LuMini Bluetooth enabled LED smart bulb hits Kickstarter
Tabu is a company that makes some very interesting LED light bulbs that are controlled via an app on your smartphone and Bluetooth. The Bulb is green since it uses LEDs that consume less power. The coolest part about the bulb is that you can use the smartphone app to control the color of the light.
With RGB LEDs inside and a fourth white LED, the original Lumen smart bulb can make any color you can think of. Tabu has announced a new project that is on Kickstarter right now. This project is for a smaller version of the original Lumen called the LuMini.
The goal with this smaller light bulb is to be able to fit it inside a lamp or other small fixture where the original couldn't go. Other than the size and the lack of a white LED inside, the LuMini is the same as the original.
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Transcend rolls out 128GB 2013 Mac Pro RAM upgrades
If you spend a lot of time on your computer with a lot of tabs or programs open that consume memory, you know you can never have enough RAM. If you use a new round Mac Pro that debuted last year and are in need of a RAM update, a new product has launched you will want to check out.
A company called Transcend has rolled out some new RAM upgrades for the 2013 Mac Pro that can bring the total amount of memory in the machine to 128GB. RAM modules are available in 16GB and 32GB capacity. Apple puts four upgradable RAM slots inside the machine.
Transcend says that while the Mac Pro is advertised to support only 64GB of RAM, it has tested the machine to work with up to 128GB. The 16GB modules are DDR3-1866 units with the 32GB modules being DDR3-1333. Both RAM configurations are RDIMMS and are guaranteed 100% to work with the Mac Pro. Pricing is unannounced at this time.
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Dish Super Joey Launches allowing eight shows to record at once
Of all the tech in my home, the thing I would be least willing to give up is the DVR. I like my DVR even more now that it use a Dish Hopper Whole home DVR. With that DVR, I can watch any show on any TV in the house and it has three tuners for recording lots of stuff at once.
I still have conflicts on occasion with three tuners because we record lots of shows. Dish has announced that the Super Joey that goes with the Hopper Whole Home DVR system is now available. The Super Joey only works with the Hopper DVR and adds two more tuners to the mix.
With the Super Joey, you get a total of five tuners to use. Between those five turners you can record eight shows at once. If you are wondering how that happens, one tuner is dedicated to Primetime shows and they all come across a single feed letting one tuner record four primetime shows at once.
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Ubisoft 'forced' Ubisoft Montreal to unveil Watch Dogs at E3 2012
We know that Watch Dogs has been delayed until May this year, with the studio needing more time to work on it. With each day that passes, we're finding out more information on the game - where today, it has been revealed that Ubisoft Montreal was "forced" to unveil the game at E3 2012 by Ubisoft.
Jonathan Morin, Creative Director on Watch Dogs, talked with Edge, where he said: "They forced us to go at E3 2012. Yves [Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft] was the one who wanted us to go at that E3, even though we felt it was a bit early." Morin believes that the CEO of Ubisoft was actually correct, where he said: "in the end I think he was right."
Dominic Guay, Senior Producer on Watch Dogs, talked with Polygon in a recent interview, where he said that the studio began development on the PC because at the time, the PS4 and Xbox One didn't exist. When referring to the next-gen consoles, he said: "We kind of suspected, maybe, there might be other platforms eventually. So, because we thought that would happen, we chose the PC as our first target to have when we started developing Watch Dogs, so that we [would] have the flexibility to adapt to a different platform."
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Mozilla shows off Unreal Engine 4 running in Firefox
Unreal Engine 4 is quite a beautiful engine, requiring some heavy hardware to get it running, but running it within a browser? Well, Mozilla has done just that with its Firefox browser.
Mozilla released a video showing Unreal Engine 4 running from its Firefox web browser to demonstrate "the power of the Web as a platform for gaming." The video above shows off Epic Games' "Soul" and "Swing Ninja" demos powered by Unreal Engine 4. These videos mark the first time we've seen UE4 running within a web browser without plugins, and according to the post, the engine is being designed to scale between everything: consoles, mobile devices, PC and of course, the web.
Mozilla's CTO and Senior Vice President of Engineering, Brendan Eich, said: "This technology has reached a point where games users can jump into via a Web link are now almost indistinguishable from ones they might have had to wait to download and install." Epic Games' Tim Sweeney joined in, where he said: "We were blown away by what this Mozilla-pioneered technology achieved with Unreal Engine 3 on the Web, so we had no hesitation in working with Mozilla to port Unreal Engine 4. We believe the Web has a crucial part to play in the future of game development and deployment, and Mozilla has proven it is the catalyst to make this happen."
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Razer refreshes its Blade and Blade Pro gaming notebook lineup
Razer launched its new Razer Blade and Razer Blade gaming notebooks with
gaming notebook with the new GTX 870M discrete graphics that was launched very recently. The company went ahead and given a 14inch QHD+ IGZO multi-touch panel for its newer generation gaming system.
The new Razer Blade 2014 edition uses i7-4702HQ processor with 8GB DDR3L 1600MHz memory kits and NVIDIA GTX 870M. It uses Intel 7260 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi module and with an option to include SATA M.2 drives. The panel is 16:9 aspect ratio with 3200 x 1800 resolution that's found in many high-end notebooks. The previous model has 1600 x 900 paired with NVIDIA GTX 765M. The 'impossibly thin and light' gaming notebook is 2.03kg/ 4.47 lbs heavy.
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Divergent Actress Shailene Woodley Criticizes Twilight Series
Actress Shailene Woodley who was considered for the role of Mary Jane in The Amazing Spiderman 2 and is now the star of the upcoming dystopian film series Divergent is back in the news today after voicing a very honest opinion about the Twilight series. In a recent interview with Teen Vogue, Woodley referred to the central plot of the film series Twilight as "unhealthy," and "toxic," and expressed concern about the message the series is sending to adolescents.
When weighing in on Twilight, which is often compared to Divergent since both series have their roots in young adult literature, Woodley told the magazine:
"Twilight, I'm sorry, is about a very unhealthy, toxic relationship. She falls in love with this guy and the second he leaves her, her life is over and she's going to kill herself! What message are we sending to young people? That is not going to help this world evolve."
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Windows XP end of service will cause problems for utility companies
The Microsoft Windows XP operating system reaches end of support in less than one month, and utility companies face possible security problems. Security experts are most worried about potential service disruptions if cybercriminals successfully compromise XP-based PCs and control centers - and to make matters even more pressing, XP is a major OS used in almost all U.S. gas and electric utilities.
To help offer an additional layer of support, Microsoft will provide "Antimalware signatures and engine for Windows XP users through July 14, 2015." However, cybercriminals are still anxiously awaiting the deadline, when they know home consumers and business users will be susceptible to malware, virus attacks, and other cybercrimes to steal information.
Of reported incidents, the energy sector made up more than half of the Department of Homeland Security industrial control systems cyber emergency response team (ICS-CERT) complaints, with a focus on trying to test network limitations - and steal trade secrets.
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Potential Directors for Marvel's Doctor Strange film chosen
Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter tweeted the names of potential directors for Marvel's phase three film based on the Marvel Universe character Doctor Strange. Rumors about Doctor Strange coming to the big screen have been flying around for quite some time now, and recently it seems the rumors are becoming reality, which is something Marvel fans are certain to be happy about.
Why all of the excitement for a Doctor Strange film? Well, the answer lies in the character himself:
Doctor Stephen Vincent strange is a Marvel superhero created in the 60's by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The neurosurgeon gone crime-fighting sorcerer was an active member of the Avengers in the 2010-2013 run of the comic book series The New Avengers, and the founder of the Illuminati, a secret order created to protect planet Earth. The Sorcerer Supreme regularly teams up with other members of the Avengers like Spiderman and Wolverine, and defies the laws of physics when he battles the dark forces that threaten Earth. How could such a dynamic character NOT warrant a feature film?
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Fitbit Force recall totals over 1 million units in North America
When Fitbit first announced the recall of its Force fitness tracker, the company was doing so on a voluntary basis, but the recall became official today now that the US Consumer Product Safety Commission is handling things. Being an officially sanctioned recall means that it is now illegal to sell affected devices from this point forward, making transactions of the devices on Craig's List and Ebay illegal as well.
The recall started when dozens of users began reporting skin irritation after prolonged use. Official word seems to be that some of the chemicals used in the manufacturing of the wrist bands are allergens to many people who are in prolonged contact with the bands. About 1 million of the devices have been recalled in the US with another 28,000 being recalled in Canada. Fitbit has released an official statement on the recall which we have posted below.
The Fitbit Force voluntary recall was officially announced today by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Fitbit has stopped selling Force and is currently working with the CPSC to conduct a recall. For immediate concerns or more information on how to receive a full refund/exchange for a new product, users can please visit: https://www.fitbit.com/forcesupport or call: 888-656-6381.
Continue reading: Fitbit Force recall totals over 1 million units in North America (full post)