Yahoo Sports for iOS adds Loops for capturing clutch catches, epic fails
Fancy making your own social media commentary during the big game? Yahoo Sports for iOS now lets you capture those monster dunks in animated GIF form. The company has officially labeled the creations Loops, and users can add their own commentary as captions on top of the moving picture. As you might expect, files can then be shared via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and e-mail. Not to be left out, the app was revamped for iOS 7 with speedier performance in its sneakers. For a look at some samples, click over to the source link and take a peek.
Source: Yahoo
Researchers turn to Twitter in the search for time travelers
Whether or not time travel is even physically possible remains to be seen. But researchers at Michigan Technological University have already started scouring the internet for evidence that we’ve been visited by tourists from the future. The theory is that anyone who has moved backwards through space-time may have left their mark by tweeting, updating Facebook or posting on Google+ (who knows, maybe it’s super popular in the future). The team began looking for mentions of two particular terms, “comet ISON” and “Pope Francis” before they would have entered our lexicon on September 21, 2012 and March 16, 2013, respectively. The ability to backdate Facebook posts and the fact that Google Trends only picks up popular terms limited he effectiveness of those particular tools, but that did not deter the researchers.
They also performed a version of an experiment first conducted by Stephen Hawking in 2012, who sent out an invitation to a party after he’d already thrown it. Not surprisingly, no one traveled back in time to attend after they’d received the invitation. The Michigan Tech team decided to use Twitter hastags instead. They asked people to tweet with #ICanChangeThePast2 and #ICannotChangeThePast2, then searched for messages including those tags that would have been sent before they put out the call to the would be time travelers. Unfortunately, none of their work turned up any evidence that there are currently people from the future in our midst. Of course, we already know they’re here — Nic Cage is the only evidence we need. The full academic paper awaits you at the source link.
Filed under: Science, Internet, Alt
Via: The Daily Dot
Source: Searching the internet for evidence of time travelers
NSA wants to make a quantum computer that cracks tough encryption
While the NSA can inflitrate many secure systems without breaking a sweat, there are still some encryption methods that it just can’t crack. That may not be a problem in the long term, however. The Washington Post has published documents from Edward Snowden which reveal that the agency is researching a “cryptologically useful” quantum computer. The dramatically more powerful hardware could theoretically decode public encryption quickly enough to be useful for national defense; conventional PCs can take years, even when clustered together. That kind of decrypting power is potentially scary, but you won’t need to worry about the privacy of your secure content just yet. It’s not clear that the NSA is anywhere close to reaching its goal, and any success could eventually be thwarted by quantum-based encryption that’s impossible to break by its very nature. Still, the leak is a friendly reminder that we shouldn’t take existing security methods for granted.
Filed under: Networking, Internet
Source: Washington Post
Netflix adds director’s commentary option to House of Cards season one
You’ll have to wait until Valentine’s Day to get the next dose of Netflix’s popular series House of Cards, but it’s doling out some love early. Starting today, fans can revisit season one with optional director’s commentary tracks from all six directors: David Fincher, James Foley, Joel Schumacher, Charles McDougall, Carl Franklin and Allen Coulter. As shown above, viewers get the additional commentary option under the alternate audio/subtitles menu and it should be available on all devices. Usually these kinds of extras are tied to physical media, but Netflix announced recently it would give them a test run starting with its original content like this show and Orange is the New Black. If you appreciate the extra insight give them a spin, we know the streaming company makes many of its decisions based on analytics so vote with your play button — if you’re waiting for 4K we should hear more about that very soon.
House of Cards S1 Director’s Commentary feat. David Fincher and more – Now live on Netflix: http://t.co/Ut6TckaVYn pic.twitter.com/8sSL99O5Lx
– House of Cards (@HouseofCards) January 3, 2014
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Netflix
Corning Announces New ‘3D’ Shaped Gorilla Glass
Corning has announced a new shaped Gorilla Glass product to offer glass solutions for curved devices like smart watches. Corning is one of Apple’s main suppliers for the glass in the iPhone and iPad, and, with Apple rumored to have a smart watch production the works, Corning’s new product would make for a logical source component for the new device.
Product design continues to drive the consumer electronics industry. More than half of the top 10 smartphone manufacturers already market devices that incorporate cover glass with subtle curves, and the demand for even more-dramatic form factors is increasing. Corning’s 3D-forming technology meets this demand and expands the design possibilities for industrial designers.
The relationship with GTOC allows Corning to provide a “one-roof” solution. “We can now take Gorilla Glass all the way from flat sheet to a finished 3D-shaped product in Asia, expediting turnaround times and minimizing logistical complexity,” said James R. Steiner, senior vice president and general manager, Corning Specialty Materials. “That’s a win for Corning and our customers.”
Apple has used curved glass in some of its products in the past, most notably in a previous generation iPod nano. There have been a number of rumors about Apple developing curved glass iPhones, most recently in November when Bloomberg said Apple would release 4.7″ and 5.5″ iPhones next fall with slightly curved screens.
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Mac Pro CPU Upgradeability Confirmed With Processor Swap
Following the release of the Mac Pro, a quick teardown by Other World Computing (OWC) revealed that the tower’s Intel Xeon E5 processor was socketed and removable, theoretically allowing for future upgrades. All CPUs in the Mac Pro were found to use the same LGA 2011 socket standardized on the Mac Pro’s motherboard.
Today OWC confirmed that the Mac Pro’s processor is indeed upgradeable, successfully replacing the default Intel E5–1650 V2 6-core 3.50Ghz processor with an Intel E5–2667 V2 8-core 3.30GHz processor with 25MB of L3 cache, an option not offered by Apple. The upgraded processor gave OWC’s machine a 30 percent multi-processor performance boost, outperforming Apple’s standard 8-core option with a Geekbench score of 27004 vs. 24429.
With a replaceable CPU, customers can purchase more affordable lower-configuration Mac Pros that can be updated in the future as processor prices drop. Prices for multi-core processors today remain high, with the CPU OWC used from Intel priced at $2000. Apple’s own CPU upgrade options range in price from $500 to $3500. Based on the 3.7Ghz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 with 10MB of L3 cache, pricing from Apple is as follows:
– 3.5GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 with 12MB of L3 cache: +$500
– 3.0GHz 8-core Intel Xeon E5 with 25MB of L3 cache: +$2000
– 2.7GHz 12-core Intel Xeon E5 with 30MB of L3 cache: +$3500
The upgradeable CPU in the Mac Pro is a deviation from standard practice for Apple, with most consumer-oriented Macs featuring soldered processors. Along with a removable CPU, Mac Pro buyers are also able to upgrade memory and other components. In a recent teardown, iFixit gave the Mac Pro a repairability score of 8 out of 10, highlighting the easily accessible internal components and the non-proprietary screws.
Apple’s Mac Pro is currently available exclusively through the online Apple Store. Due to low supply and high demand, new orders are not expected to ship until February or later, but customers who placed orders shortly after the computer went on sale have begun receiving units.
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