A fun fact: If you live in the US and other countries where they put their months first on dates, every day is going to read the same backwards until Sunday. It's palindrome week!
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This is bizarre. A 16-year-old girl saw a giant black ring in the sky above England and captured it on video. After three minutes of floating around like a cloud, the black ring disappeared completely. So far, experts have no idea what it was.
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Source: http://gizmodo.com/try-the-super-secure-usb-drive-os-that-edward-snowden-i-1563320487
We all know that Edward Snowden insists on secure email
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Source: http://gizmodo.com/amazing-arcade-simulator-spins-players-completely-upsid-1563344179
The arcades that dominated the 1980s and 1990s slowly died off as home video game consoles became more and more capable, but there are apparently still some good reasons to keep a pocket full of quarters handy. Namely this arcade simulator for a game called War Thunder that puts Afterburner to shame.
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/14/netflix-isp-speeds-connection-deal/
The past few months have been very active for Netflix, as it's faced new challenges with getting its video streams into homes. It responded to customer complaints and dropping average speeds by making a new connection deal with Comcast, while others like AT&T and Verizon also lined up with their hands out. For Comcast users at least, the recent deal between the cable provider and Netflix does seem to be bearing fruit. Thanks to the agreement -- which allows Netflix to connect its network directly with Comcast's infrastructure to bypass the bottlenecked third parties -- average speeds for streams on the network have surged up to 65 percent, going from 1.51Mbps in January to 2.5Mbps in March.
Netflix also notes that it has also seen "early improvements" as a result of its deal with Telenor, an internet service provider in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. "We are dedicated to delivering a great streaming experience and invest in continually improving that experience," states Netflix on its blog. Even if similar deals are on the way with other ISPs, so long as net neutrality only covers traffic over the last mile, Reed Hasting likely has a few more furious Facebook messages in store.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: Netflix
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/14/office-online-upgrades/
Microsoft isn't done with Office updates just because it released Office for iPad and made Office Mobile completely free -- it has a bunch of improvements in store for Office Online, too. To start with, Office has reached the Chrome Web Store. You can now launch most of the productivity suite's web apps (Excel is due soon) in the Chrome browser or Chrome OS just by clicking a shortcut. Clearly, the crew from Redmond is no longer averse to supporting your Chromebook.
Each of the apps has received at least one big upgrade at the same time. OneNote Online now offers printing support, while its Excel counterpart finally lets you add comments; PowerPoint accurately previews text, and it's far easier to put footnotes and lists into Word. If you've been holding off on an Office 365 subscription because its web component was lacking, there may be enough tweaks here to justify giving it a second look.Filed under: Internet, Microsoft
Source: Office Online Blog
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/14/broadcaster-backup-plans-for-aereo/
The big US broadcasters are primarily leaning on legal action to shut down Aereo's antenna-based streaming TV service, but what if the startup prevails in court? Apparently, the media giants aren't too worried; they have some backup plans. The Wall Street Journal claims that CBS is considering a subscription-based video service of its own that would offer both live and on-demand shows for a few dollars per month. While it would still include ads, there might also be an option to pay for Showtime's premium programming.
The big providers may not decide to fight Aereo in the marketplace, though. Other options include lobbying Congress for anti-Aereo legislation or even pulling content from over-the-air broadcasting. This last option may be impractical -- it could limit the content that affiliates can offer, hurting both local stations as well as viewers that can't afford (or simply don't want) pay TV. The operators haven't locked down what they plan to do, but Aereo hasn't discussed a failsafe of its own. If it loses its court battle, the networks may not have to lift a finger.Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: Wall Street Journal
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/14/google-terms-of-service-update/
Google tells Reuters that the move is based on feedback from the "last few months" and should provide "even greater clarity" to customers. Both are true, although we'd note that few people read the terms of service for... well, anything. The new language may ultimately be more helpful in educating current account holders than giving concerned newcomers a heads-up.
Via: Reuters
Source: Google
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/15/toshibas-first-4k-laptop-arrives-next-week-for-1-500/
After launching its first 4K laptop in the UK, Toshiba has just announced US availability. Stateside, it'll be called the P55T, but as before, it's a 15.6-inch laptop with 3,840 x 2,160 resolution -- a staggering 282 PPI, if you're scoring at home. Driving all those pixels is AMD's 2GB DDR5 Radeon R9 M265X discrete graphics, 4th-gen Intel core i7 CPU, 16GB DDR3L max memory and a 4K-ready HDMI port. Another hook is Technicolor certification, which ensures that each IPS display is individually calibrated for accurate colors. Along with the included copy of Adobe's Lightroom 5, that'll appeal to photographers and designers -- though the rather anemic 1TB, 5400 RPM mechanical hard drive is a letdown. It'll arrive on April 22nd at $1,500, a price that seems competitive with the few other 4K laptops. Meanwhile, Toshiba also announced some more mainstream models -- hit the break for more on those.
As with the 4K laptop, Toshiba's other new models are similar to those announced in the UK, but with slightly different model names. In brief, you'll get three performance models: the 15.6-inch Satellite S55, 17.3-inch S75 and 14-inch E45. All can be had with up to 1080p resolution, Core i5 or i7 dual-core CPUs (the S55 is also available with an AMD A10 APU), 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Touchscreens are available on the S55t and E45t models. Prices start at $650 for the 14-inch E45.
Finally there's the "everyday stuff" laptops, as Toshiba calls them. Those include the C55/C75 and L55/L75, 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch laptops for each lineup, respectively. As the focus here is on value, the screens have less resolution, with a touchscreen only available on the L55. Toshiba isn't mentioning exact specs, but did say that they'll come with either Intel or AMD CPUs, 12GB of RAM max and up to a 1TB disk drive. The C series will start at $400, while the L models will run $330 and up, with availability for all models starting on June 22nd.
Source: Toshiba (1), (2)
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/11/construct-cg-rendering-nvidia/
A new short film teaser has taken digital character rendering to a new level, making real time motion capture a lot easier for animators. While working on "Construct" (see the stunning video after the break) filmmakers captured the movements of real actors in a studio, similar to how James Cameron did for Avatar. Instead of seeing the performer, however, the director saw a ray-traced version of the animated character on his screen. Though heavily pixelated, freezing the scene instantly gave animators a clear idea of the final result, something that can normally take hours in post-production. The system used custom software from ray-tracing outfit V-Ray powered by three top-of-the-line NVIDIA K6000 GPUs -- not exactly a home setup. Still, it's not hard to see how such tech could eventually power ultra-realistic gaming, though at $4,500 a pop or so for the graphics cards, we're not there yet.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, NVIDIA
Via: CNET
Source: Construct Films (Vimeo)
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Source: http://lifehacker.com/google-expands-androids-built-in-app-scanning-security-1561828851
Android: Today, Google announced that it's expanding its Verify Apps system to continually scan all apps installed on a phone to determine if they're malicious or harmful.
Previously, the Verify Apps system would only kick in if you installed an app from outside the Play Store, and it would only scan an app as its being installed. However, not only can apps change their behavior once they have permission to run, as we've learned recently, you can find crap software on the Play Store too.
The new system is rolling out via Play Services, so any device running higher than Android 2.3 should benefit. If an app is scanned and found to be potentially harmful, you'll receive a warning to either block installation or remove it from your system. You can also check out our guide on how secure Android really is
Expanding Google's security services for Android | Official Android Blog
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Source: http://lifehacker.com/sadapter-adapts-micro-and-nano-sims-for-to-different-s-1561801476
Being able to swap your SIM card into a different phone is great—until you find out it isn't the right size. If you need to fit your Nano-SIM into a Micro-SIM slot, the Sadapter can help.
I recently broke my phone, and promptly pulled out my old iPhone 4 as a temporary replacement—only to find my Nano-SIM card wasn't compatible with its Micro-SIM slot. If you're getting a new phone, you can always just get a new SIM card, but this doesn't work if you just need it for a few days. (Similarly, you can always trim a card down
Enter the Sadapter: a pack of three small SIM adapters that fit your Nano-SIM into a Micro-SIM or regular SIM slot, or fit your Micro-SIM into a regular SIM slot. It's a bit more expensive ($13) than other adapters on the market ($1-2), but unlike the cheap ones, it's less likely to get stuck or break, which can mean costly repairs to your phone.
I tested it in my iPhone 4 and it worked great: just snap your SIM in the slot, then stick it into your phone. You may not think you need one now, but it's one of those tools that will probably come in handy one day—so buy one and stick it in your toolbox now.
Sadapter Three Adapter Pack | Amazon
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Source: http://lifehacker.com/the-performance-benefits-of-discrete-video-cards-even-1561794672
If you're a PC gamer, you know that upgrading your computer's video card will give you the best gaming performance boost
AMD's and Intel's integrated graphics (graphics technologies coupled with the processor) are pretty capable these days, but they're still far less powerful than discrete video cards when it comes to performance—and not just in games, either:
Games aren't the only applications that benefit from the power of a discrete GPU. AMD's and Nvidia's GPUs are made up of thousands of processors that can carry out multiple operations simultaneously. Any application that benefits from such parallel processing—be it an image-editing program like Photoshop, data-encryption software, or a distributed-computing project like Folding@Home or Seti@Home—will run faster with the assistance of a more powerful GPU.
PCWorld's tests show performance boosts of 3% to 19% on PCMark's productivity benchmarks when using discrete graphics cards (a ~$300 AMD Radeon R9 XFX card) versus integrated ones in the same systems. The greatest boosts were for the home suite than the work suite.
Even casual, browser-based games like Farmville and Angry Birds would have significant performance gains (about 1.5 to 2X the performance) from a discrete video card upgrade. The only place they didn't seem to help was in video playback.
Of course, plunking down hundreds of dollars for a new video card won't be worth it if the rest of the system is a bottleneck
The tests suggest, though, that a discrete video card might not be just for gamers. Keep that in mind if you have the cash and are upgrading or building your own desktop PC
Tested: Why almost every desktop PC could use a video card upgrade | PCWorld
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Samsung is the engine of the AMOLED industry, but it’s not the only player developing organic LED technology for mobile devices. Competitors in China and Taiwan especially are making bi …
http://www.androidauthority.com/quad-hd-amoled-au-optronics-367542/
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/10/staples-is-launching-an-in-store-3d-printing-service/
First it sold select 3D printers in stores, then it sold print-by-mail services in Europe -- now Staples is offering US customers a chance to print objects on-demand and on-site. The company's launch event is focusing on the fun side of 3D printing, serving up action figures and personalized Starfleet officers to walk-in customers, but Staples says it hopes the service will catch the attention of small businesses.
Customers will have access to up to seven kinds of printers and six types of materials in store, including the Cube and Cube X models Staples already sells. Larger jobs will be farmed out to 3D Systems -- the company behind the 3D printed guitar we saw at Engadget Expand last year. Don't have the modeling chops to prepare your on 3D-printable file? Staples has that covered too, and is planning to train graphic design consultants to help customers model their vision. Unfortunately, Staples hasn't announced pricing for any of these services yet, but at least the pilot program seems robust enough to give UPS a run for its money.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Staples (Twitter), Bloomberg Businessweek
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