TimeLine Layout

June, 2017

  • 22 June

    Red alert! Voice commands make this Star Trek game even more fun

    On the right armrest of my captain’s chair, on the bridge of the USS Aegis, a button glows tantalizingly red. One press, and my crew will go to battle stations, raising shields and arming photon torpedoes.  But what’s the fun in that? Everyone knows real Starfleet captains use their lungs to issue commands — and starting …

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  • 22 June

    T

    Those wireless companies continue to live the lyrics “the best things in life are free.” After T-Mobile began offering pizza last year, followed by “AT&T Thanks” with free movie tickets, and just recently Virgin Mobile’s $1 service deal, Cricket (an AT&T subsidiary) is joining the fray. Though it may not be offering free food, the company said it will sell discounted …

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  • 22 June

    Google Maps dismissed as ‘unreliable’ by Indian government

    Unlike many of us, the Indian government doesn’t think much of Google‘s mapping services. The country’s mapping and surveying agency, Survey of India, urged citizens to stop relying on Google Maps and Google Earth, saying neither has been authenticated by the government, reported Business Standard. To encourage this, the SoI made its own maps available online for citizens to use …

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  • 22 June

    Amazon patent envisions drone delivery towers in your city

    Amazon has some towering ideas for drone delivery. The e-commerce giant filed a patent application for a “multi-level fulfillment center” that would allow drones to deliver packages in urban areas. Basically, it sounds like a giant robot-powered tower that would make it easy for drones to zip in and out as they deliver packages around a city. There’s a “growing …

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  • 22 June

    Hulu gets tons of movies in July 2017

    There is a debate as to whether the 2014 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie is as good as the original. We are here to tell you that the original is superior in almost every way. However, the sequels are pretty bad either way. The original TMNT trilogy hits Hulu on the first of July. Just like Amazon Prime, Hulu grabs nine …

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  • 22 June

    Dictate email messages in Microsoft Outlook

    I can dictate an email on my phone, so why can’t I do likewise on my computer? It’s now possible, at least for Microsoft Outlook users: Microsoft’s new Dictate add-in brings voice recognition to Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. Powered by the same technology used in Cortana, Dictate will quickly turn your spoken words into text. Cooler still, it can automatically …

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  • 22 June

    Sorry iPhone, Vivo might be first to on

    The first phone to successfully integrate a fingerprint sensor in the screen may not be an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy at all. It could be a phone from Chinese brand Vivo, which isn’t well known outside China.  A Vivo Twitter post hints that the company will “unlock” “a new solution” at a trade show next week. Pair that with the …

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  • 22 June

    Lenovo’s 25th anniversary ThinkPad is real, and coming soon

    It’s been 25 years since Lenovo introduced us to its first ThinkPad: the 700C business laptop. By today’s standards, it was comically large and underpowered, but back then, it was a very popular piece of hardware that helped usher in the age of the laptop. Now, after a few years’ worth of rumors, Lenovo confirmed Wednesday that it will release …

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  • 22 June

    Huge transparent, flexible OLED display flows like water

    Think you have your head wrapped around flexible displays? Wait till you see through this. LG Display is the purveyor of OLED, our favorite TV technology, and the Korean manufacturer has a crazy new concept display. Billed as the world’s first 77-inch transparent and flexible OLED display, it can look like water flowing over a shelf. But it’s a TV. …

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  • 22 June

    Can $699 earbuds be worth it?

    I’ve written about Hifiman’s full-size and in-ear headphones many times on this blog; I raved about the highly affordable RE400 In-ears in 2013, and they’re available and still a terrific buy. The RE600S also drew raves in 2015 from me. So I was super curious to sample the all-new $699 RE800 earbuds, and find out how they would stack up against …

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