Items tagged with Misc
Oracle sued Google over its use of Java to build the Android operating system a few years ago, but Google won the case. However, an appeals court has overturned that ruling, finding that “the declaring code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled to copyright...
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The latest edition of the Opera browser, Opera 21, is now available for Windows and Mac. Chief among the many changes, tweaks, and updates is hardware acceleration via Aura technology. Aura “allows us to hardware-accelerate the entire browser, including the user interface,” wrote the Opera Desktop team in...
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Epic has confirmed what it teased earlier this week, which is that they’re making a new “Unreal Tournament”. “The coolest thing is not just that we’re making a new ‘Unreal Tournament’”, said senior project programmer Steve Polge in a video. “We’re planning on...
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This morning Netflix confirmed that it will be raising its rates for monthly streaming subscribers to $8.99 per month, which is a $1 increase over the current price. However, current customers can keep the old rate in place for two years if they don’t change their plan. Netflix said it was upping rates “in...
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Netflix is staying ahead of the curve by offering a small amount of content in 4K, readying a near future where the streaming TV and movies service can take advantage of the slew of Ultra HD 4K TVs that will be hitting the market from the likes of Samsung, Sony, LG, and Vizio. “Breaking Bad” is one program...
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A new twist on 3D printing could let users print their own cosmetics at home. That’s the angle inventor Grace Choi is taking with her sub-$200 Mink 3D printer, anyway, and she hopes that young ladies age 13-21 will be the ones buying up the machines. Perhaps it seems unbelievable impractical to own a 3D printer...
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Symantec, which has been making antivirus products for decades (including Norton, the first piece of software most people would try to remove from a new PC), is getting out of the antivirus game, sort of. Brian Dye, Symantec's senior vice president for information security, told the Wall Street Journal that in...
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You can count Intel among the companies getting behind the self-driving car trend. The company’s investment wing announced that it’s putting money into ZMP Inc., a Japan-based company that’s developing autonomous driving technologies. Intel Capital did not disclose the amount it’s putting forth, but the money is coming...
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After a lengthy U.S.-only rollout, Google Play Music streaming is now available in Canada, and the timing comes on the verge of Canadian Music Week. "Canada you have spoken and we have heard you loud and clear,” said Google's director of global music partnerships Zahavah Levine on Monday. “I could not be more thrilled to announce...
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John Carmack’s former employer, Zenimax, went after the industry veteran last week claiming that important code that he used in helping to build the Oculus Rift VR headset is actually IP owned by Zenimax. The company also stated that it provided VR technology to Oculus VR’s Palmer Luckey and others over...
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Now that Nokia’s Mobile Devices unit has been assimilated into Microsoft (to the point that Redmond is dropping Nokia’s branding), the company has an identity problem. What is Nokia now? What does it do? New Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri dropped some clues in Nokia’s Q1 financial report, including that Nokia...
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Apple snapped up a small stealthy display maker called LuxVue. Apple buys up smaller companies all the time, so you never can tell just how important a given acquisition may eventually be to Apple’s product line, but this is intriguing because it may allow Apple to manufacture its own displays. Sourcing displays...
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In Fight For Privacy, Google, Microsoft, And Apple Will Notify Users Of Government Subpoena Requests
When you push the tech giants, they push back, and that’s exactly what’s currently happening with Google, Microsoft, and Apple in the case of customer data requests by the government. While the companies are forced to comply with the requests, they’ve decided to notify users whose data has been...
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3D Systems is as enmeshed with Google’s Project Ara team as possible; there’s even a 3D Systems employee camping out with the team and developing 3D printing technology for the project right there in-house, and some of the fruit of that labor is the news that 3D Systems is experimenting with printing using...
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Microsoft has been trying to get users to move on from its iconic and hugely popular Windows XP operating system for a long time, and after years--years!--of warnings, the company finally ceased official support for the OS last month. That means, as we’ve said before, that Windows XP gets no tech support and no security patches, which...
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Sprint is forging ahead with plans to bid for a takeover of T-Mobile, according to a new report. Sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that Sprint has lined up financing with at least six banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Mizuho Financial Group Inc...
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After taking heavy fire in a California court from plaintiffs who contend its Gmail data mining practices within Google Apps for Education are illegal, Google is changing its practices so that it’s not possible to scan those users’ emails for advertising purposes. Further, “We’ve permanently removed the “enable/disable”...
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AOL has experienced a nasty security breach that exposed a great deal of user information, and the company says that it was the work of criminal hackers, as opposed to some kind of glitch or oversight. “AOL is investigating a security incident that involved unauthorized access to AOL's network and systems. AOL...
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Google isn’t the only company out there field testing self-driving cars. A day after Google provided a long-overdue update on its autonomous auto project, Volvo stated that it, too, is cruising city streets with robot drivers. Volvo’s driverless cars are navigating the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden, and...
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For as potentially exciting (or terrifying, depending on your point of view) as Google’s self-driving car project is, the company has been strangely mum on its development. A new Google blog post sheds some light on what they’ve been working on, and much of it has to do with figuring out how to safely...
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You know how Microsoft has gradually started pre-loading Windows 8 with a glut of apps? Sure, it’s kind of convenient--emphasis on the “kind of”--and having certain apps such as Skype ready to roll as soon as you install the OS is indeed rather handy, but a lot of it just feels like bloatware...
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Back in 1983, Atari had a flop on their hands with “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial”. Officially, no one knew what happened to the scads of unsold cartridges, but the legend was that Atari secretly just dumped them all into a New Mexico landfill and covered them up with concrete. (Um, yeah, it was a different time.) After more than...
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