Final Audition Week for The Voice: Favorites for the Big Win

Alyssa Coulter | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 11, 2014 8:54 PM CDT

As the auditions come to a close on NBC's hit singing competition The Voice, the internet is a buzz with its favorites for the big win. While Adam Lavigne, Blake Shelton, Shakira, and Usher were battling it out to see who gets who, fans are weighing in on their favorites for the overall win. So who's looking hot for the win? Based on chair spins and internet chatter, these are the likely winners:

Night 1: Christina Grimmie "Wrecking Ball" (Team Adam)

Night 2: Delvin Choice: "A Song for You" (Team Adam)

Continue reading: Final Audition Week for The Voice: Favorites for the Big Win (full post)

NBN Co in Australia could ramp up Internet speeds to 13Tbps

The National Broadband Network in Australia has tested out some truly breakneck Internet speeds, where a successful trial has been completed by the NBN Co and network transport company Coraint at 1Tbps super-channel.

The trial was conducted over the company's 1066km fiber ring in Queensland on a 396GHz grid using Coraint's FlexiGrid technology. Coriant said that the trial featured a 35% improvement in spectrial efficiency, where it could eventually provide a maximum theoretical transmission capacity of 13Tbps over a distance of over 1000km.

NBN Co's Chief Technology Officer, Gary McLaren, said that the trial proved that the NBN Co's potential upgrade path for its transit network is huge. He said in a statement: "It highlights how established backbone infrastructure can be upgraded with sophisticated optical and electronic equipment to provide extra capacity for the future needs of the National Broadband Network."

Continue reading: NBN Co in Australia could ramp up Internet speeds to 13Tbps (full post)

Jawbone finally adds support for Android to UP24 Wristband

Charles Gantt | Wearable Computing & Fashion | Mar 11, 2014 7:33 PM CDT

The Jawbone UP24 launched way back in November, and ever since then only iOS users got to partake in the the fitness trackers full mobile experience. Today Jawbone announced that it has officially updated its UP app for Android and now allows Bluetooth syncing with Android phones. Previously the app was only compatible with the UP fitness tracker which has less features than the popular UP 24.

"We believe that helping people understand the context and meaning of their data is key in helping to make sustained behavior changes," said Travis Bogard, Jawbone's vice president of product management and strategy. "Through our investment in data science we have been able to provide personalized insights to help nudge people to meet their sleep or activity goals. Now, our entire community can enjoy the benefits of these insights in real-time."

The update also adds other features to the Android app such as better alerts, push notifications, and milestone tracking. I wrote off fitness trackers for a long time, but with a recent purchase of another fitness tracker that is on the market, I am almost completely sold on he concept and look forward to recording and tracking data every time I head out for a workout, hike, or bike ride.

Continue reading: Jawbone finally adds support for Android to UP24 Wristband (full post)

Sprint chairman says he wants to buy T-Mobile to compete with Verizon

Charles Gantt | Business, Financial & Legal | Mar 11, 2014 2:56 PM CDT

During a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Sprint's chairman, Massayoshi Son said that he would like to see his company purchase T-Mobile in a effort to truly compete with AT&T and Verizon in the mobile phone marketplace. Sprint is currently running at the number 3 position with T-Mobile following closely behind and gaining more traction every month.

Reports suggest that Sprint has been planning the acquisition of T-Mobile for months now and has been working with OEMs in the industry, and has even secured banks to help provide the financing needed to make such a large acquisition. One major hurdle is those at the Securities and Exchange Commission who might see the acquisition as bordering on Antitrust laws, but executives from both T-Mobile and Sprint have told regulators that a merger would be beneficial to consumers as it would allow more fair competition with AT&T and Verizon.

"We would like to have the real fight, OK? Not the pseudo fight, the real fight," Son said about competing with AT&T and Verizon. Son is in Washington DC this week lobbying for the acquisition as well as testifying before the Chamber of Commerce on broadband's important role in invention, innovation, and education, and how a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile could benefit those fundamentals as well.

Continue reading: Sprint chairman says he wants to buy T-Mobile to compete with Verizon (full post)

Google is expanding Fiber to 158 more neighborhoods in Kansas City

Charles Gantt | Networking | Mar 11, 2014 1:37 PM CDT

Google says that it has already laid about 6,000 miles of fiber optic broadband cable throughout Kansas City, and now the company is ready to expand even further. The company plans on extending its Google Fiber coverage to residents in South Kansas City, Kansas City, Grandview, Raytown and Gladstone areas.

Google says that if there is enough demand in these areas and residents sign up with a $10 registration fee, then they will expand their fiber network to these areas just weeks after the signups are complete. There is a deadline to signup for Google Fiber and its ranges based on the area you live in so check the list below and sign up as fast as possible!

One important note: your fiberhood has a deadline by which you need to reach your signup goal. The deadlines are coming up over the next few weeks, so it's important to sign up as soon as you can.

Continue reading: Google is expanding Fiber to 158 more neighborhoods in Kansas City (full post)

Q-Warrior headset is like Google Glass for the battlefield

Shane McGlaun | Wearable Computing & Fashion | Mar 11, 2014 12:37 PM CDT

In the normal civilian world people worry about things like being a glasshole while wearing their Google Glass headset. On the battlefield all most soldiers care about is getting their job done and keeping themselves and their friends safe. BAE Systems has a headset that is sort of like Google Glass that could help soldiers stay safe on the battlefield.

The system is called Q-Warrior and it fits on a helmet that helps protect the soldier. The eyepiece can give the wearer a 3D view of things that are going on outside their field of view. The idea is that the soldier could get video from a drone feed or other types of data showing what the baddies are doing as an operation unfolds.

The coolest part about the Q-Warrior headset is that the system is capable of being used as promised right now. It's not something that is a decade away from feasibility. One of the things holding deployment now is work to secure the wireless video feeds that make the headset useful. It wouldn't do to field something like this if the drone feeds could be hacked or blocked.

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Element 14 launches Raspberry Pi sound card

Shane McGlaun | Modding | Mar 11, 2014 12:04 PM CDT

If you are the DIY sort that is always tinkering with One project or another, you may be familiar with the Raspberry Pi. This cheap little developer board has found its way into many a cool project since it launched. One thing that the device has been missing is its own sound card.

Element 14 has announced the launch of a sound card for the Pi to fill that gap in features. A Wolfson audio processor is integrated into the sound card and supports audio at 24-bit/192KHz. It can be directly connected to an amp using a 3.5mm output or a digital S/PDIF output.

The sound card also handles audio recording using a pair of onboard MEMS microphones. One of the nicer features of this card is the price. The Wolfson Audio card for Raspberry Pi sells for $33. Affordability is one of the hallmarks of the Pi and its accessories.

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Titanfall now available for download on PC and Xbox One

Charles Gantt | Gaming | Mar 11, 2014 11:42 AM CDT

This morning, Microsoft released one of the most anticipated games of 2014 to the world. Titanfall has been described as Halo for the next generation of gamers, as well as Call of Duty evolved, and Microsoft is billing it as the best FPS to hit the Xbox One since launch. Everything did not go smoothly though, and the Electronic Arts distributed game experienced connection issues which prompted EA to issue a patch just hours after the the game launched.

Just minutes after the game went live, both PC players and Xbox One owners who had pre-loaded the game began to experience connection issues which saw them stuck on the "initializing screen." This issue is quite similar to what Diablo 3, Sim City and Battlefield 4 users experienced on launch day as well. Fortunately, EA issued a 380MB patch around 2AM that has seemed to fix the issue.

The issue is not related to EA's servers though as the game is the first to be hosted on Microsoft's Azure cloud servers, which is able to scale up based on the amount of load the system is experiencing. EA says that some of the issues stemmed from a network issue with those using Belkin routers, which is fixed by players opening some ports in the routers admin panel. Titanfall is available on Origin and Xbox Live for $59.99.

Continue reading: Titanfall now available for download on PC and Xbox One (full post)

Audi traffic light recognition system looks to save fuel

Shane McGlaun | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Mar 11, 2014 10:22 AM CDT

Audi unveiled a system during CES 2014 that is able to connect with compatible traffic lights and give the driver a countdown on the dash showing when the light will turn green. Audi has offered some more information about the system, and the carmaker says that the system will save fuel as well.

The way the traffic light recognition tool will help save fuel is by connecting with the start stop technology inside the car. The start stop system will leave the engine off until five seconds before the light turns green. Audi figures that the system could save about 240 million gallons of fuel if it was in wide use.

The system could also cut emissions by 15%. If you are wondering why the engine starts five seconds before the light turns green when most start-stop systems can start an engine in less than a second, the 5 seconds is meant as a reminder to the driver to get ready to drive.

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Samsung starts manufacturing industry's most advanced 20nm 4Gb DDR3

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | RAM | Mar 11, 2014 7:38 AM CDT

Samsung Electronics made an announcement today that it has started the mass production of 20 nanometer based DDR3 memory modules. The company is using the immersion ArF lithography to roll out 20nm based 4Gb for its most advance DDR3 memory.

Young-Hyun Jun, the executive VP of memory sales and marketing for Samsung Electronics said,"Samsung's new energy-efficient 20-nanometer DDR3 DRAM will rapidly expand its market base throughout the IT industry including the PC and mobile markets, quickly moving to mainstream status. Samsung will continue to deliver next-generation DRAM and green memory solutions ahead of the competition, while contributing to the growth of the global IT market in close cooperation with our major customers."

Samsung said that it refined its design and manufacturing by using modified double patterning and atomic layer deposition. Because of this, Samsung was able to improve the scaling of its NAND flash memory. According to the manufacturing giant, this technology marks a new milestone as it allows 20nm DRR3 memory production using these equipments. It also helped them to establish a core technology required for next generation 10nm DRAM production.

Continue reading: Samsung starts manufacturing industry's most advanced 20nm 4Gb DDR3 (full post)