Microsoft delays launch of its Xbox One console in China

Microsoft delays launch of its Xbox One console in China

Reuters 

Microsoft Corp has delayed the launch of its Xbox One game console in China, which had been set for release on Tuesday, but the world's biggest software company said it would be released by the end of the year.
Microsoft did not give a reason for the delay in a statement overnight.
The delay is the latest in a series of setbacks for Microsoft in China, where it is under investigation for suspected anti-trust violations related to the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office.
The Chinese government lifted a 2000 ban on gaming consoles earlier this year. Microsoft had reached a deal with Chinese internet TV set-top box maker BesTV New Media Co Ltd to form a joint venture to manufacture the consoles in Shanghai's Free Trade Zone a year ago.
The Xbox One console will cost $602.37 without the Kinect motion detection system and $700 with Kinect, Microsoft said in July.
China is the world's third-biggest gaming market, where revenues grew by more than a third from 2012 to nearly $14 billion last year.
However, piracy and the dominance of PC and mobile gaming may leave little room for legitimate console and game sales.

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Study: Apple's new iPhones score big in durability

Study: Apple's new iPhones score big in durability

ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Apple's new and bigger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are more durable than last year's model and a leading Android phone, a study says.
Apple's iPhone 6, whose screen measures 4.7 inches, did the best across a variety of tests that measures how prone smartphones are to break due to everyday accidents, according to SquareTrade, a company that provides extended protection plans.

The iPhone Plus 6, whose screen measures 5.5 inches, wasn't far behind but lost points because it could slip out of a person's hand since some users may have a hard time gripping its large but slim form, SquareTrade says.

The iPhone 5s, which measures 4 inches and came out last year, fared better than Samsung's Galaxy S5, which measures 5.1 inches. The Samsung phone got poor marks on several tests including the slide test. The more a phone slides, the greater its chance of falling off the edge of a table.
Still, all four of the smartphones tested had a medium risk of breakage and had no drastic differences among them.

"The phones are getting more and more durable," says Ty Shay, chief marketing officer at SquareTrade. "Manufacturers are paying more attention."
SquareTrade examines the phones based on eight factors, including size, weight, grip and the quality of the front and back panels. The company measured how far the phones slide when pushed across a table on their backs and how well they withstand drops from 4 feet and being dunked in water for 10 seconds.

SquareTrade says it uses robots to do the testing to ensure consistency, and rates the phones on a 10-point durability scale, with 10 signifying the highest risk. Apple's iPhone 6 scored the best at 4; the iPhone 6 Plus scored a 5; the iPhone 5s a 6; and Samsung Galaxy S5 a 6.5.
Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus passed the slide test, but the iPhone 5s and Samsung Galaxy's S5 got poor marks in that area. The iPhone 6 Plus was the only one that didn't fare as well when dropped 4 feet by the robot. The glass screen survived, but the case separated from the glass. All four phones fared well in the water resistance test.

SquareTrade provided The Associated Press with the results ahead of Monday's announcement.
Aside from larger screens, the new Apple iPhones 6 and 6 Plus announced this month promises faster performance and offers a wireless chip for making credit card payments at stores by holding the phone near the payment terminal. The phones start at $199 with a two-year service contact. The new iPhones initially were available this month in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the U.K. Availability is expanding to more than 20 additional countries.

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Researchers have created an oscillator that could silence the mechanical watch

Researchers have created an oscillator that could silence the mechanical watch

Sean Buckley

Engadget

You're running late to a meeting, glaring at your wrist in disbelief that it's fifteen minutes past the hour. Are you really that late?

Lifting the watch to your ear you hear the all-too familiar tick of its internal mechanisms.
Yes, it works -- and you are indeed late. This scenario could soon be a thing of the past, mostly because the mechanical watches of tomorrow may not tick at all. Researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have created a new, silent oscillator that could potentially be used to make watches with fewer mechanical parts.

It's not a digital conversion -- watches built on EPFL's new technology would still very much be mechanical timepieces, they would just operate on different principals.
The new oscillator, which is called IsoSpring, turns continuously in one direction instead of using gears and a balance wheel to alternate between oscillations.

Right now, the team is working on miniaturizing the technology to fit in clocks and watches. If successful, it'll mean more than just silent time pieces, but perhaps longer lived ones, too: traditional watches lose 60% of their energy to mechanical parts. Hate ticking, but can't wait for the new technology? Well, there's always smart watches.

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5 ways to protect yourself from data breaches

5 ways to protect yourself from data breaches

JOSEPH PISANI

Associated Press 

NEW YORK — Data breaches at retailers aren't going away but there are ways consumers can protect themselves from future heists of their payment card information.
Home Depot said Thursday that malicious software lurking in its check-out terminals between April and September affected 56 million debit and credit cards that customers swiped at its stores. Target, Michaels and Neiman Marcus have also been attacked by hackers in the past year.
More breaches are likely. The Department of Homeland Security Department warned last month that more than 1,000 retailers could have malware in their cash-register computers.
Here are five ways to protect yourself:

1. CONSIDER ANOTHER WAY TO PAY
Try newer ways to pay, such as PayPal or Apple Pay. "Any technology that avoids you having your credit card in your hand in a store is safer," says Craig Young, security researcher for software maker Tripwire. Those services store your credit card information and it's not given to the retailer when you make a payment. Many big retailers, including Home Depot, accept PayPal at their stores, but many others don't. Apple Pay, which was only introduced this month, has even more limitations: It is available in just a small number of stores so far and only people with an iPhone 6 can use it.
Stored-value cards or apps, such as the ones used at coffee chains Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, are also a safer bet, says Gartner security analyst Avivah Litan. That's because they don't expose credit card information at the register.

2. SIGN IT, DON'T PIN IT
If you're planning on paying with a debit card, sign for your purchase instead of typing in your personal identification number at the cash register. You can do this by asking the cashier to process the card as a credit card or select credit card on the display. Not entering you PIN into a keypad will help reduce the chances of a hacker stealing that number too, Young says. Crooks can do more damage with your PIN, possibly printing a copy of the card and taking money out of an ATM, he says. During Target's breach last year, the discount retailer said hackers gained access to customers' PINs. Home Depot, however, said there was no indication that PINs were compromised in the breach at its stores.

3. BEWARE OF EMAIL SCAMMERS
After big data breaches are exposed, and get a lot of media attention, scammers come out of the woodwork looking to steal personal information. Some emails may mention Home Depot or offer free credit monitoring, but you should never click on the links. Many are for fake sites that try to steal bank information or passwords. "Avoid these entirely," Young says. If an email looks credible, go to Home Depot's site directly instead of clicking on links.

4. KEEP UP WITH STATEMENTS
Scan credit card statements every month for any unauthorized charges. And keep an eye out for smaller charges. Thieves will charge smaller amounts to test to see if you notice and then charge a larger amount later, Litan says. They may also steal a small amount from millions of accounts, scoring a big payday, she says.
And check your credit report for any accounts that crooks may have opened in your name. Credit reports are available for free, from each of the three national credit reporting agencies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — every 12 months from AnnualCreditReport.com. Home Depot is also offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services to customers. Customers can go to the company's website for more information or call them at 800-466-3337.

5. GO OLD SCHOOL
Use cash. When possible, the safest bet is to not swipe a card at all. Even if security gets stronger at stores, hackers are likely to figure out a way around it. "It's always a cat and mouse game," Young says.

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Here's How To Mathematically Beat Anyone At Rock-Paper-Scissors

Here's How To Mathematically Beat Anyone At Rock-Paper-Scissors

Harrison Jacobs

Business Insider 

The question of how to win at Rock-Paper-Scissors has, believe it or not, plagued mathematicians and game theorists for quite some time. While they previously had devised a theoretical answer to the question, a new experiment by Zhijian Wang at Zhejiang University in China that used real players, has revealed an interesting wrinkle to the original theory.

In the experiment, Zhijian noticed that winning players tended to stick with their winning strategy, while losers tended to switch to the next strategy in the sequence of rock-paper-scissors, following, what he calls, “persistent cyclic flows.”

Here's how it works in practice: Player A and Player B both start by using random strategies. If Player A uses rock and Player B uses paper, Player A loses. In the next round, Player A can assume that Player B will use paper again and should therefore use scissors to win. In the round after that, because Player B lost, Player A can assume that Player B will use the next strategy in the sequence — scissors — and Player A should then use rock, thus winning again.

If you take the game on a theoretical level, the most mathematically sound way to play Rock-Paper-Scissors is by choosing your strategy at random. Because there are three outcomes — a win, a loss, or a tie — and each strategy has one other strategy that it can beat and one other strategy that can beat it, and we don’t care what strategy we win with, it makes the most sense to pick paper exactly 1/3 of the time, rock 1/3 of the time, and scissors 1/3 of the time. 

This is called the game's Nash equilibrium.

While the Nash Equilibrium should be the best strategy in real life, Zhijian found a decidedly different pattern when he and some other researchers recruited 72 students to play the game. They divided the students into 12 groups of six players and had them each play 300 rounds of Rock-Paper-Scissors against each other. Zhijian also added a payout in proportion to the number of victories.

When Zhijian reviewed the results he found that students chose each strategy close to one third of the time, suggesting the Nash Equilibrium theory. However, when he looked closer, he noticed a more unusual pattern.

The pattern that Zhijian discovered — winners repeating their strategy and losers moving to the next strategy in the sequence — is called a “conditional response” in game theory. The researchers have theorized that the response may be hard-wired into the brain, a question they intend to investigate with further experiments.

For now, Zhijian suggests that exploiting the knowledge that most people use the conditional strategy may result in winning a lot more games of Rock-Paper-Scissors. 

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NASA spacecraft approaches Mars to seek answers to lost water

NASA spacecraft approaches Mars to seek answers to lost water

By Irene Klotz

Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA spacecraft designed to investigate how Mars lost its water is expected to put itself into orbit around the Red Planet on Sunday after a 10-month journey.
After traveling 442 million miles (711 million km) from Earth, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, probe faces a do-or-die burn of its six braking rockets beginning at 9:37 p.m. EDT.

If successful, the thruster burns will trim enough speed for MAVEN to be captured by Mars' gravity and fall into a looping orbit.
Over the next six weeks, as engineers check MAVEN's nine science instruments, the spacecraft will maneuver itself into an operational orbit that comes as close as 93 miles (150 km) and as far away as 3,853 miles (6,200 km) from Mars' surface.

Unlike previous Mars orbiters, landers and rovers, MAVEN will focus on the planet's atmosphere, which scientists suspect was once far thicker than the puny envelope of mostly carbon dioxide gas that surrounds it today.

Denser air would be needed for water to pool on the surface. While no water appears there today, Mars is covered with ancient river channels, lakebeds and chemical evidence of a warmer, wetter past.

"Where did the water go? Where did the CO2 (carbon dioxide) go from that early environment?" MAVEN lead science Bruce Jakosky, of the University of Colorado, asked reporters this week. "It can go two places: down in the crust or up to the top of the atmosphere where it can be lost to space," he said.

MAVEN's focus is the latter. The spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, will spend a year monitoring what happens when the solar wind and other charged particles hit the upper layers of Mars' atmosphere, stripping it away.

By studying the atmosphere today, scientists expect to learn about the processes involved and then use computer models to extrapolate back in time. Ultimately, scientists want to learn if Mars had the right conditions for life to evolve.

MAVEN, said Jakosky, will tell them "the boundary conditions that surround the potential for life."
MAVEN will join a fleet of two U.S. orbiters, two U.S. rovers and a European orbiter currently working at Mars. India's first Mars probe is due to arrive on Wednesday.

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Facebook-Owned Oculus Just Unveiled Its Latest Virtual Reality Prototype

Facebook-Owned Oculus Just Unveiled Its Latest Virtual Reality Prototype

Dave Smith

Business Insider 

Facebook-owned Oculus on Saturday unveiled a new virtual reality headset prototype, called "Crescent Bay."
"None of this is perfect just yet, but it's a huge step forward," Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said at the announcement. "It's a huge leap over DK2 [the most recent developer kit released for the second-generation Oculus Rift prototype, Crystal Cove.]"

There are major audio advances in the latest VR prototype from Oculus, including 360-degree tracking for a truly immersive experience.

It also comes with integrated audio for the first time, but it's still optional since many will want to use their own earbuds.

Much of the Oculus "Crescent Bay" software in Saturday's announcement was demonstrated using Unreal Engine 4, the latest engine from the Epic team. Oculus is also working with Unity, which has one of the biggest Oculus developer communities, and they announced a continued partnership with a dedicated add-on for various levels of support and integration for both free and pro versions of Unity for everyone.

"The most important thing about Crescent Bay is that this allows for sustained presence — for you to achieve the impossible and believe you're in another world," Iribe said.

Oculus also announced its new Platform, which will come to Oculus VR later this year and PC later. This new platform for sharing VR experiences is partially helped by the company's new partnership with Samsung, which will use its Gear VR headset to help developers build new experiences for the Oculus Platform. The company also mentioned Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of Oculus, which will give it "the resources and runway" to bring VR to the masses.

Oculus' chief scientist Michael Abrash insists virtual reality is the final frontier in terms of technology, since it will eventually allow us to experience literally any sensation or feeling — in a video demonstration, he employs how the McGurk effect can make you think there's a third sensation when there really isn't.

Abrash says virtual reality is a giant opportunity, but there has yet to be a "killer app." Details and accuracy like facial expressions and natural body movements are important, and Abrash says virtual and augmented reality tech has a long way to go. It needs new rendering and art approaches, as well as new graphics architectures, to accommodate the "considerable demands" for great virtual reality.
"Soon, there will be games, apps, and experiences that will revolutionize the platform," Abrash says. 

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Demi Lovato Was Injured On Her World Tour

Sad news Lovatics – Demi Lovato is injured!

Right before performing at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX, Friday night, Demi posted a pic on her social media accounts that showed her wearing an arm brace and sling.

She captured the photo, “Welp. Looks like I won't be playing guitar, piano OR drums tonight. San Antonio... Why did you have to go and make me fall so hard for you?!! 😝😝😝 #demiworldtour 💖💖💖.”

According to Twitter fans, the “Really Don’t Care” singer told fans at the meet and greet, following the show, that she slipped and sprained her arm.

Even though it is not confirmed yet whether she does indeed have a sprain or if she broke her arm, we still feel bad that she has to continue on her tour with an injury.

However, we’re so glad she was still able to meet some of her Texas fans and take the cutest pics likes the ones below!

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See Bella Thorne's Coolest Styles from Milan Fashion Week

Credit: Instagram

Bella Thorne is having a major fashion moment right now: in just a few days, she went from wowing us with glam outfits during New York Fashion Week to totally stunning us with her runway-ready styles during Milan Fashion Week in Italy. From dramatic floral ensembles to black dresses.

Credit: Instagram

Credit: Instagram

Credit: Instagram

Credit: Splash News

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IPhone 6 Plus Supplies Start to Sell Out in Some U.S. Stores

IPhone 6 Plus Supplies Start to Sell Out in Some U.S. Stores

Scott Moritz, Olga Kharif and Denni Hu

Bloomberg

Apple Inc.’s larger iPhone 6 Plus is already selling out at some stores across the U.S.

The Apple store on the Upper West Side in Manhattan is out of the iPhone 6 Plus already, even as a line for reservations spilled into a concert hall next door and a regular line snaked up two blocks. Some phone carriers’ stores in Manhattan were also selling out of limited supplies of the iPhone 6 Plus this morning. In downtown Portland, Oregon, customers in line have said the bigger model is sold out already.

Even before the first day of sales, there were signs that supply of the new device may not meet demand. During the first 24 hours of record pre-orders a week ago, the iPhone 6 Plus, which has a larger display, started having shipping delays of three to four weeks, while some iPhone 6 models faced delays of seven to 10 days.

In Portland, Cory Nguyen, a 19-year-old college student, said he was planning to get an iPhone 6 Plus until he heard employees tell people in line that they had run out of the bigger device. He’s instead settling for two iPhone 6 models that he plans to resell.

“I know people,” Nguyen said. “Everyone wants an iPhone. It’s high demand. It’s extra cash. Students -- trying to make a buck.”

Representatives for Apple didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sales Forecasts

Carl Howe, an analyst at 451 Research LLC, said Apple may sell 12 million to 15 million new devices this weekend. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., wrote in a note to investors that he’s projecting sales of 7 million to 8 million, which would fall short of last year’s first weekend sales of 9 million units of the iPhone 5s and 5c. Sacconaghi attributed it partly to supply constraints and to the fact that China isn’t one of the first countries selling the devices.

A Sprint Corp. store at 42nd Street in Manhattan had no iPhone 6 Plus devices as of 8:30 a.m. New York time, and the AT&T Inc. store at 46th Street and Madison Avenue was sold out of the model. An employee outside the AT&T store said they started with only a couple and were telling customers they could place orders for November delivery.

“At this time, Sprint’s inventory on iPhone 6 Plus is extremely limited and we are in heavy backorder,” Michelle Mermelstein, a Sprint spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “Customers can order this device thorough any of our retail channels with a delivery time of 4-6 weeks.”

At a T-Mobile store at 8:45 a.m. New York time all but one iPhone was sold out. The remaining phone was a 6 with 128 gigabytes of storage. A store employee said they were expecting a resupply later today. Anne Marshall, a T-Mobile US Inc. spokeswoman, said the company was restocking as quickly as possible. She said she wasn’t optimistic that there would be much of the iPhone 6 Plus available.

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Is Taylor Swift's Style Rubbing Off on Lorde

Credit: Getty

BFFs Taylor Swift and Lorde have totally distinct fashion senses: Tay is always rocking preppy and girly dresses while Lorde tends to favor dramatic, darker outfits. It seems that the more time they spend together, though, the more their styles are blending!

Lorde tweeted about her newfound fave passtime of making paper dolls, and Taylor jumped in to claim responsibility for her total style switcheroo:

While we can totally picture Taylor making paper dolls (or cat clothes, or somehow knitting herself a cute new accessory to wear while out shopping), it's so fun to hear Lorde is being inspired by fun new fashions (the frilly styles of Southern belles, to be exact) while touring. We wonder if their musical styles are going to start sounding more similar too!

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Red Carpet Report Score Major Denim Style Inspiration from Olivia Holt, Jennette McCurdy & More Stars

Who doesn't love a perfect pair of jeans or a casual-cool chambray shirt? Fabulous denim fashions of all kinds were honored at a fun Denim Awards event last night, and our fave celebs wowed us with the seriously creative ways they sported the look on the blue carpet. Olivia Holt, Jennette McCurdy, Peyton List, G. Hannelius and more stars showed off their fresh twists on the classic style. Even fashionistas  who didn't wear denim to the event still gave us majorly awesome fall style inspiration!

Olivia Holt

Credit: Getty

Peyton List

Credit: Getty

Jennette McCurdy

Credit: Getty

Shenae Grimes

Credit: Getty

Nikki Reed

Credit: Getty

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