Business

Legal pot growers struggle to reap profits

As reported on The Verge. By Jeff Blagdon The recent recreational marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington illustrates just how mainstream cannabis consumption has become, but despite an unprecedented demand, industrial grow operations are having a hard time turning a profit. The Wall Street Journal reports on the billion-dollar industry of legal pot production, finding that the labor-intensive nature of the business, coupled with a lack of access to investment capital, are making it tough for growers. And of…

Continue reading

Apple Business

Tim Cook teases ‘exciting new product category’ and ‘more surprises’ from Apple in the fall

As reported on The Verge. By T.C. Sottek During Apple’s Q2 investor call, CEO Tim Cook teased “the potential of exciting new product categories,” and suggested that the company will announce new products in the fall. “We’ve got a lot more surprises in the works,” Cook said. “Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services that we can’t wait to introduce in the fall and into 2014. We continue to…

Continue reading

Application

Swype Finally Rolls Out Of Beta, Hits The Google Play Store For $0.99

As reported on TechCrunch. by GREG KUMPARAK Way back in March of 2010, Swype launched a super private Beta of its then totally mind-blowing (and now often imitated) swipe-to-type Android keyboard. While they’ve since shipped it out-of-the-box on dozens of handsets, opened the Beta to pretty much anyone, andsold for $100M, they’ve never gotten around to ditching that Beta tag — until today. (Three years in Beta? Who do they think they are, Google? ZING.) This…

Continue reading

Android Mobile SmartPhone

Samsung Galaxy S4 Review: The S Stands For Super, Not Simple

As reported on TechCrunch. by JORDAN CROOK The Galaxy S4 has an easy mode, and more importantly, the Galaxy S4 needs an easy mode. This necessity is a double-edged sword. It means that the technology built into Samsung’s latest generation smartphone does things you’ve never seen before, and maybe couldn’t even imagine. However, really using that technology isn’t as simple as you might think, and could be downright overwhelming to a novice smartphone user. This is the theme I kept…

Continue reading

Apple Business

With Earnings Around The Corner, Apple’s Growth Prospects Are Gloomy

As reported on TechCrunch. by ROMAIN DILLET Conventional wisdom has it that Apple has reached its peak and can only disappoint from now on. Yet, many financial facts don’t make sense. The market is too harsh with Apple compared to its competitors. But when it comes to products, there is an unsettling detail: there was no product release during fiscal Q2 2013. While Apple is certainly not doomed, its future looks gloomy. That’s why today’s earnings…

Continue reading

Hardware Dev Photography

Panasonic’s 16-megapixel Lumix G6 unveiled with 7fps burst, NFC, WiFi

As reported on Engadget. By Steve Den Panasonic has just announced a new mid-range Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix G6, that brings a solid list of specs for a mid-range camera. The 16-megapixel shooter can fire at a respectable 7fps in burst mode, has a top sensitivity of ISO 25,600 and like the recently launched Lumix GF6, has WiFi and NFC for device syncing. It also sports a 1,440K-dot OLED LVF, 0.5 second startup time, 3-inch, 1,036K-dot touchscreen…

Continue reading

Application

BBC iPlayer radio app finally starts broadcasting on Android and Kindle devices (video)

As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith While the iPhone didn’t even have a built-in FM radio to replace, Android hardware from all the major players has started to forgo the radio tuner in the last few years. Fortunately, Beeb listeners (at least) can finally access the iPlayer radio app, which has made the leap across from iOS. Not only will you be able to install it on your Android smartphone, but also Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet…

Continue reading

Hardware Dev

AMD details $999 Radeon HD 7990 graphics card, says it handles all top games at 4K

As reported on Engadget. By Sharif Sakr We’ve seen plenty of the Radeon HD 7990 in action with Battlefield 4, but it’s taken AMD a little while to furnish us with full specs and pricing. Now that all the info is here, in the run-up to commercial availability in two week’s time, it’s finally possible to judge the pros and cons of what is arguably a very niche product. Read on past the break and we’ll do…

Continue reading