Month: November 2013

Art Business Microsoft

A visual history of Microsoft’s anime fetish

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As reported on The Verge. By Aaron Souppouris Yesterday, the world was introduced to Inori Aizawa, an anime character created to promote Internet Explorer in Singapore. Many saw the move as unusual, but some of Microsoft’s Asia-based subsidiaries have been using anime to boost their products’ appeal for years. Over the past decade, Microsoft has used over 10 individual characters to improve user and developer awareness of its software and infrastructure. These are its most memorable.  …

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Entertainment

‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ is coming December 18th, 2015

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As reported on The Verge. By Bryan Bishop It took a while, but we finally have a date: Star Wars: Episode VII is coming December 18th, 2015. The date was announced in a blog post on the official Star Wars website, and it comes more than a year after Disney announced that it was acquiring Lucasfilm— and that more films would be on the way. When Episode VII was first announced 2015 was pegged as the year, while the broad assumption was that the…

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Politics

Engineers Build The World’s First Real 3D-Printed Gun

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As reported on TechCrunch. by John Biggs The Liberator, for all the hoopla, was not really a gun. This 3D-printed firearm, on the other hand, is a gun. It is a copy of a 1911 made using public-domain plans and a laser sintering system that solidifies metal powder. It fires just like a real semi-automatic pistolThe gun, created by Solid Concepts, is completely legal. The company has a Federal Firearms License and it’s trivial to find the blueprints online. The company…

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Games

Here are five especially neat things the Xbox One can do

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As reported on Engadget. By Ben Gilbert The Xbox One that you snag on November 22nd (or thereafter) does some pretty neat stuff besides just playing video games: live TV, NFL fantasy league and voice commands for everything. But that’s all bigger-picture stuff. Some of the coolest things that the Xbox One does are in the details, many of which were just revealed this week in a press preview of the upcoming game console. For instance, did you know that the console’s…

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Games Microsoft

Microsoft’s 12-minute Xbox One demo shows off the dashboard, Kinect and apps

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As reported on Engadget. By Matt Brian   With only two weeks until the Xbox One hits the shelves, Microsoft’s marketing blitz continues with a 12-minute video demonstration of its next-gen console in action. Xbox executives Yusuf Mehdi and Marc Whitten highlight some of Kinect’s new features, showing how users can switch to their personalized dashboard using just their voice, or use its 1080p camera to engage in a live Skype video call. We’re also treated to some…

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Culture Design Engineering Entertainment

Software physics: how Digital Domain created the world of ‘Ender’s Game’

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As reported on The Verge. By Bryan Bishop A conversation with visual effects supervisor Matthew Butler Translating the sci-fi classic Ender’s Game to the big screen required tackling iconic locations and sequences in a way that honored fan expectations while still playing to audiences that were new to the material. To accomplish that goal, writer-director Gavin Hood joined forces with Digital Domain, the visual-effects powerhouse originally founded by James Cameron and Stan Winston.     In the years…

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Apple Application iPhone

New App Lets You Unlock Your Mac By Knocking On Your iPhone

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Sarah Perez Can your mobile phone become a replacement for manually typing in a password? That’s the promise of a new application called Knock, launching today, which uses an iPhone paired with a Mac desktop or laptop computer to log you in to your locked machine. The system takes advantage of the newer low-energy Bluetooth technology to enable the connection between the two devices, allowing you to just knock (you know,knock, like…

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Android Google

Google will soon display your Google+ photo when you call an Android device

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As reported on Engadget. By Matt Brian   Google’s desire to integrate social features into its mobile OS will soon see it useGoogle+ profile photos to identify Android callers. The new feature comes as an update to the new caller ID service in Android 4.4 KitKat, allowing the company to automatically match phone numbers from incoming and outgoing calls with names and profile photos associated with a registered account. Google staffer Attila Bodisnotes that the feature will be enabled…

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Hardware Dev

Samsung CEO promises to deliver devices with ‘folding displays’ in 2015

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As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith At Samsung’s Analyst Day, alongside talking serious financial numbers, forward looking statements and such, the company has announced that it will bring fully-foldable screens to willing customers some time in 2015. The screen tech (which we’ve seen an incremental nudge towards with the Galaxy Round) could find its way into both typical smart devices like tablets and smartphones as well as wearables, which is something that Samsung has shown more than…

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Art History

Over $1.35 billion in Nazi art found hidden behind ‘mountains of rotting food’

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As reported on The Verge. By Aaron Souppouris Over 1,500 paintings previously thought destroyed in World War II have been found in Germany after officials followed up on a hunch. Three years ago, customs officials performed a routine check on a train from Switzerland. On the train was Hildebrandt Gurlitt, a Munich resident who reportedly had a “shifty demeanor.” They could never have imagined that the reason for Gurlitt’s behavior was an unimaginable “treasure trove” of…

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