Google’s first VR doodle is a Georges Méliès mini movie

The dawn of virtual reality is a bit like the dawn of cinema. It’s no accident that Google decided to make its VR-ready Google Doodle about one of film’s pioneers: Georges Méliès, the French inventor and illusionist who directed A Trip To The Moon and was featured as a character in Martin Scorcese’s film Hugo. …

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Vivo’s X21 with underscreen fingerprint sensor gets global launch

Loaded with a supercool underscreen fingerprint sensor tech, Vivo’s X21 is finally making its way out of China, and it’s landing in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The Chinese company’s latest flagship in Singapore is set to go on sale on May 5 for a cool price of S$800, which converts to about $600, £440 or AU$800. There’s …

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SteamVR for Windows Mixed Reality leaves Early Access

In a market where “Early Access” can last for years, SteamVR for Windows Mixed Reality spent a remarkably short time there at only about five months. This week, in conjunction with Microsoft’s announcement of its Windows 10 April 2018 Update, Steam announced that the program was ready for prime time. For those unfamiliar with it, Early Access is the equivalent …

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Sprint shuffles execs as it looks toward future under T

Sprint is looking ahead to its $26 billion merger with T-Mobile as it shuffles top executives and makes its pitch for the merger to federal regulators in Washington, DC. On Wednesday, the company announced CEO Marcelo Claure will become executive chairman while the company’s chief financial officer, Michel Combes, will take over as CEO by the end of this month. …

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Your iPhone battery replacement may play hard to get

After the iPhone 6 battery brouhaha, Apple dropped the price of its battery replacement for selected models from $80 to $30 (that’s about £80 to £30 or AU$120 to AU$40). Then it waived a policy that required iPhones pass a test to qualify for the upgrade. However, getting that upgrade may still not be so easy. Now playing: Watch this: Best options to …

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5 things you didn’t know about Amazon

Are you an Amazon expert? Do you use tools like Honey to track price-drops and find lower prices from other sellers? Do you use Amazon Smile to automatically give to charity without even trying?  That’s all good stuff, but there’s more to the online behemoth than you might think. Here are four things about Amazon you probably didn’t know… You can …

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New Google Lens features are coming at Google I/O, LG says

An update to Google Lens might be right around the corner, but we didn’t get that hint from Google. Instead, LG dropped a reference in a press release for its latest phone, the LG G7 ThinQ. The LG G7 debuts a button on the phone’s side that you can click to open Google Assistant and double-click to snap open Google Lens.  “The G7 ThinQ …

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Sad news, vinyl lovers: Shure exits phono cartridge business

It came as something of a shock to hear Shure is getting out of the phono cartridge business at a time when turntable and LP sales are booming. Shure announced all phono cartridge models will be discontinued, but Shure’s microphone and headphone production is unaffected.   It’s a safe guess to assume most folks have at one time or another …

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LG G7: 3 cool new camera features

At a New York press event on Wednesday, LG unveiled its latest marquee phone, the LG G7. As a predecessor to the G6, the G7 is packed with a number of updates including a larger 6.1-inch display, twice the amount of internal storage (from 32 to 64GB) and the Snapdragon 845 chipset. But the G7‘s cameras also received some upgrades. …

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When it comes to Apple’s iPhone X sales, Wall Street got it wrong

Turns out the iPhone X isn’t too pricey after all. That’s one major takeaway from Apple’s earnings report Tuesday. The company, which many feared would report dismal iPhone sales and offer a soft sales forecast for the current quarter, ended up surprising just about everybody — even Apple executives.  iPhone unit sales, while not soaring, held their own. They rose …

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Facebook fires employee accused of stalking women

Facebook confirmed on Wednesday it has fired a security engineer accused of using company resources to stalk women online. The accusations against the unnamed employee were lodged Sunday by Jackie Stokes, the founder of Spyglass Security. Stokes reported the issue to Facebook, which investigated the issue “as a matter of urgency.” “It’s important that people’s information is kept secure and private …

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Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements $80 today only at B&H

Adobe’s entry-level photo-and-video editing duo, Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 2018, offers all the basics you need, and for the next 14 or so hours you can get the downloadable version (Mac or Windows) from B&H Photo at almost half off; I’ve only seen the price there, with most retailers offering it for the normal $150.   Don’t confuse it …

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This 11

When reruns are on TV, what do you do? If you’re like me, you accept destiny and continue to laze about on the couch. If you’re Yuma Soerianto, you start a whole new career. Currently Yuma has seven apps in Apple’s App Store. He learned how to code five years ago, finding it a more entertaining alternative to watching TV …

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A day after Oculus Go, Facebook demos next

Facebook’s new mobile standalone VR headset, Oculus Go, is here. But the future involves more advanced hardware with displays that make VR look a lot better. On Wednesday, Facebook teased us with one such future device. A virtual-reality prototype headset, referred to internally at Facebook as Half Dome, could advance VR technology past some of its key frustrations, like tunnel-vision …

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