Verizon confirms acquisition of AOL

Verizon has just confirmed on its official site that it will be acquiring media outlet AOL for an estimated $4.4 billion. This means publications like The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Engadget, MAKERS and AOL.com will now be owned by Verizon.

“Verizon’s vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network platform. This acquisition supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience,” said the CEO of Verizon Lowell McAdam.

It is said that Tim Armstrong will continue as the CEO of AOL even after the acquisition. It is expected of Verizon to keep things fairly independent, so don’t expect any massive changes in the way that the company or its subsidiaries function post the acquisition.

Armstrong was very optimistic about this new partnership with Verizon, saying – “Verizon is a leader in mobile and OTT connected platforms, and the combination of Verizon and AOL creates a unique and scaled mobile and OTT media platform for creators, consumers and advertisers. The visions of Verizon and AOL are shared; the companies have existing successful partnerships, and we are excited to work with the team at Verizon to create the next generation of media through mobile and video.”

Source: Verizon

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Someone just bought this ‘Tron’ lightcycle for $77,000

As movie vehicles go, not many rank as high on the cool scale as a Tron lightcycle. So when father and son collectors Paul and Chris Andrews decided to offer up their full-scale replica of the two-wheeler from Tron: Legacy for auction at Sotheby’s, we suspected it might sell for a little more than its $25,000 – $40,000 valuation. Turns out that was a bit of an understatement. On May 2nd, the ride, with its 96 volt electric motor with lithium batteries and a computer controlled throttle, fetched a tasty $77,000, almost doubling its projected sale value. The new owner gets a lightcycle that’s only been driven around the Andrews museum a few times to ensure it’s in full working order. All else that is needed is the Daft Punk soundtrack and they’ll be pulling 90-degree corners in style.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Transportation

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Via: Geek

Source: RM Auctions

Makers are getting their own social network

Maker Media founder Dale Dougherty speaks with such an infectious exuberance about creating and building that after speaking to him you want to go home and resurrect that project that’s been sitting in your garage or bedroom. From a magazine, to a series of faires and camps for children, Doughterty’s Maker Media reach – and enthusiasm – spans the globe and beginning today, it’s launching a beta of its new MakerSpace social network.

MakerSpace beta invitations are available for request until May 18. Like the Google model of beta invites, anyone that gets an invitation, can invite a few friends. If you don’t get into the beta, the full site will launch out of beta later this year. But, if you’re lucky enough to get onboard, you can create a profile, find and bookmark projects you find interesting, and post your own projects. Maker is calling it a place to “show and tell.”

This new online component of the Maker empire is also meant to keep the community engaged after Maker Faire events. “There’s a lot of cool things going on, but (at Maker Faire) you only saw the end result and didn’t know how to replicate that,” Dougherty explained. Now those exhibitors can interact with the people they met at an event and share their project’s progress and a detailed how-to.

Like all social networks, profiles will be the center of the experience. You can set your identity, interests and follow other members. But more importantly, it’ll be where you post your own projects both ongoing and finished. The community can follow along and comment on your posts sharing tips and feedback about each step in the process. It takes at-home tinkering and gives it an online audience. An audience that could eventually decide to meet up in real life without going to a sanctioned Maker event.

Getting individuals to work together, regardless of their discipline is one of the goals of Maker Faire. So don’t be surprised if a feature is implemented later down the line that makes those local meet ups easier to put together. For now, you can search for your town or city to find nearby makers.

Whether they meet in real life, or just hang out online, Maker wants to bring people together and this new site is the evolution of that goal. “That’s one of the things we got right about Maker Faire. We didn’t try to program what we wanted to see. The community came in and said, ‘this is what I’m doing, let me share it.’ That gave it a real different feel,” said Dougherty.

Filed under: Science, Internet

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Source: MakerSpace

FTC airs support for Tesla’s direct-to-consumer sales

The FTC did what it could to convince New Jersey and Missouri to repeal their ban against Tesla’s direct-to-consumer sales approach back in 2014. Now the commission has published another strongly worded letter backing Tesla, targeting Michigan, in particular. In it, the FTC makes its point clear: it believes that “states should allow consumers to choose not only the cars they buy, but also how they buy them.” If you recall, Michigan’s governor signed a bill into law last year that specifically banned Tesla from selling to consumers directly. All automakers have always been prohibited from doing so, but the law was still signed to eliminate any room for confusion.

The FTC is urging Michigan to reconsider its stance — it boldly states in its letter that it doesn’t think a blanket prohibition against all automakers is right, even if it is to protect local dealerships. A recently introduced bill in the state might loosen that law a bit, though it would only create an exception for enclosed three-wheeled vehicles called “autocycles.” That would allow Elio Motors to manufacture low-cost autocycles and sell them in the state if it does pass. It’s a start, but the commission makes it clear that it supports direct sales by any company, not just Tesla and Elio.

Filed under: Transportation

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: FTC

Radio telescope array could unlock the secrets of the early universe

To capture the night sky and better understand the formative years of our universe, astronomers are using something a tad more powerful than a traditional telescope. The Owens Valley Long Wavelength Array (OV-LWA) leverages 250 radio antennas, spread over a desert area equivalent to 450 football fields, to detect slender radio signals produced by distant pulsars, solar flares and auroras. Together, this army of antennas can capture the entire sky simultaneously and feed the resulting data back to the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. With over 25 terabytes flowing in every day, astronomers can study space weather, such as auroras, which occur when stars release magnetic energy.

It’s hoped that in the future, the array can also be used to detect traces of radio light from when the first stars and galaxies were born. At the moment, evidence of these events is blocked by hydrogen fog, thwarting optical and infrared telescopes, but it’s possible the OV-LWA will be able to cut through and provide new insight about the early universe.

Here’s a 24 hour time lapse video of the radio sky captured by the array:

[Image Credit: Copyright: Gregg Hallinan]

Filed under: Science

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Source: Caltech, NASA

Yes, 10-core smartphones will be a thing in 2016

When MediaTek first launched an octa-core mobile processor back in late 2013, many folks — including Qualcomm — called it a gimmick, but said feature has since become quite popular amongst device manufacturers, to the point where Qualcomm eventually had to come up with its very own octa-core offerings. Just to stay one step ahead of others, MediaTek is now prepping the launch of a deca-core aka 10-core chip dubbed the Helio X20, which will succeed the octa-core Helio X10 (MT6795) that’s already powering HTC’s Asia-only One M9+ plus several upcoming Chinese flagship phones. MediaTek is sampling its new chip in Q3, and the first commercial devices to use it will arrive as early as end of this year.

While ten cores may seem an overkill, the 20nm Helio X20 is actually more about its “Tri-Cluster” architecture that consists of two 2.5GHz Cortex-A72 cores, four 2GHz Cortex-A53 cores and four 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 cores. So basically, on the CPU side the Helio X20 is very much a Helio X10 with two more Cortex-A72 cores, but with the original eight Cortex-A53 cores running on slightly lower speeds.

Finbarr Moynihan, MediaTek’s General Manager of International Corporate Sales, analogized the addition of a third CPU cluster to having an extra gear in a car, in order to improve its fuel efficiency across different terrains. In other words, there’s no longer a sudden jump from the low-power cluster to its high-power counterpart, so you get a better overall curve across the power-performance spectrum. This also allows the low-power cluster to go even lower in terms of power required, and the high-power one to be even more powerful — hence the use of Cortex-A72 instead of yet more Cortex-A53 cores.

So here comes the classic question: Can all ten cores run simultaneously? Moynihan says while that’s allowed, the chip’s software will always pick the ideal clusters to handle different threads. For instance, mail apps and simple messaging apps can run on the low-power cluster, whereas casual games and multimedia apps can make do with the middle cluster, thus leaving high-power cluster to heavy games and other heavy duty apps. Statistically speaking, you won’t often see all ten cores operating at the same time.

“I think it’s much more likely that it will be a subset of the ten cores but in different configurations, depending on the load that might be on at the same time,” the exec added. “In theory, the scheduler can turn on all ten [cores] if necessary; of course, subject to any thermal constraints that the device may have.”

Compared to its predecessor, the more premium Helio X20 also benefits from the additional integrated Cortex-M4 hub (for low-power sensors and low-power MP3 playback), dual 12-bit camera processors, improved graphics performance yet lower power requirement on that plus the modem, as well as Carrier Aggregation for the faster Cat 6 LTE — a feature that Moynihan admitted the Helio X10 often gets criticized for excluding.

“Adding the next-generation modem and the Carrier Aggregation feature specifically, I think, makes this platform relevant on a much more global scale for higher tier and even flagship devices.”

Ultimately, we’ll need to see how well can the Helio X20 handle its clusters, as well as how efficient the new integrated modem is in real life. The bad news is we won’t get to do so until early 2016 the soonest, but the good news is MediaTek and device manufacturers have almost half a year to fine tune the chip’s performance, so time will tell.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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Warner Music made more money from streaming than it did downloads

So it seems that while streaming services don’t offer much of a payout for artists, at least one label is apparently doing pretty well off of them. Warner Music Group announced today that for the first time ever it made more money off of streams than it did selling downloads. With income from Spotify and YouTube, the outfit raked in some 33 percent more money in its second quarter while digital music sales only increased by a paltry seven percent. The Deftones’ label says that it’ll keep working with streaming partners to keep this sort of thing happening and to “ensure artists and songwriters receive appropriate value for their work.” Hopefully that means a re-appraisal of streaming royalties for the people who, you know, actually make the music that’s being streamed.

[Image credit: Getty Images]

Filed under: Internet

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Via: Recode

Source: Warner Music Group