Category: Culture

Culture Education Film

The science of ‘Her’: we’re going to start falling in love with our computers

By admin | by admin

As reported on The Verge. By Ben Popper Why do humans become emotionally intimate with AI? In the new Spike Jonze film, Her, a man falls in love with his operating system. In some ways it’s a commentary on modern society and our increasingly intimate relationship to technology; it’s about the smartphones we bring to bed and the computers we wear to work. But there is also a lot of truth to the idea that people might fall…

Continue reading

Culture

The Shifting Ways In Which We’ll Interact With Mobile Apps

By admin | by admin

As reported on TechCrunch. by Semil Shah .‘Tis the season to reorganize the apps on my iPhone. With iOS 7 and the shift from spotlight search to swipe-down-to-search for apps, I’ve noticed my app behavior has changed a bit, as it’s become easier to search for apps with the new UI and therefore less important where the app is located on my phone. For instance, the Amazon app is buried in my Shopping folder (on my…

Continue reading

Culture

Your Essential Tips for Safe Winter Driving

By admin | by admin

As reported on Wired. BY DAMON LAVRINC If the 70-plus-car pileup near Germantown, Wisconsin has taught us anything — again — people don’t know how to drive in the snow. Every year reduced grip, high speed, and general asshattery conspires to create hundreds of thousands of accidents and injuries, along with thousands of deaths. We don’t know everything, so we asked for your tips. And among the smart-ass comments, you gave us some gems. Check Your Car If…

Continue reading

Application Culture

ZeroPoint is the malware cure that could be worse than the disease

By admin | by admin

As reported on The Verge. By Russell Brandom SecDev’s new project could stop botnet-powered fraud for good. Should we let it? The internet is, on balance, a very hostile place. More than 70 percent of all email traffic is spam, and a fair portion of that is malware and phishing attempts. One 2012 censuscounted 1.5 billion browser-based malware attacks. A recent Team Cymru map of globally compromised computers showed nearly all of Italy lit up, with southeastern Europe glowing from the…

Continue reading

Android Culture

CyanogenMod 11 Screencast video recording is as easy as taking a screenshot

By admin | by admin

As reported on Engadget. BY RICHARD LAWLER  One of Android KitKat’s new features is a way for developers to easily make video recordings with the SDK, but what about every day users? After previously demonstrating display streaming software, CyanogenMod developer Koushik Dutta has released a new beta app in the Play Store (join the Google+ Community first for access) that simplifies the process. It does require users to be on one of the latestnightly builds of CyanogenMod 11 to work, but once loaded…

Continue reading

Art Culture Design Entertainment

Architect Bradley Rothenberg Does 3D-Printed Fashion At The Annual Victoria’s Secret Show

By admin | by admin

As reported on TechCrunch. by Eliza Brooke The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is about so much more than lingerie. Over the years the annual event, which took place in Manhattan in mid-November and airs December 10, has grown into a mega-beast of elaborate outfits, wings, glitter, and musical performances. Of course, all the images of this year’s show have leaked. One that caught our eye was of a delicate, snowflake-inspired, 3D-printed bustier. I caught up with…

Continue reading

Culture

Shoot again: pinball is back in New York City

By admin | by admin

As reported on The Verge. By Laura June On an unassuming awning at 362 Third Avenue between 26th and 27th streets in New York City, Modern Pinball NYC advertises itself as a “sales and interactive showroom,” but inside, it feels a lot like an arcade. It opened just a few weeks ago with owners Steve Epstein — the near-legendary owner of the now-defunct Broadway Arcade, a Times Square fixture for decades — and Steve Zahler, a champion pinball…

Continue reading

Business Cloud Culture

Bill Gates supports Amazon drone delivery, but says Jeff Bezos may be ‘overly optimistic’

By admin | by admin

As reported on The Verge. By Chris Welch Jeff Bezos faces many challenges in making Amazon’s Prime Air drone delivery a reality, but he’s got one notable supporter: Bill Gates. Speaking on CNN’s The Lead, Gates voiced strong support for using drones as a means of delivery. But he’s not quite as confident it will come as quickly as Bezos and Amazon would like. “Physical products delivered by drone, I’d say he’s probably on the optimistic or perhaps…

Continue reading

Culture

Buy Han Solo’s blaster for a quarter of a million dollars

By admin | by admin

As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick Han Solo’s trusty blaster — most famously used to shoot bounty hunter Greedo first inStar Wars — is set to be auctioned later this month. The “non-firing” sidearm is one of a set of movie props being sold on December 21st, and is expected to reach a price of between $200,000 and $300,000. Other Harrison Ford-related items in the auction include a rubber “stunt” version of Deckard’s pistol used in Blade Runner,…

Continue reading

Android Culture

Finished CyanogenMod 10.2 arrives as focus shifts to Android 4.4 KitKat

By admin | by admin

As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS Android fans who’ve been waiting for a stable edition of CyanogenMod 10.2 can finally start their downloads. Cyanogen has just released its final version of the custom firmware, giving the curious a (relatively) safe way to try the company’s take on Android 4.3. Don’t expect future support from Cyanogen beyond the usual bug and security fixes, though. The stable 10.2 release marks the formal end to development of Jelly Bean-based ROMs — after…

Continue reading