Mar 31
Mr. Beams, in addition to having an adorable company name, specializes in affordable (mostly) outdoor lighting products, and Amazon’s putting the spotlight on their wares with today’s Gold Box.
Mar 31
Facebook Reportedly Worked on Project to Build Fleet of Bird-Sized Internet Drones
Posted in: Today's Chili
It turns out that Facebook’s onetime plan to build huge drones that would relay wireless networks to parts of the world without widespread access to high-speed internet, Project Aquila, isn’t the only odd method the company has explored in its quest towards world e-domination. According to a recent report in Business…
Mar 31
Sega has announced at the Sega Fes 2019 that it’s going to release a retro version of its Sega Genesis console. It’s going to arrive later this year. The console will be called the Sega Genesis Mini in the United States and the Mega Drive Mini in Japan. It will come with 40 games built-in when it arrives on September 19th, 2019.
The game lineup will be slightly different for the Genesis Mini and Mega Drive Mini when these retro consoles are launched. Customers in Japan will get Castlevania Bloodlines, Comix Zone, Gunstar Heroes, Madou Monogatari Ichi, Powerball, Puyo Puyo 2, Rent-a-Hero, Shining Force, Sonic 2, and Space Harrier II.
The U.S. version will get Altered Beast, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Comix Zone, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Ecco the Dolphin, Gunstar Heroes, Shining Force, Sonic The Hedgehog, Space Harrier II, and ToeJam & Earl. The other titles will be announced later.
Customers will also notice some additional differences between the two as well. The Sega Genesis Mini is going to cost $79.99 and will ship with a pair of three button USB controllers. The Mega Drive Mini will cost ¥6,980 or roughly $60 in Japan and come with a six button controller. Customers will be able to purchase an additional controller for ¥8,980 yen or $80. Sega will soon start taking pre-orders for the retro console in both markets.
Sega Genesis Mini Retro Console Launches September 19th , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 31
Rare items, particularly those that have become super popular over the years, tend to fetch significant amounts at auction. That holds true for a rare, first edition copy of a Harry Potter book. It has been sold at auction for around $90,000. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the very first book in the series that went on to become a massive hit worldwide, was initially released in 1998.
It was launched with an initial run of just 500 copies. The author and perhaps even the publisher may not have estimated just how popular this book in particular and the series itself would end up being. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ended up selling 120 million copies globally.
The rarity of this particular book is also attributed to a couple of mistakes in the text which is to be expected of a first edition. There are a few typos including one on the rear cover which spells “Philosopher’s” as “Philospher’s.” There’s even an illustration on the back cover of a wizard that was never mentioned in any of the Harry Potter books. That illustration was eventually replaced with that of Albus Dumbledore, one of the central characters in the series.
Another reason why this first edition book has sold for an outrageous amount of money is that it has been personally signed by the author J.K. Rowling. She did that back in 2003 before it was sold at an auction for charity.
Rare First Edition Harry Potter Book Sells For $90,000 , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 31
Valve wants to compete in the virtual reality headset market as well and as such, the company has now teased the upcoming announcement of its high-end VR headset named Index. The company has put up a teaser of the headset on its website. “Upgrade your experience,” the accompanying text says on the website, with May 2019 as the provided date. This suggests that it won’t be long until the company unveils this headset.
Valve is yet to ship a dedicated virtual reality headset of its own even though it has been working on the underlying technologies for a few years now. The HTC Vive, for example, ran on the company’s SteamVR platform. However, its VR software hasn’t been adopted by a lot of other manufacturers, so perhaps it can do a better job of showing the software off with its own hardware.
SteamVR did seem like a real contender at one point. It was believed that the platform could end up being the standard across devices from different manufacturers. That never happened and some of the products that were announced never shipped.
The teaser image itself doesn’t reveal much about Valve’s upcoming virtual reality headset so we’re going to have to wait until the official details arrive. Earlier reports have suggested that it could have a display resolution similar to the HTC Vive Pro and that it would be stretched over a 135 degree field of view. We’ll get to know all of the details come May.
Valve Index High-End VR Headset Teased , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 31
You might enjoy the buzz you get from alcohol on a night out but you do have to put up with downsides which include hangovers. You’re also not supposed to drive when you’re inebriated so put some money aside for the cab back home as well. All that might be a thing of a past if scientist David Nutt’s synthetic alcohol substitute takes off. He says that his fake alcohol will give you a buzz but not get you drunk.
Alcarelle is what he calls his fake alcohol. According to Nutt, this synthetic alcohol can allow drinkers to experience everything they enjoy about having a drink but not worry about getting a hangover. Nutt told the Guardian that he can design his synthetic alcohol molecule to interact with the body in a way that doesn’t induce any of the negative side effects.
“The effects of alcohol are complicated but…you can target the parts of the brain you want to target,” he said. The scientist mentions that he’s working on giving this synthetic alcohol molecule a “peak effect,” which would prevent drinkers from crossing the line between being buzzed and absolutely wasted. It’s being designed to lack toxicity which would reduce the risk of health issues associated with drinking.
His goal is to manufacture Alcarelle and sett it to beverage companies who can add it to their drinks. Just don’t expect to find those drinks at the bar in the near future. It may take up to five years for all of the necessary safety testing and regulatory approvals to be done with.
Scientist’s Fake Alcohol Will Keep You Buzzed But Never Drunk , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 31
Sony has been finding it difficult to compete in the intense smartphone market. It has become a three-way fight in the premium segment between Samsung, Huawei, and Apple. On the other hand, there are many strong competitors in the mid-range and budget segments. Sony has been trying hard to maintain its footing but it hasn’t been able to do that very well and that will result in its smartphone business workforce being reduced by 50 percent come 2020.
According to reports, Sony will cut up to half of its smartphone workforce as it battles with declining sales amid strong competition. Sony has seen its smartphone market share fall considerably over the past few years, it’s under 1 percent currently.
Thus the decision has been made to cut the workforce to 2,000 from the current 4,000 by March 2020. This is a move to reduce the fixed costs in the smartphone business. Sony will offer voluntary retirement to affected employees in Europe and China while some of its Japanese employees will be moved to other divisions within the conglomerate.
It may also decide to limit smartphone sales in Southeast Asia and other markets to focus primarily on Europe and East Asia. The company’s smartphone business is expected to post an operating loss for the third straight year through fiscal 2019. It’s aiming to stop the bleeding by reducing some of the fixed costs in the business.
Sony’s Smartphone Workforce To Be Reduced By 50 Percent , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 31
Going through airport security can be stressful as it is. You’re trying to make sure that you comply with the instructions of the TSA agents while not taking long so as to inconvenience the countless other passengers behind you. If you detest fumbling with items in your carry-on which are required to be taken out and placed in separate bins, you’re going to appreciate the new technology that the TSA has put in place. It lets you keep your stuff like the laptop and liquids inside the carry-on.
The Transportation Security Administration has signed a contract this week for hundreds of new and advanced carry-on baggage screening machines. Such is the confidence in the ability of these machines that passengers won’t be required to remove their laptops or liquids from the carry-on. TSA Administrator David Pekoske said that this new technology has been tested at over a dozen airports since 2017 with the relaxed protocols which allow passengers to leave their stuff inside.
These computed tomography or CT machines will be rolled out to more airports across the nation over the summer. Some 300 machines have been acquired at a cost of $97 million. The machine works by creating a 3D image of the bag’s contents and will be able to detect items automatically that passengers are currently required by the TSA to remove.
Pekoske said that the list of airports where these machines will be deployed has not been finalized as yet. The agency expects to replace its over 2,000 existing x-ray machines with the advanced CT equipment over the next eight years.
TSA’s New Tech Lets You Keep Your Laptop Inside The Carry-On , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 31
Increasingly tough action is being taken against robocalls as the problem has grown to monumental proportions in the United States. No one is safe from a robocall, not even the CEO of the country’s second largest mobile carrier. A woman in Tennessee has been awarded almost half a million dollars after a furniture company hounded her illegally with more than 300 robocalls.
Veronica Davis started receiving calls from furniture company Conn’s back in September 2015. Court filings show that the calls started about a month after she purchased furniture from the chain’s Memphis store, particularly during the 10 day grace period she was told that she had for making the monthly installment payments. The company repeatedly hounded her with robocalls between the day her payment was due and the end of the grace period with an automatic telephone dialing system.
Davis had revoked her contest to be contacted by the company in March 2017 but she received 306 additional robocalls even when she had specified that she did not want to be contacted. On some days, she received over a dozen calls in just one day. Since the company called her after she had revoked her consent, it was a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Conn’s has now been given 30 days from March 25th to pay the $459,000 award to Davis which amounts to the maximum of $1,500 per call after the consent was revoked. The furniture chain has filed a motion to vacate the award in the Southern District of Texas.
Woman Gets $459K For Being Spammed With Over 300 Robocalls , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 31
Back on air after a two-week absence, the host still hasn’t apologized for her Islamophobic remarks about Ilhan Omar.
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