Category: Articles

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Russia Tries to Trash Talk NASA, Gets Slapped By Elon Musk

Elon_Musk_-_The_Summit_2013Aw social media. The great equalizer. Giving people who should know better the tools to publicly embarrass themselves.

Take this little gem of an exchange. Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian Deputy of Military and Space, was apparently unhappy about the recent sanctions imposed, and had this to say on Twitter:

Analyzing sanctions against our kosmoproma, suggest the U.S. to take its astronauts to the ISS using the trampoline

Ouch. Gonna need some ice for that burn, but who should come to our rescue? Why none other than Mr. Tesla McSpaceX himself Elon Musk! His reply:

Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that @SpaceX has been working on w @NASA. No trampoline needed.

It’d be great if Russia could once again play the bad guys to motivate us into spending more on our space agency again. I mean, without all that actual pesky cold war nonsense of course. In the meantime, we’ll just keep pointing to Mr. Musk as our own real life Tony Stark.

 

 

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Will Google and Netflix Publicly Campaign Against the FCC’s “Fast Lane” Rules?

Google_logoFCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced a proposal to institute new rules which would effectively wreck Net Neutrality by allowing carriers and ISP’s to charge companies arbitrary rates on their bandwidth usage. The proposal will be voted on May 15th, and has proven fairly unpopular in tech media coverage.

What’s been curious is the silence coming from various online entities like Google. Netflix has started making some noise on its blog, especially its recent deal with Comcast in which they agreed to pay the ISP more to prevent further de facto degradation of their service to customers. The silence might end soon however.

Reported on by The Wallstreet Journal, Google might be wading into the fight soon, as they would also stand to lose some significant fights if each of their services like Youtube and GMail had to negotiate individual rates with each carrier.

If they are going to start making some noise, they only have two weeks before the rules go to a vote.

Related:

Net Neutrality and Contacting the FCC (before May 15th)

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Net Neutrality and Contacting the FCC (Before May 15th)

FCCThe FCC will be voting on May 15th to approve new rules which will essentially wreck the fair and neutral internet we all enjoy. We’ve detailed the proposal in another post, but the long and short of it is ISP’s are already allowed to degrade services as they see fit. If these new rules go into effect, ISP’s will be allowed to charge different rates to every online service. Those new added costs will likely be passed on to consumers, or might create a barrier too high for start ups to consider paying, ultimately punishing any service which becomes more popular than a carrier would like.

The announcement has sparked off a pretty visceral reaction from advocacy groups and the tech-ier folks out there. Enough noise has been made for the FCC to request comments be sent to a special email address set up specifically for this discussion: openinternet@fcc.gov.

Now the cynic in me would be afraid that email is essentially the digital equivalent of a “rectangular filing cabinet” (or rubbish bin) to keep all these complaints from filling up the important inboxes. In hedging our bets on messages actually making an impact, at least by sheer quantity, you can also reach out to the individual commissioners on the FCC by going to http://www.fcc.gov/contact-us. There you’ll also find an email for Chairman Tom Wheeler who proposed these new rules.

But maybe that’s not enough.  Continue reading “Net Neutrality and Contacting the FCC (Before May 15th)”

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The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom Camera/Phone Hybrid is Official

Galaxy K zoom_Charcoal Black_10The Zoom series is alive and well.

Announced last night, Samsung took the wraps off their follow up the Galaxy S4 Zoom. Dubbed the Galaxy K Zoom, Samsung has aggressively updated the build for their camera focused, zoom lens phone.

On tap is a 20.7MP 1/2.3″ BSI sensor tied to a 10X zoom lens (24-240mm) with optical image stabilization. The focus is a little tilted to the camera side of the equation, as the rest of the phone specs are somewhat mid-range. Continue reading “The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom Camera/Phone Hybrid is Official”

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Google Self-Driving Cars Tackling City Driving

google self driving carMaybe the biggest hurdle for self-driving cars is the ability to identify and react to sudden obstacles. Someone running out in front of the car, an emergency lane change, etc.

Google released another video detailing their recent efforts in improving car software to react appropriately to these kinds of situations.

Sign me up. There’s any number of things I’d rather be doing than driving my car during a morning commute in LA. You can read the full update below. Continue reading “Google Self-Driving Cars Tackling City Driving”

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Samsung Teases Galaxy K / S5 Zoom on Instagram

Those cheeky little phone manufacturers.

Samsung will be unveiling SOMETHING with a ‘K’ at the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore on April 29th. How better to tease the announcement? Why not show off a video of the Red Dot Museum, being zoomed in on by some kind of camera which can zoom in a lot? Perhaps some kind of Galaxy Zoom maybe? Possibly?

We’ll find out more tomorrow I suppose. In the meantime, we’ve seen a couple leaked photos of the S5 Zoom, showing a slimmer design than the S4 Zoom, and a new textured back plate which resembles the dimples on the Galaxy S5.

samsung-galaxy-k-tieba

Samsung has been getting serious with their cameras lately, and they look like they’ll be trying to give Nokia a run for their money.

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Group Video Calling Now Free on Skype

skype group calling free

Skype set the standard for one on one video calling, but services like Facetime on the Mac and Hangouts through Google quickly ran with group video chat for free.

Skype offered a “Pro” version where you could conference call, but that was an additional cost over the free service. Announced today on the Skype blog, video group calls will now be coming to all for free. Initially available on the Mac, PC, and XBox One, free group calling will eventually make its way to all other platforms as well.

The one area Skype will still be behind is in video broadcast. Google scored a hit with Hangouts on Air, allowing users to broadcast publicly live, and automatically uploading that vid to Youtube. For folks coordinating podcasts, Skype could do well to offer some kind of video capture service to compete.

You can read Skype’s full PR below.

Continue reading “Group Video Calling Now Free on Skype”

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OnePlus Smash Your Phone Contest: When PR Encourages Irresponsible Behavior

oneplus one smash your phoneWhen you’re a newcomer you’ve got to build buzz. OnePlus is waking into a very mature market, so they need to get people talking. They need those internet points and hashtags and Youtubes. Their hook however is borderline irresponsible.

The OnePlus One smartphone looks like it could be an attractive competitor. The specs are cutting edge, comparable to many flagship devices currently on the market, and people are already talking about the intro level price of $299. It would seem that’s not good enough though.

The first batch of 100 One phones will be filtered out to a select few contest winners. What’s the contest requirement? Smash your current high end phone, and you might be selected to be one of the first hundred.

Not just any phone will do either, the list is very specific limited to phones manufactured within the last two years. HTC Ones, Galaxy S3-5’s, LG G2’s, and high end Lumias. The current cream of the smartphone crop, all still functional and competitive handsets.

The messaging is clear if a bit mean-spirited:

“Look at all these folks ready to smash their own flagship phones for a CHANCE to get our phone. That means it’s desirable!”

Using customers’ own social media followers to spread videos, hope for a few viral hits, and a good chunk of their marketing is tackled for cheap.

It’s all in good fun right? Continue reading “OnePlus Smash Your Phone Contest: When PR Encourages Irresponsible Behavior”

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