Latest News - Page 2961

I've made my thoughts on the iPhone (and Apple as a company) many times before here on TweakTown, predicting that sales would drop late last year when the iPhone 5 was launching. Apple aren't releasing anything special, or different - the iPhone 5 being the peak of the 'sameish' iPhone game they've been playing for half a decade, except it was slightly taller.

Well, Fortune have now taken a look at consensus projections for how many iPhones Apple sold over the past three months, with analysts not expecting much for the quarter coming. Apple haven't been able to report any year-over-year sales growth for the iPhone, which is a big problem.

Their consensus analyst estimates that we should expect somewhere between 26.7 million and 27.9 million iPhones sold over the three-month period, which is only a slither more than the 26 million iPhones Apple sold in the same quarter of 2012. Most people think a cheaper iPhone will help them and while it would help their sales numbers, it won't help their bottom line, or for the company over the long term.

Last month, I reported that Yahoo would begin resetting inactive user accounts today, July 15. As expected, the company has started following through with this plan. This morning, Yahoo announced that it has launched its username wish list notification page (Source #2) where users can go and list up to five usernames they have always wanted associated with their Yahoo account. If and when these names become available, and after the reset process is complete, Yahoo will notify you of which names you were granted.

Some of you may be wondering how Yahoo plans on determining which accounts get deleted and which accounts stay. The answer is quite simple: if your Yahoo account has been inactive for at least twelve months, your name, account, and all emails will be deleted. More than likely this has already taken place, but reports say that the process could take a few weeks.

Yahoo says that those first in line for a username will be emailed a link which allows them to claim them sometime in mid-August 2013. After that, Yahoo will allow you to add usernames to a watchlist so you the first to know when they become available. This leads us to believe that the inactive account deletion process will be an ongoing thing, and accounts will be deleted as they pass the 12 months of inactivity milestone.

Say what you want about some of the early gaming consoles but tread carefully when talking about Nintendo's Famicom. The Family Computer by Nintendo was the predecessor to Nintendo's NES system. While the company ceased to manufacturer the NES system in 1995, Nintendo continued to manufacture the Famicom well into the new millennium until production ceased in 2003.

The Famicom, which turned 30 years old today, was truly ahead of its time with its sleek red and tan exterior as well as its conveniently placed controller pockets. This 8-bit system was a monster at its time and still has an active following of developers who continue to create new games for the aging system. So today, we salute you Famicom. As someone who will soon enter their third decade of existence as well, I raise my glass to you and wish you another 30 years of sprite-based pixilated fun.

This morning, Sprint launched three new LTE devices that will function on both Sprint's LTE spectrum as well as the 800 MHz frequency band that Sprint once reserved for its Nextel devices. The spectrum will supplement the company's LTE coverage at the higher frequencies, but this will not take place until Sprint has had the chance to refarm the spectrum. The 800 MHz spectrum will provide better coverage inside homes and businesses because its radio waves penetrate walls better than the higher 1900 MHz and 2.5 GHz bands.

Two of the new devices come from Netgear. The first is being called the Netgear Zing and is a mobile hotspot that retails for $49.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Up next from Netgear is the U341 USB Dongle which will retail for $19.99 after the same $50 mail-in rebate. The Zing features a 2.4-inch LCD touchscreen and will last for up to 10 hours of of use on a single charge and can share a connection with up to 10 devices over Wi-Fi.

Finally, customers can also choose the new MiFi 500 from Novatel Wireless, which is priced at $49.99 after the same $50 mail-in rebate from Sprint. You'll be required by Sprint to agree to a two-year contract and a service plan, which starts at $34.99 a month for 3 GB of data per month. Customers are also offered a 3G/4G data plan which includes 6 GB of bandwidth for $49.99 or 12 GB of bandwidth for $79.99 per month. Each of the three new devices will launch in stores and online later this week on July 19.

Earlier today, the website TorrentFreak noticed that Google had been served with a DMCA takedown notice from HBO that ordered them to remove a torrent link for the popular media player VLC. The link was neatly tucked inside a list with hundreds of links to torrent urls for HBO's popular Game of Thrones series.

It is likely that HBO never even reviewed the list which was generated by an automatic search bot that scans the web for torrents that may infringe on copyright holders' rights. There are literally more of these notices filed every month than there are of downloads of the actual torrents. During the last month alone, Google received 14,855,269 URLs which it was forced to remove from its search results under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The URL in question points to the torrent site Torrent Portal, but as you can see in the screen captured image above, it does not point to any copyrighted material as VLC media player is actually an open source project. While this is most likely a mistake, it raises a massive red flag and makes us wonder what other links were removed from Google search results because of an automated process that generates the so-called "bad URLs".

Over the last year so, Space X founder Elon Musk has been carefully dropping hints about a transportation project that could change the future of the world. Of course I'm talking about the Hyperloop Transport System that would take passengers on an underground rail ride that would transfer them from Los Angeles to New York City in just 45 minutes.

Today, Musk posted a tweet to his Twitter account that said he intends to publish the alpha designs for the Hyperloop Transport System by August 12. His tweet went on to ask that, once published, everyone supply him with critical feedback. For those who are out of the loop, the Hyperloop System will be comprised of vacuum-sealed tubes underground which will allow a magnetically levitated train to be hurled at high speeds without any wind resistance.

Initial reports suggest that the vehicle would be able to travel at 4,000 mph and since it's underground, it would be crash proof. Theoretically, there can be tunnels that break away from a main trunk tunnel and visit every major city in America. This could effectively mean that someone who resides in the low-cost areas such as Augusta, GA could work in an area with higher wages such as New York City. This would drastically change the economic landscape for America. Until August 12, we're left to speculate as to what really can happen.

It appears that the rumors of an Apple iWatch arriving this year are holding less credence than we originally assumed. Recent reports suggest that Apple is still in the hiring phase for design engineers as well as electrical engineers to take on the project. Apparently the delays and additional hires are because there are some pretty tough engineering problems that need to be solved before the project can move forward.

In a recent report from the Financial Times, we have learned that Apple has been in an "aggressive hiring phase" for the last few weeks and that this is an indication that Apple has stepped up the development on the iWatch platform. Sources close to the matter also state that Apple has been experiencing some "hard engineering problems that they've not been able to solve" leading the bosses to believe that its in-house engineers are just not up to the task of designing wearable technology.

All of this leads up to the fact that we most likely will not see a smartwatch from the Cupertino-based company anytime this year. While 2014 is still an option, these recent developments lead me to believe that it will be 2015 or 2016 before Apple creates a design that they deem acceptable to launch to the public. With so many companies readying launches for this year such as Samsung and Sony, and with the Pebble already on the market, I think that Apple may be a little late to the party this time.

Koolance is at it again with another product launch this morning. The new EXC-800 Portable Recirculating Liquid Chiller is a water cooling enthusiast's dream featuring a rated 800W, or 2730 BTUs, an hour of cooling capacity. The chiller features Koolance's popular PMP-500 pump providing 42.9 gallons-per-minute of reliable flow of chilled liquid.

The chiller is able to adhere to one of four configurable temperature methods which includes an option to set the temperature to ambient to avoid condensation, or through the use of an external K-type thermocouple to chill the water to a desired temperature. The EXC-800 is capable of reporting the internal coolant flow rate, pump RPM, and condenser fan RPM which is displayed on a two-line organic LED display. The $1400 chiller is available at Koolance's website. (Source #1)

The current NAND shortage, first reported by Chris Ramseyer, continues to punish SSD manufacturers who are reliant upon other companies for their supply of NAND flash. OCZ announced their preliminary first quarter revenue at $50-$55 million compared to the markets estimation of $81 million. This is significantly off-target, and resulted in OCZ shares falling 8.4% in the premarket.

The NAND shortage is just another in a long list of OCZ's woes, but the timing could not be worse for OCZ. OCZ has not released financial results for a full three quarters due to accounting inaccuracies from the previous CEO's team and is in the midst of a restructuring to save the company. The tight NAND market has left OCZ with an estimated $23 million in shippable backlog in Q1. Unfortunately, the NAND flash shortage is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

The loss of revenue from the NAND shortage has also hurt OCZ's cash reserves, which fell to $6-$7 million dollars. This has left OCZ strapped for cash and searching for a new source of capital. The previous loans taken by OCZ during the restructuring carried high interest rates, and with the NAND shortage continuing we expect more of the same from whomever loans OCZ the cash to keep in operation.

Today, Samsung announced the US launch date of its highly anticipated ATIV Book 9 Lite. The ATIV Book 9 Lite is built around the same strikingly beautiful design features as the ATIV Book 9 but is designed for customers on a budget. The ATIV Book 9 Lite comes in a stylish white marble finish or black ash trim for a sleek and modern look.

"With the ATIV Book 9 Lite, we created a device that fits the needs of a larger consumer base, while preserving the remarkable design and overall experience delivered by the Book 9 lineage," said Mike Abary, senior vice president of consumer IT product marketing at Samsung Electronics America. "To further streamline the computing experience and offer convenience to users, we built an integrated solution, SideSync, to bring together the mobile and PC ecosystems."

The ATIV Book 9 Lite features a touchscreen LCD that is able to receive input from up to 10 points at once as well as a quad-core processor and a 128 GB SSD. The device weighs in at just 3.5 pounds and measures in at under an inch thick. The ATIV Book 9 Lite is available for pre-order now through major online retailers at a pricing point of $799.99. In-store purchasing will begin on July 28.

Hack a Day is everyone's favorite DIY / Maker / Hacker news source. It has served up a daily dose of hacks for many years now and until recently, everything seemed stable for the vastly popular website. Last week, the site's editor, Caleb Craft, announced that he would be leaving and moving on to other things. Amidst this news, he also unveiled that the site was up for sale by owner Jason Calacanis and that the owner was hoping for a big media pick up from the likes of Make.com or someone else big.

This morning, the writers of Hack a Day announced that they launched an Indiegogo campaign (Source #1) to purchase the site so they can mold it into something even greater and not have the restrictive hands of a major publishing company looking over their shoulders all the time. The site is valued at $540,000 and without some crowdfunding goodness, the HaD we all know and love could be gone forever. The writers have laid out some cool plans for the future of Hack a Day; you can see the whole post at Source #2 below.

I have been a fan of Hack a Day for many years now and have even had my projects featured on the site about seven times now. I consider Caleb a good friend of mine. I actually even considered applying for the Editor in Chief position that opened up when Caleb left but I love TweakTown too much to ever leave. If you have some spare change, even $1, I urge you to donate something to the Hack a Day Indiegogo Campaign as this is one resource the Internet does not need to lose or see change for the worse.

Chris Sevier, with the help of his attorney, has filed a lawsuit against Apple in the US District Court in Nashville, TN last month. Sevier is angry that Apple sell products that allow men to view porn. Yes. This isn't a joke. This is his introduction:

I know, you can't believe what you're reading right now and don't worry, I'm sure you're not alone. Sevier is seeking damages and injunctive relief against Apple, all because they sell devices that are capable of viewing porn. Sevier would like to see a porn-filtering "safe mode" made default on all devices and products sold by Apple. His complaint notes that "If Apple agrees to sell its devices 'on safe mode' before trial, the Plaintiff will terminate this litigation."

We're getting closer with each day to the release of the PlayStation 4, but now we have PS4 architect Mark Cerny weighing in. While speaking with Edge, the architect behind the PS4 said:

When Cerny was speaking at the Develop conference last week, he took a step back to the days of the 1990s, where he said: "There was no rulebook, teams were small, projects were cheap, you could make a game for just a couple of hundred thousand dollars," he said. "Some of these games that were made by these tiny teams with these tiny budgets went on to be phenomenally successful."

You know what? I agree. Gaming is stale. We need original games, new genres. It feels like most games are so linear - go here, get this - one option or maybe a handful of options. Games like Deus Ex and System Shock 2 are completely foreign to games now with hiding behind an invincible brick wall while you breath those 6 bullets to the chest and legs you just took.

The Northrop Grumman-built X-47B is an unmanned drone, and it has completed its first successful landing on an aircraft carrier at sea. We reported on the X-47B being the first unmanned drone to take off from an aircraft carrier, but landing unmanned? Remarkable.

Considering aircraft carriers are constantly moving with the ocean waves, even an experienced pilot would have trouble landing on one. It's not an easy thing to do, but unmanned, run purely on technology, algorithms and equipment? That's quite an achievement. The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) is designed to fly mostly on its own, without much hands-on time from shipboard operators.

The precision landing was just that: precise. It is a huge step for multiple reasons, as this has been a procedure set in motion after quite a few years, and nearly a billion US dollars. On Wednesday, the X-47B made a 35-minute flight from the Navail Air Station at Patuxent River, Md., to the aircraft carrier, where it hooked onto the 3 wire with its tailhook and came to a perfect stop from a speed of approximately 145 knots in less than 350 feet.

We've been waiting to see anything official on the Moto X phone, the first phone from Motorola that would be unique after their acquisition by Google. Well, according to a leaked video from Canadian wireless carrier, Rogers, we now know what the phone is capable of.

It will be an always-listening device, that responds to your voice requests without pressing any physical, or on-screen buttons. The video, above, shows a user speaking to the phone in order to receive weather information from Google Now by simply starting off with "Ok Google Now." This simple command will have the phone prepared to listen, waiting for your next voice command.

Talking to the Moto X isn't just for fun, as it learns your voice. This is how it will become more of a day-to-day feature versus something like Siri where you only do it at first, then not as much afterwards. Also, "information quietly appears on the screen," which is a nice feature for notifications, with the ad saying "instead of a blinking light that doesn't actually tell you anything." Another nice little touch, that might end up becoming a very nice feature.

After the last month or so with the unveiling of the NSA PRISM system from Edward Snowden, as well as GCHQ, you'd think people would be up in arms over their security. How deep does the rabbit hole go, you ask?

Well, it's now coming to the point where Hewlett-Packard have had to admit, for the second time in a month, that they've built secret backdoors into their enterprise storage products. Technion, a blogger, is the one who has blown the whistle on this one, who saw the security issue in one of HP's StoreOnce systems last month, but then found more backdoors in HP's storage and SAN products.

HP's statement, after Technion blew the whistle, admitted that "all HP StoreVirtual Storage systems are equipped with a mechanism that allows HP support to access the underlying operating system if permission and access is provided by the customer."

Valve have just announced and launched Pipeline, which is a community website dedicated to helping high school students who are looking into a career in the video game industry.

Pipeline was the creation of a group of high school interns working at Valve, who hope to "establish a connection to the world of teenagers that are asking many questions about getting into the gaming industry." Valve's managing director, Gabe Newell, said in a promotional video for Pipeline: "This website was created entirely be teenagers."

The Pipeline FAQ says that Valve's management are looking to find a way to connect with young, aspiring game-makers:

A few months back, I reported that the French authorities were pushing Twitter to release user data on one of its members who posted an anti-Semitic tweet to his account. Today, the company said in a statement that it has complied with a French government request to hand over tweets related to a rash of anti-Semitism on the site.

The offenses took place last October when several anti-Semantic tweets and hashtags appeared on the short message social network. I won't repeat the tweets here because they are quite offensive, but if you must read them, you can head over to Source #1 below. The tweets caused an uproar in the Union of Jewish French students and other anti-racism groups around France.

The UEJF took their case to the French court system and won a ruling in January that said that Twitter must hand over the account information and names of those who posted the anti-Semitic tweets. Just two months later, the UEFJ sued Twitter for $50 million when the company failed to comply with the court's request.

Nokia has just unveiled a brand new case for the just launched Lumia 1020 41-megapixel Windows Phone. While a new case for a new phone is hardly anything to talk about, this case is different than any other you have ever seen. Knowing that the 41-megapixel sensor would attract shutterbugs, Nokia designed and released a case that effectively turns the Lumia 1020 into a compact digital camera.

The Camera Grip clips onto the phone and gives the user the freedom to use the camera one-handed without the fear of dropping their brand new $300 smartphone thanks to a ergonomic palm grip and wrist strap. The grip features a two-stage shutter button that allows photographers to accurately focus before snapping the photo.

The grip is equipped with an additional 1020mAh rechargeable battery which almost doubles the battery life of your Lumia 1020. Also featured is a standard 1/4-20 threaded tripod mount on the bottom of the case which obviously lets you mount the phone to a stationary stabilization device. Like the actual phone, the case comes in yellow, black, and white and features the same refined and sleek curves of the Lumia 1020. The case will retail for $79 when it is released later this month.

Sun Valley may be known for its world class skiing during the winter months, but in the summer its claim to fame is undoubtedly the Allen and Company media conference where the tech industry's top executives gather to rub elbows, talk shop, and do whatever CEOs do behind closed doors.

Among the attendees at this years conference is Google's Eric Schmidt, and it appears that he brought along a shiny new toy for everyone to play with. The "mystery" phone that Schmidt has been carrying around appears to be none other than the legendary Motorola Moto X. It appears to have a white carbon fiber-like appearance similar to the Nexus 4. The phone also appears to have a curved back which can be seen in a photo looking at the top of the phone.

When asked about the device, Schmidt said that he "could not comment on the nature of this phone," which was an obvious ploy to generate as much hype and speculation about the device as possible. We here at TweakTown are almost positive that this is the new Motorola Moto X (Previously called Motorola X Phone) and judging from other industry analyst, everyone else thinks it is the X as well. One thing is certain, with Google's top man using the device in public, a public launch can not be far away.