Category: Articles

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UPDATED! Nine previously lost episodes of Doctor Who will be available to purchase Oct 11

patrick troughton second doctor who

And there you have it, after yesterday’s speculation (below after the “read more” link), we now have the full scoop on what was found.

Nine episodes from the Second Doctor’s run were found in a relay station in Nigeria. The Patrick Troughton story line The Enemy of The World is now complete with all six episodes accounted for, and The Web of Fear is missing one episode which has been recreated using stills and storyboards, enough to release the series to the public.

Starting October 11th at midnight, the episodes will be available on iTunes for download. For those who want something more tactile, BBC Worldwide will also start pre-orders for both series on DVD (though the BBC store was down at the time this article was being written), to be shipped later this year.

This is very exciting for us Who fans, though we always wish we could have more. This drops the number of Doctor Who episodes MIA to 97, and now I have to wrestle with the geek fanboi in my head who is desperately trying to convince me to update my long since lapsed credit card information on iTunes…

Read our original rumor post for this story after the jump.

Continue reading “UPDATED! Nine previously lost episodes of Doctor Who will be available to purchase Oct 11”

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Your USB 3 flash drive is about to get a lot faster thanks to Silicon Motion

silicon motion usb 3 controllerUSB 3 products are gaining a little momentum. It’s becoming more and more common to see them on new computers, and prices on USB 3 hard drives and flash drives are starting to settle closer to older USB 2 gear. For example, a USB 3 Kingston Data Traveler Ultimate is already less than a dollar per GB, which is less than what I paid for a “nice” USB 2 flash drive last year.

Performance is already much better than older USB 2 drives, but now it looks like it could be getting even better. Silicon Motion is announcing a new USB 3 controller, the chip which live in your computer to control USB devices plugged into your computer, which could significantly improve I/O.

Right now, on my older workstation I can get read speeds of around 80MBps on my USB3 port. Silicon Motion claims their new controller can boost single channel performance of USB 3 flash drives to 160MBps. Write speeds could almost double as well. This means that those of you who have to move tons of files around manually (photos, videos, audio), these transfers should get a lot faster. Silicon Motion also details the idea that you could now install an operating system and software to USB stick, and use that as a boot drive. Walk up to a computer, plug in your drive, and boot up your own operating system and programs.

Best of all, improvements to the manufacturing should reduce power consumption and make the controller less expensive to produce.

Check out the full write up for all the technical details.

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Android 4.3 FINALLY rolling out to AT&T HTC One’s

WP_20130503_003Better late than never? It would seem HTC wasn’t able to move through the verification process to meet their September deadline on updating all of their One phones to Google’s current version of Android Jellybean, but those of you on AT&T will finally start seeing update notifications soon!

Among the various improvements, users will see improved camera performance (hopefully a fix for some of the low light problems some users face) and new focus options for video. We’ll also see improved quick access to controls in the notification tray, so no more going to your settings menu to turn WiFi on and off.

The update should roll out auto-magically, but if you’re really impatient, you can start spamming the software update setting throughout the day. Maybe it’ll work for you?

Now HTC… When can we start talking about KitKat updates?

I kid… I kid… But no really when? [Said while doing ‘grabby hands’]

(via AT&T Blog)

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Deal Alert: Verizon Wireless LG G2 and Moto X for $99 on contract

verizon moto x amazon on saleJust a quick heads up. If you were shopping the LG G2 or the Moto X, and are currently on Big Red, they’re both currently on sale!

You can score either on Amazon right now for $99 when signing a new two year contract.

Moto’s phone represents a substantial step in design and efficiency, beautifully tailoring the software to the hardware for a premier experience. LG’s offering is a monster step forward in bleeding edge internals, besting even recent high-end phones like the Galaxy S4 and HTC One in delivering powerful hardware. You kinda can’t go wrong with either if you’re looking to drop mid-range money on a high-end handset.

VZW Moto X on Amazon

VZW LG G2 on Amazon

(via Android Police)

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Samsung Galaxy Round – First smartphone with a curved display

Pulling up the press release and seeing the picture I was a bit surprised. Previous experiments with curving screens on phones like the Galaxy Nexus usually involved curving the display from top to bottom, contouring the phone for the side of your head. The Galaxy Round takes a different approach…

The Round’s 5.7″ screen is curved from side to side, and Samsung claims this side to side curving makes the phone easier to hold and use. It could also mean that this phone will feel narrower than traditional phablets.

I think it’s an interesting experiment in design, and I’ll be curious to see how consumers respond. One nice advantage, the phone’s screen is harder to scratch if the phone is ever placed face down on a table. That curve provides a little clearance.

Samsung Tomorrow spent a little time with the handset and shot this video of one of the new gestures:

Hardware on board seems to be current high-end, similar to what you might find in the Note 3. It’ll launch tomorrow in South Korea for a little more than $1000, but there’s no official word on pricing and availability elsewhere.

(via Samsung Tomorrow)

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Microsoft to release Remote Desktop apps for Android and iOS

Screenshot (91)This is how you poach users.

So obviously Microsoft can’t count on Windows Phone and Surface RT sales to reinforce their Remote Desktop service. Buried in a recent press release for their new enterprise cloud services:

Further, with Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft is introducing the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, available for download in application stores later this month, to provide easy access to PCs and virtual desktops on a variety of devices and platforms, including Windows, Windows RT, iOS, OSX and Android.

Acknowledging that even people who run Windows desktops, laptops, and servers are most likely using an Android or iOS phone or tablet is maybe the best thing to continue encouraging Windows adoption. With all these devices connected to the interwebs, it becomes less precious to develop native apps for consumer-grade tablets when we can use them like thin clients or dumb terminals for displaying proper programs.

Not a bad play Microsoft, especially as Google will be sneaking Chrome OS onto Windows 8 hardware soon too…

Full PR after the jump.

Continue reading “Microsoft to release Remote Desktop apps for Android and iOS”

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New Case for Nexus 7 (2013) pops up on Google Play

google play nexus 7 2013 case grey and blueIt’s simple. It’s clean. Modern look, nicely molded for the corners of the tablet. A microsuede cover protects your screen. Nice color accents, and it doubles as a stand. Nicely done Google.

Here’s the thing I find kind of funny. People are already complain that the case is a little pricey. $49.99 is a touch steep when we’re already seeing cheaper options online, but this is the official branded Nexus 7 case. Also, how is Google supposed to make any money on their hardware sales when the tablet is only $229?

Anywho, if you’re shopping the new Nexus 7, and want to add on a nice looking case at time of purchase, Google now has a slick little option for you. I’m partial to the Grey case with Blue accents. I think that looks sharp.

nexus 7 case cover colors

(via Google Play)

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Romanian ISP to roll out $18 a Month Gigabit Fiber

1381245927--ofertaWell color me jealous… Again…

Not only are people in Kansas City lit up, folks in Austin will finally receive some actual competition, and Provo is about to flip the switch, but where else in the world will people get amazing fiber-optic-to-the-home internet connections?

Romania.

Romanian ISP RCS & RDS is rolling out new fiber and upgrading their backhaul. Not only will their customers have 500Mbps and 1Gbps tiers, the top service will only cost the equivalent of $18 a month. Yup. 1000Mbps data will cost less than one Andrew Jackson a month. Yikes… Kinda kicks that TWC “50 megs innernet” right in the junk…

(via Reddit)

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