Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Agencies should start doing F.R.A.U.D today!


No, in seriousness, this is NOT about "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em"


Dear Agency Media Buyers,

Would you rather your clients call me up to do measurement to help explain a problem they detected or an anomaly related to ad fraud in their media? Or would you rather get out in front of that and double check it for yourselves, before that inevitable call happens? I have the privilege of working with two good media agencies that genuinely care about their clients' investments and are already way out in front of the latest attacks and advanced bots. But, still, they are the exception rather than the rule.

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Monday, January 23, 2017

ASUS' Raspberry Pi rival can play 4K video

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/23/asus-tinker-board/

Homebrew-friendly boards like the Raspberry Pi are great for do-it-yourself projects, but they seldom have the oomph needed to handle intensive tasks. That's where ASUS hopes to do better -- it quietly released its own device, the appropriately named Tinker Board. It's almost the same size as the Pi, but its quad-core Rockchip processor has the power to play 4K video and 24-bit audio. This might be your ideal hardware if you're building your own mini media center.

The board touts other perks you don't usually see on these boards, including 2GB of RAM (twice as much as the Pi), gigabit Ethernet and the latest generation of SDIO for add-on boards.

ASUS' hardware is not surprisingly more expensive than its rival at about £55 ($68). However, the bigger question is software. Like the Raspberry Pi, the Tinker Board runs on a variant of Debian Linux and supports Kodi for around-the-home media streaming. As Liliputing notes, though, ASUS doesn't have the Pi's years of developer support and fandom behind it -- you can accomplish more, but you won't have as much help getting started.

Via: Hexus, Liliputing

Source: CPC

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Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Burner's virtual phone lines add automatic robocall blocking

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/17/burner-adds-automatic-nomorobo-call-blocking/

When it debuted in 2012, Burner's virtual phone number app promised to help privacy-minded folks shield their private digits with temporary phone numbers while adding a few useful cloud-based integrations at the same time. Today, Burner announced a new integration with Nomorobo -- the winner of the FTC's Robocall Challenge -- to eliminate another major phone-related headache: Rachel from Card Services.

The Burner and Nomorobo partnership adds the latter's call-blocking features and "massive" blacklist of known telemarketers to prevent those calls from ever reaching your phone. (Or, in this case, your temporary Burner number.) Incoming calls are checked against Nomorobo's database and then automatically screened. Although you can blissfully ignore those calls if you like, the Burner app places them in a "Filtered Calls" section of your call history so you can review them later. Incorrectly filtered calls can be whitelisted and moved to the Inbox just like checking your email spam folder.

Burner users with a Premium $4.99 monthly subscription can add Nomorobo's services to their account simply by updating to the latest version of the app. Nomorobo will be enabled by default in both the iOS and Android versions.

Source: Burner

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Zotac's tiny gaming PC is powerful enough to play in VR

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/17/zotacs-tiny-gaming-pc-is-powerful-enough-to-play-in-vr/

A major obstacle currently facing VR is the fact that the headsets themselves (generally) have to remain tethered to a bulky desktop tower. With the new Zbox Magnus EN1070K from Zotac, however, that tower is now barely bigger than a Mac Mini.

The EN1070K is part of Zotac's gaming line of ultra-compact PCs, but don't let its miniscule footprint fool you. It offers the current Intel Kaby Lake Core i5 processor, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU and can accommodate up to 32GB of RAM. That's more than enough processing power to run a VR setup such as the Oculus Rift.

There's no word yet on when the EN1070K will be released, or for how much. Given that the last generation E-series cost around $1,500, you can pretty safely bet the new one will retail for roughly the same, depending on the specific components you elect for. So even though it may be small enough to fit into a VR backpack, the EN1070K's price tag may be too big to fit into your budget.

Via: The Verge

Source: AnandTech

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Raspberry Pi gives its PC-on-a-stick a big speed boost

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/17/raspberry-pi-gives-its-pc-on-a-stick-a-big-speed-boost/

Raspberry Pi has taken its latest computing board and squished it onto the stick-sized Compute Module 3, giving it about ten times the power of the original Compute Module. Unlike the Raspberry Pi 3 upon which it's based, however, the device is built for industrial applications, prototypers and advanced hobbyists, not students or casual users. It can now play that part a lot better, thanks to a 1.2GHz Broadcom processor, 1GB of RAM (double that of the original) and upgradeable storage.

Raspberry Pi points out that NEC used the device in its latest signage and presentation monitors (below), giving you an idea as to the intended market. It fits into a standard DDR2 SODIMM form factor, making it easy to find inexpensive sockets from several manufacturers. Developers will also want the Compute Module IO Board, giving you Pi-like pin and flexi connectors, MicroSD, HDMI and USB "so that you have an entire system that can boot Raspbian (or the OS of your choice)," the organization wrote.

The idea with the Compute Module is "to provide the 'team in a garage' with easy access to the same technology as the big guys," Raspberry Pi wrote. As such, manufacturers can add it into a dumb device to make it smart, since it can single-handedly do processing, memory and routing chores. At the same time, it should be relatively easy to program for anyone with some Pi experience.

The Compute Module 3 with upgradeable MicroSD storage runs $30 (£27), but if you're fine with 4GB of fixed flash memory, you can go for a $25 (£22) "Lite" module. The IO board is sold separately for £96 (around $116) or together with the Compute Module 3 for £126 (about $143). For details on how to get it in the UK, US and elsewhere, hit Raspberry Pi's announcement post.

Via: PC World

Source: Raspberry Pi

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