The latest science news out of Harvard and MIT sounds like a joke, but it’s not. A team of physicists were fooling around with photons when they managed to get the particles to clump together to form a molecule , one that’s unlike any other matter. And it behaves, they say, just like a light saber. Read more…
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Scientists Created a New Form of Matter and It’s Like a Light Saber
Live support has always been a dream for major retailers. While chat solutions already exist, today Amazon announced a new support service available on Kindle HD products called Mayday. It is a single-click, hardware-support solution that lets users work with a remote tech support representative to solve problems with their tablets. The service allows you to see the remote tech support person in a small window on your screen and also displays your screen on the support person’s computer where they can watch what you’re doing online, annotate the screen, and even tap through the interface. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it’s like “actually very similar to having someone standing next to you” and offering tech support. The service is unique to Amazon, and the company built a full infrastructure to support it at their HQ in Seattle and on board the hardware. By compressing the video signals, they are able to send more data to the devices from tech support and allow tech support to see the data remotely. Amazon’s goal is a 15-second response time, and they will ramp up staffing around major holidays when Kindles are flying fast and furious under the Easter tree. While some may be concerned about privacy, rest assured the support person will not be able to see out of your camera, and you can mute your audio at any time. Bezos equated the experience to going into a store for tech support. “If you went to some physical store location to ask for help for your device, they’re going to see everything, ” said Bezos. More important, however, is how many people the service will help. “Are we in charge of our devices or our devices in charge of us? Getting good tech support isn’t easy, but it’s important, ” he said. The service will be available on the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets. You can read more about the service at Amazon’s Mayday page .
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Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle
According to Forbes , Microsoft will be giving away 200 bucks of in-store credit to anyone who trades in a used iPhone 4S or iPhone 5. Microsoft already has a standing trade-in offer for the iPad , so it’s pretty obvious that Microsoft is willing to throw money at you to get you to switch from Apple. Read more…
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According to Forbes, Microsoft will be giving away 200 bucks of in-store credit to anyone who trades
Over the last 24 hours, you’ve probably noticed that your Gmail has been acting a little funky. It wasn’t just you. In a blog post , the Gmail team explains the issue, saying that a rare, double-SNAFU was to blame for a widespread issue that caused significant delays in the delivery of some email. Read more…
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Your Gmail Was Down Because of a "Dual Network Failure"
A massive, 7.7 magnitude quake struck south-central Pakistan on Tuesday afternoon local time. The USGS warns that there will high casualties and economic losses , requiring international response. Seismologists have also confirmed that the quake raised a new island , about 30-40 feet high, off the coast. Read more…
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7.7 magnitude quake in Pakistan just created a new island
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes “Reuters reports that nineteen companies caught writing fake reviews on websites such as Yelp, Google Local and CitySearch have been snared in a year-long sting operation by the New York Attorney General and will pay $350, 000 in penalties. The Attorney General’s office set up a fake yogurt shop in Brooklyn, New York, and sought help from firms that specialize in boosting online search results to combat negative reviews. Search optimization companies offered to post fake reviews of the yogurt shop, created online profiles, and paid as little as $1 per review to freelance writers in the Philippines, Bangladesh and Eastern Europe. To avoid detection the companies used ‘advanced IP spoofing techniques’ to hide their true identities. ‘This investigation into large-scale, intentional deceit across the Internet tells us that we should approach online reviews with caution, ‘ said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. ‘More than 100 million visitors come to Yelp each month, making it critical that Yelp protect the integrity of its content, ‘ said Aaron Schur, Yelp’s Senior Litigation Counsel.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Brooklyn Yogurt Shop Sting Snares Fake Reviewers For NY Attorney General
Samsung may well be the first company to actually deliver on the endless promise that flexible displays are on the way, with a limited edition Galaxy Note III with a plastic OLED screen said to be in production. Read more…
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Samsung Plans Bendable Plastic OLED Display for a New Galaxy Note III
Some images of what’s alleged to be Android 4.4 appeared over the weekend, with screen captures of a phone supposedly running the new KitKat release giving us a look at what may be Google’s ever-so-slightly redesigned new mobile OS. Read more…
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Alleged Android 4.4 KitKat Images Suggest a Flattened, 2D Design
Apple released iOS 7 to the public this week, providing a new design and a handful of cool features to iPhone- and iPad-lovers everywhere, but some of the best stuff lurks beneath the surface. Apple failed to advertise quite a few awesome features. These are our top 10. Read more…
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Top 10 Secret Features of iOS 7
Taco Cowboy writes “‘NASA is calling off attempts to find its Deep Impact comet probe after a suspected software glitch shut down radio communications in August, officials said on Friday.’ Last month, engineers lost contact with Deep Impact and unsuccessfully tried to regain communications. The cause of the failure was unknown, but NASA suspects the spacecraft lost control, causing its antenna and solar panels to be pointed in the wrong direction. NASA had hoped Deep Impact would play a key role in observations of the approaching Comet ISON, a suspected first-time visitor to the inner solar system that was discovered in September 2012 by two Russian astronomers. The comet is heading toward a close encounter with the sun in November, a brush that it may not survive.” Deep Impact has had a pretty good run, though: from its original mission to launch a copper slug at a comet (hence the name), to looking for Earth-sized planets. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Software Glitch Means Loss of NASA’s Deep Impact Comet Probe