As reported on The Verge. By Nilay Patel A day in the life of a hungover cyborg I am not a shy man. I stood in the bathroom of my hotel room in Indianapolis, repeating those words to myself in the mirror. I needed to find courage in those words. I needed to find resolve. I needed to find the strength to walk downstairs to the hotel bar wearing Google Glass. I was also slightly worried…
As reported on TechCrunch. by ANTHONY HA With today’s update to its iPhone app The Scoop, The New York Times may have accomplished something that advertisers and publishers often boast about but rarely achieve — it may have found a genuinely useful way to incorporate sponsored content. And the update isn’t only relevant to New Yorkers (who can actually take advantage of The Scoop’s recommendations for the best restaurants, bars, coffee shops and more), but also to observers of…
As reported on TechCrunch. by DARRELL ETHERINGTON Google unleashed a slew of updates to its Google+ social networking service at I/O earlier this month, and now a bunch of those new features are making it to the iOS app for Google+. The update follows the Android version, which arrived last week, and brings tons of new things to the version on Apple mobile devices, including Auto Backup, Highlight, Enhance and Awesome features for photos, hashtags that curate related content…
As reported on TechCrunch. by JOHN BIGGS There are few things as satisfying – and dangerous – as burning through stuff with a laser. Drake Anthony AKA Styropyro is a young man who enjoys making DIY lasers out of things, and he recently completed a 3000mW laser made from the diode of an old DLP projector that can blow out a beam so hot that it burns paper, plastic, and electric tape in seconds. Considering the most powerful…
As reported on Engadget. By Richard Lawler Documents have been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for a $53 million settlement between Apple and customers denied warranty coverage on their iPods and iPhones due to water damage. The case is due to Apple’s policy not to extend warranty coverage on devices where the indicator tape inside them showed exposure to liquids, however plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit argued the indicator…
As reported on Engadget. By Richard Lawler Spotify is making another push to help its users find more music they’re interested in listening to, and find out more about the artists they like by making its “Discover” feature available to all. Initially shown off late last year, this page combines several elements that have already been a part of the music service, including apps like Pitchfork, Songkick and Tunigo with its song recommendations and followed artist pages.…
As reported on The Verge. By Laura June I thought I wanted something ‘iPhone-sized,’ but I was wrong Late on the night of September 9th, 2012, I was sitting at my kitchen table, going over notes for a piece I was writing about video game arcades. The next morning at 6AM I was bound for an Amtrak train which would take me to Pennsylvania, then to Baltimore, on a four-day trip of interviews for the piece. I…
As reported on The Verge. By Andrew Webster Moonshine may be closely associated with prohibition and the illegal booze trade, but thanks to some new laws in states like Tennessee, it’s slowly becoming a big (and legal) business. As Time reports, moonshine — or unaged white whiskey — only represents one percent of all whiskey sales, but numbers are on the rise. Last year around 130,000 cases of moonshine were sold in the US, compared to just 50,000 in…
As reported on TechCrunch. by DAN SOLMON The campus of Washington State University in Southeast Washington’s agricultural region looks like a typical land-grant university. The connected mix of art-deco, modern, and post-modern buildings that collectively house the College of Engineering and Architecture hide a strange and incredible secret: that the researchers inside are close to making human-compatible ceramic bone grafts and custom-made prostheses and implants. In short, they’re building cyborgs in Palouse. Welcome to the…
As reported on TechCrunch. by FREDERIC LARDINOIS Microsoft’s SharePoint always featured a core set of social tools, but with the acquisition of Yammer, as well as the ongoing integration ofLync and Skype, the folks over in Redmond are clearly ready to push social as the next major cornerstone of their enterprise offerings. Today, Microsoft is launching a new campaign to help companies understand how social canhelp them become more productive. In connection to this, the company also commissioned a new study that tried…