Tech Archives - Page 12 of 16

Startup Quick Byte: Share Magnet

For Startup Quick Byte we’ll take a look at Share Magnet, a company based out of Los Angeles, Ca. Share Magnet system enables users who register on the site to get paid for personally recommending relevant items to their friends, family and social connections. The revenue source comes from companies that wish to reward individuals who recommend their products, services, online links, and entertainment such as games, music, films, etc. In other words, you’ll be our advertising and we’ll pay you for sending links out to your friends.

Our mission is to bring consumers together through common interests, and reward them for sharing the things they like.

Looking For A Date, Time To Play WoW Instead Of Match.com

Tired of dating the same losers, and plan on visiting sites like eHarmony and Match.com to fix that? You may want to hold that thought and start playing WoW(World of Warcraft) instead. A new infographic may change your mind on where you go first to find your ideal partner.

While they wouldn’t be the most desirable ones, you’ll have better luck it seems play hoping onto the MMORPG over any those dating sites.

Startup Spotlight: Los Angeles Based Incubators

For years, Silicon Valley has been the first thought when someone says Startups and Incubators, however Los Angeles is trying to change that. In this Start-Up Spotlight, we’ll be featuring three LA Based Startup Incubators trying to change that. While Los Angeles may be famous for Hollywood, Crips and Scientology, companies such as MySpace, Helio, and Picasa have all started here as well.

OMGPICTURELIFE: Charles Forman’s Next Project Heating Up

Charles Forman (left) with MC Hammer & Dan Porter (photo: Business Insider)

The news that Zynga has purchased OMGPOP for a reported $200 million dollars must have made Picturelife.com founder Charles Forman very happy, and very rich. While OMGPOP’s executive team has been running the show, Forman, founder of OMGPOP with Dan Porter, has been busy working on his new start up Picturelife.

Picturelife is the collaborative effort of three young executives experiences in the entrepreneur world. You’ve got Charles Forman who started OMGPOP as Iminlikewithyou iilwy, Nate Westheimer, who for 4 years with the Executive Director of the NY Tech Meetup, and Jacob DeHart, founder of threadless.

Picturelife is supposed to be the one central place to put and store all your photos from all your devices. Some in tech circles have called it a Flickr killer. Currently it’s in beta and it will cost you $7.00 a month of $70 for a year to get into the beta. The founders do promise a freemium model when they launch to the public.

source: VB

[REVIEW] Tritton Detonator Surround Sound Headphones For Xbox 360

As I said earlier this year around the time of CES, we love gaming here at TheDroidGuy. That calls for setting the phones down and taking a break from Angry Birds or Cut The Rope to get to some real console and PC gaming. Of course, with console and PC gaming there are a lot of areas that people look to get a good experience from, and one of those is sound quality. Among graphics and user experience, gamers want the sound of what they are playing to really bring the game to life, and there are a few ways you can go about doing this. Sure you can spend thousands of dollars investing in a fantastic home theatre sound system, but you can also invest just around a hundred bucks in a great pair of surround sound headphones. This is where Tritton headphones come into play.

Tritton is a company that makes surround sound headphones for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC gaming. I should start off by saying that this review will focus in on the some of the product lineup for Xbox 360, but PS3 and PC owners should still stick around because it should still be pretty applicable to the headphones you would be purchasing from Tritton as well.

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The first pair of headphones I will be talking about today are the Detonators. The Detonators are wired 50mm surround sound headphones, and man, are these headphones incredible. When you take them out of the box you will immediately notice the sexy black design that comes with the Detonators. The Detonators are all black headphones with a gloss finish on the exterior of the cups partnered by the Tritton logo, and the top is crafted with a soft, leather material with “XBOX 360” stitched in to remind users this has been licensed by Microsoft for use with the 360. The ear cups are also made with a leather material, companied by a nice orange accent in the interior of the cups themselves. I can say with confidence that these are the best looking pair of surround sound headphones I’ve come across yet. However, it doesn’t stop there, because these headphones really get their chance to shine when you put them on and jump into a game.

One thing I’ve noticed about Tritton headphones that I really like is the fact that I don’t feel like I’m riding in a helicopter when I put them on. The sleekness that you see when looking at them while they aren’t being used continues right into usage, and after a while you can’t even tell you’re wearing headphones. The overall performance of these headphones is fantastic as well. The highs are crisp and sharp, the mids hit just as they should delivering the core sound, and the bass booms at just the right amount to make you feel like you’re really in a game. If I’m playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and my buddy calls in an airstrike, I’m the first to know because I can literally hear the planes begin to fly towards the arena and drop bombs the entire way. The same goes when I am sneaking through a narrow corridor, and I can hear my enemy’s footsteps and they try to creep up behind me and use the element of surprise. If I’m playing Mass Effect 3 I feel like the characters are really speaking to me, and when I’m walking through a crowded city it feels like there are small conversations happening in every directions, and I truly am surrounded by others at all times. Racing games offer a very realistic sound of tires screeching and engines firing, and the Tritton Detonators make it a completely new experience. The 50mm cups really deliver a true-sound experience, and I cannot play without them. The quality of your friends talking into their mics is also fantastic, and the game sound and voice sound filter into the headphones at the right amount, because the headphones have a small adjusting bar that allows you to change the different volumes, mute yourself, and turn on SVM support as well.

If I had to say there was anything I didn’t like about the Detonators, it would probably be that squeezed my head a little too tight, but after about a week they were broken in and fit just fine. That goes for most headphones when you first buy them anyways though, so I don’t really see it as a big deal. Overall, these headphones bring together a fantastic gaming experience while looking great at the same time. Tritton Detonators are a great value, and anyone looking for a great gaming experience should look into picking some up. Head over to Tritton’s website to check out the rest of their collection, and be sure to check back this week for the review of the Primer and Trigger Headsets.

16 Year Old Secures $300,000 In Venture Capital For Summly

16 year old founder of Summly, Nick D'Aloisio Is Said To Be The Youngest Person To Ever Secure Venture Capital

At London’s Web Summit being held this week in the UK, it was revealed that Nick D’Aloisio, the creator of iPhone app Summly, had received $300,000 in venture capital from Asia’s Horizon Ventures. Horizon Ventures is led by Li Ka-Shing, Asia’s richest person. It’s being reported that Aloisio is the youngest person ever to secure venture capital.

Summly is an iPhone app that summarizes and condenses search results and web pages. D’Aloisio developed this app out of necessity while he was studying for a history exam for school. He started to notice that his Google searches weren’t yielding quality results.

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Microsoft Gives PhotoDNA Image Matching Software To Law Enforcement To Aid In Child Pornography Investigations

Law enforcement officials hoping to stop child pornography now have a new tool in their investigations. Microsoft has teamed up with NetClean to give their PhotoDNA image matching technology to those investigating child pornography. They’ve decided to give this technology away free.

According to this report from Arstechnica, the software can be used to comb through large collections of digital images to identify child pornography and speed up the forensic process.

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Wil Wheaton & Felicia Day Unveil New YouTube Series: Tabletop

Don’t worry Wil Wheaton fans, Tabletop is not a cooking show or guide to Wheaton’s favorite restaurants or restaurant apps. Tabletop is about board games.

Wheaton said on his personal typepad site that when his,good friend and hit Web series producer, Felicia Day asked him if he wanted to do a show on her premium YouTube channel,Geek & Sundry he said of course he did. That’s when his wheels started turning to come up with a cool idea.

Wheaton writes on his typepad site:
“Oh my god,” I said, “What if we did something that was like Celebrity Poker meets Dinner for Five, where we got interesting people we know together for tabletop games?!”

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Amazon Buys Robot Firm For $755 Million To Help Automate Warehouses

Amazon announced today that they are purchasing robotics company Kiva Systems. Kiva specializes in warehouse automation.

Kiva Systems robots can be guides by barcodes on the floor and shelving systems. The robots can then pick and bring items to stationary workers.

By keeping the workers stationary and letting the robots do all of the product picking the warehouse process becomes several times more efficient.

“Amazon has long used automation in its fulfillment centers, and Kiva’s technology is another way to improve productivity by bringing the products directly to employees to pick, pack and stow,” said Dave Clark, vice president, global customer fulfillment, Amazon.com. “Kiva shares our passion for invention, and we look forward to supporting their continued growth.”“For the past ten years, the Kiva team has been focused on creating innovative material handling technologies,” said Mick Mountz, CEO and founder of Kiva Systems. “I’m delighted that Amazon is supporting our growth so that we can provide even more valuable solutions in the coming years.”

Amazon will also pick up 24 contacts Kiva Systems already has in place, including giant toy retailer Toys R Us and outdoor company Timbaland.

Source: Mashable

It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, No, It’s Pirate Bay

Pirate Bay which recently due to legal litigation against another site, revamped how it would do business is doing so yet again. First they would no longer allow users to download Torrent files from them, but instead use a magnet to do so. Now is flying in the Drones to do its work.

Seeing how the US has no legal grounds over International waters, that’s where The Pirate Bay is heading, but not in ships. Using GPS-controlled drones, instead of data centers.

Everyone knows WHAT TPB is. Now they’re going to have to think about WHERE TPB is. We were further informed that the first drone will probably fly above international waters.We’re already the most resilient and the most down to earth. That’s why we need to lift off, being this connected to the ground doesn’t feel appropriate to us anymore,

Is the statement Pirate Bay told TorrentFreaks earlier today. Not sure how it’ll work, don’t worry, they’ve also even explained it as they are not shy that this’ll be their next move to combat what has been an offensive by the US against websites, the government doesn’t like, even if no legal grounds to stop it are there.

With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we’re going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war. We’re just starting so we haven’t figured everything out yet. But we can’t limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore. These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we’re building, that’s more than enough.

Lets just make sure those in control don’t accidentally fly over New York as they already have the ability to not only shot down planes, but Drones as well.

Scott Pelley: Are you satisfied that you’ve dealt with threats from aircraft, even light planes, model planes, that kind of thing?

Kelly: Well, it’s something that’s on our radar screen. I mean in an extreme situation, you would have some means to take down a plane.

Pelley: Do you mean to say that the NYPD has the means to take down an aircraft?

Kelly: Yes, I prefer not to get into the details but obviously this would be in a very extreme situation.

Pelley: You have the equipment and the training.

Kelly: Yes

As you can see again in an article we posted in September of last year. Here video included.

This’ll be a new challenge as we may see more Torrent sites trying to do the same. We’ll be keeping an eye on this as more news comes in.

Source: TorrentFreak

Chattanooga TN Opening Up The Gig City For The Gig Tank In $300,000 Competition For Start Ups & Students

Chattanooga TN is opening up their Gig City this summer for one of the biggest start up and student tech competitions in the United States outside of New York, Silicon Valley or Las Vegas.

The Gig Tank is part start up accelerator, part think tank, part contest and part summer camp. The Gig Tank is split into two main parts the Entrepreneur’s Accelerator and the Student Think Tank.

Entrepreneurs are invited to apply here to come to Chattanooga TN, the Gig City, from May 14th to August 16th. Each team selected to come to the Gig Tank will receive $15,000 in investment capital to spend the summer in Chattanooga.

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Return Voyage For LulzSec? Rumors Say Yes And No

The infamous collective of 6 people who became famous last year for websites in which they’ve hacked as well as companies may be back. Or may not be, matters whom you talk to. LulzSec because famous quickly via Twitter for hacking into the likes of Fox’s TV shows and reveling the contestants before the X-Factor even aired. Along with hacks like PBS and others. However, in the last couple of weeks everything seemed to have ended with their “leader” Sabu, who was outed as a FBI informant.

Now a YouTube video may contradict their demise…

Developing: Apple To Acquire Twitter Or Samsung Tomorrow?

Apple has had an unprecedented few years on Wall Street. They’ve doubled their valuation three times in as many years. That’s left them with a serious stock pile of cash to the beat of $100 billion (with a b) dollars. Many people are talking about what they are going to do with that cash. The country’s cash wealthiest company is set to announce their plans for that cash tomorrow morning on a conference call.

Some analysts have predicted that Apple may go into acquisition mode. Twitter seems to be one of the most likely acquisitions. Twitter and Apple have aligned themselves tightly over the last year with deep integration into the latest version of iOS and OSX. Recent estimates have put Twitter at a $7 billion dollar valuation, which at this point would be a drop in the bucket for the Cupertino giant.

While he thinks its a possibility, Thenextweb’s Matthew Panzarino does bring up the fact that Apple has never spent more than $390 million dollars for an acquisition. That was the 2011 acquisition of Israeli flash memory manufacturer Anobit.

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Government Stranglehold On Kim DotCom Slipping

When the New Zealand government assisted the United States with serving warrants on the founders of megaupload, it made explosive news. Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (who’s last name has been changed to dotcom from Schmitz), is a resident in New Zealand and lives on a sprawling mansion in the hillside of the country.

The New Zealand government took possession of Dotcom’s home, several cars and several million dollars that Dotcom had in bank accounts in the country. They also held Dotcom without bail as long as they could before extradition.

Three weeks ago Dotcom was finally allowed out on bail. The government in New Zealand had set up an allowance of sorts for Dotcom and his family to live off of while awaiting an extradition hearing later this summer.

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