Samsung announces the new Galaxy Tab A 10.1 for Europe
Samsung has announced the Galaxy Tab A 10.1 for Europe and should have the new tablet available for purchase next month. Set to arrive in both black and white variants, this latest device from Samsung will set you back €289 ($330) for the base Wi-Fi-only model. Opting for LTE connectivity will kick prices off from €349 ($395).
As covered by SamMobile, the Galaxy A 10.1 sports a 10.1-inch WUXGA (1920×100) display, 1.6 octa-core Exynos 7870 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (with microSD expansion), 8MP main shooter with LED flash, 2MP front-facing camera, and a 7300mAh battery to power everything.
Walmart takes Visa to court over debit card payments
Walmart isn’t happy that Visa still allows customers to sign for purchases made with their chip-equipped debit cards. The retail giant has filed a lawsuit against Visa in New York in an effort to compel the credit card brand to require PIN verification when paying in its stores. Walmart argues that PINs are a lot more secure than signatures and can help prevent fraud. It used to only allow debit card payments verified by PINs when it first started accepting chip cards, but Visa forced the company to allow signature verifications.
According to The Wall Street Journal, debit cards are the most common form of payment at Walmart. Considering a lot of big retail stores fall prey to card breaches, making transactions more secure would benefit a lot of buyers. Company spokesperson Randy Hargrove said in a statement: “Walmart believes Visa’s position creates unacceptable risk to customers and its actions and rules are inconsistent with federal law.” The company does pay five cents more for every signature transaction, though, so there’s definitely something in it for the retailer, as well.
Source: Reuters, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal
Judge blocks Staples and Office Depot merger
Last year around this time, Staples announced that it had purchased Office Depot, a merger that would have created one enormous outlet for office supplies, computers, 3D printing services and more. However, US regulators thought the merged company would be too enormous, and convinced a court to kill the merger on antitrust grounds. US District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the “merger will substantially impair competition,” especially to business customers, and that blocking it was “in the public interest.”
However, Staples and Office Depot lawyers argued that the merged company would be more efficient and could pass savings on to customers thanks to at least $1 billion in “synergies,” possibly in the form of layoffs. They also have a new, formidable online rival: Amazon Business. Jeff Bezos’ operation is just a year old, but already has a $1 billion in sales and is growing at a clip of 20 percent a month. Staples said it was “extremely disappointed” with the decision, adding that the FTC “fell woefully short of proving its case.” Nevertheless, the company won’t appeal and plans to terminate the merger agreement.
The FTC sued to block the merger late in 2015, arguing that business customers would have much less bargaining power if Office Depot disappeared. “This deal would eliminate head-to-head competition between Staples and Office Depot and likely lead to higher prices and lower quality service for large businesses,” says FTC competition chief Debbie Feinstein. “Today’s court ruling is great news for customers in the office supply market.”
Source: Bloomberg
Microsoft Research wants to pit you against virtual swimmers
You don’t need other people to swim, but a Microsoft Research project can spice up your swimming routine by putting you in or pitting you against virtual teams. Redmond’s research division is working with a team of researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to develop SwimTrain. It’s a system consisting of an app, a waterproof case for your smartphone and a pair of underwater headphones that provides sensory/auditory feedback. SwimTrain puts you in a team of three swimmers — if you’re competing, it tells you how you’re doing against your two virtual opponents. If you’re in the same team, it helps you maintain your strokes so you can keep up with your virtual teammates.
The KAIST team created SwimTrain, because they wanted “a group fitness swimming game that allows a group of people to perform mediated synchronous interactions over a virtual space.” When they interviewed the 11 study participants who used the prototype they made, they found that the system “enriche[d] the social experience of swimming, motivate[d] swimmers to greater levels of exertion and allow[ed] swimmers to establish a strategy to win the game irrespective of their relative skill level.” Microsoft Research didn’t say whether we’ll ever get the chance to use the system, but you can know more about it through KAIST’s paper and the video below.
Source: Microsoft Research
EE disputes Three’s ‘undisputed’ reliability claim, wins
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a billboard advert for Three’s mobile network, after a six-month complaint from rival carrier EE was finally upheld. The ad, which features a purple Muppet-like character called Jackson being held aloft in a Rocky-style pose, featured the tagline: “The undisputed. UK’s most reliable network. Again.” EE claimed Three couldn’t state it was the “undisputed” market leader without saying it was based on YouGov sample data and the ASA agreed.
@ThreeUK Undisputed? Not quite: https://t.co/z8KvI0HHFY #makeitright #getitright pic.twitter.com/CGzfKJ6933
— EE (@EE) November 5, 2015
Because it had included a YouGov logo in its ad (shown above), Three believed consumers would understand that its claims were based on a research report. The poll asked customers who they thought the best mobile network based on a number of metrics and Three was voted the most reliable network for the fifth consecutive quarter. EE took to social media to publicly contend Three’s “undisputed” claim, highlighting awards it had won from network testing body Rootmetrics.
Three didn’t help matters when it admitted there wasn’t a “standard, objective industry test for network ‘reliability’” and that “‘reliability’ is related to personal experience and therefore the best way to find out a network’s reliability was to ask its customers.” The ASA therefore banned the ad because its main claim did not reference YouGov clearly enough or include any wording that said it was based on subjective consumer reviews.
So, what happens now? As with the majority of the ASA’s upheld rulings, the company gets a slight ticking off and told not to do it again. At this point, the Jackson ad is six months old, meaning that it’s unlikely to figure in Three’s current marketing material anyway.
Still, EE’s finding time to gloat about the decision:
Hi @threeuk your undisputed claim has been disputed. The ASA says you have to #makeitright https://t.co/liTezUpjfK pic.twitter.com/NpQRJeen7Z
— EE (@EE) May 11, 2016
Via: The Guardian
Source: ASA
Cardboard VR units now available on Google Store in Canada, UK, France and Germany
After coming to the U.S. Google Store in February, Cardboard VR units are now available to purchase in Canada, the UK, France, and Germany.
Available for $20 CAD, £15 and €20 in Canada, the UK and Germany/France respectively, the unit is the redesigned second-generation Google Cardboard. Google is also selling two-packs of the VR viewer for $35, £25 and €30 in each region.
Google notes that there are now “thousands of VR apps and games and a variety of captivating YouTube videos made to view with Cardboard,” including Paul McCartney, New York Times, and Star Wars.
It’s unclear whether Google plans to stock more versions of the Cardboard VR viewer; additional units, such as the Mattel View-Master VR and Goggle Tech C1-Glass VR Viewer, are for sale on the U.S. Google Store.
Donald Trump has never sounded this good… because he’s been made into an actual speaker
Ever wanted to hear Donald Trump say something sensible? Or maybe just sing a bit of Adele? Well perhaps now you can, for the American political candidate – well known for his controversial speeches and slurs – has been made into an actual speaker. Ok, so he hasn’t, but his likeness has.
Yep, Mr Trump is the latest focus of Russian artist Petro Wodkins, whose Sound of Power speakers – which resemble classic porcelain heads or “busts” – are hand-made in Sweden, limited to 100 pieces, and then put up for auction.
We caught glimpse of the new piece – entitled “Donald the Great” – at CES Asia, based in Shanghai, China. Which is rather apt as we all know just how much Trump “loves China”.
“Play the people who play the world”, reads Sound of Power’s tongue-in-cheek slogan. Other political heavyweights in Wodkins’ limited-edition range have included Vladimir Putin (“St Vladimir”), Kim Jong Un (“Kim Sunshine”), and Margaret Thatcher (“Maggie”).
Each of the pieces is hand-crafted and polished, then sold under auction for varying prices ranging into the thousands of dollars. Who’d have thought anyone would pay so much for a cast of controversial leaders with, um, the side of their heads caved in?
Anyway, back to the tech side of things. Donald the Great sounds pretty good (in this context at least) thanks to an in-built 20W amplifier tucked away into the wooden stand, supporting the head, which carries a 4-inch driver for mono output.
Somewhere between tech, art, politics and comedy, Donald the Great gave us a moment of amusement in among the bustling halls at the Asia show. Especially with a bit of Rhianna blurting out the side of his head. Now there’s two names we never thought we’d type in the same sentence…
‘Goopy’ dark matter could offer a new vision of the early universe
Cosmologists exploring the origins of the universe have a new theory about how dark matter behaves. Although the stuff makes up 80 percent of the matter in the universe, we don’t really have a good sense of what dark matter is actually made of. According to The New Scientist, however, UT Austin professor Paul Shapiro and graduate student Bouha Li believe dark matter could be made up of bosons that clump together in “a strange, goopy state of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate.”
As Shapiro and Li have calculated, the dark matter space goop could actually be behaving differently now than it did when the universe was first beginning. While most researchers believe that dark matter currently acts like weakly interacting massive particles (or “WIMPs”), if Shapiro and Li are correct, dark matter could have acted more like radiation than matter in the past. Looking back even further, to the earliest stages of the universe, and the dark matter in this model actually acts like a fluid that resists compression.
“There’s a pressure associated with trying to disturb it,” Shapiro explained. “When you clump it, it wants to push back. It’s like we filled the universe with a fluid.” The model offers an explanation for why the expansion of the universe slowed down after the period of inflation that immediately followed the Big Bang. It also means primordial gravitational waves — the echoes of the Big Bang that the LIGO team is searching for — could be easier to spot that previously believed.
NBA 2K celebrates Steph Curry’s MVP with a 99 rating
Today Stephen Curry collected NBA’s Most Valuable Player award for the second year in a row, and also became the first unanimous MVP in NBA history. To celebrate that achievement (and his epic return from a knee injury to score 40 points in a playoff win last night) NBA 2K will issue an update to its game on Thursday maxing out his overall rating at 99. It’s part of a promotion along with his shoe sponsor Under Armour and naturally the MVP colorway of his Curry Two will be available in-game. The 99 rating will be in place for 30 hours at 6PM ET (matching Curry’s jersey number) and for a little bit, should make it easier for the videogame to replicate the real-life player’s abilities.
Congrats @StephenCurry30 on back to back MVPs. @UABasketball & @NBA2K #BreakTheGame w/ 99 rating for 30 hrs starting THU 3PM PT to celebrate
— NBA 2K 2K17 (@NBA2K) May 10, 2016
Watch live video from 2K on http://www.twitch.tv
Source: Under Armour
Olympus PEN-F review – CNET
The Good The Olympus PEN-F is fast, delivers great photos in a streamlined body and offers a nice feature set.
The Bad The camera lacks a grip and video is not one of Olympus’ strong suits. Plus, it really should be at least modestly dust- and weather-sealed for the money.
The Bottom Line Excellent photo quality and performance and a system with tiny, fast prime lenses make the Olympus PEN-F a great camera for street photography.
Olympus’ street-photography-focused PEN-F is the latest in the company’s line of enthusiast mirrorless interchangeable-lens models, the first of its cameras to use the 20-megapixel Four Thirds sensor and a departure from the PEN line’s viewfinderless design. It’s also the best thus far with respect to photo quality and performance, and is a terrific option in that sense. It lacks a grip, which always irks me, the back navigation control is more suited to a cheap point-and-shoot and Olympus has yet to match the rest of the pack for video quality, but it otherwise delivers an enjoyable and streamlined shooting experience that doesn’t disappoint when you get home and look at your photos.
I have a soft spot for Micro Four Thirds (MFT) cameras. The smaller sensor doesn’t deliver quite as good photo quality as some APS-C-based models, but given the significantly smaller lenses, it tends to be worth the trade-off when the ability to toss several fast lenses in a bag without breaking my back outweighs the slightly increased depth of field (less background defocus) and slightly crunchier look.
At $1,200 (£1,000, about AU$1,800), the camera is more expensive than its nearest competitor, the Panasonic Lumix GX8, but with a slightly less impressive feature set.
First-rate photos
I’m quite impressed with the photo quality from the PEN-F. (Keep in mind, however, that I lab-tested with an excellent lens, the 12-40mm f2.8, rather than the cheaper kit lenses, which can make a big difference.) It delivers excellent white balance, a noise profile that rivals recent APS-C equivalents through about ISO 3200 and the tonal range you’d expect from a camera of its price.
Olympus Pen-F full-resolution photo samples
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JPEGs look clean through ISO 800 and decent through ISO 3200, but beyond that they look somewhat smeary from the noise-reduction artifacts. If you shoot raw you can push that a little more.
Olympus’ video quality doesn’t match the photos, though it’s not bad. Naturally, the HD video isn’t as sharp as competitors’ 4K and there’s quite a bit of edge crawl, especially on fine lines in the background, plus there aren’t any presets to control the video’s color or curve. (You can use Color Creator and trial and error.) But low-light video doesn’t look as noisy as you’d expect and the in-camera audio recording is surprisingly full-sounding.
Analysis samples
The PEN-F’s JPEGs are clean through ISO 800, and you can start to see just a little smearing at ISO 1600. There are few more false color artifacts than usual in the fine details, though.
Lori Grunin/CNET
Note the significant drop in sharpness between ISO 80 and ISO 200.
Lori Grunin/CNET
Up through ISO 6400 you can see smearing from the noise reduction, but it retains a reasonable amount of detail in the in-focus areas.
Lori Grunin/CNET
Olympus’ High Res Shot mode, which combines multiple, slightly offset images to produce a high-resolution photo, does produce much better, more naturally resolved detail. (This shows a High Res image resized to match the standard size.)
Lori Grunin/CNET
Olympus’ Hi Res mode looks nice and sharp at actual size. Unfortunately, you really need to use a tripod for best results.
Lori Grunin/CNET
The PEN-F has excellent, accurate white balance and colors, and its default Natural color settings do a fine job. It does have a problem preserving details in bright, saturated reds, however.
Lori Grunin/CNET
Starting at about ISO 1600, you can do a better job preserving sharpness and texture by processing raw files.
Lori Grunin/CNET
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