Leap Motion to leap onto retail shelves on July 28th

Charles Gantt | Peripherals | Jul 22, 2013 10:07 PM CDT

Today Leap Motion launched what is being billed as the "Worlds most accurate 3-D motion control technology." The software allows people to control their computers with natural hand and finger gestures much in the way that motion tracking WebCam software works. Alongside the software they launched, the company opened up its AirSpace platform, a sort of App Store that is exclusive to the Leap Motion controller.

The company also announced that beginning July 28 the actual Leap Motion Controllers will be available for purchase in Best Buy stores across the United States at a price point of $79.99. Customers in the UK are able to purchase from Amazon and the company has partnered up with ASUS and HP to offer bundled packages with select computers from each manufacturer.

Leap Motion went on to say that at launch the Airspace Store contained over 75 applications that were purpose built by developers and more than four countries. The apps range from free to paid and spans the width of many categories. The Leap Motion controller works with computers running Mac OS X 10.7 or 10.8, Windows 7 and Windows 8. It requires a minimum of an Intel Coreâ„¢ i3 or AMD Phenomâ„¢ II processor, 2 GB RAM and a USB 2.0 port.

Continue reading: Leap Motion to leap onto retail shelves on July 28th (full post)

Ubuntu unveils new 'Edge' smartphone, looks to crowdfunding to finance the manufacturing

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Jul 22, 2013 9:09 PM CDT

Amidst a massive security breach, Canonical today unveiled plans to build a ultra high-end smartphone that would run both its own Ubuntu Mobile OS as well as the latest version of Android. Unfortunately manufacturing a smartphone in any quantity is quite the financial undertaking and not one that Canonical appears to be fully ready to tackle itself. The company has turned to the crowdfunding website Indiegogo to offer its supporters an easy way to preorder their phone.

So how much does it cost to produce 40,000 units of a new smartphone? Apparently $32 million will just about do the job. The company launched its Indiegogo campaign today, and will run for the next 30 days. Supporters can land an Unbuntu Edge of their own for $600 today only and tomorrow the cost of entry will rise to $830. There are also 50 "One of a Kind" numbered edition Ubuntu Edge phones being offered but they will cost you $10,000 a pop.

Additionally, an enterprise bundle of 100 phones is being offered for the low price of $80,000. Those who funded this level will receive additional access to best-practice workshops as well as 30 days of online support to help IT managers integrate Ubuntu for Android into the workplace. Also for those who wish you just donate a little to the project there is a $20 funding option which will land you your name on the founders page.

Continue reading: Ubuntu unveils new 'Edge' smartphone, looks to crowdfunding to finance the manufacturing (full post)

Ubuntu user forums hacked, 1.8 million user credentials stolen

Charles Gantt | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Jul 22, 2013 8:34 PM CDT

Over the weekend, the Ubuntu forums went down after a massive security breach resulted in over 1.8 million user credentials being stolen. Canonical made a decision to put the forums in maintenance mode in an attempt to ward off any further attacks. The company says that the attackers managed to get away with every user's local username, password, and email address that was stored in the Ubuntu forum's database.

The company says in the passwords were stored as salted hashes instead of plaintext, but they still recommend that you change any and all passwords that were used on other services such as email, Facebook, or other forum accounts in which you might have use the same password. Canonical says that Ubuntu One, Launchpad, and other related services were not affected by the breach and users of those services need not worry.

Continue reading: Ubuntu user forums hacked, 1.8 million user credentials stolen (full post)

AT&T is set to introduce 300MB and 2GB shared data plans on July 26

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Jul 22, 2013 8:05 PM CDT

Today, AT&T announced that it will be launching two new Mobile Share plans later this week on July 26. The new plans are designed to make data access more affordable for customers who might not need a high allotment of bandwidth. For just $20 a month, users with feature phones can have 300MB of data which will allow them to check their email and perform other less data-intensive actions on their handset.

A new 2GB plan was also introduced that is expected to fill the gap for users who use more than 1 GB of data per month. This plan will run smartphone users $50 plus the additional $45 for unlimited talk and text. AT&T says that their mobile share plans make it easy for customers to manage their data, voice minutes, and texting without needing to keep track of multiple plans.

"Our customers are living mobile lives, and our new Mobile Share plans give them even more options to design a plan that meets their unique needs," said Mark Collins, senior vice president voice and data products, AT&T Mobility. "Now, even more customers are able to enjoy the full benefits of their device, on the nation's fastest and most reliable 4G LTE network, at a great value."

Continue reading: AT&T is set to introduce 300MB and 2GB shared data plans on July 26 (full post)

New reports suggest that Google now accounts from 25% of all North American Internet traffic

Charles Gantt | Internet & Websites | Jul 22, 2013 7:37 PM CDT

As far as Internet-based corporations go, Google is about as big as they get, and rightfully so as the company offers up so many useful tools that many of us use in our daily lives. Today, we learned just how big Google actually is; a new report from Deepfield that was recently released says that based on the numbers Google represents 25 percent of all North American Internet traffic. This means that it is bigger than Facebook, Netflix, and Instagram combined in terms of bandwidth served.

"What's really interesting is, over just the past year, how pervasive Google has become, not just in Google data centers, but throughout the North American internet," says Craig Labovitz, founder of Deepfield, the monitoring company that did the study. Just three years ago, traffic to Google only accounted for about 6 percent of all Internet traffic.

Over the past year, Google has had to add tens of thousands of servers to its ranks to handle this massive growth and has built data centers on four continents within the last few years. Google has even gone as far as adding thousands of servers to ISPs around the world, called Google Global Cache Servers, that store the most popular content from Google's network such as a YouTube video that might be going viral, popular apps on the Google Play Store, or even a trending topic on Google+. These allow this content to be served to you faster than it would if it was all stored in a central location.

Continue reading: New reports suggest that Google now accounts from 25% of all North American Internet traffic (full post)

LGBT gaming conference "GaymerX" is set to take place on August 3 and 4

Charles Gantt | Trade Shows | Jul 22, 2013 5:05 PM CDT

Formerly known as Gaymercon, this year's GaymerX gaming conference will be taking place during the third and fourth of August in San Francisco. For those who have never heard of the event, it is a gaming conference that focuses in on the gamers within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The official site describes GaymerX as a "weekend of fun and socializing," suggesting that "until now, there has never been a safe space for LGBT geeks and their friends to come together, discuss LGBT theory in games as a community, and party as one."

This year's conference was funded by a Kickstarter Campaign that raised over $90,000. The event promoter says that the conference will feature booths, panels, and demos provided by large game publishing houses such as EA games. Microsoft will also be in attendance showing off its upcoming Xbox One console. LGBT rights groups such as GLAAD and The Trevor Project will be out in full force as well.

At the time of publishing, over 2000 tickets have been sold and the event organizers say that more will be sold at the door. Tickets are priced between $45 and $60 and there are red carpet VIP tickets available for the small price tag of $135 per person. We here at TweakTown would like to give a shout out to all our Gayming friends in the LGBT community, and wish you a fun and exciting GaymerX!

Continue reading: LGBT gaming conference "GaymerX" is set to take place on August 3 and 4 (full post)

HTC is reorganizing its US operations in an attempt to curb the recent downtrend in sales

Charles Gantt | Business, Financial & Legal | Jul 22, 2013 4:04 PM CDT

On Friday, HTC released its earnings report for the second quarter of 2013 and things did not look well for the company. The numbers show that profit took a nosedive during the second quarter and fell approximately 83 percent, while revenue declined 22 percent. These are usually numbers that indicate a company is heading for a hard and unfortunate brick wall. Fortunately, HTC recognizes this and has decided to reorganize its entire US operations.

This morning, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that they have obtained an internal memo that unveils how the reorganization will go. President of Global Sales, Jason Mackenzie, will now head up all of US operations and former U.S. Boss Mike Woodward will now lead a new specialized unit dubbed "Emerging Devices" that will focus on innovating new HTC products and global distribution strategies.

"I want to thank these two outstanding leaders for their contributions to the success of the HTC One so far," Mr. Chou wrote about Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Woodward. "But as you know and would expect, we also need to do more. With the success of the One, we have many new opportunities both to expand current sales as well as to enter new distribution channels with new business models."

Continue reading: HTC is reorganizing its US operations in an attempt to curb the recent downtrend in sales (full post)

RumorTT: Apple's new Mac Pro will likely ship to customers and retail stores in October

Charles Gantt | Computer Systems | Jul 22, 2013 2:06 PM CDT

After speaking with a source that is said to be close to Apple, KitGuru said that they have learned that Apple's new Mac Pro would most likely ship to consumers and arrive for retail sales sometime during the month of October. They also stated that the Mac Pro would return to the UK around the same time after the line was removed from sale in 27 countries back in March of this year.

The delay in release is said to be due to a shortage on E5 processors as well as their mating motherboards. Additionally, analysts are speculating that Apple is waiting on its new operating system Mavericks to be released as it currently is limited to 96 GB of memory. With the new Mac Pro offering up to 128GB of RAM, this makes perfect sense. Apple could also be holding off on releasing the new Mac Pro due to ongoing Thunderbolt 2 development which is said to wrap up sometime during Q3 of 2013.

To further bait the rumor mill, Apple is said to be working on a 4K HDTV screen that will be geared specifically for professionals in the video editing field who would most likely also be purchasing the new Mac Pro's. Whether all of this is true or not is still a bit of a mystery and the only way to truly answer all of the questions is to wait around until October and see what Apple launches.

Continue reading: RumorTT: Apple's new Mac Pro will likely ship to customers and retail stores in October (full post)

LeakedTT: Updated Google Nexus 7 will hit Best Buy shelves next Tuesday for $229

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Jul 22, 2013 12:02 PM CDT

At the moment, we're fairly positive that we will see Google's next-generation Nexus 7 tablet unveiled on Wednesday at a breakfast press event being held by the company. Fortunately for us, Google is not doing a very good job of keeping its refreshed Nexus under wraps. Today, a leaked image depicting the new Nexus 7 has appeared online as well as a full PR rendering of the 7-inch tablet.

The image says that Google's Nexus 7 II will be available on Tuesday but does not give a specific date, although it is pretty safe to say that they are talking about Tuesday, July 30. It does give us a little more insight into the device and confirms that it will have a 1920x1200 resolution and will run consumers $230 for the 16 GB version.

Making his second appearance this morning on TweakTown, mobile device leakster @evleaks has managed to get his hands on the official press rendering of the new Nexus 7 that shows us a number of changes that the made to the tablet. The device features speakers located at the bottom and top while the Nexus logo has been rotated into landscape orientation. The headphone jack has also been relocated, while the rear facing 5-megapixel camera remains in the top left-hand corner. Google is expected to reveal the full details of the new Nexus 7 along with other major announcements on Wednesday, July 24, so stay tuned to TweakTown for full coverage of the event.

Continue reading: LeakedTT: Updated Google Nexus 7 will hit Best Buy shelves next Tuesday for $229 (full post)

Missed Comic-Con this year? No worries, because Tested.com has 800+ cosplay images to share

Charles Gantt | Gaming | Jul 22, 2013 11:11 AM CDT

I have been to CES, Dragoncon, The Southeast Linux Festival, the WPPI Expo, and many other conventions over the years, but the one that has managed to evade me is the San Diego Comic-Con. SDCC is the mecca for geeks of all flavors--especially comic book fans--but over the years, it has become the premier showcase for cosplay fans to gather and live their dream of being their favorite superhero.

I won't pretend and say that I want to go for the comic books; my entire motive to attend is to see all of the fantastic makers who have spent hundreds and thousands of hours designing and building their costumes from scratch. One of my biggest guilty pleasures is browsing the hundreds of galleries that pop up from Comic-Con every year. Fortunately for me and you, this year Tested's Norm Chan has posted a full gallery of over 800 cosplay photos that he took during SDCC.

The gallery contains some of the best cosplay I have ever seen and I am so pumped up that I am making it my goal to attend SDCC next year come hell or high water. Head over to link #2 and check out the full gallery and if you spot someone you know, send an email to Norm letting him know the person's name and include the image number as he is trying to name everyone pictured in the gallery. The images above are provided courtesy of Tested.com

Continue reading: Missed Comic-Con this year? No worries, because Tested.com has 800+ cosplay images to share (full post)