Items tagged with Misc
Twitch is a popular platform for watching and sharing video game footage, seeing top-notch players broadcasting their thing, enjoying special events, and more--and now it’s the property of Google, via YouTube. According to Variety, YouTube acquired Twitch for a cool billion dollars. The deal is reportedly an...
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Perhaps it’s stating the obvious, but deaf people can have a difficult time communicating with hearing people. The easiest method of interaction is sign language, but unless you or a loved one regularly use it, you probably don’t know how to communicate in ASL (American Sign Language). Thus, deaf people...
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Perhaps you’re a truly robust cyclist, thoroughly unafraid of hills of any size, but many of us are not. (Especially those who frequently schlep one or more children in a tow-behind.) Thus, having a sense of the elevation of your chosen bike route is quite a helpful tool. Google Maps has added just such a feature to its bike routes,...
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From Apple to Yahoo, tech companies have a great deal of our data in their hands, and thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden, we know that the government wants as much of it as possible--and has been too successful in that regard. In some cases, there’s just nothing much a company can do when the NSA comes...
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In what is an incredibly pleasant surprise, Apple and Google released a joint statement stating that the two companies have agreed to drop all of the ongoing patent litigation between them pertaining to smartphones. "Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform," said the...
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It turns out the scuttlebutt from back in March is true: Ubisoft announced that Far Cry 4 is coming this November for consoles and PCs. It will be out on November 18th in the U.S. and November 20th in EMEA, and it will be available on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows PCs. “Pack away your tropical...
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No one can accuse Tesla’s founder Elon Musk of thinking too small, and his latest vision is for a monstrous “gigafactory” to make batteries (at a reduction in cost of about 30%) that will not only power electric Tesla cars but would also serve any number of other applications in various industries. According to the San Jose...
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More or less as expected, the FCC voted to advance the new net neutrality rules that would allow ISPs to charge certain web companies more for “fast lanes” for content. It’s a decision that net neutrality advocates are unhappy with because they see it as an unhealthy compromise, while net neutrality...
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To paraphrase David Letterman, we wouldn’t give Nintendo’s troubles to a monkey on a rock. Amid a terrible sales performance that only got worse over the first quarter of this year (Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took a 50% pay cut over the the Wii U’s awful sales back in January) and a mini-scandal when word emerged that...
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Today is a momentous occasion in the life of one the tech world’s greatest wunderkinds: Mark Zuckerberg turns 30. It’s an even more notable birthday for the Facebook founder than the average joe because of an off-the-cuff comment he made about younger people being smarter than older people back in 2007...
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AOC’s new 24-inch monitor looks nice enough at first blush, with a relatively thin silver bezel and what is no doubt a crisp, bright image, but underneath is where the good stuff is located. The company built a pair of 7W Onkyo speakers into the base. AOC is billing this display (the i2473Pwm) as “ideal...
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If there was any doubt about Netflix’s huge popularity in North America, consider that according to a new report from Sandvine, the streaming video service accounts for more than one-third of all Internet traffic. Netflix was responsible for 31.6% of traffic, but with a bump to Super HD (4K) content for users...
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Microsoft keeps pushing out updates by and by to improve the overall Windows 8.1 experience, and the latest update concerns the Windows Store. Microsoft announced that it has gussied up the look of the store and has made it easier to navigate and find the apps you’re looking for. The old store There is now a...
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There are killer chassis and then there are killer chassis, and Thermaltake’s special edition Level 10 Gaming Station is a thing to behold. The unique construction coupled with the fact that it’s made from titanium makes this case a jaw-dropper, but if you want one, you’ll have to be...
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Okay, you feel strongly about net neutrality rules, but you roll your eyes at the prospect of a bunch of aging rockstars advocating for it. What do cats like Eddie Vedder, Tom Morello, Michael Stipe, Fugazi, and more have to do with any of the issues at hand? Actually, they have a really good point to bring to the...
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Another day, another exploit/attack/hack/breach/phishing scam to worry about. This one concerns Valve’s Steam Guard Protection and a new phishing scheme that, if successful, allows a cybercriminal to steal a file that will bypass the Steam Guard Protection and allow the thief to log in to the victim’s account from any computer....
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Intel’s latest chipset is Z97, and along with a growing mountain of motherboards sporting the new tech, HyperX (a division of Kingston) is releasing memory kits that support the chipset, too. All three of its FURY, Genesis, and Predator memory lines are getting a 9-series refresh, and the company said that it worked closely with motherboard...
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You surely know about Parrot and its drone quadricopters, but the company is releasing a new version called the Bebop that comes loaded with impressive features, including the ability to experience POV flight via the drone’s HD camera and an Oculus Rift headset. (Incidentally, we sort of did the same thing with...
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Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, lead a DEKA Research and Development team that built an amazing prosthetic arm that they affectionately call “Luke” (after the handless hero of Star Wars), and that arm has now been approved for sale in the U.S. by the FDA. What makes the Luke DEKA Arm System so...
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Google is kind of involved in everything, and the company is tackling clean energy with gusto, too. In conjunction with a White House push for renewable energy and agreements from some 300 organizations to pursue clean energy options that includes 1 billion square feet of buildings in the U.S. (and a $2 billion...
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Tesla has had an interesting week. First, the company talked about a political move in Missouri that would effectively prevent the company from selling its electric cars in the state, then in a quarterly filing, Tesla revealed that it will no longer supply batteries to Toyota for the latter’s RAV4 EVs. To the...
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Is Google trying to gussy up the image of Glass, which for some odd reason many people find upsetting, with a touching video? Yes? Is Google exploiting Mother’s Day to do so? Yes. Do we care? No, and that’s partially because director Aneesh Chaganty shot the whole thing with Google Glass, and the result is an engaging bit of film...
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