flip side
New speech-jamming gun hints at dystopian Big Brother future
www.extremetech.com
Japanese researchers have created a hand-held gun (pictured above) that can jam the words of speakers who are more than 30 meters (100ft) away. The gun has two purposes, according to the researchers: At its most basic, this gun could be used in libraries and other quiet spaces to stop...
Netshelter launches inPowered Stories that earn money for influential tech bloggers
thenextweb.com
When you’re considering buying a new laptop or trading in your phone for a newer model, it is likely that you’ll look at pricing and offers with e-retailers, but you’re also probably going to check out the views of your favourite and trusted tech blogger. If they slam the latest...
Microsoft creates Kinect-like system using your laptop’s built-in speaker & microphone
www.extremetech.com
Not one to be outdone by Disney’s any-surface touch interface, Microsoft Research, working with the University of Washington, has developed a Kinect-like system that uses your computer’s built-in microphone and speakers to provide object detection and gesture recognition, much in the same way that a submarine uses sonar.Called SoundWave, the...
Friday: A Personal Assistant That Remembers What You’ve Done
techcrunch.com
In the spirit of connecting your phone’s activity to the cloud, a trend that has inspired one of this week’s more interesting launches, Phonedeck, there now comes another application that wants to automatically track your activity in order to provide a history of your communications, additional analysis, and even a...
Apple seizes on Samsung internal document as proof of mimicry
www.engadget.com
Much as Apple would love for Kwon Oh-hyun to turn up at court and tearfully confess to being a copycat, that's probably not going to happen. Instead, Cupertino's lawyers are burrowing through Samsung's history in search of a legal smoking gun, and one of their latest submissions has been...
Getting Into (Data-Tracking) Gear With Nike+ FuelBand
allthingsd.com
Despite the fact that I’m a writer, which conjures up images of long days glued to the desk, I consider myself to be pretty active, and I try to maintain momentum by working out regularly. So I’ve been intrigued by the newest wave of wearable health and fitness products meant...
SoFi Reinvents College Loans With Alumni Funding
techcrunch.com
As the cost of a college education continues to rise, a startup called SoFi is offering a way for alumni to offer students financial assistance and more. Co-founder and CEO Mike Cagney describes the current student loan system as a “classic market failure,” resulting in students who are stuck with...
Valve confirms Steam and Source for Linux, signals low confidence for Windows 8
www.extremetech.com
At long last, Valve has confirmed that Linux ports of both Steam and the Source engine are in active development, and should be released later this year. These are native solutions that run directly on Linux, without any kind of Wine-like emulation. Left 4 Dead 2 will be the first...
Why Tech's Hunger For Overnight Hits Is Bad For Business
www.fastcompany.com
Tech is becoming a hits-driven business. This isn't a good thing.illustration by stephan walter No one waited in line to buy the first iPod. It took a year and a half for Apple's shiny, pricey music player to hit its millionth sale, and nothing about its trajectory (2002 sales, for...
Newvem pulls back the curtain on Amazon cloud usage
gigaom.com
Startup Newvem has some new cloud usage data that might surprise the Amazon Web Services faithful. Newvem looked at how about 200 customers were using AWS and the results show that a large number are not getting the biggest bang for their buck Amazon is seen as the low-cost public cloud provider of...
Watch out, Raspberry Pi: Intel unveils ultra-small Next Unit of Computing PC
www.extremetech.com
Details of a new, ultra-compact computer form factor from Intel, called the Next Unit of Computing (NUC) are starting to emerge.First demonstrated at PAX East at the beginning of April, and Intel’s Platinum Summit in London last week, NUC is a complete 10x10cm (4x4in) Sandy Bridge Core i3/i5 computer. On...
Estimize Takes Stock Gamification One Step Further With Challenges
techcrunch.com
Estimize is a startup trying to discover the true “whisper number” of public stocks — not just the official analyst consensus, but what Wall Street really believes. To make that happen, it’s encouraging investors to post their own estimates — and they’re getting a little more incentive starting today, thanks...
Roundup of OS X Mountain Lion Reviews: 'Faster and Smoother', 'Incremental', 'Bargain at Twice the Price'
www.macrumors.com
With Apple having launched OS X Mountain Lion to the public today, reviews of the company's latest Mac operating system have begun pouring in. Many of the reviews are quite extensive, but we've selected a few choice excerpts to highlight general reaction to the release. - John Siracusa, Ars TechnicaThe...
Roundup of OS X Mountain Lion Reviews: 'Faster and Smoother', 'Incremental', 'Bargain at Twice the Price'
Samsung’s Galaxy Note ranked the most effective US advert of the year so far
thenextweb.com
According to Ace Metrix analytics, one of the most effective ads in Q1 in 2012 was Samsung’s Galaxy Note ad, ‘The Best of a Phone and a Tablet’. Using its television analytics system, Ace Metrix is able to measure an ad’s effectiveness, and each ad is given an ‘Ace Score’....
Google Now Offers a Monthly Account Activity Report
www.readwriteweb.com
Google just launched a new opt-in feature called Account Activity, which sends users a detailed monthly report full of analytics about their logged in use of Google. The user receives a Web link to a password-protected report. The report displays data like login locations, browsers, platforms, changes to login credentials,...
NFC Cometh? 1M Android NFC Devices Shipping Each Week, And Prototypes Show iPhone 5 Is Next
techcrunch.com
Google I/O is in full swing, and news has been pouring out at a fairly steady pace: Tony Stark Sergey finally demoed Google Glass, Google Drive passed 10 million users and is available on iOS, and we all got a look at Jelly Bean — to name a few. Yet,...
Korean startups still fight against the stigma of failure
venturebeat.com
In Silicon Valley, people fail. And they fail often. But one of the elements of Silicon Valley that makes it a petri dish for startups is the tolerance for failure. In Korea, however, this is still a taboo, which needs to be overcome in order to grow the country’s...
Shufflr Brings Its Social Video App To the iPad
techcrunch.com
A startup called Althea Systems wants to reinvent the way we find videos online. Its app Shufflr is already available on desktops, the Web, iPhone, and Android, and today it’s launching on the iPad. Shufflr co-founder Rajnish (he goes by a single name) isn’t shy about his larger ambition. In...
And Now There’s A Kickstarter For Porn
techcrunch.com
Well, Kickstarter, it looks like you’ve finally arrived. And I don’t just mean that you launched 27K projects, saw $99 million pledged, or attracted 30 million+ visitors last year — all of which equalled a sizable increase in activity on your compared to the year prior. No, I mean that...
MBA Mondays: Guest Post From Susan Loh
www.avc.com
When I introduced this series on People, I stated that it was going to have a bunch of guest posts because there are many people who know a lot more about the people side of business than I do. One of them is Susan Loh who is Head of Talent...
Better search said to be in the works at Facebook
venturebeat.com
[/caption] Seek and you shall find is the promise of an improved Facebook search engine said to be in works at the world’s largest social network. Roughly 24 Facebook engineers, on a team led by the company’s engineering director Lars Rasmussen (also a former Google engineering manager), are working to...
Despite The Name, Report Finds “Mobile Games” Are Played Most Often At Home
techcrunch.com
Casual and mobile games company Miniclip has teamed up with app monetization platform and ad server MoPub, today releasing a joint study on the behavior of mobile gamers, breaking the group down by age, gender, and content preference. The biggest surprise from the study came in this little nugget of...
LAWYER: Never "Pin" A Photo On Pinterest That You Don't Own
www.businessinsider.com
As Pinterest continues to try to figure out ways to argue that its photo-stealing pinning service is legal, lawyers keep freaking out about it. Two weeks ago, a lawyer read Pinterest's Terms of Service, realized that she could be held responsible for copyright theft, and then deleted all of...
Keeping daughters off the pole made much harder with Pole Dancer Pro app rated at 12+ years
9to5mac.com
Some interesting debate from the UK’s Sun this morning on the new Pole Dancer Pro app aimed at users 12 years old and above. Says one opponent, “I’m all for encouraging new ways of helping people to keep fit, but do we really want to create a generation of children...
At TechCrunch Disrupt, Startup Alley Is Where the Shoot-outs Happen
techcrunch.com
Well folks, while you think all the action is on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, the flip side of the coin is the enormous amount of buzz, energy and networking that happens in Startup Alley. Today there are 44 companies exhibiting in the Alley itself, not to mention the 20+ companies...
Think BYOD is an issue? Wait for Stealth IT
gigaom.com
The acronym BYOD, which stands for bring your own device, is taking over both corporate America and the press release filter in my inbox. But an analyst report out Monday suggests that BYOD has a flip side that no one talks about — Stealth IT, or the IT pro side...
Here's How To Figure Out Which New MacBook You Should Buy (AAPL)
www.businessinsider.com
Apple unveiled a new fleet of MacBook laptops today, updating the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and unveiling a brand new MacBook Pro with a Retina display. So, which one should you buy? It comes down to what's most important to you. We'll do our best to walk you through the...
New Wi-Fi standard means better vehicle support, improved cell handoff
gigaom.com
The ubiquitous Wi-Fi standard officially improved on Monday, with the IEEE publishing its fourth revision to 802.11. The updates include faster throughput, improved cellular hand-offs, and better communication between vehicles in addition to other improvements. Once considered a secondary connection compared to wired Ethernet, Wi-Fi is becoming a dominant wireless protocol...
How far is too far to invest? Your plane’s Wi-Fi may dictate new growth
gigaom.com
(L to R) John Vironis, Managing Director, Lightspeed Ventures; Michael Skok, General Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners; Frank Artale, Managing Director, Ignition Partners(c)2012 Pinar Ozger pinar@pinarozger.com How far are investors willing to go to invest? As long as they get wifi on their flights, the borders are extending further, they told...
How's Skype Doing At MSFT? Usage Jumps 50%, Users Logged 115B Minutes Of Calls Last Quarter
techcrunch.com
In May of last year, Microsoft acquired everybody’s favorite VoIP and chat provider, Skype, for a cool $8.5 billion. It was a big move for Microsoft and a landmark deal, which it officially closed in October. Yet, as Frederic pointed out this morning, other than getting to wear the brand’s...
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