Sneaky new app brings all your Amazon Instant Video content to Chromecast

One of the bummers about Chromecast is that it doesn't have an official Amazon Prime app that will let you stream Amazon content that you watch on your computer to your television. That said, Android Police brings us word that there's a new app called Primecast that promises to give you access to all of your Amazon Instant Video content on Chromecast, although there's no telling whether Amazon will allow it to keep doing so in the future.

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Posted in 2014 at 02:30AM, November 08

It’s never been easier to avoid your most obnoxious friends on Facebook

In recent years, the Facebook News Feed has devolved from a streamlined way to keep up with your friends into an endless list of advertisements, quizzes and links. It can be all but impenetrable to those unwilling to comb through it for the updates they actually care about, but Facebook is introducing new features for the News Feed which will give you the ability to control what you see.

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Posted in 2014 at 12:15AM, November 08

Shoot and Score with ‘Smart’ Basketball

Tech columnist Ed Baig took to the court to test a new “smart basketball” equipped with nine sensors that communicate with an iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth wireless technology. The 94Fifty basketball and associated iOS app, made by InfoMotion Sports Technologies, tracks performance by measuring speed and pressure applied to the ball. It also coaches aspiring hoops stars with voice feedback. Users can work on drills or challenge other players. “My two small kids were engaged, and they were excited when they improved their scores,” Baig reports.

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Posted in 2013 at 06:15PM, November 08

BlackBerry board reportedly rejected all proposals to break up company

If BlackBerry's going down, it looks like it will go down in one piece. Unnamed sources tell Reuters that BlackBerry's board of directors flatly rejected proposals to break up the company even though Apple, Microsoft and Lenovo all expressed interest in buying off some of its parts. Reuters' sources say that BlackBerry's board saw that any breakup would "not serve the interest of all stakeholders, which include employees, customers and suppliers in addition to shareholders." Microsoft and Apple were reportedly interested in buying some of BlackBerry's patents while Cisco and Lenovo were apparently more willing to buy up much larger chunks of the business.

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Posted in 2013 at 08:10PM, November 08

Xbox One hosts a collection of impressive entertainment apps at launch

On Thursday, we got our first look at the full lineup of entertainment apps that will be appearing on PlayStation 4 next week. It's a competent list of video streaming apps that seem to come standard on basically every electronic device under the sun. Now Microsoft has unleashed its own list on the Xbox Wire , and the options seem far more appealing. The full list of "first wave" entertainment apps on the Xbox One (in the U.S.) is as follows:



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Posted in 2013 at 06:05PM, November 08

Motorola files patent for terrifying ‘smart tattoo’ technology

Google's creepier tendencies have clearly made an impression on Motorola, which has now started filing patents for technologies you'd expect to see in Philip K. Dick stories. Engadget has spotted a new Motorola patent application for a kind of "smart tattoo" that basically involves tattooing a microphone to a user's throat that will then send voice commands to their smartphones and tablets. The idea behind this terrifying creation is to have a microphone that will more easily pick up users' voice commands and eliminate background noise that could make using voice functionality on your smartphone inconvenient. As weird as this all sounds, we have to admit that the smart tattoo idea is still less creepy than Google's earlier proposal for password pills.

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Posted in 2013 at 04:20PM, November 08

Video: Microsoft releases 12-minute hands-on tour of Xbox One

We're now just two short weeks away from the debut of Microsoft's next-generation Xbox One video game console and the anticipation is building. As fans eagerly away launch day, Microsoft decided to whet their palates which an extensive video tour of the new console. The company's hands-on walkthrough with the Xbox One spans more than 12 minutes and includes a thorough look at the new Xbox One dashboard, which mirrors the tile-based Windows 8 interface users have had mixed feelings about. Microsoft also takes an in-depth look at gaming, multitasking, app-switching, the new Kinect, voice commands, automatic sign-in, Skype integration and plenty more. The Xbox One launches on Friday, November 22nd, and it will cost $499.99 bundled with a controller and the new Kinect system. Microsoft's hands-on Xbox One video walkthrough is embedded below.



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Posted in 2013 at 03:55PM, November 08

Retina iPad mini delay reportedly due to big problems with LCD burn-in

We still don't have an official Retina iPad mini release date, though we do have a growing number of reports that look to explain the reason for the new tablet's delay. Apple was forced to uncharacteristically unveil its second-generation iPad mini without announcing a launch date, and manufacturing issues with the tablet's new 7.9-inch Retina display are said to be the culprit. Apple CEO Tim Cook even admitted on the company's recent earnings call that Apple is unsure if it will have enough inventory to meet launch demand when the new slate launches sometime in November. While we've known for a while now that display panel issues are likely to blame, a new report seemingly reveals the exact issue plaguing on of Apple's key suppliers.



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Posted in 2013 at 02:30PM, November 08

More details emerge on Google’s plans for its mystery barges

Although Google's mysterious barges right now look like large floating metal slabs, the company envisions eventually turning them into "unprecedented artistic structures" that will have around a dozen "fish fin" sails and will float majestically through city harbors. SFGate has uncovered some documents filed with the city of San Francisco that explain how the Google barges will be "temporary technology exhibit spaces" that will help drive foot traffic to the city's waterfront area. Google even envisions the barges as being sort of metaphysical spaces that will inspire "conversation about how everything is connected — shorebirds, me, you, the sea, the fog and much more." An artist's rendering of what the magical barges will look like when completed follows below.



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Posted in 2013 at 01:45PM, November 08

Kim Dotcom’s NSA-proof messaging, video chat service due in 2014

It's been months since Kim Dotcom triumphantly returned to the digital world with the launch of Mega and now the mercurial German-born Kiwi has set his sights on some even bigger ambitions for 2014. In a company blog post this week, Mega outlined its plans for new services next year that will include both encrypted messaging and encrypted video chat services aimed at helping users evade government intelligence agencies that cast a wide surveillance net across the entire Internet. Dotcom and Mega first started talking about launching encrypted email and messaging services this past summer after documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency's vast data collection practices.

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Posted in 2013 at 01:00PM, November 08

Lenovo solidifies status as the PC industry’s MVP

2013 has not been a good year for the PC market but Chinese manufacturer Lenovo has somehow managed to thrive despite facing the same set of challenging circumstances that have crushed OEMs such as Acer and Asus. As ZDNet notes, Lenovo actually grew its desktop PC shipments year-over-year in its second fiscal quarter this year, a pretty remarkable achievement given that overall desktop PC shipments declined by around 6% over the same period. Lenovo shipped a total of 14.1 million PCs on the quarter, which the company says gives it the fastest PC sales growth rate of any major vendor.



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Posted in 2013 at 05:15AM, November 08

Microsoft Office Web Apps now include live, co-author editing

Microsoft Office Web Apps on SkyDrive and Office 365 are finally catching up with Google Drive. In a blog post on Wednesday, Microsoft's Amanda Lefebvre announced that real-time co-author editing is now possible on Office Web Apps, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The number of potential collaborators that can be working on the same document in Word and Excel is limitless, but there is a 20 co-author limit for PowerPoint presentations.



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Posted in 2013 at 02:45AM, November 08