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Showing posts from June, 2014

Google Killing Off Vintage Social Network Orkut

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If on the very rare chance you're still using Google's 10-year-old social network Orkut, now would be a good time to migrate over to a more modern platform like Google+. That's because Google on Monday announced that it is shutting down the vintage site on Sept. 30. 'Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger, and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world,' Google Engineering Director Paulo Golgher wrote in a post on the Orkut blog. 'Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell (or, tchau). We'll be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them.' Launched in early 2004, Orkut was built as a '20 percent' project and represented Google's foray into social networking. At this point, the majority of Orkut users are from Brazil, India, and Japan, and the service is ho

UK cinemas promptly ban Google Glass over 'piracy' fears

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AUGMENTED REALITY EYEWEAR Google Glass might have arrived in the country just last week, but it has already been banned in UK cinemas. Google Glass arrived in the UK last week priced at £1,000, and cinema officials in Britain have been quick to announce that the expensive eyewear will not be welcome in theatres, citing fears that the glasses could be used to make 'pirated' copies of movies. What they perhaps don't realise, however, is that Glass is limited to recording just 45 minutes of video before its battery life runs out. Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association UK, told The Independent, 'Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not,' with the Vue cinema chain adding that it will ask filmgoers to remove the eyewear 'as soon as the lights dim'. As reported by the Independent, one early Google Glass adopter has already been asked to remove his goggles in a cinema in

Samsung Galaxy Core Mini 4G G3568V goes official in China

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The Galaxy Core Mini 4.3-inch TFT display, 5MP rear camera and Android 4.4 KitKat. Samsung has introduced a new smartphone - Galaxy Core Mini 4G G3568V - in China. There's no word on the pricing and global availability of the smartphone so far. The Samsung Galaxy Core Mini runs Android 4.4 KitKat and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core along with 1.5GB of RAM. The smartphone has 4.3-inch TFT display with a WVGA (480x800 pixels) resolution. It sports a 5MP rear camera with auto focus and LED flash. The smartphone supports expandable storage up to 64GB via microSD. For connectivity, the Samsung Galaxy Core Mini supports 4G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 2.0. The smartphone measures 127.8 x 66.2 x 10.6 mm and weighs around 136g. It is available in white colour option currently. You can check out the Galaxy Core Mini 4G G3568V listing here. As said above, there's no information about the pricing and availability of the smartphone. Looking at the specifications, the

Phone Comparisons: Amazon Fire Phone vs Sony Xperia Z2

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This comparison looks at the brand new Amazon Fire Phone and the Sony Xperia Z2, a device that has been outed since MWC at the end of February, but still has not made its way into the U.S - we keep hearing sometime in summer it will arrive in the U.S. as an unlocked version...hence Sony's problem with marketing their smartphones and this great device that Tom really liked when he reviewed it the first of June. The only attributes that makes these devices similar are that they are both smartphones, they use the Snapdragon 800 quad-core series processors clocked at 2.2/2.3GHz, although even in that department, the Xperia Z2 uses the newer model with slightly better performance, and both devices offer dual-speaker stereo. The Xperia Z2 is a little taller and wider, but thinner than the Fire Phone and weighing almost the same amount even though it is constructed of glass rather than plastic. Please look through the specifications listed below and check out how these two devices stack u

Man rides on back of car on North Carolina highway

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15 minutes ago A woman driving down Interstate 77 in North Carolina on Saturday was shocked to witness a man riding on the back of a car speeding in front of her. Brenda Cruz, who was in a vehicle with her family, said she was initially concerned for the man's safety as the car was moving at 50 mph. The video shows a man sitting on the outside of the trunk before he starts manoeuvring his body.The Cruz family say they saw the man then break the back windshield and climb inside. According to the Cruz family the car was being driven by a woman who had a child in a car seat inside.Authorities received several calls about the incident, but troopers say they don't have enough evidence yet to investigate.They believe the driver and person on the back of the car probably know each other and that a domestic incident may have been taking place.If police do track these people down, they said the driver will be culpable.

Apple Launches iPhone Trade

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Apple Launches iPhone Trade-In Program In Italy By Sam Lehman | Jun 30, 2014 04:12 AM EDT Apple has introduced its popular 'reuse and recycle' iPhone trade-in program in Italy and plans to expand further with an Australian debut sometime next week. Apple is continuing its iPhone trade-in program in select countries around the world. The Cupertino-based company kicked off the program in Italy and offers as much as €220 (around $300) off on a new iPhone smartphone. The trade-in offer was first spotted by 9to5Mac, indicated by a new panel in the country's Apple Store listing in the official Apple Store app for iOS devices. Apple's iPhone 'reuse and recycle' program was first launched in the US in August last year, but slowly it expanded to other countries, such as in October. Earlier in March, Apple introduced the program in Canada followed by Germany in April, letting iPhone owners trade-in their old devices for new ones. Apple is further planning to expand the

Google drops Quickoffice now that its own apps can handle your work

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Google bought Quickoffice to boost the productivity of its Apps suite, and it clearly accomplished that mission when it released a slew of mobile editing tools that merge Quickoffice's file tech with Google Drive. Accordingly, the search firm is pulling the plug on the earlier software; it's going to remove Quickoffice from both Apple's App Store and Google Play 'in the coming weeks.' You can still download it after that if you're an existing fan, but newcomers will have no choice but to use either Google's apps or their rough equivalents. The move isn't surprising, since there's no need for Google to keep a redundant app hanging around. However, it marks the end to a long, long chapter in cellphone history. Quickoffice was a mainstay of mobile workers before smartphones took off, and it has run on most major (and not-so-major) platforms over the span of roughly 12 years -- it's sad to see the name go, even if the technology will live on.

Stressing the importance of radio communication

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One local organization put their profession to the test. The Wabash Valley Amateur Radio Association held Field Day on Sunday. One Wabash Valley man received special recognition today after serving forty years in Clay County. WTHI Photo, David Essex WABASH VALLEY, Ind. (WTHI) - One local organization put their profession to the test. The Wabash Valley Amateur Radio Association held Field Day on Sunday. It's an annual event that coincides with Amateur Radio Week. Local Ham operators headed to the VFW Post 972 in Terre Haute to demonstrate the new capabilities of Ham Radios. This is all in an effort to stress the importance of radio communication during disasters. 'There've been several natural disasters where all communications get wiped out: Hurricanes, tornados, large hail, earthquakes... those kind of things,' explained Kevin Berlin, Wabash Valley Amateur Radio. 'That's where we would step in and help bridge the gap.' Through the Amateur Radio Emergency S

Panasonic Debuts Education

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Panasonic has officially launched it's '3E' tablet, themed for education, at this weekend's International Society for Technology in Education Conference. The hybrid tablet, designed to be used by anyone from kindergarten to high school, comes with a bit more protection than you'd otherwise expect to see in a consumer-grade device. Given the kind of abuse this thing might take in a classroom setting, we'd expect nothing less. 'Built to survive the rough-and-tumble reality of student life, the IP51-certified 3E resists dust, sheds spills and takes drops that would destroy a consumer-grade tablet or laptop. With rugged reliability and stellar academic credentials, the 3E is truly a state-of-the-art learning machine,' reads Panasonic's description. Of course, the tablet — with snap-on keyboard attachment and stylus — isn't just designed to handle a few hard knocks (even though it's designed to survive a fall of just over two feet or so). It also

Asus is planning a budget Android Wear smartwatch of its own

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David Nield Asus may not be the first manufacturer to market with an Android Wear smartwatch, but it wants to undercut the competition when its own device finally does arrive. Leaks from the company suggest that an Asus watch is indeed on the way at a wallet-friendly price - the Taiwanese firm was one of those mentioned as a Google hardware partner when Android Wear was first unveiled, along with HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung. That would mean the rumored Asus Android Wear device would cost less than the $199 Gear Live from Samsung. According to TechCrunch, the smartwatch will arrive in September and cost between $99 and $149. Asus chairman Jonney Shih went on record back in March to say that the company would eventually invest in the world wearables, and at that time the manufacturer was said to be working on advanced voice and gesture controls. The LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live and Moto 360 were the smartwatches shown off at the Google I/O Keynote last week, where we also got a sneak

New Notification: Facebook's Staff Is Not Very Diverse

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Facebook released demographic data on its employees for the first time, and white males make up a majority of the staff. Sixty-nine percent of Facebook employees are men, 57 percent are white, and 34 percent are Asian, which means only 9 percent of the employee pie is black, Hispanic, or multiracial. Facebook's data drop follows similar releases by Google and Yahoo this summer. The racial demographics for all three of the tech giants are very similar, almost to the percentage point. Like Facebook, Google is also 91 percent white or Asian, and Yahoo is 89 percent. Advertisement-Continue Reading Below In a Facebook blog post titled 'Building a More Diverse Facebook,' the company's Global Head of Diversity Maxine Williams wrote that diversity is essential to their mission: Diversity is something that we?re treating as everyone?s responsibility at Facebook, and the challenge of finding qualified but underrepresented candidates is one that we?re addressing as part of a stra

US agency probes Nissan Versa over speed control

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Credit: Reuters/James Fassinger The 2014 Nissan Versa Note is displayed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan January 15, 2013. According to a document posted online on Saturday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the agency has opened a preliminary investigation into 360,000 Nissan Versa, Versa Sedan and Versa Note from model years 2012-2014. The NHTSA said it had received four complaints that the tunnel carpet cover trim panel on those vehicles had trapped the edge of the driver's shoe, interfering with the driver's ability to reduce acceleration and to apply the brakes. 'I attempted to remove my foot from the gas pedal, but could not, because my foot was stuck,' said one complaint on the website. 'The plastic piece that covers the center console extends around to just next to the gas pedal... The corner of that plastic panel wedged between the sole and leather upper of my work boots, preventing me from takin

Facebook Manipulated 689003 Users' Emotions For Science

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On Facebook, you may be a guinea pig and not know it. Facebook is the best human research lab ever. There's no need to get experiment participants to sign pesky consent forms as they've already agreed to the site's data use policy. The site has a team of data scientists that are constantly coming up with new ways to turn users into guinea pigs. When the team releases papers about what it's learned from us, we often learn surprising things about Facebook - such as the fact that it can keep track of the status updates we never actually post. Facebook has played around with manipulating people before - getting 60,000 to rock the vote in 2012 that otherwise wouldn't have - but a recent study shows Facebook playing a whole new level of mind gamery with its guinea pigs users. As first noted by Animal New York, Facebook's data scientists manipulated the News Feeds of 689,003 users, filling them with either positive posts or negative posts or posts devoid of sentiment i

Tim Cook Outed on CNBC: Host Claims Apple CEO Is Openly Gay [Video]

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First Posted: Jun 28, 2014 12:29 PM EDT It was an awkward and embarrassing moment for CNBC co-host Simon Hobbs, who accidentally outed Apple CEO Tim Cook as homosexual on live on-air television. Hobbs was among several co-hosts on CNBC's Friday show of 'Squawk on the Street' where New York Times columnist Jim Stewart appeared as they discussed an article he recently wrote, exploring the absence of openly gay CEOs. He started by talking about the former CEO of BP John Browne who was the first ever person from a Fortune 500 company to acknowledge publicly that he is gay. Stewart added that the corporate culture prevents these powerful gay men from going public about their sexuality. Stewart went on by saying that CEOs are mostly measured by objective criteria, such as financial performance. He also said that he had reached out to a number of CEOs for their comments on his story and that he received 'an extremely cool reception' and not one of them would all their name

Google I/O 2014: 10 Big Developments

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Google unveiled everything from Android to wearable news at its annual developers show. Here are the developments that matter most. It's A Wearable World In his opening-day presentation at Google I/O 2014, the company's annual developers' conference in San Francisco, Sundar Pichai, Google's senior VP of Android, Chrome, and apps, claimed that more than a million people worldwide were watching the keynote's live stream. Given the global reach of Google, this estimate doesn't sound far-fetched. In a lengthy keynote that seemed to cover every facet of the company's increasingly diverse interests, one trend shone through: Wearable devices are a big deal. Presentations focused mostly on Android and Chrome, and how Google is evolving its software and services beyond smartphones and tablets. These efforts are designed to accommodate the emerging Internet of Things, a sensor-laden ecosystem of wearables, home automation gadgets, connected cars, and machine-to-mach

Google Simplifies Mobile Back

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Google Simplifies Mobile Back-End Development Google Inc. today announced new features to help Android developers connect their mobile apps to a cloud-based back-end platform. Google Cloud Save will facilitate saving, retrieving and synchronizing user data -- for example, preferences or user state -- without developers needing to code up a back-end themselves. Cloud Tools for Android Studio makes it easier to add an App Engine back-end to an app, with module templates for back-end services such as endpoint scaffolding or push notifications. The back-end services are similar to initiatives from other mobile and cloud providers, such as Microsoft Azure Mobile Services, which is designed to provide a framework for saving app data in the cloud, send push notifications and add custom back-end logic for apps. 'Whether it's building basic plumbing, or just trying to load and save data in a network- and battery-efficient way, spending time dealing with the back-end can take precious ti

Email Shows GM Exec Was Informed of Ignition Defect in 2005

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A GM engineer who once reported to CEO Mary Barra and is now a vice president at the company was involved in a debate in 2005 over how to fix the ignition problem that led to the recall of millions of vehicles, company documents show. While attention has previously focused on Ray DeGiorgio, the engineer who secretly authorized changes to a faulty ignition switch now linked to at least 13 deaths, the internal documents show that Doug Parks, GM's vehicle chief engineer for the Chevy Cobalt at the time, was involved in an email exchange about how to fix inadvertent shut-offs of the vehicles -- caused by the ignition switch being bumped out of the 'run' position. Parks was later promoted to a vice presidential position, reporting to Mary Barra from September 2012 until January, when she was appointed CEO. A GM official denied that Parks was a confidante of Barra's. Barra has testified that she and other senior GM executives only learned of a possible safety issue in the Cob

Facebook Home's original development team has reportedly disbanded

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Facebook may be giving up on its ambitious (and poorly received) plan to take over your smartphone. According to The New York Times ' Bits blog, Facebook has disbanded the team responsible for developing Facebook Home, an Android skin that it released last year, which overhauled a phone to display Facebook photos on its lock screen and provide easy access to chat messages and status updates. Bits doesn't say that work on Home has necessarily ended for good, but it suggests the chances of it moving forward aren't very high either. User reviews remain quite bad Despite Facebook promising monthly updates for Home, Bits notes that the app hasn't been updated since January. It remains available in the Play Store, however, largely with unfavorable reviews. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It's no secret that Home hasn't been the success that Facebook was hoping for. The phone it came preinstalled on, the HTC First, saw deep discounts s

Apple To Cease Development Of Aperture And Transition Users To Photos For ...

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With the release of OS X Yosemite later this year, Apple will cease the development of its 'pro' photo editing app. 'With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture,' an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch. 'When Photos for OS X ships next year, users will be able to migrate their existing Aperture libraries to Photos for OS X.' More to follow...

Can't Access Verizon Billing? You're Not Alone

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Verizon Wireless, the United States' largest wireless carrier, is having some issues with its billing system, including the My Verizon web and app portal. That means that if you try to log in to My Verizon online or in an app, you can't get account information, pay your bill, see usage rates or activate new lines of service. A Verizon Wireless spokesperson tells Mashable that the company is 'unfortunately experiencing issues with our billing system, affecting customer accounts mostly in Northeast, Midwestern and some southern states. We are working on a fix.' The outage isn't just limited to self-serve systems. Verizon stores in a number of states are also unable to access billing information or activate lines of service. Affected customers see this image when attempting to login to the My Verizon portal: Image: Screenshot My Verizon Right now, Verizon doesn't know how many potential customers are impacted by this issue, but it could be thousands. We're gett

Film offers portrait of the 'Internet's Own Boy'

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(CNN) -- In life, Aaron Swartz was a force in creating today's Web, helping write game-changing code in his early teens before turning his attentions to Internet activism. In death, an apparent suicide that came as he faced federal charges that could have sent him to prison for decades, he became a martyr of sorts -- a champion for a new generation of believers that the Web, and the information on it, deserve to be free. Now, his story is the subject of a documentary film being released Friday. 'The Internet's Own Boy' is a look at Swartz's life and untimely death at age 26. For director Brian Knappenberger, it's a tale that merges a captivating life story with a look at some of the most important legal, social and ethical issues of the digital age. 'On the one hand, it was a very compelling personal story that was just, by itself, inspirational and interesting but, ultimately tragic,' said Knappenberger. 'Then there's this kind of sharp combina

Google shows prototype of Project Ara phone

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Sahil Mohan Gupta New Delhi, June 27, 2014 | UPDATED 14:57 IST Google has unveiled a working prototype of its 'Project Ara' modular smartphone platform at Google I/O. The device which booted to Android also froze, but the fact that Google was able to show-off a product that was able to boot the Android OS is laud worthy. Developed by the skunk-works ATAP group headed by former DARPA director Regina Dugan, the project had its origins at Motorola, when it was a Google company. When the Google sold off Motorola to Lenovo, it retained the ATAP group. The project basically attempts to create a smartphone that has different interchangeable modules that the user can replace or swap out for a customised experience much like one creates assembled PCs. The technical lead for Project Ara, Paul Eremenko also announced a $100,000 challenge for developers for a working module for the phone that does something the phone has never done. Eremenko noted that Android will need changes so that it

Wal

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Wal-Mart today drastically slashed the prices of its iPhone 5s and 5c stock, potentially signaling the impending launch of Apple's next-generation smartphone. Perhaps in an effort to clear its stock and make way for the next batch of iPhones this fall, the big-box retailer is offering in-store discounts starting today. The 16GB iPhone 5c is available for $29 (down from $49) with a two-year contract from AT&T or Verizon. Its big brother, the iPhone 5s, is also on sale for $99 (down from $149), but you'll need a two-year contract with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or U.S. Cellular. It remains unclear whether the 32GB or 64GB versions are also marked down. Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment. Costco shoppers, meanwhile, also now have a chance to get a discount Apple product. Despite a move four years ago to terminate the sale of Apple products, Costco appears to have had a change of heart, this week adding the latest iPhones and iPads to its s

Google I/O: Hello Dataflow, Goodbye MapReduce

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(Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Google I/O this year was overwhelmingly dominated by consumer technology, the end user interface, and extension of the Android universe into a new class of mobile devices, the computer you wear on your wrist. At the same time, there were one or two enterprise-scale data handling and cloud computing gems scattered among all the end user announcements. One was Cloud Dataflow, introduced at the San Francisco event during a keynote presentation Wednesday. When it comes to handling large amounts of unstructured data, one of Google's original contributions to the field was MapReduce. When combined with a distributed file system, it became a fundamental new type of data sorting, analyzing, and storage mechanism of the era: Hadoop. [Want to learn more about changes in the Android user interface? See Google I/O: Android Interface, Cloud Advances Star.] At this year's developer conference, Google executives said MapReduce was so 2004-ish. It&#

Microsoft Surface Pro 3: Customers Speak

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Early adopters of Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 say the Windows device is working well as a tablet and an ultra-light laptop. (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) The Surface Pro 3 has earned better reviews than its predecessors -- but most of the commentary has come from tech journalists, who, let's face it, are an awfully keyboard-dependent, word processing-oriented bunch. What are Microsoft's actual customers saying? We spoke to IT decision-makers at Seattle Children's Hospital and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), two early Surface Pro 3 adopters to find out how and why they've chosen to deploy the device. The Surface Pro 3 is technically a tablet, and Microsoft still sells its Type Cover keyboard separately. Nevertheless, both organizations were attracted to the device's laptop capabilities. [On the fence about the Surface Pro 3? Read Microsoft Surface Pro 3: Why To Buy.] 'It's the thinnest Ultrabook ever created,' UPMC VP of M

Daimler, Nissan partner up on Mexico vehicle production strategy

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Infiniti and Mercedes compact cars will reportedly move between manufacturing facilities held by Renault-Nissan and Daimler in Mexico, now that the two parties have signed a new agreement. The plan involves the use of Daimler's front-wheel drive designs and the assembly of the vehicles at Nissan's location, though specifics on the agreement were to be released in an upcoming joint press conference. Dieter Zetsche, Daimler CEO, and Carlos Ghos, Renault Nissan CEO, are expected to attend the conference. This latest deal, to be officially announced on June 27, has been described by Daimler as the biggest venture into worldwide collaboration ever attempted by Daimler and Renault-Nissan. The newly announced deal between Daimler and Renault-Nissan wasn't the first time the companies have formed an alliance with one another. Mercedes and Nissan have worked with Renault since 2010. The three companies have reportedly shared in vehicle architecture, engine designs and operating faci

YouTube Announces Translator, Tip Jar and Other Goodies at Vidcon

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Image: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced a series of new features for both fans and creators at Vidcon on Thursday, including 'Fan Subtitles,' an automated translator for any video in any language, a virtual tip-jar and a mobile app from which YouTubers can make, manage and monitor videos. Giving an afternoon keynote at the fifth annual confab here - her first Vidcon since becoming CEO of YouTube more than five months ago - Wojcicki first announced 'Fan Subtitles': 'Our goal is to make it that every video uploaded to YouTube will be available in every language,' she said of the opt-in feature. SEE ALSO: Vidcon: Where Hollywood Meets the YouTuber Invasion YouTube will also roll out interactive cards that directly link creators' YouTube campaigns to IndieGogo and Kickstarter fundraising efforts. But in a more direct stragegy, YouTube will soon add its virtual tip-jar 'Fan Funding.' 'To put it really si

Netgear Intros Tri

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On Wednesday, Netgear launched a new Wireless AC router that is based on Broadcom's new 5G WiFi XStream platform: the Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router ( R8000). This device packs six high-performance antennas and three radios: one 2.4 GHz and two 5 GHz. The router can be pre-purchased online on Wednesday for a hefty price of $299.99 here in the United States. This new router is compatible with Wireless AC adapters and devices, providing up to 1300 Mbps on each 5 GHz band and up to 600 Gbps on the 2.4 GHz band, totaling 3200 Mbps (aka AC3200). The router's Smart Connect feature 'intelligently' places fast devices on one band and slower devices on the other, ensuring that each device connected to the network has the best possible connection. For example, on a dual-band router, video streaming and online gaming may share the same band, slowing each other down. But with this new AC3200 router, video streaming would be placed on one 5 GHz band and online gaming on t

Larry Page Tries His Best To Convince Us That Google+ Isn't Dead

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APAfter Google exec Vic Gundotra stepped down from his position running Google+ in April, rumors spread that Google would essentially stop thinking of it as a social network, and consider it more of a platform instead. In a recent interview with Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times, however, Google CEO Larry Page stressed the importance of social and did his best to talk up Google+. The social network was barely mentioned in Google's keynote address Wednesday at this week's I/O developer conference, and Manjoo asked Page what was going on with it. 'The service has been growing tremendously,' Page insists. 'People are always like, 'Oh, what's going on?' But for us, we're super excited about it because it's a big service, growing continuously, since we launched it, at a high rate, and we're making it better and better every day.' Page says social is even more important for Google than it was two years ago, and that the Google+ community is v

Germany gives Verizon the boot over NSA spying scandal

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Reuters / Rick Wilking Citing concerns over the NSA's wiretapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top officials' phones, the German Interior Ministry announced Thursday that it will not renew its contract with Verizon to provide service for government ministries. As part of an effort to revamp its secure communications networks, the country will instead rely on Germany's Deutsche Telekom, Reuters reported. Since the beginning of the NSA scandal, US businesses have expressed concern over the potential blowback of the revelations on their bottom lines. Fearing foreign governments and other firms will no longer trust them to provide secure products and services, they've pushed back against the government, demanding more transparency of how the intelligence community operates. Verizon is one of the first companies that can point to the NSA as a direct cause for a failed business deal. The Interior Ministry released a statement Thursday, saying 'the ties revealed b

A Reach Too Far by Google?

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One way to think of Google is as an extremely helpful, all-knowing, hyper-intelligent executive assistant. Already, it can remind you about your flight, open up your boarding pass when you get to the airport and offer you driving directions to your hotel when you land. If what the company showed off at an event for developers Wednesday is a true vision of our future, Google's software will soon reach ever further into our lives, sitting on just about every other device you encounter. The software will be available to help you look up any bit of idle curiosity or accomplish any task, anytime you desire. It's an extremely far-reaching agenda - and that may be the company's problem. For a company whose future depends on people voluntarily handing over their information in return for handy online services, Google's very ambitions may now stand as its biggest hurdle. Is Google, in its globe-spanning reach, trying to do so much that it risks becoming creepy instead of helpfu

VidCon: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Announces Creator Tip Jar, Analytics ...

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At her first VidCon as CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki unveiled a suite of new products and initiatives designed to make the YouTube experience better for creators. Among the announcements that got the most applause from the audience is a tip jar to show support for creators up to $500, fun-sourced subtitles and an app for creators to access analytics and channel management tools on the go. 'I have to say, a lot of people prepared me about what I would see,' Wojcikci opened. 'But nothing really pares you for actually being here in real life.' She categorized the new features into three bullets: engaging a bigger and global audience, building a successful business and managing creative work. Wojcicki also announced at the keynote that YouTube's new advertising campaign, featuring beauty blogger Michelle Phan and other creators, has helped more than double the awareness of those creators. It will now be adding Vice News to the campaign. Meanwhile, the Google Preferre