Month: February 2014

Funny Politics

Watch Seth Rogen’s hilarious and heartfelt Senate testimony on Alzheimer’s research

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As reported on The Verge. By Jacob Kastrenakes Even Seth Rogen acknowledges that most of us would expect his top political cause to be the legalization of marijuana. While giving testimony at a Senate hearing yesterday, Rogen took plenty of time to joke about his role in vulgar comedies and the perception of him as immature and lazy. But Rogen was actually there to speak on a cause far more important to him: Alzheimer’s research. Rogen delivered…

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Entertainment

Why do Oscar-nominated men get more screen time than women?

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As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick Sandra Bullock secured an Oscar nomination for best actress for her work on Gravity. Her performance was captivating, but it was also peculiar when put up against her peers: Bullock was shown on screen for 73 minutes of the film’s 91 minute running time. As The New York Times explains, that’s a lot longer than her competitors for the best actress award, who averaged 57 minutes on screen. Leading men, on the…

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Business Microsoft

Now Serving 4M Downloads Daily, The Windows Store Has Grown 135% Since October

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Alex Wilhelm Buried in its MWC slides, Microsoft announced that it now serves 4 million application downloads daily from the Windows Store, the application marketplace for Windows 8.x. Four million downloads per day works out to 120 million per month, or around 1.4 billion per year. The number essentially slipped past the larger media radar — props to wind8apps! — which means even though a few days have passed, we have work to do.…

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Apple

Apple, If Samsung And Sony Can Make A Waterproof Phone, So Can You

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Matt Burns Just this week Samsung revealed the Galaxy S5. It’s water-resistant. Sony also announced theXperia Z2, the waterproof successor to the also waterproof Z1. So where’s my waterproof iPhone? The technology and demand are here. Water-resistant or waterproof, Samsung and Sony’s latest flagships are waterproof enough that a drop in the toilet will not destroy the device. That’s what the iPhone needs. It needs to be toilet-proof. The iPhone has long been a…

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Business Entertainment

Netflix engineers experiment with bump-based video sharing and sleep tracking

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As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS Netflix uses its internal Hack Day competitions to encourage new thinking around its streaming video service, and its latest event has produced a few clever experiments that we wouldn’t mind seeing in finished apps. One of them, Netflix Beam, uses Apple’s Bluetooth-based iBeacon technology to share Netflix videos between iOS devices just by bumping them together. Another effort uses a Fitbit to check if you fall asleep mid-movie; if you do, you can resume from…

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Article Entertainment

‘Calvin and Hobbes’ creator Bill Watterson publishes his first cartoon in 19 years

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As reported on The Verge. By Sean Hollister Nearly 20 years after he finished the beloved comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, Bill Watterson has gone back to the drawing board for one more panel. Watterson has contributed the movie poster for Stripped, a new documentary about cartoonists struggling with the death of newspapers and the future of the medium. There, he joins such a host of fellow comic strip legends such as Jim Davis of Garfield fame, Cathy Guisewite of Cathy,…

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Google

Welcome to Googletown

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As reported on The Verge. By Sean Hollister Here’s how a city becomes company property Some days it feels like Google is taking over the world. For the residents of Mountain View, California, that feeling is personal. Two weeks ago, Google signed a deal for its very own airport just east of the Googleplex, complete with a blimp hangar large enough to house the Hindenburg. But building a better blimp probably isn’t the reason that Google is leasing…

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Google

Google Now Launcher Comes To Play Store, With Always-On ‘Ok Google’ And Swipe For Now

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Darrell Etherington Google reconfigured the Android home screen launcher somewhat with the Nexus 5, but that redesign didn’t make its way out to other Nexus or Google Play Edition hardware when they received the Android 4.4 KitKat update. Today, Google has released the new “Google Now Launcher” as a standalone app in the Play Store (via Android Police) to bring that modified home screen goodness to a wider audience. Note that I didn’t say…

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Google SmartPhone

Google wants its Project Ara modular smartphone to cost $50

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As reported on Engadget. BY SEAN BUCKLEY How much will a modular smartphone set you back? If Google gets its way, about $50 — assuming you forgo all of the bells and whistles. The team behind Project Arawants to launch what it calls a “grayphone,” a barebones customizable exoskeleton that comes with little more than a screen, a frame and a WiFi radio. That wouldn’t be much of a phone, of course, but its only the bait. Google’s Paul…

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Apple Security

Apple explains how the iPhone’s fingerprint sensor keeps your info secure

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As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS If you’ve ever wanted to know how the iPhone 5s’ Touch ID fingerprint security works beyond a basic overview, you’ll be glad to hear Apple has just delivered a motherlode of new details. An updated version of its iOS Security white paper (PDF) explains much of what happens to your finger data after you touch the sensor. In short, your information may be more hack-resistant than it seems at…

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