Category: News

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‘The Expendables 3’ Leaks Online in DVD Quality Before Film’s Release

The-Expendables-3Often when copies of a film show up online close to a film’s release in theaters, they’re often bad camera jobs. People pointing a camera at a movie theater screen to capture the footage. No such luck for the producers on ‘The Expendables 3‘ as a DVD quality rip of the film showed up on file sharing services July 24th.

It’s not clear who leaked the film, but it’s already been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. It will be interesting to see how this might affect the box office tally for the film which opens August 15th. If it takes a bad beat opening weekend, you can be sure that heads will roll at distributor Lionsgate over how this screener got loose.

Before people get too excited about snagging a copy of the film for free on their favorite torrent service, production company Nu Image has been active in the past in suing people sharing previous titles of theirs. With a leak this potentially damaging, we might assume they’ll be very active in trying to chill sharing activity…

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Google Voice Now Allows for Calls Through Hangouts

google voice hangoutsProgress has been painfully slow, but eventually Google Voice and Hangouts will merge into one super app of calling and communication. Recently we’ve been looking for changes to the Hangouts app, but Google has just announced an update to Voice that shows they are walking these two services together.

Alex Wiesen, a Manager at Google, posted this to G+ yesterday:

When I’m travelling I like to call my family from the Google Voice website on my laptop, but without a phone handy, it’s a little hard to use. To make things easier, we’ve just added Hangouts as an option when making calls from the web. It works even if you aren’t using Hangouts in Gmail, and doesn’t require a Google+ account. Try it the next time you place a call from the Google Voice website — I think it’s a much easier way to keep in touch with people.

You can check out the update now logging into Google Voice on a desktop browser. Hopefully this means we’ll eventually see updates to the mobile apps for these services soon.

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Chromecast Turns 1 – Offers up Three Free Months of Play Music All Access to Celebrate!

google chromecast tv hdmi dongle somegadgetguyHappy Birthday Chromecast!

Google’s little, inexpensive, wunder-streaming HDMI stick is now a one year old, and no birthday should ever pass without celebrating it with presents. Google’s gift to Chromecast users is a free three month trial of Play Music All Access. The caveat is you can’t already be signed up for the All Access service, so those of us all ready paying for it aren’t invited to the party.

If you do have a Chromecast, head over to chromecast.com/offers to sign up!

 

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House GOP Attack FCC and Local Tax Payer Funded Internet Access

GOP rep marsha blackburnIf a community of people vote to approve tax payer funded internet access, should they be allowed to build their own network?

House Conservatives say “no”, that people at the state and local level should not be allowed the right to decide for themselves how to improve their internet access. Why? Because free market, competition, taxes, reasons.

In a frustrating example of political double-speak, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced an amendment to the 2015 Financial Services Appropriations Bill which would “prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from trampling on the rights of states when it comes to municipal broadband“. How does it protect states rights? By making it illegal for states and municipalities to petition the FCC for permission to build tax payer funded data networks. This amendment was of course approved by a vote of 223-200.

Continue reading “House GOP Attack FCC and Local Tax Payer Funded Internet Access”

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The NewYorker Makes Entire Archive Free Online for the Summer!

remnick-new-website-talk-story-690x410-1405955448Many magazines have been struggling with emerging technologies. On the software side you face blogs and social media, and on the hardware side phones and tablets are more “fun” than printed paper.

For their 90th anniversary, The NewYorker is trying something a bit radical for their publication. Following refreshes to their website and app, instead of hiding all their content behind a paywall, or splitting some content out for free, they’ll be making their entire archive available online for the whole summer. From any browser or through the app, even non-subscribers will be able to get their fill.

The paywall will return come fall, but for those of you scouting some fun summer reading, The NewYorker has you covered for the next couple months.

(via The NewYorker blog)

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Students Aim to Build Record Breaking Solar Powered Car

14652765876_5a9a687e2f_oStudents at the University of New South Wales hold the Guinness World Record for fastest Solar Powered Electric Vehicle. They set the record in 2011 with a car that hit a top speed of 55mph. Now they have their sights set on another record to smash.

On July 23rd the Sunswift Student Team is looking to unleash the newest version of the eVe electric car, and they’re hoping to break the record for fastest average speed over a 500km distance, which currently sits at 73km per hour (around 45mph). They’re being coy by how much, but they’re confident they can break that record by a “comfortable” margin. Continue reading “Students Aim to Build Record Breaking Solar Powered Car”

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Nokia Begins Rollout for Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Cyan Updates

We’ve been covering the Developer Preview of Windows Phone 8.1, and it looks like Nokia is ready to push the button on sending it out to the masses. The WP8.1 update will also include Nokia’s collection of software updates dubbed “Lumia Cyan”, and it’ll unlock a few new features in apps already available for the platform.

Here’s our full walk through of WP8.1 where you can see the new Action Center Notification tray, Cortana, WiFi Sense, and more.

We’ll also see improvements to the Lumia Camera app for autofocus and RAW capture, and refinements to audio recording in video on the Icon and 1520.

Best of all, if you currently have a Windows Phone 8 device, you will be receiving the update to 8.1. There’s no word yet on which phones will start getting it first, but the worldwide rollout begins today. For more info and to check availability, hit Nokia’s support page.

Related:
Transfer Apps from Phone Storage to an SD Card in WP8.1!
App Review: Files File Manager for Windows Phone 8.1!
Windows Phone 8.1 Keyboard Tips and Tricks!

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LG Display Unveils new Flexible and Transparent OLED Screens

Flexible (Rollable) OLED_02We’ve seen the beginning of flexible screen tech with phones like the G Flex and TV’s which can bend from flat to curved cinema displays.  Now LG is showing off the next phase of OLED tech.

LG Display showed off two new 18″ screen panels. One panel improves on the bending by being almost completely roll-able. The 1200×800 resolution screen can be twisted into a 3cm thick tube without affecting the panel’s performance.

Transparent OLEDThe other 18″ panel uses their new transparent pixel technology for a see-through screen. Perfect for all kinds of applications, I saw a similar display at CES being used as an interactive vending machine, but many consumer electronics like microwaves or refrigerators could benefit. Eventually we might even see this kind of tech show up in automobiles providing heads up display capabilities. It’s exciting to see where it could lead.

Full LG Display PR below.

Continue reading “LG Display Unveils new Flexible and Transparent OLED Screens”

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