Game streaming service, OnLive, picked up by Sony
Game streaming service, OnLive Games, had a pretty good thing going for it when it first launched. Unfortunately they just couldn’t get a hold on the market for one reason or another. Now, after five short years of service, OnLive Games will be closing up shop. As noted on their site this morning, Sony is […]
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Wave goodbye to the Bitcoin Bowl
Bitcoin’s journey on the road to legitimacy has just taken a step backwards with the news that the Bitcoin Bowl is no more. The event was a tie-up between Bitcoin payment processor BitPay and ESPN to re-brand NCAA post-season game the St. Petersburg Bowl as the Bitcoin Bowl. According to CoinDesk, the three-year agreement between the pair was torn up by mutual consent, and no-one’s saying anything beyond that. Earlier this year, CoinDesk reported that the reaction to the Bitcoin Bowl by participating retailers was lukewarm, which might have been one of the reasons behind the move. Fortune, meanwhile, believes that the dwindling value of the currency is hurting BitPay and it may not be long for this world.
Filed under: Internet
Source: CoinDesk
Deal: Acer 11.6-inch Chromebook is just $129 on Best Buy right now
First up, let’s pause for a second and consider for a second that you can now buy a brand new, real laptop (well, real, unless you believe in Microsoft’s defunct Scroogled campaign) for $129. We live amazing times…
Back to the matter at hand: Best Buy is offering the moonstone white Acer’s 11.6-inch Chromebook (CB3-111-C8UB) for $129 today and tomorrow, which is $70 off its list price and $50 lower than on Amazon. If you’re looking for a dirt cheap computing device and are fine with the (ever smaller) constraints of Chrome OS, this is a real bargain for you.
Specs include a 1366 x 768 screen, an Intel Celeron N2830 processor clocked at 2.16GHz, Intel HD graphics, 16GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4, and HDMI out. Yes, this is pretty barebones, but for some types of users, barebones is all they need. The device weighs 2.7 pounds.
Get the Acer Chromebook 11.6 on Best Buy for $129
Reviewers on Best Buy and Amazon are very happy with this Chromebook 11.6-inch from Acer, awarding it 4.5 stars on BB and an impressive 4.8 stars on Amazon.
Happy shopping!
This 2-pack of BlackBerry Passport screen protectors is only $9.95 today
With these OEM screen protectors, you’ll be able to prevent unwanted scratches from leaving a permanent mark as well as retain your Passport’s original clarity. Each package comes with two protectors, so you can apply one now and keep an extra when it’s finally time to switch them out.
Save 46% today on this Nexus 6 hard case with kickstand
The SURFACE Case is the perfect Nexus 6 hard cover; combining a super-slim design, protective outer shell and a magnetic kickstand for convenient viewing.The exterior features a soft coating that provides additional grip, too. Available today for only $18.95
Apple Watch Wins Red Dot ‘Best of the Best’ Design Award
Still three weeks away from being released to the public, the Apple Watch has received another design award for Apple ahead of launch, this time receiving the “Best of the Best” designation by the German Red Dot design awards (via aBlogtoWatch).
Previously winning the Gold Award, and being called “an icon”, at the International Forum Design awards earlier in March, the Red Dot award counts a second win for the wearable in the design category before its April 24 launch date.
The Apple Watch wasn’t alone in the smartwatch category, however, as the MB&F HM6 Space Pirate horological smartwatch also received the “Best of the Best” designation.
The Red Dot jury judged the Apple Watch, and all products in the category, on its functionality, durability, ergonomics, and even “symbolic and emotional content”, amongst other criteria. As aBlogtoWatch points out, there’s a drastic monetary difference between the two winning smartwatch devices this year, even when comparing the $17,000 Apple Watch Edition to the Space Pirate.
Red Dot design award jurors understandably fawned over what is still, by far, the best-looking smartwatch, even though it isn’t on the market yet. Given the limitations of technology, as well as the potential of what can come of connected smartwatches, I think it makes a lot of sense that the Red Dot award jury decided to not only recognize the Apple Watch, but consider it as a “Best of the Best” product.
It’s an interesting Best of the Best Red Dot watch design award this year, as, on the one hand, you have the $230,000 MB&F HM6 Space Pirate that is limited to just 50 pieces, and on the other hand, you have the mostly $1,000 and under Apple Watch that could easily have 50 million units on wrists before long.
The Product Design category of the Red Dot awards celebrates 31 total areas of design, including everything from living room furniture to vehicle accessories, with the “Watches” category getting introduced this year to compensate for the increasingly crowded smartwatch market.
The Product Design category specifically in 2015 had 4,928 entries with only 81 total products receiving the “Best of the Best” award recognition. A gala will be held this June 29 at the Aalto-Theater in Essen, Germany for all of the Best of the Best Red Dot award winners. The winners not only receive the Red Dot designation materials to use on product packaging and marketing, but will have their products displayed in the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen for up to a year.
It’s a new day so that means more leaked HTC One M9+ images
I am using the word “leak” here, but it’s more like a running faucet. Images of the HTC One M9+ continue to appear, not only daily, but multiple times daily.
This latest leak seems to be promotional materials, and although they don’t show anything all that new, there is a closeup of that Samsung-like Home button that will house a fingerprint sensor.
It still boggles my mind why this phone wasn’t the M9 to begin with. Why offer two variants?
source: MyDrivers / @Upleaks
via: PocketNow
Come comment on this article: It’s a new day so that means more leaked HTC One M9+ images
NASA and Boeing to test eco-friendly technologies for airplanes
Boeing’s new ecoDemonstrator (a 757) is slated to go on a series of flights this spring to try out two of NASA’s experimental fuel-saving techniques. One of them’s the Active Flow Control Enhanced Vertical Tail Flight Experiment, which entails installing 31 tiny jets on a plane’s vertical tail or dorsal fin, as you can see below the fold. These jets can manipulate the flow of air over the tail’s surface and generate enough force to stabilize the plane during takeoff and landing, even if the fin’s around 17 percent smaller than usual. A smaller tail means a lighter plane and, hence, lower fuel consumption.
A few weeks after putting the teensy jets through the wringer, ecoDemonstrator will do another series of flights to test five different insect-repellent plane coatings. Apparently, even something as small as bugs can disturb the flow of air around the plane’s wings and cause drag. Planes can reduce fuel consumption by around six percent if that air flow remains smooth. That sounds like such a small number, but it could still save airlines millions of dollars on fuel and lead to lower emissions.
NASA already ensured that these two technologies work in a laboratory setting. But they still need to go through field testing to see if they can survive the harsh environments airplanes typically face. They’re only two of the eight projects being developed under the agency’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) initiative, though, so expect more test flights to take to the skies after spring.
[Image credit: Boeing / John D. Parker]
Filed under: Transportation
Source: NASA
Samsung passed Qualcomm for the Galaxy S6 LTE modem too – report
As we outlined in this post from earlier this week, Samsung stands to benefit substantially from adopting an in-house Exynos processor for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, over the Snapdragon 810 chip from rival/partner/client Qualcomm. Now a new report from IC tech analysis firm Chipworks reveals that Samsung also adopted in-house solutions for the connectivity component of its new flagships.
Chipworks disassembled a Galaxy S6 and analyzed the circuitry and chips that make it tick. While the firm has only published preliminary findings so far, there are some interesting details to be gleaned from the following component list.
- Samsung Exynos 7420 SoC
- Samsung K3RG3G30MM-DGCH 3Gb LPDDR4 SDRAM and Samsung KLUBG4G1BD 32GB NAND Flash
- Samsung Shannon 333 Modem, Shannon 533 PMIC, Samsung S2MPS15 PMIC, Samsung Shannon 928 RF Transceiver and Samsung Shannon 710 Envelope Tracking IC
- Broadcom BCM4773 GNSS Location Hub
- InvenSense MPU-6500 Gyro + Accelerometer
- Skyworks SKY78042 Multimode Multiband (MMMB) Front-End Module (FEM)
- Avago AFEM-9020 PAM and Avago ACPM-7007 PAM
- Samsung C2N8B6 Image Processor
- Maxim MAX98505 Class DG Audio Amplifier and Maxim MAX77843 Companion PMIC
- Samsung Electro-Mechanics 3853B5 Wi-Fi Module
- N5DDPS2 (Likely Samsung NFC Controller (P/N needs to be confirmed)
- Wolfson WM1840 Audio CODEC
- Texas Instruments BQ51221 Single Chip Wireless Power Receiver
- Skyworks SKY13415 Antenna Switch
- STMicro FT6BH Touch Screen Controller
Even if you know little about electronics, a quick scan of the list tells you that the Galaxy S6 incorporates many components made by Samsung, including some of the most important ones. The application processor (SoC), the RAM memory, the flash storage, the LTE modem and the associated components, the image processor, and the Wi-Fi module are all Samsung, and herein lays one of Samsung’s biggest strengths. Unlike most other phone makers, Samsung is also making (either directly or through affiliate companies) many of the key components going inside its phones, which gives it more control and flexibility and allows it to work with higher profit margins.
The Galaxy S6 is Samsung’s through and through
The chip analysis also shows that the SoC wasn’t the only “design loss” for Qualcomm, when it comes to the Galaxy S6. The modem, power management, RF transceiver, and envelope tracking chips are all from Samsung (Shannon is Samsung’s brand for various silicon components).
The design of cellular connectivity chips (branded Gobi) is Qualcomm’s other main activity, besides SoCs. It wouldn’t be the first time Samsung uses non-Qualcomm LTE chips for its phones; for instance, the Korean company opted for Intel chips for variants of the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Alpha. Nonetheless, for Qualcomm, a design win in the connectivity stack would have helped soften the blow of losing the SoC spot. Especially since the Galaxy S6 will probably be Samsung’s best-selling device ever.
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Samsung appears to be doubling down on its component business, where it already holds a slight lead thanks to the 14-nm manufacturing process. The company is rumored to be preparing its own custom CPU cores, as well as a custom GPU, that would replace the current designs supplied by ARM. Samsung is also pushing hard to create competitive high-end SoCs with integrated LTE, following the launch of a mid-range integrated SoC last year.
Robbers hi-jack truck carrying Samsung devices and parts in India
Although it sounds like something out of a movie, the robbery that took place in India on April 1st was no joke. The plan was to steal a truck transporting Samsung’s latest flagships, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones and drive off into the night, but it seems that not everything went to plan for the robbers and their accomplices.
Although the robbers believed the truck would be carrying the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge handsets, instead it was transporting around four million dollars worth of machine tools, circuit boards and other Samsung devices from the Indira Gandhi airport to Noida. When the truck arrived in Sarita Vihar (South Delhi) the robbers intervened, taking control of the truck, beating up the driver and his assistant and holding them at knife-point before scarpering off with the truck. In an effort to disappear the robbers had disabled the trucks GPS tracker. The Driver and assistant were able to raise the alarm thanks to another truck arriving soon after.
As with many incidents of this nature, the police would naturally suspect that it was an inside job before widening their search, and in this case they were correct. It was an inside job that ended up with 4 people that included one current and one ex-employee of the transport company being held for questioning. The truck and its contents have not yet been found although the police are conducting further investigations.
Come comment on this article: Robbers hi-jack truck carrying Samsung devices and parts in India
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