October, 2016

• 6 October

  The Google Pixel works on AT&T, Sprint and T

  

  You saw pictures this week of the new Google Pixel and Pixel XL. You want to buy one, but you read somewhere it’s only available on Verizon. Is that true? To quote Walter Sobchak from “The Big Lebowski,” “You’re like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie.” You’re not sure what’s going …

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• 6 October

  Sinister potatoes haunt horror movie parody trailer

  

  Some things are inherently scary, like certain clowns, excessively large spiders, children standing in cornfields in Nebraska and potatoes. Wait, potatoes? Yes, potatoes. You just need to watch the horror film parody trailer “Peeled: The Potato Resurrection” to realize how truly frightening those seemingly innocent tubers can be. Related stories Stephen King says chill out because ‘most’ clowns are ‘good’ …

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• 6 October

  Mark Zuckerberg teases wireless Oculus VR headset

  

  Oculus has another new VR platform on the horizon, and it looks like something different from PC- and phone-connected virtual reality. At Oculus Connect on Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a lengthy appearance to discuss the future of VR software. He also introduced a surprise, acknowledging the need for something different — hardware that’s not a PC or mobile …

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• 6 October

  I tried the wireless Oculus Rift. It tasted like freedom

  

  Wireless isn’t new. The Microsoft HoloLens is wireless. The Intel Project Alloy is wireless. Qualcomm has a wireless VR headset too. None of them create a virtual world as stunning as what the Oculus Rift’s annoying tether can produce. But just tried a wireless Oculus Rift. And by “tried,” I mean I tried to break the illusion as hard as …

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• 6 October

  Instagram Stories, cloned from Snapchat, has 100M daily viewers

  

  Just two months after cribbing one of Snapchat’s most popular features, Instagram has a big hit on its hands. Instagram Stories, which lets people post a string of videos and pictures that disappear after 24 hours, has 100 million daily viewers, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told BuzzFeed. Overall, the photo-sharing social network, which turns 6 years old today and is …

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• 5 October

  Samsung wants you to appear in Note 7 advert after recall debacle

  

  Samsung wants you to help undo the damage done by the exploding Galaxy Note 7. All Note 7 phablets were recalled just weeks after the device was released when it turned out the battery was prone to dangerously overheating. Now, to continue the process of rebuilding the Note’s reputation, Samsung is recruiting people who have bought the device to appear …

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• 5 October

  Google Pixel offers cold comfort to silent partner

  

  HTC needed a break. It got just that when Google chose the veteran phone manufacturer to produce its newest flagship phones, the Pixel and Pixel XL. The partnership is a testament to strong relationship between Google and HTC, which was also tapped to build the original Android phone, the G1, as well as the first Nexus phone, the Nexus One. …

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• 5 October

  Google Pixel shacks up with Verizon. Will it work? (The 3:59, Ep. 118)

  

  Exclusive phone offers, for the most part, have gone the way of the VCR. Yet Google decided to bring its new Pixel phone exclusively to Verizon in the US. We examine the major reasons Google opted to make that move and debate whether it will work. (You can, by the way, also buy the phone unlocked through Google.) Also on …

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• 5 October

  Netflix, stalking an Oscar, recruits iPic cinemas to screen its movies

  

  Netflix will screen 10 of its original films at physical theaters the same day it releases them online, through a deal with iPic, a 15-screen upscale cinema chain. Netflix on Wednesday confirmed the pact, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Showing its movies in so few theaters is financially meaningless for Netflix. The overwhelming majority of its …

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• 5 October

  Amazon Prime Reading gives members even more e

  

  Amazon’s newest perk for Prime members goes back to its bookworm roots. On Wednesday, the company came out with Prime Reading, which provides a rotating library of over a thousand books, with current titles including “The Hobbit,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and “The Millionaire Next Door.” The free service, available only to Prime members in the US, also …

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