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AfterDawn: News

South Park does its duty to troll new consoles and fanboys

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Nov 2013 11:21

South Park does its duty to troll new consoles and fanboys Last night, just days before the Sony PlayStation 4 launch, popular comedy show South Park did their duty to troll console fanboys.

For the episode titled "Black Friday," the show mixed Game of Thrones references along with Black Friday craziness and the console war craziness.

Of course, Cartman wins with the quote of the night, "Let these Sony f***s wallow in their limited voice-control functionality."

Check the video here:




AfterDawn: News

Moto Maker now available for all U.S. carriers

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Nov 2013 10:19

Moto Maker now available for all U.S. carriers Two months after debuting exclusively for AT&T, the Motorola Moto Maker site is now available for all major U.S. carriers.

The site allows buyers to customize their Moto X smartphone, including thousands of different color options, accents and combos.

Now available for Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, US Cellular customers will have to wait some more time to get the service.

Motorola builds the device in the U.S., so shipping times to U.S. buyers is four days or less from purchase.

The Moto X costs $99 for the base 16GB model with two year contract.




AfterDawn: News

Comcast to open movie download, streaming store available through set-top cable boxes

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Nov 2013 9:35

Comcast to open movie download, streaming store available through set-top cable boxes Comcast has plans to open a movie download and streaming store that will be available to subscribers through the company's set-top boxes and its Xfinity TV site.

The major ISP and cable provider hopes to launch the service before the end of the year, say the sources.

At launch, the service will include a wide range of titles "from several Hollywood studios that include new releases, older movies and some TV shows."

Currently, Comcast offers free on-demand movies and pay rentals during a specific period. Hollywood is actively looking to boost their digital sales as more customers move away from DVD and Blu-ray purchases, and Comcast is a major player in the industry.




AfterDawn: News

Nokia Windows Phone 8.1 device to include '3D Touch' features

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Nov 2013 9:27

Nokia Windows Phone 8.1 device to include '3D Touch' features According to leaking pro @evleaks, Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 device will include '3D Touch' features.

The source says the company is actually planning two phones, codenamed 'Goldfinger' and 'Moneypenny,' with Gold being the flagship.

3D Touch, which Nokia has been working on for quite some time, uses the hardware sensors "to detect interactions that are off-the-glass."

Supposedly, the new features will make use of off-glass gestures above and to the side of the device. According to the source, the new gestures "currently under consideration include scrolling and flipping to let Windows Phone 8.1 users navigate around a phone without touching the screen."

Windows Phone 8.1 is currently under development and should be launched in time for the Mobile World Congress 2014 in February.





AfterDawn: News

MacRumors forum hacked and nearly a million accounts compromised, but hacker won't share

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Nov 2013 6:50

MacRumors forum hacked and nearly a million accounts compromised, but hacker won't share The Mac and iOS-based news site MacRumors confirmed this week that their forums were attacked by hackers, with 860,000 usernames and passwords being stolen.

Fortunately, the hacker says he will not leak any of the passwords stolen, but MacRumors has still begged users to change their password on the site and on other sites where they might have used the same pass and username combo.

"We're not terrorists," says the attacker, who goes by "lol." "Stop worrying, and stop blaming it on Macrumors when it was your own fault for reusing passwords in the first place."

The hacker accessed a moderator account for the vBulletin software that runs the site, then escalated their access privileges, eventually dumping a database containing all the usernames, email addresses and passwords. The passwords were md5 hashed and salted, which means they will be cracked within days if not sooner. MacRumors was upfront with their users and confirmed that hash/salt is not secure and reported the breach within hours of it occurring, unlike major corporations, many of which have waited days following attacks to say anything.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Apple II source code now available to the public, 35 years after launch

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Nov 2013 6:31

Apple II source code now available to the public, 35 years after launch Apple II's source code, which was released 35 years ago and was the company's first mass-market computer, is now available to the public.

The Computer History Museum has made the original DOS code available after it was donated by Paul Laughton, the man who created the operating system on a strict deadline from Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Apple II used a cassette tape for data storage and needed just 4KB of memory to run.

The OS took Laughton seven weeks to build and he was paid $13,000 for his work.

Read more on the OS and get the source code here: Computer History




AfterDawn: News

Rumor: Galaxy S5 to include 64-bit processor, 16MP camera

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Nov 2013 10:03

Rumor: Galaxy S5 to include 64-bit processor, 16MP camera As expected, the rumor mill is heating up for 2014's Samsung Galaxy S5.

Following the company's analyst day, we have a few confirmations about the device.

The smartphone will include a 16MP camera with ISOCELL technology which "allows for better photography in low light settings as well as improved color, sharpness, and richness," say the sources.

In addition, the device will use a 64-bit Exynos chip. The processor is built on an ARM design, and then "optimized" by Samsung who licenses the designs and then brands it as Exynos.

Samsung announced the S4 last March for sale in April. It is rumored that the upcoming S5 will be released even earlier, perhaps during February.




AfterDawn: News

Google Glass gets new music-based features Google Play Music support

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Nov 2013 7:20

Google Glass gets new music-based features Google Play Music support Google has announced new music-based features for its Google Glass wearable device.

Glass now has Google Play Music support, which can be accessed by saying "Okay Glass, listen to..." and stating whatever track you would like to begin with.

Additionally, you will have access to All Access, Google's unlimited streaming catalog (if you pay for it).

To use Google's Sound Search feature, you can say "Okay Google, what song is this?" and it will provide you then name of the track along with the artist and an image of the album cover or track image.

Finally, Google will begin selling stereo earbuds for $85, including 5 interchangeable color caps.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Netflix gets 'biggest update in its history' for the TV experience

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Nov 2013 6:21

Netflix gets 'biggest update in its history' for the TV experience Netflix has announced this week that it has just undergone the "biggest update in Netflix history to our TV experience"

The update affects the universal Netflix on TV experience, including the platforms for Roku 3, Smart TVs, Blu-ray players and consoles.

As Netflix explains, the "new experience evolved through a process of design exploration, iteration and testing that extended throughout all parts of the Netflix TV experience. We set out to deliver an update that would make it even easier to discover something great to watch and we think we succeeded."

Throughout the navigation of the streaming library, there will be three large images for each show/movie and full context about the title rather than just the name. Furthermore, there is a "shorter, more descriptive synopsis as well as personalized information to provide more detail about why you should watch a specific title."That information includes info based on your viewing habits, taste preferences or your social networking.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Nokia empowers Windows Phone devs to create sophisticated imaging apps with new SDK

Written by James Delahunty @ 13 Nov 2013 7:14

Nokia empowers Windows Phone devs to create sophisticated imaging apps with new SDK Nokia has announced the latest version of its Imagine SDK (v1.0) for Windows Phone developers, providing the tools to create much more powerful imaging apps.

The iconic Finnish firm promised the SDK provides a boatload of new features and functionality to developers of Windows Phone apps for its Lumia-branded smartphones. A recent report from IDC found that Nokia accounts for a staggering 93.2 percent of all Windows Phone shipments.

App developers will want take every advantage possible of the hardware at their disposal, and the new Nokia Imaging SDK will make it possible to develop much more sophisticated, feature-rich, yet efficient, imaging apps.

It includes over 50 built-in features such as Sepia, Black & White, Mirror, Tones. The Chromakey feature enables "green screen" magic within apps, allowing the developer to provide a background to render objects in, and developers can now also create their own custom filters and add previously unseen effects.

The SDK is made to handle memory management more efficiently than the beta versions of the SDK too. It uses the Random Access JPEG (RAJPEG) format, enabling the selective compression and decompression of images, taking a load off the memory and CPU resource requirements.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Review: The latest Android flagship, the Google Nexus 5

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Nov 2013 6:00

Review: The latest Android flagship, the Google Nexus 5 At the end of October, Google officially unveiled the Nexus 5, the latest flagship device for the company that offers a pure Android experience along with higher-end specs.

The device sold out of initial supply through the Google Play Store within hours and moved to expected one week shipping and then two week shipping before the launch day was completed. The experience was significantly better than the Nexus 4 launch, which saw server crashes and delays and shipping times as long as 10 weeks.

I've been able to test the new reference device for about a week now, and the question is not whether it is the best phone in its price range (which it certainly is), but whether it can compete with the best-in-class devices such as the iPhone 5S, Lumia 1020, HTC One, Galaxy S4 and some would argue, the Note III.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Android 4.4 KitKat roll-out to Nexus 7, Nexus 10 begins today

Written by James Delahunty @ 12 Nov 2013 11:54

Android 4.4 KitKat roll-out to Nexus 7, Nexus 10 begins today Owners of Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 Wi-Fi models can start to get the Android v4.4 KitKat update starting today, though mobile data models still have to wait.

The Android Google+ page was used to announce the availability of the latest Android update for the 7-inch tablets.

"Starting today, Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013) and Nexus 10 will be getting a tasty update to Android 4.4, KitKat. Stay tuned, Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 versions with mobile data will be getting the update soon!" the Google+ page reads.

It was also announced on Twitter:




(via: Engadget)




AfterDawn: News

WSJ: Hulu in talks with Pay TV providers

Written by James Delahunty @ 12 Nov 2013 11:48

WSJ: Hulu in talks with Pay TV providers Hulu is in talks with several U.S. TV providers to bundle Hulu Plus subscriptions, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to the Wall Street Journal (behind paywall) report, Hulu is speaking to AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable and Verizon about bundling its premium Internet video streaming service with their TV subscription models.

In the case of AT&T, talks included bundling a Hulu Plus subscription with wireless broadband services.

Services like Hulu and Netflix would get immediate benefit from deals that would make their content available through set-top-boxes over cable networks. Netflix has signed three of such deals in Europe over the past few months, and has reportedly been talking with U.S. firms too.

The talks between Hulu and U.S. companies are described as being in the very early stages. Some already offer their own on-demand video services.




AfterDawn: News

IDC: Android claims 81 percent of smartphone market, Windows Phone growing

Written by James Delahunty @ 12 Nov 2013 11:40

IDC: Android claims 81 percent of smartphone market, Windows Phone growing According to IDC's new Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android has surpassed 80 percent of the global smartphone market.

A recent study from Strategy Analytics found similar figures for Android, estimating an 81.3 percent share of the smartphone market for the Google-led operating system. IDC's figures show an 81 percent share of the market during the third quarter of 2013, up from 74.9 percent.

By contrast, iOS has dropped to 12.9 percent from 14.4 percent, though Apple's smartphone shipments were up just under 8 million units over the same period of 2012.

Total Q3 2013 smartphone shipments hit 261.1 million units, up from 186.7 million in Q3 2012. Android shipments rose from 139.9 million in 2012 to 211.6 million in 2013, with Samsung the main beneficiary with over 39 percent of all Android shipments during the quarter.

Windows Phone claimed 3.6 percent of the worldwide market, up from 2.0 percent over the same period of 2012. Shipments of Windows Phone devices increased from 3.7 million during Q3 2012, to 9.5 million in Q3 2013. Nokia claimed 93.2 percent of WP shipments.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

PS4 will get MP3 and CD support with update, DLNA also being considered

Written by James Delahunty @ 12 Nov 2013 11:26

PS4 will get MP3 and CD support with update, DLNA also being considered Shuhei Yoshida, head of Sony Worldwide Studios, has said that the PlayStation 4 (PS4) will get MP3 and CD playback abilities in a post launch update.

Yoshida said that the company was surprised by the reaction from consumers to the news that the PS4 would not support MP3 playback, or CD playback, right away. However, he said adding support was always intended, it just wasn't prioritized.

"The biggest surprise for us all internally at Sony was there are so many people who passionately reacted to our announcement that there's no MP3 support or CD support on day one. Its not like we actively decided; let's not do this feature so people will have to subscribe to Music Unlimited," he said in a a recent ep of GiantBomb's Interview Dumptruck.

"The focus has been more on the game features. Some of the features we wanted but we couldn't get in on day one. We didn't really think about MP3 or CD. We thought 'we're going to do that eventually.'"

The Sony bass also revealed that they are kicking around the possibility of DLNA support via an update. The Xbox One is currently in the process of being certified for DLNA.





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