[Deal] Amazon Fire TV Stick gets discounted to $24 at Best Buy
Amazon’s Fire TV Stick is fighting to be your home’s center for media streaming. For a limited time, the little dongle will set you back only $24 when you purchase it at your local Best Buy store or online. This is down from the original price of $39, nearly a 40% discount.
How does this price compare to the competition? Best Buy has the Chromecast for $29 and Roku streaming stick for $49. The advantage, at least for today, goes to Amazon and the Fire TV Stick.
Best Buy lists this offer as their Deal of the Day, so you might want to hit this up if you’re in the market for a device to stream content. The electronics retailer is also offering free shipping on any online purchase of $35 or more and 5% back in rewards.
[BestBuy]
Come comment on this article: [Deal] Amazon Fire TV Stick gets discounted to $24 at Best Buy
Dot is a new braille smartwatch that aims to help the visually impaired
From touchscreen to e-ink displays, wearable technology has come a long way over the years. Unfortunately, the wearable and mobile technologies many of us have access to on a daily basis just aren’t compatible with certain ways of life. With that said, there’s a new wearable out there that aims to offer blind users quick access to notifications, the time, directions, and much more.
It’s called the Dot, and it basically performs most of the same tasks many other smartwatches can. It can give you the time, navigation directions, remind you of an event, let you communicate with friends, and even connect to other devices using Bluetooth 4.0. The big story with the Dot is its display, which consists of a set of dull pins that lower and rise up, spelling out words in braille when a user places their finger on it. Users can even customize the device’s refresh speed, making it possible to read as fast or as slow as needed. This unique display can also act as an e-reader of sorts, which gives visually-impaired users an affordable alternative to portable braille e-readers.
The device also features a battery that will supposedly last up to 10 hours on a single charge, as well as its own braille learning system that will help users learn the language.
Pre-orders for the Dot will start later this year for less than $300, and if all goes as planned, the wearable should ship out to early adopters this December. If you’re interested in learning more about the Dot, feel free to check out the official website at the source link below.
Speed up the week with these fast car wallpapers
We all like looking at things we can’t have. Well at least I do, for some strange reason. A lot of the things I want but can’t have are the various sports cars that are out tearing the roads up. Today we are bringing you some wallpapers for some cars that will make your phone just look fast, no matter what device you are running.
If you see a wallpaper that belongs to you and you would like to receive credit, I would love to give it to you! Just drop a comment in the section provided below with some proof (You know, just so we don’t have people claiming things that are not theirs…) So, please choose those that you like and enjoy!
The post Speed up the week with these fast car wallpapers appeared first on AndroidGuys.
‘Plasmonics’ could lead to super-fast optic communications
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new kind of material that could improve the speed of optical communications by as much as 5000 times the current state of the art. The material is made of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and it is able to change the amount of light it reflects by up to 40 percent while consuming a fraction of the power that conventional optical semiconductors consume. By reflecting more or less light, the material can encode and transmit data. What’s more, this material operates in the near-infrared spectrum range, which is what is most commonly used in optical communications.
Using this material, the team developed an optical transistor. It performs the same signal amplifying function that conventional transistors do, just for light instead of electricity. Semiconductors work by moving electrons from a baseline valence band to a higher energy state called the conduction band. When the electrons move up, they leave “holes” in the valence band which they eventually fill when the electron moves back down from the conduction band. A transistor’s switching speed is based on how quickly a semiconductor’s electrons can complete this cycle. And with AZO, that cycle takes just 350 femtoseconds (that’s 1.0 × 10-15 seconds) to complete — about as much time as it takes for light to pass through a sheet of paper. That’s really, really fast. “We were surprised that it was this fast,” lead author and Purdue doctoral student Nathaniel Kinsey said in a statement. With speeds like that, the team believes devices can be built that are at least 10 times faster than current silicon-based electronics.
Filed under:
Science
Source:
Purdue University
Tags: AZO, opticalcommunications, optics, plasmonics, Purdue, PurdueUniversity, semiconductor, transistor
$18 million up for grabs in this week’s ‘Dota 2’ championships
The International is back and bigger than ever. The 2015 championships for Dota 2, Valve’s massively popular MOBA, take off today in the “main event” stage, beginning with three matches between LGD Gaming and Team Empire. In total, 16 teams have a shot at winning The International when it comes to a close on Saturday, August 8th. There’s a total of $18 million up for grabs, with payouts ranging from $54,000 for 16th place and $6.5 million for first — and these figures should rise before the end of the tournament, since it’s funded via ongoing purchases of the Compendium, a package that offers players in-game goodies at $10 or $27 a pop. Twenty-five percent of all Compendium sales go straight to The International’s prize pool. Watch The International’s official, live coverage below (heads up, it autoplays).
Last year, the Dota 2 International championships doled out $11 million to winning teams and brought in more than 20 million viewers, with a peak concurrent audience of 2 million. Last year’s winning team, Newbee, took home more than $5 million. This year, the championship will be streamed on Twitch, YouTube and WatchESPN. Welcome to sports in the digital age.
Source:
Dota 2
Tags: championships, dota2, dota2championships, hdpostcross, TheInternational, TheInternational2015, TheInternationalDota2
Researchers inject oil into cells and create little lasers
The Massachusetts General Hospital research team that lit up human cells with the help of jellyfish genes a few years ago are back with a more advanced version of the technology. This new version forgoes the complicated external mirror setup in favor of injectable oil droplets impregnated with fluorescent dye. This is the same basic idea as what a team from St Andrews University recently created, except that the plastic bead that served as the their laser’s resonating chamber is now an oil droplet. While the technology isn’t ready for therapeutic applications just yet, it does hold a great deal of promise. The problem with conventional cellular markers and dye is that they have a broad emission spectrum which can make it difficult to spot the marked cells amidst the rest of the tissue. But with these miniature lasers, doctors will be able to mark and track individual cells no matter where they are in the body. The team recently published their findings in Nature Photonics.
a dye-impregnated fat cell – Massachusetts General Hospital
[Image Credit: Top – Arbi Babakhanians, inline: Matjaž Humar/Seok Hyun Yun]
Filed under:
Science
Source:
Nature Photonics
Tags: biology, cells, dye, lasers, MassachusettsGeneralHospital, oil, optics, photonics, tracking
PlayStation Now game streaming officially arrives on Vita and PS TV
If you’ve been itchin’ to give PlayStation Now’s streaming a go on your gaming handheld, the wait is over. The subscription service officially arrived on the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV, delivering access to over 125 games on those two devices. PlayStation Now had been available on the Vita and PlayStation TV in beta form for months, but now it’s making a proper debut after hitting the PS3 back in May. In addition to equipping two more gaming gadgets with the service, five new titles are being added this month. Joining the library of titles in August are Dynasty Warriors 8, MX vs. ATV Supercross, Bomberman Ultra, The Last Guy and, most importantly, God of War III. With new games being added on the regular and Sony offering newcomers a free one-week trial, there’s really now excuse for PlayStation owners to take the service for a test drive.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Source:
PlayStation Blog
Tags: gamestreaming, gaming, hdpostcross, playstationnow, playstationtv, playstationvita, psnow, psvita, sony, streaming, subscription, vita
Nokia sells HERE mapping business to Audi, BMW, and Daimler for $3 billion
The deal that would send Nokia’s HERE mapping business to three German automakers is now official. On Monday, the Finnish company announced that it would sell HERE to Audi, BMW, and Daimler for around $3 billion.
Audi, BMW, and Daimler will be able to implement HERE’s technology in their vehicles as soon as next year. Each automaker will be able to make a transition away from Google and Apple’s offerings, allowing more flexibility when it comes to tailoring the experience of a connected car. HERE’s real-time updates and parking data will also make it possible for the German automakers to increase the performance of self-driving cars.
Following the deal, Nokia will be split into two business entities. Nokia Networks and Nokia Technologies. Both will have completely separate goals and functions. Nokia Networks, which includes the Alcatel-Lucent acquisition, will focus on selling networking equipment. Nokia Technologies will be heavily invested in the research and development of future technologies.
The deal will officially close in the first half of 2016 and HERE’s mobile app is said to remain unaffected.
Source: Nokia
Come comment on this article: Nokia sells HERE mapping business to Audi, BMW, and Daimler for $3 billion
Amazon selects Staples as the Echo’s exclusive third-party retailer (with a catch)
Finally, Amazon’s Echo digital assistant is being offered through a third-party retailer. Amazon selected Staples to sell the Echo exclusively. The only catch is that Staples’ thousands of stores will not be selling the device, preventing anyone interested from entering their local Staples store and walking out with the Echo. Prospective buyers will have to stay online and go to the retailer’s site in order to make a purchase.
Only non-Prime members should be taking a look at purchasing the Echo through Staples. Otherwise, take advantage of Amazon’s membership services and receive free two-day shipping.
Come comment on this article: Amazon selects Staples as the Echo’s exclusive third-party retailer (with a catch)
First Firmware Worm Able to Infect Macs Created by Researchers
A team of researchers has created the first firmware worm that’s able to infect Macs, reports Wired. Building on “Thunderstrike” exploits uncovered earlier this year, the worm, dubbed “Thunderstrike 2,” infects Macs at the firmware level, making it nearly impossible to remove. Embedded into firmware, malware is resistant to firmware and software updates, able to block them entirely or reinstall itself at will.
The worm was created by security engineer Trammell Hudson, who first discovered the Thunderstrike exploits, and Xeno Kovah, owner of firmware security consultancy LegbaCore. When Thunderstrike made waves earlier this year, it was a limited proof-of-concept attack with no known presence in the wild, but Thunderstrike 2 demonstrates a real-world worm able to target Macs using the same general vulnerabilities.
Thunderstrike 2, unlike the first demonstration of Thunderstrike, is able to infect a Mac remotely through a malicious website or email. Once on a Mac, it’s able to spread itself to other Macs by hiding in the option ROM of peripheral devices like Apple’s own Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter, external SSDs, RAID controllers, and more. Once infected by a Mac that has the Thunderstrike 2 worm, the peripheral would go on to infect any other Mac it connects to.
“People are unaware that these small cheap devices can actually infect their firmware,” says Kovah. “You could get a worm started all around the world that’s spreading very low and slow. If people don’t have awareness that attacks can be happening at this level then they’re going to have their guard down and an attack will be able to completely subvert their system.”
Removing malware embedded into a Mac’s firmware would need to be done at the hardware level, making it particularly dangerous. According to the researchers, Apple has not done enough to fix the vulnerabilities that leave Macs open to these kind of attacks.
“Some vendors like Dell and Lenovo have been very active in trying to rapidly remove vulnerabilities from their firmware,” Kovah notes. “Most other vendors, including Apple as we are showing here, have not. We use our research to help raise awareness of firmware attacks, and show customers that they need to hold their vendors accountable for better firmware security.”
Kovah and Hudson have notified Apple about the Thunderstrike 2 vulnerabilities, but thus far, Apple’s only fixed one of five security flaws and introduced a partial fix for a second. Three of the vulnerabilities have not yet been patched, but it’s likely Apple is working to get the flaws fixed in an upcoming security update.
More information on Kovah and Hudson’s research and the Thunderstrike 2 exploit can be found in a lengthy report over at Wired.
AIVAnet 