Items tagged with Misc
According to a report from Israeli newspaper Calcalist, Apple has completed an acquisition for PrimeSense, the company originally behind Microsoft’s Kinect. The paper did not cite any sources, so take the report for what it’s worth, but the deal is reportedly for $345 million. PrimeSense issued a non-statement statement on the...
Read more...
When new FCC chairman Tom Wheeler stepped into his new job, he had some big shoes to fill after predecessor Julius Genachowski left an impressive track record behind, but Mr. Wheeler seems to be hitting the ground running. This week, he wrote a letter to the CTIA urging the group to amend its Consumer Code to change...
Read more...
As we mentioned earlier today, Microsoft is really on board this whole 3D printing thing, loading Windows 8.1 with native 3D printing capabilities and working closely with MakerBot to develop a driver for the latter’s Replicator 2 3D printer, but that’s not all. Microsoft also now has an app called 3D...
Read more...
When the NSA forced several major tech companies including Facebook, Google, and Yahoo to cough up data on their users, one got the sense that it was a situation of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. The first round of that battle went to the NSA because it had (some shadily-acquired) court documents...
Read more...
When Microsoft announced its eagerly anticipated Windows 8.1 update, the company promised native 3D printing support. MakerBot worked with Microsoft to develop its own 3D printer driver for the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D printer, which is now available via the Windows Update Service. The MakerBot 3D Printer...
Read more...
Intel is inside many computers, but the company wants to be inside retail locations, too. The company produced a video outlining its efforts to prop up Intel Experience Stores, the first of which will open in Nolita, New York at 10am on November 23rd. The whole venture sounds intriguing, if somewhat odd. Clearly, the...
Read more...
There was nothing wrong with Netflix’s former TV interface necessarily, but the company decided to gussy it up anyway, with the intent to give users a more immersive browsing experience. “The new design was created specifically for the big screen, featuring multiple cinematic images for each title along with a new, snappy description...
Read more...
Makerbot is ready to make the push beyond hobbyists, makers, and engineers and into the schools, exciting and educating the next generation of kids about 3D printing. The company, which is now owned by Stratasys, announced an initiative to put a MakerBot 3D printer in every school in the country. The MakerBot Academy...
Read more...
In the run up to the highly anticipated releases of Steam Machines in 2014, Valve announced a beta program called In-Home Streaming that will allow users to stream Steam games (say that five times fast) from one computer to another within the same house. Any system with Steam installed on it can run games from the cloud, but this in-home streaming...
Read more...
The U.S. Postal Service has struck a deal with ecommerce juggernaut Amazon to deliver the latter’s packages on Sundays, which seems to be the perfect way for both parties to benefit at the expense of the competition. It’s no secret that the USPS has been in financial trouble for a while, and one idea for...
Read more...
As it is now, the mysterious Google-owned barge sitting in San Francisco Bay is decidedly barge-like, which is to say that it’s blocky and ugly, and the presumption is that when the company eventually finishes converting it to a tech showroom to display wares such as Google Glass to high-end clientele, it would...
Read more...
For consumers, the 3D printing market is developing rapidly, and recently one of the vectors for growth has been on the 3D scanning side of things. Industry mainstay MakerBot and upstart Rubicon have both announced consumer-oriented 3D scanners in the last few months, and now 3D Systems (maker of the Cube 3D) has one, too. The Sense 3D Scanner...
Read more...
The CIA is paying AT&T some $10 million a year for access to certain customer call data that includes international-to-international calls as well as some domestic-to-international calls, according to a New York Times report citing information from “government officials”. The CIA’s involvement is part of an overseas counterterrorism...
Read more...
Microsoft announced that its Office Web Apps, the teaser portion of its Office 365 initiative, are getting some updates in the form of real-time co-authoring, which allows multiple users to collaborate on a single document simultaneously. Users can work from their desktops, laptops, tablets, and other mobile devices...
Read more...
While Google rolls out its Google Fiber gigabit Internet service slowly and surely in Kansas City, Provo (UT), and Austin (TX), other companies such as CenturyLink, C-Spire, and AT&T have pledged to provide similar services. At least one city isn’t waiting for an ISP to take the reigns on a gigabit Internet...
Read more...
Ever since Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced his retirement in August, the company has been busily hunting for a new head honcho, and according to a Reuters report, among those on the shortlist are Nokia’s Stephen Elop, Ford CEO Alan Mulally, and three other external candidates whose names could not be...
Read more...
Like many other tech companies, Apple is publishing a data request transparency report so its users will have a better sense of the number of inquiries law enforcement makes about the company’s users and their data, and like those other companies, Apple is somewhat hamstrung, bound by law to keep details about...
Read more...
Although the Internet is a deep and wide resource for learning how to do everything from playing licks on a slide guitar to how to fix your dishwasher to the best makeup tips and so on, Google is taking Internet-based help a step further with the introduction of Helpouts, which Google developed based on its Hangouts...
Read more...
The most surefire way to make teenagers disinterested in something is for their parents to adopt it, and it appears that Facebook is having just such a problem. Facebook has finally admitted that there has been a dip in teen usage--although the company hasn’t provided any numbers. This is a sharp turnaround from Facebook’s position...
Read more...
4K content and associated support for it is coming, from game systems to memory cards to displays to smartphones, and Netflix is doing what it can to prepare for the shift from 1080p HD to the massively higher resolution. The video service is publicly testing a series of streaming 4K videos at different frames per second (FPS). Netflix's "El...
Read more...
So there’s this mysterious barge parked in San Francisco Bay, stacked with shipping containers. It was a known fact that the barge belonged to Google, but nobody knew what it was doing there, what was on it, or what it might be used for, but local TV station KPIX says it’s cracked it: The barge will be a...
Read more...
The launch a month ago of the Healthcare.gov website, the online portal for President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (AFA), aka Obamacare, went as badly as it possibly could have gone. Millions attempted to use the site, and it simply didn’t work. To fix the problems, the Obama administration is reaching out...
Read more...
