Latest News - Page 2839

Oculus VR promised that it would begin shipping its Rift Developer Kit 2 units in July, something that it has started to do. The Facebook-owned VR startup has said that "The first batch of official DK2s have left the manufacturing facility and are making their way to our distribution centers now".

This news comes from "cyberality" on Reddit. Oculus VR says that it should see half the units through distribution centers and on their way to eager Rift DK2 owners before the month wraps up. As soon as the shipment has been processed by the distribution center, DK2 owners will receive their tracking numbers.

Something more interesting, is the amount of DK2 units that Oculus VR had pre-orders on. There were over 45,000 DK2 pre-orders, which is a massive number. With this many pre-orders, manufacturing can't quite keep up, so some people wont' get their DK2 units until August. Oculus VR has told its team in China to ramp up production at its factory, something nit will continue to do until every DK2 has their headset. I've pre-ordered one myself, and was one of the first, so you can expect an unboxing video and articles written up on it as soon as it hits my doorstep.

Homes and offices around the world have made specialty single cup coffee machines very popular over the last few years. Those coffee machines can brew you up a cup of your favorite coffee and even have flavors from high-end coffee shops like Starbucks among the selections. Beer drinkers may soon have a similar system for getting a pint of their favorite beer anywhere.

The system is called the Synek draft system and it will make a personal pint of beer straight from the tap. This isn't exactly like making a single cup of coffee using water from your faucet at home though. This device is designed to let you fill the beer bag from any tap and then place it inside the machine to keep it cold and fizzy.

The company says that the beer inside the machine can remain fresh for months and dispensing a pint from the bag won't affect the freshness of the beer still in the bag. The bags are also designed to be interchangeable so you can get different brews when you need it. The device is legal in all states except Alabama, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Vermont. It is on Kickstarter now seeking $250,000 in funding.

After nine years, Hewlett-Packard is planning to re-introduce VoodooPC as a gaming notebook lineup as early as this year. Sources have posted two photographs of a HP gaming notebook.

HP acquired PC maker VoodooPC in 2006, however the company did not continue with its brand name since and the brand name was withdrawn from the market. Now, HP may bring back 'VoodooPC' or 'Voodoo DNA' brands for high-performance notebooks.

It's surprising to see HP is planning to tap into the high-end gaming notebook market. As of now, it seems that HP has made plans to introduce one gaming notebook model as of now. Whether this move will be beneficial for HP or not is something that time will tell. In any case, it's always good to see more choice for high-end gaming notebooks, provided they are priced in a way to compete with other brands, especially with ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI.

Asetek made an announcement recently that the U.S. Patent and Trademark office has granted the company a patent on its 'thermal interposer liquid cooling system' design for video cards.

Well before the announcement AMD signed up with Asetek for enabling liquid cooling solutions for its AMD Radeon R9 295X2 GPU with an intention to have lower noise output, lower temperatures and also enhanced cooling in comparison with air cooling counterparts.

The founder and CEO of Asetek said,"As seen in the recently announced AMD Radeon R9 295X2, the graphics cooling market is one that we see as having tremendous growth potential for our desktop business". He continued,"We continue to see increasing interest from GPU and video card manufacturers due to increased power use and demands for lower acoustics. Given this interest, it is possible that the GPU cooling business could rival our CPU cooling business in the coming years."

A few months ago, Sony sold its "VAIO" series notebooks name and dedicated operations to a Japan-based private investment company called Japan Industrial Partners. The investment group re-launched it as a standalone branch with no less than 240 employees.

Sony was facing losses not just in Japan, but also worldwide. The company was not able to keep up with smartphone and tablet business. Eventually, the multinational brand had to lay off many employees and sell away many of its businesses.

Initially, it was rumoured that Lenovo would be taking over Sony VAIO. Later, the electronics giant sold out its TV business and laid off 5,000 employees during February 2014. In May 2014, Sony VAIO's fate was set, as the company sold it to the investment firm and completed the sale was completed by July 2014. Looking at the time frame, it seems that the investment group didn't want to waste time to cash in on VAIO's brand presence among the consumers. The group also is using the same brand name, though only time will tell if the VAIO brand will maintain or grow its reputation in Japan.

Newegg made an announcement recently that the online retail site will now start accepting Bitcoins as a method of payment from now on. The company also started a new hashtag '#neweggbitcoin' to gather peoples thoughts and rants about its new payment method.

One can select Bitcoin as a method of payment under its step 2 'billing' options while checking out. Newegg is using 'Bitpay' to process Bitcoin payments as its proven itself to be an industry-leading reliable and scalable option to process such transaction. A buyer can also use the digital wallet stored in their smartphone as it will use the QR code stored in the phone or the link of the digital wallet to proceed with the payment.

Soren Mills, Chief Marketing Officer for Newegg North America said,"Newegg's customers are among some of the earliest Bitcoin miners and are enthusiastic proponents of the crypto-currency. Adopting Bitcoin as a payment method is another way we're responding to our customers' diverse needs". He continued,"Working with BitPay to implement a Bitcoin payment option at Newegg was a seamless process and our partnership gives us the capabilities we require for high-volume e-commerce."

Actor Bryan Cranston responded to a reporter in May regarding the possible return of TV's most loved (and feared) drug dealer, Walter White "Never say never". Well today, it looks ever more likely that he'll be back to reprise the character on one or more occasions.

According to upcoming 'Breaking Bad' spin-off 'Better Call Saul' Executive producer Peter Gould, the show will partially take place during the events of 'Breaking Bad'.

'Better Call Saul' will premiere on AMC in early 2015, with the network banking that fans will respond positively - its already been greenlit for a second series. I can't wait.

Some cinemas in the United Kingdom have announced a blanket ban on Google Glass just days after the smart specs arrived in the country.

The Cinema Exhibitors Association, or CEA, represents 90 percent of all the UK's cinemas, and has just announced it will request customers do not wear Google Glass at all. "Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not," spokesperson Phil Clapp said in an interview with the Independent. Vue, one of the biggest chains in Britain, said that moviegoers will be asked to take off Glass once the lights dim.

But, the Press Association reports, a Google spokesperson believes the ban is down to a lack of understanding about Glass. "We recommend any cinemas concerned about Glass to treat the device as they treat similar devices like mobile phones: simply ask wearers to turn it off before the film starts," a spokesGoogle said. "Broadly speaking, we also think it's best to have direct and first hand experience with Glass before creating policies around it."

Microsoft is having a very hard time convincing users of its operating system that it is worthwhile to upgrade. That means that the profitability for its Windows division isn't what it used to be. The next major Windows release is expected to happen in the spring of 2015.

The name of that major release is up in the air, it is being called Windows "Threshold" right now, but it could ultimately be called Windows 9. The main goal of the operating system is to lure Windows 7 holdouts to upgrade. To get Windows 7 users to go to a new OS, Microsoft will fit it with features specifically aimed at desktop users that interface with a mouse and keyboard or touch.

Reports indicate that the OS will use profiles that make it look different depending on what type of hardware it is running on. The next version of Windows will have versions that are designed for desktops and put Windows Desktop for legacy apps in the forefront and version that supports switching for convertible devices between metro-style mode and Windowed mode. Interestingly, there is some indication that Threshold may be a free update for everyone on Windows 8.1.

Google has been fighting in court for a while trying to get out of the trouble it landed in with the Wi-Fi snooping that it performed with its Street View cars several years ago. Google has lost the case in court and has been appealing trying to get a different decision, but it looks like its appeals are over. The US Supreme court has refused to hear Google's appeal on a ruling in the case.

The refusal to hear the appeal will allow consumers to proceed with a privacy suit that stems from the snooping scandal. A lower court had previously ruled against Google saying that it may had violated a federal wiretap law when it collected payload data from Wi-Fi networks using its street view cars.

The data that Google captured with tech aboard those vehicles includes emails, passwords, and URLs that people had visited at home and in the office. The legal case around this issue began in 2010 when it was revealed that Street View cars were collecting data from Wi-Fi networks that weren't protected. Google argues that it didn't violate the wiretap law due to a clause in that law that gives an exception for networks readily accessible to the public.

Malware linked back to cybercriminals in Algeria and Kuwait was disrupted when Microsoft named several parties in a civil suit accused of creating malicious code that infected millions of victims. The strategy is a unique new method by Microsoft, attempting to disrupt communication channels used by cybercriminals and the infected PCs they've compromised.

The foreign nationals, Naser Al Mutairi and Mohamed Benabdellah, along with the Vitalwerks Internet Solutions domain hosting company - almost 94 percent of compromised machines used Vitalwerks servers so the criminals were able to control the machines - in a rather clever method to try to stay under the radar.

Meanwhile, Vitalwerks claims millions of Internet users have suffered disrupted service because of the legal proceedings. Microsoft didn't directly say Vitalwerks was involved in the cybercriminal activities, but said the company didn't do enough to prevent it.

In case you needed added confirmation of how addicted we are to our smartphones, almost one in two U.S. consumers say they wouldn't last one day without their smartphones, according to a report from Bank of America.

Furthermore, using a smartphone is more important than coffee or television, changing "the way we live our daily lives," according to Marc Warshawsky, Bank of American SVP and mobile solutions executive. Not surprisingly, millennials from the ages of 18-24 believe their mobile phones are more important (96 percent) than their toothbrush (93 percent) or deodorant (90 percent).

Banks want to utilize smartphones and mobile technologies to keep users engaged, and it's been working for Bank of America - with 31 percent of mobile BoA users logging in at least once per day, and 82 percent access their accounts at least once per week.

So long then, Orkut - Google's first social network, now ten years old, is officially closing its doors at the end of this September.

Orkut began life in the earlier days of web 2.0, at the time competing with the likes of Myspace. It was incredibly popular in South America, and enjoyed millions of users in its heyday. Now, in a blog post, the social network is saying "tchau". Orkut "helped shape life online before people really knew what social networking was," the post read. "Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell."

Google plans to keep investing its time in the newer, mentioned networks. But to any users still lurking around, there will be an archive of all public communities - available at the date of Orkut's death late September. Those that don't want their details to be kept online can remove Orkut permanently through their Google+ accounts - where else?

The United Kingdom is having to import sperm stocks from abroad due to a serious shortage of donors in Britain, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority has warned.

According to a report from the group, imports make up almost a quarter of donated samples in Britain. It's thought that native donations dropped considerably thanks to the dropping of a clause that would have offered total anonymity to donors in 2005. Back in '05, imports made up just one in ten samples in Britain.

The majority of these are from the United States and Denmark, with the latter country being home to the biggest sperm bank in the world. You can check out the official British government records here, should you want to for any reason.

One of the big challenges when it comes to performing organ transplants is to keep the organ fresh during the trip from the donor to the recipient. If the two live in different part of the country or world, keeping those organs fresh and viable can be difficult. Scientists have devised a new supercooling method that has the potential to keep the organs fresh for days.

Currently organs can only remain fresh and viable for less than 24 hours during transportation. Scientists have developed a new supercooling process that in lab tests has shown to be able to keep a rat liver fresh and viable for three days.

The supercooling technique reportedly connects the organ to a machine that perfuses it with nutrients and cools it so minus 6C. The breakthrough could eventually lead to the ability to share donated organs around the world.

GM has been in some very hot water in the last several months with massive numbers of recalls on some of its most popular vehicles. One of the bestselling vehicles in the US is the Chevrolet Silverado truck and GM has now announced a massive recall on the vehicle.

GM has issued a recall on 475,000 2014 to 2015 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks. The reason for the recall on the trucks is a fault in the control module software that controls the four-wheel drive system on 4x4 vehicles. The fault in the software could cause the four-wheel drive system to switch into neutral automatically.

The result is that the trucks could simply roll away if the driver hasn't set the parking brake. Many drivers of vehicles with automatic transmissions don't use the parking brake. GM also announced recalls having to do with Caprice police cars and Chevrolet SS sedans due to an issue with windshield wipers.

According to a post on National Geographic, a rare blue Spix Macaw named Presley, who's story allegedly served as the inspiration for the 2011 animated film 'Rio' has died at the age of 40.

Presley was smuggled out of Brazil in the early 1970's, later finding a home in Denver, Colorado. In 2002, it's owner sought a local pet shop for assistance, with a skeptical staff astonished to prove the validity of the callers story. He was in bad shape, but efforts to recuperate him were successful, leading him to being returned to his native Brazil. With under 100 Spix Macaw's alive today, it was hoped that Presley could widen the genetic pool for the rare and endangered species, but sadly he died before this could be accomplished.

'Rio' and 'Rio 2' director Carlos Saldanha, who grew up in Rio de Janerio told BirdChannel in 2011 "I wanted the rarest bird, the blue macaw. I knew about the Lear's macaws, and how they've been having conservation successes in the wild. The same with the hyacinth macaws. But the Spix's macaw truly is the rarest".

Delays in getting the Tesla Model S into the Chinese market lead to one disgruntled customer smashing in the front of his brand new car with a wrench.

Yu Xinquan in China wrecked his new vehicle as a "protest against the company," he said. "Tesla's arrogance made me angry." A video of Mr Yu began going viral on Friday, and is just the latest of his protests against the company. Earlier he led other customers to protest against delayed deliveries on 21 April, a day before Tesla planned its first China delivery.

At the time, Tesla's Elon Musk apologized and said he'd ensure the cars would start being manufactured. But Yu, himself an e-commerce entrepreneur, claimed the company still hadn't delivered on its promises, and he claims he was misled about availability when he first ordered the vehicle. "I feel like I just married a woman who has been married before," Yu said, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the response on social media has been mixed.

The inevitability of intensifying global warming isn't just a problem for humans - it's a problem for the world's livestock too. Now, to make chickens a little less susceptible to the heat, one team of scientists has started research to breed poultry that are born bald.

Carl Schmidt, a geneticist at the University of Delaware, is embarking on a mission to Uganda and Brazil, where chickens have naturally shed their feathers over the years, according to Gizmodo UK. Schmidt's worried about feeding the world by 2050, adding that it'll be made even worse "if the climate does continue to change."

"We're going to be seeing heat waves that are both hotter and longer," Schmidt said in an interview with Modern Farmer. "We need to learn how to mitigate the effect of climate change on animals - we need to figure out how to help them adapt to it." For now, Schmidt plans a programme of selective breeding rather than alterations to their core genetics. But as well as breeding a whole new race of heat-resistant super-chickens, Schmidt and the team are also investigating other elements of selective pressure. "We're isolating the genetic variants that have allowed them to survive," Schmidt said.

Britain's privacy regulator has warned that wearable tech must comply with existing privacy laws, in the wake of a Google Glass soft launch in the UK.

Andrew Paterson, senior officer at the Information Commissioner's Office, said in a blog post that there's a danger wearable tech could intrude on the privacy rights of everyday citizens. He asserted that there's a debate to be had surrounding how comfortable the public feels with pervasive wearable devices that are always connected and capable of filming at any time.

"If you are using a wearable technology for your own use then you are unlikely to be breaching the [UK Data Protection] Act," Paterson wrote. "This is because the Act includes an exemption for the collection of personal information for domestic purposes. But if you were to one day decide that you'd like to start using this information for other purposes, for example to support a local campaign, then this exemption would no longer apply."