Light Start – Samsung Waffle, PiDrive, cross-platform play, and a kitchen robot
Brett Venter
Samsung want you to meet Waffle, a social media app that… has a point, apparently
Samsung have come up with some great concepts. The Galaxy S7, for one, and the Gear VR, but they’ve also given us a few howlers. We’ll leave it up to you to decide which of the two Waffle is. Waffle is a “content-sharing application”, while lets you share content with the people you’re already sharing it with. You post an image, people post their own images around it and you get a grid-shaped ‘waffle’ of content, created by your social circle. Like we said, possibly awesome, possibly horrible. And we’re pretty sure which one it is. They’ve also announced Hum On, an app that translates a human being’s humming into actual music. Awesome, record executives are sure to make us some fantastic hits with this.
Western Digital introduces a R720, 314GB Raspberry Pi drive called the… PiDrive
This is going to be fun. Western Digital have just announced a new hard drive, specifically for the Raspberry Pi. It has been modeled on WD’s budget hard drives and it’s a 314GB-capacity drive. Pi? See? Anyway, it’s the price for this teeny little drive is going to make a few friends. At least if you’re in the States. It’s on sale for $45.81 (around R720) but it’s on special at present for $31.42 – another reference to mathematical Pi. It’s also R490 for a 314GB hard drive. If you’re up for ordering your drive from overseas, you can snag it now while it’s on special. They start shipping at month-end. We wonder how many of these will actually wind up inside a Raspberry Pi…
Microsoft are finally considering cross-network play for their titles
We’ve been waiting for this (though we’re still never going to see it with first-person shooters – or at least, the PC players will be excluded). Xbox players against PlayStation players against, yes, PC players. That’s what Microsoft are up for. That’s according to an announcement around this year’s GDC. Microsoft are going to be making titles that are cross-playable between Windows 10 and the Xbox One. As well as others, but “…Of course, it’s up to game developers to support this feature, and Xbox Live players will always have the option of choosing to play only with other Xbox Live players”. Sony will have to join in, but it looks like the door is open. At long, bloody last. The first title to be supported? Psyonix’s Rocket League. That’s a good choice.
iRobot has a new cute little kitchen cleaner from Braavos available
We’ve long avoided mopping the kitchen floor. Or thought about it, anyway, because we’re not fond of sticking to the ground. It would be nice to not have to do that – mop, or stick to the floor, of course. Meet the Braava Jet Mopping Robot, a new kitchen-cleaner from iRobot – the company that brought us the Roomba. The Braava Jet Mopping Robot, like the name suggests, roams around your kitchen and… mops. Huh, no kidding? Yup, and there are three different modes. A dry sweep, damp sweep and an actual wet mop. A small jet of water soaks the floor, while the soapy bits come from pads at the base of the Braava. And when the Braava is doing that in your kitchen, you don’t have to. Sounds like a win-win to us. As does the price, sort of. It’s on sale for $200, or around R3,120. Which is a small (initial) price to pay to not have to mop the kitchen ever again.
