Tag: gadgets

XBMC’s Kodi media player officially hits the Play Store

Kodi’s media player got a name change last year and now it has something even better — official Android status. The app formerly known as XBMC is now available on the Google Play store for all takers. It actually arrived to the store last month in beta form , but prior to that could only be sideloaded on Android. Version 15 (codenamed Isengard) now supports Android 5-specific features like 4K and variable refresh rates on certain Android TV devices, like NVIDIA’s Shield . Another new trick on all platforms is “adaptive seeking” that lets you search material faster by tapping a key several times. There’s also new audio and subtitle lists, an updated add-on manager, improved video queuing and better live TV closed-captioning. It has other minor tweaks and fixes (check the source), and the XBMC foundation said that the next release would support DirectX 11. You can grab the app now on Google Play, but just remember that Kodi is a deep app, so leave yourself some time (and possibly some help ) to get it working. Filed under: Cellphones , Home Entertainment Comments Source: Kodi

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XBMC’s Kodi media player officially hits the Play Store

Lockheed Martin buys helicopter maker Sikorsky

Don’t look now, but Lockheed Martin just became an even larger aerospace powerhouse. The aircraft maker has acquired helicopter maker Sikorsky (best known for the UH-60 Blackhawk) for $9 billion. The two have already been partners on programs like the MH-60, but this gives Lockheed its very own rotary-wing team. If a customer wants something that flies, the company will have it covered. The buyout is poised to close by late 2015 or early 2016, provided everything goes smoothly. The union might come at a stiff price, however. Lockheed says it’s conducting a “strategic review” of both its information systems group and a chunk of its missile division — tough times in the market have led Lockheed to believe that these segments would be better-off either spun out or sold to someone else. That puts the future of more than 17, 000 workers in doubt, and that’s not including whatever jobs might be cut when the Sikorsky deal wraps up. [Image credit: AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee] Filed under: Transportation Comments Source: Lockheed Martin

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Lockheed Martin buys helicopter maker Sikorsky

Spotify’s Discover Weekly uses your habits to recommend new music

Spotify just added a load of new features with a recent update and now it’s looking to help you find new music. To do just that, a new tool called Discover Weekly builds a two-hour playlist of suggestions based on your listening habits and those of folks with similar preferences. What’s more, the collection of tunes — basically a mixtape — is refreshed every Monday so that you’re greeted with new material on the regular. In fact, my collection was updated early this morning. Spotify says the more you use it, the better it’ll get, adapting as your musical taste evolves. Soon, Discover Weekly with appear at the top of your saved playlists for easy access. And yes, you can save individual songs you like or share the whole lot with your pals. I’ve had access to the tool for a few days, and based on the first set of tracks Spotify selected, I’m cautiously optimistic. Meek Mill, Run the Jewels, Of Monsters and Men and Miguel are getting the bulk of my attention these days, so the tool built my first playlist of songs from Caribou, Modest Mouse, Action Bronson, Flying Lotus and more. Understandably, this group of initial picks is a bit of a mixed bag — similar to my tastes — but I’m looking forward to seeing how the feature changes during weeks when I lean more towards one genre. In this morning’s update, for example, I received mostly hip-hop picks as my listening last week centered around that genre during workouts. While Apple Music touts its human-curated playlists, Spotify is relying on its software here, and it seems to work just fine. You’ll be able to try it for yourself soon enough, as the curated playlist should appear across all of Spotify’s apps shortly. Filed under: Portable Audio/Video , Internet , Software Comments

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Spotify’s Discover Weekly uses your habits to recommend new music

A Simple Magnetic Adapter Gives Your Charging Cables MagSafe Powers

A magnetic power connector didn’t seem that revolutionary when first revealed, but over the years the Apple MacBook’s MagSafe connector has proven itself to be an invaluable feature. And as the Znaps magnetic adapter shows, it would be just as useful for your mobile devices too. Read more…

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A Simple Magnetic Adapter Gives Your Charging Cables MagSafe Powers

Plastic roads may put asphalt to shame

The days of putting up with crumbling asphalt streets might just come to an end. Construction company VolkerWessels has revealed plans for recycled plastic roads that are both more sustainable and more practical than old-fashioned blacktop. Besides reusing material, they’d last about three times longer and survive greater temperature ranges (between -40F and 176F) — despite their fragile look, they’re less likely to crack under the strain of vehicles or the weather. You can pre-assemble them to lay them down faster, too, and their hollow structure is handy for cabling and pipes. This is just a concept at the moment, but VolkerWessels fully intends to test it and make sure that it holds up in the real world. That’s not idle talk, either. The Dutch city of Rotterdam is interested in trying out these plastic surfaces in its “street lab, ” and the company hopes to have an honest-to-goodness route in operation within three years. If the idea still sounds outlandish, look at it this way: it’s likely the closest you’ll ever get to driving a Hot Wheels track in real life. Filed under: Transportation , Science Comments Via: The Guardian , IEEE Spectrum , Slashdot Source: VolkerWessels

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Plastic roads may put asphalt to shame

Google continues to make money thanks to mobile and YouTube

While Google has been enjoying consistent financial growth for quite some time, it was dinged the last two quarters for not living up to Wall Street expectations. But in today’s Q2 earnings announcement, the Mountain View firm has made significant strides in rectifying that reputation. It reported a revenue of $17.7 billion this past quarter, which is an 11 percent growth year over year and a 3 percent growth since Q1. This has beat Wall Street estimates handily, causing its stock to climb by 11 percent at closing. What’s contributing to this success? As CFO Ruth Porat puts it, it’s all thanks to mobile, with YouTube playing a star role. Though Google won’t reveal specific numbers, Porat said that “the gap between mobile and desktop continues to narrow” when it comes to the money it makes from advertising. There’s apparently been a particularly strong surge in mobile search , which is a significant contributor to ad revenue. Chief Business Officer Omid Kordestani said on the earnings call that “more searches happen on mobile than computers in 10 countries.” It’s why the company is putting even more resources behind creating a better mobile experience. He says that around 30 percent of mobile searches are location-related — perhaps they want to know what’s around them or where’s the closest gas station. “When people search on mobile, they want immediacy and action, ” he said. It’s not just search either. Google has also invested in other key mobile experiences, especially in a world where people are less likely to head directly to google.com to search. Kordestani states that efforts like Google Photos , Now On Tap and Android Pay all factor in to making Google’s mobile presence more widespread. He also credited deep linking — where users are led to install new apps from links within other apps — for a boost in traffic. Indeed, Porat said that Google Play “continues to grow at an impressive clip” and is the “fastest growing mobile gaming platform.” What’s particularly impressive is that YouTube ad revenue has also blossomed, particularly in mobile. The ” Trueview ” ad format — basically all those pre-roll ads you see before YouTube clips — has really grown of late. Porat said that YouTube has experienced an accelerated 16 percent growth rate and that “mobile watch time has more than doubled.” Cost per clicks have gone down, but that’s alright as those aforementioned Trueview ad hits have increased. A new feature of Trueview that automatically adds product information and pricing in video ads is cited for the growth. Indeed, the number of advertisers running ads on YouTube has gone up by 40 percent and the average spend is up by 60 percent. Kordestani said that the average viewing time on YouTube is also more than 40 minutes and that more 18 to 49 year olds watch YouTube on mobile than any cable network. He said YouTube is great for content creators too, as the number of channels making six figures is up by 50 percent from this time last year. As for Google’s other projects — Nest , Fiber and Google Life Science s — those are now under “tighter governance” and are seen as more longer-term sources for revenue. Which basically means that they’re not quite making money hand over fist from those units just yet, but the potential is there. [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images] Filed under: Google Comments Source: Google

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Google continues to make money thanks to mobile and YouTube

Intel delays next-gen chips as Moore’s law begins to crack

Intel says it’s next-gen ” Skylake ” will be delayed by six months, marking the second time in a row it hasn’t released a CPU on a two-year “Moore’s Law” cycle. That continues a trend, as last year’s 14-nanometer Broadwell chips were similarly delayed , and even Haswell and Ivy Bridge were behind schedule. Intel said that the setback for the new 10-nanometer chips was caused by the increasing complexity in building transistors that small. Addressing the elephant in the room, CEO Brian Krzanich said that “the last two technology transitions have signaled that our cadence today is closer to 2.5 years than two.” In other words, Moore’s Law needs a reboot. To address the lack of chips in the pipeline, Intel said that it’s going to release new 14-nanometer “Kaby Lake” chips based on the Skylake architecture. Krzanich said that “we expect that this addition to the roadmap will deliver new features and improved performance, and pave the way for a smooth transition to 10-nanometer.” Neverthless, he admitted that Intel is now on a “tick-tock-tick” cycle rather than a “tick-tock” as before. That bodes poorly for an already-struggling PC industry, as consumers will have less reason to get excited about new products. Intel also admitted that PC demand was weaker than expected, and expects it to get worse by year’s end. Nevertheless, it thinks the July 29 launch of Windows 10 will provide a tonic. “A lot of the really good features of Windows 10, things like Windows 10 Hello where you have facial log in, and you don’t have to use all your passwords, the Start screen… the touch usages of gaming, as the new games come to this product — those are going to run with PCs that have the latest features, ” Krzanich said. Despite the gloomy PC talk, Intel still managed to pull in a better-than-expected $13.2 billion for the quarter, thanks to a new focus on data centers, internet-of-things and memory. [Image credit: Getty images] Filed under: Peripherals , Intel Comments Source: Intel

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Intel delays next-gen chips as Moore’s law begins to crack

Mario and Sonic look absolutely stunning in Unreal Engine 4

Unreal Engine 4 has shown us what the next generation of video games can look like: large, realistic and mind-bogglingly gorgeous. Frankly, its tech demos are breathtaking — technical marvels that show off photo-realistic apartments and stunningly beautiful landscapes ; but what happens when you cram cartoonish mascots like Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog into these technical marvels? Mind-blowingly awesome YouTube videos, that’s what. It was bound to happen eventually. Back in March, Unreal made its incredibly popular game engine free to anybody who wants to use it, leaving amateur game developers with immediate access to professional game creation tools. Search around YouTube, and you’ll find more than a few folks using it to put our favorite game characters into hauntingly realistic worlds. Check it out: See that vast landscape? That’s the setting for Unreal Engine 4’s Kite demo, which shows off the engine’s ability to handle large worlds and procedural asset placement. YouTube user CryZenx decided it was the perfect place to drop in Sonic The Hedgehog. The resulting demo isn’t much of a game (though it does show off just how fast a blue hedgehog can run), but it binds the potential of Unreal Engine 4 to a familiar face — letting us imagine what the coming generation of games could really look like. CryZenX made a Mario demo, too — but the plumber looks a little out of place in the Unreal’s endless prairie. YouTuber Aryoksini put Mario in a more familiar environment, a series of castles and caverns more suited to his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom. The canned environments (taken directly from the Unreal marketplace) look a little too polished for the off-beat world Nintendo’s mascot normally inhabits, but it’s still a stunning look at where console gaming could be in a few short years. Want to see more? Hit up the YouTube search bar with “Unreal Engine 4” and your favorite video-game mascot. Let us know if you find anything good. Filed under: Gaming Comments Source: YouTube (1) , (2)

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Mario and Sonic look absolutely stunning in Unreal Engine 4

SanDisk’s wireless flash drive gives your phone more storage

For all the advances we’ve made in mobile computing, transferring files between your phone and your desktop is still kind of a pain in the ass. We’ve tried using dongles, adapters and even double-sided USB thumb drives , but none of them really solved the problem. Today, Sandisk announced a new solution: a wireless, battery-powered USB flash drive. SanDisk’s Connect Wireless Stick was actually designed to address two problems — the chore of moving files between devices and the internal storage limitations of modern smartphones. Want to cart some movies and high resolution pictures around with you, but only have 16GB of storage on your phone? Put them on the Connect Wireless Stick: it can hold up to 128GB and can stream data to your phone for 4.5 hours on a single charge. The stick can also automatically back up photos and videos from your phone’s the camera roll. Not bad. As a file transfer system, Sandisk’s new stick still sounds a little cumbersome — but as a small, wireless storage expansion system for iOS and Android devices, it’s pretty unique. Interested? It hits stores today for $30-100 in 16, 32, 64 and 128GB sizes. Filed under: Misc , Mobile Comments Source: BusinessWire

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SanDisk’s wireless flash drive gives your phone more storage

This 50 million year old worm sperm is a scientific treasure

Scientists in Antarctica have come across one of the rarest specimens on record: ancient, fossilized worm sperm. “Because sperm cells are so short-lived and fragile, they are vanishingly rare in the fossil record, ” explains Benjamin Bomfleur, one of the palaeontologists who discovered the preserved cells. In fact, the find itself was an accident: Bomfleur’s college, Thomas Mörs, came across the ancient sperm while examining a fossilized worm cocoon. According to the a paper published in the latest edition of Biology Letters, the preserved sperm is very similar to the sperm of modern-day crayfish worms, but its location suggests that the prehistoric animal lived in a wider geographic area than its modern counterpart. Perhaps more important than this specific find itself is where it was found–in an annelid cocoon that takes several days to harden. The team believes this environment is ideal for trapping micro-organisms, and hopes to find more rare specimens by specifically targeting similarly fossilized cocoons. [Image credit: Swedish Museum of Natural History] Filed under: Science Comments Source: National Geographic

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This 50 million year old worm sperm is a scientific treasure