Microsoft’s Surface Hub videoconferencing systems will be pricier and later than originally announced. In August, Microsoft said to expect the 55-inch Surface Hub model to cost $6,999 and the 84-inch model to touch $19,999. On Tuesday, company execs said in an e-mailed statement that they are increasing the prices to $8,999 and $21,999, respectively. Customers …
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December, 2015
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23 December
What’s new on HBO online for January 2016
The deal that sent “Sesame Street” to HBO goes into effect on January 16. HBO will also have a backlog of five years of the show. PBS will still be able to air new episodes of “Sesame Street,” but only after nine months have passed from the original HBO airdate. One of 2015’s most critically-acclaimed movies, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” …
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23 December
All the Internet cares about is spotting the panda in this puzzle image
The Internet hasn’t been this frustrated since the dress. Hungarian artist Gergely Dudás — using the moniker Dudolf — posted an image of snowmen to his Facebook page on December 16, challenging his friends to find the panda hiding in the sea of snowmen. A few of them managed to spot the panda pretty quickly, but many others struggled. Quite …
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23 December
Facebook’s freebie Internet service comes under fire in India
Regulators in India want to pull the plug on Facebook’s controversial Free Basics service. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has requested that the sole company in that country to offer Free Basics, which provides rudimentary access to the Internet, put a halt to the program, according to a report in the Times of India. It’s unclear whether the service …
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23 December
Twitter envisions drones controlled by your tweets
A drone may one day deliver your selfies to Twitter. The San Francisco-based company was granted a patent last week for an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, for capturing photos and videos that can then be shared through users’ accounts on the microblogging network. The drone’s movements would be controlled by Twitter users’ likes, tweets and replies, determining what images …
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23 December
Online abuse isn’t going away, but you’re not helpless to fight it
You can’t really call 2015 the year of online harassment because the problem goes back so much further. Just ask Anita Sarkeesian and Jaclyn Friedman, who have first-hand experience with how toxic the online world can be. The activists and authors each have had to cope with death threats for speaking up about how women and others are bullied, harassed …
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23 December
The Beatles join streaming services from midnight tonight
The Beatles back catalogue will be available to stream online from midnight tonight, worldwide, and over a multitude of digital music services. Formed in Liverpool in 1960, The Beatles shaped the world of modern pop and rock music, and are estimated to be the best-selling band in the world, having shifted over 250 million records worldwide. The band’s catalogue of …
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23 December
Create your own ‘Star Wars’ title crawl
Ready for some fun? The Star Wars Crawl Creator, a Web app recently added to Starwars.com, lets you channel your inner Abrams (or Lucas, if you’re old-school) to create one of those iconic text blocks. By default, and by way of example, the Crawl Creator shows the introduction from “Episode IV: A New Hope.” When you’re ready to insert your …
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22 December
Phones in 2016 will be cheaper, a bit smarter, ‘microbrew’
Advancements in the technology your phone is made of have plateaued, on that we can all agree. But I’m still excited about where smartphones will stand in 2016. Yes, we’ll see more sensitive cameras and higher-resolution screens. There will be more interesting sensors that only some of us use, and biometric scanners everywhere and anywhere you can put one. All …
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22 December
Is your profile photo unforgettable? MIT can tell you
If you aren’t getting any bites on a dating site or are finding it to be slow going on a social network, perhaps your profile picture isn’t allowing you to stand out from the deafening online crowd. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab built a Web app it calls LaMem, which is short for large-scale image memorability. LaMem uses …
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