People don’t wear watches anymore. You’ll look ridiculous. Why wouldn’t you just use your smartphone instead? These are just some of the negative sentiments skeptics are spewing about smart watches, which are still very much in their nascent stage. Guess what? They’re wrong. More »
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Why You’ll End Up Wearing a Smart Watch
First time accepted submitter Olivier Bonaventure writes “The TCP protocol is closely coupled with the underlying IP protocol. Once a TCP connection has been established through one IP address, the other packets of the connection must be sent from this address. This makes mobility and load balancing difficult. Multipath TCP is a new extension that solves these old problems by decoupling TCP from the underlying IP. A Multipath TCP connection can send packets over several interfaces/addresses simultaneously while remaining backward compatible with existing TCP applications. Multipath TCP has several use cases, including smartphones that can use both WiFi and 3G, or servers that can pool multiple high-speed interfaces. Christoph Paasch, Gregory Detal and their colleagues who develop the implementation of Multipath TCP in the Linux kernel have achieved 50 Gbps for a single TCP connection [note: link has source code and technical details] by pooling together six 10 Gbps interfaces.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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A 50 Gbps Connection With Multipath TCP
This week marks the rollout of the long delayed “Copyright Alert System” aka the six strike anti-piracy program. It’s a bit confusing at a glance, but it’s not nearly as powerful as you’d think. Here’s how the system works, how it’ll affect you, and everything else you need to know. More »
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The Copyright Alert System: How the New “Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Program Works
Gaikai’s Dave Perry took the stage at the PS4 event today to describe how Gaikai would be adding cloud gaming elements to the PS4, which will make it possible to jump in and try games in the PlayStation store, make sharing with your friends a snap, and also invite spectators and get friends to help you by remotely taking over your game. The PS Vita will also finally get a lot more useful, thanks to Remote Play. Perry said that the team has dramatically reduced transmission times, turning the PS4 into a server and the Vita into a client allowing for remote play of titles run on the PS4 direct to the Vita. It’s exactly like the Wii U, but with a controller you can walk away with and use as a standalone mobile console. The ability to easily jump right into PS4 games and try out titles via streamed gaming is a huge addition for Sony, which had more limited demo capability in the PS3 PlayStation store which required sizeable downloads when it was even available (which wasn’t for every title). Inviting players to join and watch your game also includes the ability for spectators to chim with with on-screen comments as you play, and the ability to take over your controller to help you out if you run into trouble. It’s a much more social version of Nintendo’s handholding modes in recent releases. Will gamers opt to call a friend, so to speak, instead of jumping on GameFAQs? That’s a good question, but clearly the company is doing everything it can to try and build a real social network, instead of the loosely affiliated group of often crude, sometimes racist anonymized gamers that made up the PlayStation Network of the past.
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Gaikai Cloud Gaming In PlayStation 4 Brings Easy Free Trials Of Games, Sharing, Spectating And Remote Play
Sony had an event today and as expected, it introduced the PlayStation 4. The next-gen platform is designed to shift focus from the living room to the gamer, Sony said, and overall, PlayStation’s approach is meant to make it possible for gamers to play wherever they want, whenever they want. PS4 lead system architect Mark Cerny talked about how the evolution of the PS4 came about, saying it began five years ago, earlier on in the life of the PS3. The PS3 was a first step, which was designed to connect to a variety of services, but it was limited because of how early it launched in that world, Cerny said. “Much less value is found today in blast processing or a system-on-a-chip,” Cerny said. He suggested tech could interfere with design innovation. The tech remains important, he stressed, but the idea was to create a platform that was all about experience. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s a tune Apple and Steve Jobs started playing years ago when they realized the spec race was a nonstarter in the mobile phone world. “By game creators, for game creators. It is a powerful and accessible system,” Cerny said on stage, suggesting that this time around there was a strong emphasis on ease of development, hence the use of a standard x86 PC CPU. The GPU is designed for use with “practical tasks,” he said, with the overall goal of making development a painless experience. Essentially, the PS4 is an advanced, x86-based personal computer, which means that it should be easy for developers to build. All of this is clearly an answer to a major complaint from studios about the previous generation, which was infamously tricky to master from a software perspective. Sony also unveiled a redesigned DualShock 4 controller, which has the Vita-style touchpad depicted in rumors, ad works with a 3D “stereo” camera accessory to track its movements in a loose approximation of what’s possible with Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect. The hardware is clearly also borrowing some tricks from mobile games. It has save states that allow users to quickly freeze and resume gameplay, without having to save just by switching on and off the console. There’s also background downloading, which allows digital titles to be played before they’re even completely on your local drive. Social is another key tentpole for the PS4, according to Cerny. He described a new function that allows you to quickly pause and upload gameplay videos as easily as you might have done with static screenshots in the past. There’s also spectator functionality for watching “celebrities” gaming, something which seems to have been borrowed from Twitter’s success with famous members. Networking will also be based around real names and profile pictures, instead of strictly on gamer tags and avatars, too, and all of this will plug into mobile apps to help gamers stay in touch.
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Sony Officially Unveils The PlayStation 4: X86 CPU And 8GB Memory, But About Experiences, Not Specs
netbuzz writes “Fed up with phishers using Google Forms to commandeer campus email accounts as spam engines, Oxford University recently blocked access to Google Docs for two-and-a-half hours in what it called an ‘extreme action’ designed to get the attention of both its users and Google. ‘Seeing multiple such incidents the other afternoon tipped things over the edge,’ Oxford explains in a blog post. ‘We considered these to be exceptional circumstances and felt that the impact on legitimate University business by temporarily suspending access to Google Docs was outweighed by the risks to University business by not taking such action.’ The move generated widespread complaints from those affected, as well as criticism from outside network professionals.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs To Fight Phishing
Stats obsession has been the provenance of baseball’s sabermetricians for the last several decades. But if your data-crunching heart belongs to basketball, you’ve finally got a datum-filled palace to call home. Meet NBA Stats . It’s… comprehensive. More »
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The NBA Built Itself a Massive Interactive Stat Shrine
Deep in your heart you know it: there are like two drivers out there on the road that are causing all the traffic jams and one of those assholes is the guy right in front of you. Well, new information collected from hundreds and hundreds of drivers’ cellphones actually backs that up . Sort of. It turns out that it takes very few jackasses to screw things up for everyone. More »
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Most Traffic Jams Are Caused By Just a Handful of Idiots
Apple is a unique company in that even if you break down its individual lines of business and view them as distinct from the whole, it can still be regarded as immensely successful in a number of different areas. As a hardware company, it’s a success; as a software and services provider, it’s a success; and as a retail chain, it’s a success. And Apple’s physical retail presence shows such steady upwards growth that it, rather than any product, could be the site of the company’s greatest innovation over the next few years. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs investor conference on Tuesday, Cook went into detail about Apple’s retail plans, addressing the growth and success of the company’s stores , as well as plans for expansion and changes to their deployment strategy for 2013. Asymco’s Horace Dediu visualized the numbers shared, charting the progress of key metrics like store openings, store visitors international distribution and more in a blog post yesterday. One of the most important metrics Dediu tracked is depicted in the graph representing store visitors vs. stores open. After initially expanding their physical presence more quickly, and averaging fewer visitors, attendance quickly cut up and for the past two years, stores have been averaging around 1 million for every location open. Apple’s strategy this year involves not only opening new locations, but closing existing ones and replacing them with larger outlets, which should make for an even higher visitor-to-store ratio in the future if trends continue. In terms of money invested in Apple’s retail efforts, we see a trend that could result in much more of the kind of innovation I alluded to earlier. The Asymco chart for spend on “Property, Plant and Equipment” shows a huge recent spike in money committed to “machinery, equipment, and internal use software,” as opposed to normal, steady growth for land, buildings and improvements to said facilities. Since late 2009 when we begin to see the curve start to trend upwards more sharply, Apple has introduced its own iPod touch-based check out and inventory system (replacing a legacy version based on Windows CE hardware), moved to iPad-based information consoles, changed the structure of its stores to de-emphasize checkout and highlight Genius and One-to-One customer interaction, launched self-serve EasyPay shopping for customers, introduced in-store pickup, and just generally changed the way the world thinks about brick-and-mortar stores. No big deal. Remember too that Apple’s retail leadership has been somewhat in turmoil recently. Apple’s SVP of Retail Operations Ron Johnson, largely credited with much of the retail division’s creation and success, left the company back in June of 2011 . A search for his replacement ultimately resulted in the controversial hiring of Dixons CEO John Browett in January 2012, after a six-month search. Finally, John Browett was dismissed from that role in October 2012, after less than a year on the job. Apple is still looking for a replacement for Browett. Apple is making commerce more invisible, and yet winning more shopper dollars. It may seem like lack of a clearly defined top man in retail would lead to uncertainty, but Apple Retail had its best year ever in 2012 amid all these shakeups, and CEO Tim Cook said that the retail locations in particular have helped the iPad enjoy its runaway success since launching in 2010. Cook talked about the label of “retail” not being sufficient to describe what Apple is building with its stores, and more and more, that’s becoming true. Just like the company tries to hide elements like the file system in iOS, or deliver CE devices that aren’t upgradeable or modular, opting instead for a smooth, appealing and user-friendly outward appearance, it’s also taking commerce out of the store experience as much as possible. And yet as a reward it’s winning more customer dollars. You can measure innovation in terms of a revolutionary new smartphone, or a dramatically different PC design, or you can measure it in the aggregate effect of a sustained effort to change an age-old practice. Apple’s retail efforts are the latter kind, and its spending patterns suggest there’s plenty more of that to come.
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Apple’s Retail Strategy Proves That If They Build It, You Will Come (And Spend)
Barnes & Noble has put up an excellent fight over the past few years against the rising tide of digital competitors like iPad, Kindle Fire, etc. But it would seem that the bookseller has still come up a bit short, as the Wall Street Journal reports that the company has plans to shut down nearly 20 stores per year over the course of the next decade. Just last week, we learned that B&N had a rough holiday sales season with a 10.9 percent sales decrease over last year’s holiday season. Barnes & Noble currently has around 689 retail stores in operation, but the cuts would eliminate around a third of those stores, leaving the total somewhere between 450 to 500 stores. However, Barnes & Noble’s Mitchell Klipper, who delivered the news to the WSJ, explains that less than 3 percent of B&N stores lose money. Still, shutting down stores is expected to strengthen B&N’s hardware business, including the Nook HD and Nook HD+, which has been a growing focus at the company. In the face of such a digital shift, it would appear that the bookseller expects its brick-and-mortar business to become more and more of a liability over the coming years.
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Barnes & Noble To Shutter One-Third Of Retail Stores Over The Next 10 Years