the-end – Page 136

Flash coming to Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 and RT tomorrow

Heads up, Windows users. Tomorrow, Microsoft will release an update for Internet Explorer 10 that enables Flash content in both Windows 8 and Windows RT . As many of you are likely aware, the “full web” experience has been limited to the desktop browser on Windows 8 up until this point, which was an intentional move by Microsoft in order to improve performance, battery life and the touch experience. With the update, Internet Explorer 10 users for Windows 8 / RT will be able to access Flash content on all but a few sites that Microsoft has selectively blacklisted due to their negative impact on the user experience. Naturally, users of IE10 within the Windows 8 desktop environment will still be able to access all Flash-enabled content, regardless of whether the site is on the blackballed list. Now that you’ve waited this long, what’s another day among friends? Filed under: Software , Microsoft Comments Source: MSDN Blogs

Link:
Flash coming to Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 and RT tomorrow

Marvel offers over 700 free first issue digital comics, might involve great powers and responsibilities

Looking to revise the whys, hows and who’s who of the Marvel universe? Well, the movie-spinning comic book company wants to help you out, offering hundreds of first issue editions across the company’s entire history. The free digital editions will cover perennial favorites like Spider-Man, the X-Men and Avengers, as well as slightly less mainstream hits and spin-offs. The promotion kicked off yesterday and — tying in with the company’s presence at SXSW — will run until 11PM ET on Tuesday. The titles can be downloaded through either Marvel’s official comics app or its web-based digital comics shop, although it appears US readers are having more luck downloading the digital comics — we’re getting error messages when trying to access it elsewhere. Of course, if you’ve already signed up to Marvel’s Unlimited subscription service , there might not much here to pull you in, but this limited-time offer is unashamedly courting new readers and comic dabblers. If that sounds like you, start hunting down those hundreds of freebies at the source. Filed under: Misc , Internet , Software Comments Via: The Verge Source: Marvel (1) , (2)

Continue Reading:
Marvel offers over 700 free first issue digital comics, might involve great powers and responsibilities

Ube WiFi Smart Dimmer to recieve customized multitouch gesture control

Here’s a cool little addition to the increasingly competitive world of home automation . Ube’s got a WiFi Smart Dimmer that utilizes multitouch functionality to control the the lights in your house — use one finger to turn off a single light, or use two to turn off a set. The company picked SXSW as the venue to announce the forthcoming launch of customized gestures for other smart devices — in the example given to us by CEO Utz Baldwin, a user can input a “W” to turn on the sprinklers — or an “A” plus up swipe to turn on an alarm and an “A” plus a down swipe to disable it. Sadly, the functionality won’t be available for the launch of the first generation, though it’s likely to come in time for the second generation, along with a software update for early adopters. Interested parties can support the company via Kickstarter right now — Ube’s a bit over halfway to its goal of $280,000, with 24 days to go. You can also watch Baldwin discuss the product and today’s news in a video after the break. Gallery: Ube WiFi Smart Dimmer hands-on Comments Source: Kickstarter

View original post here:
Ube WiFi Smart Dimmer to recieve customized multitouch gesture control

Netflix changes its public API program by ending it, will no longer issue new dev keys

Once upon a time, Netflix was proud enough of its public API which enabled third-party services and apps to serve up its data and content in different ways that it opened a gallery to display them. Unfortunately, times have changed since 2009 — the old App Gallery is gone and now, so is public API access for new developers. A blog post indicates the API is now focused on supporting Netflix’s official clients on the many devices its customers use to stream movies, not hobbyist projects for managing ones queue or finding new movies to watch. While those already in place should still work since existing keys will remain active, the developer forums are being set to read-only, no new keys are being issued and new partners are no longer being accepted. The move is reminiscent of recent changes by Twitter , where as each company has grown it’s decided having control over the user experience through its own official apps outweighs allowing the community to build and extend access as it sees fit. We’re sad to see the program go, as many of these tools assisted Netflix members in ways the official website and apps either never did, or no longer do after the features were removed . Even though Netflix relies on its own secret sauce for recommendations, we’ve always found it hard to beat InstantWatcher’s curated lists (by year, Rotten Tomatoes rating, critic’s picks, titles most recently added by other users and more) to find a video, and FeedFliks was indispensable for monitoring exactly how valuable the service is until its features were cut down by API changes. They provided an edge the competition like Amazon Prime and Redbox couldn’t match, but we’ll have to wait and see if this change is noticed by enough subscribers to matter — we’ve seen how that can go . Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Netflix Developer Blog

Movie studios sign on for satellite-based digital delivery to theaters

We doubt we’ll see any reduction in ticket prices, but the process of bringing new movies to theaters could get easier very soon as five major studios have signed on with the Digital Cinema Distribution Coalition (DCDC) to use its satellite distribution network. Lionsgate, Universal, Disney, Warner and Paramount are all on board with the scheme, which says it will provide participants access to “a host of delivery options” as digital projection becomes increasingly common . The Hollywood Reporter quotes spokesman Randolph Blotky saying the network is expected to reach 300 locations when it launches this summer, all of which will be equipped with an appliance from video distributor KenCast. The satellite end of things is being handled by EchoStar/Deluxe, and once it’s rolled out should make things much easier than the current system of shipping hard drives back and forth. Of course, what we’re not hearing so far is if/how this upgrade will reach smaller, older theaters that are facing pricey upgrades from film-based equipment, but with theater chains like AMC, Regal and Cinemark forming the DCDC along with Universal and Warner, those considerations are probably a little further down the list. Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: The Hollywood Reporter

View article:
Movie studios sign on for satellite-based digital delivery to theaters

FreedomPop’s pseudo-free home WiMAX goes live

FreedomPop tempted users with the prospect of free home internet access — free after buying the hardware, that is — back in December. If you’ve been champing at the bit ever since, you’ll be glad to know that the more stationary service is at last live. As promised, you’ll get 1GB of free data per month after picking up the $89 Hub Burst modem and router combo. That allotment won’t be useful for much more than emergency access on the desktop, but customers will have multiple avenues for raising the ceiling, whether it’s agreeing to join in promotions or simply paying for more. A starting $10 per month subscription nets a more reasonable 10GB cap, and additional plans boost the peak speed from a pokey 1.5Mbps to 8Mbps at $19 per month. We’d think carefully about leaping in when FreedomPop hopes to switch to LTE this year, but the price is low enough that the early adopter tax will be low. Filed under: Wireless , Networking Comments Source: FreedomPop

More here:
FreedomPop’s pseudo-free home WiMAX goes live

Microsoft Research brings mid-air multitouch to Kinect (video)

Shortly after the Kinect SDK first launched , it spawned a number of inspired efforts from researchers to make it do more than just track your body. Microsoft Research finally seems to be catching up to its own tech, as it just flaunted a recent project that allows fine-tuned gesture control, thanks to a newly developed talent for the motion sensing device to read whether your hand is open or closed. That let the team simulate multitouch-like capability on a PC as they air-painted basic images and manipulated Bing maps by varying their hand states. The hardware used doesn’t appear to be stock, so whether such new capability entails a rumored new version of the Kinect that may or may not appear on a (rumored) future Xbox , we’ll leave for you to decide. Filed under: Peripherals , Microsoft Comments Via: NeoWin Source: Microsoft Research

See the original article here:
Microsoft Research brings mid-air multitouch to Kinect (video)

Seagate ships its first desktop hybrid drive, third-gen laptop models

Seagate has had some skin in the hybrid hard drive game for some time, but always in 2.5-inch wide versions — great for your laptop, not so much the cavernous spaces of a gaming tower. Its just-shipping Desktop SSHD fills that gap in a nearly literal sense. Along with slotting neatly into a 3.5-inch bay, the larger SSHD carries both 2TB of spinning storage and 8GB of flash to speed up disk-intensive tasks without throwing away capacity (or money) on a pure solid-state drive. It should be as much as four times faster than conventional desktop drives, Seagate claims. Whether or not that’s true, the firm isn’t neglecting its portable-owning friends: it’s shipping a new 1TB, regular-height Laptop SSHD and a 500GB, 7mm (0.28-inch) Laptop Thin SSHD, either of which is up to 40 percent faster than its predecessor. Seagate hasn’t mentioned pricing for any of the drives at this stage, although it’s safe to presume they’ll undercut SSDs with equivalent space. Filed under: Desktops , Laptops , Storage Comments Source: Seagate

View the original here:
Seagate ships its first desktop hybrid drive, third-gen laptop models

Canonical announces Mir, a custom display server that will serve up future versions of Unity

The X Window Server has been serving Linux users faithfully for the better part of a decade. And Ubuntu has been using the standard-issue display server to push its GUI to monitors across the globe since its color scheme was more sludge than slick . Canonical originally planned to replace the aging X with another display server called Wayland, but the developers apparently couldn’t bend the compositing-friendly protocol to their cross-device whims. So, Mir was created. The goal for Mir is to easily scale from the TV, to the desktop, to tablets and phones while providing “efficient support for graphics co-processors.” That means Canonical is relying heavily on GPU acceleration, which will require the cooperation of manufacturers like NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm and others. As part of the cross-form factor convergence, Unity will be getting a rewrite entirely in QT and QML (the current version uses a Nux-based shell on the desktop). The Unity Next project will incorporate several core components from the Ubuntu Touch interface, inching the Linux OS closer to its goal of a truly unified codebase. Mir should make its debut on the mobile variants of Ubuntu soon, with Canonical aiming to get the UI unified and stable in time for the next LTS in April of 2014. For some more technical details check out the source links. Filed under: Software , HD , Mobile Comments Via: OMG Ubuntu 1 , 2 Source: Ubuntu 1 , 2

Bing Maps revamped with ocean topography, updated satellite imagery

Ballmer an Co. have loaded up Bing Maps with yet another batch of images , and though they’re staying quiet about the update’s file size this time, they say it includes 13,799,276 square kilometers of fresh high-res satellite shots and a better view of the ocean floor. Brand-new “straight down” photos give the base map a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, and the introduction of bathymetric imagery changes the ocean’s hue depending on its depth. The refresh even contains fewer clouds, giving users a less obstructed view of Earth. Thanks to additional aerial photos covering 203,271 square kilometers, Microsoft’s map service now covers the entirety of the US and 90 percent of Western Europe with pictures taken from aircraft. Armchair cartographers ready to explore the world remotely can find the revamped visuals already baked into Bing Maps online and within the service’s Windows 8 app. Filed under: Internet , Software , Microsoft Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Bing Maps Blog

More here:
Bing Maps revamped with ocean topography, updated satellite imagery

Ken May

Tag: the-end