Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Sharp's 70-inch, THX-certified Aquos Ultra 4K TV goes on sale in the US for $7,500

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/18/sharp-70-inch-aquos-4k-tv-usa/

Sharp's 70inch, THXcertified Aquos Ultra 4K TV goes on sale in the US for $7,500

We are well past mid-August, which is when Sharp initially estimated its new 70-inch Aquos 4K Ultra HD LED TV would begin hitting shelves. Despite the late arrival, however, something tells us folks will still be glad to have yet another choice when shopping for their next 4K television set. To make things better, Sharp's super high-res, THX-certified Smart TV is set to be carrying a $7,499.99 MSRP here in the States, making it about $500 cheaper than when it was originally announced. Those of you interested shouldn't have trouble finding one, as Sharp says it'll be available at many regional and major retailers across the country.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Source: Sharp

Kogan debuts second Agora smartphone: 5-inch 720p display, 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, Jelly Bean, $189

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/18/kogan-agora-smartphone-mark-ii/

Kogan's Agora brand may not drive techies wild like Galaxies or iThings do, but its motto is clear: try to deliver reasonable hardware at the lowest possible price. The company's first bid for a piece of the smartphone pie launched earlier this year, and today we're learning of its sequel. Design-wise, this second Agora handset is a little curvier than the last, with a soft key replacing its predecessor's physical home button. A 5-inch, 720p IPS LCD display occupies the face, and inside we're looking at a 1.2GHz quad-core MT6589 Mediatek SoC (Cortex-A7), 1GB of RAM and 4 gigs of internal storage, expandable with up to 32GB cards of the microSD variety. It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, hosts two SIM slots, an 8-megapixel main camera, 2-megapixel front-facer, 2,000mAh removable battery and 3G (850 / 1900 / 2100), WiFi (802.11b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.0 antennae.

Most importantly, it costs $189, £149 or 199 Aussie dollars -- it's up for order now at the relevant source links and is expected to ship to the US, Australia, the UK and other European countries, as well as a couple of Asian markets starting October 3rd. We're hoping to get a review unit through soon, so keep an eye out over the coming weeks for our impressions. In our opinion, anything that rings up at under $200 is worth a fair trial.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Source: Kogan (UK), (Aus), (US & elsewhere)

drag2share: DOLLAR TANKS, RATES COLLAPSE, STOCKS EXPLODE TO ALL-TIME HIGHS

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/-i4fAFOzMw0/markets-react-to-fomc-2013-9

The Federal Reserve's FOMC statement is out, and it's a shocker!

The Fed is NOT TAPERING its massive $85 billion large-scale asset purchase program.

Almost no one expected this.

The Dow went from -40 to +63 in the blink of an eye.

The S&P 500 got as high as 1,718, which is an all-time intraday high.

The U.S. dollar tanked, and gold spiked.

The 10-year Treasury note yield tanked to 2.76% from around 2.86% before the announcement.

Here's the market action charted via Bloomberg's Michael McDonough:

market chart

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drag2share: Bloomingdale's Figured Out How To Stop Customers From Wearing Expensive Items Once And Returning Them The Next Day

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/loWWyIG0qFA/bloomingdales-black-tags-on-clothes-2013-9

strapless dresses school dance

Bloomingdale's has figured out a way to keep customers from wearing expensive items for big events and returning them the next day.

The retailer is putting three-inch black plastic tags in visible places on garments so the wearer can't easily conceal them, report Cotten Timberlake and Renee Dudley at Bloomberg. Once the clunky tag is removed, shoppers aren't allowed to return the item.

The practice of buying an item with the intention of wearing it once and returning it is called "wardrobing."

Shoppers are notorious for "wardrobing" for big-ticket items like prom dresses and other formalwear.

The problem cost the industry $8.8 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

But Nordstrom told Bloomberg that it didn't plan on emulating Bloomingdale's strategy.

“Our experience is that if you treat the customer with respect, they respect you back,” spokesman Colin Johnson said.

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Sony Cyber-shot QX10 review: a WiFi 'lens camera' that mounts directly on your smartphone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/18/sony-qx10-review/

Earlier this month at IFA, Sony introduced an entirely new type of point-and-shoot camera. The QX10 and its big brother, the QX100, are missing a built-in LCD. Instead, framing, image review, configuration and even storage are all handled on another device: your smartphone. These "lens cameras," as they've become unofficially known, mount directly on a handset you already own, pairing with Sony's PlayMemories Mobile app via WiFi. The benefits are considerable. The absence of a display allows for a more compact body, improved power efficiency and a lower price tag. The QX100, for example, includes the same optics as Sony's flagship RX100 Mark II, but retails for $500, compared to $750 for its fully equipped counterpart. The QX10 is the more mainstream of the two, with a smaller footprint and an affordable $250 price tag. We focus on this model just below.%Gallery-slideshow85039%

Filed under: Cameras, Peripherals, Sony

iTunes Radio now rolling out in iTunes 11.1 update, brings Spotify-like streaming to the desktop

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/18/itunes-radio-now-rolling-out-in-itunes-11-1-update/

The release of iOS 7 is undoubtedly the big Apple news of the day, but there's another new product rolling out with it as well: iTunes Radio. The Spotify-like feature, which was announced during Apple's iPhone event last week, is part of the new iTunes 11.1 and allows users to create custom radio stations based on their personal music libraries or musical proclivities (e.g., genre, artists, track, etc.). Naturally, the service, like its competitors, is freemium, so you'll have to pony up $25/year for iTunes Match in order to keep the hits coming sans advertisements. The update should be hitting all Macs running OS X 10.6.8 and up now, so while you're frantically hitting refresh on that iOS update, you may as well check for this -- or head to the source below for the download link.

Filed under: Desktops, Software, Apple

Source: Apple

PiCon Gives You Easy Control Over Your Raspberry Pi

Source: http://lifehacker.com/picon-gives-you-easy-control-over-your-raspberry-pi-1333823088

PiCon Gives You Easy Control Over Your Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi has all kinds of setting hidden away inside its configuration file. If you don't want to mess about with that, PiCon is a program that allows you to easily set up your Pi without mucking around in the config.txt file.

PiCon is cross-platform and it simply creates a config.txt file that you can save to your Raspberry Pi. It's packed with all kinds of options for the Raspberry Pi, including forcing HDMI, changing aspect ratio, rotating the screen, and more. You can do all this stuff from the command line on the Pi if you want, but PiCon makes it easy to see all your options in one place. After you create the file, just upload it to your Raspberry Pi and you're all set.

PiCon, the Raspberry Pi Configuration Manager | Raspberry Pi Forums via Make

Four of America's Tallest Buildings Are Being Built on the Same Street

Source: http://gizmodo.com/four-of-americas-tallest-buildings-are-being-built-on-1327172554

Four of America's Tallest Buildings Are Being Built on the Same Street

While most of the supertall building boom spotlight has been placed China and the UAE over the past few months, there's an even more staggering development happening much, much closer to home. At least four 1,000-foot-plus skyscrapers are set to rise along (or adjacent to) West 57th Street over the next few years, each of the tall enough to change America's skyline forever.

LG Vu 3 teased with semi-transparent QuickView case, expected to launch in October

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/18/lg-vu-3/

LG's oddly shaped Optimus Vu II is slated for an update next month, according to Korean site ETNews. The 4:3 large-format device, dubbed simply Vu 3 (LG has dropped the Optimus branding from flagship devices), has also appeared on an LG microsite, which serves to both confirm the handset's existence and tease a pair of semi-transparent QuickView cases. The phone covers, available in black or gray, appear to feature a see-through design, enabling some pretty spiffy animated notifications. As for the phone itself, you can expect a Snapdragon 800 chipset, a 13-megapixel rear camera and LTE-Advanced support. It's slated to hit KT Telecom, SK Telecom and LG U+ in Korea in the coming months.

Filed under: Cellphones, LG

Source: LG, ETNews

drag2share: The Prettiest Way to Find Out What iOS 7 Features Your iPhone Won't Get

source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/vip/~3/XB8IYAkA0ao/the-prettiest-way-to-find-out-what-ios-7-features-your-512905905

The Prettiest Way to Find Out What iOS 7 Features Your iPhone Won't Get

iOS 7 looks lovely, but it's not all about appearances; the new operating system is bringing some nice new features as well. But even if you get the upgrade, you might not get all the fun stuff that comes with it.

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JBL's New Headphones Use Pro DSP to Sound Like a Live Performance

Source: http://gizmodo.com/jbls-new-headphones-use-pro-dsp-to-sound-like-a-live-p-1340920315

JBL's New Headphones Use Pro DSP to Sound Like a Live Performance

JBL's new line of Synchros headphones use proprietary digital signal processing (DSP) that supposedly leverages the company's experience with professional gear to make the speakers hanging off your head sound like the musicians are on stage in front of you.

drag2share: NVIDIA Tegra Note: the Tegra 4-powered, stylus-endowed tablets arrive next month starting at $199

source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/18/nvidia-unveils-tegra-note-tablet-platform/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi

As a follow to NVIDIA's Tegra 3 reference design for tablets, the company is now unveiling a more ambitious platform known as Tegra Note that leverages the Tegra 4, supports stylus input and provides new multimedia features. Like Project Kai, tablets based on the Tegra Note platform carry a suggested retail price of $199, but pricing is ultimately up to NVIDIA's manufacturing partners and their various hardware configurations.

If this all sounds a bit familiar to you, it should. We first saw signs of NVIDIA's new tablet platform when it appeared as the Tegra Tab at the FCC, and then again in subsequent leaks. Manufacturers can easily apply their name to the reference enclosure, which houses front-facing speakers, a 7-inch, 1,280 x 800 IPS display and a VGA webcam. Naturally, you're also getting the Tegra 4 SoC, which includes a quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU, a 72-core GeForce GPU and advanced imaging features under the Chimera architecture. Other specs will depend on manufacturers, which could include a 5-megapixel rear camera, a microSD slot, a micro-HDMI port and a built-in stylus that offers both chisel and brush tips.

Along with the hardware reference design, NVIDIA is also including Camera Awesome from SmugMug and TegraZone in the Tegra Note platform (along with stylus-enabled apps on appropriate models), and it's even managing the Android system updates. You can expect the first of these Tegra Note tablets to hit shelves in October from the likes of EVGA, PNY and ZOTAC, along with a full line of accessories that include covers and interchangeable stylus tips.

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How To Switch Off Apple's iPhone Tracking System In iOS 7 (AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-switch-off-idfa-iphone-tracking-in-ios-7-2013-6

angry iphone sad woman question

Apple introduced a couple of new things for advertisers in its upcoming iPhone operating system update, iOS 7.

First, it forced more advertisers to use its iPhone tracking system, IDFA (sometimes called IFA), which stands for ID for Advertisers.

Second, it rearranged the settings on your iPhone so that it's actually easier to switch off the tracking if you don't want advertisers to get your personal data.

Most people don't even know their iPhones track what they do and send that data to advertisers. And Apple makes the iPhone and iOS 7 with tracking in a default "on" position.

If you want to switch it off, here's what you have to do.

Go to the settings app on your iPhone. Now tap on the section labeled "Privacy." (This is actually a big change for Apple. In iOS 6, the tracking options were not under "Privacy," they were under "General" — where most people were unlikely to see them.)

Next tap on the section labeled "Advertising."

This brings up the "Limit Ad Tracking" option. Move the slider button to "on." Yes, it's confusing: To switch ad tracking off, you have to move the "Limit Ad Tracking" to on. Advertisers love this counterintuitive mechanism because most people either don't touch it — in which case tracking is on by default — or they get the on/off decision wrong, leaving the tracking on when they've switched it to off.

Here's a visual walk-through.

1. Go to Settings and hit "Privacy":

IDFA ios 7

2. Next tap on "Advertising":

IDFA ios 7

3. Finally, switch "Limit Ad Tracking" to the "on" position:

IDFA ios 7

SEE ALSO: Apple Wants More Advertisers To Use Its iPhone Tracking System

SEE ALSO: Apple Has Quietly Started Tracking iPhone Users Again, And It's Tricky To Opt Out

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drag2share: iPhone 5s review

source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/17/iphone-5s-review/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi

Forward-thinking. It's ironic that Apple's marketing slogan for the iPhone 5s invites us to look ahead to the future when, from the outside, the device looks like a carbon copy of last year's model, the iPhone 5. But just like any other odd-year iPhone -- the "S" version, if you will -- the 5s plays the Transformers card by offering more than meets the eye, with a few key improvements on the inside.

Though it's easy to dismiss this handset as iterative, the 5s is the first smartphone with full 64-bit support and a capacitive fingerprint sensor, and it also ships with a fresh, revamped version of iOS. This might not matter to folks who were content with the status quo, but it matters a lot to Apple -- and to the company's future as well -- especially if the company wants to fend off an increasingly fierce pack of competitors. But is a "forward-thinking" phone worth the investment today? %Gallery-slideshow85056%

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drag2share: Google invites iOS users to experience data compression with Chrome

source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/17/google-ios-chrome-data-compression/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi

Like it or not, thinking about every megabyte is essential for smartphone owners hoping to keep their monthly usage from topping whatever tier they've purchased. The nasty, unbecoming world of data caps isn't changing in the near-term, and Google knows it. Following in the footsteps of Opera, the outfit's Chrome browser for iOS is evidently equipped with a data compression feature that's engineered to save precious bytes when browsing via mobile. This technology has existed for some time, but it's just now being rolled out en masse to those with an iPhone. We're told that it "compresses and minimizes HTML, JavaScript and CSS resources, removing unnecessary whitespace, comments and other metadata not essential to rendering the pages," which can reduce data usage by up to 50 percent on certain sites. So, Apple -- thinking about tossing something similar under the hood of Mobile Safari?

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