Month: April 2013

Business Entertainment

Explainer: What’s Aereo, why does it matter, and will it kill cable?

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As reported on The Verge. By Greg Sandova With an important court decision in its favor, here’s how Aereo could change the future of live TV Aereo is trying to make live TV available over the Internet and yesterday the company got a step closer. The United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals declined a request by some of the country’s largest television networks to issue a preliminary injunction against Aereo, which would have closed the service…

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Article Culture

Come and get it: how sperm became one of America’s hottest exports

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As reported on The Verge. By Brooke Jarvis I’d been friends with Chris for years when he mentioned, casually, that he’s a father. Or probably is — as a sperm donor, he has no way of knowing when a woman decides to buy what he has to offer, much less where she is, whether she actually got pregnant, or whether her pregnancy was successful. His only information about the status of his paternity comes when he…

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Apple Story Trends

Apple Ramping Up Production For Next iPhone Beginning In Q2, WSJ Reports

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As reported on TechCrunch. by DARRELL ETHERINGTON Apple is looking to start production of a new iPhone of “similar” design to the current one during the second quarter of 2013, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The production ramp-up is designed to set the stage for a summer launch of a new flagship iPhone, the report claims, which agrees with information we’ve heard from our own sources recently. John reported last Thursday that Apple’s…

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Hardware Dev

Baidu Eye is no joke, aims to be a Google Glass competitor

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As reported on Engadget. By Richard Lai We all know that Chinese search giant Baidu is notorious for receiving much inspiration from its US counterpart, Google, and according to the above IM screenshot published on April Fools’ Day (now bear with us here), the former is apparently already working on its own version of Glass. This claim is seemingly supported by a couple of articles from Tencent Tech and Sina Tech, who said that the spectacles feature a tiny LCD, image recognition…

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Culture Mobile Tech Trends

It’s been 40 years since the world’s first mobile phone call Mobile

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As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith On April 3rd 1973, Martin Cooper made the first mobile call on the nine-inch (and 28-ounce) Motorola DynaTAC. Dialing up a rival at AT&T, he apparently said that he was ringing “to see if my call sounds good at your end.” While briefcase-size models had come before it, it’s Motorola’s truly mobile phone that became the go-to power accessory for the likes of Gordon Gekko, Zack Morris and, er, American Psycho‘s Patrick Bateman.…

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Android Application Google Mobile

Quickoffice on Android and iPhone now free for Google Apps for Business users Mobile

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As reported on Engadget. By Alexis Santos Quickoffice for iPad became a free perk for Google Apps business subscribers back in December, and now Mountain View has extended the offer to its Android app, and made its iPad application iPhone-compatible. By wielding the office suite, users can edit, create and view Excel, Word and PowerPoint files that reside on Google Drive. In addition to going gratis, the software has been tweaked to show Drive folders such as Recent, Shared…

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Engineering Entertainment Games

BIOSHOCK INFINITE REVIEW: ABOVE AND BELOW

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As reported on Polygon. By Arthur Gies Even if you’ve tried to maintain a total media blackout on BioShock Infinite, it would have been difficult to remain ignorant of the extended, torturous development cycle it’s been through, or the number of major creative personnel who have come and gone during that time. You’d almost think it was hard to follow up the original game, which has been lauded and held up as one of the few conscious,…

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Entertainment Legal

‘Game of Thrones’ season premiere illegally downloaded over one million times

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As reported on The Verge. By Chris Welch HBO’s Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show of 2012, and early download stats following last night’s season three opener have it on track to receive that “honor” yet again this year. According to TorrentFreak, there’s been a flurry of illegal downloading activity in the hours since the hit series returned last night. At one point, a single torrent reportedly had over 160,000 simultaneous connections. But adding all the various releases together…

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Art Entertainment

Dark Horse to adapt original ‘The Star Wars’ script into comic series

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As reported on The Verge. By Jacob Kastrenakes Disney’s Star Wars films won’t begin hitting theaters until 2015, but we’ll get to see a new, George Lucas-written Star Wars saga even earlier than that. Dark Horse Comics is releasing an eight-issue series based on the original 1974 screenplay for Star Wars. The comic should be a much different adventure than the beloved A New Hopehowever, as the original The Star Wars treatment that Lucas wrote had quite a few differences: Han Solo was an alien, lightsabers…

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Apple Government Politics Random

Chinese state media warms to Apple after Tim Cook’s apology

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As reported on The Verge. By Aaron Souppouris China’s media has reacted positively to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s public apology over the recent warranty issues in the country. As reported by Reuters, the state-run newspaper People’s Daily said Apple’s reaction is “worth respect compared with other American companies.” A foreign ministry spokesperson was quoted saying “we approve of what Apple said,” praising the company for “conscientiously” responding to the issues. Apple drew fire in the press over claims that it was treating…

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