Sky edges out BT to retain Spanish football TV rights
Much like the Premier League, broadcasters have to bid for the TV rights for other major sporting leagues around the world. Sky has delivered comprehensive coverage of Spain’s La Liga championship for two decades, but recently reports suggested that its biggest broadcasting rival, BT, had swooped in and stolen them. It turns out that’s not the case, because Sky has today announced it has secured La Liga access for another three years.
Sky will broadcast over 100 matches each season, including Real Madrid, Barcelona and the final of the Copa Del Ray (the Spanish equivalent of the FA Cup). Yep, that means El Clasico fixtures will stay on Sky Sports until 2018 and you won’t have to wait for the 15-minute window to lift before Sky shows live feeds from evening kick-offs.
With BT breathing down its neck, it was crucial that Sky retained its hold over Spanish football. BT already broadcasts matches from Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1 and the addition of La Liga would have truly seen it become the home of European football. Sky will add live Spanish football to its coverage of Scotland’s Football League, America’s MLS and the Eredivisie in The Netherlands, as well as 116 matches from the Premier League, 127 Football League matches and Capital One Cup ties. It’ll also likely secure the future of Sky Sports 5, Sky’s dedicated channel for European football.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, HD
Source:
Sky
Tags: bt, football, hdpostcross, la liga, sky, sky sports, soccer
Watch ‘The Martian’ astronauts struggle with isolation training
One of the greatest challenges for any manned Mars mission isn’t surviving the planet itself, but remaining mentally sound on the way there — you don’t want to freak out during a months-long space voyage. And it looks like the producers behind the movie adaptation of The Martian are well aware of this practical reality. They’ve posted a teaser clip showing how the fictional NASA crew copes with 10 days of isolation training meant to simulate the disconnection they’ll likely experience during the journey. As you’ll see below, some of them handle it better than others. A few are practically itching to go on the expedition, while others clearly… suffered a bit. Why does Aquaman have control over whales?
It’s a frequently silly video meant to drum up attention ahead of The Martian‘s October 2nd theatrical premiere. However, it’s also a rare instance of movie creators offering a semi-serious take on the psychological effects of space travel — that is, using them as more than just explanations for the villains’ behavior. Moreover, it suggests that Ridley Scott and his team are staying true to novelist Andy Weir’s careful balance between humor and realism. While there’s no certainty that the full movie will live up to the expectations set by the teaser, this is a good early sign.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, Science, HD
Via:
io9
Source:
ARES: live (YouTube)
Tags: andyweir, fox, hdpostcross, mars, movies, sciencefiction, teaser, themartian, video
Chris Lacy’s Link Bubble gets an update to v1.5 along with a change of ownership
Link Bubble users will be happy to note that the app has received a substantial update to version 1.5, with features such as drop down elements, domain redirects as well as a Material Design overhaul making an appearance. Link Bubble’s creator, Chris Lacy, has also taken the opportunity to announce that Link Bubble and another of his apps, Tap Path, along with all related assets, have been sold to an as yet unnamed buyer. Join us after the break for the update’s changelog as well as more information on the change in ownership.
Let’s deal with the changes brought about in Link Bubble version 1.5.
Changelog:
- Support for drop down elements
- Added ability to colour the toolbar with a website’s theme/ favicon colour (Settings/ Colour Toolbar)
- Added ‘Domain redirects’ customization, allowing you to define domains which, when loaded, will always be referred to your fallback browser
- Updated appearance for material design
- Use Lollipop themed Snackbar prompt
- Translation support for 6 new languages
Regarding the change in ownership, if you have previously purchased Link Bubble Pro or Tap Path, those purchases are still connected to your Google Account, and you will receive updates via the Play Store as normal. Chris Lacy states that the transition will be ‘entirely seamless‘. As for the mysterious entity that purchased Link Bubble and Tap Path, Lacy says that the new owner is a US startup that is currently in ‘Stealth mode‘, but that users should trust him when he says it will become obvious why he is so excited by both the sale of the apps and their future.
For those asking why Chris Lacy sold the apps, he says that his indie company just doesn’t have the resources to make the most of Link Bubble’s potential. Which is fair enough.
You can download the floating browser app, Link Bubble, either by scanning the QR code or by clicking on the Play Store link below.
Source: Chris Lacy (Blog)
Come comment on this article: Chris Lacy’s Link Bubble gets an update to v1.5 along with a change of ownership
OnePlus is auctioning OnePlus 2 invites for charity
OnePlus is auctioning off invites for its new OnePlus 2 smartphone in partnership with eBay’s Giving Works Initiative, with the proceeds going to the UNICEF Tap Project, which provides clean drinking water to millions of children around the world.
How one user ‘hacked’ the OnePlus 2 invite system
Explaining the decision to auction off 100 invites, OnePlus said it noticed fans were cashing in on the demand for invites by selling them on third-party sites for a hefty profit, which “wasn’t very fair to our fans in the spirit of what we’re trying to achieve“. By auctioning official invites on eBay, the company is providing an official alternate source of invites and contributing to charity at the same time.
OnePlus 2 in video:
.rvs_wrapper
width: 350px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left
float: left;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none
width: 100%;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center
text-align: center;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
float: none;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos:not(.align_none) ul li:nth-child(2n+1)
clear: both;
.rvs_title
font-weight: 600 !important;
margin: 0 !important;
font-size: 24px !important;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right .rvs_title
padding-left: 20px;
.rvs_title a
font-family: ‘Roboto Condensed’;
color: #3a3a3a;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
padding-top: 10px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left.cbc-latest-videos ul li,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 15px 0 0;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 0 0 15px;
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 7px;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a
font-weight: 400;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a .yt-thumbnail
margin-bottom: 0;
@media only screen and (min-width : 480px)
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
width: 100% !important;
@media only screen and (max-width : 480px)
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos
width: 100%;
float: none !important;
overflow-x: auto;
overflow-y: hidden;
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
overflow: auto;
max-height: none;
body .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li
float: left !important;
clear: none !important;
Currently, the company is auctioning 50 invites with a further 50 to be listed later today. Bids for invites -which is for the 64GB Sandstone Black variant of the OnePlus 2 – currently sit at over $500 for a single invite and given there’s been 1 million plus registrations, it’s likely to rise higher. Once an auction ends, OnePlus says users will receive an unique invite via email and then have 7 days to claim the invite and 30 days to actually purchase the handset.
The auction lasts until August 8 and invites will be sent out from August 11 and you’ll need to be in one of a handful of countries (found at the source link below) to be able to buy the handset. The decision to auction invites is certainly better than some poorly conceived marketing campaigns for the OnePlus One and in doing so, the company is hoping to curb the third-party trade in invites. Given that demand is much vaster than supply, this doesn’t look too likely.
Samsung claims 40 percent share of the Indian market, by value
The Indian smartphone market is big business these days, with an army of manufacturers dreaming about locking down a huge portion of the market in search of long term profits. Samsung has just claimed that it accounts for 40 percent of the Indian market, based on data collected by GfK. However, the company probably isn’t as big a player as it would like to believe. Here’s the quote:
“Our market share has crossed 40 percent by value in June this year. Since January 2015, we continued to grow for six consecutive months and widened the gap,” – Asim Warsi, Samsung India VP of marketing
The key word here is “by value”, so Samsung is talking sales revenue or its share of all smartphones in the country by their combined price, rather than the actual number of units sold. This certainly isn’t a negative thing, 40 percent of the market value within a country is quite an accomplishment and should be providing the company’s stagnant mobile profits with a much needed lift this year.
Samsung also stated that its market share by value was at 35 percent in Q1 2015 and that the company has continued to widen the gap on its competitors. Although, Mr Warsi refused to comment on how much revenue or profit it was making from all of this “value”.
Given that Samsung smartphone’s typically retail at a slightly higher price than the competition, the company’s unit market share is unlikely to be anywhere near 40 percent. At last check in, Samsung was hovering around the 20 percent mark in Q1 2015, right around the same percentage as local manufacturer Micromax. Other retailers are on smaller shares at below 10 percent each, as the region is currently thriving on diversity.
“India is an encouraging market with double digit growth,”
The company has been pushing a number of products to India to try and find the perfect forumula, with 16 smartphones launching in the country this year already. The Galaxy Grand Prime 4G and Galaxy A8 are two of the latest, but Samsung has also apparently been having some success with its lower cost, Tizen OS powered Samsung Z1, which retails for just Rs 5,700 (~$95).
Although Samsung may like to believe that it is miles ahead of the competition, the Indian smartphone market is still very much up for grabs. A new wave of low cost handsets are sweeping the county this year and the competition is only expected to intensify as the next generation, cost effective flagship smartphones arrive.
Watch Faith return to freerunning in ‘Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst’
EA and Dice are returning to the Mirror’s Edge franchise early next year, and today we got an in-depth look at the game in action. Just like the original, Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst has Faith leaping from buildings, bounding up ledges and taking out enemies with some lightning-quick hand-to-hand combat. The squeaky-clean aesthetic is intact, but it’s clear the jump to current hardware has given the parkour playground a little extra sheen. Check out the new gameplay trailer below to see the slick first-person freerunner in action.
Filed under:
Gaming
Source:
EA
Tags: ea, gamescom-2015, gamescom2015, mirrorsedge, mirrorsedgecatalyst
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor rumored to be unveiled on August 11th
Qualcomm’s high-end processors have become synonymous with quality. There’s no doubt they are the most desired chips in the industry, and the 800 series chips are no joke, but this year’s Snapdragon 810 SoC hit the market with a bit of disappointment. It was said to be plagued by over-heating issues, and even though these problems have been resolved, a burn doesn’t heal quickly.
The San Diego-based chip maker has some brownie points to recover, and they plan to do so with the launch of the upcoming Snapdragon 820 processor. But when will we see it launching? If the latest reports are true, Qualcomm is getting ready to announce the Snapdragon 820 processor next week, on August 11th!
Qualcomm has already given us some hints at what its upcoming flagship mobile processor will feature, so we are not left completely in the dark. We know it will be manufactured on a FinFET process (likely Samsung’s 14 nm technology). It’s also noted the chipset will be powered by Qualcomm’s own ARMv8-A CPU core, named Kryo, rather than ARM’s reference Cortex-A57 and A53 cores found in the Snapdragon 810.
Furthermore, the latest report even states the SoC will support ultrasonic waves to generate a 3D map of fingerprints, making bio-metrics much more secure when compared to current 2D finger imaging. And the cherry on top is likely Qualcomm’s Zeroth machine, which emulates human learning to make our devices even smarter.
The latest rumors suggest the first Snapdragon 820 samples have been finished, with HTC and Sony being the first to test them. We have also heard Qualcomm plans to go back to a quad-core architecture, which honestly wouldn’t be a horrible thing. 4-core processors have proven they can dominate processes like no other, and we are sure Qualcomm can deliver once again.
Remember, the rumored Huawei Nexus phone is said to be among the first to sport a Snapdragon 820 chipset. We best see something good next week! For now, all we can do is continue to wait until August 11th and see what happens. We will be keeping our eyes open for any additional details, too, so stay tuned to the Android Authority home page!
Qualcomm videos!
.rvs_wrapper
width: 350px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left
float: left;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none
width: 100%;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center
text-align: center;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
float: none;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos:not(.align_none) ul li:nth-child(2n+1)
clear: both;
.rvs_title
font-weight: 600 !important;
margin: 0 !important;
font-size: 24px !important;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right .rvs_title
padding-left: 20px;
.rvs_title a
font-family: ‘Roboto Condensed’;
color: #3a3a3a;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
padding-top: 10px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left.cbc-latest-videos ul li,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 15px 0 0;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 0 0 15px;
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 7px;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a
font-weight: 400;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a .yt-thumbnail
margin-bottom: 0;
@media only screen and (min-width : 480px)
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
width: 100% !important;
@media only screen and (max-width : 480px)
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos
width: 100%;
float: none !important;
overflow-x: auto;
overflow-y: hidden;
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
overflow: auto;
max-height: none;
body .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li
float: left !important;
clear: none !important;
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor rumored to be unveiled on August 11th
Qualcomm’s high-end processors have become synonymous with quality. There’s no doubt they are the most desired chips in the industry, and the 800 series chips are no joke, but this year’s Snapdragon 810 SoC hit the market with a bit of disappointment. It was said to be plagued by over-heating issues, and even though these problems have been resolved, a burn doesn’t heal quickly.
The San Diego-based chip maker has some brownie points to recover, and they plan to do so with the launch of the upcoming Snapdragon 820 processor. But when will we see it launching? If the latest reports are true, Qualcomm is getting ready to announce the Snapdragon 820 processor next week, on August 11th!
Qualcomm has already given us some hints at what its upcoming flagship mobile processor will feature, so we are not left completely in the dark. We know it will be manufactured on a FinFET process (likely Samsung’s 14 nm technology). It’s also noted the chipset will be powered by Qualcomm’s own ARMv8-A CPU core, named Kryo, rather than ARM’s reference Cortex-A57 and A53 cores found in the Snapdragon 810.
Furthermore, the latest report even states the SoC will support ultrasonic waves to generate a 3D map of fingerprints, making bio-metrics much more secure when compared to current 2D finger imaging. And the cherry on top is likely Qualcomm’s Zeroth machine, which emulates human learning to make our devices even smarter.
The latest rumors suggest the first Snapdragon 820 samples have been finished, with HTC and Sony being the first to test them. We have also heard Qualcomm plans to go back to a quad-core architecture, which honestly wouldn’t be a horrible thing. 4-core processors have proven they can dominate processes like no other, and we are sure Qualcomm can deliver once again.
Remember, the rumored Huawei Nexus phone is said to be among the first to sport a Snapdragon 820 chipset. We best see something good next week! For now, all we can do is continue to wait until August 11th and see what happens. We will be keeping our eyes open for any additional details, too, so stay tuned to the Android Authority home page!
Qualcomm videos!
.rvs_wrapper
width: 350px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left
float: left;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none
width: 100%;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center
text-align: center;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
float: none;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos:not(.align_none) ul li:nth-child(2n+1)
clear: both;
.rvs_title
font-weight: 600 !important;
margin: 0 !important;
font-size: 24px !important;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right .rvs_title
padding-left: 20px;
.rvs_title a
font-family: ‘Roboto Condensed’;
color: #3a3a3a;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
padding-top: 10px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left.cbc-latest-videos ul li,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 15px 0 0;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 0 0 15px;
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 7px;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a
font-weight: 400;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a .yt-thumbnail
margin-bottom: 0;
@media only screen and (min-width : 480px)
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
width: 100% !important;
@media only screen and (max-width : 480px)
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos
width: 100%;
float: none !important;
overflow-x: auto;
overflow-y: hidden;
body #page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
overflow: auto;
max-height: none;
body .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li
float: left !important;
clear: none !important;
3D printed circular saw is smaller than a thumbnail
What is this, a saw for — bah, we’ll spare you that joke. You probably knew it was coming the moment you saw the image above, because yes, that’s a teeny tiny circular saw that actually works. It was created by New Zealand native Lance Abernethy, who also made a minuscule power drill earlier this year. Abernethy designed each of the saw’s parts himself and printed them out using PLA plastic through an Ultimaker 2 3D printer. The scaled-down tool is powered by a hearing aid battery and roars to life when you click the button on its handle, but it can’t actually cut through anything.
Abernethy told 3Dprint that he wants to make a version that can cut tiny pieces of wood in the future, along with other power tools you’d usually see in a set. He also plans to make his designs available for purchase, in case you’d like print out some for fun… or to make your own Maintenance Man Ken.
Filed under:
Misc
Via:
NBC News
Source:
3Dprint
Tags: 3dprinting
Samsung Pay makes its way to smart TVs
Samsung is making it simpler to shop for apps, in-app purchases, books and movies, among other things, on its smart TVs. Months after launching its mobile payment system, the Korean company’s now introducing a new service aptly called “Samsung Pay on TV.” You can either set it up with a credit/debit card or with a PayPal account — once that’s done, the TV will only ask you for a four-digit PIN number every time you make a purchase. If your CC numbers or PayPal email and password are already associated with a pre-existing Samsung account, they’ll automatically be used with the service when you sign in. But in case you do have to type those in, the TV will make you use Samsung’s new and secure virtual keyboard.
That said, the feature will only be available on select 2014 and 2015 Samsung smart TV models and only in 32 countries, so you may want to check before getting hyped. The company’s hoping to get you started on buying stuff by making additional premium content available as in-app purchases for a handful of games. Since it’s a small list, your game of choice might not even be in it, but godspeed to you and your wallet if it is.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, Samsung
Source:
Samsung
Tags: samsung, samsungpay, samsungpayontv, smarttv
AIVAnet 