Posts written by Brian Hough
Glass users need not apply
McDonalds begins banning Google Glass use in restaurants?
Jose Barajas, a Google+ user who took to the network after a trip to his local McDonalds today, at least some franchises have apparently begun banning the use of Google Glass in company restaurants, putting up signs on their doors saying “Google Glass is banned on these premises.” without explanation. One user jokingly commented that McDonalds doesn’t “want people hamburgling McD’s secrets! :D”
The McDonalds in question is one in Sacramento, California – there’s no sign as of yet that this is a company wide initiative. However given the privacy concerns some have had with Google Glass’s ability to record video and snap photos without any indication that it’s doing so, we could imagine that many parties wouldn’t take kindly to the sort of privacy concerns raised by Glass.
We’ve reached out to McDonalds for a comment and will update this post if we hear anything further.
Source: Jose Barajas (Google+)
I received mine in the mail today
Confirmed: Intel Core i7 “Haswell” processors have begun shipping
Intel Core i7 Haswell.
Consider this a confirmation of our story the other day that “Haswell” processors have begun shipping – I received my Intel Core i7 4770 “Haswell” chip in the mail today. The photo above was taken not twenty minutes ago and originated from a warehouse in PA by a place called Eerie Computers.
Unfortunately, because Haswell isn’t set to actually launch until early June I have no way of testing it or benchmarking, however if there’s any indication that an official launch is close at hand, this is it.
Update 05/17 @ 6:10 PM EST: For those asking, my specific Haswell identifies as being from Batch # L306B433.
Twenty-somethings everywhere cry out in horror
Yahoo! in talks to buy Tumblr (Updated!)
As if Yahoo! hasn’t already purchased and (arguably, I suppose) abused enough big name internet properties in the past, rumor has it that the company is now in talks to purchase none other than the blogging platform of choice for twenty-somethings all around the world, Tumblr. According to TIME Magazine, the deal is in the fairly late stages of talks and discussion and is currently set for approximately $1 billion dollars in a move that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer obviously hopes will help bring the company out of its nearly decade long slump.
Tumblr is currently estimated to have a valuation of about $800 million, with CEO David Karp continuing to actively pursue a new round of venture capital that would add even more cash to that number. Tumblr has actually only made $125 million off of that investment however, suggesting that Tumblr continues to have the same problem as Twitter – figuring out how to make money off of blogging.
A Yahoo! spokesperson reportedly said that the company “does not comment on rumor and speculation”, however TechCrunch is also putting in its 2.5 cents “confirming” that Yahoo! is indeed in talks with Tumblr, but that Yahoo! also “literally talks to everyone”.
Update 05/17 @ 6:40 PM EST: Yahoo! has just announced that they will be holding a “product related press event” on Monday, May 20th. Reports indicate that Yahoo! will indeed announce that they have purchased Tumblr at the event.
Source: TIME
Domino's, you mad genius you.
Thermal Ink makes DVDs smell like delicious pizza
How’s about this for an innovation – someone at Domino’s Pizza apparently came up with the incredible idea of mixing two of the best things in the world : the smell of a hot, delicious pizza, and a movie. Domino’s Pizza in Brazil are now advertising and selling copies of ten of today’s hottest movies (including The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, and Argo) that have been stamped with what’s called thermal ink which, when heated up (like by a DVD player), smells like the heavenly scent of Domino’s Pizza.
Each disc has also been specially printed with a label that reads “Did you enjoy the movie? The next one will be even better with a hot and delicious Domino’s Pizza.” I’m not sure if this is madness or genius, but I do know that I want some pizza with garlic crust.
Source: Adage
Well, there's always the September music event
Apple’s “iRadio” unlikely to launch at WWDC
When Google announced their new Google Music All Access service at I/O 2013 the other day, many began to wonder whether Apple’s eagerly anticipated iRadio service was all that far behind or not. Many have held out hope that Apple would finally announce the new service at this year’s WWDC event, however a new report by The Verge reveals that Apple will be unable to complete negotiations with the labels by the time WWDC rolls around. Apple will be unable to announce or release anything unless they have the full support of the music labels.
In the article, The Verge writes that the reason for the delay is because Apple’s “iRadio” service will be substantially different from the current streaming services, including Spotify, Pandora, and Google Music. “iRadio” is said to be an “on-demand” recommendation system, unlike Pandora which systematically selects music without much input from the user. Such a system has reportedly yet to be tried before, requiring Apple to start from zero in an effort to make terms with the labels, something they have to date been hesitant to do.
Apple has reportedly already completed a deal with Universal Music and Sony Music, meaning that the delay would be coming from Warner Brothers and the remaining big labels.
Source: The Verge
The labels will not be pleased
Security hole lets users download pre-release albums from iTunes for free
A new security hole discovered today allows users to download any pre-release album streaming from iTunes entirely free of charge. Though we won’t get let you in on a step by step tutorial on how to pull this off here, we will say that the security hole is incredibly easy to pull off, requiring nothing but iTunes and a free application to snoop on HTTP requests.
The resulting file is a high quality, 256 kbps, DRM free file of the entire album, equipped with nothing but an iTunes FairPlay wrapper to stop people from playing this on anything other than i-devices. Anyone who pulls this off will be able to put the album on any Mac or Windows PC running iTunes, as well as an iPod, iPhone, or AppleTV.
Remember – doing this is most definitely illegal (or at the very least, a major breech in your agreement with Apple), and takes away any profits an artist might have otherwise made on a purchase – so we’re definitely not suggesting you all go out and try this out for yourselves. Musicians are incredibly gracious allowing users to stream their entire albums for free days and weeks before the actual release, so we wouldn’t want to take advantage of their good will, would we?
Source: 9to5Mac
Microsoft Office “Gemini” to bring the revered office suite to the tablet era
The writing on the walls appears to be getting more clear and more frequent, as plans for Microsoft’s next version of their Office suite, codenamed “Gemini”, have begun to spread online like wildfire. According to some new reports, Microsoft’s “Gemini” update aims to bring the world’s most popular office suite to the tablet era with versions for Windows 8 “Metro”, iOS, and Android being developed concurrently.
Among the new tablet applications will also include updates developed specifically to take leverage of new Windows 8.1 (previously codenamed “Blue”) technologies. Microsoft is reportedly hoping to have the Windows 8 part of “Gemini” ready for a public preview by this year’s BUILD conference, where the new Office Metro applications will be showcased for the very first time.
iOS and Android users will reportedly have to wait a bit longer to get their fair share of an Office fix as Microsoft is reportedly not planning on announcing or releasing these versions of “Gemini” until late 2014 at the earliest. Microsoft might also be planning on releasing an updated Office for Mac suite sometime in 2014, which would make sense given their past release schedules, however we have nothing specific to report on that at the moment.
"Your $5 is attached"
New Gmail feature will allow you to send money as an email attachment
Google announced about four hours worth of new products, services, and features yesterday (quite literally, their I/O 2013 keynote went on for nearly four hours), so some cool little nuggets were bound to have been overshadowed – and indeed, one of the coolest announcements that got pushed to the wayside yesterday is that a new feature will allow Gmail users to attach real money to an e-mail. As in, you click the little attach button, you punch in your value, and you hit send.
The new feature will work concurrently with a user’s Google Wallet account, so if you’ve got any bank accounts or cards or whatnot linked through that service you should be good to go. Google will take a 2.9% cut of the transaction’s value as a transaction fee. Google says that the new service will roll out in the next “couple of months”, however some people are reportedly already seeing the feature show up on their Gmail accounts. While this isn’t something that I can see many people really taking advantage of, especially considering the relative obscurity of Google Wallet today, it’s a great example of those cool, innovative little features that Google is known for.
Check out a demo video Google put together after the break.
Source: ZAGG Blog
Still has a long way to go
Windows Phone becomes the third most widely used mobile operating system in the world
Things have been pretty bad for BlackBerry for quite some time now, but today they just got a little worse – market firm IDC has just released their latest look on the mobile landscape and have discovered that, for the first time, Windows Phone has overtaken BlackBerry’s spot as the third most widely used mobile operating system platform in the world, behind Android at #1 and iOS at #2.
According to IDC’s numbers, Windows Phone made up 3.2% of all mobile handsets shipped this quarter, while BlackBerry only made up a mere 2.9%. Android devices meanwhile made up 75% while iOS dropped to 17.3%, a huge shift in the tides towards Android’s favor. That said, the iPhone 5 has been on sale for quite some time now while Android competitors such as Samsung and HTC continue to make constant improvements to their products.
Source: IDC
Nearly a month before launch
Intel Core i7 “Haswell” processors begin shipping?
Intel’s next generation Core i7 processors, codenamed “Haswell”, aren’t set to launch until June at the earliest. But according to my bank account, an email I just received (complete with the serial number of the processor, seen above with sensitive information edited out of course), and a UPS tracking number – Intel appears to have begun shipping at least some Intel Core i7 “Haswell” processors. Of course, there’s always an off-chance that this is just some freak accident and the package I receive in the mail will not be the Haswell I pre-ordered (a 4770k, for the record) – but things are certainly looking like it could be.
A quick lookup of the processor’s serial # doesn’t match any processor in Intel’s system, and looking up the Mfg Part # listed in my invoice brings up results for nothing but the Intel Core i7 4770k Haswell processor. I’m currently trying to confirm that the package I receive in the mail on Friday will actually be one of the first ever Haswell chips delivered to the general public, so if you’re an Intel representative please feel free to contact me.
So, who wants to bet on whether the package I receive on Friday is an outdated Core i7 processor, a box filled with rocks, or the mythical Haswell arrived at long last?
Complete with cross platform support
Google turns “Hangouts” into an iMessage/BBM/WhatsApp messaging competitor
Google has just announced that their popular “Hangouts” feature will be transformed into a seamless mobile text messaging replacement protocol, similar in vein to Apple’s iMessage, BlackBerry Messenger, and WhatsApp. The new service will allow users to seamlessly message other Google users running either Android, iOS, and Google Chrome (browser or OS) with a new suite of native and web applications.
Google Hangouts replaces both the old school video Google Hangouts feature on Google+ as well as the ill fated Google Talk service, which never really managed to garner that much popularity in an era dominated by AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger. Google certainly has an uphill battle however – iMessage is integrated into every iOS device on the planet by default, and WhatsApp has got its own massive dedicated userbase. And let’s not forget Facebook who, with Facebook Messenger, is trying to do virtually the same thing as Google here – only it has the established user base to really back it up.
The Hangout app will be available soon for all platforms, however Google has yet to outline any availability date.
Source: Google I/O Developer Conference 2013
Google tries to get it right
Google+ gets a multi-column redesign
As much as I love Google, even I have to admit it: Google+ is at least somewhat of a dud. It’s an almost totally dead social network that probably gets barely more activity within my circles than MySpace does these days; if you want to stay connected with friends and family, Twitter and Facebook are still your best bets. Google is hoping that will change with today’s announced redesign to Google+, which eschews the concept of a linear news feed with a new, “less flat”, multicolumn one.
Text will take up one column while shared photos and videos can take up numerous columns, allowing users to see more of what’s going on at one point in time then ever before. The entire UI has been organized around the now familiar “cards” metaphor, which Google has been using on other Google services, such as Google Now, for some time.
Google is also introducing a new feature called “related hashtags”, allowing the system to automagically pick up what a certain post or image is about and link you to relevant and similar pieces of information. For example, if you take a picture of the Eiffel Tower and share it on Google+, the system will know that that’s a picture of the Eiffel Tower and feed you some other pictures and information on the landmark. Nowhere do you have to explicitly say that it’s a picture of the tower – the system just knows. Google has been using similar tech in their Google Image Search feature for some time now.
Google says all of this should be rolling out sometime today, so keep an eye out.
Source: Google I/O Developer Conference 2013
Glass users need not apply
McDonalds begins banning Google Glass use in restaurants?
Jose Barajas, a Google+ user who took to the network after a trip to his local McDonalds today, at least some franchises have apparently begun banning the use of Google Glass in company restaurants, putting up signs on their doors saying “Google Glass is banned on these premises.” without explanation. One user jokingly commented that McDonalds doesn’t “want people hamburgling McD’s secrets! :D”
The McDonalds in question is one in Sacramento, California – there’s no sign as of yet that this is a company wide initiative. However given the privacy concerns some have had with Google Glass’s ability to record video and snap photos without any indication that it’s doing so, we could imagine that many parties wouldn’t take kindly to the sort of privacy concerns raised by Glass.
We’ve reached out to McDonalds for a comment and will update this post if we hear anything further.
Source: Jose Barajas (Google+)
I received mine in the mail today
Confirmed: Intel Core i7 “Haswell” processors have begun shipping
Intel Core i7 Haswell.
Consider this a confirmation of our story the other day that “Haswell” processors have begun shipping – I received my Intel Core i7 4770 “Haswell” chip in the mail today. The photo above was taken not twenty minutes ago and originated from a warehouse in PA by a place called Eerie Computers.
Unfortunately, because Haswell isn’t set to actually launch until early June I have no way of testing it or benchmarking, however if there’s any indication that an official launch is close at hand, this is it.
Update 05/17 @ 6:10 PM EST: For those asking, my specific Haswell identifies as being from Batch # L306B433.
Twenty-somethings everywhere cry out in horror
Yahoo! in talks to buy Tumblr (Updated!)
As if Yahoo! hasn’t already purchased and (arguably, I suppose) abused enough big name internet properties in the past, rumor has it that the company is now in talks to purchase none other than the blogging platform of choice for twenty-somethings all around the world, Tumblr. According to TIME Magazine, the deal is in the fairly late stages of talks and discussion and is currently set for approximately $1 billion dollars in a move that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer obviously hopes will help bring the company out of its nearly decade long slump.
Tumblr is currently estimated to have a valuation of about $800 million, with CEO David Karp continuing to actively pursue a new round of venture capital that would add even more cash to that number. Tumblr has actually only made $125 million off of that investment however, suggesting that Tumblr continues to have the same problem as Twitter – figuring out how to make money off of blogging.
A Yahoo! spokesperson reportedly said that the company “does not comment on rumor and speculation”, however TechCrunch is also putting in its 2.5 cents “confirming” that Yahoo! is indeed in talks with Tumblr, but that Yahoo! also “literally talks to everyone”.
Update 05/17 @ 6:40 PM EST: Yahoo! has just announced that they will be holding a “product related press event” on Monday, May 20th. Reports indicate that Yahoo! will indeed announce that they have purchased Tumblr at the event.
Source: TIME
Domino's, you mad genius you.
Thermal Ink makes DVDs smell like delicious pizza
How’s about this for an innovation – someone at Domino’s Pizza apparently came up with the incredible idea of mixing two of the best things in the world : the smell of a hot, delicious pizza, and a movie. Domino’s Pizza in Brazil are now advertising and selling copies of ten of today’s hottest movies (including The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, and Argo) that have been stamped with what’s called thermal ink which, when heated up (like by a DVD player), smells like the heavenly scent of Domino’s Pizza.
Each disc has also been specially printed with a label that reads “Did you enjoy the movie? The next one will be even better with a hot and delicious Domino’s Pizza.” I’m not sure if this is madness or genius, but I do know that I want some pizza with garlic crust.
Source: Adage
Well, there's always the September music event
Apple’s “iRadio” unlikely to launch at WWDC
When Google announced their new Google Music All Access service at I/O 2013 the other day, many began to wonder whether Apple’s eagerly anticipated iRadio service was all that far behind or not. Many have held out hope that Apple would finally announce the new service at this year’s WWDC event, however a new report by The Verge reveals that Apple will be unable to complete negotiations with the labels by the time WWDC rolls around. Apple will be unable to announce or release anything unless they have the full support of the music labels.
In the article, The Verge writes that the reason for the delay is because Apple’s “iRadio” service will be substantially different from the current streaming services, including Spotify, Pandora, and Google Music. “iRadio” is said to be an “on-demand” recommendation system, unlike Pandora which systematically selects music without much input from the user. Such a system has reportedly yet to be tried before, requiring Apple to start from zero in an effort to make terms with the labels, something they have to date been hesitant to do.
Apple has reportedly already completed a deal with Universal Music and Sony Music, meaning that the delay would be coming from Warner Brothers and the remaining big labels.
Source: The Verge
The labels will not be pleased
Security hole lets users download pre-release albums from iTunes for free
A new security hole discovered today allows users to download any pre-release album streaming from iTunes entirely free of charge. Though we won’t get let you in on a step by step tutorial on how to pull this off here, we will say that the security hole is incredibly easy to pull off, requiring nothing but iTunes and a free application to snoop on HTTP requests.
The resulting file is a high quality, 256 kbps, DRM free file of the entire album, equipped with nothing but an iTunes FairPlay wrapper to stop people from playing this on anything other than i-devices. Anyone who pulls this off will be able to put the album on any Mac or Windows PC running iTunes, as well as an iPod, iPhone, or AppleTV.
Remember – doing this is most definitely illegal (or at the very least, a major breech in your agreement with Apple), and takes away any profits an artist might have otherwise made on a purchase – so we’re definitely not suggesting you all go out and try this out for yourselves. Musicians are incredibly gracious allowing users to stream their entire albums for free days and weeks before the actual release, so we wouldn’t want to take advantage of their good will, would we?
Source: 9to5Mac
Microsoft Office “Gemini” to bring the revered office suite to the tablet era
The writing on the walls appears to be getting more clear and more frequent, as plans for Microsoft’s next version of their Office suite, codenamed “Gemini”, have begun to spread online like wildfire. According to some new reports, Microsoft’s “Gemini” update aims to bring the world’s most popular office suite to the tablet era with versions for Windows 8 “Metro”, iOS, and Android being developed concurrently.
Among the new tablet applications will also include updates developed specifically to take leverage of new Windows 8.1 (previously codenamed “Blue”) technologies. Microsoft is reportedly hoping to have the Windows 8 part of “Gemini” ready for a public preview by this year’s BUILD conference, where the new Office Metro applications will be showcased for the very first time.
iOS and Android users will reportedly have to wait a bit longer to get their fair share of an Office fix as Microsoft is reportedly not planning on announcing or releasing these versions of “Gemini” until late 2014 at the earliest. Microsoft might also be planning on releasing an updated Office for Mac suite sometime in 2014, which would make sense given their past release schedules, however we have nothing specific to report on that at the moment.
"Your $5 is attached"
New Gmail feature will allow you to send money as an email attachment
Google announced about four hours worth of new products, services, and features yesterday (quite literally, their I/O 2013 keynote went on for nearly four hours), so some cool little nuggets were bound to have been overshadowed – and indeed, one of the coolest announcements that got pushed to the wayside yesterday is that a new feature will allow Gmail users to attach real money to an e-mail. As in, you click the little attach button, you punch in your value, and you hit send.
The new feature will work concurrently with a user’s Google Wallet account, so if you’ve got any bank accounts or cards or whatnot linked through that service you should be good to go. Google will take a 2.9% cut of the transaction’s value as a transaction fee. Google says that the new service will roll out in the next “couple of months”, however some people are reportedly already seeing the feature show up on their Gmail accounts. While this isn’t something that I can see many people really taking advantage of, especially considering the relative obscurity of Google Wallet today, it’s a great example of those cool, innovative little features that Google is known for.
Check out a demo video Google put together after the break.
Source: ZAGG Blog
Still has a long way to go
Windows Phone becomes the third most widely used mobile operating system in the world
Things have been pretty bad for BlackBerry for quite some time now, but today they just got a little worse – market firm IDC has just released their latest look on the mobile landscape and have discovered that, for the first time, Windows Phone has overtaken BlackBerry’s spot as the third most widely used mobile operating system platform in the world, behind Android at #1 and iOS at #2.
According to IDC’s numbers, Windows Phone made up 3.2% of all mobile handsets shipped this quarter, while BlackBerry only made up a mere 2.9%. Android devices meanwhile made up 75% while iOS dropped to 17.3%, a huge shift in the tides towards Android’s favor. That said, the iPhone 5 has been on sale for quite some time now while Android competitors such as Samsung and HTC continue to make constant improvements to their products.
Source: IDC
Nearly a month before launch
Intel Core i7 “Haswell” processors begin shipping?
Intel’s next generation Core i7 processors, codenamed “Haswell”, aren’t set to launch until June at the earliest. But according to my bank account, an email I just received (complete with the serial number of the processor, seen above with sensitive information edited out of course), and a UPS tracking number – Intel appears to have begun shipping at least some Intel Core i7 “Haswell” processors. Of course, there’s always an off-chance that this is just some freak accident and the package I receive in the mail will not be the Haswell I pre-ordered (a 4770k, for the record) – but things are certainly looking like it could be.
A quick lookup of the processor’s serial # doesn’t match any processor in Intel’s system, and looking up the Mfg Part # listed in my invoice brings up results for nothing but the Intel Core i7 4770k Haswell processor. I’m currently trying to confirm that the package I receive in the mail on Friday will actually be one of the first ever Haswell chips delivered to the general public, so if you’re an Intel representative please feel free to contact me.
So, who wants to bet on whether the package I receive on Friday is an outdated Core i7 processor, a box filled with rocks, or the mythical Haswell arrived at long last?
Complete with cross platform support
Google turns “Hangouts” into an iMessage/BBM/WhatsApp messaging competitor
Google has just announced that their popular “Hangouts” feature will be transformed into a seamless mobile text messaging replacement protocol, similar in vein to Apple’s iMessage, BlackBerry Messenger, and WhatsApp. The new service will allow users to seamlessly message other Google users running either Android, iOS, and Google Chrome (browser or OS) with a new suite of native and web applications.
Google Hangouts replaces both the old school video Google Hangouts feature on Google+ as well as the ill fated Google Talk service, which never really managed to garner that much popularity in an era dominated by AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger. Google certainly has an uphill battle however – iMessage is integrated into every iOS device on the planet by default, and WhatsApp has got its own massive dedicated userbase. And let’s not forget Facebook who, with Facebook Messenger, is trying to do virtually the same thing as Google here – only it has the established user base to really back it up.
The Hangout app will be available soon for all platforms, however Google has yet to outline any availability date.
Source: Google I/O Developer Conference 2013
Google tries to get it right
Google+ gets a multi-column redesign
As much as I love Google, even I have to admit it: Google+ is at least somewhat of a dud. It’s an almost totally dead social network that probably gets barely more activity within my circles than MySpace does these days; if you want to stay connected with friends and family, Twitter and Facebook are still your best bets. Google is hoping that will change with today’s announced redesign to Google+, which eschews the concept of a linear news feed with a new, “less flat”, multicolumn one.
Text will take up one column while shared photos and videos can take up numerous columns, allowing users to see more of what’s going on at one point in time then ever before. The entire UI has been organized around the now familiar “cards” metaphor, which Google has been using on other Google services, such as Google Now, for some time.
Google is also introducing a new feature called “related hashtags”, allowing the system to automagically pick up what a certain post or image is about and link you to relevant and similar pieces of information. For example, if you take a picture of the Eiffel Tower and share it on Google+, the system will know that that’s a picture of the Eiffel Tower and feed you some other pictures and information on the landmark. Nowhere do you have to explicitly say that it’s a picture of the tower – the system just knows. Google has been using similar tech in their Google Image Search feature for some time now.
Google says all of this should be rolling out sometime today, so keep an eye out.
Source: Google I/O Developer Conference 2013
Loading ...
