Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s recent announcement of their partnership with IBM is definitely a sign that the Cupertino company has serious plans to get into the enterprise market. However what works for regular consumers might not necessarily work for enterprise customers, FaceTime being an example. While FaceTime’s quality isn’t horrible, it isn’t particularly stellar either.

It’s great for regular folks who just wants to video call, but for enterprise customers, we reckon the pixels and blurred images probably won’t cut it. Well thanks to a recent patent by Apple, it looks like the Cupertino company could be thinking about a more high-definition and enterprise-friendly version of FaceTime.

According to the patent, it describes a system in which people seated around a conference table could all join in on a video call, as opposed to crowding behind a single camera. The patent also describes how Apple plans to allowing higher quality videos to be streamed, which would be lower the quality for non-active participants, thus allowing more bandwidth for the active participant.

This ensures that at least one party will be given higher quality video when it matters. Of course we’re not sure how this will work if everyone is talking and contributing at the same time, but it’s an interesting idea nonetheless. However given that this is just a patent, we have no way of knowing if Apple ever plans on making it a reality, but what do you guys think? Could this be one of the ways Apple plans on imposing their platform for enterprise customers?

Apple Patent Hints At FaceTime Designed For The Enterprise

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In some ways it is understandable that some governments are a little apprehensive about self-driving cars. After all humans themselves make errors while driving, should we trust a computer to be behind the wheel? Well for those living in the UK, you might be pleased to learn that according to a report from the BBC, it seems that self-driving cars will be allowed on public roads come January 2015.

According to Business Secretary Vince Cable, “Today’s announcement will see driverless cars take to our streets in less than six months, putting us at the forefront of this transformational technology and opening up new opportunities for our economy and society.” Ministers will also be ordering a review of the UK’s road regulations to help provide appropriate guidelines for self-driving cars.

In the meantime, UK cities have been asked to declare their interest if they wish for their city to play host to self-driving car trials. These cities have until October to declare their interest, after which the tests are expected to run from 18 months to 36 months. However while self-driving cars might eventually be made road legal, we guess more manufacturers need to come on board.

As it stands, Google is one of the companies with a self-driving car of their own, and we have also seen attempts from the Oxford university, Nissan, and Volvo.

Self-Driving Cars To Be Allowed On UK’s Public Roads In 2015

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Just yesterday EA announced EA Access which is basically where Xbox One gamers can gain access to EA’s catalogue of games by paying a subscription fee of $4.99 a month. Given that sometimes games can be pretty expensive, $4.99 a month does seem like a pretty good price to pay, right?

Well unfortunately not everyone feels that way, at least not Sony who is Microsoft’s direct competitor as far as gaming is concerned. Speaking to Game Informer, Sony felt that the EA Access subscription program was not representative of good value to the PlayStation gamer, which is why they decided to pass on it.

According to Sony, “PlayStation Plus memberships are up more than 200% since the launch of PlayStation 4, which shows that gamers are looking for memberships that offer a multitude of services, across various devices, for one low price. We don’t think asking our fans to pay an additional $5 a month for this EA-specific program represents good value to the PlayStation gamer.”

It kind of makes sense, unless of course the majority of your games are from EA, in which the EA Access program would no doubt be value for money, but like Sony said, if you’re planning on playing many types of games from different publishers, paying $5 a month for EA-specific titles could feel a bit expensive. What do you guys think?

Sony Passes On EA Access, Claims It Doesn’t Represent Good Value

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Back in June, Nokia launched their first Android launcher called the Z Launcher. What made the Z Launcher so unique compared to other launchers is the fact that users would be able to swipe and perform gestures in the launcher itself to launch apps. For example drawing the letter “M” could bring up apps like Mail, Messages, and so on.

The launcher has also been designed to display your most used apps at a glance, so users won’t have to dig through their app drawer or folders to find their apps. Now the good news is that the launcher was launched in beta and recently Nokia announced that they have made some updates to the launcher as well as opened up the beta to more users.

According to Nokia, “If you were one of the people who previously requested to join our pre-beta after we reached capacity early in the trial, you can now download and start using Z Launcher. While we are not ready to open the private beta to everyone, we made it a priority to invite people who previously tried to join the trial.”

As far as the new features are concerned, it seems that the development team has taken some of its users’ recommendations to heart. The launcher will now allow users to configure their favorites, hide apps, additional support for handsets like the HTC One and the Moto X, data insight, along with a variety of bug fixes.

As it stands the app is still in a somewhat private beta and it does not seem like the team is ready to open it up to the public just yet. However if you were lucky enough to get in, then perhaps this is an update you’ll want to check out.

Nokia Z Launcher For Android Updated

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Revenge porn is nasty business and it seems that in several parts of the US, it has actually been banned. For those unfamiliar, revenge porn is usually where an ex-lover posts intimate photos and/or videos on the internet for the whole world to see, usually as “payback” for breaking up with them.

While there are plenty of revenge porn websites around, it seems that the last place one would expect it would be Facebook, but yet according to a recent report from TheWrap, the social networking giant has been slapped with a whopping $123 million lawsuit over a revenge porn page.

The story goes like this: a woman from Houston claims she is a victim of revenge porn when her former friend setup a fake Facebook page in her name and doctored photos of her where he placed her face on naked bodies of other women. The woman claims that she had requested Facebook to take it down, but it was only until the Houston Police Department subpoenaed Facebook did they finally take down the page.

However the woman in question felt that it was too little too late, and has since filed a lawsuit against the social network and her former friend. How did she arrive at the $123 million lawsuit? Well she was seeking damages at a rate of 10 cents for every one of Facebook’s 1.23 billion sucscribers.

According to the lawsuit, “This lawsuit is intended … to get Defendant Facebook, it’s officers, directors, management, employees and subscribers (with media attention) to stand up, take notice and pay attention to the serious privacy violations concerns involved in revenge porn situations.” Facebook has yet to respond to the lawsuit.

Facebook Hit With $123 Million Lawsuit Over Revenge Porn

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