Rdio intros new social features and redesigned player

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Social media streamer Rdio rolled out a major redesign a little over a year ago and has done a bit of tweaking since then. Now, following a recent update to its mobile apps, the service is making even more changes. At the top of the list are methods for getting social on the site, with friends from Twitter and Facebook hitting its front page, alongside their listening habits and influencers selected by the service. You can also check out a curated list of potential friends, if the front page just isn’t doing it for you. Autoplay, meanwhile, creates personalized stations and keeps the music going after you’re out of ideas, or you can proactively create stations by clicking on album artwork. Also new is a thumbs up / thumbs down voting feature and a full-size player featuring big album artwork and upcoming tracks.

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Source: Rdio Blog

ASRock announces M8 compact gaming rig in collaboration with BMW

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BMW and ASRock just announced the new M8 gaming PC, which will debut at Computex next week. The collaboration is ASRock’s first rig with a small form factor, though it shares the sharp lines and edgy color palette of the hulking, BMW-designed Thermaltake Level 10 case. An OLED screen sits on the front of the case and displays stats such as fan speed and temperature, and there’s a knob for adjusting the fan depending on the game at hand. Interestingly, the M8’s semi-transparent side panels are attached magnetically rather than screwed in, so users should have no trouble accessing components. So far, the companies have only shared connectivity specs: 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 are on board, as is a quad-core Creative SoundCore 3D audio processor. We’re bound to find out more in Taipei, though, so hang tight.

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Via: SlashGear

Source: BMW

Alan Singer: Long Island Newsday Escalates the War on Teachers and Schools

Justified accusations of changing student answers on standardized tests in Atlanta, Georgia has led to a national witch hunt and all teachers are now considered suspect of cheating. But the real cheaters are the private companies making mega-bucks selling scripted learning programs.
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Mac Pro refresh possible as inventory dwindles before WWDC

Apple might be neglecting its Mac Pro line, but that could change come next month when WWDC rolls into town. It turns out that retail supply of Mac Pro units is dwindling, and many places are either out of stock or have very limited units in. As history would suggest, this usually means that an updated model is incoming, and WWDC could be the place that we’ll see it first.

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Retail stores like MacMall, B&H, Adorama, Amazon, Frys, and Best Buy reported that they were either out of stock or had limited quantities. MacConnection and Apple’s own store were the only locations that mentioned having the 2012 Mac Pro in stock, while MicroCenter, Frys, and Best Buy said that limited supply was available.

2013 could be the year of the Mac Pro, as Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed himself that the company would be introducing new Mac Pro hardware at some point this year, and what better time than Apple’s first keynote of 2013 at WWDC. We certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it was at WWDC. Otherwise, we’d expect updates during Apple’s usual fall event.

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The last time the Mac Pro was updated was last year during WWDC 2012, but we’d hardly count that as a significant upgrade. Apple didn’t touch on it at all during the keynote, and only quietly updated them in the Apple Store, letting people find out on their own that the towers were upgraded with new and slightly quicker internals.

The Mac Pro recently was discontinued in Europe, but it wasn’t necessarily the lack of interest in the full-size tower computer than it was dealing with regulatory standards in the continent. The new product certification standards in Europe appear to have something to do with a few internal components in the Mac Pro systems, such as power supply parts and various wiring, but while Europeans will no longer see the Mac Pro, sales in other countries will continue as normal.

VIA: MacTrast


Mac Pro refresh possible as inventory dwindles before WWDC is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Dow Loses 208 Points As Stocks Fall Sharply

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock prices closing sharply lower on Wall Street after a late afternoon sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 208 points at 15,115 Friday, a loss of 1.4 percent. Pfizer led the Dow lower.

The Dow held on to a gain of 1.9 percent for May and is still up 15 percent so far this year.

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Bad Baby Names: 33 Names NOT To Give Your Kid

Written by Pamela Redmond Satran for Nameberry

Mention baby names at a party — and I do, frequently — and someone invariably brings up the name urban legends: the twins named Oranjello and Lemonjello, the baby girl called Female, pronounced fe-MAHL-ee.

We’re not sure those stories were ever true, but if you look at the very bottom of the Social Security baby name records, you can find plenty of other ill-advised names that people actually gave their babies, and really really shouldn’t have.

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PSA: Dead On Arrival 2 Android zombie horror beta begins at dawn

If you’re all about the burning up of your zombie enemies and have a hankering to do so on your Android device, your time has arrived. The game Dead on Arrival 2 has announced that their next beta testing round will be beginning tomorrow – all users need to do is agree that they’ll never tell what they saw: this game wont be out for a while. It has, on the other hand, been demonstrated more than once on NVIDIA SHIELD.

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This game has been created by the folks at N3V Games with additional assistance from NVIDIA, who’ve helped this game become extra optimized for devices with NVIDIA Tegra processors inside. While the minimum specifications for running this game tell us we wont necessarily have to use Tegra processors to run it, it’s certainly recommended: “minimum spec equal to or better than Tegra 2, recommended Tegra 3 or higher.”

Of course that means that the NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor inside SHIELD will be all the better. Devices aiming at running this game need Android 3.0 or better with Android 4.0 recommended. The developers behind this game have also suggested the following, straight from the Android Beta Signup instructions:

• Have a stomach for wave after wave of bloodshed and mayhem!
• Aren’t scared of the dark.
• Don’t need aspirin for headaches.
• Have no problem shooting your zombie friend in the head if you had too.

Features like motion-captured animation and dynamic physics will certainly be adding to the realism of this game, and from what we’ve seen on SHIELD already, it’s going to be a no-jokes sort of situation, no matter what device you’re working with. This beta test is for both single player and multiplayer action, so get ready to go blasting into the night.

NOTE: The beta may not begin at dawn, exactly – you never can tell with the undead. Tomorrow in general would be a bit better a bet.


PSA: Dead On Arrival 2 Android zombie horror beta begins at dawn is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Will Smith Speaks Spanish During New York Premiere Of ‘After Earth’ (VIDEO)

Will Smith speaks Spanish. And we’re not talking about creative phrases like “tengo un gato en mis pantalones” but full-on, complete and comprehensible statements.

Accompanied by his young protégé and eldest son Jaden, the former Prince of Bel-Air attended Wednesday’s New York premiere of “After Earth,” where NBC Latino contributor Jack Rico stopped the duo for some questions directed at Latino fans.

“For the Latinos, why should everyone go see After Earth?,” Rico asked the 44-year-old star on the red carpet. While other celebs might have simply stared back in confusion, Will gave a big smile and eagerly broke out into some very impressive Spanish. (Check Out The Video Above)

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Melissa Roddy: FATA: Behind Pakistan’s Iron Curtain

Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan, called “strategic depth,” is about aggression. In pursuit thereof, truth and respect for human life are the first casualties.
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American Flag Allegedly Lowered In Puerto Rico, Sparking Protest

Statehood supporters planted a series of miniature American flags along a stretch of grass leading up to the Mayor’s House in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Friday after Carmen Yulín Cruz was accused of lowering the U.S. flag as part of a demonstration for a jailed independence leader.

Several prominent Puerto Ricans locked themselves in a jail cell symbolically for 15 minutes on Wednesday to protest the continued imprisonment of independence fighter Oscar López Rivera, who has been jailed for the last 32 years. Mayor Cruz participated, writing “I love you Oscar” on the wall of the cell, according to El Nuevo Día.

The cause is a popular one in Puerto Rico, where the demonstration attracted the likes of Calle 13’s René Pérez, former baseball player Carlos Delgado and ex-Puerto Rican Gov. Aníbal Acevedo.

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