ModCloth leads the charge against Photoshopped models
What’s the quickest way to lose 5 pounds? Why Photoshop, of course. If you’ve picked up a magazine anytime in the last 15 years, you’ve probably been treated to a digitally manipulated parody of the human form. The practice of photoshopping flaws out of models, celebrities and musicians has become so commonplace, we almost don’t think about it — but the unrealistic expectations set these visual falsehoods creates artificial (and unobtainable) standards of beauty. Now, the Brave Girls Alliance is fighting back, asking advertises to take a “Hero’s Pledge” to not alter the shape of size of their models or, if they do, to clearly mark the altered images as photoshopped and unrealistic. The first company to sign up? ModCloth, a popular online clothing retailer.
“It’s easy for us to sign on to something celebrating real people,” ModCloth CMO Nancy Ramamurthi told Forbes. “When you see in the public this kind of change in attitude of embracing a company that does what’s right, companies will make the shift.” While the company admits on its official blog that some of its models have been photoshopped, these images will be properly labeled as altered going forward. The retailer’s customers are mostly supportive of the pledge, though a few comments on the company’s site explain that not all photoshop work is bad, citing minor fixes in color correction or arm positioning.
It’s true that not all photoshopped images are equal, but advertising does have a tendency to go overboard. Want to see how bad it can get? Check out the video below: a completely different body-type is just a few clicks away.
[Image credit: ModCloth]
Filed under: Misc
Source: Forbes, ModCloth, Brave Girls Alliance
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Wally: Wallpaper app with Material Design [App of the Day]
Like many of you, I’m pumped for Android L and the refreshed design language that will come with. Developers have been given a taste as to what Android’s next design principles are with the Android L Developer Preview, which mainly highlights Material Design. Only a handful of apps have updated to this design, and… Read more »
The post Wally: Wallpaper app with Material Design [App of the Day] appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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Cars may soon know when you’re on the phone behind the wheel
Word to the wise, kids: do not muck around with your phone while driving. Some of you probably won’t be able to help it (tsk tsk), but a team from Santa Catarina State University in Brazil just might have the solution — according to MIT Technology Review, they’ve cooked up an in-car hardware/software combo that can detect when you’re on the phone and behind the wheel.
Here’s how their system works: a tiny camera embedded in the dashboard quietly records clips of a test driver, which then get cropped closely around the driver’s face. Once that’s done, the algorithm can chew on each of those three second clips in search of what appear to be hands entering the frame near the driver’s face — the more prominent the hand, the more likely it is the algorithm will think you’re driving mid-gab. Of course, building that algorithm is only half the battle — the team hasn’t built a way to alert the driver once he or she has been caught in the act (though it’s not for lack of imagination). Crafting a system like this is noble, worthy work, but we can’t help but wonder if a little dose of common sense might not be a more effective deterrent. Then again, no one’s figured out a way to sell that yet, so expect systems like this to become more common as time marches on.
Source: MIT Technology Review
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Moto X+1 Compared to the Moto X! Moto 360 Needs to be on My Wrist! – The ManDroid Show
Happy Friday my Android friends, the actual ManDroid Show is here. CHanged things up a little bit this week, by introducing the ManDroid Daily to our channel. I figured it was better to have a video everyday of the work week to keep the news flowing to you guys, and the Friday video will be the full on ManDroid Show. The Moto X+1 made the news today, and if they are putting front-facing speakers on that device, I am up for that. Enjoy the show!
Android News
Moto X+1 front panel
Monday ManDroid Daily
Tuesday ManDroid Daily
Wednesday ManDroid Daily
Thursday ManDroid Daily
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The post Moto X+1 Compared to the Moto X! Moto 360 Needs to be on My Wrist! – The ManDroid Show appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
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Facebook is testing a “satire” tag to help you figure out what’s real and what’s not
Sure, you’re smart enough to know that “New Study Finds Humans Shouldn’t Spend More Than 5 Consecutive Hours Together” is a headline from well-known satirical publication The Onion. But not everyone is, which could lead to some misdirected — and embarrassing — outrage. That could be a thing of the past, however, as Facebook is currently testing a “Satire” tag that’ll distinguish fake news from the real deal. Ars Technica found that if you click through an Onion article, for example, Facebook would then automatically tag related articles with the aforementioned “satire” text in the headline (see screenshot after the break). A Facebook spokesperson confirmed this with the following statement:
“We are running a small test which shows the text ‘[Satire]‘ in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units.”
As Ars Technica notes, this doesn’t seem to apply to all parody sites and is only for related article headlines so far. And, honestly, we’re not sure if a “satire” tag is a great idea — maybe you should be made fun of if you actually think stories like these are true. In the mean time, we’re holding out hope for a “Check Snopes before posting” reminder instead.
[Image credit: Steve Rhodes/Flickr, screenshot from Ars Technica]
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Source: Ars Technica
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The second wave of Oculus’ latest VR headsets start shipping in October
After a few stumbles toward the finish line, the first wave of the latest Oculus Rift prototype shipment has concluded. It’s no small number, either. Oculus’ vice president of product Nate Mitchell tells Road to VR that his company shipped over 20,000 DK2 headsets in this initial push. Crazy, right? Consider this then: there are still over 40,000 orders left to fulfill. If you happened to order later than the first on-sale day, though, you may not be one of those lucky enough to call the second development kit your own. Road to VR has spotted a change to the prototype’s order page, however, that should give you a better idea of when to expect a second shipment. Hopefully your Halloween costume isn’t planned out just yet because once your virtual reality goggles arrive in October, you might not want to take them off. If you need something to keep you busy until then, well, there’s always Google Cardboard.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Road to VR, Oculus VR
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Pokémon Trading Card Game Online coming to iPad later this year
Remember that Nikkei report that said Nintendo was eyeballing mobile devices? The one that Nintendo immediately denied? It might be true after all — sort of. The Pokémon Company has confirmed that the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online will be available as an iPad app later this year. The app, a digital update of the 1996 trading card game of the same name, was spotted by Twitter user Josh Wittenkeller at a Play! Pokémon event. Nikkei’s original report suggested that Nintendo was planning to use mini-games on smart devices to lure gamers to its console products, and this definitely seems like a step in that direction.
That said, try not to get too excited: The Pokémon Company may be a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo, but its operations pertain exclusively to its namesake product line. Moreover, the iPad app is merely a port of a game already available for free on the Pokémon website — Nintendo is definitely dipping its toe in water, but this doesn’t mean we’re going to see Mario on mobile any time soon. Still, investors have been nagging Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to experiment with mobile apps for some time; if The Pokémon Company’s foray into the space is a success, he could be swayed.
[Image Credit: Josh Wittenkeller]
Filed under: Gaming, Mobile, Nintendo
Source: VentureBeat, Polygon, Twitter
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Hackers target grocery chains for customers’ credit card info
You know why you should always keep a close eye on your credit card activity? Because hackers can target any kind of establishment, whether they’re huge corporations, mom-and-pop shops or, in this case, grocery chains. American chains SuperValu and Albertsons have just revealed that digital brigands recently broke into their computer networks and, worse, were able to access the portions where customers’ credit or debit card details are stored. SuperValu owns Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Shop ‘n Save, and Shoppers Food and Pharmacy — 180 outlets of which were compromised — while Albertsons is one of its former properties. The security breach happened entirely on SuperValu’s end, though, as it still provides Albertsons with IT services despite selling it back in 2006.
To be clear, only those who’ve shopped at affected outlets from June 22nd to July 17th are at risk, and SuperValu claims it isn’t even 100 percent sure if any data was stolen at all. The company says it’s only “making this announcement out of an abundance of caution” and that the intrusion has already been contained. Still, it may be wise to look up your details every once in a while, just to be sure they’re not being offered up for sale in shady forums.
Want to know which outlets suffered a security breach, exactly? Part of Albertsons’ statement reads:
Based on information we have at this time, Albertsons stores in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas and our two Super Saver Foods Stores in Northern Utah were not impacted by this incident. However, Albertsons stores in Southern California, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and Southern Utah were impacted. In addition, ACME Markets in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey; Jewel-Osco stores in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana; and Shaw’s and Star Markets stores in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island were all impacted by this incident.
For those who’ve visited SuperValu properties within the aforementioned timespan, make sure to check this PDF store list to know if you need to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Ars Technica
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Apparent Photo of 5.5-Inch iPhone 6 Battery Reveals 2,915 mAh Capacity
A purported photo of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6′s battery on Chinese site Apple Daily [Google Translate] (via Macotakara) alleges that the larger new iPhone could have a capacity of 2,915 mAH. The photo shows the battery carrying an Apple part number of 616-0675 and that it runs at 4.35 volts, although no model number is shown.
While it’s difficult to confirm the authenticity of the battery, it does appear to have markings similar to other Apple batteries and looks to have the necessary proportions to fit the 5.5-inch iPhone.
Reports have claimed that the final battery capacity for the 4.7-inch model would be 2,100 mAh, so a battery capacity of 2,915 mAh would make sense for a phone less than an inch bigger. It would also put the 5.5-inch iPhone 6′s battery closer to the specs of the 5.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S5′s 2,800 mAh battery.
Apple will unveil the iPhone 6 at an event on Tuesday, September 9, with the 4.7-inch model likely launching soon after introduction. The event may also introduce the 5.5-inch iPhone 6, but the model could only be released months later as Apple is having some production issues with the device.
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The Pokemon Trading Card Game is Coming to iPad [iOS Blog]
Some attendees of the Pokemon World Championships, which is slated to begin this weekend in Washington, D.C. are being shown a version of the trading card game that will be released on iPad, according to Polygon. Video personality Josh Wittenkeller took a photo of the game running on an iPad.
The Pokemon Company confirmed Polygon that the game is real, but it does not yet have a timetable for release. The Pokemon Company has already released many apps for iOS, including the Pokedex for iOS app, however this would be the first full game the company will release for iOS.
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