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, 25 October 2014

Drug stores drop Apple Pay and Google Wallet to push their own payment tech

Drug stores drop Apple Pay and Google Wallet to push their own payment tech

Jon Fingas
Engadget 


If you're bent on using Apple Pay or Google Wallet for your shopping, you may have to be finicky about your choice of drug stores. Both CVS and Rite Aid have shut off their support for NFC-based payments just days after Apple Pay went live. Try to tap your phone and you'll get an error, or nothing at all. The companies haven't publicly discussed why they're cutting off the handy feature, but this is ultimately an attempt to stifle competition. Both pharmacies are part of the Merchant Customer Exchange, a retailer group releasing its own mobile wallet system (CurrentC) in 2015; as a memo obtained by SlashGearsuggests, they'd rather deny all NFC payments than risk building support for rivals. Suffice it to say that this will be very inconvenient if you're a frequent customer, and you'll currently have to visit the likes of Duane Reade and Walgreens if you want to avoid paying with old-fashioned cash or plastic.
[Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
Source: MacRumors, SlashGear

Roku wants to grow its media hub empire with a public stock filing

Roku wants to grow its media hub empire with a public stock filing

Jon Fingas
Engadget


Roku frequently comes across as the little media player company that could: its streaming box business is growing in spite of much larger competition. As healthy as it is, though, this upstart now appears eager to join the big leagues. Tipsters for both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times claim that Roku is planning to file an initial public stock offering (IPO) that could net as much as $150 million, roughly doubling what it raised through private investments. The details of just how and when this would happen are still murky, but the company said earlier this month that it's near turning a profit. It may wait until it's in the black and can put its best foot forward. If the IPO does happen, though, you should expect Roku to grow quickly. It's already striking deals with TV makers and has the support of major broadcasters -- the extra cash could both put more big-name services on your existing Roku box and improve the range of devices you can buy at the store.
Source: Wall Street Journal, New York Times

Google Rolls Out An Invite System For Its New Email App, Inbox By Gmail

Google Rolls Out An Invite System For Its New Email App, Inbox By Gmail

Sarah Perez
TechCrunch

Good news, you don’t have to scour eBay for an invite to Google’s new email application, Inbox. You just have to know someone who got in. Today, Google announced by way of its “Inbox by Gmail” Twitter account that each Inbox user will now receive three invites they can hand out to friends. Hilariously, the invite button emoji is a golden ticket.
If you aren’t seeing this option yet in your Inbox app, you soon will.
To locate the invite button, just tap the red “Compose” plus icon at the bottom right of the screen. The “Invite to Inbox” button will be the first option above the red Compose button after doing so.
Hey Inboxers, you can invite your friends. 3 invites coming your way soon. Look for the golden ticket in Speed Dial. pic.twitter.com/WOfoHZavRW
— Inbox by Gmail (@inboxbygmail) October 24, 2014
The funny thing about Inbox requiring an invite in order to get in is that it’s such a manufactured attempt at creating a sense of exclusivity around Google’s new product. By limiting access, Google is mimicking the path its buzzy email competitor Mailbox once took. Mailbox, now owned by Dropbox, famously established a “queue” users had to join before they were able to try the product everyone was talking about.
At the time, the startup claimed this would help it manage its growth without succumbing to a massive influx of users who joined all at once. But many also saw it as a marketing ploy designed to increase demand, or even an experiment in human behavior.
And of course, the original Gmail product launch also had an invite system of its own when it first arrived years ago. Gmail invites were a hot item then, too, as everyone clamored for a way into this revolutionary email system that was offering a preposterous 1 GB of free storage and instructed users to archive, not delete, their emails.
But Google isn’t some scrappy upstart anymore. It has access some of the most powerful, scalable technology that exists. As one TechCrunch colleague pointed out, “If anyone could scale any garbage to run for the entire planet without really trying, it’s Google.”
In other words, Google doesn’t need to foist an invite system on would-be Inbox app users. Instead, it’s trying to re-create a sense of buzz around this new app, purportedly a reinvention of email, in hopes of being able to increase demand and grow a user base virally.
Despite the sort-of fakeness to this methodology, I hate to say it, but it’s working. There’s a bit of FOMO going on. Those without Inbox invites are hitting up their contacts at Google, and bugging their friends. Or yes, selling invites on eBay.
Guys, chill. It’s really just a prettier Gmail with some new organizational features, and a new workflow. It’s not even ideal for advanced users who get a lot of email, or who already use Gmail filters and rules. It’s a bit of an adjustment, and you might even decide it’s not for you in the long run.
But time will tell if Inbox is the second coming of Gmail, I suppose.
P.S. Sorry, my three are gone. Move along. 

T-Mobile’s Legere Launches Twitter Storm to Talk Apple SIM

T-Mobile’s Legere Launches Twitter Storm to Talk Apple SIM

Dawn Chmielewski
Re/code
T-Mobile’s voluble chief executive launched a one-man Twitter storm to discuss the new Apple iPads designed to work on any mobile carrier’s network — and criticize rival wireless carriers that have taken steps to thwart this effort.
John Legere notes that the Apple SIM has been the source of some confusion. Its debut represented a milestone for the industry, allowing customers who buy a new iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3 the flexibility to choose a wireless carrier after they purchase the device.

Except Verizon Wireless chose not to play. It requires subscribers to obtain a separate SIM to connect to its network. And AT&T will lock the device’s SIM to its network once a customer uses it on AT&T.

Legere, every the savvy marketer, notes that T-Mobile doesn’t attempt to confine its customers in this fashion.

He goes on to explain the nuances of activating a tablet purchased at the Apple store versus one bought through a mobile carrier, and points out some surprising complications.
The 20-part Twitter dissertation shows Legere’s deftness in using social media to directly engage consumers. Take note: He is scheduled to appear Monday at the Code/Mobile conference.

Nintendo's Amiibo figurines function a bit differently than you might expect in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Nintendo's Amiibo figurines function a bit differently than you might expect in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Chris Velazco
Engadget

Nintendo was dropping Smash Brothers info-bombs left and right last night, but the company also felt compelled to dive a little deeper into how the Wii U version of the game will play with those curious little Amiibos. You know, the Nintendo character-themed figurines that both look adorable and store game information via NFC? Now, thanks to the marketing wizards in Redmond, we've got a four-minute chronicle of young love, combat and tiny figures that explains just about everything. Key takeaways? You're not actually playing as your Amiibo character -- instead, the little avatar springs to life as a support character, getting in people's faces and generally having a grand ol' time once you tap the figure to your Wii U's gamepad.
Once they're in the game, you can level up their stats, too (the cap sits at Level 50, or so the video would have us believe), either by wailing on your Amiibo directly or lugging it into battle against others. Since all of that stat and level data can be stored on the Amiibo itself, it should be a piece of cake to lug your partner to and fro (it doesn't appear in the video, but you'll presumably touch it to the Gamepad once more when done to lock all that data down). Perfect companion for those ridiculous eight-person Smashfests? Nintendo certainly thinks so, if only because deep integration into already-popular games means its little figures are more than just your run-of-the-mill Skylanders knock-offs. Just remember that Amiibo pickins' will be a little slim at first: the first batch of twelve are all Smash characters and will hit in late November, followed by another wave of six just in time for the holidays.
Source: Nintendo (YouTube)

Robotic hand uses the power of static electricity to pick up objects

Robotic hand uses the power of static electricity to pick up objects

Mariella Moon
Engadget



A cheap robotic hand developed by a company called Grabit offers something most of the other mechanicallimbs we've seen before don't: the ability to pick up objects using electrostatic attraction. Even if you're not familiar with term, you've likely encountered the phenomenon at least once. Ever rubbed a balloon on your hair for fun, so you can stick it to the wall? How about getting plastic of bits of styrofoam stuck on your hand while handling a package? Yep, that's all thanks to attraction caused by static electricity. Grabit's mechanical hand takes it step further by using powered electrodes to sustain the phenomenon, as the charge naturally disappears over time. It also has the technology to prevent dust from clinging onto the fingers.
This robotic limb wasn't made to be used by amputees, though -- it's meant for the manufacturing industry as a replacement for robots that use suction cups or other means to pick up objects. In fact, Grabit made its fingers out of flexible materials that have electrostatic properties, so it can manipulate objects of different shapes and sizes. The limb can also distribute weight more evenly than other manufacturing robots, allowing it to handle delicate materials such the components needed to assemble solar cells. Grabit presented its technology last week at the RoboBusiness conference in Boston, but if you weren't there, you can always watch how the hand works in the videos below.
Source: Technology Review

Amazon has made its Appstore for Android obsolete

Amazon has made its Appstore for Android obsolete



Since its creation, the Amazon Appstore stood apart, banned from being offered in the official store for Android apps, Google Play, until now... sort of.

When Amazon recently updated its main Android app, it got a new "Apps & Games" department that duplicates the content found in the standalone Appstore app -- effectively making it both unnecessary and obsolete.
Naturally, because Amazon's still delivering apps outside the confines of Google Play, you need to change your device's security settings to accept downloads from unknown sources to install them. The change is a welcome one -- reducing app clutter's a good thing -- and the convenience factor afforded by this consolidation should have Amazon selling more apps. Still, we're pretty sure that's not enough to make up for the Fire phone's hit to the company's bottom line.
Source: TechCrunch

Go, Gamers! University students get scholarships to compete in 'varsity eSports'

Go, Gamers! University students get scholarships to compete in 'varsity eSports'

John Keilman
Chicago Tribune 



CHICAGO — The bleeding edge of college sports can be found in a dark room on the third floor of Robert Morris University's downtown campus, where 35 highly skilled competitors practice for four hours a day without breaking a sweat.
They are the members of the nation's first varsity eSports squad, receiving athletic scholarships to play the video game "League of Legends," and on a recent afternoon they were hard at work slaying monsters and minions on liquid-cooled personal computers as coaches hovered nearby, scribbling notes.

The team, in fact, shut out its first opponents on a recent weekend — University of Kentucky, Depaul University, Iowa State and Drexel — opening a season that could end in a national championship. But whatever the result, some say the squad has already left a significant mark on college sports.
"We're making history," Alex Chapman, a 20-year-old from Plymouth, Mich., said after winning an online scrimmage. "It's amazing to be part of this."

The team is the brainchild of associate athletic director Kurt Melcher, who earlier this year was looking for a new sport to offer potential students. Taking note of the exploding popularity of competitive video gaming, he suggested "League of Legends," a computer-based game played by more than 27 million people each day.

School administrators agreed to fund partial athletic scholarships for the team, and when Robert Morris made the announcement in June, Melcher's email exploded.
"The response was tremendous," he said. "We had thousands of inquiries."

"League of Legends" pits players against computer-spawned beasts and human foes as they race to destroy their opponents' base. Strategy is of cardinal importance, and developing the knowledge and skills to become a top player takes months, if not years, of single-minded focus.

The best have a chance to turn professional while they're still teenagers, but Ferris Ganzman, Robert Morris' head coach for the team, said he tries to persuade recruits to put off that decision.
"A very small percentage of players have the opportunity to make it professionally," said Ganzman, who served as a coach and analyst for pro squads before taking the Robert Morris job. "I said they could come here and grow as players.

"The infrastructure we have here rivals professional teams'. We have coaches; we're playing against semipro teams. If people still have the aspiration to go professional, they can still pursue their education while still working on their skills."

One of his biggest catches was Adrian Ma, a 17-year-old from Houston ranked among the best amateurs in North America. He had spent up to 14 hours a day mastering the game, and he was thinking about turning pro when he graduated from high school earlier this year.


After reading about Robert Morris' scholarship program on Reddit, though, he decided to give the college scene a try.

"I thought I could both go to school and play games," he said.
Another top prospect was Derek Micheau, 20, from Olympia, Wash. He said he has enjoyed his experience, though combining practice with school has been tough.

"Before, I didn't have a whole lot of commitments; it was just focusing on becoming a pro athlete," he said. "Now I have school commitments, I have life commitments, I have a bunch of other things I have to do. Putting those together makes it difficult to keep at the level you want to be at."

The team practices in a former classroom that has been transformed into a top-of-the-line gaming arena. The computers and keyboards glow with embedded lights, the players communicate through headsets and one wall is dominated by an enormous video screen. Several coaches wander among the computer pods, listening in as the players shout directions to one another.

"Behind you!"

"Turn, turn, turn!"

"Leave that area! They're all around you!"

Assistant coach Jose Espin spent a few minutes dissecting a scrimmage with one five-member squad. He said that while gamers often don't listen to outside critiques, the college's players are eager for feedback.

"The first couple of days were a little iffy, but now they're really rolling with us and listening to what we have to say," he said. "Everyone here is looking to improve. They want to learn how to be the best, and that's what sets them apart."

Robert Morris will have to defeat dozens of other Midwestern schools to make it to the national championship in Los Angeles next year, and they won't all be pushovers.
"Other (club) teams have been together for a longer period of time, so (Robert Morris) might not be favorites — but they will do well," said Duran Parsi of the Collegiate StarLeague, a gaming group that was to run some of the competitions.

The team's greatest impact, though, could come outside the arena. Trey Sweeney of IvyLOL, another "League of Legends" tournament organizer, said the school's varsity model could boost the viability of college eSports.

"With Robert Morris coming in and establishing a (scholarship-granting) program at a university, it will open the door for other schools to follow that path," he said.

An intriguing side note is the program's straightforward injection of commercialism into a college sport. Corporate sponsors helped pay for the team's gear — their logos adorn the players' team jackets — and some of its members have channels on the streaming website Twitch, which allows gamers to earn money through subscriptions and advertising.

Because eSports operate outside the authority of governing bodies such as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the NCAA, there's nothing to stop college players from getting paid; Ganzman said one team in South Korea, the epicenter of professional "League of Legends," is sponsored by a university and that a similar arrangement could well take root in the U.S. someday.
That likely won't happen anytime soon, but Andy Schwarz, an antitrust economist who specializes in sports, said escalating attacks on the model of unpaid college athletics demonstrate that the system is ripe for an overhaul.

"If (gamers) are getting $50,000 on top of a scholarship and football programs are offering just a $5,000 stipend, I can see an athlete saying, 'That little dweeb over there is getting $50,000? I think I'll go play video games,'" he said.

For now, though, some Robert Morris players say the scholarship program has already given them a good deal — and not just financially.

"Honestly, I'm surrounded by the best group of people I've ever experienced in my life," said Sondra Burrows, 21, who came from Murrieta, Calif. "We all have such great common interests. We all have a great time together, we're always hanging out ... (and) we're in one of the most beautiful cities. What's not to love right now?"

Friday, 24 October 2014

Sundar Pichai takes control of Google's crucial products

Sundar Pichai takes control of Google's crucial products

Chris Velazco
Engadget 



Well, we guess congratulations are in order. According to Re/code, Sundar Pichai, the senior vice president at Google who used to just be in charge of the Chrome, Android, and web apps teams now basically has control of almost every other Google product division of note. Search? Google+? Ads? Even the company's infrastructure? All of that has been apparently moved off of CEO Larry Page's plate and onto Pichai's -- not a huge surprise considering his heightened prominence within Mountain View over the past months. Pichai, a nine year Google veteran, was even rumored to be one of the leading choices for Microsoft's new CEO, though the role eventually went to longtime company insider Satya Nadella.
Anyway, that's a lot of power in one man's hands, especially considering that the advertising division Pichai inherited basically pays for all the other weird, amazing things Google gets to do. It's worth noting that not every Google product falls under Pichai's newly opened umbrella, though. There's YouTube, for one; that still remains under Susan Wojcicki's control, which she took over earlier this year. Oh, and all the really neat stuff -- Nest's growing internet-of-things team, the biotech innovations in the works at Calico, the moonshots under construction at Google X -- are all still firmly in Page's pocket. In fact, his love for the latter may be what caused this seismic leadership shift in the first place. Re/code notes that Page has expressed an interest in focusing on the "bigger picture" stuff that'll define what the Google of tomorrow will look like, lining up with earlier reports that he's been tapping internal talent to figure out what big, world-changing problems Google should really be trying to fix.
Source: Re/code

Queen Elizabeth II takes to an iPad to send her first Tweet

Queen Elizabeth II takes to an iPad to send her first Tweet

Ben Gilbert
Engadget


Queen Elizabeth II of England is pretty seriously old-school. She casually signs her name, "Elizabeth R." (the "R" stands for "Regina" or, in English, "Regent"). She wears killer matching outfits (as seen above) that would be at home in 1962. But she's also not above jumping into the modern age every now and again. Take, for instance, the tweet that she sent this morning -- her first ever -- from London's Science Museum. It's how she helped open an exhibit on "The Information Age" -- a live-action tweet from an iPad.
There's some contestation over whether she sent the tweet herself; the tweet originates on an iPhone, though the Queen was clearly using an iPad. Does it really matter? Do you care? This is all a publicity stunt anyway, right? Let's all just enjoy that beautiful blue dress and the killer matching hat. The tweet, in all its glory, can be found below.


Canadians now have faster mobile data than you

Canadians now have faster mobile data than you

Andy Bowen
Engadget


Our Canadian neighbors have already been given a taste of Rogers' extremely data-friendly LTE, but now the carrier is officially rolling out its LTE-Advanced network across 12 different cities. In fact, it's the first North Amercian carrier to launch an LTE-A network, period. So? Well, that means denizens of the poutine-filled country can stream much more video than you can, faster than you can. And since Rogers' new tech is a combination of AWS and its 700MHz spectrum (which is the same frequency some US AT&T clientele are also accustomed to), customers will see a big improvement on their data service while indoors, in a basement or other fringe areas. Head below for the full list of cities getting upgraded.
If you live in any of the cities listed below and want even faster mobile data, today's your lucky day:
  • Vancouver
  • Edmonton
  • Calgary
  • Windsor
  • London
  • Hamilton
  • Toronto
  • Kingston
  • Moncton
  • Fredericton
  • Halifax
  • Saint John
Source: CNW Group

AT&T Confirms Apple SIM Gets Locked to Its Network, but Says Switching Carriers Still Easy

AT&T Confirms Apple SIM Gets Locked to Its Network, but Says Switching Carriers Still Easy

Ina Fried
Re/code



One of the big changes with the latest iPad was the arrival of the Apple SIM, which lets customers buy an iPad and then choose with which carrier they want to use it.

Though not mentioned onstage, the Apple SIM was quickly highlighted as a big shift. It suggested to some the possibility of an exciting new future in which customers paying full price for their device could effortlessly hop from network to network whenever they want.

The picture gets a little less rosy when you consider that Verizon requires a separate SIM. The idea of easily switching back and forth among carriers took another hit when it became clear that AT&T was participating in the Apple SIM but is choosing to lock that SIM to the network once a customer uses it on AT&T.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel confirmed to Re/code that customers who use the Apple SIM on AT&T will need another SIM card to switch carriers, but stressed that the device itself remains unlocked.

“With us you can change carriers with this iPad any time you want,” he said. “It is an unlocked device. … All [you] have to do is switch out the SIM in the device so it works on another carrier.”
As for why AT&T is locking the SIM card to its network while other carriers are not, Siegel said that “it’s just simply the way we’ve chosen to do it.”

That said, the latest iPad is still a pretty darn open device, with a single model working with all four major U.S. carriers and some overseas as well. The ability to change with just a switch of a SIM is far more open than most devices sold in the U.S., which typically support at most a couple different options.