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Furious 7 becomes one of the most successful films in history

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | May 1, 2015 1:43 AM CDT

With Furious 7 being in cinemas across the world for around a month now, it has grossed over $1.3 billion making it one of the most successful movies of all time. It was only 12 days ago that we reported it had crossed the $1 billion mark, too.

Furious 7 has become the fourth most successful movie of all time, pushing Frozen and Iron Man 3 out of its way, as well as the last Harry Potter film to get its place in history. Entertainment Weekly's Jonathan Dornbush reports: "These totals are, of course, unadjusted for inflation. When that's taken into account, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 would still sit above Furious 7 for the time being-but the global ticket sales for the action film represents the incredible forward momentum Furious 7 has carried in the month since its release". He continued: "Furious 7 became the biggest film at China's box office, and will likely rank among the highest earners in the U.S. for 2015 when the year comes to a close".

One of the more interesting facts on Furious 7 and its $1.3 billion haul, is that most of it has come from international ticket sales. Furious 7 has only made $323 million in the US, compared to The Avengers which pulled in $623 million domestically, Furious 7 is a much bigger hit outside of the US.

Continue reading: Furious 7 becomes one of the most successful films in history (full post)

Tesla unveils Powerwall, an Internet-connected battery for your house

After quite a while of teasing, Tesla has unveiled its home battery: Powerwall. Tesla's new Powerwall home battery system allows people to disconnect from the power grid for a few hours, which isn't perfect, but it will have significant power savings for countless people around the world.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the new Powerwall is a "whole integrated system that just works and is connected to the Internet". Powerwall is packed with lithium-ion cells and a liquid thermal-control system, with Powerwall being tested with specific customers for the past year. The home battery connects to the Internet so that it can track power usage and share the information with utilities.

How much will Tesla's Powerwall set you back? Right now, the 10kWh system is offered to installers for $3500, while the 7kWh will cost people $3000. These two systems do not include the cost of a DC-to-AC inverter, but if you've already got solar panels, you won't need that additional DC-to-AC inverter. Distributors can lease the Powerwall to consumers, with the Tesla-made device including a 10-year guaranteed life with warranty, and will begin shipping in late summer.

Continue reading: Tesla unveils Powerwall, an Internet-connected battery for your house (full post)

HBO's CEO doesn't want to directly cater to binge watchers

Michael Hatamoto | Internet & Websites | Apr 30, 2015 11:33 PM CDT

HBO CEO Richard Plepler isn't a "reflexive proponent of binge-watching," so don't expect Game of Thrones or True Detective to be dumped onto HBO Go or HBO Now. However, subscribers are able to watch entire seasons of older content on HBO, but newer shows will not be available for binge watching.

"I don't think it would have been a great thing for HBO or our brand if that had been gobbled up in the first week," Plepler recently said during a Washington Post event. "I think it was very exciting for the viewer to have that mystery held out for an extended period of time."

Plepler explained to journalist Cecelia Kang the importance of making viewers wait for new episodes:

Continue reading: HBO's CEO doesn't want to directly cater to binge watchers (full post)

Microsoft release age detection tech demo

Ben Gourlay | Internet & Websites | Apr 30, 2015 11:15 PM CDT

If you've been seeing some hate leveled at Microsoft on social media today, odds are it's due to a new online tool released by the company which attempts to gauge your age from an uploaded photo.

According to the Machine Learning Blog, The 'How Old Do I look?' website is based on the "APIs available in the Azure Machine Learning Gallery. The gallery contains many finished intelligent services such as Face, Speech, and Vision which are part of a new suite called Project Oxford from Bing and Microsoft Research." and took only a day to put together.

For the record, the site guesstimated that I was 36. I'm 29. But they were nice enough to apologise in advance with "Sorry if we didn't quite get the age and gender right - we are still improving this feature."

Continue reading: Microsoft release age detection tech demo (full post)

Gartner: PC prices will increase up to 10 percent in 2015

Michael Hatamoto | Computer Systems | Apr 30, 2015 9:30 PM CDT

Even though the PC industry is undergoing change, trying to fight off a shift to mobile devices, manufacturers must increase prices to balance international currency devaluation, according to the Gartner research group. This will lead to price increases up to 10 percent in 2015, with a 4 percent end-user spending increase year-over-year.

Small business will choose consumer PCs, as large organizations reduce PC unit purchases by up to 20 percent because of increasing prices, Gartner notes.

"We are currently seeing the sharp appreciation of the dollar against most other currencies reflected in companies' earnings results," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "PC vendors selling to Europe and Japan, where local currencies have fallen up to 20 percent since the start of 2015, have little choice than to raise prices to preserve profits."

Continue reading: Gartner: PC prices will increase up to 10 percent in 2015 (full post)

Study: One-third of children use a touchscreen by age one

More than one-third of babies are interacting with touchscreen tablets and smartphones before they are able to crawl, walk and talk. Specifically, 36 percent of children have experience with touching or scrolling before age one, with 15 percent using apps by the same age, according to the Einstein Medical Center's pediatrics department.

Mobile technology becomes more common place, and while there are plenty of educational apps available, researchers are most concerned about children from zero-to-two years old. It's a critical time for brain development, in which human interaction is absolutely vital.

"On the one hand, we have lots of experience with television, and we know that it has some pitfalls and some dangers for children in terms of their educational learning," said Laura Jana, an Omaha-based pediatrician, in a statement to CBS News. "Some benefits as well. Mobile devices, when we're talking about screens and things, are so new that this is a really important survey that has given us some initial information about just how prevalent the use is in very young ages."

Continue reading: Study: One-third of children use a touchscreen by age one (full post)

AMD announces it is sponsoring the first ever E3 conference for PC

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Apr 30, 2015 8:03 PM CDT

Every E3 conference has been the trade show for gaming, but the PC has never had its own conference. While the likes of Microsoft, Sony and others have hosted their own press conferences for their respective consoles, the PC has never had that treatment, until now.

E3 2015 will see the first ever PC Gaming Show, an event for all things PC that is sponsored by PC Gamer, AMD, Twitch, Bohemia Interactive, Tripwire and Digital Storm. They tease: "PC gaming is in a golden age, with more powerful and affordable hardware than ever before, thousands of games available through Steam, Origin and other platforms, and millions of viewers regularly watching esports online. Now, for the first time, the PC platform will have its own event during E3, where the community will be able to celebrate this era with some of the biggest names in PC gaming and see the innovations that lie ahead".

AMD's Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Computing and Graphics, Matt Skynner, said: "The PC Gaming Show embodies the spirit of innovation, openness and community that's part of our DNA-delivered by gamers, for gamers. The time is right for a PC-focused event in the week of E3 and we're honored to be part of bringing the industry together".

Continue reading: AMD announces it is sponsoring the first ever E3 conference for PC (full post)

Sony has sold more than 22.3 PlayStation 4 units since launch

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Apr 30, 2015 7:05 PM CDT

Sony has sold more than 22.3 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide at the end of March, the Japanese electronics company said during a recent year-end financial results update. Throughout the year, Sony was able to sell 14.8 million PS4 sales. More than 20.2 million units were sold at the start of March, with the company continuing to rack up sales.

Looking ahead, Sony expects to sell 16 million PS4 units over the next fiscal year, softening the blow of declining PlayStation 3 console sales.

Overall, surging game consoles helped the company rack up $576 million profit, a whopping 159 percent year-over-year increase. "I believe the largest part of our restructuring effort is now behind us, but we haven't fully recovered yet," said Kenichiro Yoshida, chief financial officer at Sony, warning that the company must continue working hard.

Continue reading: Sony has sold more than 22.3 PlayStation 4 units since launch (full post)

Razer introduces Seiren Pro digital microphone for users

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Apr 30, 2015 3:07 PM CDT

Gaming specialist Razer has announced the Razer Seiren Pro, a digital microphone designed for people recording videos and audio to be shared online. The microphone is available for pre-order now, and will launch in May.

The microphone allows users to record via analog XLR or digital USB, and can be plugged into mixing boards and cameras. A high-pass filter helps eliminate low-end ambient noises that can lead to poor sounding audio during recording.

"With the success of YouTube, Twitch and the likes, there is a greater demand for high-fidelity recording equipment than ever before," said Min-Liang Tan, co-founder and CEO of Razer. "Our second condenser microphone, the Razer Seiren Pro, delivers what video game streamers are looking for and provides great value to YouTubers, musicians and anyone looking to capture sound clearly."

Continue reading: Razer introduces Seiren Pro digital microphone for users (full post)

'Space Spider' 3D scanner could be used on space station

Artec 3D hopes that its "Space Spider" 3D scanner will one day have a presence in space, possibly aboard the International Space Station.

The Space Spider's advanced cooling system has been designed to prevent the handheld scanner from overheating, making it an ideal solution while in microgravity. It's not uncommon to hear that electronics in orbit overheat and malfunction, with NASA and other space agencies asking companies to find solutions to prevent these types of issues.

"Imagine the potential of using 3D scanning technology on the International Space Station paired with a 3D printer," said Artyom Yuhkin, president and CEO of Artec 3D. "The Space Spider boasts an enhanced cooling system that allows the user to capture accurate 3D data more rapidly. This handheld scanner can endure some of the most difficult situations on Earth and has been engineered to perform in nearly zero-gravity environments when called upon."

Continue reading: 'Space Spider' 3D scanner could be used on space station (full post)

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