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Showing posts from November, 2014

Lazada, Rocket Internet’s Amazon Clone In Southeast Asia, Raises $250M Led By Temasek

We don’t often see companies announce funding rounds on the weekend, but that’s not stopping Lazada, the Rocket Internet-backed e-commerce firm in Southeast Asia, from revealing today that it has pulled in €200 million (around $250 million) in fresh capital. The round is lead by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, which manages a $100-billion-plus portfolio and this year invested in another Amazon rival: Snapdeal in India. The deal includes participation from a number of existing Lazada investors, including Kinnevik, Verlinvest and Rocket Internet, and it values the company at €1 billion ($1.25 billion). Lazada operates in six countries in Southeast Asia — Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — largely in tandem with Zalora, another well-backed e-commerce service started by Rocket Internet. This new funding round takes Lazada to more than $700 million in money from investors. Its most recent round was also $250 million back in December 2013, which include

Sony E-ink Watch Aims To Make Low–Power Screens The Next Big Thing In Fashion Fabric

Almost every tech hardware maker is basically racing smart watches out the door, but Sony is looking at how it can re-invent the basic timekeeping device itself with a new special project that was only just now revealed to be associated with the Japanese electronics giant, despite popping up on a crowdfunding site months ago. The so-called FES Watch, which uses e-paper for both the face and a wraparound band, initially kept the Sony name out of the mix to see how well it would fare in the public forum without the power of branding. FES Watch was instead billed as the product of a company called Fashion Entertainments, but that group is actually a team of Sony employees looking at how e-paper can be used to manufacture fashion goods. The WSJ reports that it wants to make e-paper thought of as a fabric in the fashion realm, good for making things like watches, bow ties, hat accessories or any other number of worn items. The Fashion Entertainments unit is led by Hiroki Totoki, the new

Here, Star Wars, I Fixed Your ‘Force Awakens’ Lightsaber Crossguard For You

The first Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer features all kinds of things that make my diehard Star Wars soul quiver and dance, but the crossguard on the dark side lightsaber spotted in the teaser, while initially cool, increasingly isn’t one of them. It looks ultimately very impractical, and I couldn’t help but to offer some engineering tips for the weapon’s designer. Let me explain: While the design looks like it was inspired by the kind of guard you’d see on a claymore, for instance, which prevents an opponent’s blade from sliding down yours and, say, cutting off your fingers, it seems unlikely to serve that function. The emitters extend from the hilt, as you can see, which presumably means they’re vulnerable to the opponent’s blade, which, per Star Wars lore, can cut through pretty much anything (except for Mandalorian iron, Force-imbued weapons and some other noteworthy materials). The whole point, however, of not using metal for the sword itself is that lightsabers can cut

Best Buy’s Website Crashes Hard On Black Friday

WHOOPS. Seems Best Buy was ill-prepared for today’s post-Turkey shopping madness — at least online. BestBuy.com has been down for nearly an hour now (since roughly 6:15 AM Pacific), on a sales day that the company likely hoped would be one of its best. It’s unclear whether the outage is due to a technical screw-up or traffic overwhelming its servers. For what it’s worth, the “Oh god, our website is broke” page itself loads pretty quickly — but that page is probably a whole lot easier to serve up than a zillion simultaneous searches and shopping-cart additions. Perhaps they should call the Geek Squad? Update: Two hours in, still down. Update #2: Seems their apps are broken, too. Read More

Watch The Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer Right Here

If you aren’t heading to the movies today, you still won’t miss out on the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer – it’s available now over at iTunes to watch. The highly-anticipated sequel to the sci-fi trilogy from the late 70s and early 80s (and maybe also a decade or so ago, if you happen to count those) comes out December 15, 2015, so know that when you’re watching this trailer you still have to wait over a year before the Force actually awakens. Is this fair? It is not fair. But take heat, since it seems like only yesterday we found out about this project to begin with: You’ll be back in the loving embrace of the fictional Star Wars universe before you know it. Brb getting in line now.

Nintendo Patents Game Boy Emulation For Use In Mobile Devices, In-Flight Entertainment

A new patent published by the USPTO yesterday details an invention by Nintendo that would allow it to emulate its mobile game consoles, including the Game Boy line of devices specifically, in other settings, including on seat-back displays in airplanes and trains, and on mobile devices including cell phones. The patent is an updated take on an older piece of IP, so it’s not an entirely new idea, but it’s still very interesting to consider that Nintendo could have renewed interest in the idea of running its own back catalogue on many different kinds of screens. The patent talks specifically about emulation, which is the technique by which a hardware platform is mimicked by a software application on a different type of hardware, in order to run versions of the games for said platform without requiring either the console itself, or physical cartridges. Generally, it’s been used by fan communities to play their favourite games of old on PCs, Macs and mobile devices, but in this patent

Chromecast Adds Comedy Central, Sesame Street Go, Nickelodeon, TuneIn And More

Google continues to build out its lineup of content partners for the Chromecast streaming media device. This time, partners include Comedy Central, Sesame Street Go, Nickelodeon, and TuneIn, providing a good mix of comedy, kids and radio/podcast content for direct broadcast to your TV or display. Other new channels include EPIX, YuppTV and Encore, which add additional TV and movie content, including live broadcast Indian television, and U.S. blockbusters. The new apps debuting today should help make Chromecast an even better companion for Thanksgiving gatherings, offering up something for the family to gather around while waiting on that turkey to brown. It’s interesting to see some content partners, like TuneIn, debut on Android TV first and then make their way to the Chromecast later. Casting functionality is a different approach to the native, local software available on Android TV, but media providers testing both models will be able to shed more light on what stands the most

Bio-Fuel Powered Electric Triplane Launches On Kickstarter

We thought Triplanes disappeared after World War One. But a new startup aims to bring them back in a new hybrid electric aircraft, powered by biofuel. FaradAir is now raising money on Kickstarter to achieve its initial funding goals for its plane. The Bio-Electric-Hybrid-Aircraft or BEHA for short, aims to be the world’s first ‘Hybrid’ eco-friendly aircraft, but won’t take to the skies until 2020. The Anglo/US venture involving several technology partners, including the renowned aviation engineering university at Cranfield, UK. Neil Cloughley, Managing Director says the near-silent aircraft negates night flight restrictions and pollution concerns. The key difference with the BEHA is its size. Most electric planes have huge, long glider-like wings which restricts where they can operate from, but by employing a tri-plane format, the BEHA can land on a normal airfield. Solar panel skins feature on all flight surfaces, and a wind-turbine will create battery-charging capability fo

We’ll Get Our First Look At Windows 10 Consumer Features In January

Windows 10 is already a known quantity to some degree thanks to the developer preview, but Microsoft is holding an event late in January to present its consumer features properly, according to a new report from The Verge. The January event will include discussion of new features for end-users, including an all-new touch input interface called “Continuum.” Also on the agenda for the event are discussions about how Windows 10 will work for phone and tablet hardware, as well as potential improvements to the Xbox One dashboard. Windows 10 is meant to unify Microsoft’s entire hardware lineup, including Xbox One, under a single platform, so this could be the first good look at how everything will work together once it all launches properly. Windows 10 is said to be launching sometime in “mid 2015,” so don’t expect the software to become available for the general public at said January event. More details should follow shortly about specific timing.

Facebook Open Sources Its Proxygen HTTP Framework And Server

Facebook today announced that it is open sourcing Proxygen, the C++ HTTP libraries — including an HTTP server — that it uses internally. The company has open-sourced quite a bit of its code in recent months, much of it focused on mobile developers. In many ways, today’s launch is more interesting, though, as it’s likely to reach a far wider number of developers. From the get-go, Facebook notes that it isn’t trying to replace popular HTTP and proxy servers like Apache or nginx with Proxygen. “Those projects focus on building extremely flexible HTTP servers written in C that offer good performance but almost overwhelming amounts of configurability,” Facebook engineers Daniel Sommermann and Alan Frindell write in today’s announcement. “Instead, we focused on building a high performance C++ HTTP framework with sensible defaults that includes both server and client code and that’s easy to integrate into existing applications.” Still, the framework allows you to quickly set up an event

Uber Continues To Bleed Cash In India To Pick Up Market Share

Uber raised $1.2 billion in funding in June, so you might justifiably ask why it is reportedly closing in on $1 billion more less than six months later. The answer may just be an aggressive international expansion in Asia, with a particular focus on India. The U.S. company was a relatively late arrival in India, but it has quickly scaled to cover 11 cities and make India its second largest market. Initially lagging behind a handful of local firms, Uber is making its large pile of funding count with a series of eye-catching (and cash-burning) promotions, the latest of which is free rides for anyone in the country between Wednesday and Sunday. Uber said it will give all customers who link their account with its new wallet payments system five free rides, to the value of up to 300 INR per trip ($4.90 — a good sum in India). That is valid across all three services that it offers in India and in each of the 11 cities it serves. The promotion is the latest in a series of major moves

Unity Finally Releases Its Long Promised User Interface Creator

Good news, everyone! Once upon a time, Unity promised to overhaul the way developers would build user interfaces in their Unity-powered games. This was roughly around the time man discovered fire*. [* In non-snark time, it was about a year and a half ago] At long last, Unity has shipped version 4.6 of its visual game development system — and with it, the long promised UI editor. If you’re not a Unity user, here’s what you need to know: Unity is a super powerful game creation engine that allows developers to work in a WYSIWYG-style interface. Games built in Unity work on nearly any platform (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, all the next-gen consoles, etc.) with minimal tweaking. You still need to know how to code to make things work the way you want, but the whole system is considerably more visual/drag-and-drop than the game engines of yesteryear. Unlike most aspects of Unity, a seemingly simple thing like making a settings screen or a pause menu was a painful task. Until

GoPro Could Go Robo With Consumer Drones Launching Next Year

GoPro is working on a lineup of consumer drones to supplement its action camera lineup, according to the Wall Street Journal. The new product category would offer aerial drones like the Parrot Bebop and DJI Phantom and Inspire 1. The drones would reportedly retail in the $500 to $1,000 range, and come with GoPro action camera tech onboard, which is a natural fit given that outfitting drones with GoPros is already a popular option among hobbyists and videographers. Drone sales could help GoPro diversify its product lineup, too – right now it has the majority of its eggs in one basket, with its action camera line. GoPro has done a terrific job of creating a vibrant first-party accessory lineup to accompany its core camera offerings, but many established camera makers are entering the market, or else focusing on improving their existing efforts. GoPro has made the right moves to maintain its leadership, with a new entry-level Hero camera that costs only $129.99, but achieving an early

How To Opt Out Of Twitter’s New Thing That Tracks Which Apps You Install

Twitter is now keeping track of which apps you have on your phone, and sending that data back to the mothership (birds nest?) Is it the worst offense in the world? Nah — they’re not exactly perusing your browsing history and sending it to your grandmother, here. But it’s still irksome, particularly given that Twitter pitches it as something they’re doing for you but makes the whole thing opt-out instead of opt-in. (You’ll see a notification letting you know that the feature has been enabled once it goes live on your account. Scroll past it, and you’re opted in.) Fortunately, turning the whole thing off right out of the gate is pretty straight forward. Here’s how to turn it off: 1) If you haven’t seen the notification yet, turning on “Limit ad tracking” on iOS or “Opt out of interest based-ads” on Android (Accounts -> Google -> Ads) will nix the feature before it’s ever turned on. 2) If it’s already on (or you’re not sure), go to the Twitter app on your device 3) On

Amazon Fire Phone Gets Another Fire Sale: $199 Unlocked

Amazon has already admitted that it priced its Fire Phone much higher than consumers anticipated, and now it’s making a significant adjustment to the device’s price tag: A fully unlocked Fire Phone now retails for $199.00, instead of $449.00. The GSM device is still U.S.-only, which means it’ll work with AT&T and T-Mobile, though not Verizon and Sprint. The $250 price drop puts the Fire Phone into a price range that might be more in line with what consumers were expecting to pay – Amazon’s decision to release a full-priced device, especially when paired with some of its less-than-stellar specs and odd 3D head tracking visual effects, clearly didn’t do a great job of attracting buyers. This is actually the second fire sale for the fire phone, after Amazon reduced the price of the on-contract, AT&T exclusive version to just $0.99 with a two-year agreement. Originally, the retail cost was $199 on a contract, which is ironically now the price for a fully free and clear contr

Roomer Lands $5M In Series A To Be The Airbnb For Unwanted Hotel Rooms

Roomer is doing for hotel rooms what Airbnb did for your very own home. According to the startup, which has just raised $5 million in Series A led by Disruptive, there are 81 million hotel room cancellations in the United States every year. Roomer tries to solve that problem by letting users sell their unwanted hotel room, which would otherwise cost a cancellation fee, at a discounted price. For the user, they avoid paying money for the unwanted room (and they might even make a few bucks), while the hotel makes far more money than they would from a cancellation fee from incidentals like WiFi, minibar, etc. Roomer sets up through hotels and travel agencies directly, so that each time a user wants to cancel their hotel room, they’re sent to the Roomer site to list it for sale. Roomer handles everything from marketing to reservation transfer to payment out to you, all from simply sending the hotel confirmation email to the service. The user gets all this for free, and then pays ou

In Europe, Spotify Royalties Overtake iTunes Earnings By 13%

Spotify may be smarting from the removal of Taylor Swift’s music catalogue from its platform, and Taylor Swift may not care, since she is riding a sales blockbuster in the form of her new album 1989, but it turns out that in the bigger picture, Spotify’s streaming service continues to gain an edge over downloads, specifically via iTunes. Kobalt, a company that helps collect music royalties on behalf of thousands of artists — including “half of this week’s Billboard Top 10″ and musicians like Maroon 5, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Grohl, Max Martin, Bob Dylan, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis — says that in the last quarter in Europe, revenues from Spotify streams were 13% higher on average than revenues from Apple’s iTunes for its customers. The numbers support findings reported in the Wall Street Journal last month noting that iTunes music sales are down about 13% this year. iTunes is still a massive business — up $300 million to $4.6 billion in sales in the last quarter — but that doesn’

Hollywood Comes Back To Silicon Valley With A New SyFy Reality TV Show

Hollywood just can’t get enough of geeks coding in hoodies. Following the successful first season of Mike Judge’s HBO brilliant farce Silicon Valley, NBC Universal techie network SyFy will try to show what being inside the tech bubble is really like. SyFy has greenlit a new, six-episode series that will follow teams of startups through the accelerator process in the Valley. The show, called The Bazillion Dollar Club*, is expected to focus on 12 companies (six each) participating in the 500 Startups Accelerator and PCH International’s Highway1 program. According to 500 Startups founding partner Dave McClure, the show plans to focus on two startups in each episode — one hardware and one software — and follow them through the 12-week accelerator programs. The idea is to show them going through all the ups and downs that early stage startup go through as they try to build product, get customers, and eventually (maybe) get funded. Shooting is expected to start early next year and ex

HTC Nexus 9 Tablet Review and Giveaway

The Nexus 9 just landed, and it’s hot – both in terms of newness, and temperature. It offers the beefiest specs in the Android world, along with a near doubling of prices over yesteryear’s models – but does the $399 HTC Nexus 9’s cutting-edge components justify its steep price increase? Competition In the tablet world, competition in the ~9-inch tablet space burns fierce – manufacturers have saturated the market with with all manner of devices. The vast selection of high-end tablets covers all operating systems, including Android, Windows 8.1 and iOS. The best of these include the $399 Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, the $399 Apple iPad Air and the $499 Air 2. On the low-end of the spectrum lies the ~$240 LG G Pad 8.3 (our G Pad review). While all of these devices will get the latest flavor of Android – Lollipop – the Nexus 9 is the first to arrive with it pre-installed. Aesthetic Design At first glance, the Nexus 9 comes off as a larger version of the 2013 Nexus 7. In build quali

Grand Theft Auto V Gets A Huge Update For Xbox One, PS4, And PC

Today Rockstar Games unveiled some new footage of Grand Theft Auto from the version set for release on the PS4 and Xbox One on November 18 and the PC on January 27. The biggest reveal: There’s now going to be a mode where you play as if it’s a giant open-world first-person shooter. This mode will be customizable, so you can play from a first-person perspective while walking around on foot and while driving but not while hiding behind cover during a gunfight. This new perspective will give you a better view of the improved graphics throughout the game, including denser pedestrian population and traffic, a farther draw distance, and more complex weather effects. PC gamers with high-end rigs get the best visuals, as the PC port supports cranking the resolution up from the console’s max of 1080p all the way up to 4K. It also changes how you’ll experience the story, as events that take place in a mission happen around you rather than from the zoomed out view you got in the original (s

How Much Would You Pay For An “Undo” Button On Tinder?

Tinder is moving forward with a testing plan for Tinder Plus, a new paid version of the app that brings premium features to users and finally starts a revenue stream for the growing IAC-owned dating company. With the paid version, users will have access to two new central features of the app, Undo and Passport. Undo lets people go back on the person they just swiped left on, a highly common accident, and Passport lets people search outside their geographic region. “The most-requested feature we get is a button to go back and have a second chance with people that users swipe left on,” said Tinder co-founder Sean Rad. “Everyone has wanted it from the beginning. It’s absolutely at the top of the list.” Tinder Plus simply unlocks that feature, letting users have the modern-day “missed connections” experience they’ve been craving. But it does it in a smart way, as the update will prominently feature a big yellow “Undo” button right on the home screen, whether you’re a paid user or n

Amazon’s Prime Members Start To Get Benefits From Other Digital Stores

Amazon is truly committed to pushing Prime membership to stratospheric heights, and a new expansion that sees it bringing benefits to Prime customers from e-commerce websites beyond its own walls should prove its commitment to the program. Prime members can now get free, next-day shipping on purchases made at British retailer AllSaints’ online store (via Re/code). The arrangement also sees AllSaints bring its products to Amazon.com search results, though clicking through to purchase will still take customers to the AllSaints website. Curiously, Amazon only makes, essentially, an affiliate fee for directing clients to AllSaints.com, though customers use their Amazon logins and payment information to complete their purchases through a partnership introduced in September. But Prime rules all at Amazon: It’s a growing source of revenue and profit for the online retailer, and studies have shown that Prime members end up buying almost double the amount as non-Prime members from Amazon’s

Google Launches Managed Service For Running Docker-Based Applications On Its Cloud Platform

Google today announced the alpha launch of Google Container Engine, a new managed service for building and running Docker container-based applications on its cloud platform. Docker is probably the hottest technology in developer circles these days — it’s almost impossible to have a discussion with a developer without it coming up — and Google’s Cloud Platform team has decided to go all in on this technology that makes it easier for developers to run distributed applications. In essence, this new service is a “Cluster-as-a-Service” platform based on Google’s open source Kubernetes project. Kubernetes, which helps developers manage their container clusters, is based on Google’s own work with containers in its massive data centers. In this new service, Kubernetes dynamically manages the different Docker containers that make up an application for the user. Google says the combination of “fast booting, efficient VM hosts and seamless virtualized network integration” will make its cl

Ahoy, Space Pirates, Spend Your Booty On This Crazy Watch

Arrr! Here be space pirates and where there are space pirates there is need of a $230,000 mechanical watch. Wild watch makers MB&F have just announced their MB&F HM6, a watch based on a 1970s cartoon called Capitaine Flam (Captain Flame). The bulbous watch is built of titanium alloy and you can tell the time using the little curved bulbs on one end of the piece. You can see more photos here. What the heck is going on here and why is this important? Well, in terms of materials science this is pretty cutting edge stuff. To create a working watch in this shape and size, using curved metal and carefully curved sapphire crystal, is a feat in itself and could point to future design cues in consumer electronics. The biomorphic design looks like something laid eggs on your wrist and is a huge departure from MB&F’s previous spaceship-themed watches. The central tourbillion – the little bit in the center that spins – can be hidden with an eyelid-like cover and the watch winds its

Cocoon Is A Smart Home Security Device That Uses Infrasonic Sound To Detect An Intruder

There’s currently no shortage of ‘smart’ security devices for your home, due to the ascendancy of the smart home market as a whole, coupled with a hardware renaissance driven by the rise of crowdfunding. These consumer home security devices usually consist simply of an Internet-connected camera of sorts, combined with motion detection and a supporting cloud service and smartphone app to ping you when a potential intruder is detected. Debuting on IndieGoGo today, however, is Cocoon, which adds ‘infrasound’ into the mix. By ‘listening’ to infrasonic sound waves — sound below 20Hz, which is undetectable to the human ear — combined with machine learning, the device claims to be able to monitor an entire home, including detecting intruders through closed doors and in rooms in the home other than the one where the Cocoon is situated. Should the technology stand up, this potentially solves the shortcomings of most camera/motion detection-based smart home security systems, which are either

Comcast, Stop Scamming Me So I Can Stop Scamming You

Have you ever heard anyone excited to get Comcast service? Of course not. That’s like being excited for a hernia operation. Here’s my hernia operation: every year or so I have to do a dance with Comcast. You know, feigning the intention to quit their service. The so-called trial period on my TV and Internet package ended, causing my bill to nearly double from $90 a month to $160 a month. So I have to quit. Or at least say I’m going to quit. Both the lowly customer retention associate and I know I’m not going to quit. I hate doing it but it works and it’s the most frustrating thing in the world. The call goes something like this. Let’s call the Comcast rep Ted. I’m talking in a soft and sad voice. Me: “Hi there, my bill is too high so I need to cancel my service.” Ted: “Oh I’m sorry to hear that. Let me take a look at your bill.” Me: “Okay, but I doubt there is anything you can do.” Ted: “I see you’re on the digital extended plus basic package with Xfinity Internet with s

APUS Wants To Make Your Android Phone An iPhone With Its Launcher App

Google’s new Lollipop release has been heralded by many as a sign of the increasingly sophisticated design of Android, but despite that advancement there still exists a feeling that Apple’s iOS is the most aspirational mobile platform on the planet. But, with a new iPhone 6 costing upwards of $750 off-contract, many consumers — and particularly those in emerging markets where operators don’t subsidize devices — don’t have much of a choice about their operating system. Enter APUS Group and its Android launcher app that aims to bridge the gap between Android and iOS, with a particular focus on cheaper devices running the Google OS. Launched in early July of this year, APUS revealed that the launcher has now clocked 30 million downloads users worldwide. The company is based in China, as such it’s rather interesting to note that it claims less than 10% of these downloads have come on home turf. Instead the US, India and Brazil are its top countries, with Latin America, the Middle Eas

Google Guarantees Inbox Invite By 5 PM PT If You Ask During Today’s ‘Happy Hour’

Google is expanding its Inbox invite program, having issued another collection of invites to existing members already today, with a new ‘Happy Hour’ taking place between 3 p.m. PT and 4 p.m. PT today. If users email them at inbox@google.com asking for an invite during that window, they’ll get access guaranteed by 5 p.m. PT today. If you’re still waiting for access, this is the most certain method yet for locking in an invite. Keep in mind that only personal Gmail accounts can access the Inbox while in beta, so even if your work email is run through Google Apps, you won’t be able to sign up, at least for the time being. Google’s Inbox is the app that has proven the most interesting for me thus far in terms of non-traditional email software, after other entrants including Mailbox failed to really light a fire in my belly. The app benefits by machine learning smarts that Google began developing and honed using its smart Categories feature for standard Gmail, and in its Google Now i

Google’s Nexus 6 Might Be Too Big For Right Now, But Right-Sized For The Future

As Greg Kumparak noted in the TechCrunch review of the Nexus 6, the phone is very large. Too large, in fact, for most humans. Back when it was just a rumor that Google would be picking Motorola to provide the Nexus 6 hardware, and that it would indeed be a monster with a 6-inch display, I lamented the phabletization of the Nexus line before it was even a real thing. Now, I’ve had some time with the device, and while part of me still feels the same, another part has to acknowledge that Google may have gotten it right with a “go big or go home” strategy for this generation of hardware. For me, and for just about any other everyday user of the Nexus 6, there’s no question that something more akin to the Nexus 5, albeit with just better battery life, a better camera, improved specs and an updated display would’ve been the preferable option. Not least because such an unexciting iteration would probably have been able to keep the cost down, meaning you’d have another great pure Android o

Here’s How To De-Register iMessage If You’ve Switched Platforms With Apple’s New Tool

Apple has added a new tool to its website for removing phone numbers from iMessage registration, even if you no longer have the iPhone in question and can’t toggle iMessage off in settings. The website lets you simply enter a phone number, where Apple will send you a code via text message, which you then enter into a field on the same site to confirm your desire to remove your number from iMessage. The system will help users who’ve switched platforms to Android devices make sure that their phone number is no longer registered to iMessage. That should solve the issue of users who part ways with their iPhones missing messages which still make their way to iMessage, but don’t end up on any target device. It’s a problem many people who’d switched over to Android without fully deactivating iMessage often reported, and was even the cause of a lawsuit Apple faced from users encountering said issue, and Apple promised a software fix back in May. Apple’s new website also includes instruct

Parrot’s $500 14MP Bebop Drone To Take Flight In December

Parrot just dropped the price of high-definition drones. The firm’s Bebop drone will hit stores next month with a starting price of $500. That’s several hundred less than DJI’s entry-level Phantom drone even though it packs the same quality camera and several novel tricks including being controllable from a smartphone or tablet.. The Bebop is a big upgrade from the cheaper AR Drone, which, in part, helped install drones in the public’s mindset. Like with the AR Drone before it, Parrot equipped serious drone technology in the Bebop yet managed to keep the price down and safe to fly indoors. Compared to the similar DJI Phantom, the Bebop packs a lot of the same flight capabilities. And with the more expensive range extender controller, the Bebop has about the same range, too, with a 2 kilometer limit. The drone is capable of streaming the captured video back to a smartphone and it uses built-in GPS and downward facing cameras to help keep the drone in place during high-altitude flyi

Colombia Is One Of Latin America’s Most Promising New Tech Hubs

As recently as the turn of the century, conventional wisdom had it that the tropical, Andean nation was on the verge of becoming a failed state. Fast forward to the present day and Colombia already boasts one of the region’s stronger startup ecosystems, with huge potential upside still waiting to be explored. By 2018, the government hopes to have 63 percent of the country connected to broadband. And according to 2013 GSMA mobile economy figures, there are already 43.9 million mobile connections and 24 million mobile users in a country whose 47 million people give it the third largest population in Latin America and third largest Spanish-speaking population in the world. These and other figures are highly encouraging for people looking to tap a rapidly growing market, and it follows that a stronger internal tech culture will also form the groundwork for Colombia’s own aspirations in the field of innovation. Laying the Foundation The first stage of the government’s concerted ca

Elon Musk Testing ‘X-Wing’ Fins For Reusable Rockets, Seafaring Spaceport Drones For Landing

Let’s face it: Elon Musk is probably a time traveller sent back to help us leave earth behind and achieve the next phase of human evolution. The inventor and entrepreneur issued a minor tweet storm today, in which he detailed a new SpaceX program to test the function of “X-Wing” style grid fins that could help spacecraft navigate upon re-entry after delivering personnel or cargo to an orbiting space station. Here, in chronological order, are Musk’s own tweets describing the tech, which, also includes an autonomous seafaring drone spaceport platform, to give them a landing pad that can hold its position within three meters’ distance even in the heart of a raging storm The SpaceX reusable rocket program has been progressing with varying results, including an explosion over Texas back in August. While the incident didn’t result in any injury or even “near injuries,” Musk conceded in a tweet that this was evidence that “[r]ockets are tricky.” An earlier test flight from this summer