vita 7". Gametech has managed to make the Vita TV portable, by attaching HDMI and AC connectors, buttons and a seven-inch IPS screen to the miniconsole. (Why?) The result is something approaching a slightly smaller Wii U GamePad, although there's no touchscreen -- because there isn't any compatibility with the Vita TV. (Seriously, why?) It'll cost 23,000 yen when it launches sometime in Spring 2015, although early preorders will get a 4,000 yen discount. Japan residents can do that here. Just, why?

Original Article at www.engadget.com