Category: Tech

Cloud Culture Tech

The Science Of Reddit: Why Some Ideas Dominate The Net

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As reported on TechCrunch. by GREGORY FERENSTEIN The Internet is not a perfect meritocracy, where the best ideas naturally rise to the forefront of the national conversation. It is easy to game the popularity of some ideas by exploiting the fact that Internet users are overly optimistic sheep who blindly rate the value of stories positively if they first see that others already liked it. In a brand-new study, one of my favorite researchers, New York University’s…

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Politics Tech

How Obama Can Say “We Don’t Have A Domestic Spying Program” Without Lying

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As reported on TechCrunch. by GREGORY FERENSTEIN President Obama found himself defending the practices of the National Security Agency to comedian Jay Leno Show last night. “We don’t have a domestic spying program,” said the Commander-in-Chief. “What we do have is some mechanisms that can track a phone number or an email address that is connected to a terrorist attack. That information is useful.” If Obama’s denial sounds suspicious, it’s because he’s playing semantics. While the NSA is…

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News Tech

Tim Stevens Out At Engadget, Marc Perton To Take Over

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As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEXIA TSOTSIS Once hailed as the nicest guy in tech, Engadget’s Tim Stevens is no longer Editor In Chief, with gdgt’s Marc Perton taking over as Engadget head while a new EIC is found to round out the management structure. Perton will be taking on the Engadget Executive Editor role permanently, we’re hearing. It’s not clear whether Stevens resigned or was terminated, according to different accounts from sources, with Aol (our parent company) asserting…

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Tech

GEAK Watch packs Android, WiFi and a plethora of sensors, likely ‘world’s first true smartwatch’

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As reported on Engadget. By Richard Lai Nowadays, we can’t help but be skeptical of products that claim to be a smartwatch. In fact, what is a smartwatch, anyway? Perhaps GEAK, a Shanghai-based subsidiary of content giant Shanda, has a somewhat convincing answer. Simply dubbed the GEAK Watch, this wearable device packs a surprising number of components, with the most notable one being the 802.11b/g/n WiFi module. This lets the Android 4.1 system download apps directly or even receive OTA…

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Apple Business Tech

Apple’s Flashlight Is Why We Can’t Fund Nice Dumb Things

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As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEXIA TSOTSIS Flashlight apps are a testament to the power and simplicity of modern technology. Power outage because of a hurricane? There’san app for that. Need to stealthily kill a mosquito without waking up your partner? There’s an app for that, too. Actually, there are more than 1,000 in the App Store alone, many with 5-star ratings, because flashlight apps, which turn the flash of your iPhone camera into a literal…

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Art Entertainment Tech

Klingons to invade Bing translator, BIjeghbe’chugh vaj bIHegh!

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As reported on Engadget. By Steve Dent Though some may look down on Star Trek‘s fictional Klingon language and invoke the infamous phrase uttered by William Shatner — “Get a life!” — Microsoft’s Bing translation team doesn’t see it that way at all. As part of a marketing join-up with Paramount Pictures, the service will be offering translation of the fictional tongue to and from its other 41 languages to support the release of Star Trek Into Darkness. According to the LA Times,…

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History Tech

Another rare, working Apple 1 signed by Steve Wozniak headed to auction

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As reported on The Verge. By Dieter Bohn Currently, there are estimated to only be six working models of the original Apple 1 left, and one of them is going up for auction in Germany on May 25th. Computerworldreports that it was originally purchased by one Fred Hatfield, who also received a letter signed by Steve Jobs offering an upgrade from the $666.66 Apple-1 to an Apple II 4K motherboard for another $400. According to Mike Willegal, who has…

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Business Tech

TechShop: an industrial revolution for $125 a month

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As reported on Engadget. By Brian Heater Someone, Mark Hatch, if I had to guess, has left a Square reader just to the left of where we’ve set up our cameras. It’s on a table next to a small, but exceptionally diverse array of gadgets. There’s a wooden book that unfolds into a desk lamp and a polymer incubation blanket for infants that’s “on track to save 100,000 children’s lives,” according to Hatch, TechShop’s spikey-white-haired CEO. But it’s the little…

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Culture Tech

Spoof Video Symbolizes The Energy And Brashness Of OpenStack, A Rising Cloud Power

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As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEX WILLIAMS At the OpenStack Summit last week, Tuesday’s keynote opened with Dope’n’Stack E.N.T.E.R.P.R.I.S.E, a video that symbolizes the arrival of a new force of disruptors who see riches in building software and systems that will displace the legacy systems of old. It’s not a question anymore. OpenStack has the momentum to win, and it can thank this young group of developers and feisty systems gurus for making it happen. Companies that have long…

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Culture How To Story Tech

Staying safe: how can we find and defend against explosives?

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As reported on The Verge. By Carl Franzen New technology ranges from handheld bomb detectors to impromptu blast walls It’s hard to protect large crowds, as Monday’s attacks made painfully clear, but it’s a problem that has inspired a host of technological solutions from a wide range of groups. The biggest difficulty, according to many, is the tension between protecting the public and respecting the event itself — but as security questions circulate with newfound urgency, it’s…

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