What to expect at Engadget Live Seattle
We’re bringing our Engadget Live event series to Seattle’s Showbox SODO on Friday, July 18th, 7PM sharp! We also decided that we really enjoy making our readers happy, so effective immediately, all Engadget Live events this year will be free! (If you bought a ticket already, we’ll pay it back).
What can you expect at this crazy night of hands-on geekery? We’ve already announced some of the brands who will join us on July 18th, but there’s many more. Vapshot (which was a hit at Engadget Live Austin) will bring its vaporized alcohol technology to Seattle. To be clear — alcohol will be vaporized — nothing else.
Ministry of Supply will show off its tech-infused dress clothes that fight sweat, body odor and feel like your favorite sweatpants. You’ll also get to go hands-on with Exo Labs‘ cameras, which connect to any microscope and stream petri dish goodness to an iPad. Corning will show off Fibrance, a flexible fiber optic light source that lets designers add a pop color almost anywhere.
Now that you’re as excited as we are (hopefully), don’t delay, get your free ticket today! We’ll also bring Engadget Live to Boston in August and Los Angeles in October. If you’re in New York on November 7th and 8th, join us for our Engadget Expand flagship event, tickets for which you can purchase right here.
Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Alt
Source: Engadget Live (Seattle)
Lenovo Passes Apple in U.S. PC Shipments As Worldwide Market Flatlines
Apple saw its U.S. PC marketshare decline to 10.6 percent in the second quarter of 2014, down from 11.5 percent in the year-ago quarter, according to new data released from Gartner. With 1.6 million shipments, it trailed behind HP, Dell, and Lenovo, ranking fourth for the first time in several years.
Lenovo saw the most significant growth at 20.3 percent, while HP and Dell also saw high growth rates of 15.5 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively. Toshiba, with just over a million shipments, also saw growth of 18.5 percent.
Gartner’s Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q14 (In Thousands)
“The consumer PC market also started picking up in the U.S. The availability of affordable, thin and light notebooks have drawn consumers’ attention,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “Touch enable devices are also widely available with decreasing price premiums compared to a year ago. The price premium is low enough for mainstream consumers to spend the extra money for the additional functionalities,
such as touch.”Four of the top five vendors in the U.S. market experienced double-digit growth. HP was the market leader, accounting for 27.7 percent of PC shipments.
Overall, U.S. PC shipments totaled 15.9 million, up 7.4 percent year over year, while worldwide PC shipments saw flat growth compared to the year-ago quarter. Shipments totaled 75.8 million units, a 0.1 increase. Though worldwide PC shipments have ceased to decline in 2Q14, interest in low-cost tablets continues to eat into the traditional PC market.
Apple’s U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-2Q14 (Gartner)
IDC has also released its own estimates of PC shipments for the second quarter of 2014, painting a similar picture. IDC puts Apple’s shipments at 1.6 million and its market share at 10 percent, down from 10.9 percent, a 1.7 percent decline. IDC’s numbers also rank HP, Dell, and Lenovo as the top three vendors in the United States, with all three seeing growth of 15.6, 12.9, and 24.7 percent, respectively.
Unlike Gartner, IDC suggests worldwide PC sales totaled just 74.4 million, a year-over-year decline of 1.7 percent, with U.S. sales up 6.9 percent.
IDC and Gartner did not list Apple’s worldwide market share for the quarter, as usual, because the company does not rank among the top five vendors on a worldwide basis. Apple’s U.S. decline comes even as the company dropped the prices on two of its flagship products in 2014 — both the MacBook Air and the iMac saw price drops, with the former gaining a small spec boost and the latter seeing the introduction of a new low-cost version.
Remote Shutter and Revamped Panorama UI in Google Camera Update [APK Download]
Continuing on with Google app update Wednesday, we have one more small, but awesome, app to add to the list. The Google Camera app has been pushed up a little bit. It jumped from v2.2.024 to v2.3.017. The file size went up nearly a whole MB, which is pretty decent and means a little more than just some bug fixes. The new update offers a couple of things that are notable. If you happen to be an Android Wear owner this update will give you shutter control on your device. Not only can you snap a photo from your wrist, but you can also view the said image as well.
The other change comes to light in the panorama option. Google has enlarged the data points as well as the centering ring. It makes it quite a bit easier to spin around for those shots without needing glasses to line them up.
Per the norm, the update is rolling out in stages to all users of the app. We are about as impatient as anyone else is, so we have the apk for your downloading enjoyment. Don’t forget though, this app is only supported on Android 4.4+ devices and even some of those can’t use the app. If you can and already have it, then have at it.
Google Camera v2.3.017 apk download
Don;t forget about the Chromecast update and the Gmail update either.
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Get a little Android L look and feel on your Xperia device with the L Theme from Candl Design
Android L is all the rage. We all want the Material Design look and feel today, not this fall. For many, this fall doesn’t mean a thing since we know carriers and OEM’s tend to be much further behind than Google. That doesn’t mean you can’t have bits and pieces of the what Android L looks like, minus the fancy little animations of course. If you happen to own an Xperia device then you are in luck. Candl Design recently released a theme specifically for us to use with the Xperia theme engine on our devices.
The theme comes with quite a few graphical changes for your device.
– Navigation bar icons
– Launcher and Lockscreen Wallpaper
– System colors
– Xperia™ Home components (require full version to get full experience)
– Platform Components: button, checkbox, dropdown list,… (require full version)
– Up to 270 graphical assets
The basic theme is free and gives you a few changes like the softkey changes at the bottom. The images above are from the basic free version of the theme. Where as the image below are of the paid version ($0.99). You can quickly see a number of changes like how the folders look, the radio button colors/looks and the slide out in the app drawer.
If you are on Android 4.4+ you are all set, install the theme from the Play Store and then head to Settings > Personalization > Xperia themes and check the box. However, if you are on Android 4.3 you will need root and Supermod. Links to both version are provided below.
Xperia theme: L $0.99
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Refusing to decrypt data for investigators gets student 6 months in jail
Christopher Wilson is a 22-year-old computer science student with Asperger’s syndrome. He’s also facing six months in prison for refusing to hand over the encryption keys to police during the course of an investigation. Wilson first found himself on the wrong side of the long arm of the law in October of 2012. At the time, he was suspected of emailing threats to the vice chancellor of Newcastle University, where he was working towards a master’s degree, in which he promised to shoot members of the school’s staff. The messages were able to be traced to servers that were connected to Wilson, but the allegations could never be substantiated and the charges were eventually dropped. But not before police confiscated several pieces of computer equipment from his home.
Wilson’s legal troubles continued. Although charges were dropped in the Newcastle case, he became a suspect in a second set of threats made against the Northumbria police. In particular, he was suspected of calling and warning of an impending cyber attack, of attempting to break into the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s website and of encouraging people to deface a Facebook memorial page set up for a pair of officers shot in Manchester.
As part of the investigation, police wanted to look at encrypted data stored on Wilson’s computer. But the password he gave them didn’t work. In fact, he provided investigators with 50 passwords, none of which turned out to be correct. So police turned to the courts, which compelled him to provide the correct key to decrypt the data in the interest of national security. Since Wilson refused to comply, he was sentenced to six months in prison under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, or RIPA, the UK’s wiretapping law. Of course, it would seem a stretch that such threats would fall under the guise of terrorism and national security, which the particular provisions of RIPA are meant to investigate.
Filed under: Internet
Source: The Register
The return of Homestar Runner is imminent
Do you fondly recall anxiously awaiting a new installment of Strong Bad Email? Yeah, me too. Well, the creators of the Homestar Runner series of web cartoons are resurrecting the project following a popular April Fool’s Day episode earlier this year. In an interview on The Jeff Rubin Show, co-creator Matt Chapman broke the news that he and his brother Mike are going to dust off the characters for some new content. After determining that the faithful were still eager for more — even after the long hiatus — the duo plans to start back up at a yet to be announced date, with a site redesign and a YouTube archive on tap as well. “Maybe it was a fluke just because it was the first one we’ve done… but just based on that alone, it was enough to make us want to give it a try again,” said Chapman. With the rise of social media since the pair was last at it, here’s to hoping Strong Bad makes the leap to Twitter. If you’re not familiar, do yourself a favor and catch up before the new stuff drops.
Source: The Jeff Rubin Show
Sigourney Weaver joins original cast for ‘Alien: Isolation’ DLC
It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen Sigourney Weaver play the role of Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s Alien. Weaver takes the role once more alongside several other original cast members for two pre-order DLCs for the upcoming Alien: Isolation title. Ripley is joined by Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Parker (Yaphet Kott) and Ash (Ian Holm, likeness only), allowing you to play through two iconic scenes from the film. With the Nostromo Edition pre-order, the “Crew Expendnable” bonus content allows gamers to play as one of the surviving crew members just after Brett’s demise to entice the Alien to the ship’s airlock. Those who purchase early from GameStop are privy to “Last Survivor,” where Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence before escaping on the Narcissus. “For some of the original cast, this is their first appearance in an Alien video game. Seeing them reprise those roles after 35 years was an unforgettable experience,” says the game’s creative lead Alistair Hope. When it arrives in October, Alien: Isolation is due for Xbox (One and 360), PlayStation (3 and 4) and PC.
Google, Dropbox, Canon and others team up to disarm future patent trolls
Patent litigation from non-participating entities (casually known as “patent trolls”) is the bane of a technology firm’s legal department. Fighting patent lawsuits from firms that subsist completely on licensing and legal action is a frustrating waste of resources, and one that often stifles innovation indirectly. Now, a new partnership between Canon, Dropbox, Google, Asana, SAP and Newegg hopes to cut off would-be patent trolls at the knees. It’s called the License on Transfer Network (LOT), and it’s a patent-licensing agreement that neuters a patent’s potential for litigation before prospective trolls can exploit it.
The companies’ plan hinges on how patent sales are handled. Companies within the LOT network can sell each other patents under normal terms — but if a participating firm sells their patents to an entity outside of the group, all other LOT members will be granted a royalty-free license to the technology. This means that if a patent is sold to a non-participating entity, LOT members will be protected from frivolous litigation. If a company never sells their patents, it is of course still free to protect it via litigation, but the group hopes the network will disarm trolls ahead of time. “As long as a company owns their patent, they retain all their rights to it,” explained SAP’s Anthony DiBartolomeo in the group’s announcement. “The LOT Network helps protect innovative patent owners from unwarranted litigation without stifling valid, beneficial uses of patents, such as cross-licensing.”
[Image credit: Brian Turner/Flickr]
Via: Re/Code
Source: DropBox, LOT Network
Electric Objects wants to put the digital art world on your wall
Digital photo frames are one of those product categories that seemed like a good idea at the time. As it turned out, no one really wanted a low-resolution LCD screen in their living room that needed to be plugged into a chunky power brick just to display pictures of their kids. New York-based startup Digital Objects believes it’s fixed that problem with the EO1, “a framed high-definition screen and integrated computer that hangs on your wall and brings art from the Internet into your home.” Or, as founder Jake Levine calls it, a screen that doesn’t “make you feel like shit.”
The EO1 is a 23-inch HD matte display that runs off an Cortex-A9 processor, more than enough to handle animated GIFs and javascript visualizations. You can load any image you want off the web, but the EO1 is really meant to be used with a digital storefront that offers images from both cultural organizations like the New York Public Library and the Museum of the Moving Image, and digitally native outlets like Digg, to.be and Giphy. But unlike previous attempts at creating a frame for digital art you can’t take images off an SD card or load them via USB. You can’t even connect a keyboard or mouse — the EO1 is meant to be accessed via the company’s iOS and Android apps.
As to whether the EO1 makes you feel like shit, it’s hard to say — the early prototypes we saw at Electric Objects’ office still laid bare the inner workings of the device, with the earliest versions running Android on a Raspberry Pi. But the final version will tuck that all away, and the thick black plastic frame and matte finish wouldn’t be out of place in an art gallery — or suburban living room. It’s a bit too heavy to hang on a single nail, though, and you’re still going to have to plug it in, albeit with a cord resembling the one from the Macbook Air.
So while we’re still not itching for a way to put our favorite GIFs on our office walls, apparently someone is — the Electric Objects Kickstarter campaign has blown through its goal of $25,000 with over $200,000 in pledges in the first day. Some have even bought into the tier where you receive five EO1 units — and we doubt they’re buying them to show off the best Oprah GIFs.
Filed under: Displays
Source: Electric Objects, Kickstarter
DEALS & STEALS: Amazon offering up to $50 off Kindle Fire tablets
Amazon is offering a limited time promotion of $40-$50 off select Kindle Fire tablets. Pitched around “Back to School” (yes, already), the deal applies to the Fire HD, Fire HDX, and Fire HDX 8.9 models. We’re quite fond of these devices and appreciate what Amazon has done in this space over the last few years. If you’re in the market for a new tablet, we suggest you consider one of these. In addition to the tablets, Amazon is discounting accessories by up 20% with up to 80% off Kindle textbook rentals.
- Kindle Fire HD 16 GB from
$169$129 - Kindle Fire HDX 64GB from
$309$259 - Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ from
$379$339
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