tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22847009251690636972024-02-06T20:56:29.592-08:00Technology World All about TechsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11388677415514567669noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-25094795269375602962016-08-14T04:29:00.003-07:002016-08-28T23:48:27.715-07:00'Maguss,' the game that definitely isn't 'Harry Potter Go'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Warner Bros,if you're reading this Ondrej Tokar will really like to talk to you.</span><br />
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"It's a little bit complicated," Ondrej Tokar says with a laugh.</div>
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Tokar is the creator of <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em>, an augmented reality mobile game that transforms players into wizards wandering around a world of spells, potions, duels and fantastical creatures. But let's get one thing absolutely clear: It's not a Harry Potter game. Tokar has to emphasize this fact because his team has already been contacted by someone claiming to represent the Harry Potter brand, asking them to distance <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> from J. K. Rowling's world, or else.</div>
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Strangely enough, this is precisely what Tokar wants.</div>
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Tokar's dream is to create the <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Harry Potter Go</em> game that fans have been clamoring for since <a href="http://cydiaguide5.blogspot.in/2016/07/cydia-tweaks-for-pokemon-go-hack.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pokémon Go</em></a> busted down the doors of the mainstream, mobile AR experience. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> has been in development for two years, and it currently occupies an original world of magic. Much like <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pokémon Go</em>, it features digital creatures to find scattered around real-world maps, plus it has quests, crafting, the ability to duel other players, factions to join, spells to learn, potions to make and ingredients to hunt down. And the team is building an actual wand peripheral that connects to the app via Bluetooth, allowing players to flick and swish just like they've always dreamed of.</div>
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Though <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> is already far along in the development process, <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pokémon Go</em>'s success in July presented fresh marketing opportunities. Tokar and his crew began positioning <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> as the <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Harry Potter Go</em> solution that many fans wanted. They branded its social media posts with things like "#HarryPotterGo" and "#Potterheads," and even wished J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter a happy birthday alongside <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> tags.</div>
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They knew they were walking a fine legal line. They were careful to never say <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> was an official Harry Potter game, while still blatantly marketing the idea to Harry Potter fans. This wasn't just a way to get more people excited about the game: Tokar wanted to get Warner Bros.' attention, even if it came in the form of a cease-and-desist.</div>
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"We think there's a huge market for it and we also think that we went quite far to get to the point that we are now, and we're not far from launching," Tokar says. "We just need Warner Bros.' permission to make it Harry Potter themed."</div>
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<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> developers did hear from someone claiming to represent Warner Bros., but it arrived in an unlikely form: a Twitter direct message. The DM came from the <a href="https://twitter.com/HarryPotter_UK" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">@HarryPotter_UK</a> account, whose bio says, "The Harry Potter Film Twitter feed for United Kingdom." It reads like an official account might, though it isn't verified.</div>
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Tokar isn't sure if the person who contacted him is truly a legal representative for the Harry Potter brand. They moved the conversation from Twitter to email, where Tokar explained the situation: He wasn't selling <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> as an official Harry Potter app, but he would love to talk with Warner Bros. about a potential partnership.</div>
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This is where things turned fishy for Tokar. The representative refused to identify herself, and at one point she told Tokar that he would never have the rights to a Harry Potter game. This set off alarm bells in his head: He questioned whether she had the power to make that claim for the entire Harry Potter ecosystem. Once Tokar raised concerns about her legitimacy as a legal representative, she stopped responding entirely.</div>
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But, to be safe, the <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> team notified fans that it had to stop mentioning Harry Potter altogether, and it added a disclaimer on its <a href="http://maguss.org/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">website</a>.</div>
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"We did all the precautions to be safe, but we are not sure if that is the person that is really legal," Tokar says.</div>
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Engadget has reached out to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment about its stance on third-party developers and whether it would be open to working with a project like <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em>. We'll update this story if and when we hear back.</div>
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<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> has been in development for two years. Meaning: It isn't a knee-jerk reaction to <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pokémon Go</em>'s success or the recent online movement calling for a Harry Potter version. It's a passion project for Tokar, who's a huge Harry Potter fan in his own right.</div>
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In 2014, his girlfriend surprised him with a Harry Potter–themed trip around the United Kingdom for his birthday. They visited the studios in Leavesden where the films were produced and rode the Jacobite steam train -- or, as fans know it, the Hogwarts Express. During this trip Tokar, a developer by day, imagined how he could bring this magical world to life. The wand seemed like a good starting point, and pairing that with a mobile AR game made the most sense.</div>
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Tokar, based in Denmark, teamed up with a colleague from Portugal and they got to work on <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em>, a game steeped in magic and fantasy but completely separate from the <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Harry Potter</em> brand -- or any other fictional wizarding world, for that matter. They launched a Kickstarter campaign in August 2015 that featured a wand peripheral powered by a motion sensor and IR LED, which connected to a receiver shaped like a coat of arms that players attached to their clothes. The receiver then transmitted players' movement data to a smartphone. It was an inelegant system -- and likely one reason that the Kickstarter didn't get funded. Tokar raised roughly $24,500 of a requested $53,000.</div>
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"And we know why," Tokar says. "It just wasn't high-quality enough. We know it. And right now, I think we are proving that it's much, much better."</div>
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Today, Tokar has a full team of artists, developers and marketing professionals helping to build a new and improved version of <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em>. The wand uses Bluetooth, negating the cumbersome coat-of-arms receiver, and the interface looks better overall. Players don't have to use the wand either, and can instead trace spell glyphs right on their phone's screen.</div>
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"That is to target people that are shy to run around swishing their wands, or for people that want to play the game somewhere in public or in public transport, for example," Tokar says.</div>
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Plus, with <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pokémon Go</em>'s success this year, the project is a much easier sell. However, this level of awareness also has a downside. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pokémon Go</em> has made mobile AR games more viable in the public eye, but that means other companies are ready to pounce on this fresh industry. A Russian company making a magic-themed mobile AR game already tried to poach one of Tokar's artists in the past few months.</div>
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"Fortunately he told me," Tokar says.</div>
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<img alt="" data-credit="Maguss" data-mep="1312831" src="https://s.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/28267949126fdfea642bd817a2a23dc7/204198554/maguss.jpg" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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And then there's Warner Bros. itself. What if that company, with all of its funding, access and legal rights, decides to develop its own <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>Harry Potter Go</b></em>?</div>
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"I have invested lots of money into this project, lots of time," Tokar says. "On one hand, I would be very happy to see a game like that. On the other hand, we would be happy to be the ones developing the game."</div>
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<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> is roughly halfway complete. Tokar plans to launch another Kickstarter campaign in mid-September, hoping to raise enough money so his team can finish it off. Right now, he's funding the development on his own.</div>
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"It's quite rough, but it's working out well now," he says.</div>
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There's a mountain of land mines in front of <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em>, from legal concerns to copycats to official designs, but Tokar isn't giving up. He still hopes to get in touch with Warner Bros. and talk about turning <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maguss</em> into an official <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>Harry Potter Go</b></em> app, whether that contact comes through the Kickstarter, Twitter, Facebook or articles like this one. Or, perhaps, by magic.</div>
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"We would still like to speak with Warner Bros. to make it Harry Potter themed, but we are going our own way right now," Tokar says. "But still, if we have the opportunity, we will take it."</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-6351913884003916262016-08-14T04:10:00.001-07:002016-08-28T23:48:09.738-07:00Sony's hi-res turntable and software make it easy to go digital<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 class="t-d7@m- t-d4@tp t-d3-b@tl t-d2@d mt-15 mt-25@tp c-gray-3 c-gray-6@m-" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #56585c; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif !important; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 25px; margin: 15px 0px 0px; padding: 20px 0px 5px;">
If you want to convert stacks of vinyl to space-saving audio files, this bundle can help.</h2>
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<img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL9o1LDzvBAj-b0nzUxNvgczsGeV4DWYtq-EUm6hX1PyEFOeh922Exg6arIGzmqQeYw3lwULjkh6EbY6J-lqtaxlJF7GYgLoll5m-u8Ws7eGAbQich56DsBjNoG_napVqBF5sMrCoXUuZU/s640/2016sony-pshx500-1800-4JT.jpg" width="640" /></div>
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<div class="article-text c-gray-1" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif !important; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 5px;">
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ce65a19-7b95-2ca3-20c3-19a2fd712671" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Vinyl has seen a resurgence lately, with sales growth for this format </span>outpacing digital. To stay on top of that trend, Sony refreshed its record player lineup to include the not-so-memorably named PS-HX500. Though it cuts a familiar figure, resembling many minimalist-style turntables, it was built with a 21st century purpose: to make quality digital copies of your treasured discs. That's important for long-time collectors, of course, but also newer vinyl enthusiasts, who will also want to convert their discs into a high-resolution digital format as painlessly as possible.</div>
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As record enthusiasts will tell you, the love of vinyl is about the physical product, artwork and warm sound. Even so, this gives you the option of enjoying your tracks beyond just your home-listening zone. Besides, a digital archive is useful as either a backup of your rare records or a gradual transition to virtual media. (It's also the format used by most modern DJs.) At $600, the <a href="http://www.sony.com/electronics/audio-components/ps-hx500" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">PS-HX500</a> costs more than competing players, but the addition of an onboard analog-to-digital converter (ADC) helps justify the premium. In addition, the bundled software, though limited and a tad annoying to use, makes the seemingly endless task of real-time recording easier to stomach.</div>
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The PS-HX500 is pretty much ready to go right out of the box. You just need to put the platter, belt drive and record mat in place, add the tonearm weight and <a href="http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-releases/how-to-balance-your-tonearm-a-step-by-step-guide/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">dial in the antiskate</a>. For output, you can connect to your computer via USB, your stereo system or speaker using RCA (as phono or line-in) or even both at the same time -- which can help you preview if you're recording. The turntable also comes with a premounted Audio-Technica cartridge with a diamond-tipped stylus, so unless you want to swap in your own, you're good to go there as well.</div>
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The power and speed controls are bundled together in a single dial on the front left, as you might expect, and can accommodate speeds of 33 and 45 RPM (rotations per minute). If you're into vintage 78s, then, you'll have to look elsewhere.</div>
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As far as design, there's not much going on here. The device looks like most other casual-listening, non-DJ category turntables out there. There's a straight tonearm with a built-in headshell and the base is made from sturdy-feeling composite wood. There's a set of stout little legs with rounded, seemingly gel-filled feet, providing <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">some</em> give to kill unwanted vibrations. As usual, there's also a standard lever for raising the needle off the vinyl without sending it skittering across the platter with your big, clumsy hands.</div>
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Unless you're looking for high-end audiophile gear, this turntable should meet your expectations, with much of the sound output beyond the needle depending on the system you hook it up to. Really, the most interesting feature is the ability to record records to digital files over USB using the built-in ADC. Obviously, you could pick up an external analog-to-digital converter, various turntables and software (like <a href="http://www.audacityteam.org/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Audacity</a>), but that's more things to include in your setup. For those without the time or knowledge to put together the right elements, the simplicity of this package is appealing.</div>
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<figure class="mt-35 pt-40" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><figcaption class="mt-20 t-meta c-gray-3" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #56585c; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans", sans-serif !important; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 15px 0px 5px;">Sony Hi-Res Audio Recorder settings.<span class="c-gray-7" style="border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; color: #ababad; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span></figcaption></figure><br />
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I have mixed feelings about Sony's Hi-Res Audio Recorder software. On the one hand, it has a simple, uncluttered interface, but that means you won't get much in the way of granular or customizable settings. If you dig in, all you'll find are audio export options and temporary file storage. File types include Sony's Direct Stream Digital (DSD) and PCM. The DSD format is supposed to offer one of the most accurate representations of an analog waveform, but it's only compatible with a limited selection of apps and hardware. Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) is another, more common digital approximation of the original analog waveform and is exported as a WAV file. Because I didn't have any DSD-compatible options on hand, I stuck with the common WAV format for outputting.</div>
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Once your turntable is connected to a computer via USB, you fire up the (downloadable) app and click the record button to get things started. You won't get any audio monitoring until you do this unless you're playing audio over RCA in addition to USB. It's also worth mentioning that the Hi-Res Audio Recorder software is proprietary and will work only with Sony's turntable.</div>
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After clicking "record," you'll see a slightly annoying pop-up (one of many, actually) that asks if you're ready to start the recording. The best way to convert a whole record is to let each side play through, pause, flip the disc and continue recording -- up to 100 minutes per file. It's an easy enough task to set markers at the start and end of each track in the waveform, simplifying the exclusion of breaks and pauses from the final export. When you're done with all that, hit the "recording complete" button, then write to files for the final step.</div>
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Lastly, you'll need to check off which marked sections contain tracks as opposed to blank material to be skipped. All sections are numbered in order, but if you use the "update file names" button at the bottom, it will consecutively number only the items you've selected. For this reason, it's beneficial to export complete albums in a single file, so the tracks will all be in order. You want to avoid having various duplicately numbered items from multiple exports just lumped in next to each other.</div>
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<img alt="" data-credit="Engadget" data-mep="1311524" src="https://s.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/a5fadae9ffa9f4923098a73e611a44a3/204194013/sony-hires-software-2.jpg" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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The software also lets you apply the album artist field to all the track artist spots to save some data entry. You can also swap out the numeral-only file names with the track titles. Unfortunately, those options are buried in a drop-down menu at the bottom of the window, making the whole process feel a bit convoluted.</div>
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The weirdness doesn't stop there: When saving files, the dialogue window doesn't show a "new folder" option, but it <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">will</em> save albums as a unique folder or add tracks to an existing match. There are also quite a few secondary pop-ups that hinder your process, stopping you each time, asking for another click to proceed. Keyboard shortcuts are also in short supply. When you're ready to start a new recording, Ctrl+N won't do it; you need to head to the drop-down menu at the top. Ctrl+Z doesn't help you backtrack in various instances, either. Failure to click the apply button after selecting the update file names option will also default to writing tracks as numerals (oddly, without a pop-up to warn you). Argh!</div>
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Ultimately, though, the recordings sound great (assuming your vinyl is in good nick), but you'll have to wait until the audio files are saved to enjoy them at your selected quality. And if you want to edit out pops and crackles, you'll need additional software.</div>
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<img alt="" data-credit="Engadget / Jon Turi" data-mep="1311525" src="https://s.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/89c2f36b3a277f89744a164eb1c74fdf/204194021/2016sony-pshx500-1800-16JT.jpg" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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Can you get the same results with a variety of other components? Sure. Both the <a href="http://www.rega.co.uk/rp1.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Rega RP1</a> and <a href="http://musichallaudio.com/music-hall-mmf-2-2-turntable/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Music Hall MMF 2.2</a> turntables have a similar style. They're both priced in the $400 to $450 range, but don't include an analog-to-digital converter. Depending on what you're looking for, you can get an ADC for as little as $30 or so. If you're looking to DJ, but want to have a USB output for recording, the Pioneer PLX-500 may be the way to go. If you just want a deck to play tunes and easily make digital high-resolution copies, the Sony PS-HX500 is a tempting option, those few software quirks aside. I found that although I could do all the same stuff (and more) with a multipiece setup, the turntable's compact design, convenient setup and quality recordings make it worth the few extra bucks.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-4402136616852429212016-08-14T04:01:00.003-07:002016-08-28T23:42:10.052-07:00The hysterical hacking headlines of Def Con 24<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The conference has a rocky relationship with reporters.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">You might've noticed that your regular news outlets have way more hysterical, random-seeming and utterly terrifying articles about hacking this week. That's because hacking conference </span><a href="https://www.defcon.org/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Def Con</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> happened last weekend, where a fair number of journalists had the pee scared out of them and decided to share their irrational reactions with everyone.</span></div>
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This year's big American hacking conference was bursting at the seams. By 2 PM on Friday, Def Con had unexpectedly sold out of its 20,000 specialty badges and started selling paper badges. The sprawling event straddled both the Bally's and Paris casino hotels in Las Vegas, and packed enough attendees, speakers, staff and press under those combined electric skies to bring its double-wide causeways to a standstill.</div>
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Gallery: DEF CON 24 | 4 Photos</h4>
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In years past, only outliers like me would be writing about going to Def Con, and all the various and sundry exploits, attacks, demonstrations, vendors, workshops and talks about all things hacking. That's because, until recently, journalists have been allowed at Def Con but have not exactly been welcomed.</div>
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This year it's safe to say that Def Con has become much more media friendly, for better and for worse. The conference has gotten friendlier to journalists only in the past couple of years, and last weekend journalists flooded the venue. But prior to this year, Def Con could best be described as flat-out hostile to the media -- especially major and mainstream news outlets.</div>
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This was heightened by an episode at Def Con 15, in 2007, when <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dateline NBC </em>associate producer and reporter Michelle Madigan acted ... like a "reporter." Thinking she'd do a shock piece on evil criminal hackers, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2167430,00.asp" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">she hid a camera in her bag</a> to catch attendees confessing to felonies on video.</div>
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Def Con staff had actually spotted her bag with a hole in it and reached out to her several times to offer her press credentials. She was able to avoid them and was instead seen panning her bag around the "Capture the Flag" (CTF) room.</div>
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After that, she attended a talk by Def Con founder Jeff Moss. During the presentation, Moss announced a new game called "spot the undercover reporter." If one was spotted in the room, he or she would be invited up to the stage to be presented with press credentials. At which point Madigan bolted from the room and out of the Riviera Hotel and Casino, chased by a pack of (an estimated) 150 attendees -- plus other reporters and photographers, who recorded the whole mess.</div>
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While in the past taking photos was not allowed, this year not only did people take photos, but journos panned cameras across rooms -- exactly what NBC got chased out for doing.</div>
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This year my fellow journalists didn't do much better. Despite all the advisories <a href="https://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc-faq/dc-faq.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">not to use the conference WiFi</a> on what's been described as "<a href="https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-15/dc-15-beprepared.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">the world's most hostile network</a>," one reporter paid the price for ignoring even <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/defcon-at-a-vegas-casino-full-of-hackers-how-paranoid-is-paranoid-enough" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">his own outlet's guide</a> and was <a href="https://twitter.com/bcmerchant/status/761659059762180097" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">hacked within 20 minutes</a>. A pair of journalists tried to pass themselves off as "consultants" in hopes of getting hackers to talk, and failed. And pretty much all of them totally, completely freaked out about how everything is hackable, even though we've known this for decades.</div>
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Many journalists were attending a decades-old hacking conference for the very first time, and a good number of them were covering infosec for the first time, too. So while for some of us it just felt like the <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Walking Dead </em>tryouts brought to you by DARPA, to the people writing your news it was a funhouse of horrors from which they may never recover.</div>
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When it came to differentiating between what was theoretical and what was real, most journalists really screwed up. Facts ran naked and unashamed away from the chaos, unchecked. The really important issues we should be warned about got lost in the miasma of what streamed out of the hacker panic clickbait factory.</div>
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And panicked it was. Glancing at <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/07/your_sec_toy_is_spying_on_you_hackers_crack_our_plastic_pals/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">"Your 'intimate personal massager' –<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">cough</em> – is spying on you,"</a> one might think that vibrators with cameras were watching your every move. Er, no. Rather than a Def Con <a href="https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-24/dc-24-speakers.html#follower" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">talk</a> revealing a conspiratorial surveillance state in your pants, the researchers' findings were actually about one "smart vibrator" company playing fast and loose with user data, an issue that truly needs to be addressed and fixed.</div>
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<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ReadWrite</em> said <a href="http://readwrite.com/2016/08/10/future-hackers-might-turn-off-heating-pay-dl4/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">"Future hackers might freeze you out til you pay up,"</a>making a talk about connected thermostats sound like you could be frozen or fried in your home by malicious hackers at any moment. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Memo</em> even assured us, <a href="http://www.thememo.com/2016/08/10/smart-home-hacking-smart-thermostat-hackers-internet-of-things-iot/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">"Gold-digging hackers <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">will</em> seize your smart home heating."</a> In reality, this was a proof of concept showing that it's possible for skilled attackers to hack into a connected thermostat, but only if people actively download and transfer malware to their thermostats.</div>
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By the time you got to reading <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hackers-could-break-into-your-monitor-to-spy-on-you-and-manipulate-your-pixels" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">"Hackers Could Break Into Your Monitor To Spy on You and Manipulate Your Pixels,"</a> you were probably scared shitless, and understandably so. Plenty of journalists were ready to buy in to the irrational fears brought on by a lack of nuanced understanding about active threats and possibilities. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Ledger</em> and <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">PhysOrg</em> concluded that <a href="http://www.theledger.com/article/20160807/NEWS/160809678" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">the only way to stay safe is to turn off your computer</a>. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Guardian</em> literally gave up and told its readers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/08/cyber-security-black-hat-defcon-hacking" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">"we're all screwed."</a></div>
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I won't blame you for associating Def Con with an urge to run for the hills and live in a shack without electricity, lined in tinfoil, just like your hats and Faraday pajamas. But ... but ... this conference and everything it has been trying to tell people has been going on for two decades.</div>
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It's definitely annoying to see my industry unable to separate the important talks and real issues from the hacker fluff, or miss the real point of these presentations and demos. But it's also really great to see hackers being taken seriously, finally, and being heard by people who can amplify their messages.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-87289671045396220132016-08-14T03:36:00.002-07:002016-08-28T23:42:40.343-07:00Google's Fuchsia operating system runs on virtually anything<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The open source software appears to be just an experiment, but could lead to bigger things.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Google is no stranger to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">creating whole platforms</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">when it needs them, but its latest project might be something special. It's working on</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><a href="https://fuchsia.googlesource.com/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Fuchsia</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">, an open source operating system that's designed to scale all the way from </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Internet of Things</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">devices through to phones and even PCs. Its kernel includes 'grown up' OS features like user modes and a capability-based security model,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Android Police</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><a href="http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/08/12/google-developing-new-fuchsia-os-also-likes-making-new-words/#" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">notes</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">, and it supports both advanced graphics as well ARM and 64-bit Intel-based PCs. To no one' surprise, it's using Google's own</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Dart programming language</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">at its heart.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">You can run Fuchsia either on a computer or a virtual machine if you'd like to give the early code a try, and Google's Travis Geiselbrecht</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12271658" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">adds</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">that you'll soon see it running on the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Raspberry Pi 3</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">.</span></div>
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We've asked Google if it can shed some light on Fuchsia, and we'll let you know if it has something to say. Whatever its answer, there's no guarantee that this will be the next Android, Brillo or Chrome OS. Right now, it comes across as an experiment that could lay the groundwork for bigger efforts. Given that the company is branching out into making smart household gadgets like Google Home, though, Fuchsia might make sense. It could be the platform that Google uses when it wants more flexibility and power than a platform like Brillo can offer, but doesn't need the deep feature set (and resulting overhead) of something like Android.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-44790481323007298462016-08-14T03:31:00.000-07:002016-08-28T23:43:02.465-07:00Apple Watch supplies run low ahead of September event<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Don't buy an Apple Watch yet.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">You'll find a lot of </span>Watch<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">variants marked as "Sold Out" if you browse Apple's online store,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://9to5mac.com/2016/08/12/apple-watch-availability-ahead-of-refresh/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">9to5mac</a> </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">has discovered. And, yes, the list includes ones with brightly colored bands Cupertino</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span>launched<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">just a few months ago. While there could be a different explanation, it sure seems to support rumors that the company is revealing its next-gen Watch very soon, possibly during its</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span>September event<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">. Apple usually slashes a product's supplies when it's about to launch a refresh, but it's not always this conspicuous.</span></div>
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Rumors of a second-gen Watch have been going around for a while, along with reports of possible features, such as built-in GPS and cellular connection. If the new wearable is indeed making an appearance on September 7th, it could be launched alongside the new iPhone. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">9to5 mac </em>has a pretty comprehensive list of Watch variants marked as Sold Out. But you can head over to Apple's website and click around on your own to find that even those marked as "New" aren't available anymore. You'll also see that each category -- Sports, Stainless Steel, Hermes and Edition -- has several Sold Out listings. If you've been thinking of finally getting an Apple Watch, it'll definitely be wise to wait until the event is over. That way, you can be sure that you don't miss out on getting a second-gen wearable or a discount on the first.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-1567964320662864212016-08-14T03:09:00.003-07:002016-08-28T23:43:19.948-07:00MIT's and Microsoft's flash tattoos can control gadgets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The great news is, they actually look wearable.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Those stylish flash tattoos could do more than just look cool in the future. A team from MIT and Microsoft Research has </span><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/12/duoskin/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">developed</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> a fabrication process called "DuoSkin," which can be used to make temporary metallic tattoos that double as on-skin interfaces. MIT Media Lab already demonstrated their capability in three different ways. First, they can be used for input to control mobile devices and computers, transforming your skin into a trackpad, a button or a slider. They can also be used to turn your skin into a display of sorts, changing colors based on your body temp. Finally, they can store data that phones and other NFC-enabled devices can read.</span></div>
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One of the team's lead researchers, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, said DuoSkin tattoos are pretty easy to make. You can use any graphics software to create patterns for the circuit and simply slap on a gold leaf layer on top for conductivity. A lot of research teams besides Kao's are also developing high-tech temp tattoos, but these ones look like something people would actually love to wear. If you want to know more about DuoSkin than what the video below reveals, make sure to check out MIT's scientific paper on the project's <a href="http://duoskin.media.mit.edu/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">official website</a>.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-11810834856691512132016-08-14T03:05:00.003-07:002016-08-28T23:43:35.509-07:00Tesla preps an extra long-range battery for its electric cars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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You could see 100D versions of the Model S and Model X in the near future.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Tesla has dropped hints that it's ready to extend the range of its electric cars (there was an allusion to a "P100D" hidden in firmware), but it now looks like that long-distance technology is getting closer to fruition.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2b2d32; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dutch regulators have </span><a href="http://blog.kenteken.tv/2016/08/12/typeapproval-database-indicates-release-tesla-p100d/" style="background-color: white; border-color: initial; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #da1e5c; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.25s; vertical-align: baseline;">approved</a><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2b2d32; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 100D and P100D versions of both the Model Sand Model X, hinting that a 100kWh power pack might soon hit the streets. If the listings are accurate, the Model S would get a whopping 380 miles on a charge -- no mean feat when the 90D can 'only' manage 294 miles. The Model X would likely have a shorter range given that the existing SUV officially tops out at 257 miles, but it's reasonable to say that you'd get over 300 miles on a charge.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #2b2d32; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Source: <a href="http://bloggeria5.blogspot.in/" target="_blank">Bloggeria</a></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-11654366056586696462016-08-13T03:11:00.001-07:002016-08-28T23:44:06.236-07:00A computer program that can replicate your handwriting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Even the worst penmanship can be mimicked.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Handwriting is a skill that feels personal and unique to all of us. Everyone has a slightly different style -- a weird quirk or a seemingly illegible scrawl -- that's nearly impossible for a computer to replicate, especially as our own penmanship fluctuates from one line to the next. A team at University College London (UCL) is getting pretty close, however, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">with a new system </span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">it's calling "My Text in Your Handwriting." A custom algorithm is able to scan what you've written on a piece of paper and then reproduce your style, to an impressive degree, using whatever words you wish.</span></div>
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To capture your scrawl, the team will ask you to write on four A4-sized sheets of paper (as little as one paragraph can deliver passable results, however). The text is then scanned and converted into a thin, skeletal line. It's broken down by a computer and a human moderator, assigning letters and their position within a word. They also look for "splits," where the line changes from a letter into a "ligature," -- the extra bits you need for joined-up handwriting. Finally, there are "links" which indicate that two separate marks are part of the same letter, for instance when crossing a "t."</div>
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The algorithm then works to replicate your handwriting style by referencing and adapting your previously scanned examples. You will have written the same letter on a number of different occasion, so the computer will look for the one that works best for the word or phrase it's trying to sketch out. A degree of randomness is then applied to ensure that the same letters and combinations aren't used more than once (an easy way for humans to figure out if a computer has written something).</div>
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Once your written examples or "glyphs" have been selected, the computer will figure out the appropriate spacing in between each letter. The height of each character and where it sits on the line is also taken into consideration. Finally, the "ligatures" are added to the computer-generated piece, along with some basic texturing to mimic the pen and ink you were using.</div>
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The results are fairly believable. As an experiment, the team asked a group to decide which envelopes -- all seemingly handwritten -- were produced by a computer. They chose incorrectly 40 percent of the time.</div>
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"Up until now, the only way to produce computer-generated text that resembles a specific person's handwriting would be to use a relevant font," Dr Oisin Mac Aodha, a member of the UCL team said. "The problem with such fonts is that it is often clear that the text has not been penned by hand, which loses the character and personal touch of a handwritten piece of text. What we've developed removes this problem and so could be used in a wide variety of commercial and personal circumstances."</div>
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The ability to scan and interpret handwriting isn't new -- plenty of apps let you sketch with a stylus or finger, and then convert this into text. Similarly, it's possible for software to reproduce digital text in a variety of seemingly human, handwritten styles. But the ability to reproduce your personal penmanship -- with words and sentences you might not have shown the computer -- is unprecedented. It could be used to help elderly people who are starting to lose their writing ability, or translate handwritten text into new languages while keeping the personality of the author.</div>
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If you're wondering if this sort of technology could be used to forge signatures and documents, the answer is yes, it's possible. The team at UCL has stressed, however, that their system works both ways, meaning it could be used by law enforcers to spot computer-aided forgeries too. Still, it's best to be wary the next time someone tries to sell you an autograph.</div>
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source: <a href="http://bloggeria5.blogspot.in/" target="_blank">Bloggeria</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-47538006045945008222016-08-13T03:07:00.000-07:002016-08-28T23:44:45.832-07:00SpaceX to start testing the engine that will take it to Mars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The engine is thrice as powerful as the one it currently uses.</h2>
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SpaceX has recently inched closer to realizing its head honcho's -- that's Elon Musk, but you already know that -- ambitious Mars plans. It has sent its next-generation rocket engine, the one it's developing for the rocket that will ferry a spacecraft to the red planet, to its McGregor, Texas facility for testing. Company president Gwynne Shotwell made that revelation during the Small Satellite Conference in Utah. A spokesperson also confirmed to <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ars Technica</em> that the engine is being prepped for testing in the Lone Star State.</div>
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SpaceX hasn't revealed much about the engine yet. We know, however, that it's called "Raptor," and that it will power Falcon Heavy's successor, the reusable rocket SpaceX is building for its Mars Colonial Transporter project. Musk once said at a Reddit AMA that it's capable of producing 500,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff. That makes it thrice as powerful as the engines its Falcon 9 and Heavy rockets use and puts it on par with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_main_engine" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #da1e5c; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.25s; vertical-align: baseline;">Space Shuttle engine</a>.</div>
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The CEO expects his Raptor-powered rocket to be able to lift off with a spacecraft that's 100 times the size of an SUV and carry up to 100 tons of cargo. It's important for manned missions bound for Mars to be able to carry huge amounts of supplies, since spacefarers on board face a long journey ahead of them.</div>
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SpaceX's goal is to launch its first manned flight to Mars as soon as 2024, and this latest development means that timeframe could be viable. According to <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ars</em>, rocket engine development can take up to seven years, and full-scale testing typically happens towards the end of its development. It's still unclear what kind of tests the company will do in Texas, though -- we'll just have to wait for the update Shotwell promised to reveal in the next few months.</div>
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source: <a href="http://bloggeria5.blogspot.in/" target="_blank">Bloggeria</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-91767083579834833302016-07-31T03:00:00.000-07:002016-08-28T23:45:41.770-07:00Tesla reportedly eyes brakes in fatal Model S crash<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The company insists it's not Autopilot's fault.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Tesla is considering two possible scenarios that would explain the fatal Model S crash in Florida, and according to </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-autopilot-congress-idUSKCN10928F" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Reuters</a> </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">and</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/business/tesla-faults-teslas-brakes-but-not-autopilot-in-fatal-crash.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The New York Times</em></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">, neither is about Autopilot. During a meeting with the US Senate Commerce Committee, the automaker reportedly presented two theories. First is the possibility that the car's automatic emergency braking system's camera and radar didn't detect the incoming truck at all. The other theory is that the braking system's radar saw the truck but thought it was part of a big structure, such as a bridge or a building. It's programmed to ignore huge structures to prevent false braking, after all.</span></div>
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If you'll recall, the Model S in this incident collided with a tractor trailer while Autopilot was on. Since the company's semi-autonomous driving system is a fairly new technology,
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both the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the incident. According to NTSB's preliminary results, the car was <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2016/07/26/ntsb-preliminary-report-tesla-speeding-autopilot-engaged-report/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">speeding</a> when it crashed into the bigger vehicle.</div>
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It's worth noting that the automaker considers its braking system a separate entity from Autopilot, which is in charge of steering and changing lanes. Tesla has always denied that the accident was <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">caused </em>by Autopilot, though it ended up breaking things off with the company that made its image recognition hardware.
A statement Tesla released in June only <a href="https://www.tesla.com/blog/tragic-loss" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">said</a> that "Neither [the feature] nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied."
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-26162288665369868502016-07-31T02:42:00.001-07:002016-07-31T03:05:43.798-07:00Wearable tech will be everywhere at this year's Olympics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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From payment rings to antimicrobial outfits, there's something for (almost) everyone.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">It's almost time. </span><a href="https://www.rio2016.com/en" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">The 2016 summer Olympics</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> are less than a week away, with the opening ceremony scheduled for August 5th. This year's event, which runs through August 21nd, takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the organizers have reportedly struggled to prepare for the games. Whether Rio is ready or not, some of the world's best athletes will be there to compete for gold medals in just a few days. Naturally, technology will have a presence at the Olympics. That includes wearables designed to make life easier</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> and safer</span> for Olympians<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> as well as others supposed to help in training</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">. Read on in the gallery below to learn about eight different pieces of gear the athletes will be using.</span><br />
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Gallery: Wearables at the Rio 2016 Olympics | 4 Photos</h4>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-83859148877275330372016-07-31T02:37:00.000-07:002016-07-31T03:06:23.816-07:00AMD's sub-$200 gaming video cards launch in early August<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Radeon RX 460 and RX 470 are meant for gamers with modest demands (and budgets).</h2>
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AMD said that the Radeon RX 480 would be followed up by lower-cost models this summer, and it's acting on that promise in a timely fashion. Both the RX 470 and RX 460 (not pictured above) are now <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/28/amd-announces-radeon-rx-470-and-rx-460-for-hd-and-esports-gaming/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">slated</a> to arrive on August 4th and August 8th respectively. While AMD hasn't outlined the specific pricing, these newer boards should cost significantly less than the $199 RX 480 -- the RX 460 should sit closer to the coveted $100 mark.</div>
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The imminent launch is also shedding some light on details of the cards themselves. The RX 470 may not be VR-friendly like its more advanced sibling, but it's surprisingly close. You can expect up to 4.9 teraflops of computing power (versus 5.8 for the RX 480), and you're still getting 4GB of RAM on a healthy 256-bit memory interface. Think of it as the "good enough" card -- you can play many new games at 60 frames per second, just at 1080p instead of 1440p.</div>
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The RX 460, meanwhile, is really a budget counterpart to last year's Radeon R9 Nano. It's much less powerful than the other RX cards (just 2.2 teraflops) and starts with 2GB of RAM on a 128-bit interface, but it's also far smaller and more power-efficient -- it uses less than 75W. The desktop card is ostensibly aimed at eSports gamers who only need brisk frame rates in titles like <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Overwatch</em> or <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rocket League</em>, but it's also built for small form factor desktops and even laptops.</div>
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Both cards help fill out an AMD strategy that's very different than in past years. Rather than take NVIDIA head-on in the graphics arena, it's trying to carve out a niche by offering a lot of bang for the buck. This is partly dictated by its own limitations (NVIDIA has generally led the high end for a while), but it could pay off if it gives AMD a relatively uncontested audience. Mind you, NVIDIA's newer graphics technology is becoming increasingly affordable -- it's entirely possible that the green team will encroach on AMD's turf.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-60643011587703986192016-07-31T02:27:00.003-07:002016-07-31T02:27:52.554-07:00Google brings Maps' multi-stop feature to iOS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It could sure make planning for road trips much easier.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Google is </span><a href="https://maps.googleblog.com/2016/07/now-you-can-build-multi-stop-road-trips.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">rolling out</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> Maps' multi-stop feature to the iOS app, making it easy to plan for road trips or even for a dreary day of running errands. The tech titan </span>introduced<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> the ability to set multiple destinations on Android back in June. Now that it's also out for Apple's mobile platform, you can simply tap "Add stop" and even rearrange destinations by holding and dragging them around if you have an iPhone. Just like when it was initially released, you might not be able to access the feature immediately. It might take a few days or so for the update to show up -- for now, you'll just have to plot routes the old way.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-15782059004311059162016-07-31T02:22:00.002-07:002016-07-31T02:22:36.091-07:00The Axon 7 finally fulfills ZTE's 'affordable premium' promise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A sharper display, superior sound and more attractive body could help this $399 phone take down its top rival.</h2>
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Over the years, smartphones have either been high end and expensive, or dirt cheap and shoddy. But, two years ago, the industry shifted and midrange phones that had great specs for lower prices started to fill the gap. ZTE has long been a proponent of what it calls the "affordable premium" device, and has thrown out middling handset after middling handset that met only the "affordable" part of that promise.</div>
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Gallery: ZTE Axon 7 review | 4 Photos</h4>
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Last year, the Chinese company debuted its Axon line, which was stuffed full of features to fulfill the premium promise. But the Axon Pro fell short, with an oddly hollow metal body, glitchy software and short battery life. It was also more expensive than last year's OnePlus. This year's Axon 7, however, is shaping up to be a far better contender, with the same $399 price as the OnePlus 3 and offering a higher-res screen, sharper camera and more premium design.</div>
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The Axon 7's design is the result of a team up between ZTE and BMW DesignWorks, and it's a definite improvement over its predecessor. My gold review unit has a smooth matte finish on its metal body that helps it reject fingerprints and is accented by eye-catching glossy chrome edges that are also around the camera and recessed fingerprint sensor. It looks and feels gorgeous in an elegant way that upstages the OnePlus 3.</div>
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Just like its predecessor, the Axon 7 has a row of dot cutouts on the top and bottom of its front face, but unlike the Pro, these grilles actually hide speakers. (The old Axon's grilles misled a lot of people into thinking it had dual speakers, but it only had one.) Below the display are capacitive keys for Back, Home and All Apps. There's also a dual SIM card slot on the left edge -- a welcome feature for frequent travelers.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">ZTE says the Axon 7 will eventually be ready for Google's "Daydream" mobile VR platform, and its display certainly seems prepared for the task. The 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED screen was a great canvas for my Netflix binging and Instagram sprees, but it was unfortunately dim in sunlight. Although it doesn't fix the lack of brightness, the Axon offers built-in software that lets you customize the display's color output. The tool lets you pick from three saturation profiles -- "Natural," "Colorful" and "Gorgeous" -- as well as "Warm," "Normal" and "Cool" color temperatures. I set the screen to "Gorgeous" and "Normal," which delivered higher contrast levels and deeper hues.</span></div>
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Complementing the screen is a HiFi audio setup. Not many smartphone makers pay attention to quality sound, but ZTE is so proud of its system that it devoted six pages out of a 33-page reviewer's guide to it. The only other component that got as much love was the camera. For the most part, the coverage was justified.</div>
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The Axon's dual front-facing stereo speakers pumped out distinct, clear sound that drowned out my laptop's speakers while both devices were set to their maximum volumes. The phone's speakers were so clear, in fact, that I could easily hear the crinkling of wrapping paper in the background of a scene over dialogue and overlapping music. The Axon was also loud enough to hear from another room. Dolby Atmos enhancements created a surround sound that is more immersive than I've experienced on other devices. One of the few other phones to place such a heavy emphasis on audio is the HTC 10, which lets you tailor music output to your hearing.</div>
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Gallery: ZTE Axon 7 camera samples | 4 Photos</h4>
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Continuing its quest to outdo the competition, ZTE also stuffed a 20-megapixel rear camera into the Axon 7. That sensor is sharper than what you'll find on the iPhone 6s, Nexus 6P and Galaxy S7. The Axon 7's camera has phase detection autofocus (PDAF), with optical and digital image stabilization that, when combined with the high megapixel count, should theoretically result in crisp pictures. However, real-world image quality was hit or miss. My shot of mosaic art at the 8th Street NYU subway station was clear enough to show individual tiles on the wall, but landscapes with buildings in them sometimes looked blurry.</div>
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The camera struggled in low light, too. Upper East Side buildings looked like grainy, dark brown, blobs in a nightscape, and the whole scene was covered with artifacts. Other phones, such as the similarly priced Alcatel Idol 4S, fared better in the same situation.</div>
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Up front, the Axon 7's 8-megapixel front camera takes decent portraits that have accurate colors and are sharp enough to see details such as my individual eyelashes. Thankfully, the "Beautify" mode erases imperfections on your face without going overboard and making you look like a painted-over caricature. Unlike most of this year's smartphones, though, the Axon doesn't offer a front flash feature for low-light selfies.</div>
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Armed with the same Snapdragon 820 chip as this year's Android flagships, the Axon 7 was impressively responsive. I relished taking down an enemy Pokémon Go gym as well as catching an oddly evasive Pidgey without any annoying lag -- in both cases with a host of apps running in the background.</div>
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Even when I used AZ Screen Recorder to capture my exploits while switching between the game and a Netflix video, the Axon kept pace without missing a beat. The only app in which I encountered delay was Pokémon Go, but that appeared to be a server issue rather than the device's performance.</div>
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You'll be able to enjoy day-long Pokémon Go expeditions without fear of running out of juice, too. The Axon 7's 3,250mAh battery typically lasted about a day and a half of light use, and I was surprised by the hours of "White Collar" I was able to stream (an impressive 6.5) before the low-battery alert popped up. When powered up with the included charger, the Axon 7 can get back up to 50 percent life in just 30 minutes, the company said.</div>
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Although it runs a pretty clean version of Android 6.0.1, the Axon 7 comes with some ZTE-made software changes that I was surprised to find helpful. Most interesting of these is the Power Manager that not only lets you monitor your battery consumption but also gives you the option of setting "power-saving policies" for individual apps such as disallowing autostart, scheduled background wake-up and allowing deep sleep.</div>
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A cool Mi-Pop tool adds a floating shortcut to the screen that you can place within reach of your thumb so you can access essential navigation buttons such as Back, Home and All Apps without stretching across the phone. This is a handy tool because trying to reach across the Axon's face can cause you to drop the phone.</div>
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There's also an intriguing "Voiceprint" function that's supposed to let you unlock your phone with your voice, but after I excitedly went through the setup process and said my keyphrase three times for the Axon to store it, the method never worked. No matter how many times I said, "Hello there" to the phone, whether its screen was on or off and regardless of the angle at which I held it (ZTE recommends 45 degrees away from your face), I couldn't get into my phone.</div>
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A small thing that infuriated me: Taking a screenshot doesn't automatically save it to your phone. You'll have to tap a checkmark below a preview of your snapshot to keep the file. What a waste of time.</div>
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Though software glitches like this exist, they're thankfully rare, and overall the Axon 7 feels like a dependable, well-made handset. If you want a cleaner OS and can live with a less-sharp screen, the OnePlus 3 is a better bet at the same price. But those who prefer a great multimedia experience and a distinct aesthetic will find a more suitable companion in the Axon 7.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-1860257751694508252016-07-31T01:58:00.004-07:002016-07-31T01:58:59.594-07:00Xbox One's Cortana update arrives at last<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The summer update also brings background music, convergence with Windows 10 and more.</h2>
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After months upon months of delays, Cortana is finally ready for your Xbox One. Microsoft has started <a href="http://news.xbox.com/2016/07/30/xbox-summer-update-starts-rolling/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">rolling out</a> its promised summer update with Cortana's smarter, richer voice control as its centerpiece. You can use your headset or Kinect to search games, invite friends to play and otherwise accomplish tasks that required either stiff commands or (gasp) your gamepad. This also represents another step toward tighter integration of the Xbox and Windows 10 experiences, such as platform-independent party chat and streamlined shopping that lets you redeem Xbox credits.</div>
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Even the not-quite-headline-worthy updates are fairly substantial. You can play background music from supporting apps (Pandora is first) when a game's soundtrack just won't do. It's easier to sift through your game collection, and you can set your language independently of where you live -- handy if you've moved to another country. No, the software doesn't fulfill all of Microsoft's promised Xbox One changes for this year (you'll have to wait until September for Play Anywhere), but it's undoubtedly one of the biggest updates in a long while.</div>
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watch the video <a href="https://youtu.be/SgeR1z846CE" target="_blank">here</a>...</div>
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source: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/" target="_blank">Engadget</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-61099503994192638262016-07-31T01:54:00.001-07:002016-07-31T01:59:09.467-07:00Mini review : Our quick verdict on the Alcatel Idol 4S<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white;">It's a forgettable phone, but it comes with a decent VR headset.</span></h2>
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<span class="tx-dropped-cap mb-n30 mr-10 inline c-black left" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #0b0c0d; display: inline; float: left; font-size: 188px; line-height: 160px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">A</span>lcatel isn't a tier-one company. And the Idol 4S, its latest creation, isn't a tier-one phone. So why did we even bother reviewing it, then? It's all about the value -- specifically, what comes in the box. For $399 (or $350, if you pre-order), you get both the mid-range phone <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">and</em> a simple virtual reality headset to go with it. It's true, this VR viewer isn't at the same level as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or even the Samsung Gear VR, but it's good enough for people who haven't yet experienced this whole virtual reality thing and are keen to give it a try.</div>
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As for the phone itself, we enjoyed its loud, two-way speakers and bright 5.5-inch AMOLED display. Just know that because this is a mid-range phone, after all, the performance and camera won't match any of the high-end devices we typically review. If you weren't going to spend high-end money anyway, and are also looking to get into VR, this could be the ticket.</div>
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Pros</h5>
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<li><span style="color: #56585c; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 30px;">Included VR goggles</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #56585c; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 30px;">Affordable</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #56585c; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 30px;">Loud, two-way speakers</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #56585c; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 30px;">Bright, roomy display</span></li>
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Cons</span></h5>
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<li><span style="color: #56585c; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 30px;">Not as fast as competing phones</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #56585c; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 30px;">Camera struggles in low light</span></li>
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Summary</h4>
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The Alcatel Idol 4S’ biggest selling point is not what came in the box, but the box itself, which doubles as a VR headset. The $350 (pre-order price) device comes with its own VR viewer so you can immediately start exploring immersive content when you get it. If not for the bargain of a bundle, the Idol 4S would have a hard time standing out from other, better-performing phones in this price range.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-44566966725634578372016-07-31T01:40:00.003-07:002016-07-31T01:40:44.321-07:00Recommended Reading: Nintendo's NX sounds weird and that's okay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Based on </span>the rumors so far<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">, Nintendo's upcoming NX handheld console will be... unique. This piece from </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eurogamer, </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">a site that's been the source of some of the details, takes a look at why switching things up a bit may be the company's best bet. A touchscreen device with detachable controllers may sound strange, but if the reports are true, "we should savor and celebrate NX's weirdness" like </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Eurogamer </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">explains here.</span></div>
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<tr style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><td style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #56585c; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 20px 15px 0px; vertical-align: top;" valign="top" width="50%"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif !important; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 25px; padding: 15px 0px 5px;">
<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.playboy.com/articles/how-uncharted-4-fails-nathan-drake" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">How 'Uncharted 4' fails Nathan Drake</a></span><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Phil Hornshaw,<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Playboy</em></div>
<div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif !important; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-top: 35px; padding: 15px 0px 5px;">
<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Uncharted 4 </em>offers closure, but it's not as satisfying as it could be according to <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Playboy's </em>Phil Hornshaw.</div>
</td><td style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #56585c; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 20px; vertical-align: top;" valign="top"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif !important; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 25px; padding: 15px 0px 5px;">
<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/science/last-universal-ancestor.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Meet Luca, the ancestor of all living things</a></span><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Nicolas Wade,<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> The New York Times</em></div>
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Scientists have learned more about how life started on Earth. It began with Luca, a single-cell organism that's estimated to be four billion years old.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/07/26/484989089/first-dude-why-bill-clinton-could-make-a-powerful-first-spouse" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">'First Dude'? Why Bill Clinton could make a powerful First Spouse</a></span><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Mara Liasson,<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> NPR</em></div>
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The Democrats made the first female presidential nominee official this week. That means we could also see a male First Spouse for the first time. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">NPR </em>discusses why a former president's role would be important.</div>
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<span style="color: #56585c;">source: </span><span style="color: lime;"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/" target="_blank">Engadget</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/read/all-signs-point-to-russia-being-behind-the-dnc-hack" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">All signs point to Russia being behind the DNC hack</span></a><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Thomas Rid, <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Motherboard</em></div>
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You've likely read reports tying the recent DNC hack to Russia by now. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Motherboard </em>takes a look at the timeline of events and offers evidence that the breach was indeed the work of Russians. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-45552102517843863652016-07-30T03:12:00.005-07:002016-07-30T03:25:56.103-07:00Google is turning on HSTS encryption on its domain<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Google's domain has been updated, but there are still some kinks to work out before full deployment.</h2>
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Google has taken additional measures to strengthen its data encryption by implementing HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS).</div>
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While most of Google's data is already encrypted, Google's utilization of HSTS<br />
goes a step further by preventing users from mistakenly heading to HTTP URLs<br />
by converting potentially unsafe HTTP URLs into more secure HTTPS URLs. For instance, you might accidentally type in a URL without protocols and find yourself redirected to an unsafe destination. HSTS help curb those issues, especially<br />
among less internet-savvy users.</div>
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Google is looking to deploy the changes as soon as possible, but there's still some additional work to be done before it's ready to go. HSTS is now active for Google's domain, however, in the meantime. It will be extended to additional domains and Google products soon.</div>
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source: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/" target="_blank">Engadget</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-88963660508103066452016-07-30T02:48:00.000-07:002016-07-30T03:27:24.616-07:00Mercedes pulls confusing autonomous car ad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The new E-class sedan's commercial featured an F015 cameo.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Mercedes has pulled its 2017 E-class sedan ad after critics pointed out that it could mislead people into thinking it's an autonomous vehicle. In the commercial, you'll see</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> the E-class sedan on the road, overtaking the automaker's F015 autonomous car </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">concept -- the same futuristic car </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">we previewed</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">last year that looked like it came right</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> out of</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Minority Report</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">. A voiceover then says "Is the world truly ready for a vehicle</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> that can drive itself? Ready or not, the future is here" You'll also see the sedan's driver taking his hands off the wheel while the car is in motion.</span></div>
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Problem is, the E-class sedan is <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">not</em> an autonomous vehicle. It only has a driver assist feature called "Drive Pilot" for cruise control and automated steering,<br />
designed to frequently remind people to keep their hands on the steering wheel. According to <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20160728/RETAIL03/160729833/mercedes-pulls-ad-challenged-by-safety-groups" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Automotive News</a>, s</em>afety advocates such as <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Consumer Reports</em> and<br />
the Center for Automotive Safety asked the FTC to investigate the ad and the company. In the end, Mercedes decided to pull the ad completely. A spokesperson from the automaker told the publication:</div>
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"The new 2017 E class is a technological tour de force and is a significant step towards achieving our vision of an accident-free futur:We do not want any potential confusion in the marketplace to detract from the giant step forward in vehicle safety the 2017 E class represents."</div>
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The company already removed the video from its YouTube channel, but<br />
<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Automotive News</em> was able to preserve a copy, which you can watch <a href="https://youtu.be/C0d5e1c_qo0" target="_blank">here</a>:</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-84397507791152476832016-07-30T02:45:00.001-07:002016-07-30T02:45:33.565-07:00Host other people's Twitch streams from your mobile device<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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See a cool stream you want to share while you're out and about? Go for it.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">The line between using </span>Twitch on mobile<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> and desktop is getting even more blurry. The live-streaming juggernaut recently announced that now, you can </span><a href="http://bloggeria5.blogspot.in/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">host another channel's broadcast</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> from the mobile app. </span>Twitch writes that<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> all you need to do is tap the gear button in the app, hit "Host" and you should be good to go. It's available for everyone </span>on iOS<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> at the moment, and will be rolling out slowly for Android. Need to update? Hit the source link below if your iDevice hasn't updated yet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">source: <a href="http://www.itunes.com/" target="_blank">iTunes</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-16299679432161055782016-07-30T02:38:00.002-07:002016-07-30T02:38:45.724-07:00SwiftKey leaked user email addresses as text predictions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Your phone is now using someone else's autocorrect library. Awkward.</h2>
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Autocorrect mistakes are <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">supposed</em> to be funny, but a new SwiftKey glitch turned out to be sort of alarming. For the last week, some SwiftKey users have been offered predictive text for slang they've never used before, words in other foreign languages and, most concerning, email addresses and phone numbers they've never seen.</div>
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The trouble, it seems, was with the third-party keyboard's cloud sync service. Users were somehow receiving data from <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">other</em> user's SwiftKey language models -- providing them with text entry predictions intended for someone else entirely. On a surface level, the glitch sounds harmless enough, but commonly used contact information can wind up in your Swiftkey database. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/4u5b7d/holy_fk_swiftkey_is_giving_me_someone_elses/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Users on </a><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/4u5b7d/holy_fk_swiftkey_is_giving_me_someone_elses/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Reddit</a> </em>reported finding email addresses they weren't familiar with offered to them on login pages, and some users even received phone calls from folks who found their number through SwiftKey's predictive text. That's a really weird way to have your contact information leaked.</div>
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SwiftKey says that the issue only affected a small number of its customers, and has temporarily disabled its cloud sync service and removed email address predictions from its apps. The company asks users who think they may still be experiencing the problem to contact them at <a href="mailto:reviews@swiftkey.com" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">reviews@swiftkey.com</a>. As for the rest of us? We'll probably text a little more cautiously. Autocorrect errors <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/autocorrect" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-style: inherit; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">may be a meme</a>, but not everybody wants to be a part of the joke.</div>
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source: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/" target="_blank">Engadget</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-43099454769224198382016-07-30T02:20:00.000-07:002016-07-30T02:23:00.244-07:00A day with BlackBerry's all-touch DTEK50 smartphone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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What, exactly, does $299 get BlackBerry customers?</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">BlackBerry pulled back the curtain on its new </span>DTEK50 smartphone<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> a few days ago, and soon after gave hungry journalists units to play with. I'm still working on my full review of BlackBerry's $299 Hail Mary pass, but since I spent a day playing with it, here's a peek into an evening of nutso, BlackBerry-centric thinking. Long story short, it's all at once a perfectly adequate phone with serious security chops, a shrewd business move and a lesson in lousy marketing.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1 PM:</span> After a handy Q&A session, I'm given a DTEK50 of my phone to play with. First impressions: Yep, this feels like an Alcatel phone. In case you missed it the other day, the DTEK50 is based on the TCL reference design that ultimately gave us Alcatel's (still-unreleased) Idol 4. Both share a 5.2-inch, 1080p screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 chipset, 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel main camera, a 2,600mAh battery and even a convenience key on the phone's right side to which you can assign shortcuts. (Alcatel called it a "boom" key, but BlackBerry's naming choice was the right one.) If you're like me, though, you'd keep trying to wake up the phone using that button, which doesn't work unless you specifically set it to.</div>
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Oh, and there's more. There's no fingerprint sensor, and it only has 16GB of internal storage. (You can at least you can beef it up with a microSD card.) The DTEK50 is startlingly light, too, lacking the reassuring density of the high-end BlackBerry Priv.</div>
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I'm torn. It's a BlackBerry in name and in functionality, but this is the first time I can remember the company leaving hardware design almost entirely up to someone else. Even the low-cost Leap we first met last year felt more substantial. There was a certain level of aesthetic pride that went into BlackBerrys, but the company's shift in strategy has given us a phone that doesn't feel special in the way the company's older phones did.</div>
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Gallery: First look: BlackBerry DTEK50 | 4 Photos</h4>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2:30 PM:</span> Ran down to St. Marks to get some footage of the DTEK50 for our hands-on video. Setting up the phone was business as usual, but the phone got noticeably warm for reasons that weren't readily apparent. At the same time, battery drain kicked into high gear for a spell, even though few apps were running at the time. Weird. My hopes for this phone start to sink a bit.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">4:30 PM:</span> Hustled back to the office to give the DTEK50 a much-needed charge. Thankfully, Qualcomm's QuickCharge 2.0 tech got the phone back on its feet within minutes and I let it regain about a half charge. I fiddled with it more in the meantime; it's a pretty smooth little machine, and the DTEK50 seemed like a decent, slightly underpowered workhorse. It would've been nice to see BlackBerry choose a reference design with a beefier chipset like a Snapdragon 652, but the company wanted to keep costs down. I haven't yet gotten a great feel for the camera but early test shots seemed in line with other devices that cost the same, and the screen's pretty decent, to boot. Meanwhile, my boss Dana says the DTEK50's textured back reminds her of a cat's scratching post.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6:30 PM</span>: My latest meeting ends and I'm back at the office contemplating the DTEK50 again. BlackBerry insists that the DTEK isn't a rebranded device -- it's a standalone smartphone with security as its biggest selling point. From security keys baked into the processor during manufacturing to the full-disk encryption that's enabled by default, It's clear that BlackBerry's security know-how is one of its most powerful assets.</div>
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You won't notice much of that in practice, though. The phone's namesake DTEK app gives you a quick look at how secure your device is and how you can lock it up even further, but that's really all the insight you'll get. On the plus side, though, DTEK also gives you the option to manage your apps' permissions from inside it, which is a nice touch made possible by Android Marshmallow.</div>
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If you've used a Priv before, you'll feel immediately at home with the DTEK50's software features. As usual, you can manage your messages from the BlackBerry Hub and swipe up on app icons to see their widgets. The DTEK50 is another mostly-stock-Android affair, and I'm warming up to it more because of that. It certainly doesn't hurt that the company's secure-software approach hasn't impeded performance; it's as fast as the new Moto G4, but I wonder if there's anything here regular consumers would respond to.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">8:30PM:</span><span style="font-family: "guardian textegyp" , serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> After a beer -- fine, a few beers -- the DTEK50 makes perfect sense. As a business move, it's a great idea: BlackBerry gets a new device on the market without spending loads of money on product development. It's also an appropriate follow-up to the Priv, if you think about it. BlackBerry's first Android phone dealt with some serious scrutiny from critics and security buffs alike, and for the most part, the company is pleased with how it all turned out. Now that it had a better sense of how the response to an Android-powered BlackBerry, the company was free to take that formula and apply it to a device that was meant to be sold in bulk -- to businesses, say, or governments. The DTEK50 is, as company spokespeople called it, a "fleet" device. If the DTEK50 finds a foothold with regular people, great! If not, so be it. As long as those corporations snap them up.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px inherit inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">11 PM:</span> It's late, I'm tired and the DTEK50 is still hanging on -- 15 percent battery to go. And seriously, this thing is actually called the DTEK50? BlackBerry says it's meant partially to evoke the numbers used by BB10 devices -- the company topped out with the Z30 before switching back to proper names, so "50" was the next logical step. Still, it's straight-up gibberish without a nuanced understanding of BlackBerry's recent history.</div>
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I'm growing fonder of this thing, though, partially because it's a solid little phone but also because it's a symbol of John Chen's shrewdness. He's said countless times before that BlackBerry will bail out of the hardware business if it's not profitable, but dang it, the company just keeps trying anyway.</div>
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source: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/" target="_blank">Engadget</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-3465142700637465722016-07-29T03:52:00.002-07:002016-07-29T03:52:17.828-07:00Ultimaker makes a backpack for its 3D printers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It carries the 3D printer in its original foam packaging.</h2>
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Ultimaker's<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> 3D printers will now </span>ship out<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> with a backpack, so you can take them anywhere you want. Now, we don't know why you'd want to to lug a big device around, but we won't judge. Maybe you want to impress a cute, geeky date or print out anything you want to on the go. Or maybe, like the team behind </span>3DPrinterOS<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> -- those two dudes in the picture above -- you actually </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">need</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> to carry a printer with you for something important, such as teaching 3D printing classes. Whatever your reasons are, this backpack designed to carry the printer in its foam packaging is at least a safer option than regular bags. So, next time a friend moans about the need for a </span>special weapon<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> that can up their </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pokémon</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> Go game, you can say "I got you, bro."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #2b2d32; font-family: Guardian TextEgyp, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">watch the video <a href="https://youtu.be/ny0BW80ozxg" target="_blank">here</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2b2d32; font-family: Guardian TextEgyp, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">source: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/" target="_blank">Engadget</a></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-32677248667607926092016-07-29T03:44:00.005-07:002016-07-29T03:44:54.599-07:00Kickstarter created over 300,000 jobs, study says<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #56585c; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 25px;">It also gave rise to 8,800 companies.</span><br />
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Kickstarter has created 29,600 full-time and 283,000 part-time jobs, as well as 8,800 companies thus far, according to a study by Professor Ethan Mollick from the University of Pennsylvania. Mollick, who's been keeping a close eye on Kickstarter for years, surveyed 61,654 successful projects from 2009 to 2015 to look at how the crowdfunding website has been benefiting creators. His study says projects tend to get $2.46 in revenue outside of the website for every dollar pledged, though the amount tends to be higher in food and product design. In all, he estimates that Kickstarter generated a whopping $5.3 billion for the creators and their communities.</div>
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Besides listing out a bunch of estimates, Mollick also noted that 37 percent of his survey's responders said their projects helped them advance their careers. A total of 21 percent said they started earning more after running a successful campaign. Some filmmakers, musicians, authors and video game creators reported securing distribution and publishing deals, as well, thanks to their projects. All these numbers sound impressive, but it's worth noting that Kickstarter helped with data gathering. That said, the company swears it had no influence over the professor's analyses.</div>
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Besides conjuring up these estimates, Mollick pointed out that the website made it possible for big ventures such as the Oculus Rift and the Pebble smartwatch to take off. Oculus ended up being part of Facebook after the social network snapped it up for $2 billion, while Pebble ignited people's interest in smartwatches. However, folks with great ideas may want to keep in mind that Kickstarter still isn't a magic formula for success. According to the stats the website published, it served as host to more (196,240) unsuccessfully funded than successfully funded projects. Among the 109,662 campaigns that met their goal, around 1 in 10 failed to deliver on their promises and to ship out backers' rewards.</div>
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source: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/" target="_blank">Engadget</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284700925169063697.post-49206291452205966652016-07-29T03:41:00.001-07:002016-07-29T03:41:27.815-07:00Microsoft is laying off 2,850 more workers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The cuts are mostly related to its disastrous Nokia acquisition.</h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Microsoft is cutting an additional 2,850 jobs on top of 1,850 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">announced</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">in May 2016, meaning it has laid off over 10 percent of its workforce in the last two years. Most are ex-Nokia employees from its mobile hardware division, it said in its annual SEC</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">filing</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">. That means Microsoft has almost nothing left of its</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">$7.2 billion</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2d32; font-family: "Guardian TextEgyp", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">Nokia acquisition, originally intended to make it a smartphone hardware player. The software giant has already notified 900 of the employees and will complete the remaining layoffs by mid-2017.</span></div>
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Microsoft's mobile phone plans are a big question mark, as sales are in a free fall. The only ray of hope for Windows Phone fans (if there are any left) is that Microsoft hinted last year that it needs to make a mobile device as good as the Surface line. A "Surface Phone," however, is still nothing more than a rumor and if it does come along, would likely be aimed at Microsoft's core business market and not consumers. With layoffs now totaling 12,100 in two years, however, Microsoft seems to want nothing to do with building smartphones.</div>
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source: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/" target="_blank">Engadget</a></div>
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