It won’t displace Google’s Chrome anytime soon as the most-used Web browser, but startup Vivaldi has won over a respectable chunk of users in its six months since launch. The company, based in Oslo, Norway, is a philosophical offshoot of the Opera browser. Opera came from the same city and, in part, from the same …
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May, 2016
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11 May
5 ways Facebook’s Oculus is amping up VR for you (and your Gear VR)
Oculus’ upcoming improvements to the Samsung Gear VR headset will happen step by step, not in one fell swoop. When you add up the plans, which Oculus shared with press at a small event in San Francisco earlier this week, you start getting a sense of where the company wants to take VR, both on the phone-based Gear VR and …
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11 May
Firefox Test Pilot scheme wants you to test new features
If you’ve always wanted to be a test pilot but you’re a little more Chuck E. Cheese than Chuck Yeager, Mozilla is here to help. The company wants you to join its Test Pilot scheme to test out experimental features in its Firefox browser, including arranging your tabs down the side of the screen. Announced in an official blog post, …
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11 May
Watch Deadpool narrate his own parody video
Deadpool is the kind of anti-superhero who puts the punch in punchlines. So it’s especially apt that he’s not only the subject of a parody video, but that he takes part in it as well. Honest Trailers — a YouTube series from Screen Junkies that features a classic movie-trailer voiceover but with a narrator who makes fun of films in …
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11 May
Cowa Robot is a suitcase that follows you like a puppy
Now playing: Watch this: The Cowa Robot is a smart suitcase that follows you 1:06 It doesn’t have multiple tiny feet or lots of big square teeth, nor is it made out of sapient pearwood, but Shanghai-based Cowa’s walking suitcase has already got lazy me falling in love with it. And you would too, once you realised you would almost …
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11 May
FBI director blames ‘viral video effect’ for spike in violent crime
The head of the FBI believes that a spike in violent crime in many cities may be due to officers’ fears of showing up on Internet videos confronting suspects. FBI Director James Comey told reporters Wednesday that a “viral video effect” is leading to less aggressive policing that “could well be at the heart” of an alarming increase in murders …
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11 May
Join a Mount Everest climb in real time, via Snapchat
Using the Snapchat handle EverestNoFilter, a pair of veteran adventurers are documenting their climb up Mount Everest in real time. Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards are posting dozens of still images and short videos to the service daily from Nepal. In one of the team’s recent snaps, Richards addresses the camera and answers a question about fear on such a …
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11 May
Instagram hits refresh on its iconic icon
Instagram, the popular social-media photography app owned by Facebook, is getting a new look. The app’s longtime icon, a retro-looking camera, has been replaced by a new minimalist version, with a white line drawing of a camera shape against a gradient colored background. The change seems to reflect a shift away from the vintage-style filters the app is known for …
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11 May
Here’s how many hours of commercials Netflix saves you from each year
Your days are too short as it is. You try to fit in work, chores and binge-watching all 144 episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” You’ll save quite a bit of time by watching all your shows on Netflix rather than cable TV, according to a numbers-crunching study from Cordcutting.com. It concludes that commercial-free streaming services can spare you from …
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11 May
Grab a virtual seat on Disney’s new Tron Lightcycle roller coaster
Shanghai Disneyland doesn’t officially open until June 16, but you can still see what it’s like to hop on its new Tron Lightcycle ride and see if it’s worth the wait. The Inside the Magic blog posted a video Sunday from the point of view of someone riding the Tron Lightcycle Power Run roller coaster ride, which opened to select …
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