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!! .

Saturday 23 August 2014

Stars The Most Epic Hair Whips of All Time

Stars The Most Epic Hair Whips of All Time

If you want to be a star, then you must perfect the art of hair whipping. Whether they're on stage or in front of the camera, our favorite female singers know how to work their manes with some serious hairography.
Case in point: the girls of Little Mix always bring out their most incredible dance moves and hair flips while performing, and the live-action photos from their high-energy routines are so impressive! Similarly, Taylor Swift enhances her powerful ballads with ferocious hair whips.
Jade Thirlwall of Little Mix
Credit: Getty

Taylor Swift
Credit: Getty
Ariana Grande
Credit: Getty

Rita Ora
Credit: Instagram
Bella Thorne
Credit: Instagram
Demi Lovato
Credit: Getty

Victoria Justice
Credit: Getty


Computers reshaping global job market, for better and worse: Paper

Computers reshaping global job market, for better and worse: Paper

Reuters 

Automation and increasingly sophisticated computers have boosted demand for both highly educated and low-skilled workers around the globe, while eroding demand for middle-skilled jobs, according to research to be presented to global central bankers on Friday.
But only the highly educated workers are benefiting through higher wages, wrote MIT professor David Autor in the paper prepared for a central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Middle- and lower-skilled workers are seeing their wages decline.

That is in part because as middle-skilled jobs dry up, those workers are more likely to seek lower-skilled jobs, boosting the pool of available labor and putting downward pressure on wages.
"(W)hile computerization has strongly contributed to employment polarization, we would not generally expect these employment changes to culminate in wage polarization except in tight labor markets," Autor wrote.
Any long-term strategy to take advantage of advances in computers should rely heavily on investments in human capital to produce "skills that are complemented rather than substituted by technology," he said.
Recounting the long history of laborers vilifying technological advances, Autor argues that most such narratives underestimate the fact that computers often complement rather than replace the jobs of higher-skilled workers.

People with skills that are easily replaced by machines, such as 19th-century textile workers, do lose their jobs.
In recent years computer engineers have pushed computers farther into territory formerly considered to be human-only, like driving a car.

Still, computer-driven job polarization has a natural limit, Autor argues. For some jobs, such as plumbers or medical technicians who take blood samples, routine tasks are too intertwined with those requiring interpersonal and other human skills to be easily replaced.
"I expect that a significant stratum of middle skill, non-college jobs combining specific vocational skills with foundational middle skills - literacy, numeracy, adaptability, problem-solving and common sense - will persist in coming decades," Autor wrote.

Autor, who has been studying technology and its impact on jobs since before the dot-com bubble burst, notes that some economists have pointed to the weak U.S. labor market since the 2000s as evidence of the adverse impact of computerization.

Such modern-day Luddites are mistaken, he suggested. U.S. investment in computers, which had been increasing strongly, dropped just as labor demand also fell, exactly the opposite of what ought to happen if technology is replacing labor.

More likely, he said, globalization is to blame, hurting demand for domestic labor and, like technology, helping to reshape the labor landscape. While in the long run both globalization and technology should in theory benefit the economy, he wrote, their effects are "frequently slow, costly, and disruptive."

This Chinese movie wants viewers to live-stream their comments—on the screen

This Chinese movie wants viewers to live-stream their comments—on the screen

Jeanne Kim
Quartz

If you thought people tweeting while watching a movie are a little much, get a load of this: a Chinese movie is allowing—make that encouraging—viewers to live-text their comments, and projecting them on a screen next to the main show.
Released in the city of Hangzhou late July, the animated martial-arts flick ‘Legend of Qin’ requires cinemas to add a “bullet screen” alongside the main screen, on which viewers comments are streamed. The film has had 500 other viewings with live commenting.
The response: While some viewers were delighted by the feature, and seemed to enjoy reading the thoughts of fellow viewers, others complained the screened comments dizzying and a huge distraction.
In a poll of 400 viewers conducted by Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, 27% said the live-commenting feature was exciting, but over a half of respondents found the comments annoying. (It can’t have helped that some texters projected what amounts to personal ads, seeking a potential spouse.)
But bullet screens may be here to stay: they are being installed in theaters across cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, as filmmakers seek to generate more audience participation.

“We are, in fact, putting the director and viewer on equal terms, and I think many of the opinions of the viewers are very helpful for film makers,” Shen Leping, the director of ‘Legend of Qin,’ told CCTV News. “For example, we can conduct live polls and even alter the development of the plot based on responses we receive from audiences.”

Researchers hack into Gmail app

Researchers hack into Gmail app

BBC News 

US researchers say they have been able to hack into Gmail accounts with a 92% success rate by exploiting a weakness in smartphone memory.

The researchers were able to gain access to a number of apps, including Gmail, by disguising malicious software as another downloaded app.

Gmail was among the easiest to access from the popular apps tested.
The hack was tested on an Android phone, but the researchers believe it could work on other operating systems.

A Google spokeswoman said the technology giant welcomed the research. "Third-party research is one of the ways Android is made stronger and more secure," she said.
The research is being presented later at a cybersecurity conference in San Diego by academics from the universities of Michigan and California.
Other apps hacked included H&R Block, Newegg, WebMD, Chase Bank, Hotels.com and Amazon.

Passwords stolen
The Amazon app was the hardest to access, with a 48% success rate.
The hack involves accessing the shared memory of a user's smartphone using malicious software disguised as an apparently harmless app, such as wallpaper.

This shared memory is used by all apps, and by analysing its use the researchers were able to tell when a user was logging into apps such as Gmail, giving them the opportunity to steal login details and passwords.
"The assumption has always been that these apps can't interfere with each other easily," said Zhiyun Qian, an assistant professor at the University of California and one of the researchers involved in the study.
"We show that assumption is not correct, and one app can in fact significantly impact another and result in harmful consequences for the user."

In another example the researchers were able to take advantage of a feature of the Chase Bank app which allows customers to pay in cheques by taking pictures of them with their device's camera.
The researchers were able to access the camera to steal the pictures as they were being taken, giving them access to personal information including signatures and bank details.

The tests were carried out on Android phones, but the researchers believe the attacks could be successful on other operating systems, including Windows and the iOS system developed by Apple.

Did Selena Gomez Just Get an Extreme Hair Makeover

Did Selena Gomez Just Get an Extreme Hair Makeover

We're used to seeing Selena Gomez switch up her style and try out fun new fashion and beauty looks, but she may have just shared a pic of her most extreme makeover ever! From her stylists' salon chair, she Instagrammed a shot of her hairstyling team working on her locks with their faces half covered in huge masks.

"Wait, what are they about to do to me?! [I] thought it was a treatment," Selena captioned her dramatic pic. It looks like Sel was having her hair chemically straightened and the safety masks were needed to keep the fumes out, but we can't wait to see if she shares another pic of her new look!

Friday 22 August 2014

Did Justin Bieber Almost Run Over a Grandma

Did Justin Bieber Almost Run Over a Grandma


Justin was caught cruising through Beverly Hills on a three-wheel Can-Am Spyder — and almost hit an elderly woman.
When traffic got too bad on the street, Justin started driving on the sidewalk (which isn't allowed), nearly missing an older woman with a walker who who was crossing the street. Even though she looked unfazed, the video shows Justin getting pretty close to her.
We're glad no one got hurt, but we hope he doesn't do this again — that's pretty dangerous! While Justin ultimately didn't cause any damage, he hasn't always been the most careful driver. Remember when he got arrested in Miami.

Exclusive: Apple iPhone 6 screen snag leaves supply chain scrambling

Exclusive Apple iPhone 6 screen snag leaves supply chain scrambling


TOKYO - Suppliers to Apple Inc are scrambling to get enough screens ready for the new iPhone 6 smartphone as the need to redesign a key component disrupted panel production ahead of next month's expected launch, supply chain sources said.
It's unclear whether the hiccup could delay the launch or limit the number of phones initially available to consumers, the sources said, as Apple readies larger-screen iPhones for the year-end shopping season amid market share loss to cheaper rivals.

But the issue highlights the risks and challenges that suppliers face to meet Apple's tough specifications, and comes on the heels of a separate screen technology problem, since resolved, in making thinner screens for the larger iPhone 6 model.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has scheduled a media event for Sept. 9, and many expect it to unveil the new iPhone 6 with both 4.7 inch (11.94 cm) and 5.5 inch (13.97 cm) screens - bigger than the 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5s and 5c.

Two supply chain sources said display panel production suffered a setback after the backlight that helps illuminate the screen had to be revised, putting screen assembly on hold for part of June and July. One said Apple, aiming for the thinnest phone possible, initially wanted to cut back to a single layer of backlight film, instead of the standard two layers, for the 4.7-inch screen, which went into mass production ahead of the 5.5-inch version.
But the new configuration was not bright enough and the backlight was sent back to the drawing board to fit in the extra layer, costing precious time and temporarily idling some screen assembly operations, the source said.
Output is now back on track and suppliers are working flat-out to make up for lost time, the supply chain sources added.
Japan Display Inc, Sharp Corp and South Korea's LG Display Co Ltd have been selected to make the iPhone 6 screens, the sources said.
Representatives for those three suppliers, and for Apple, declined to comment.

WIDER IMPACT
Apple is known to make tough demands on its parts suppliers for new iPhones and iPads as it competes to create designs, shapes, sizes and features to set it apart and command a premium price in a fiercely competitive gadget market.

This can cause glitches and delays, including screen problems that crimped supplies at last year's launch of a high-resolution version of Apple's iPad Mini.

It also highlights the danger for suppliers of depending too heavily on Apple for revenues, creating earnings volatility.
Earlier this month, Japan Display, said to be the lead supplier for the new iPhone panel, said orders for "a large customer" - which analysts said was Apple - arrived as expected, but shipments may be delayed in the July-September quarter.
Japan Display's reliance on Apple's cyclical business has spooked some investors. UBS Securities has forecast that Apple will contribute more than a third of the Japanese firm's total revenue in the year to March 2015. Japan Display's share price dropped to a 12-week low of 501 yen after first-quarter earnings on Aug. 7 lagged market expectations.

In Taiwan, home to several Apple suppliers and assemblers, export orders grew less than expected in July, even as factories rushed output ahead of new smartphone launches, reflecting the erratic nature of the business.
"Currently, there's a small shortage in supply of a specialized component for our communication devices," said a spokesman for Pegatron, which assembles iPhones. "This kind of problem regularly occurs and the impact on production is negligible."

Supply chain sources had previously said challenges with the new iPhone's screen in-cell technology, which eliminates one of the layers in the LCD screen to make it thinner, caused a delay in the production of the larger 5.5-inch version. One display industry source said the in-cell issues had now been resolved.
The pressure on Apple for stand-out products has increased as Samsung Electronics Co and, more recently, a clutch of aggressive, lower-cost Chinese producers such as Xiaomi Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd have eroded the U.S. company's market dominance.

The iPhone 6 unveiling has been widely anticipated to bolster momentum for Apple shares, which have risen by a third, to above $100 each, since the company posted strong first-quarter earnings in late-April.

Scooby-Doo's' Daphne goes from size 2 to size 8

Scooby-Doo's' Daphne goes from size 2 to size 8

FOX News 
In the latest direct-to-video "Scooby-Doo" installment, Daphne is subjected to a curse where she jumps from a size 2 to a size 8 in seconds.
The "Scooby" gang head to Pennsylvania where Velma inherits a distant relative's cursed castle. Strange things happen when the mystery-solving crew arrive including Daphne's "cursed" weight gain.
Critics have slammed the show for sending the message that the worst thing that could happen to a women is gaining weight.
One Amazon customer wrote, "I would recommend keeping it away from anyone who doesn't have enough self-confidence to be okay with not being a 'size 2' like Daphne."
"I actually have to defend the writers here because Daphne realized she was being superficial throughout that story arc, it added to the story in a meaningful way (it allows her to evade iron face) and the most importantly: Fred didn't notice/care and said that she 'always looked good to him'," another reviewer wrote. "I would say it was more about acceptance and not being superficial than anything."

Google lobbies to test self-driving cars in Matrix-style virtual world

Google lobbies to test self-driving cars in Matrix-style virtual world

Mark Harris
The Guardian 

Google has built a "Matrix-style" digital simulation of the entire Californian road system in which it is testing its self-driving cars – and is lobbying the state's regulators to certify them based on virtual rather than real driving.
The extensive simulation – reminiscent of the virtual cities created for human captives in sci-fi blockbuster The Matrix – exists entirely inside computers at the company's Mountain View location, and the cars have so far virtually "driven" more than 4 million miles inside it, facing challenges just like those in the real world, such as lane-weaving motorists, wobbly cyclists and unpredictable pedestrians.

The ambition of the simulation illustrates how serious the tech company is at developing self-driving cars, an innovation that has been independently estimated as worth billions of pounds if widely implemented.
California's regulations stipulate autonomous vehicles must be tested under "controlled conditions" that mimic real-world driving as closely as possible. Usually, that has meant a private test track or temporarily closed public road.

But Ron Medford, Google's safety director for the self-driving car programme, has been arguing that the computer simulation should be accepted instead. In a letter in early 2014 to California state officials, which the Guardian has obtained under freedom of information legislation, Medford wrote: "Computer simulations are actually more valuable, as they allow manufacturers to test their software under far more conditions and stresses than could possibly be achieved on a test track."

He added: "Google wants to ensure that [the regulation] is interpreted to allow manufacturers to satisfy this requirement through computer-generated simulations."

Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. Photograph: PR

The company has also lobbied officials to change the wording of the rule to explicitly allow digital models. That, however, has been turned down. "The driving simulator is a relatively new tool – we didn't have anything like it a few years ago," Google spokeswoman Katelin Jabbari told the Guardian. "It's now a critical part of how we test and refine our software."

Google's real self-driving cars use a combination of onboard computers, stored maps, laser guidance and object recognition to determine appropriate speeds and actions to take. They operate over a limited area of about 2,000 miles of road that Google has mapped in minute detail in California – a fraction of the total of 172,000 miles of public roads in the state. But they have driven over that range many times: the cars have notched up a total of 700,000 miles over those 2,000 miles.
Using that data, Google has encoded how various situations unfold and how other road users are likely to behave.
"We've developed models of what a car approaching a four-way stop at high speed is likely to do, and what the various probabilities are that it will stop normally, screech to a stop or run the stop sign," said Jabbari.
This allows Google engineers to assess new software for its robot cars in realistic virtual environments, testing how tweaks to their behaviour might play out in reality. For example, a new emergency braking system was driven 10,000 miles in the simulator to check how often it kicked in and how it performed. And 50 virtual self-driving cars were dropped into a digital version of Google's hometown of Mountain View to see how they interacted with each other, computer-generated pedestrians and simulated drivers.

"In a few hours, we can test thousands upon thousands of scenarios which in terms of driving all over again might take decades." A key improvement from the digital simulator is helping the computer running the car figure out situations that human drivers typically navigate with social signals, like lane changes, merges and four-way stops. "It's not just about the physics of avoiding a crash," says Jabbari. "It's also about the emotional expectation of passengers and other drivers."

If a truck cuts off a Google car, say, the software delivers sharper braking than is absolutely necessary, because it feels safer to passengers.

"Google is trying to leap several steps ahead and start from fully autonomous vehicles," says Chris Schwarz, a senior research engineer at the US National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) in Iowa. "They have to deal with not only the built environment but also dynamic objects in the scene. Many other manufacturers are taking a more incremental approach."

The NADS, home to the world's most advanced ground vehicle simulator, focuses on human drivers using semi-autonomous technologies like lane assist and crash avoidance, and has simulated 3.5m miles of driving. "Google is trying to solve a much bigger problem. It takes Google to do it on the scale that Google is trying to do it," says Schwartz.

Because much of Google's virtual testing focused on rare and potentially hazardous scenarios, the company argues that the test equates to many lifetimes of human driving. "These are not straight and empty roads but four million interesting miles that actually teach us something and challenge the car," said Jabbari.
However, even Google's record-breaking simulation has its limitations. Running real-world incidents over and over again in digital code helps Google fine-tune its responses, but "if you change your behaviour, there's always the possibility that the cars in the intersection might change in reaction to you," Schwarz pointed out. "You can't get that from just doing replays."

The other problem is that Google's motoring "Matrix" is based mainly on the infrastructure and inhabitants of California. Rain is infrequent in much of the drought-stricken state, and snow or ice are virtually unheard of in the southern part of the state, where the 2,000 miles of physically mapped roads lie.

Driving culture and norms also vary considerably in America, and even more so around the world. "Google will need to collect a lot more infrastructure and digital data about other parts of the country and internationally," says Schwarz.

Even in California itself, officials are sceptical. However, California's Department of Motor Vehicles has so far refused to modify its rules, confirming that physical testing on private tracks was required before autonomous vehicles could take to public roads.Google says that its intent was not to skirt safety but to add an additional layer. "It's safer to test in simulation to make sure you haven't broken anything before you go out on a real road. We think that simulation and the track and real road driving should be used for self-driving car testing in the future," says Jabbari.Meanwhile, Google continues to improve and scale up its simulation efforts. And perhaps the next state to embrace autonomous vehicles will be happier doing its test driving inside the Matrix.

These cute, tiny sensors will soon be watching you everywhere

These cute, tiny sensors will soon be watching you everywhere

Dan Frommer
Quartz

One of the promises of the “internet of things” is that it will connect the real-world with the virtual. Low-energy Bluetooth beacons are emerging as one of its stronger early technologies.
Here’s a quick look at where beacon technology stands today: Estimote, one of the leading beacon startups, just launched these new, tiny, cute beacon “stickers,” which it will start selling to developers and hobbyists today. (A 10-pack costs $100, to ship this fall.) The goal is to be inexpensive enough that stores or other places could have a lot of beacons out at a time. They’re small enough to attach to something—a shoe? a salesperson?—and their novel look might even draw some curiosity.
How do they work and what do they do? Beacons—basically a battery and a tiny, low-energy computer—send unique Bluetooth radio pulses, which a mobile device can recognize. (Apple’s beacon language—which has early traction—is called iBeacon, and Google will be catching up in the next version of Android.)
It’s important to note that beacons don’t receive information, so they aren’t actually watching you themselves. To be monitored—at least how things stand today—you will first need to install a specific app and give it permission to track your location.
Some potential applications: If you’re using, say, a museum’s app as you walk around, it can launch into specific information about the sculpture you’re standing in front of. Or if you’ve pre-ordered an iced latte using a coffee shop’s app, a beacon at the door can tell the baristas that you’ve arrived. Estimote has also published a video of some ways it hopes beacons will be used.
There’s still a lot to figure out about how people will feel about interacting with beacons, whether the benefits will outweigh potential privacy concerns, or whether stores will actually do anything useful with all the data they’ll have access to. But expect to see and hear more about beacons in the near future.

Camu Is A Beautiful, All-In-One Camera App, Photo Editor And Mobile Messager

Camu Is A Beautiful, All-In-One Camera App, Photo Editor And Mobile Messager

Sarah Perez
TechCrunch

A new mobile application called Camu, launching today, is designed to serve as a lightweight replacement to the iPhone’s default camera app while also offering the ability for users to edit and share photos more easily after the fact, without having to switch between other applications. The app somewhat competes with long-time popular camera apps like Camera+ or Camera Awesome, but with a simpler, more streamlined feature set.
“Most of the camera apps in the market are filled with complicated settings,” explains Ilkka Teppo, CEO at Sumoing, the company behind the Camu app.
“At same time the messaging solutions are built text-first or for photo-chatting,” he adds. “We wanted to create a true mobile-first camera experience – challenging the assumptions that capturing, editing and sending photos and videos has to be in separate apps.”


Of course, Apple’s native iPhone Camera app also offers some of these functions in the latest version of its iOS operating system, iOS 8, expected in September. You can change camera modes, add filters, and then hop into your Photo Gallery with a tap to make a variety of edits or share the photo via iMessage, email, iCloud, AirDrop, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr.
So Sumoing is right in believing a combined feature set of snapping, editing and sharing is something users want. But because of the similarities, it will have to compete via the experience of using Camu, as well as its extra features.

These include things like a “super-focus” mode for adding depth-of-field to images, a different set of filters, the ability to add text to photos, the ability to turn photos into collages in real-time (also popular among Instagram users), and a “selfie” mode which automatically shoots a photo when no more movement is visible in the frame.
After editing your photos or videos, you can then share your media and chat privately with friends on Camu, or post more publicly on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.


The company, composed of a team of designers and engineers hailing from the Nokia cluster in Helsinki, Finland, already has decent track record when it coms to mobile apps. Sumoing’s first iOS app Repix, which combines photo editing and painting, was launched in early 2013 and has now grown to over 12 million installs.
Sumoing has a small amount of seed funding and now also generates revenue via Repix, which has helped to fund Camu’s creation. Camu’s business model is not yet set in stone, however, but Teppo says they see “lots of different options” for it in the future. We’d expect those to include in-app purchases, but nothing is confirmed.
The app, now an Editor’s Choice on the App Store, is a free download here.

Sea plankton have been found on the International Space Station – but how did they get there

Sea plankton have been found on the International Space Station – but how did they get there

Paul Owen on Earth
The Guardian 

Sea plankton have been found on the outside of the International Space Station, a Russian news agency reports.
Itar-Tass says scientists on the space station, whose first component was launched into orbit in 1998, found the plankton – a source of food to many sea creatures – when taking samples from the windows (or “illuminators”).
This, the agency writes, confirms “that some organisms can live on the surface of the International Space Station (ISS) for years amid factors of a space flight, such as zero gravity, temperature conditions and hard cosmic radiation. Several surveys proved that these organisms can even develop.”
Stuff website reported that the plankton samples “were not carried there at launch, but are thought to have been blown over by air currents on Earth”.
Head of the Russian ISS orbital mission Vladimir Solovyev said the results of the experiment “are absolutely unique”.
He said the marine micro-organisms were not native to blast-off site Kazakhstan, and may have been “uplifted” to the station at an altitude of 420km.
“Plankton in these stages of development could be found on the surface of the oceans,” he said.
“This is not typical for Baikonur [in Kazakhstan]. It means that there are some uplifting air currents which reach the station and settle on its surface.”
Is there a better explanation for the plankton’s trip out of this world?