Beats increases its share ownership to 75%, lets HTC keep majority stake, 'commercial exclusivity in mobile'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/21/beats-htc-realign-business-agreement/

Although HTC and Beats are just shy of the one-year anniversary of their 300 million dollar partnership, it looks like the two are again growing apart. In a letter to shareholders today, it's been announced that the original owners of Beats plan to buy back 25 percent of its own shares, for a total ownership stake of 75 percent. That said, HTC will still retain nearly 25 percent of the remaining shares for itself, ensuring that it remains the largest external shareholder. As the release puts it, this new setup "provides Beats with more flexibility for global expansion while maintaining HTC's major stake and commercial exclusivity in mobile." All in all, it seems like this is more about shifting priorities given recent news like Beats' MOG acquisition, but it wouldn't make eventual breakup all that unsurprising given the partnership's mixed results. For now, you can hit up the press release for all the details.

Continue reading Beats increases its share ownership to 75%, lets HTC keep majority stake, 'commercial exclusivity in mobile'

Beats increases its share ownership to 75%, lets HTC keep majority stake, 'commercial exclusivity in mobile' originally appeared on Engadget on Sat,! 21 Jul 2012 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Akamai Deck Shows Mobile's No.1 Problem: 12 Seconds To Load An Ad

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-akamai-deck-shows-mobile-advertisings-no1-problem-speed-2012-7

The data is clear: mobile is going to be big.

But it may not be fast.

According to data collected by Akamai Technologies, which specializes in web speed acceleration for advertisers, slow load times on mobile devices could be mobile advertising's biggest obstacle.

The time it takes for a mobile site to load is reminiscent of web sites in the late 1990s—and that's a big problem.

Everyone knows mobile is growing.

But growth can be really fast. It took Draw Something nine days to gather the same number of users that AOL took nine years to get.

Within the next two years half of all commerce-related visits will be mobile.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.

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Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/21/firefox-15-beta-boasts-support-for-opus-audio-format-reduces-ad/

Can't bear to part with your favorite browser extensions, but can't stand to see them devour your system memory? Maybe you should check out Firefox 15. According to Mozilla's Hacks blog, the browser's latest beta should patch up the majority of memory leaks gushing from Firefox add-ons. Also new, is the beta's support for Opus, a free audio format partially supported by Mozilla. The firm hopes competing browsers will pick up the format as well, calling it "as good or better than basically all existing lossy codecs." The blog makes quite a case for the format, citing tests and bitrate information, going as far as giving instructions on embedding Opus players in web pages. Check out the codec of tomorrow for yourself at the source links below.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists Invent Wonder Material That May Kill Tumors and Cure Diseases [Science]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5927066/scientists-invent-wonder-material-to-kill-tumors-and-cure-diseases

Scientists have invented artificial pores as small as the ones in your cells—something unimaginable until now. These sub-nanometer synthetic pores are so tiny that they can distinguish between ions of different substances, just like a real cell.

It's an amazing engineering feat. Once they tune them to detect different substances, researchers claim that this seemingly miraculous matter would be able to do truly incredible things, from "purifying water to kill tumors and diseases by regulating the substances inside of cells."

The scientists used the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory to create the pores, gluing donut-shaped molecules—called rigid macrocycles—on top of each other using hydrogen bonding. According to one of the senior authors of the study, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Ameritas University's chemistry professor Xiao Cheng Zeng—"this nanotube can be viewed as a stack of many, many rings. The rings come together through a process called self-assembly, and it's very precise. It's the first synthetic nanotube that has a very uniform diameter." They are about 8.8 angstroms thick, just one tenth of a nanometer.

They are now capable of passing potassium ions and water, but not other ions, like sodium and lithium ions. Basically, this means that you could pass salt water through a fabric made of this wonder material and make it drinkable—instantly.

Lead researcher Dr. Bing Gong—a chemistry professor at University of Buffalo—says that "the idea for this research originated from the biological world, from our hope to mimic biological structures, and we were thrilled by the result. We have created the first quantitatively confirmed synthetic water channel. Few synthetic pores are so highly selective."

Gong says that they now have to experiment with the pores' structure to find out how the materials are transported through the pores and tune it to select which substances they want to filter and which ones they want to let through.

If they are successful, this material has an incredible potential to change almost everything. [University of Buffalo via Futurity]

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LG outs IPS7 Series monitors: 23 or 27-inch IPS, minimal bezel, MHL mobile link, 8-bit 1080P

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/20/lg-ips7-series-monitors-23-27-inch/

LG has announced a new series of IPS monitors, the 23- and 27-inch IPS7 series, with a mishmash of specs aimed at mobile, HD and professional users. Foregoing WQHD resolution in favor of plain jane 1920 x 1080, the panels feature a so-called Cinema Screen design with a 1.2mm (.025-inch) bezel, half-inch depth, a mobile high-definition (MHL) link, fast response times and color calibration software for professionals. If it's trying to to tap the pro market, the monitors lack some features like dual-link 2560 x 1440 resolution and 10-bit, 1.07 billion color graphics like the Dell U2711 or HP ZR2740w, for instance -- but then they could turn out to be considerably cheaper than those rivals. We'll just have to wait to find out the pricing.

Continue reading LG outs IPS7 Series monitors: 23 or 27-inch IPS, minimal bezel, MHL mobile link, 8-bit 1080P

Filed under: Displays

LG outs IPS7 Series monitors: 23 or 27-inch IPS, minimal bezel, MHL mobile link, 8-bit 1080P originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:08:00 ! EDT. Pl ease see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS spills jelly beans on why Nexus 7 has no rear camera, cites added cost

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/20/asus-explains-why-nexus-7-has-no-rear-camera-cites-cost/

Google's Nexus 7 tablet may be receiving OnLive Universal Controller support soon. What the Jelly Bean-flavored device won't be getting, however, is a rear-facing camera. Now ASUS is offering an explanation for the omission -- and no, it isn't to prevent users from looking like a doofus when snapping photos in public. ASUS apparently faced two options for a rear-facing camera: go cheap or go for quality. The company says it decided against sticking a lower-end camera at the back of the device because it would compromise the user experience. Adding a high-quality rear camera, on the other hand, would increase costs too much, so that proposition was nixed as well. The good news is that apps such as Instagram are finding ways to make things work with just the Nexus 7's front-facing camera. In the meantime, here's a little ditty from Google that just might help put a smile on your face.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

ASUS spills jelly beans on why Nexus 7 has no rear camer! a, cites added cost originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ikea beefs up 2013 catalog with companion AR app, doesn't translate Swedish furniture names (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/20/ikea-beefs-up-2013-catalog-with-companion-ar-app-doesnt-transl/

While many might reckon the days of paper-based catalogs passed with the advent of the web, Ikea's clinging onto its tome for yet another year, but will dust its latest issue with augmented reality. It looks like its 2013 catalog app will arrive with some new camera-centric features on both phones and tablets -- the brief preview video shows a pair of devices that look decidedly iPhone and iPad-esque. The app uses image recognition software from Metaio (avoiding the jarring monotones of QR codes) to identify specific pages and throw in some lightweight extra content, from cutaway views of furniture to "inspirational" video shorts. The agency behind the app has much loftier ideas for the future, including streaming live cooking shows or concerts into Ikea's imaginary rooms. Take a preview tour after the break, but sorry, no meatballs (or hotdogs) at the end.

Continue reading Ikea beefs up 2013 catalog with companion AR app, doesn't translate Swedish furniture names (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Software

Ikea beefs up 2013 catalog with companion AR app, doesn't translate Swedish furniture names (video) originally appeared on Engadget on! Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell M4700, 6700 documents leak, ruins the surprise for laptop fans

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/20/dell-m4700-m6700-document-leak/

If you've had an eye on a new Business-focused Dell laptop but wanted to see the inside of one before purchasing, now you can. The company has (prematurely) outed documents for its rumored M4700 and M6700 portables well before they've been officially announced. The owners manual for the latter includes detailed teardown information that shows you how to disassemble the unit -- much like what we saw for the XPS 13. It's almost as if Dell knows we're watching, the naughty tease.

[Thanks, Duy]

Filed under: Laptops

Dell M4700, 6700 documents leak, ruins the surprise for laptop fans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qantas to hand out free iPads to all passengers on Boeing 767s, save fuel and our sanity (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/20/qantas-to-hand-out-free-ipads-to-all-passengers-on-boeing-767s/

Qantas just upped the ante for its Australian nemeses Jetstar and Virgin in the airline tablet wars. Following an earlier trial, the transporter plans to hand out free iPads to all of its passengers -- not just the high-flyers in business-class, like with Jetstar's iPads or Virgin's Galaxy Tabs -- on every Boeing 767 aircraft in the fleet. The rollout, which starts in the last quarter of the year, will let those bored in the back seats watch an equally free 200 hours' worth of QStreaming audio and video. Don't confuse the gesture with a sudden bout of altruism on Qantas' part, however. The pound-and-a-half weight of a current iPad sheds the tremendous amount of weight that would normally be needed for a conventional in-flight entertainment system built into the headrest, which on a typical 375-seat 767 could see the iPads pay for themselves within years, if not sooner. The option will give many Aussies something to look forward to for their domestic summer vacations. In the meantime, hop past the break for a Qantas video explaining how QStreaming worked during the original trial run.

Continue reading Qantas to hand out free iPads to all passengers on Boeing 767s, save fuel and our sanity (video)

Filed under: Tablet PCs, Transportation

Qantas to hand out free iPads to all passengers on Boeing 767s, save fuel and our sanity (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell to ship XPS 13 with Ubuntu Linux in some areas, Precise Pangolin goes ultraportable

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/19/dell-to-ship-xps-13-with-ubuntu-linux-in-some-areas/

Dell's Project Sputnik is successful enough that the company is launching another satellite, so to speak. After a strong reception for its developer-installable distribution of Ubuntu, the PC builder is now planning an edition of the XPS 13 with the Linux variant already installed. The hardware will be identical to its Windows parallel and ship with the same Precise Pangolin Ubuntu build that previously required a download. Dell incubator lead Nnamdi Orakwue is shy with The Inquirer about how much the Microsoft-free system will cost when it ships to some corners of the world in the fall, although the $999 price of a base Windows version might serve as a ballpark figure. All that's for certain is that the Ultrabook should represent one of the fastest pre-assembled, open source PCs to date.

Filed under: Laptops

Dell to ship XPS 13 with Ubuntu Linux in some areas, Precise Pangolin goes ultraportable originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Exquisite Forest: crowdsourced art made possible by Chrome (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/19/the-exquisite-forest-crowdsourced-art-made-possible-by-chrome/

Crowd-sourced art projects? You knew Google would get there sooner rather than later. And with the cooperative backing of the UK's Tate Modern gallery, artists Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin have been able to do just that, taking the surrealist concept of "the exquisite corpse" -- an evolving word tree exercise devised by early 20th century surrealists - and transmuting it into The Exquisite Forest, an animation-based collaboration that lives on the web. The exhibit, which kicks off July 23rd and should run for about six months, is yet another of Mountain View's Chrome Experiments and encourages any aspiring designer to log-in to the dedicated portal and contribute to existing trees (read: branching visual stories) or seed one of their own. You can check out a brief video explanation of the project's inception after the break. But if this concept already has your creative juices flowing to the point of flooding, why not just hit up the source below and help water this multimedia garden.

Continue reading The Exquisite Forest: crowdsourced art made possible by Chrome (video)

Filed under: Internet, Software

The Exquisite Forest: cr! owdsourc ed art made possible by Chrome (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chromium browser for Raspberry Pi beta available

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/19/chromium-browser-for-raspberry-pi-beta-available/

Well known ChromiumOS developer Hexxeh has been fiddling around with the Raspberry Pi since its debut and his latest experiment is a beta version of the Chromium browser, ready to run on Raspbian images. While it's not the full Chromium OS (that's still under development) it should help ease the pain of browsing the web on one of the $35 Broadcom-powered units. It still requires quite a bit of horsepower however, so overclocking your Raspberry Pi and using a fast USB stick or SD card for storage is advised, hit the source link below for more instructions on downloading and running the 35MB~ package.

Filed under: Software

Chromium browser for Raspberry Pi beta available originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 23:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG 84-inch 'ultra definition' 4K HDTV going on sale in limited quantities in Korea

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/19/lg-84-inch-ultra-definition-4k-hdtv/

It looks like LG is actually going to sell that sweet 84-inch ultra-definition TV we saw at CES. With a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 (UHDTV) it will maintain a full 1080p picture for 3D movies even with LG's FPR Cinema 3D passive glasses technology, and also includes the standard suite of Smart TV features. Of course, the launch is quite predictable, considering there's no way LG could let Korean rival Samsung rule the roost with its 75-inch ES9000 that's on the way. While we'll wait for an English language PR for all the details on the 84LM9600, native speakers can scrounge some won together and hit the source link below for more information.

Update: We've checked with LG and confirmed that this LCD has a price of 25 million won ($21,925 US) for anyone preordering the 84 units that will be on sale for the first month, and it has a 2.2 channel "3D sound" system. It's only going to be available in Korea for now, so lining up outside your local big box store might be going a step or two too far, for now -- that 4K content isn't really available yet could be another reason.

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment

LG 84-inch 'ultra definition' 4K HDTV going on sale in limited quantities in Korea originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 22:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leaked EOS M photo looks like Canon's long-awaited mirrorless camera

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/20/canon-eos-m-possible-leak/

At this point, after strong hints and even patents, a Canon mirrorless camera is all but certain. The only question is what it'll look like and how it'll compete with other Micro Four Thirds and APS-C shooters like the Olympus E-M5 and Samsung's NX range. The image above may at least help to answer the first part of that question, if it isn't a masterful photoshop. It was reportedly leaked by retail sites and captured by Digicame-info, and it appears to show an unknown model called the EOS M (shown in the top left corner) -- which does indeed look like a thin and lightweight mirrorless ILC. MirrorlessRumors also notes the presence of an entirely new mount: the EF-M -- which may mean that Canon is moving away from the inbetween sensor size it used in the G1 X and possibly towards full APS-C. An official announcement is expected on July 23rd, so we'll know plenty more then.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Leaked EOS M photo looks like Canon's long-awaited mirrorless camera originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 03:03:00 EDT. ! Please s ee our terms for use of feeds.

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Comcast reportedly prepping 305Mbps internet service, aims to put FiOS in its place

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/20/comcast-reportedly-prepping-305mbps-internet-service-aims-to-pu/

Sure, at 300Mbps Verizon's FiOS Quantum is lightning fast -- but reports say that Comcast is prepping a new tier that's just a little faster. According to Broadband Reports sources, Comcast's Neil Smit told employees that the company would be introducing a 305Mbps downstream tier in Verizon FiOS territories "soon," but neglected to mention a strict timetable. Details regarding pricing and data caps are similarly scarce, of course. Comcast has yet to comment on the rumor, but we'll let you know if we hear anything official.

Filed under: Internet

Comcast reportedly prepping 305Mbps internet service, aims to put FiOS in its place originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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