Comscore CEO faked their own numbers, fined by the SEC

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Sep 25, 2019 12:20 AM CDT

Let's see how deep the rabbit hole we're about to go, with the SEC fining Comscore and its former CEO Serge Matta over fluffing its own books and committing fraud.

Comscore CEO faked their own numbers, fined by the SEC

Comscore -- whose performance metrics on websites is widely used across the world, has its former CEO admitting to fraud as he artificially inflated revenue by $50 million by fluffing numbers between 2014 and 2016, with Matta reportedly seeing Comscore join "non-monetary transactions" that would see the company giving data without expecting money.

The inflated sense of that value was reported as revenue, with Matta lying to both accountants and auditors -- these moves however, made it seem like Comscore was rocketing nowhere but towards the sky.

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Quantic Dream boss: PC community reaction has been 'tremendous'

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 24, 2019 11:44 PM CDT

Quantic Dream have been making PlayStation exclusives for what feels like forever, but they've been slowly making their iconic games available to the PC with Detroit: Become Human to be the next one.

Quantic Dream boss: PC community reaction has been 'tremendous'

Quantic Dream boss David Cage talked with OnlySP recently, where he said: "It is an entirely new market for us, although we started as a cross-platform developer (our first game Omikron: The Nomad Soul was released on PC and Dreamcast, and Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy was also cross-platform)".

Cage continued, talking about the PC community and their reaction to Quantic Dream games hitting the PC: "The reaction from the PC community has been tremendous. It is like expanding our family. We will, of course, remain a part of the PlayStation family, but we will now also make our games available to everyone, no matter their platform".

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COD: Modern Warfare beta LARGEST in franchise history

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 24, 2019 11:09 PM CDT

Activision recently hosted the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Beta that has now cemented itself in history as the largest in Call of Duty history.

COD: Modern Warfare beta LARGEST in franchise history

The company said in a press release that the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Beta had "the most users, the most hours played and highest peak concurrent number of players across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC combined".

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward is proud of the efforts, with studio boss Patrick Kelly, saying: "We're focused on delivering the best online experience possible and that includes bringing the community together with crossplay. We appreciate all of the players from around the world, who played and shared feedback. Your support is not only a driving inspiration to the entire team, but also provides us with important data and feedback which helps us improve the experience for launch".

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Russia won't tell NASA what caused LEAK on International Space Station

A super-small and easily-fixed hole was discovered on the International Space Station in August 2018 by flight controllers, and now someone finally knows why.

Russia won't tell NASA what caused LEAK on International Space Station

Russia knows and it won't say what it was, with Russian space agency boss Dmitry Rogozin saying they know what it was but will not share the information with the US or NASA. Rogozin told attendees at a youth science conference: "We know exactly what happened, but we won't tell you anything".

It wasn't just the youth at the science fair that the Russian space agency boss was cold to, but also NASA -- in whom it is in direct partnership with along with the United States when it comes to the International Space Station. NASA boss Jim Bridenstine told the Houston Chronicle: "They have not told me anything. I don't want to let one item set (the relationship) back, but it is clearly not acceptable that there are holes in the International Space Station".

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Windows 10 is now on 900M devices, 1 billion milestone in 2020

Anthony Garreffa | Software & Apps | Sep 24, 2019 9:48 PM CDT

Windows 10 is now on over 900 million devices, with a tweet directly from Corporate Vice President, Modern Life, Search & Devices Group at Microsoft, Yusuf Mehdi.

Windows 10 is now on 900M devices, 1 billion milestone in 2020

Microsoft's latest operating system is on a bunch of devices that go beyond just the PC, with Windows 10 inside of HoloLens, Xbox, Surface Hub, the entire Surface family of devices, and more.

We should expect to see Windows 10 reach over 1 billion users at this rate in the coming months, with early 2020 seeming the most likely. Microsoft had 800 million users on Windows 10 in March which was 6 months ago now, so we should expect February-March 2020 for the huge 1B milestone.

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Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab buys D-Wave's next-gen quantum computer

D-Wave announced its next-gen quantum computer dubbed 'Advantage' which during the announcement, had its first customer lined up for the next wave in quantum computing.

Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab buys D-Wave's next-gen quantum computer

D-Wave's new quantum computer already has its first customer with nuclear weapons research site Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) securing the next-gen quantum computer. This isn't LANL's first business with D-Wave either, it'll actually be their third upgrade to their in-house D-Wave quantum computer.

Los Alamos National Laboratory associate director for simulation and computation, Irene Qualters, said in a statement: "This is the third time we will have upgraded our D-Wave system. Each upgrade has enabled new research into developing quantum algorithms and new tools in support of Los Alamos' national security mission. Quantum computing is a critical area of research for Los Alamos".

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Xiaomi's new Mi Mix Alpha: wraparound display, 108MP camera for $2800

Xiaomi is no stranger to pushing the edges (geddit?!) of smartphone displays, and now we're seeing 'waterfall' displays with beautiful edges -- and now Xiaomi is pushing over the edge with its new Mi Mix Alpha smartphone.

Xiaomi's new Mi Mix Alpha: wraparound display, 108MP camera for $2800

The company has used a "surround screen" on the Mi Mix Alpha that wraps literally around the entire phone, right around to the camera module on the back. Xiaomi seems to be going for, and achieving a look of holy-crap-the-entire-phone-looks-like-a-screen look... Xiaomi claims it has a 180% screen-to-body ratio.

Xiaomi taps Samsung's new 108-megapixel camera sensor, something the company collaborated on, as well as other high-resolution sensors from Samsung. When taking photos or videos, thanks to the surround screen you have a gigantic viewfinder to take those 108MP photos.

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OPPO Reno Ace: 90Hz AMOLED display, crazy 65W fast charging

OPPO's upcoming Reno Ace flagship smartphone is shaping up to be one of the most exciting releases of the tail end of 2019, powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 855+ processor and having a huge 65W fast charging ability.

OPPO Reno Ace: 90Hz AMOLED display, crazy 65W fast charging

The new Reno Ace has been teased again in a new post on Weibo, with a waterdrop-shaped cutout at the top of the display versus the shark fin pop-up camera OPPO used in the Reno 10x Zoom and Reno 2 smartphones. OPPO will be using a quad-camera rig on the Reno Ace, with a 48-megapixel primary sensor.

Inside, the Reno Ace will pack the Snapdragon 855+ from Qualcomm, a huge 12GB of RAM and 256GB of on-board storage. The key part of OPPO's new Reno Ace will be the 6.5-inch Full HD+ display with a super-slick 90Hz refresh rate.

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Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro 5G: 40W charging = fully charged in 48 minutes

Xiaomi has made its new Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro 5G smartphone official in China today, with some pretty tasty specs to go over. The new handset is 5G-capable and rolls out with Qualcomm's super-slick Snapdragon 855+ chip.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro 5G: 40W charging = fully charged in 48 minutes

The company has teamed with three of China's biggest telecom operators on the 5G side of the Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro 5G, with their own tests showing the phone hits peak download speeds of a dizzying 1.78Gbps. Xiaomi includes its own MIUI 11 software, has up to 24 hours of standby time when the Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro 5G is down to its last 5% of battery.

Xiaomi is including super fast-charging with the new Mi 9 Pro 5G smartphone, with a 40W charger getting the phone from 0-100% in just 48 minutes. If you want to go wireless Xiaomi is offering up 30W wireless charging, with the charging stand fan-cooled for all that power hitting the phone wirelessly.

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Scientists find ENTIRELY NEW MINERAL inside a diamond in South Africa

A new mineral has been found inside of a diamond at a volcanic site in South Africa, with Ph.D. student Nicole Meyer and a team of researchers from the University of Alberta making the discovery.

Scientists find ENTIRELY NEW MINERAL inside a diamond in South Africa

The new material is known as Goldschmidtite after the legendary geochemist Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, and was found atop the Koffiefontein mine in a volcanic dig site, inside of a diamond. Goldschmidtite is an interesting new mineral, and finding it must've felt like ten Christmas mornings at once for the team.

Meyer explained: "Goldschmidtite has high concentrations of niobium, potassium, and the rare earth elements lanthanum and cerium, whereas the rest of the mantle is dominated by other elements, such as magnesium and iron".

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