Nvidia: “the PC platform is far superior to any console"

 Nvidia’s consumer sales manager Matt Wright has stressed that PC is the gaming platform of choice, and that its functionality makes it “far superior” to consoles. He recognises that some staunch console players may need some extra convincing however.It follows the UK and European PS4 launch.

 Speaking with MCV, Wright said, “We are proposing small form-factor PCs to be a viable alternative to the next-gen consoles. Enthusiast players want the ultimate games system and that is the PC. The PC platform is far superior to any console when it comes to gaming, plus you get all the extra functionality that a computer brings.”

 He added that from the outside looking in, PC gaming may appear more complex and technical to the layman, but stressed, “We want to make PC gaming as simple as possible and we think that it already becoming much more relevant and appealing to casual gamers,”

Steam also helps. “Steam now has more users than Xbox Live,” Wright concluded. “There is a whole new generation who grew up playing on PC with titles like Minecraft or World of Tanks. There’s a huge community who love playing their games on PC.”

Sony’s First To Greatness Offers Players 64 Unique Challenges

Sony has launched a new PlayStation 4 community challenge website called First to Greatness, which allows PlayStation 4 owners to claim many different firsts on the new PlayStation 4 system.

The First to Greatness challenge presents the wider PS4 audience (over a million strong now and growing) with a series of 64 challenges that need completing across a list of games including Killzone: Shadow Fall, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, NBA 2K14, and Knack.

The way things works is like this: players need to head over here for a full list of challenges and select their desired task from among them. Then upon completing said task players will need to use the PS4?s Share button to record video proof of their deed and then upload said video to Facebook. Sony is planning to do a remake of their Perfect Day video which will include footage of the first person to complete each challenge and thus will your video game “immortality” be assured.

Sony explains : “But even if you’re not the first to complete a particular challenge, the site will serve as a handy archive of your greatest PS4 accomlishments. Once you’ve completed a challenge and uploaded the video to your Facebook account using DualShock 4’s Share button, submit it to FirstToGreatness.com by signing in with Facebook.

Sony’s First To Greatness Offers Players 64 Unique Challenges

Sony has launched a new PlayStation 4 community challenge website called First to Greatness, which allows PlayStation 4 owners to claim many different firsts on the new PlayStation 4 system.

The First to Greatness challenge presents the wider PS4 audience (over a million strong now and growing) with a series of 64 challenges that need completing across a list of games including Killzone: Shadow Fall, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, NBA 2K14, and Knack.

The way things works is like this: players need to head over here for a full list of challenges and select their desired task from among them. Then upon completing said task players will need to use the PS4?s Share button to record video proof of their deed and then upload said video to Facebook. Sony is planning to do a remake of their Perfect Day video which will include footage of the first person to complete each challenge and thus will your video game “immortality” be assured.

Sony explains : “But even if you’re not the first to complete a particular challenge, the site will serve as a handy archive of your greatest PS4 accomlishments. Once you’ve completed a challenge and uploaded the video to your Facebook account using DualShock 4’s Share button, submit it to FirstToGreatness.com by signing in with Facebook.

Google introduces 'OK, Google' voice search on Chrome for desktop

Google search on Chrome for desktop can now be voice activated with the "OK, Google" command thanks to an official plug-in.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
 Do you hate typing? If you use Chrome for desktop, you can now activate Google voice search by saying "OK, Google", just like you can on the Nexus 5 smartphone, thanks to a new official plug-in.

"It's that time of year... the in-laws are coming for a tasty Turkey Day dinner," Google wrote on a rather US-centric Google+ blog post. "You're elbow deep in your turkey, ready to start the stuffing and you need to quickly calculate how many ounces of walnuts are in a cup. This year, rather than stopping midway through to wash your hands and type in a search, you can just speak to your laptop: 'OK, Google, how many ounces are in one cup?'"

At the moment, the service is in beta and targeted at the US market, but it can be downloaded outside the US (it worked fine for us in our Sydney office) and, if it's anything like Google Now for Android, doesn't take long to adapt to your accent and idiom. And of course, it can be used for almost everything you currently use Google Now for: performing searches and translations, setting reminders, creating calendar events and getting directions.

You need to be on the Google search page for it to work, and it won't read out all your answers — so its functionality is limited — but we're optimistic that, at some stage, the feature will be enabled from any web page in the Chrome browser.
You can download Google Voice Search Hotword for free from the Chrome Web Store.

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Google Working On Prescription Lenses, New Designs For Google Glass

 

 Google has already talked about expanding its range of Glass products and if the rumours are true, the company is one step closer to making a prescription version of this wearable tech.

Word comes from the Wall Street Journal, which states Google is in talks with VSP Global about integrating Google Glass into prescription glasses. WSJ cites VSP CEO Robert Lynch as saying plans include training optometrists to fit patients for Google Glass, making more stylish frames, and developing lenses that work with Google Glass.

VSP, which provides a vision plan for Google employees, has 60 million enrolled members and counts 30,000 eye doctors in its networks – assets that could help bring Glass to a broader audience. 

Google’s Internet-connected eyewear lets users receive search results, read email, scan maps for directions and engage in video chats without reaching for their smartphones, but many fear its current design is a bit too nerd friendly.

According to The Verge, Rochester Optical is not working with Google to develop its lenses.

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Everything You Would Want To Know: Samsung Galaxy Round

 Samsung announced the Galaxy Round just two days back, the Flexible OLED technology was first introduced by Samsung at the CES 2013 in the month of January. Ever since then we have got rumors suggesting Samsung is to announce the curved display phone. The rumors came out to be true as Samsung did officially launch the Curved Display Smartphone, the Galaxy Round. The device is very much identical to Samsung’s latest Note, the Galaxy Note 3. The Galaxy Round has the same leather like stitching at the back of the device, and both the devices also share the same screen size, the difference is just the curve for the Galaxy Round.

The Galaxy Round is the first of its kind smartphone available in the market, for now the device is only available in Korea. However we assume that it should be available to all markets soon. 

The Samsung Galaxy Round has a 5.7 inch Full HD Super Flexible AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and 386 ppi. No doubt, the Korean company said such a curved screen smartphone is the first in the world. Moving further, the Galaxy Round is packed with a 3 GB of RAM along with a 32 GB of inbuilt storage which is expandable upto 64 GB via Micro SD card. The device has a 2800 mAh of battery, which is a bit low if compared to the 3200 mAh for the Galaxy Note 3. 

  The Samsung Galaxy Round is powered by a 2.3 GHz Krait 400 Quad-core processor with a Snapdragon 800 Chipset (the much awaited chipset for ‘Samsung’ devices in India) and an Adreno 330 GPU. The device sports a 13 MP camera at the back along with LED Flash and a 2 MP front camera. The 13 MP rear camera does videos at 2160p @30fps and 1080p @60fps.

  The Galaxy Round is available in the Korean market and is launched in the luxury brown color for now. The device measures 151.1 x 79.6 x 7.9 mm and weighs 154 grams. If we talk about the connectivity option on the Galaxy Round, we will again see something very similar to what we saw on the Galaxy Note 3 as the images of the Galaxy Round clearly shows the USB 3.0 port. 

 Now, we all know all these specifications and features are amazing but what is the benefit of the curved display ? the company has not made it clear either, but we did see a video that showed the roll effect which showed the battery status and other notifications by just wobbling the device around. Samsung is introducing a new feature called “Round Interaction,” which will allow users to look at information such as missed calls, battery life, and the date and time when you tilt it on a flat surface with the screen off. Samsung also claims that switching between home screens will feel like one continuous transition, and has worked on new tilt- and tap-based interactions for the music and photos apps. The phone itself doesn’t flex, but the curved or smile shape makes it more comfortable to hold, Samsung says.

Nexus 5 Images Leaked Again: Nexus 5 Revolution Be Ready

 Case maker SPIGEN leaked the Nexus 5 images yet again with a photo showing back of the device. The recently leaked image shows the large camera sensor at the back of the device which is supposedly a 8 MP camera as per the manual that leaked out previously.

According to an earlier leak by SPIGEN, the Nexus 5 will launch on October 31, but the latest information shows October 30 is the date. Earlier this month, the rumored Nexus 5 showed up with leaked battery, pricing and storage details. The report showed us that the 16 GB Nexus 5 model will supposedly be priced at $299, while the 32 GB Nexus 5 might be priced at $399.

 However, the rumoured specifications of the Nexus 5 are a 4.95 inch full HD IPS LCD display, supposedly the device will be powered by a 2.3 GHz Quad-Core processor with a Snapdragon 800 chipset along with a 2 GB of RAM, 8 MP camera, a 1.3 MP front facing camera. The device is believed to be run on Android 4.4 KitKat. While these are some leaked specification, the official news should not be away. Stay tuned!

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Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 With Full HD Screen, Might Launch Soon

 Micromax is said to be in works with its new flagship device, the alleged device is believed to have a Full HD display and is named as Micromax Canvas Turbo A250.

The leak was tweeted by MMXNewscaster, which is a source of leaks related to Micromax products. The tweet said, “Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 to be the First Full HD (1080p) phone from Micromax. To sport Quad Core processor.” 

The rumored specs on the device are a 1.5 Ghz Quad Core Processor along with a Full HD screen of resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels. The device is expected to sport a 1 GB of RAM and a  32 GB internal storage, expandable up to 64 GB. The Canvas Turbo will supposedly have a 13 Mega pixel rear camera along with a 5 MP front facing camera. Stay tuned for updated news on the new flagship from Micromax.

Open Source Active Display Implementation Added to ChameleonOS

We’ve given much coverage recently to applicationsthat simulate the  Moto X‘s Active Notifications functionality on other devices. Since applications already exist to bring this functionality in a non ROM-specific manner, you may be wondering why we would feature a ROM-based solution. Well, when these additions are made to a fully open source ROM, with commits clearly visible and usable by other developers, we pay close attention.

When deciding what new features to add to ChameleonOS, XDA Senior Member 0xD34D decided that the ROM should incorporate functionality similar to the Moto X’s most known and copied feature. Rather than just adding the code and not sharing it, the developer has opened up the code so that others can use it in their own ROMs. Coming in at five commits (three to android_frameworks_base and two to Settings), the code is easily transplantable to other ROMs. However, since ChameleonOS started off by basing itself on CyanogenMod, ROMs that start from another base may have unresolved dependancies.

So what do you get in this implementation of the feature? The features, as stated by the developer:

• Instantly turns the device screen on and displays notifications as they arrive
• Up to 8 notifications displayed in a horizontal strip that can be viewed by touching the notification icon
• Short notification description can be displayed around the outside of the center ring
• Touch the center ring notification to view the full notification
• Unlock the device, open the app for the current notification or dismiss the current notification
• Set a re-display time to have active display remind you of your pending notifications
• Adjustable brightness level for when active display turns the screen on
• Pocket mode which allows active display to turn on once you remove the device from your pocket or bag

More information about ChameleonOS’s implementation can be found in the feature thread. To learn more about the specific commits the developer added to bring Active Notifications to ChameleonOS, head over to this post.

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Grand Theft Auto 5 Makes More Than $1 Billion in First Three Days

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. today announced that Grand Theft Auto V, the latest release from the GTA series, has achieved worldwide retail sales of more than $1 billion during its first three days on sale, according to Company estimates. Take-Two Interactive Software company owns Rockstar Games, maker for the best selling video game till now, they believe this marks the fastest that any entertainment property, including video games and feature films, has reached this significant milestone.

“Grand Theft Auto is a cultural phenomenon and Rockstar Games continues to redefine what can be achieved in interactive entertainment,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two. “We are incredibly proud of the extraordinary critical and commercial response to Grand Theft Auto V.”

Developed by series creator Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto V is currently available for the PlayStation 3  and the Xbox 360. You can check our unboxing and gameplay below.

Free Messaging Apps Are Unsafe, Claims Hackers

 The free text messaging app on your phone can be used to occupy your personal information. Hackers and cyber security professionals have claimed that internet companies can access a mobile user’s chat logs and phone data, which includes location, contacts, mail and much more, through some of the free texting apps.

As per TOI, a team of young hackers demonstrated on Sunday how text messages sent through a Chinese free texting app can be decrypted. They said foreign governments could also be using this method to access data for surveillance or spying.

Participants at The Hackers Conference in Delhi on Sunday said the government wasn’t utilizing the potential of hackers despite its websites increasingly coming under attack.

However, hackers are increasingly becoming part of the IT industry and contributing as security experts. “Hackers are paid around Rs 1 lakh per month by social networking sites, search engines and software companies, he said, adding that some of these hackers are just teenagers, says Kishlay who further said:

“Hacking is like an art which needs skill to master. It is also like science, extremely logical. Today private companies use ethical hackers to make themselves secure. We know of companies that pay hackers more than they spend on developing software,” said Kishlay Bharadwaj, 24, a freelance security analyst and organizing member of the conference. 

White hat hackers are for the good, no matter if they work for any company or for safeguarding the nation from cyber threats.

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iOS 7 To Be Launched On September 10

 September 10 is the date we’re currently marking in the diaries for the iPhone 5S and 5C reveal, and that may have just been reinforced by a claim that we’ll see the release of iOS 7 that very same day.

According to an email sent to developers from Nuance, the company behind Siri, the general availability date for iOS 7 is set for September 10.

The Next Web contributing writer Owen Williams posted the below email from Nuance to his personal blog, it reads:

As you are probably aware, iOS 7 GA will be released on September 10th.

The NDEV Program has pre-qualified that SpeechKit 1.4.5 works properly on iOS 7, but we encourage you to conduct own testing to ensure that when the upgrade happens, your Nuance speech services continue to work seamlessly.

It asked developers using its API to conduct testing to ensure that their services work on iOS 7 even though its SpeechKit 1.4.5 is pre-qualified to work properly on iOS 7. Nuance is the voice recognition focused company which has also worked on Siri, Apple’s intelligent voice assistant.

Historically, Apple has released iOS Golden Master versions to developers on the same day as the announcement of new iPhones, giving developers time to test their apps with the final version of the new iOS before its release it to the general public a couple of days before the launch of the new iPhone.

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Alleged Motorola Droid 5 Leaked Images

 Motorola doesn’t seem to let go of the sliding keyboard. According to images posted on Chinese social network Weibo, Motorola has a new smartphone in its pipeline for Verizon. The DROID 5 is rumored to continue the DROID 4′s tradition and sport a 5-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a larger 4.3- or 4.5-inch screen. It is also said to support wireless charging and NFC. The photos show Verizon’s logo and it wouldn’t be surprising if the DROID 5 also supported the carrier’s 4G LTE network, considering its predecessor did likewise.

Suspiciously, the device seen in the images is running a rather outdated version of Android 4.0.3, so it’s tough to say how old this alleged Droid 5 actually is.

It would be interesting if it will also run on the same X8 Computing System that powers the latest Motorola DROIDs as well as the Moto X, giving it features like Touchless Controls and Active Display notifications.

There’s is no news on the availability of the Droid 5, but it is expected to make its first appearance to the Verizon’s lineup. However that being the case we would also love for the company to start showing interest in India operations once again, that simply seems unlikely for the time being.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Pre Release Leaks,Rumors and Specifications

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the next big daddy smartphone for the company after the big Note 2 launched last year at IFA Berlin. In a similar fashion at IFA 2013, Samsung will hold their Unpacked event where they plan to unveil a few of the goodies intended for the next generation of technology. The Galaxy Note 3 is the most prominent upcoming Smartphone and the world has a lot of expectations from Samsung when it comes to the Note 3, and it mostly has to do with the build quality. 

Lets start off with things we know for sure, The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will launch on September 4th at the Unpacked event in Berlin, Germany. The design of the Note 3, is going to be a mix of the Galaxy S4 and the original Note and Note 2. The new Note will still carry an S Pen with more enhanced features. The new Galaxy Note 3 is expected to be slimmer and slightly lighter than the last edition.

Hardware and Specs

According to Rumors, the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will have a 1920 x 1080p 5.7-inch display of the super Amoled Variety, a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor or an eight-core Exynos 5 Octa chipset depending on region, 3GB of RAM and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.  The display here will get an increase from the 5.5 inch we saw last year, but the size of the Note 3 may not be that much more thanks to the “less bezel” design implemented in the new S4 which is expected to be incorporated in the Galaxy Note 3. A 13-megapixel camera setup with optical image stabilization along side a 5 MP front camera with autofocus and HD video calling. 

Although a lot of sources claim that the Note 3 will come in 32 Gb and 64 GB variants, a 16GB variant will help reduce costs, especially in countries like India where the Dollar prices are skyrocketing. The Battery is expected to be bumped up to a 3200 mAh battery providing a considerable increase in battery life.

Features and UI

If the new Note 3 does get Android 4.3, you can expect a newer version of Touchwiz UI along side some of the features carried over from the Galaxy S4 including gestures and Air View among many other new features that Samsung will design to make this flagship more popular. You can also expect the camera features like dual shot and capture, sound and shot and animated photo. 

Reports suggest that a host of new features are being designed for the new S-Pen that may also feature smart calling thanks to a secondary button on the Pen hardware.

What To / Not To Expected

The Galaxy Note 3 is not expected to be a unibody smartphone, with metal chassis, despite many claims. Although, a move in this direction could possibly put all questions about build quality to rest. 

The Global version of the Note 3 may not come with LTE, while those tied to carriers can expect an LTE variant, those who buy the Exynos based Note 3 will be greeted with 3G only speeds. The Galaxy Note 3 may be launched in a dual sim variant for markets like Korea, China and India. The Galaxy Note 3 may also be launched in aGoogle edition, however the S Pen would then become redundant, unless they make a suite of apps available for the hardware. 

Expect the Galaxy Note 3 in India as early as October for prices upwards of Rs. 45000 for the basic variant which we expect will be 16 GB.

Samsung is also planning to pair up the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 launch with several new cases and accessories along with a new smart watch dubbed “Galaxy Gear”. 

Google Starts A 'Vulnerability Rewards Program'

The Vulnerability Rewards Program is created to help and reward the contributions of security researchers who invest their time and effort in helping Google to make Chromium more secure. Through this program Google is to provide monetary awards and public recognition for vulnerabilities responsibly disclosed to the Chromium project.

The eligible bugs can be:

• An uncontrolled buffer overflow in the browser process, especially if a malicious web site can directly control the contents of the buffer.
• Most memory safety issues in the browser process, unless the possibility of arbitrary code execution can be ruled out.

• A bug that allows circumvention of the same-origin policy.
• A bug that allows arbitrary code execution within the confines of the sandbox.
• Bugs that interfere with browser security features. E.g. A bug that disrupts the location bar and lock icon. (Note that the status bubble is not a security indicator.)

• Bug that allows an attacker to enumerate recently visited URLs.
• Bugs that are not harmful independently, but can be combined with other bugs to cause harm.  For example, ignoring a “do not cache” directive might not itself be harmful but might facilitate other attacks.
• Any bug that might be High Severity, but requires unusual user action (such as terminating a tab’s process while in full-screen mode).

• A bug that allows an attacker to hang the browser.  (Note that tab hangs are not security issues if they can be resolved simply by closing the tab.)

 Reward for eligible bugs is $500, but the typical payout is usually at least $1000 as per Google. If the rewards panel finds the bug particularly severe, the value can be as much as $3133.70. Or if the rewards panel finds a report really impressive, the value can be as much as $10,000 or even beyond says Google. 

Can you find an eligible bug ? Find it to win some $$$, just to remind you guys 1 USD is about 63.10 INR.

 

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HTC Zara Specs Leak, Budget Device With 4.5" Display And Sense 5.5

 HTC is bringing the design language from the One series down to entry level devices, according to an image by notorious leaker evleaks.

The HTC Zara has been rumoured before, but its specs never really jumped out at us. With a 4.5-inch qHD screen (960×540 pixels), a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal storage, an UltraPixel camera, a 2100mAh battery and, perhaps most interestingly, Android 4.3 with Sense 5.5.

As handsets go, the HTC Zara (a codename and not final shipping designation) looks to be a mix of the lower-end Desire line and the HTC One. You can see two front-facing speakers along with the company’s unique button placement. The main differences are the more rounded corners and that distinctly Desire-like camera ring on the back.

HTC Zara is the second phone we hear of that’s going to launch with the updated Sense 5.5 user interface running on top of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The HTC One Max is going to debut with the company’s updated UI. Sense is HTC’s differentiator in the Android game, though recently it has been focusing more on hardware improvements than software gimmicks. Whether Sense 5.5 will retain the familiar BlinkFeed home screen remains to be seen, but we don’t think HTC will mess with a good thing.

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Leaked : Samsung Galaxy Gear Specifications

The finer details of Samsung’s upcoming smartwatch are finally starting to leak out. If you’re into extending technology down to your arm, specifically Samsung technology, you might want to consider wrapping the Galaxy Gear around your wrist. Rumours are that Samsung will unveil this device on September 4th at their upcoming Unpacked event.

The Galaxy Gear will be a ‘smartphone companion’ and new reports indicate that it’ll sport a 2.5-inch OLED full colour display with a resolution of 320 x 320, plus have the usual touchscreen gestures and accelerometer, but will lack text-input commands. Under the face the Galaxy Gear reportedly has a dual-core 1.5GHz Exynos 4212 processor and Mali-400MP4 GPU. 

In addition, GigaOM reports that the watch has a camera that is integrated into the strap and even has tiny speakers in the clasp of the watch, plus built-in NFC to allow for bump-to-sync and authenticate. The watch uses Bluetooth 4.0 LE to connect with smartphones for connectivity.

As GigaOM reports, the Galaxy Gear watches that have been seeded with the developers are based on Android 4.1 (and in some cases 4.2) and there is very tight integration and syncing between the watch and the phones and tablets. For instance, if one has swiped through notifications, stops at an email blurb and then picks up thesmartphone, the phone will display that email message attached to the blurb you were looking at on the watch. The company will feature integration with Twitter and Facebook at launch.

The watch will connect to a Samsung watch manager app on the phone to manage the connection between watch and the phone. The connection will use Samsung’s proprietary accessory protocol and will use Bluetooth LE as the network transport. Apparently if there is any app running on the watch, it is its own discreet endpoint and will work directly with the servers.

The Galaxy Gear will use apps ‘not from the Google Play store, but instead from the Samsung App store.” Possibly another signal that Samsung is reducing its need on Google’s Android OS – this could mean the watch will only work with Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets. However, popular social media apps like Facebook andTwitter will be heavily integrated, along with a collection of health apps – possibly SHealth – to take on competing watches like the Nike Fuelband.

The only major items missing now are the completed design, battery life, and yes, pricing and availability.

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Bill Gates : People Dying of Malaria Don't Need Google Project Loon

 Google recently unveiled Google Loon, which intends to use hot air balloons 49 feet wide stationed 12 miles above the planet, in order to provide high speed Internet services to regions without adequate broadband infrastructure. While most people around the world, whether they understood the concept or not, were impressed by the idea, Microsoft founder Bill Gates wasn’t. 

The following is an excerpt from Gates’ interview published by Business Week : 

One of Google’s convictions is that bringing Internet connectivity to less-developed countries can lead to all sorts of secondary benefits. It has a project to float broadband transmitters on balloons. Can bringing Internet access to parts of the world that don’t have it help solve problems?

“When you’re dying of malaria, I suppose you’ll look up and see that balloon, and I’m not sure how it’ll help you. When a kid gets diarrhea, no, there’s no website that relieves that. Certainly I’m a huge believer in the digital revolution. And connecting up primary-health-care centers, connecting up schools, those are good things. But no, those are not, for the really low-income countries, unless you directly say we’re going to do something about malaria.

Google started out saying they were going to do a broad set of things. They hired Larry Brilliant, and they got fantastic publicity. And then they shut it all down. Now they’re just doing their core thing. Fine. But the actors who just do their core thing are not going to uplift the poor.”

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Microsoft's Augmented Reality Gaming Glasses Patent Revealed

 Microsoft is jumping on the wearable display bandwagon, but don’t expect a Google Glass competitor. This week the company patented a head-mounted display aimed at bringing augmented reality to gaming.

The fact that Microsoft is planning to make AR goggles was leaked last year, when a 56-page ‘roadmap’ for the Xbox One (pictured below) found its way onto the Internet. Microsoft subsequently confirmed that the roadmap was genuine, but outdated.

Beyond mimicking some of the functions of Google Glass though it was never really clear what exactly the AR glasses, codenamed Fortaleza, were for.

“In one example, a potential player invitation program receives user voice data and determines that the user voice data is an invitation to participate in a multiplayer game,” the patent request continues. “The program receives eye-tracking information, depth information, facial recognition information, potential player head-mounted display device information, and/or potential player voice data. The program associates the invitation with the potential player using the eye-tracking information, the depth information, the facial recognition information, the potential player head-mounted display device information, and/or the potential player voice data.”

Apart from acknowledging that the roadmap leak was real Microsoft has never mentioned the glasses officially and it’s unclear if and when they will do so. Many of the projects rumoured in the roadmap have since been revealed by Microsoft, including new Kinect, Xbox One, and forthcoming entertainment services. 

The patent though, which was only published yesterday, suggests the idea is still well underway. 

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iOS 7 Beta 4 Fixes Charger Hack

 Apple is said to have fixed a powerful charger-based hack, which previously allowed iDevices to be compromised by hackers using a modified power charger in under a minute.

As Reuters reports, Apple said the issue had been fixed in the latest beta of iOS 7, which has already been released to software developers.

“We would like to thank the researchers for their valuable input,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said.  The researchers were Billy Lau, a research scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and graduate students Yeongjin Jang and Chengyu Song.

Andy Greenberg, Forbes technology and information security reporter explains that the researchers took advantage of a security flaw in Apple’s developer model, which allows anyone with a developer license to install third-party apps on a registered device.

iOS 7 prompts a new warning message to the user when they plug their iOS device to any device that attempts to establish a data connection informing them that “Trusting this computer will allow it full access to your device and all its data.”

Of course, this leaves iPhones and iPads that won’t get the iOS 7 update vulnerable. According to the researchers, all other versions of iOS can be hacked in this manner.

However, end users will have to wait for iOS 7 before the fix arrives.

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Apple Supplier Report Reveals Plastic Back Casing For Budget iPhone

 Rumblings of a low-cost, plastic iPhone have been popping up on a fairly frequent basis throughout 2013, and today the rumored device is making headlines once again. 

Apple’s future plan to introduce a plastic device is confirmed within this morning’s shocking report into labor abuses at manufacturing partner, Pegatron.

As part of the investigation, China Labor Watch inserted people inside three of Pegatron’s factories. In one of these reports it confirms the future debut of a plastic iPhone:

“Today’s work is to paste protective film on the iPhone’s plastic back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines. This iPhone model with a plastic cover will soon be released on the market by Apple,”the report explains.

“The new cell phone has not yet been put into mass production, so quantity is not as important,” a worker wrote. “This makes our job more slow paced than in departments that have begun mass production schedules.”

In addition, China Labor Watch’s company profile notes that Pegatron is responsible for building “low-priced plastic iPhones” for Apple, in addition to the iPhone 4, 4S and the 5.

The report accuses Pegatron of violating labor regulations in China, as well as international labor laws and Apple’s own standards. 

Photographs allegedly detailing the new iPhone’s packaging were uploaded to the Chinese forum WeiPhone over the weekend. The name iPhone 5C is printed on the side of the box, possibly leaking the name of the device.

[Via]