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Application Microsoft

Microsoft’s MixShape uses big data and clever visuals to craft the perfect Spotify playlist

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As reported on The Verge. By Jeff Blagdon Making a good mix for a party or workout is serious, time-consuming work, so why not throw some data analysis and computing power at the problem? MixShape takes Spotify’s vast music library and couples it with some heavy data analysis from The Echo Nest to give you a graphical representation of the high-energy peaks and down-tempo valleys of a given playlist. Once you have a base to work from (either…

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Application Hardware Dev Science Tech

Heavy weather: why we need supercomputers to teach us how clouds and climate change work

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As reported on The Verge. By Carl Franzen There’s still no clear forecast for Earth’s temperature rise, but scientists are looking to the sky for answers There’s a dark cloud hanging over the science of climate change, quite literally. Scientists today have access to supercomputers capable of running advanced simulations of Earth’s climate hundreds of years into the future, accounting for millions of tiny variables. But even with all that equipment and training, they still can’t…

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Business

Pressure Increases On Michael Dell As Carl Icahn Mulls Tie-Up With Blackstone In Bid For PC Company

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As reported on TechCrunch. by CATHERINE SHU Carl Icahn has said he is open to a partnership with Blackstone Group in a move that could make it easier for the rival investors to overtake Michael Dell’s $24.4 billion buyout bid for the company he founded, reports Reuters. This means Michael Dell could also potentially lose control of the PC maker he founded when he was 19. This development comes a day after it was revealed that Icahn and Blackstone…

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Microsoft

Microsoft updates Mail, Calendar and People apps in Windows 8, Windows RT

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As reported on Engadget. By Dana Wollman Just as last week was winding down, we heard a credible rumor that Microsoft was about to update some of the native apps found in Windows 8 / Windows RT. Turns out, that report was on the money: the company unveiled some changes today to Mail, Calendar and People, with a particular focus on speed improvements. None of these updates will be available to download until tonight or tomorrow, says a…

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Application Cloud Culture

Latest Hulu rumors suggest it could be up for sale, again HD

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As reported on Engadget. By Richard Lawler While viewers enjoy promotions like free Star Trek and Kurosawa, Hulu’s owners are once again considering selling the video streaming site. The last bit of news was that News Corp and Disney were considering buying one another out, but according to Reuters, anonymous sources confirm that the board is reaching out to several potential buyers while it considers its options. Another possibility from Varietysuggests that the two would remain as part owners, and welcome…

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Apple Government

Chinese state-run newspaper accuses Apple of lacking openness

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As reported on Engadget. By Sharif Sakr The People’s Daily newspaper has slammed Apple’s behavior in China, accusing the company of being “empty and self-praising” in the way it has shrugged off customer complaints and refused journalists’ requests for interviews. The paper’s comments, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, refer to a saga that has been brewing for a while, in which Chinese customers have claimed they’re not receiving the same quality of after-sales care as those in…

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Business News

Yahoo Buys A Mobile News Startup Founded By A 15-Year-Old

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As reported on businessinsider.com by Jay Yarow Nick D’Aloisio Yahoo announced today that it has acquired Summly, a mobile news aggregation app from British entrepenuer Nick D’Aloisio. D’Aloisio is only 17-years-old. When he started Summly, he was only 15. Summly scans the Web for news and uses an algorithm to find the type of content you want to read. Then it summarizes it for you. Yahoo is going to shut down Summly as a stand alone…

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Hardware Dev

Samsung updates high-end Series 9 ultrabook, catching up as 1080p screens become the norm

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As reported on The Verge. By David Pierce Nine months ago, the 1600 x 900 display on Samsung’s Series 9 laptop was relatively impressive for its time, but it has since been bested by a number of 1080p (and occasionally even higher) ultrabook displays. Now Samsung’s playing catch-up, announcing today the latest version of its flagship laptop, which it teased at CES in January. The new Series 9 has a 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080 LED display, coupled with a “SuperBright” technology that Samsung…

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Microsoft Story Tech

Windows Blue: a video preview of what’s next for Windows 8

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As reported on The Verge. By Tom Warren Windows Blue made an early appearance on the internet over the weekend and we’ve had a chance to experience some of its new features. The upgrade to Windows 8 looks like it’s going to bring a host of improvements, fixes, and some new built-in apps too, but the biggest changes are on the UI side. Microsoft now supports smaller Live Tiles and the company is changing the way you arrange…

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Culture Education Internet

72% Of Professors Who Teach Online Courses Don’t Think Their Students Deserve Credit

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As reported on TechCrunch. by GREGORY FERENSTEIN This is not a good sign for online education: 72 percent of professors who have taught Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) don’t believe that students should get official college credit, even if they did well in the class. More importantly, these are the professors who voluntarily took time to teach online courses, which means the actual number of professors who discount the quality of MOOCs is probably much (much) higher.…

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