Fully Charged: Another (massive) smartwatch emerges, and new Call of Duty confirmed

Meet Rufus Cuff, the smartwatch with a bigger screen

Smartwatches are usually designed to be as small as is physically possible, but no so the Rufus Cuff. The wearable – which makers Rufus Labs call a “wrist communicator” rather than a smartwatch – has a 3in widescreen and the full version of Android on board, meaning it can run pretty much any app.

While primarily designed for use with an Android or Apple smartphone, connecting via Bluetooth 4.0, it also comes with Wi-Fi and can therefore work independently.

It looks a lot bulkier than the likes of the Samsung Gear 2 and upcoming Android Wear devices, but Rufus Labs is clearly banking on its larger screen and tough build quality (it’s splash-proof) being enough to attract a different audience. They’re currently seeking funding via Indiegogo and look set to reach their goal of $200,000.

3D printing produces the smoothest stop motion animation ever

“Bears on Stairs” is a new project that shows how 3D printing can help produce incredibly smooth stop motion animations. London creative agency DBLG created the video by 3D printing around 40 models of a bear climbing a staircase – one for each “frame” of the animation. Then they were filmed by DSLR in a repeating sequence to create a moving image that looks like computer animation rather than a real-world object. Impressive stuff.

[Source: PetaPixel]

Next Call of Duty game coming this year from Sledgehammer Games

Some very unsurprising news has just been confirmed: Activision is to release a new Call of Duty game later this year, and it won’t be developed by Infinity Ward.

The news comes courtesy of an Activision investor call, which also revealed that the development studio for the as-yet-unnamed title won’t be Treyarch but Sledgehammer (a relatively new studio which contributed to the development of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3). Treyarch, however, will likely make the 2015 Call of Duty title, meaning Activision now has three separate studios working on games in the series at all times.

Going forward, that’ll give each studio three years to develop their game – and hopefully that’ll mean better single-player experiences. While multi-player modes have remained solid, single-player campaigns have been noticeably dropping in length and quality over the past few CoD releases.

[Source: Digital Trends]

READ MORE: Call of Duty: Ghosts review

RunKeeper launches Breeze, an iPhone 5s-only step-tracking app

Aimed at those to prefer to walk rather than jog, RunKeeper’s new Breeze app has just launched on iTunes. The app, which is only compatible with the iPhone 5s and its M7 motion coprocessor, is always tracking your steps in the background and therefore able to tell you exactly how far you’ve walked on any given day.

With plenty of competition, Breeze aims to set itself apart from its competition through an attractive, simple UI and its notifications, which keep you up to date with how far you’ve gone towards completning your daily step goal.

Breeze will eventually integrate with RunKeeper, as well as roll out to other phone models. You can download it for iPhone here.

[Source: The Verge]