Unlocked Asus ZenFone AR with Tango and Daydream support goes $100 off to $499

No longer sold through Verizon with CDMA support, the Google Tango and Daydream-powered Asus ZenFone AR can still be purchased unlocked for GSM use starting at an all-time low price of $499.

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Google’s Tango AR program ending in March with a total of two phones

Instead, development will shift to ARCore, a wider platform where apps and web interfaces will be involved and not a whole bunch of sensors.

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Mainland Europe getting Lenovo Phab 2 Pro at €499

Project Tango makes its move across the old continent as Lenovo has made the Phab 2 Pro available in at least five European markets for €499 or $537.

The device, which also has legs in the United States, launched with 35 Tango apps, apps that use the Phab 2 Pro’s depth sensors and camera to great effect within augmented reality environments.

The device is coming soon to the UK.

FranceGermanyItalyNetherlandsSpain

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Lenovo Phab 2 Pro Video Review: More than just Tango?

It’s a huge phone.

Lenovo is partnering with Google, using the Phab 2 Pro as a showcase platform for some exciting new Augmented Reality technology. Google’s Tango system allows developers to add artificial elements to the real world for gaming, or to better interact with objects in space to track movement or measure distances, all while the phone can track and remember its own location in a room in real time. It’s like holding a piece of the future.

This is a bleeding edge feature, but does the rest of this hardware hold up under normal use. A 6.4″ display is an odd screen size to be found in North America. The mid-range chipset is capable, and we’re happy to see plenty of storage, but a $499.99 price tag is pretty far outside this being an impulse purchase. Buying this beast of a gadget, does it fulfill the role of being a daily driver phone, or should Lenovo’s option here be considered another companion device to a proper “normal” smartphone.

Lenovo Phab 2 Pro Video Review: More than just Tango?

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Motorola to follow up Phab 2 Pro with Moto Z Tango Moto Mod

Motorola will “likely” release a Google Tango Moto Mod to allow for at least some of the Moto Z device series to execute augmented reality functions, the company’s CEO said.

Aymar de Lencquesaing addressed the press from company headquarters in Chicago today to announce the news. The modular accessory would follow the release of the Phab 2 Pro phablet, made by Motorola’s parent company, Lenovo.

“Augmented reality on a phone is a technology that’s likely to stick,” he said. “Of course we’ll follow, or lead, the market in this area.”

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Lenovo Phab 2 Pro with Google Tango: Augmented Reality is Rad

There’s a reason this phone is so big. There are a crazy number of cameras and sensors on the back which radically improve the phone’s ability to track objects in space and overlay features to the camera view.

Motion tracking in virtual reality is all the rage right now, but that still requires sensors and beacons to be installed in areas where you’ll be using it. VR becomes a pretty solitary experience, as you’re keeping your head and face covered. Though it’s early days for augmented reality, we can already see a lot of potential for collaborative services and games. True AR could impact nearly every app and service we currently use on our mobile devices.

It’s like holding the future, or interacting with some kind of crazy Terminator vision. Here’s our first dive into the wonders of Augmented Reality using Google’s Tango on the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro!

Lenovo Phab 2 Pro with Google Tango: Augmented Reality is Rad

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Hot Takes on the Huawei Mate 9 and more… after dark | #PNWeekly 225

It’s nighttime in America and it’s Friday to boot. We should be out on the streets painting the town red. But instead, we’re sitting down, cracking a few cans open and talking with our best mates about a new Mate.

As Huawei takes over the scene for the week with a couple of luminescent phones, Evan Blass and Alcatel remind us that Windows can be a fun platform if it tried. Will it try? We may come up with an answer or we may just pass onto the unrelenting carrier wars, flip phones for modernity, Kickstarters, Indiegogos and a kick in the pants for us to go go GO!

It’s the weekend and this is episode 225 of the Pocketnow Weekly.

Watch the live video broadcast from 11:00pm Eastern on November 4th (click here for your local time), or check out the high-quality audio version right here.

For folks watching live, you can comment and ask questions by using the #PNWeekly hashtag on Twitter during the broadcast. For folks watching later, you can shoot your listener emails to podcast [AT] pocketnow [DOT] com for a shot at getting your question read aloud on the air the following week!

Pocketnow Weekly 225


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iTunes Link

XBox Music Link

Direct Download

Recording Date

November 4, 2016

Host

Jules Wang

Juan Bagnell

 

Sponsor

This week’s episode of the Pocketnow Weekly Podcast is made possible by:

salesforce_logo_detail

Marketers, the Age of the Customer has arrived. Mass emails or general ad campaigns won’t work anymore. Salesforce is here to help. Blaze a trail with your marketing, and deliver the unique brand experiences your customers want.

With Salesforce, marketers open doors between business units by sharing data to collaborate across marketing, sales, service, and commerce. Be smarter and more predictive with your marketing by making recommendations using collaborative data, and solve concerns with service integration. Engage your customers on any device and channel in real time — from social media, to your connected products, gathering key insights into your customer and business relationships at every stage. Adjust campaigns as you go to drive leads and pipeline.

Do all this and more while collecting data from every interaction to build a complete view of every customer and manage your marketing strategy — from your desk or your phone. Be a customer trailblazer. Discover one connected platform for one connected customer experience with Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform. Learn more at salesforce.com/pocketnow.

How’s it goin’, Mate?

(00:02:55)

 

huawei-mate-9-leica

Following on from the Huawei P9, the Mate 9 makes its debut in Munich, Germany. Our Juan Carlos Bagnell was there to handle the Leica-endorsed, dual-camera goods — particularly with that fancy schmancy €1,400 Porsche Design version — while Jaime Rivera and Adam Z. Lein put some light onto the Huawei Fit tracker.

News

surface-phone-evleaks

26:26 | This Windows phone is more than just a concept

32:09 | The Alcatel Idol 4s with Windows 10: where it’s at and where it won’t be

35:37 | Where’s Microsoft at with Windows 10 Mobile?

42:44 | Lenovo Phab 2 Pro finally makes it to the dance floor

51:52 |  ZTE flips a phone here, Samsung flips a phone there

57:59 | Apple dongles dangle for a discount as a jungle protests

1:05:37 | Blood on the water between T-Mo and Verizon

1:14:39 | We completely speculate that Foxconn and Sharp are moving to the US

1:19:07 |  Maybe Xiaomi is coming here, too?

1:23:08 | Crowdfunding Corner: 360° video-recording glasses and an eye-tracking VR headset

1:33:35 | Mobile beats desktop internet usage for first time ever

 

Nightcap

galaxy-note-7-costume-sw

Yep. That’s a Southwest Airlines attendant. Dressed as a Galaxy Note 7.

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Lenovo Phab 2 Pro launches with 35 Tango apps

It’s November 1, the anointed date of reckoning for the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. It’s the first smartphone developed in tandem with Google under the Project Tango banner to support Android’s first augmented reality apps.

The $500 phone, which is on sale today and ships within seven business days, will be supported with 35 Tango apps starting today. They include games like Crayola Color Blaster by Legacy Games, Hot Wheels Track Builder and Ghostly Mansion. More practical apps for homemakers include Wayfair View and iStaging while educational apps also get a showing here with Solar Simulator.

The phone is available direct from Lenovo. We aren’t sure when Lowe’s hardware stores will get the Phab 2 Pro.

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Lenovo Phab 2 available today at $200, Tango-enabled Phab 2 Pro on November 1

If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding. And in the case of Lenovo, its latest phablets for western markets are just starting to get dished out.We begin with the Lenovo Phab 2. It’s simply a large phone and it acts as a media hotbed for the average consumer with Dolby Atmos audio included. The 6.4-inch screen is only rated at 720p resolution, though, making for only 229 pixels per inch. The quad-core MediaTek MT8735 runs the show with 3GB of RAM ...

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Google’s Tango-based Lenovo Phab2 Pro phone is finally hitting retail next month

While there was certainly a lot to get excited about on display at Google’s far-reaching San Francisco hardware event yesterday, we couldn’t help but feel a few things were also missing.Blame that on Hiroshi Lockheimer’s excessive hyping, and wild last-minute rumors of a prospective Andromeda arrival much earlier than

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HoloLens and the HP Elite x3 may have AR in common

The HP Elite x3 may soon have some awesome augmented reality capabilities similar to the Lenovo PHAB2 Pro and just like how the Microsoft HoloLens does.PCWorld talked with HP’s mobility head Michael Park about how some Universal Windows Apps made for the HoloLens ...

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Qualcomm hints at upcoming Tango phones with Snapdragon 820, other 800 ‘tier’ SoCs

In case you’re still scratching your heads in confusion as to Google and Lenovo’s decision to fit an arguably middling processor under the hood of the world’s road-opening consumer phone based on Project Tango, Qualcomm just came forward with an enlightening confession.It turns out the Phab 2 Pro packs a Snapdragon 652 not only to keep the retail pricing bar comparatively low to mainstream Android flagships from ...

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Moto Z and Z Force, Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, and Google’s Tango | Pocketnow Weekly 204

Lenovo TechWorld rocked our socks! Let’s chat about our first experiences with the Moto Z and Z Force. What is Project Tango, and what is it doing in the Phab 2 Pro? And what might Apple have in store for us at WWDC this year? Make sure you’re charged and ready for episode 204 of the Pocketnow Weekly!Watch the video broadcast from 2:00pm Eastern on June 10th (click here for your local time), or check out the high-quality audio ...

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First look at Lenovo Phab 2 Pro and Google Tango AR (Video)

They say it takes two to tango, and indeed, Google needed the smartphone-making expertise of Motorola owner Lenovo to turn the forward-thinking Project Tango into commercial reality.Starting September, you’ll be able to use the innovative rear-facing multi-camera setup of the ginormous Lenovo Phab 2 Pro to virtually measure and place certain objects (for instance, furniture) in actual spaces around you.Best Buy and Lowe’s will be among ...

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Project Tango materializes in Lenovo PHAB2 Pro

Lenovo has introduced three phones in its PHAB2 series.The PHAB2 (image left) is a $199 6.4-inch phablet with some AR technology, a 13-megapixel camera and 16GB of expandable storage. At $299 comes the PHAB2 Plus (image middle) — it brags a pair of rear cameras with f/1.8 lenses and Fujitsu imaging processors. Lenovo makes the point that those processors are also found in Leica cameras, a nick at Huawei and its Leica-approved P9.But the big deal of the trio shines as

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