image – Page 5 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Hold on, now GameStop’s buying Think Geek

There was a hushed silence as the Priest shouted “should anyone have an objection to the marriage of ThinkGeek and Hot Topic , speak now or forever hold their peace.” Suddenly, a side-door slammed open as GameStop rushed in, demanding that the ceremony stop, because it alone was ThinkGeek’s one true love. Hot Topic blanched as ThinkGeek struggled to make eye contact, before nodding in agreement, apologizing and bolting from the altar. As ThinkGeek and GameStop ran down the aisle, arm in arm, the online retailer knew that it had done the right thing because, after all, GameStop had loads more money. The purchase between Hot Topic and GeekNet, ThinkGeek’s parent company, was seen by many, including us, as a done deal. At the last minute, however, it appears that GameStop stepped in with a better offer, pledging to buy the company’s shares for $20 a pop — compared to the $17.50 price Hot Topic had agreed. As part of the deal, Hot Topic will receive a “termination fee, ” the value of which hasn’t been disclosed, but will probably not be enough to ease the pain that only comes when your corporation is jilted. The press-release makes mention of GameStop using the company to broaden its “product offering in the fast-growing collectibles category.” It makes a big chunk of sense, since the store is suffering at the hands of its online rivals and has recently decided to go into the retro gaming business in a big way. Perhaps, much in the same way that Radio Shack stopped being a supply store for ham radio enthusiasts, GameStop will soon become a place you go to buy things other than games. Filed under: Misc , Internet Comments Via: Jon Erlichman (Twitter) Source: GameStop

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Hold on, now GameStop’s buying Think Geek

Microsoft WiFi could be another reason to get Office 365

Although Microsoft already offers millions of WiFi access points around the world through Skype , it appears the company has bigger plans for its wireless internet service. If a new (barebones) website is to be believed, the Skype branding could be dropped in favor of a new platform called Microsoft WiFi. According to the site, the service will increase the number of hotspots from around 2 million to 10 million and make them available to Office 365 Enterprise subscribers and those who have bought a Surface 2 or Microsoft’s Work & Play Bundle. Although the website has yet to officially launch, Microsoft has already provided an interactive map detailing where million of its access points are located. Boingo, Xfinity WiFi and Gowex hotspots are prominent in the US, while access points from BT and The Cloud are available in the UK. There’s no word on how you pay for Microsoft WiFi, or whether you need to given that Skype minutes are already included in other Office 365 packages, but the company is continuing to take a multi-platform approach with its apps. It’ll support Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, automatically connecting you to a WiFi hotspot when you’re in range, regardless of who operates it. Filed under: Internet , Software , Microsoft Comments Source: Microsoft WiFi

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Microsoft WiFi could be another reason to get Office 365

Next for Qualcomm: faster Wi-Fi and a gateway to cheap tablets

Computex is the perfect sort of tech convention for a chip giant like Qualcomm. It’s all about companies showing off their wares so that other companies will actually want to buy them. And this year, Qualcomm made two major announcements that should intrigue plenty of potential customers: Advancements in MU-MIMO (multi-user multiple input/multiple output) technology, which aims to make our 802.11ac Wi-Fi speeds more efficient and ultimately faster, as well as a partnership with AllWinner , a Chinese firm that designs low-cost mobile chips. MU-MIMO and you As much as we all rely on Wi-Fi these days, even fairly modern wireless tech can be absurdly inefficient, especially when you’ve got multiple devices using a single access point. That’s something the wireless industry aims to solve with MU-MIMO, an upgraded version of the MIMO standard (which brought us faster Wi-Fi speeds years ago). As we move towards bandwidth-heavy applications like 4K video streaming, it’ll be particularly important to make sure your network is making the most of its bandwidth. Qualcomm was the first company to launch products using MU-MIMO over a year ago, but those were mainly focused on commercial access points. Now the company is broadening support for consumer routers with its new QCA9984 chip, as well as enterprise access points with the QCA9994. Both offer four simultaneous wireless streams (think of them as adding more lanes to your router’s highway of Wi-Fi traffic), up from just three streams from last year’s parts. They can also hop between wireless channels to take advantage of all the wireless spectrum in your home, and they support wider 160MHz 802.11ac channels (even if they’re not right next to each other). If you don’t care about the nitty gritty of how MU-MIMO works, you just need to understand this: Your Wi-Fi is about to get a lot better – and just in the knick of time. Qualcomm’s been seeding the technology in its Wi-Fi chips for the past year. If you’ve got a new Android phone or PC running a Qualcomm chipset, you’ll be ready to take advantage of all MU-MIMO has to offer when you upgrade to an 802.11ac router using Qualcomm’s tech. The company expects to have customers using its new MU-MIMO chips in products by the end of the year. “We’re now in a kind of ramp-up place, we’ve delivered and are shipping [MU-MIMO] products, ” Todd Antes, vice president of product management at Qualcomm Atheros, told us. “Now we’re in the phase of seeing OEMS launch products. We’re hoping by 2016 this becomes a standard feature in 802.11ac clients and access points.” AllWinner for the win You’ve probably never heard of AllWinner, but it’s quickly earned a name for itself in China with its inexpensive chip designs, which helped to kick off the rush of white-label tablets. Those are tablets that get licensed by other companies and sold for cheap all over the world (you can find a few Walmart). But while they’re not the sexiest devices around, the white-label tablet market is growing fast and it likely won’t slow down anytime soon. So it makes perfect sense for Qualcomm to team up with AllWinner and take advantage of their access with that market. “I think both of us bring a very unique capability to the partnership, ” said Seshu Madhavapeddy, vice president of mobile product management at Qualcomm. “You can basically credit [AllWinner] for creating the white-label tablet market in China, and we bring capability in connected chipsets, whether it’s 3G or 4G. We brainstormed with AllWinner and figured the best way to bring our technology to bear in that market is to partner with them.” The partnership will see AllWinner offer Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 and 210 chip designs to customers building LTE-enabled tablets. While AllWinner has chip designs of its own , it doesn’t have any that integrate LTE radios, which is basically Qualcomm’s specialty. Qualcomm was quick to point out it’s not investing in AllWinner, rather the two companies will simply benefit from each other’s strengths. The partnership is similar to the one Intel recently struck with RockChip to get into China’s cheap tablet market. So, in a sense, Qualcomm also had to find a partner or risk losing out. One potential problem for Qualcomm is that the white-label tablet market isn’t exactly known for well-made wares. But the company thinks it can help fix that. “I think that the white-label market in China is making huge strides in improving quality, as well as in their engineering innovation capability, ” Madhavapeddy said. “So what might have been true last year is not going to be true this year. And we think as Qualcomm we’ll bring a high level of innovation to this market.” Filed under: Tablets , Wireless , Mobile Comments

ASUS’ new Transformer Book is a Windows 10 hybrid with USB Type-C

As we approach the launch of Windows 10 , we’ll be seeing more and more devices — especially portables — featuring the slim and reversible USB Type-C port. One of such is the refreshed ASUS Transformer Book aka T100HA, a 10.1-inch two-in-one that will arrive in Q3 2015 with Intel’s new Atom x5 (“Cherry Trail”) processor plus 4GB of RAM. The tablet part weighs just 580 grams and is 8.54mm thick, but still offers up to 14 hours of battery life and a rear camera. Alas, that’s all we know so far about this machine, so we’ll keep an eye on further information when it’s ready. Filed under: Laptops , Tablets , ASUS Comments

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ASUS’ new Transformer Book is a Windows 10 hybrid with USB Type-C

Windows 10 launches on July 29th, here’s how to get in line

Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 is coming on July 29th, and you don’t even need to get out of your chair to get a spot in the upgrade line. If you take a gander at your Notification Area in the taskbar, you’ll find a Windows logo that’s suddenly appeared which, when clicked, reveals the Windows 10 upgrade panel. It may look like the world’s smartest piece of spyware, but according to Gizmodo , it’s legit. As before, users will have a year to climb onto the Free Windows 10 bandwagon, but once they do, they’ll get free upgrades for the life of your device. [Thanks, Dan S] Filed under: Internet , Software , Microsoft Comments

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Windows 10 launches on July 29th, here’s how to get in line

The US will protect Japan against cyberattacks

The US knows that it’s not enough to protect its own networks against cyberattacks — its allies have to be safe, too. Appropriately, it’s agreeing to shield Japan from digital assaults against its military and critical systems. The move gives the island nation a big security boost (its online defense unit has a mere 90 people) and hopefully reduces the chances that less-than-sympathetic neighbors China and North Korea will compromise a strategically vital country. While it’s doubtful that the pact will deter many hacking attempts, it could make any local cyberwarfare campaigns that much tougher. [Image credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko] Filed under: Internet Comments Source: Reuters

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The US will protect Japan against cyberattacks

NVIDIA’s GTX 980 Ti has enough power for solid 4K gaming

Who needs a $650 video card? Pretty much anyone who wants to play games in 4K at decent frame rates. That’s the basic pitch for NVIDIA’s new $650 GTX 980 Ti, its latest high-end video card which, naturally, packs in even more power than last year’s GTX 980 . The new card sports 2, 816 parallel processing CUDA cores and 176 texture units, around 38 percent more than the GTX 980, as well as 2 additional gigabytes of RAM giving it 6GB. It’s also based on NVIDIA’s new GM200 GPU, which is at the heart of the company’s absurdly expensive $1, 000 Titan X card . Basically, that means in the instances where its former heavyweight card slows down in 4K — for example, by running Grand Theft Auto V — the 980 Ti should shine. NVIDIA says the new card gets around 60 FPS in GTA V, while many benchmarks of that game with the 980 see between 35 and 45 FPS. The 980 Ti is also good news for anyone waiting for a good deal on the 980, since NVIDIA is also dropping the retail price of that card from $550 to $500. NVIDIA claims its memory bandwidth is also 50 percent faster than its predecessor, which makes a big difference when throwing huge textures around. Of course, the Titan X is an even faster option than the 980 Ti, but its high price makes it far out of reach for most, even hardcore gamers. Together with the $200 GTX 960 and the $330 GTX 970, NVIDIA now has powerful new cards for gamers of a wide variety of budgets. It’s just a shame that we didn’t see a slight price drop for the 970, which so far appears to be the best overall value for high-quality 1080p gaming. Filed under: Gaming , NVIDIA Comments

Solar Impulse begins its sun-powered flight across the Pacific

Solar Impulse has already shown the potential for sun-based aviation in its attempt to fly around the world , but it just embarked on its most ambitious trip yet. Pilot Andre Borschberg has taken off from Nanjing, China on a cross-Pacific flight whose first leg ends in Kalaeloa, Hawaii — 5, 061 miles away. That’s about 120 hours in the air, and should set records for both the longest single-seat flight ever as well as the first transpacific flight by a solar-powered aircraft. And did we mention that this even more dangerous than previous parts of the journey? After a certain point, Borschberg’s only choice in an emergency will be to bail over the Pacific and hope that his rescue goes smoothly. There’s still a long way to go after this. The next phase will see Solar Impulse travel “just” 2, 917 miles to Phoenix, Arizona, and there are still four legs after that — the last two of which may take nearly as long as the China-to-Hawaii run. It’ll be worth the effort if Borschberg and fellow pilot Bertrand Piccard can raise awareness about renewable energy, but this eco-friendly globetrotting definitely isn’t for the faint-hearted. [Image credit: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images] Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: BBC Source: Solar Impulse

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Solar Impulse begins its sun-powered flight across the Pacific

Google debuts Android M, which is all about ‘polish and quality’

Like clockwork, Google lifted the veil on Android M at its I/O developer conference today, an event that’s traditionally served as the company’s launchpad for its mobile OS updates. No, we don’t yet know what the “M” stands for (we’d love to see Android Marzipan), but as usual that’s not stopping Google from divulging details. After the bold redesign that was Android Lollipop , M is more focused on refining the entire Android experience. “For [Android] M we’ve gone back to the basics, ” said Google SVP Sundar Pichai. “We’ve really focused on polish and quality, we’ve literally solved thousands of bugs.” Those improvements start with more granular app permissions. Android M breaks down permissions into categories like location, camera and contacts. And rather than dealing with permissions before you install an app, you’ll be prompted as the apps require specific features (yes, a lot like iOS). David Burke, VP of engineering at Google, showed off the new permissions on stage by having WhatsApp request microphone access. The new permissions should make it a lot clearer what exactly apps are doing on your phone — they’re certainly a lot more informative than the dump of security information we’ve seen on Android up until now. Android M will also let developers improve the web experience inside of their apps by using Chrome Custom Tabs. Pinterest, for example, now pops up speedy little web windows whenever you tap on a link. Basically, developers will be able to make their in-app web experiences feel just like the apps themselves. Google’s also making deep linking between apps a core feature of Android M, which allows apps to point to specific screens in other apps. (Think of it like being linked to a specific web page, rather than just a home page.) Developing… Don’t miss out on all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2015. Follow along at our events page . Filed under: Mobile , Google Comments

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Google debuts Android M, which is all about ‘polish and quality’

‘3D printing’ used to test a ‘cure’ for type-1 diabetes

Researchers are one step closer to reducing the effects of type-1 diabetes after developing a way to implant insulin-generating cells into the pancreas. According to publisher IOP , this method was previously unsuccessful, but has begun to work now that scientists can “3D-print” a structure to protect the cells. Previous attempts to implant these cells, called islets of Langerhans , have been unsuccessful because the body’s immune system would attack them as soon as they were injected. This time around, however, the team embedded the cells into a three-dimensional structure made from a mixture of alginate and gelatin. Another problem, however, was developing a scaffold that could both hold the islets in place and keep them protected while letting blood and insulin pass through. Right now, the project is just some grim-looking petri dishes at the University of Twente , but if the process can be refined, then type-1 diabetics may never again have to suffer the effects of an attack of hypoglycemia. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: Eurekalert Source: IOP (.PDF)

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‘3D printing’ used to test a ‘cure’ for type-1 diabetes