5 SECONDS OF SUMMER

Michael Clifford Fires Back at Abigail Breslin's Diss Track

Stars Most Stylish Selfie of the Week

Stars Most Stylish Selfie of the Week

GMAIL BLOCKED IN CHINA

5-Minute Outfit Idea

5-Minute Outfit Idea: An Effortless, Polished Look to Try This Weekend.

Facebook suffers outage

Facebook suffers outage affecting users worldwide!! .

Friday, 31 October 2014

Android co-founder Andy Rubin to leave Google

Android co-founder Andy Rubin to leave Google

reuters

Google Inc said on Thursday that Andy Rubin, co-founder of its Android mobile business and head of its nascent robotics effort is leaving the company.
Rubin will start a company to support startups interested in building technology-hardware products, Google said in an emailed response for comment on a Wall Street Journal report about his move.
James Kuffner, a research scientist at Google and a member of the robotics group, will replace Rubin, the company added.
Last year, Google's browser and applications chief Sundar Pichai replaced Rubin as head of the Android division, bringing the firm's mobile software, applications and Chrome browser under one roof.
Rubin built Android into a free, open-source software platform now used by most of the world's largest handset manufacturers, from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to HTC Corp.
(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in Bangalore; Editing by Richard Chang)

Taylor Swift Dresses Like a Pegacorn For Halloween

Taylor Swift Dresses Like a Pegacorn For Halloween




Taylor Swift rocks a cute Halloween costume while making an appearance atThe Elvis Duran Z100 Morning Show at Z100 Studio on Friday (October 31) in New York City.
The 24-year-old singer was on the show to promote her new album 1989, which dropped on Monday!


“Cause, darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a PEGACORN. #HappyHalloween!”Taylor wrote on Instagram with a pic of herself standing in an elevator.
With her caption, 

Taylor is referencing her latest single “Blank Space,” which includes lyrics, “But you’ll come back each time you leave, ’cause, darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.”

Daniel Radcliffe Has Never Been Trick-Or-Treating!

Daniel Radcliffe Has Never Been Trick-Or-Treating!



Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe revealed during his interview on The Ellen Show that he has never been Trick-Or-Treating on Halloween. While Daniel said that he celebrated Halloween as a kid by going to parties and getting candy, he never went door to door dressed in a costume!
To make up for it Daniel dressed as Star Wars character Boba Fett during his appearance with Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen was also dressed up - as George Clooney and his new wife Amal Alamuddin. We love this!

Taylor Swift Brings Her Dancing Skills to 'Black Widow'

Taylor Swift Brings Her Dancing Skills to 'Black Widow'



It wouldn’t be Taylor Swift if she didn’t bust out some of her classic dance moves for a song.
While visiting On Air with Ryan Seacrest, the 24-year-old singer danced in her chair while Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora‘s hit song “Black Widow” played on the radio.

After showing off her moves, Taylor toldRyan that she loved Iggy and even got a tweet from her after 1989 dropped.
“is taylor swift going to be the first artist with a 2014 new release to go platinum? i hope so! if no1 does it ill be depressed 4 music,” Iggy tweeted.

Samsung's all-metal Galaxy A5 and A3 are its slimmest smartphones ever

Samsung's all-metal Galaxy A5 and A3 are its slimmest smartphones ever

Mat Smith
Engadget

A unibody metal body, 5-inch AMOLED display, 13-megapixel camera, a claim as Samsung's "thinnest smartphone to date" and yet, this isn't a flagship smartphone. Especially for Halloween - or not related at all - the Galaxy A5 and A3 yet more smartphones from Samsung, measuring at 6.7mm and 6.9mm thickness. (So, er, just as thin as the Galaxy Alpha?) They may not be close to the thinnest smartphone but with a metallic body, it's still quite an interesting proposition. They're both apparently geared at the youth, with Samsung's own press release praising its social network skills (extending to a GIF maker and 4G connectivity...) and the five-megapixel front-facing camera, because selfies, but given the notion of a metal-framed Galaxy phone, other crankier demographics might also be tempted.
The Galaxy A5 is the five-inch model, with a 720p Super AMOLED display and a 1.2GHz processor -- it's a relatively middleweight specification but it's probably what ensures Samsung were able to squeeze down the dimensions. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A3 has a 4.5-inch qHD Super AMOLED screen, and the same processor. The camera here dips down to a 8-megapixel model, but you'll still get the full 5MP whack of the front-facing camera. Both devices are set to launch in China next month, with other select markets to follow, although like many a Galaxy phone before them, we might not see a mainstream launch in the west.
Samsung

Google Android 5 Lollipop review - faster, prettier and better battery life

Google Android 5 Lollipop review - faster, prettier and better battery life

Samuel Gibbs
The Guardian 


Google’s new version of its tablet and smartphone operating system “Lollipop” is the fifth version of Android, introducing new features and tweaks that collectively give the user the feeling that quite a lot has been improved.
Unveiled as “L” at Google’s developer conference I/O in June to replace Android 4.4 “KitKat, Android 5 Lollipop was revealed alongside Google’s new design ethos called “Material”.
Material Design is a new consistent look for Google’s apps, products and services, which stretches beyond Android to Google’s Chrome browser and Chrome OS software for low-cost laptops. The basic premise is a bolder, more colourful and flat look to icons, notifications and other interface elements.
This review is based on a very near final version of Lollipop released by Google for testing. Small things may change before release.

Smooth sliding

For Lollipop that means the use of much brighter, fuller colours than the previous version of Android and a more consistent look. Menu bars are one solid block of colour, icons are highly stylised and flat, while interface “cards” first introduced with Google Now are used throughout, floating and sliding over the top of each other adding depth.
Every bit of the interface looks different, including the background which now changes colour depending on the time of day in some apps, and some slick new sliding animations which add motion to many of Android’s responses.
The lockscreen smoothly slides up and down, with button taps pulsing with white circles. Apps now slide up from the bottom, while the notification shade is pulled down in two stages, one for notifications and a second for quick settings. The second stage has a particularly pleasing animation that reveals battery and settings icons, sliding out from the user profile icon.
Lollipop’s animations. All the animations are fast and fluid, giving Android a sense of urgency and stopping them from getting in the way of getting things done.

More than just one user


More than one user can have an account on devices. Photograph: Screengrab Beyond the obvious colourful difference, Lollipop introduces a couple of important features into the core Android experience.
The first is multiple user accounts on one device. Some Android tablets have had support for more than one user, but smartphones and other devices have been limited to a single user account.
Now multiple user accounts can be set up straight from the quick settings screen, including temporary guest accounts, making sharing a device within a family much easier. The user accounts are very basic at the moment – there are no parental control settings beyond restricted accounts that can limit for instance – but each user will have their own accounts and data inside their profile, which can be password protected.


Restricted profiles can block access to certain apps and functions. Photograph: Screengrab Setting up a new device is now a lot easier for owners of older Android smartphones and tablets. Simply tapping another Android device on the back will transfer settings, apps and accounts as long as both support near field communication (NFC), which almost every Android device will.
It is a one-touch procedure, which works well and takeaway much of the headache of swapping to a new smartphone or tablet.

Notification filters


Each app can be blocked from displaying notifications, or added to the priority list. Photograph: Screengrab Multitasking has also been enhanced with a new card system. Each app can show more than one card allowing users to switch to an open message or back to the inbox, for example – not just to one view in the app.
Notifications from any number of apps can now be filtered by priority on an app-by-app basis. Instead of letting any notification through, users can choose to let only important messages from favourite contacts to show or prevent any notifications from showing.
Users can set up quiet periods through the day or week, or activate the feature on an ad hoc basis – not something that is new to Android devices, but the first time it has been integrated into the core Android experience.

Longer battery life


The power saving mode turns the status bar orange to indicate it’s active, inhibiting some apps while the screen is off. Photograph: Screengrab Lollipop also promises to help prolong smartphone and tablet battery life by being more efficient and tougher on battery-draining apps. It uses a new version of the underlying software called Art that powers apps, which is both faster and lighter on resources.
A pre-release version of Lollipop installed on a Nexus 5 smartphone made the battery last around a quarter longer, with others finding even longer gains of over 35% or two hours in tests. Users should see their smartphones and tablets lasting significantly longer after being updated.
A built-in “battery saver” mode aims to help the device last as long as possible by reducing processor performance and disabling use of data in the background; email and messaging apps will still update when opened, but may not while not active. It can be enabled manually or automatically at 15% battery remaining.
Battery saving modes are not new, as many smartphone manufacturers including Samsung, Sony and LG have built their own systems for reducing battery consumption, but now it is baked directly into the unmodified Android experience.

Better unlocking

Google has added new ways users can login to devices. Face unlock, which uses the front-facing camera of the smartphone or tablet to recognise the users face to unlock the device, has been altered so it runs in the background. As the user looks through notifications on the lockscreen, the device attempts to recognise the face, but if it can’t it will prompt for a pin or password when the user tries to go past the the lock screen.
Bluetooth devices such as headphones, speakers and smartwatches, as well as NFC tags, can be used to unlock the device automatically. When leaving the range of the trusted device the smartphone or tablet will re-lock, requiring a passcode.
Both login methods work well and can alleviate some of the irritations of keeping a device secure.

Where and when will it be available?


Google’s latest Nexus smartphone is a 6in phablet made by Motorola. Photograph: Google The first devices to run Lollipop will be Google’s Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet, which will be available in the next few weeks. Google’s Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus 5 smartphone will also be updated in the next month.
After Google’s release of Lollipop, other manufacturers will have to make the updated software available for their devices on a case-by-case basis, likely a couple of months later. Motorola has pledged an upgrade for its Moto G, X and E, HTC for its One M8 and older M7, while Samsung is expected to update the Galaxy S5 and Note 4 and LG the G3.

Verdict

Lollipop is a complete visual overhaul of the standard Android look, making it a much smoother, more coherent and connected experience – a big step up compared to previous iterations of Google’s software.
It is also faster, lighter on battery and adds a lot of what third-party manufacturers have had to manually bolt on to their customised versions of Android.
There are still a few areas that could be improved, mainly around app permissions and user privacy control, but overall Lollipop is a solid upgrade and keeps Android on-par with competitors.

New Outlook For Mac Now Available, Rest Of Office For Mac Updates Coming In 2015

New Outlook For Mac Now Available, Rest Of Office For Mac Updates Coming In 2015

Darrell Etherington
TechCrunch 

We’ve seen leaks of a new Office for Mac 2015 suite circulate, but the new version of Outlook for Mac is already here, at least for Office 365 subscribers. The overhauled email client includes a new look and feel, as well as search that extends to archived mail (whether stored online or on corporate servers), better all around performance, push email support and more. Microsoft also took this opportunity to make its Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote for Mac updates official, announcing public beta availability beginning early next year, with a general consumer launch in the second half of 2015.

The new Office apps for Mac will be available to Office 365 subscribers with no additional cost as part of their subscription, once released, while the company also plans to launch a perpetual license for a one-off buy at the same time as Office for Mac becomes available as final shipping software.
The new Outlook has a redesign that makes it look a lot more like its companion apps on other platforms, including Windows, and the web on both desktop and mobile. Using Outlook on a Mac is still mostly inconceivable to me, but then again, I rarely have to deal with a corporate email environment and unlike the bulk of large enterprises out there, we run a mostly Mac shop.

Microsoft’s continued commitment to Mac users is a good thing overall, since it means more platform choice for those who have need of Office software. The company seems even more committed to supporting customers beyond the Windows ecosystem than ever, thanks to the release of surprisingly impressive Office mobile apps for iPad earlier this year. Microsoft says the reason its Mac software is lagging behind its usual update schedule relative to the Windows release this time around is because it chose to focus on those mobile apps mentioned above first this time around.

Scientists can make your inner monologue audible

Scientists can make your inner monologue audible

Terrence O'Brien
Engadget



When you hear someone else speak, specific neurons in your brain fire. Brian Pasley and a bunch of his colleagues discovered this at the University of California, Berkeley. And not only that, but those neurons all appeared to be tuned to specific sound frequencies.

 So, Pasley had a thought: "If you're reading text in a newspaper or a book, you hear a voice in your own head," so why can't we decode that internal voice simply by monitoring brain activity. It's similar to the idea that led to the creation of BrainPort, which lets you "see" with your tongue. Your eyes, ears or vocal chords don't really do the heavy lifting, it's your brain. And if you can give the brain another source of input or output you might be able to train it to approximate a lost ability like speech.

Building the thought decoder began by developing an algorithm tailored to each individual subject. The participant was asked to read a passage, for instance John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, aloud to get a base reading. Then they were asked to read it to themselves. And finally, to just sit and do nothing. That allowed the team to isolate which neurons were firing when vocalizing the text. Then a visual representation of the sound waves is created and those sounds are matched with particular brain patterns. Then while the participants read silently to themselves the decoder is able to reconstruct the words based purely on what neurons are firing.

Of course, the technology is far from perfect. While the results were described as "significant" a reliable device that can translate thoughts in to words is a long way off. But the team from Berkeley is optimistic that one day they'll be able to give the gift of speech to someone who is paralyzed or "locked-in."

Ashley Tisdale Has Big News For Fans!

Ashley Tisdale Has Big News For Fans!



Ashley Tisdale has revealed that she has some really big news for her fans! Ashley took to Twitter to post the following note:

"So many exciting things happening... I can't wait to share :)"

What do YOU think Ashley is hinting about? We know that she is hard at work with her Blondie Girl Productions, her television shows "Young & Hungry" and "Buzzy's," and her fashion website. Plus she's working on new music with her husband Christopher French.

Stay tuned to find out what Ashley's big news is!

One Direction's "Night Changes" Was Written After a Huge Fight

One Direction's "Night Changes" Was Written After a Huge Fight



One Direction always insist that they're just like brothers, but a major fight inspired their new song "Night Changes"! However, according to Jamie Scott, it wasn't the guys who were doing the fighting — it was their longtime songwriters.

“One of the songs on the record came from myself falling out with Julian Bunetta and John Ryan,” he told MTV. “One night, I came down to the studio, and three songs that I thought were sounding amazing when I left had been changed drastically through the night.”

However, he says the song doesn't have anything to do about their actual fight. It's more about the weird feelings you get staying up all night.
“The song is nothing about that, but the idea and the word came from me coming in the morning, because you get a bit delirious and you never quite know what you’re doing. But it was fine and all was resolved and we had a great song title.”
We agree! Especially after hearing that it's Harry Styles' favorite song on the album.
Plus, we are seriously excited to see what they're doing with their music video, especially after watching Louis Tomlinson get "arrested" while filming it.

Find Out Ed Sheeran's Favorite Song From Taylor Swift's '1989'

Find Out Ed Sheeran's Favorite Song From Taylor Swift's '1989'


Ed Sheeran has been pretty vocal about his love for Taylor Swift's new album 1989, and now we know which track he loves the most. While appearing on the radio show On Air With Ryan Seacrest, the "Shake It Off" singer revealed that "Bad Blood" is his fave song on her album. In case you missed it, that's the track that is supposedly about her feud with Katy Perry!

“I remember individual circumstances when I would write a song and be so excited about it, so I’d play it for Ed [Sheeran]," she said. "Ed’s favorite song on the album is ‘Bad Blood.’"
“I played it for Ed as soon as I wrote it, which I think was was about a year ago,” she said. “And at that point, it was just a really basic demo track…and he was going, ‘This has to be the first single! This has to be the first single!’ And I was like, ‘Eh, we’ll see.’ But since he’s now heard the album and heard the final track, he loves it even more.”

We kind of assumed the "Thinking Out Loud" singer was on Taylor's side, but now we know for sure! They are the ultimate besties, after all. But we're wondering if he likes the song a little bit more because it's his friend's personal form of "revenge."

Thursday, 30 October 2014

Amazon Admits It Priced Its Smartphone Too High

Amazon Admits It Priced Its Smartphone Too High


An Amazon executive admitted that the company priced its smartphone too high, Fortune's JP Mangalindan reports.
"We didn’t get the price right," Amazon senior vice president of devices David Limp told Mangalindan. "I think people come to expect a great value, and we sort of mismatched expectations. We thought we had it right. But we’re also willing to say, ‘we missed.’ And so we corrected."
Amazon's Fire phone originally cost $199 but the company shot the price down to 99 cents after only a few months. In its most recent earnings call, the company admitted that it took a $170 million hit and had $83 million worth of unsold phones.
Amazon's phone boasts 3-D effects and a camera mode that can automatically identify real-world objects, but it was widely seen as a bit of a flop at launch. Limp says that several software updates since July have fixed some problems users had with the device. Despite the financial hit the smartphone caused, Amazon plans to keep working hard on the Fire phone, taking its usual long-term approach.
"When you’re taking risks, they’re not all going to pay off," Limp says. "Those are the facts." 

Wearing the Microsoft Band, the next big thing in fitness tracking

Wearing the Microsoft Band, the next big thing in fitness tracking

David Pierce
The Verge
 

I've been wearing it for two hours, and I'm still acutely aware that it's there. This is the first and most unavoidable thing you should know about the Microsoft Band: it's big, and it's heavy. It's not an object with a strap, like a smartwatch or a Fitbit; there's technology in every part of this rigid rubber band. It's not terribly uncomfortable, per se, it's just there. I don't think I'll ever stop noticing it.
The Band is, of course, Microsoft's first fitness tracker, the physical actualization of the company's grand plan to be the source of all the world's health data. The Band is part of the plan, but it's not the whole plan; the whole plan involves cross-platform apps, a machine-learning system that turns your data into "insights" about how to live better tomorrow, and a vast ecosystem of hardware and software developers collecting data and delivering insights. The Band is the first device, but it won't be the last, not even from Microsoft.

The Band looks and feels a bit like a prototype, a relatively unadorned wristband with a clever sliding clasp (so you can change how it fits without taking it off) and a 1.4-inch, 320 x 106 display on the front. There are two buttons below the display: one for waking the device, and the "action button," which you use to scroll through data or start and end a workout. I quickly paired it to my iPhone 6 via Bluetooth, downloaded the beautifully minimalist Microsoft Health app, and was off. It automatically started tracking my steps and heart rate, funneling the data back to the app every time I hit sync.

The hardware needs some work, but the software is already solid

Everything you do on the Band lives in a series of icon-sized tiles, off to the right of the screen. One screen shows me email, text, and phone call notifications (which seem to be stored until you look at them all). The next has my calendar, run information, and sleep data. You side-scroll through everything, only seeing a little at a time: I can't imagine doing very much with the Band, other than wearing it and letting it do what it does. Plus, contorting my hand to read the horizontal screen is already growing a little tiresome. It feels a little better on the underside of my wrist, but I don't really like banging a screen onto every surface I touch either. On the other hand, the interface is zippy and smooth, and the screen is very responsive; the hardware isn't terribly impressive here, but the software certainly is.

The Band is clearly a workout device

There are a few basic settings and a lot of notifications hidden among the tiles, but the Band is mostly a workout tool. I scrolled to the run icon, tapped the action button, turned on GPS, and was off. Doing the same with workouts was easy; I even downloaded a 14-minute ab workout to the Band and set out to get ripped. It worked well, tracking my movements and vitals, except that I don't know what a V-Up is. I'm pretty sure it's not "stand awkwardly and stare at your Band for eight sets of 20 seconds," but that's what I did. The Band did its job admirably, I just didn't do mine.

Throughout it all, notifications were coming in — text messages, emails, calls — and vibrating my wrist powerfully enough that there's no way I'm going to miss it. I couldn't do much other than dismiss them, since the Band doesn't connect to Siri the way it does Cortana on Windows Phone, but leaving my phone across the room is certainly nice.



I've only just scratched the surface of what the Band and Microsoft Health can do. We'll be reviewing the Band in much more detail in the coming days, but a couple of things are already clear. The Band is very much a first-version device, one that will benefit tremendously from refinement and improvement in the coming years. (Not to mention all the ways other developers will find to improve on the experience.) And much more excitingly, it's a remarkably powerful gadget. It knows my steps and my heart rate and Starbucks card information. It knows I'm doing a sit-up, it knows I'm not doing a V-Up, and it knows who's calling me. And it's going to do much more than that really soon.
Now for a nap. Let's see how that goes.

Taylor Swift Thanks Her Fans in Times Square!

Taylor Swift Thanks Her Fans in Times Square!




Taylor Swift  new album 1989 is basically the best thing to have ever happened to music fans and Swifties everywhere – all of the songs are amazing and Taylor has been killing it on social media lately promoting the album. She’s also been doing appearances to spread the word, including hanging out on the set of Good Morning America today!


Tay hit up Times Square with the show to perform for and thank her fans, and the whole place was flooded with Swifties. “Thank you Good Morning America, thank you to everyone who filled Times Square, thank you New York. #TS1989,” Taylor wrote on Instagram.
We’re sure the concert was amazing, because how could Tay ever not be? 

Shailene Woodley Reveals Her Biggest Fear

Shailene Woodley Reveals Her Biggest Fear


THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON

Actress Shailene Woodley from The Fault In Our Stars and Divergent appeared on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson and spoke about her biggest fear. While Shailene has to travel in the air a lot for work, her fear of flying keeps getting worse and worse - oh no!

Shailene spilled to Craig that she always thinks the plane is going to go down during her trips - such a scary thought! However, Craig was quick to assure Shailene that her fear is irrational as statistically speaking flying is very safe!

Selena Gomez Will Have The First Wax Figure At Madame Tussauds Orlando

Selena Gomez Will Have The First Wax Figure At Madame Tussauds Orlando

SPLASH NEWS
Great news for Selena Gomez fans! A wax figure of the Rudderless star is heading to the brand new Madame Tussauds location coming to Orlando, Florida.
Selena's wax figure will be the very first celebrity wax sculpture to be featured at the location when it opens to the public.
The new Madame Tussauds Orlando location is opening in early 2015. It's unclear if Selena has already posed for her wax figure measurements. Stay tuned!

Zayn Malik's Hair is Officially Long Enough to Tie Back In a Ponytail

Zayn Malik's Hair is Officially Long Enough to Tie Back In a Ponytail


TUMBLR
First there was a quiff. Then there was a collection of headbands. Now, Zayn Malik's hair has officially grown long enough to tie back in a casual low ponytail. The singer showed off his new 'do while promoting One Direction's new album, "Four" with the band.



Niall Horan seems fascinated by it, and so are we!

Ariana Grande's Sentimental Ring From Her Grandparents

Ariana Grande's Sentimental Ring From Her Grandparents


Ariana Grande's grandfather sadly passed away in July, but Ariana just received a new sentimental present from him. Ariana was gifted a gorgeous ring from her grandmother, made complete with one of her grandfather's pearls in it.
Ariana's grandmother told Ariana the ring came straight from her grandpa. Ariana Tweeted to fans about the new piece of jewelry:

"Nonna had a ring made for me with the pearl from grandpa's tie pin. She says he told her in a dream it'd protect me."


Our thoughts are with Ariana, who is still grieving over the loss of her grandpa.

Meredith Swift’s Most Adorable Moments!

Meredith Swift’s Most Adorable Moments!



Meredith Swift is probably one of the most famous cats on this planet. Not only does she get to hang out with Taylor Swift all day, but her adorable little face is ALL over the Internet! With Tay constantly posting videos of Meredith, we have all come to know and love little Mer and her human-like personality! Check out these totally ah-dorable GIFs of Meredith that will have you wanting to steal her away from Tay!


Just look at that posture!



Seriously, though…what cat drinks from a faucet! LOL!


Talent must run in the family.


She even knows good music, LOL!


Even though she is a cat, she TOTALLY has the puppy face down.


PERFECTION.

Down she goes!


LOL!

Taylor Swift & BFF Karlie Kloss Are Beautiful New York Knicks Cheerleaders

Taylor Swift & BFF Karlie Kloss Are Beautiful New York Knicks Cheerleaders




Taylor Swift looks up at the scoreboard during a game between the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday (October 29) in New York City.


The 24-year-old singer was joined court-side by her BFF Karlie Kloss and Ben Stiller while cheering on the home team, who was defeated by the Bulls by a final score of 104 – 80.

Karlie and I had the time of our lives at the Knicks game tonight. See you tomorrow bright and early on Good Morning America!” Taylor wrote onInstagram.

Taylor Swift Is Donating the Proceeds to "Welcome to New York"

Taylor Swift Is Donating the Proceeds to "Welcome to New York"


Taylor Swift hasn't shied away from her love of New York City — she even wrote "Welcome to New York" about it! — and now she's giving back in a major way. The singer announced on The View that all the proceeds from the song will be going to NYC public schools.
“I love it here," she said. "I love it so much...I don’t think I told anybody this before, but the fans were wonderful enough to make it No. 1 on iTunes. It’s selling really well — which is good, because I’m donating all of my proceeds to New York City public schools.”
The "Shake It Off" singer was recently appointed the Global Welcome Ambassador of New York, so it's only fitting that she's giving back. We think this is super-cute! And because the song is so popular, it is obviously going to raise a lot of money for the school system.

Find Out Why New Yorkers Are Calling Taylor Swift "Obnoxious"

Find Out Why New Yorkers Are Calling Taylor Swift "Obnoxious"


Taylor Swift has been very vocal about her love for NYC lately (she even wrote a song about it), but what do other New Yorkers think about her constant gushing? The singer recently opened up on the Late Show With David Letterman about the whole ordeal and admitted that they love her obnoxious behavior.
"Any time I talk to anyone or any time I do an interview, I'm like, 'You don't understand. You have to go there now. You have to go to New York. Just drop what you're doing, and go there. It's amazing. It's the greatest place ever,'" she said. "And I guess the city picked up on that. They're like, 'She's the most enthusiastic, obnoxious person to ever love New York. She loves it with like 18 exclamation points afterward, underlined.'"
Taylor even admitted that she wasn't paid to write "Welcome to New York," she just loves the citythat much.
"When I love something, I'm very, very vocal about it," she explained.


Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Apple Watch Will Need Juicing Daily, Says Tim Cook

Apple Watch Will Need Juicing Daily, Says Tim Cook

Natasha Lomas
TechCrunch


Apple fans hoping Cupertino’s reality distortion field was going to do magical things to the battery life of its forthcoming Apple Watch had better reset their expectations to something far more average: the wrist computer will likely need charging daily according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. So, in other words, much like other high end smartwatch wearables already on the market.

And indeed, much like the mechanical watches of yesteryear which needed winding daily.
“We think people are going to use it so much you will end up charging it daily,” said Cook, speaking in an on stage interview at the WSJ:D live conference — and attempting to put a positive spin on the disappointment of another daily recharging routine.

So, on the plus side, if you end up not using your expensive Apple Watch very much at all you might not need to recharge it every day. Er, great!

Battery life continues to be a serious bugbear for wearables. And indeed an ongoing pain-point for smartphones — although one that typically passes without much comment from Apple.
Instead the company routinely shaves a few millimeters off its handsets every year, thereby squeezing the amount of on board battery real estate in the interests of being able to announce an ‘even sleeker’ iPhone. (When most users would probably cry tears of a joy for an iPhone with a fatter battery.)
While smartphone users are largely resigned to the daily charging grind (and/or keeping a spare battery pack close by) it’s a pretty big ask for a secondary device to also need juicing daily. Especially one that’s worn on the wrist.

The Apple Watch competes for wrist space with far less smart watches that nonetheless have far superior battery lives — being good for years of use. Or indeed having automatic mechanisms that are powered by the movement of the human body so never need recharging. For all its smarts, a smartwatch that prematurely runs out of juice and reverts to a blank slab of glass is going to feel pretty dumb in comparison.

The Apple Watch has a magnetic induction charging mechanism — using a magnetic connector that attaches to the back of the device. Whether that familiar magnetic tug will help lessen the friction of daily charging an expensive wrist-worn wearable remains to be seen.