Posts Tagged ‘blackberry’

Another high-level HTC executive has left the company. CNET reports that HTC Asia’s CEO Lennard Hoornik has now parted ways with the company after being on leave for two months. Hoornik was in charge of HTC’s Asian operations for just two years. It’s not clear why he was on leave, nor is it known whose decision the exit was

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HTC Asia CEO Lennard Hoornik joins executive exodus

A new report from Oxfam estimates that at least $18.47 trillion is being held by individuals in so-called “tax haven” countries across the globe. The international agency says that a large bulk of that (approximately $12.29 trillion) can be traced to the EU. Oxfam says if you were to add all of that up, it’d be enough to end extreme poverty twice over. “These figures put the UK at the centre of a global tax system that is a colossal betrayal of people here and in the poorest countries who are struggling to get by, and put the government on the side of the privileged few,” said Emma Seery, Oxfam’s Head of Development Finance and Public Services

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Oxfam claims $18.47 trillion held in ‘tax havens’ as EU leaders meet to discuss solutions

Despite being a driving source of interest in books, films, or TV shows, fanfiction faces an uncertain reaction from authors. Some have embraced it, others have tacitly accepted it, and a few have lashed out at fanfiction writers. But so far, virtually no one has done what bookseller Amazon now promises: offered to pay them for writing in other people’s universes. ” Kindle Worlds ,” announced just now, is an offshoot of Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing program.

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Amazon will start publishing fanfiction for ‘Gossip Girl’ and other books with Kindle Worlds

Earlier this year, Microsoft discontinued its Xbox Live Gold Family Pack , an option for families to purchase multiple Gold memberships at a reduced rate. It now appears that it’s making its way back to the Xbox One in one way or another. Polygon reports that multiple accounts will be able to share an Xbox Live Gold membership from a console. “Anybody who has usage privilege on that machine can use it,” says Microsoft’s Phil Harrison, indicating that the system could be familiar to the Family Pack method of assigning Xbox Live Gold to additional accounts. Discussing the family aspect, Harrison describes a way for a father and son to have separate accounts while sharing the same Xbox Live Gold subscription.

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Xbox One lets households share one Xbox Live Gold subscription across multiple accounts

As the Xbox 360 aged, rumors swirled around Microsoft’s next-generation console. Would we see an Xbox 720? An Xbox Infinity? A Nextbox?

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Microsoft Xbox One: everything you need to know

Leap Motion debuted in June 2012 with an impressively polished demo , but after its attention-getting debut, the company’s path to market has been a bit rockier. It’s had to woo partners on both the software and hardware side, while navigating an often unpredictable production process and at least one major delay. They’ve attracted big-name partners like Best Buy, Asus and Corel, but will it be enough to convince users to sign on for a new way of controlling their computers? Continue reading…

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Leap Motion’s quest to bring gesture control to the PC

Dr. Terrence Early, a psychiatrist in Santa Barbara, CA, is convinced he’s found the holy grail of care for severely depressed patients — those who’ve tried a litany of antidepressants, and even electroconvulsive therapy, to no avail. “These are the very sickest patients,” Early, who estimates that he’s treated 80 people over 500 sessions with the method, says. “And the results have been dumbfounding.” Continue reading…

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The Special K cure: new tests show club drug’s promise for treating severe depression

In yet another sign of just how crowded the mobile payments market is becoming, Boost Mobile today launched its own mobile wallet app. Dubbed (predictably) Mobile Wallet, the new service allows customers of the Sprint -owned MVNO to make payments in over 135 countries and set up bill payments with more than 3,500 companies across the US. Of course, it also lets you re-up any of your Boost cellular accounts. Continue reading…

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Boost Mobile launches mobile wallet app, offers prepaid Visa card for in-store purchases

Nigel Warren, the New York tenant who ended up in trouble with the city after renting his room out on Airbnb , just got some bad news. A judge on the city’s Environmental Control Board (ECB), which arbitrates these matters, has found Warren’s landlord guilty of the violation and fined him $2,400. Although the fine was issued to the landlord, Warren officially accepted responsibility.

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New York City issues $2,400 fine for renting on Airbnb, but the law is still unclear

After launching an all-new app for iOS last December, Flickr is finally giving its Android offering a similar overhaul. Announced moments ago on stage at Yahoo’s New York City event , the revamped Flickr for Android is available today for both phones and tablets. “The new Flickr for Android maintains your photos’ original quality, so every image you take, edit, share, or view on your phone or tablet looks spectacular,” wrote CEO Marissa Mayer in a Tumblr post announcing the update.

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Flickr launches redesigned Android app for smartphones and tablets

Samsung appears to be making good on its promise to port Galaxy S4 features to the Galaxy S III . A test Android 4.2.2 update, discovered by SamMobile , includes the lockscreen effects and widgets, enhanced screen modes, updated settings, and new S Voice control features found in Samsung’s new flagship. Samsung previously said it would include updates that were “not dependent on hardware,” ruling out gestures like Air View and the smart TV remote app. Continue reading…

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Galaxy S III software leak reveals potential S4-class upgrades

Since the 1960s and PanAm’s ill-fated Moon Flights Club, commercial passenger flights to space have been a tantalizing dream, one that’s expected to finally come to fruition within the next year. For its cover story this week, New York Magazine takes an in-depth look at the industry, including interviews with Buzz Aldrin, Richard Branson, and several others. In it, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides discusses Branson’s plans to bring his entire family, including his 88-year-old mother to space with him, which will likely happen “by the end of the year,” says Branson. Aldrin also discusses his criticism of fellow Apollo generation astronauts eager for the US to return to the moon while staunchly supporting plans to establish a… Continue reading…

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Inside the private push for consumer space travel

If you’re both a gamer and a self-professed football fan, odds are you’ll be buying Madden this year — just like any other. For those who’ve already committed to purchasing the $99.99 Anniversary Edition of Madden 25 , Amazon is undoubtedly the best spot to place a pre-order. Because in addition to providing bonus in-game content, the online retailer has also partnered up with DirecTV for some exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket offers. Amazon’s edition of Madden will grant new DirecTV customers $10 off their monthly bill for a year, tossing in the NFL Sunday Ticket Max package at no additional cost. Alongside the RedZone channel, Max also gives you full access to live season games on your computer, tablet, or smartphone

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Amazon-exclusive ‘Madden 25 Anniversary Edition’ includes free NFL Sunday Ticket offer

Twice a month in California’s Mojave desert, anyone can spend half a day in a war zone. The Fort Irwin National Training Center is meant to give soldiers a crash course in realistic combat before they deploy. The thousand-square-mile base contains everything from fake towns to caves for “insurgents” drawn from a regiment whose role is to provide an opposing force, no matter who the US is fighting.

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Inside Fort Irwin, fake cities provide a training ground for real warfare

Earlier this year, Verizon announced some new 3G prepaid plans for $60 and $70 dollars that offered 500MB and 2GB of data, respectively. Now, it looks like the company has silently bumped those allotments up to 2GB and 4GB without touching the price. Android Central reports that the changes go into effect immediately for those with existing plans, but new customers won’t get hold of the new rates until June 6th. It’s a nice bump, but you can probably find lower prices and higher caps elsewhere , although your best option will depend on the coverage in your area

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Verizon extends $60 and $70 prepaid plans to 2GB and 4GB of data

Google and other tech companies have come under fire for exploiting a common tax loophole to book revenues through their Irish subsidiaries, but today The Sunday Times is reporting that a former Google UK executive has evidence of further tax avoidance by his one-time employer. Barney Jones worked for Google between 2002 and 2006 and says that during his time at the company, Google relied almost exclusively on its UK sales staff to secure advertising deals in London, effectively closing deals there rather than in Dublin, where it booked the revenues. Google VP Matt Brittin had previously testified to the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that “nobody” at Google’s UK office was selling Google advertising, last week revising his… Continue reading…

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Former Google UK exec alleges company misrepresented sales to avoid paying taxes

With the PlayStation 4, Sony is trying to lower the friction in buying games from PSN by letting you start playing games while they’re still downloading . Now it looks like the new feature will actually make it to the PlayStation 3 in time for the PSN release of Naughty Dog’s anticipated The Last of Us on June 14th. Speaking with Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley, Game Informer reports that the game will be playable once 50 percent of the content has been downloaded, cutting wait time in half. Onstage at its big PlayStation 4 announcement in February, PS4 lead system architect Mark Cerny said that players would only have to download “just a fraction” of a game’s content before starting to… Continue reading…

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PS4′s ‘play while downloading’ feature arrives on PS3 first with ‘The Last of Us’

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What would you like to see Google do next after I/O? – Verge Forums

To call something “propaganda” is to connote a laughably unsubtle attempt at mind control, from the kind of nasty stereotypes mocked in BioShock Infinite to a hilariously redubbed North Korean propaganda video that many thought was real — precisely because we expect such attempts to be ham-fisted and idiotic. At The Guardian , Eliane Glaser argues that we should be looking instead at how behavioral science, advertising, and even memes can nudge us in certain directions. “The notion that propaganda is always a state-run, top-down affair provides a cloak for our complicity,” she writes. “Social media’s veneer of openness and people-power exemplifies western propaganda’s habit of masquerading as its opposite.” Continue reading…

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What’s the difference between consumer marketing and propaganda?

Every time a reality TV star’s mouth is pixelated to obscure a curse, the producers are using a technique pioneered for Yul Brynner’s killer robot in Westworld . John Whitney Jr., who created the effect for director and writer Michael Crichton, wanted to simulate how an android might see the world. To do so, he divided the screen into tiny squares, calculating the average color of each one, and filling them with that color, creating a shifting low-resolution version of normal vision.

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How ‘Westworld’s’ killer android created movie pixelation

It appears that Canada will become the latest country to look into the business practices of search giant Google. The Financial Post reports that Canada’s Competition Bureau — a law-enforcement agency focused on ensuring competitive conditions in the marketplace — has notified Google that it will be investigating the company’s Canadian operations. It’s not clear at this time what the scope of the investigation will be, or what specific Google products and services will be targeted. The investigation will follow a series of other Google investigations, including ones launched by the Federal Trade Commission and EU regulators. Google reached a settlement with the FTC earlier this year; the company offered to make changes to address EU..

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Google’s business practices to be investigated by Canadian Competition Bureau

Dell introduced Project Ophelia to the world at CES back in January , and now it’s revealed shipping timeframes for the Android-powered MHL stick. Ophelia will ship in May to developers, with cable providers and telecoms able to buy it in July. A consumer release will follow shortly thereafter. When it does ship, the tiny device (about the same size as a portable USB stick) will convert any HDMI-ready display into an Android computer. Naturally Google Play is built right in, so you’ll have access to your entire library of Android software

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Dell’s Project Ophelia will turn any HDTV into an Android computer this May

NASA’s Curiosity rover has stolen much of the spotlight on Mars lately with its discoveries of once-watery environments and strange, door-handle shaped rocks . But this week, NASA’s older rover Opportunity drove into the history books , becoming the furthest NASA object to travel on the surface of another body in the solar system. Opportunity’s total 22.22 miles driven on Mars since landing there January 2004 is still short of the all-time record for interplanetary driving, the 23 miles that the Soviet Union’s Lunokhod 2 rover drove over the surface of the Moon in 1973. But Opportunity’s long journey beats NASA’s previous record, the 19.3 miles that NASA astronauts traveled in the Apollo 17 lunar rover in 1972.

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Mars rover Opportunity breaks record for longest NASA drive off Earth

After four years in office, FCC Chair Julius Genachowski is stepping down today. Genachowski pioneered an ambitious plan for rural broadband and a shift towards net neutrality, but his leadership was also seen by some as plodding and ineffective. Regardless, in a candid interview with The New Yorker, Genachowski says he remains an optimist, though he acknowledges limits to how far he was able to change national policy during his tenure.

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FCC Chair Julius Genachowski steps down today, but what will he leave behind?

Video game publisher Electronic Arts had already suggested that its upcoming Star Wars games might not be coming to the Nintendo Wii U , but it looks like the situation is more dire than that. EA tells Kotaku that the company is not currently making any games for the Wii U, period. “We have no games in development for the Wii U currently,” spokesman Jeff Brown told the publication.

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Electronic Arts is no longer developing games for Nintendo’s Wii U