Oculus rumored to host its on virtual reality convention, 'RiftCon'

An interesting trademark was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office from Oculus VR, the startup behind the Oculus Rift VR headset. The trademark is for an exhibition dedicated to all things VR called RiftCon.

The company filed for the RiftCon trademark on February 14, while everyone was busy binge watching House of Cards, and includes the following description: "Organizing exhibitions for cultural, educational, or entertainment purposes; organizing exhibitions in the fields of interactive entertainment, virtual reality, consumer electronics and video game entertainment industries for cultural or educational purposes; entertainment services, namely, arranging and conducting of competitions to encourage use and development of interactive entertainment, virtual reality, consumer electronics, and video game entertainment software and hardware".

The idea of VR-focused exhibition is great, as the world of virtual reality hasn't even reached the consumer level yet. Oculus is on the forefront of this, but it'll be more interesting to see this RiftCon event happen as the launch platform for the consumer version of the Rift headset, and continue each year to showcase all things VR.

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A researcher misused Harvard University's computers to mine Dogecoins

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Computer Systems | Feb 22, 2014 3:42 AM CST

A researcher was caught using Harvard's Odyssey cluster of 14,000 cores that's usually meant for researching new clean energy methods for mining dogecoins.

The assistant dean for Research Computing at Harvard University, James Cuff, sent an email to the rest of the researchers with a message that "Odyssey and Research Computing resources can not be used for any personal or private gain or any non research related activity. Accordingly, any participation in "Klondike" style digital mining operations or contests for profit requiring Harvard owned assets to examine digital currency key strength and length are strictly prohibited for fairly obvious reasons. In fact, any activities using our shared resources for any non scientific purpose that results or does not actually result in personal gain are also clearly and explicitly denied."

As one would expect, the researcher no longer has any access to its facilities on a permanent basis. The email also added that though the researcher was caught 'eventually', its most likely that he or she already made a significant profit at the University's expense. Since the mining operation lasted many days using the Odyssey cluster, the profit could have been in thousands of dollars as the value of a single dogecoin was roughly $0.0012.

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Wearable price, form factor need to drop to spur consumer attention

Michael Hatamoto | Wearable Computing & Fashion | Feb 21, 2014 11:51 PM CST

Wearables have tremendous potential for the enterprise and consumer markets, but the industry still has multiple challenges to overcome. Companies are focusing more on the enterprise wearable market at the moment, but technology breakthroughs should trickle into consumer markets as familiarity and stability increase.

(From right to left: Bruce Hawver, SteelSeries CEO; Paul Travers, Vuzix CEO; Fred Ishii, Iron CIty Micro Display founder; Mark Spitzer, Google X Director of Operations; and Jessica Lessin, moderator)

During the recent Kopin Wearable Technology Launch Event in Santa Clara, California, panelists spoke during a round table discussion and shared their views on what needs to change for the future of wearables to accelerate even faster.

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Microsoft slashes Windows 8.1 prices for OEM partners

Michael Hatamoto | Software & Apps | Feb 21, 2014 10:10 PM CST

To appease OEM hardware manufacturers upset with disappointing Windows 8 sales, Microsoft reportedly will slash 8.1 prices it charges to OEMs by 70 percent. Instead of paying a license fee of $50 for mobile products that cost $250 or less, OEMs will now only have to pay $15 per unit.

Microsoft said it did 1.24 billion hours of Windows 8 testing during development, hearing about user displeasure of the Metro interface. New CEO Satya Nadella must try and determine if Microsoft will move on to the next version of Windows, or put full effort into trying to raise adoption as quickly as possible.

Using market-development funds and other incentives, larger hardware OEMs were paying around $30 per unit, according to a report published by Bloomberg Technology. Microsoft offers MDF money, similar to other companies, based on sales, revenue generated, using a tier system with its partners.

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RumorTT: Samsung Galaxy S5 Prime and S5 vanilla launching Monday

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Feb 21, 2014 5:08 PM CST

A new report from BGR is suggesting that the rumors of alloy-framed Galaxy S5 smartphones exist might just be true. The report states that after two different cases popped up on Amazon recently, there will actually be two versions of the Galaxy S5 debuting next week. The report says that there will be the normal Galaxy S5, and then an alloy-framed model carrying the title Galaxy S5 Prime.

The Galaxy S4 Prime will feature a high-strength aluminum alloy chassis as well as quad HD Super AMOLED display which will measure in at 5.25-inches. Processing will be handled by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.5GHz quad-core processor or a Samsung 8-core Exynos chipset followed up by 3GB of DDR3 RAM. A new 16-megapixel camera will be on board with a 10-megapixel front facing camera for HD selfies. A 3,000 mAh battery, support for 4G LTE data speeds of up to 150Mbps, and Android 4.4 KitKat will also be featured.

In all honesty though, at this point, so many rumors are coming from every direction with different information each time, the best thing to do is just sit back and wait until Monday to see exactly what Samsung is showing off. We do know that the Galaxy S5 will make an appearance, and we do know that its camera and screen will be improved, and that Android KitKat will be on board. Everything else is up in the air at this point, and only time will reveal the true details.

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Humanoid robonaut 2 learning how to handle medical space emergencies

NASA researchers are developing a humanoid robonaut, called Robonaut 2, which could be able to one day work with astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). The Robonaut 2 is a $2.5-million device that will also be able to contribute to general tasks as well.

Robonaut research for medical purposes is still in its early stages, so don't expect the humanoids to be in space providing health support immediately. The R2's camera-equipped head lets controllers on Earth see a medical process, and the robonaut has extremely good dexterity so the appropriate amount of pressure could be used during treatment.

"I would say that within an hour I trained him more than with other students I'm working for a week, so I think that he's learning really fast," said Dr. Zsolt Garami, from the Houston Methodist Research Institute, in a recent interview with Space.com.

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Sprint launches Wi-Fi calling, turns the select devices into IP phones

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Feb 21, 2014 3:09 PM CST

At some point in the next few weeks, Sprint will be issuing an update to the Samsung Galaxy Mega and Galaxy S4 Mini smartphones that will turn on a built-in feature that allows the phones to make and receive calls over Wi-Fi. This will effectively allow users to turn their smartphones into IP phones when connected to any Wi-Fi network, eliminating the need for an IP phone in your office or home.

Sprint says that the service will be free of charge for all Sprint customers, and that the IP calling will work with existing phone numbers so there is no need for a second account. When connected to a Wi-Fi network customer's calls will be routed over the internet instead of over the company's cellular network. This is expected to increase call quality and should lighten network loads considerably.

Sprint says that it will start the roll out with the Galaxy Mega and Galaxy S4 first before beginning the roll out to most Android-based smartphones on the company's network. No names have been given on which phones might receive the service next, but we suspect that most of the top-tier phones such as the Galaxy S4 and HTC One are on the shortlist. The concept of Wi-Fi calling is not new though as T-Mobile has been offering it since 2006. Industry analyst say that Sprint is prepping this service to help augment it's upcoming roll out of its upcoming HD Voice over LTE service which will see the current 2G Voice service discontinued.

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US Post Office approves Steve Jobs commemorative stamp for 2015

Charles Gantt | Current Affairs | Feb 21, 2014 1:45 PM CST

Many regard Steve Jobs as one of the biggest visionary of our generation, and given his turn-around of Apple, and the success of the iPhone, iPod and iPad lines they may be true. Today the Washington Post outed the stamp commemorative postage stamp that will honor Jobs.. Additional honorees will be Elvis Presley and James Brown, both who have had stamps in the past.

In what should be a Today I Learned post on Reddit, the stamps are approved by a "Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee which is comprised of of a maximum of 15 members whose backgrounds reflect a wide range of educational, artistic, historical and professional expertise. All share an interest in the stamp program and the needs of the mailing public. An excerpt about the committee duties has been posted below.

The primary goal of the committee is to select a good balance of subjects appealing to a broad audience for recommendation to the Postmaster General. These subjects will be contemporary, timely, relevant, interesting and educational. In addition to the Postal Service's extensive line of mail-use stamps, approximately 25 new subjects for commemorative stamps are recommended each year. Stamp selections are made with all postal customers in mind, including stamp collectors.

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Microsoft inviting some Xbox Live users to beta Xbox One updates

Shane McGlaun | Gaming | Feb 21, 2014 12:25 PM CST

Microsoft is always working on updates for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 game consoles. Sometimes those updates are for bugs that have surfaced, like the black screen bug the last Xbox One update added for some. Other times the updates for the consoles add new features.

Microsoft has announce that it has been inviting specific Xbox Live gamers to beta the next update for the Xbox One game console. The Xbox team is working on an update for the Xbox One for March. The users that are chosen by Microsoft will get some of the features of that update early.

They will use the new features and provide Microsoft with feedback on the update via a private forum. Microsoft isn't offering any information on how it is choosing the people that will participate in the program. It does say that the users will be able to opt out of participating. That implies that the people don't have to ask to be part of the program.

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G.SKILL SO-DIMM memory overclocked to 2600MHz on ASROCK M8 barebone

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | RAM | Feb 21, 2014 11:16 AM CST

Now that mini-PCs from companies such as ASROCK, ASUS and Zotac are catching up, SO-DIMM overclocking is something that would be interesting to see. G.SKILL did that using ASROCK M8 Barebone system.

G.SKILL managed to do just that, as they were able to overclock its ripjaws SO-DIMM 1.35V C11 2133 MHz to 2400 MHz 12-14-14-25 @ 1.35v.

ASROCK M8 is a barebone PC made for 4th Gen Intel series processors and uses Intel Z87 chipset. The system allows installation a single dual-slot video card with maximum dimension support of up to 290mm x 137mm x 43.5mm with up to TDP support of 200w. The unit also has 802.11 ac+ Bluetooth v4.0 support. M8 barebone system only includes a chassis, a 450w power supply, mini-ITX motherboard, fans and an optical disk drive. The rest of the components such as processors, memory kits and storage drive needs to purchased separately.

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