Samsung hat zumindest Teile der Streaming-Firma Boxee übernommen, die unter anderem Boxee TV entwickelt hat. Die Firma selbst hält derzeit still, aber die New York Times hat bereits eine Bestätigung von Samsung bekommen, die zumindest einige Details nennt.
Der Patentverwerter IPCom hat eine Vereinbarung mit der Telekom erreicht, bei der es möglicherweise um Lizenzgebühren in Millionenhöhe geht. Sie gewährt der Telekom Zugriff auf das gesamte Patentportfolio von IPCom.
Der Japaner Shota Ishiwatari hat mit dem Rapiro einen possierlichen Roboter für daheim entwickelt. Über die Crowdfunding-Plattform Kickstarter sucht er finanzielle Unterstützung für die Serienfertigung.
In seinen Funkmodulen will Qualcomm bald eine neue Technik namens "CnE" anbieten. Damit ausgestattete Smartphones sollen nicht nur alle erreichbaren WLANs und 3G-Netze nutzen, sondern diejenigen auswählen, die für den Anwender am sinnvollsten sind.
Mit einem Online-Appell will sich das Kampagnennetzwerk Campact für Snowdens Asyl in Deutschland stark machen. Eine Protestaktion vor dem Bundeskanzleramt soll den Aufruf unterstreichen. Zudem setzt sich eine Petition im Bundestag für Snowdens Aufnahme in Deutschland ein.
Digia hat sein Entwicklungsframework Qt in der der Version 5.1 veröffentlicht. Was eigentlich nur ein Bugfix-Release werden sollte, bringt zahlreiche Neuerungen mit und erlaubt es Experimentierfreudigen, nun auch Apps für iOS und Android zu entwickeln.
Eine vergleichsweise preisgünstige Lösung für das Laufen in virtuellen Welten soll Wizdish werden. An der Kampagne auf Kickstarter gibt es allerdings Kritik - nicht weil die Macher zu viel, sondern nach Auffassung der Community zu wenig versprechen.
Fernsicht statt Sichtkorrektur: Forscher aus der Schweiz und den USA haben eine Kontaktlinse entwickelt, die neben normaler Sicht auch eine 2,8fache Vergrößerung bietet. Per Shutterbrille wird zwischen beiden Ansichten umgeschaltet.
Auch die jüngsten Enthüllungen über die Ausspähung deutscher Daten haben Sicherheitsdienste und Regierung überrascht. Die Opposition sieht nun eine "klare Schutzlücke" deutscher Bürger und Unternehmen, die geschlossen werden müsse.
Nokia hat mit dem 208 ein neues Handy zum Kampfpreis von 62 Euro vorgestellt. Es bietet HSPA, einen Browser sowie eine Kamera und kann mit zwei SIM-Karten bestückt werden.
Die Opposition will Geheimdienste und Regierung wegen der US-Überwachungsprogramme zur Rede stellen. Für die Zuflucht Edward Snowdens sei jedoch nur eine europäische Lösung denkbar.
Mit seiner offenen Spielewelt war das 1999 veröffentlichte Outcast seiner Zeit voraus. Jetzt haben die Entwickler die Rechte an ihrem Klassiker von Atari zurückgekauft.
Windows 8.1 macht einige Fehler von Windows 8 rückgängig. Microsoft gelingt es, alte Funktionen auf neue Art zu integrieren. Zu unserer Überraschung werden 16:10-Displays nun besser unterstützt. Es bleibt aber bei dem 2-in-1-System mit zwei Oberflächen und Systemsteuerungen.
Ab dem 5. Juli 2013 erweitert DHL seinen Service für Privatkunden. Auch wer dem Unternehmen seine Daten noch nicht zur Verfügung gestellt hat, kann dann einen Tag vor Zustellung über ein Paket benachrichtigt werden.
Microsoft will sein neues Betriebssystem für seine Bing-Anzeigenkunden ein wenig öffnen. Werbewebseiten sollen in den Ergebnissen der Smart Search von Windows 8.1 eingeblendet werden.
Kleinere Wasserfahrzeuge könnten sich künftig per Rückstoß wie ein Krake vorwärtsbewegen. Der Antrieb, den Fraunhofer-Forscher entwickelt haben, kommt aus dem 3D-Drucker.
Die Smartwatch Pebble ist nun auch im US-Handel erhältlich. Das verärgert Kunden, insbesondere aus Deutschland, die das Unternehmen über Kickstarter frühzeitig unterstützt und ihre Uhren noch nicht erhalten haben.
Apple hat ein Sicherheitsupdate für Snow Leopard, Lion und Mountain Lion veröffentlicht. Über HPs Zero Day Initiative wurden in den Mac-OS-X-Versionen gefährliche Sicherheitslücken in der Quicktime-Komponente entdeckt.
Weil der NSA-Whistleblower an Bord der bolivianischen Präsidentenmaschine vermutet wurde, soll ihr der Überflug über Frankreich kurzfristig verweigert worden sein. Die Maschine musste aus Treibstoffmangel in Wien landen.
Samsung hat in den ersten zwei Monaten seit dem Verkaufsstart 20 Millionen Galaxy S4 verkauft. Damit hat sich Samsungs derzeitiges Topmodell besser verkauft als das Vorgängermodell, das Galaxy S3.
Mit seinem Adventure Broken Age hat Tim Schafer die Crowdfunding-Plattform Kickstarter bekanntgemacht. Jetzt steckt ausgerechnet sein Projekt in Schwierigkeiten und soll mit Verspätung und in zwei Teilen erscheinen.
HTCs One S wird vom Hersteller doch kein Update auf Android 4.2 erhalten. Das Smartphone wird damit dauerhaft bei Android 4.1 bleiben.
Yahoo übernimmt die Videosharingplattform Qwiki. Über eine iPhone-App können Qwiki-Nutzer aus Fotos und Videos Filme erstellen und mit anderen teilen.
Erneut sind Konten von Ubisoft-Kunden gehackt worden. Anders als im April 2013 erfolgte der Zugriff nicht über Uplay. Gefahr für Zahlungsdaten besteht nicht, Nutzer sollen ihre Passwörter ändern.
Mit Releases führt Github eine wichtige Funktion ein: Releases ermöglichen die Verteilung von Softwarepaketen über Github, was früher über das Download-Tab von Github schon einmal möglich war.
Käufer eines Moto X sollen das Android-Smartphone nach eigenen Wünschen gestalten können. In den USA erscheint eine erste Werbekampagne für das Moto X, die weitere Details zu Motorolas erstem Smartphone unter Google-Regie nennt.
Um die Akkus eines Elektroautos zu laden, muss meist ein Stecker genutzt werden. Doch das geht auch per Induktion vom Boden aus. Ein Fraunhofer-Institut hat bei einem solchen System jetzt einen besonders hohen Wirkungsgrad erreicht.
Mit dem Invisible Gamepad will Olivier Buigues mit einfachen Mitteln ein taktiles Feedback für Touchscreens von Tablets und Smartphones schaffen. Er hat eine Reihe von durchsichtigen Aufklebern entwickelt, die je nach Spiel oder Anwendung auf den Bildschirm geklebt werden.
Mozilla will ein Tablet mit Firefox OS auf den Markt bringen, und es soll gar nicht mehr so lange dauern. Ein erster Prototyp wurde bereits gezeigt. Eigentlich waren erst Tablets mit Firefox OS geplant, dann wurde jedoch erst auf Smartphones gesetzt.
Das Rennrad Vis Vires von Factor ist ein voll vernetztes Sportgerät, bei dem zahlreiche Sensoren direkt in den Rahmen verbaut sind. So kann der Fahrer nicht nur ein Navi auf dem Vorderbau nutzen, sondern auch Daten zu Trittfrequenz, Trittkraft, Rundenzeiten, Position und seinem Herzschlag abrufen.
Die Bundesregierung lehnt ein Asyl für den NSA-Whistleblower Edward Snowden ab. Die Begründung: "Die Voraussetzungen für eine Aufnahme liegen nicht vor."
Arkyd ist das erfolgreichste Weltraumprojekt auf Kickstarter: 1,5 Millionen US-Dollar hat das Weltraumbergbauunternehmen Planetary Resources für sein Weltraumteleskop auf der Crowdfunding-Plattform gesammelt - das Anderthalbfache der angestrebten Summe.
Nicht erst Ende 2013, sondern schon ab August 2013 gibt es Intels neue Atom-Architektur mit Codenamen Silvermont. Auch die Preise hat Intel nun bestätigt; wann genau mit ersten Geräten - insbesondere Tablets - zu rechnen ist, bleibt aber noch geheim.
Die drei Hauptfiguren in GTA 5 verfügen über ein Eigenleben - wer mag, kann sein Alter Ego im Alltag beobachten und sogar ins Krankenhaus bringen, so Rockstar Games. Außerdem hat das Studio jetzt Details über die Installation auf den Konsolenfestplatten bekanntgegeben.
Der Onlinekiosk Pubbles wird Ende September eingestellt. Er war als Konkurrenz zu Apple und Amazon gedacht und sollte eine Plattform von einem Medienunternehmen für andere werden, hatte jedoch kaum Erfolg.
US-Whistleblower Edward Snowden hat auch in Deutschland um Asyl gebeten. Nach Ansicht von Pro Asyl wäre eine Aufnahme "aus politischem Interesse" die bessere Lösung.
Nach dem zweiten Update für das Untoten-Actionspiel State of Decay gibt es technische Probleme - die Entwickler wissen nur nicht, welche. Und bitten die Community um Zusendung von Xbox-360-Speicherständen.
Die Fairphone-Macher haben Änderungen an einem entscheidenden Bauteil vorgenommen: Das Displayglas wird vom Touchpanel abgetrennt.
Alcatel-Lucent und Telekom Austria haben zusammen einen Übertragungsrekord mit Kupferkabel aufgestellt. Die eingesetzte Technologie wird G.fast genannt. G.fast wurde mit Vectoring kombiniert.
Eine russische Trägerrakete vom Typ Proton-M ist wenige Sekunden nach dem Start abgestürzt und explodiert. Sie sollte drei Glonass-Satelliten in die Erdumlaufbahn transportieren.
Oracle has quietly cut the list price of its flagship BI (business intelligence) Foundation Suite significantly, possibly in response to increased market competition. BI Foundation Suite was previously priced at $450,000 per processor license, but on an dated June 25, the cost is listed at $300,000. However, a named user plus license remained listed at $3,675. BI Foundation Suite encompasses Oracle BI Enterprise Edition 11g, BI Publisher, Essbase, Scorecard and Strategy Management, and Essbase Analytics Link, according to an official whitepaper. The new price list also lowers the price of BI Suite Enterprise Edition Plus from $295,000 to $221,250, as well as Scorecard and Strategy Management from $149,250 to $89,550.
(the little icon that appears on the favorites toolbar right below the address bar) had changed. In place of that familiar little blue "f," I was looking at some grayish approximation of a sailboat sail. I'm not sure how it happened or why, but fortunately all my other favicons looked fine. the only likely choice. Nope, nothing helpful there. Then I took to the Web, searching for articles on fixing broken favicons in Google Chrome, but found surprisingly little info on the subject. Apparently I could wipe the entire favicons database and then restart Chrome, but that seemed a little extreme—and I'd have to revisit every bookmarked site to get its favicon to reload.
A preview version of Windows Server 2012 R2 is now out, complete with a nag feature aimed at administrators. The can now download it. Since it's a preview version, administrators should probably not test it on production hardware. Microsoft also said that features could be tweaked before the final release, but did not announce a shipping date. Users cannot upgrade from an existing installation of Windows Server 2012 to the R2 release; they must, instead, perform a migration, executives said.
Given how many great laptops have been sullied by miserable touchpads, it’s good to hear that Microsoft is trying to do something about it. During last week’s Build 2013 conference, program manager James Clarke revealed an initiative called Precision Touchpad. Microsoft will work with Intel on the effort, as well as Elan and Synaptics, which offer trackpad technology to major PC vendors. .
Twitter is working on some new approaches to offer more personalized ads to users, partly based on their online activity outside of the social network. . The idea is to provide more relevant ads to users. “Users won’t see more ads on Twitter, but they may see better ones,” Weil said. Here’s how it would work, in Twitter’s words: Say a local florist wants to advertise a special offer on Twitter for Valentine’s Day, but only to flower enthusiasts who frequent the company’s website or subscribe to their newsletter.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will deliver the keynote address at a Microsoft research event later this month, the first time he has done so in eight years, Microsoft said. Gates will speak at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, and is scheduled to address “the role of computing in solving global problems,” according to Microsoft. He then will take questions from the audience. This is the first time Gates has spoken at the Summit since 2005. In 2008, Gates stepped down from his day-to-day post as chief executive at Microsoft to run his charity, the for his former employer. The Faculty Summit will present research from within Microsoft and elsewhere on the topics of software engineering and quantum computing, plus combating Internet fraud, refining prediction engines, and using social media during crises, Microsoft said.
Psst, want to get 1000 followers on Twitter, quick? It'll cost you: Eleven dollars. while the prices for these phony fans are coming down, making it easier than ever to boost your tweet cred. analyzed more than 1000 accounts that have invested in fake followers ("abusers" in its parlance). The company found that the average abuser has more than 50,000 followers on Twitter. Sixteen of those accounts had boosted their way to more than a million followers. The fake follower game has become remarkably sophisticated. It's easy to think of these phony followers as fly-by-night accounts that pop up one day and are deleted the next, but that's no longer the case. In analyzing nearly 100,000 fake accounts, Barracuda found that less than one in a thousand were less than three months old, with the average age of an account being about seven months. Fake accounts even send their own tweets (average: 77 times) and have their own followers (average: 32). In order to ensure an account looks legit, the secret seems to be taking a real user account, adding an underscore or another character to the end of it, and copying everything else from the account. You just can't get more real than using someone else's actual bio and picture.
With Creative Commons licenses, you can distribute your creative work for free and specify the conditions under which it can be used. For example, you can offer your work free for use, provided you receive attribution; or say that it's fine for personal or nonprofit projects to use your work, but that commercial ventures have to pay you. Attaching one of these licenses to the work removes any ambiguity or doubt as to the terms and conditions under which you share your work.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved a broad registry agreement that moves the organization forward in its efforts to offer more than 1000 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) for sale. The , announced Wednesday, includes a trademark clearinghouse where trademark holders can assert infringements by new websites in the new gTlDs. The agreement also creates a process for quick cancellations of infringing domain names, ICANN said in a press release. The New gTLD Program Committee of the ICANN Board of Directors approved the registry agreement, ICANN said. The new registry agreement also allows trademark holders to assert claims against a registry operators for domain name abuse if the operators have played an active role in the abuse.
In , the built-in Photos app will no longer serve as the hub for all your online and networked images. Microsoft will drop integration for Facebook and Flickr from the Photos app in the next version of Windows. A Microsoft representative confirmed the changes in response to . In addition, the Photos app in the (see above) no longer shows images from network storage or from SkyDrive, but these changes haven’t yet been confirmed as permanent. “In Windows 8, we wanted to provide a way for folks to view their photos on other services, knowing there would be few (if any) apps in the store at launch that would do so,” the representative said. “Now there are many apps in the store that offer ways to view photos on other services, and soon there will even be a Facebook app from Facebook.”
Back in 2010, Soluto's first product was a modest affair: All it aimed to do was cut your PC's boot time by removing clutter from your startup. It was , too. Since then, Soluto has grown considerably, and today offers a pro-level service allowing IT pros to support multiple machines. "Machines," by the way, now includes iPhones and iPads: Soluto recently started supporting iOS devices. Soluto comes in price tiers ranging from $10/month for up to 10 computers, all the way to $450/month for up to 300 machines (14-day free trial). I evaluated the lowest paid tier, $10/month. The smaller, personal version continues as
Google is benefiting in terms of advertisement revenue from YouTube videos that depict and even promote dangerous or illegal activities, two state attorneys general in the U.S. have stated in a letter to the company. The move follows concerns raised by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who asked Google last month to address issues on its search site that are allowing consumers to obtain illegal and counterfeit goods, including the online sale of dangerous drugs without a prescription. "We understand that YouTube is an open platform and that not all content can or should be policed," Jon Bruning, Nebraska attorney general, and Scott Pruitt, attorney general of Oklahoma, in the letter Tuesday. The officials said they found it "troubling" that Google actively seeks to profit from the posting of the objectionable videos, and asked Google for information on measures, if any, it has taken to avoid hosting paid advertising on videos containing illegal or objectionable content, and to remove such advertising once such videos are discovered.
A simple piece of malicious software is circulating that steals Litecoins, a virtual currency based on the Bitcoin system. Security vendor ESET wrote the malware infects Windows computers. The program tries to steal "wallet.dat" files, which are used to store Litecoins in software programs. Robert Lipovsky, a malware researcher with ESET.
Vizio, best known for manufacturing HDTVs, is a relative newcomer to the PC business. It’s been producing slim, minimalist laptops and all-in-one desktops for about 18 months. The Vizio CT15T-B1 is the latest iteration of the company’s 15.6-inch “Thin + Light” laptop, and its main selling point is a glossy HD touchscreen. The CT15T-B1, which costs $1470 as of this writing, maintains the signature look of Vizio laptops: It has a smooth, gunmetal-gray metallic cover with neatly beveled edges, a spacious keyboard deck, and an edge-to-edge glass screen. In fact, Vizio hasn’t really updated its design at all from the . Because it’s what’s on the inside that counts, right? Well, what’s on the inside of the CT15T-B1 is a little disappointing, since it was released before the launch of Intel’s fourth-generation Core (aka Haswell) processor. The CT15T-B1 sports a quad-core Intel i7-3635QM processor from the Ivy Bridge line, along with 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory and a 256GB SSD. It doesn’t disappoint when it comes to performance, though: With a Notebook Worldbench 8.1 score of 334, this is one of the speedier laptops we’ve tested. It’s a little more than three times faster than our Core i5–powered . If you’re looking for a laptop that will perform various tasks quickly and efficiently, the CT15T-B1 is a good choice. One caveat: This machine doesn’t have a discrete graphics card, so its graphics performance is mediocre at best. In our Bioshock Infinite test (low resolution/low quality settings), it managed just 24.2 frames per second, nowhere near the 79.7 fps of the ultrafast Cyberpower .
Like its Seagate Wireless Plus and Corsair Voyager Air competition, the Patriot Aero is by all appearances a simple, if somewhat large, 2.5-inch external USB 3.0 hard drive. The only clue that it’s also a wireless multimedia streamer is the Wi-Fi indicator light. With apps for Android and iOS, you can easily access the Aero’s content from the majority of portable devices, but it has no DLNA server on board to ease access for those people who are using other platforms. When you plug the Aero into a USB port, its Wi-Fi shuts off so that the unit can charge and serve as direct-attached storage (in other words, like a normal USB hard drive). When you remove it from the USB port, Wi-Fi automatically turns on. The Aero also has an AC jack and a mini power-to-USB cable, which you’ll need to use to keep the unit streaming and charging from a USB port. A battery meter on the Aero’s side lights up when you press the accompanying button. The Aero creates its own network (10.10.10.), and also connects to another wireless network to provide Internet pass-through. Sweet. But in my tests it took its time configuring this arrangement. Patriot says that everything should show up within 30 seconds. For me, the device took nearly 5 minutes before it was ready to access again. Patriot supplies client apps for both Android and iOS, but not Windows Phone. And it has no DLNA server to feed Windows Media Player, iTunes, XBMC, or the like. Instead you’re forced to use Explorer to reach the drive at \\10.10.10.254 and treat it as direct-attached storage.
You always hear the phrase "you get what you pay for," but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Free is an up-and-coming strategy for game makers—and they are getting some good results with it. Check out these free games straight from the Windows 8 store, starting with an old-school fantasy RPG! Final Fantasy, anyone?
There's a reason why Microsoft's television ads show off the finger-friendliness of Windows 8 with the company's homebrew : Unlike the ho-hum desktop Paint program, Fresh Paint is an absolute blast to use. Swiping your finger across your screen to paint digital pictures has never been so fun or so seamless. While some of the app's most robust features are available only as premium download packs, the base version is completely free and should work just fine for most people.
Chinese Internet giant Tencent is rolling out a global marketing campaign for its WeChat messaging app in a bid to expand the product's reach across 15 different markets, and boost its popularity among users outside China. The new campaign will stretch into countries including Brazil, India, Mexico, Spain and Thailand, and marks the largest marketing push for WeChat, a product that lets users send messages, voice recorded notes and pictures to friends via their smartphone. WeChat has over 300 million users, most of them in Tencent's home market of China, but increasingly users from other countries are joining the service. On Wednesday, Tencent revealed that WeChat now had over 70 million users outside of China, up from 40 million in April. The app currently comes in 18 different languages including English. in U.S. developers Epic Games and Riot Games.
A moderately busy small or home office is the target audience for the Canon Pixma MX922. For its $200 price (as of 06/28/2013), this color inkjet multifunction handles every office chore, from automatic two-sided scanning and printing, to faxing and printing optical media. Output quality and speed are good, too. But the party ends with the ink cartridges, which are no great bargain. The Canon Pixma MX922 is a well-rounded multifunction inkjet printer, literally as well as feature-wise. It has Canon's signature rounded corners, a beveled top and bottom, and many of the design improvements introduced with the —including the wrap-around front panel and small flip-open ink access lid. However, it retains Canon's last-generation controls, with the three action buttons and separate four-way cursor. The issue with these is that some functions are available only via the action buttons, and some only via the contextually lit cursor/okay buttons. It's confusing, inefficient, and—if you use the panel often enough—aggravating. On the plus side, the button grid transforms into a keypad when you need to use the unit's fax capabilities. Installing is MX922 is easy, if a wee bit tedious. There are quite a few dialogs to click through, but the install routine found the printer on the network quickly and there were no other glitches. We used Wi-Fi, but you may also connect directly to a PC via the unit's USB 2.0 port, or wire it to your network via ethernet. The software is the usual efficient Canon bundle, with its veteran scanning utility, Image Garden for organizing and editing photos, and a solid driver. There are also usual remote and email printing features. As mentioned, the MX922 automatically prints and scans in duplex. Paper capacity is decent for a small office multifunction: 250 sheets, which reside in a bottom-mounted cassette that extends to handle legal-sized paper. Directly above the cassette and revealed when the front panel drops are a 20-sheet photo tray for 4-by-6-inch media, and a feed for printable optical media. As with most Canon printers, the front panel drops automatically as printing begins, so you can keep it closed for appearances yet not have to worry about a paper catastrophe when you send a job.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved for public use a Google database that shows so-called spectrum white spaces available for mobile broadband devices. is designed to track what unused, or white spaces, spectrum in the television bands is available for new Wi-Fi-like uses. of Google’s white spaces database in March. FCC rules require that databases be used to protect TV signals, commercial mobile radio services, and other services from interference by white spaces devices.
Microsoft’s new “smart search” technology will come with a price: ads, a consequence of the search function’s expansion to add the Web to its results. . It’s important to note that the ads are not a future capability that Microsoft will add to the OS; they’re already there. A search for “State Farm,” for example, showed the ad as the first result, followed by a Bing Maps link to nearby offices, and then the homepage of State Farm Insurance. The third result, possibly the most relevant, was viewable without sliding or scrolling the screen horizontally. .
If you’ve been waiting for prices to drop before jumping into the 802.11ac wireless router pool, Netgear’s new R6100 will soon be available for just $100. But don’t expect to get the gigabit wireless speeds that reviewers have been raving about. This model is equipped with only two transmitters and receivers, so it will be capable of delivering a maximum 802.11ac link rate of 867 mbps. The R6100 is a dual-band model, so it will be capable of running a simultaneous 802.11n network with a maximum link rate of 300 mbps on the 2.4GHz frequency band. This is what the industry has decided to classify an AC1200 router (using slightly fuzzy math, since 867 + 300 = 1167). The new router will be outfitted with one USB 2.0 port, to enable either printer or storage sharing, and it has a four-port 10/100 ethernet switch (higher-end models have two USB ports and gigabit ethernet switches). Netgear’s , on the other hand, is currently compatible only with Windows. Although Netgear’s press release indicates that the R6100 is “currently available,” the on Netgear’s site were ghosted and non-functional at press time.
today. After early details were unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, the new operating system began to generate serious buzz. Mozilla partnered with Telefonica for the initial release, which is currently in Spain only. ZTE and Alcatel provided the design for the first two phones to carry the new Firefox HTML open source OS, each sporting slim touchscreen designs and very affordable price points. Both the ZTE Open and Alcatel One Touch Fire come standard with all of the normal smartphone amenities, including email, phone calls, text messaging, maps, camera (3.15 and 3.2 MP respectively), and naturally, Web browsing with Firefox. Users can also download apps, although they may not get too far on the internal memory. Fortunately, both phones have expandable MicroSD memory as well. processors. . It was developed using HTML5, the language of the Web, which Mozilla hopes will make it easier for third party developers to produce apps. With HTML5 integrated onto an open source operating system, there's definitely a possibility that Firefox could catch on with that crowd, although it remains to be seen if the software has the performance or longevity to make a splash.
Razer’s second-generation Blade is an ultraportable, high-performance Windows 8 laptop packed into a slim body that any Apple engineer would envy. It’s better than the original Blade in just about every respect: It’s sleeker, lighter, and more powerful, thanks to a fourth-generation Core processor. And it loses the obtuse Switchblade LCD touchpad that made the old Blade—now rechristened the Blade Pro—so quirky. The Blade is two-thirds of an inch thick and weighs roughly 4.25 pounds. Toss it in your bag along with its diminutive power adapter and the whole package tops out at just over five pounds. Although the Blade is a pound and a half heavier than the 13-inch MacBook Air, it is thinner than the Air by 0.02 inches at its thickest point. In practice, however, Apple’s ultraportable feels skinnier because of the way its unibody chassis tapers down to such a knife edge—a design that leaves me with the irrational feeling that I’m going to cut myself. Razer’s emerald-and-black design aesthetic is in full effect here, with a green-backlit keyboard sitting atop a matte black aluminum chassis. Inside this literally hot piece of hardware is a quad-core Intel Core i7-4702MQ processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M GPU, and 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory. The chassis gets very warm when the GPU kicks in, despite the best efforts of an intake fan on the bottom of the unit that exhausts heat through vents near the sturdy display hinges. Still, you’ll want to keep your fingers off the aluminum strip between the keyboard and screen while playing StarCraft II. We applaud the inclusion of a 256GB SSD, HDMI output, and three USB 3.0 ports (we’ll even forgive their garish pigment), but the absence of hardwired ethernet means you’ll be downloading all your software via Wi-Fi. That will be no fun considering that many modern PC games push 10 to 20GB.
A large coalition of civil rights and privacy groups and potentially thousands of websites will stage protests on the Fourth of July to protest surveillance programs at the U.S. National Security Agency. As part of the plan to display a protest of NSA surveillance and the text of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Websites participating include Reddit, where Restore the Fourth originated, WordPress, 4chan, Mozilla, Fark, and Cheezburger.com. Organizers of Restore the Fourth are also planning live protests in dozens of U.S. cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Houston and Atlanta.
Children have a way of growing up fast, and the new kid on the app-store block certainly hasn’t bucked that trend. Late on Tuesday, Microsoft announced that the Windows Store has crossed the 100,000 app threshold, mere days after the company’s big Build conference and a scant eight months after the launch of Windows 8. Sure, the store didn’t hit that mark in shortly after the holidays, it’s no small accomplishment for the Windows Store to hit 100,000 apps so soon after its conception. Over 100,000 apps now in the Store! — Windows (@Windows) The Windows Store isn’t complete despite hitting the lofty number. There’s still . Read: A lot of those apps are pretty spammy, or rip-offs playing off the name of more established software and services.
A U.S. regulatory filing for a Bitcoin investment trust from the Winklevoss twins said they will protect the virtual currency like gold bars—in vaults. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for their early association with Facebook, are selling the trust as a way for institutional and retail investors to invest in bitcoins without dealing with the hassle of exchanges and the thorny security problems around storing bitcoins. The goal of the fund centers on an anticipated appreciation if bitcoins become more widely used as a means for exchange. Some businesses are using bitcoins, but volatile exchange rates and regulatory issues remain a concern. filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, the twins write they will use a network of secure vaults around the U.S. to store their investors' bitcoins.