As much attention as Apple’s Lightning connector has been receiving over the past few months as it’s the latest cable to be made available for newer iOS devices, one cable that doesn’t seem to get as much love is Apple’s Thunderbolt connector. Sure – Thunderbolt is currently a proprietary connector only available on a range of Apple computers, but it still demands respect as it features two 10-Gbps data channels per port, making it twice as fast as USB 3.0 and 12 times faster than FireWire 800. If you’ve been looking to stock up on some more Thunderbolt cables, then you’ll be happy to hear today’s news.

Today, Apple has reduced the price to its standard 2 meter Thunderbolt cable to $39. In addition to today’s price cut, Apple is also introducing a shorter 0.5 meter Thunderbolt cable for $29, which is roughly 19 inches of Thunderbolt cable goodness.

Both the price-dropped 2 meter and 0.5 meter Thunderbolt cables are now available and in stock on Apple’s online store.

[CES 2013] No matter how much we tell you Sony’s PS Vita is great, we still feel it’s at a price point not too many people are comfortable spending on a dedicated handheld gaming device. No matter how advanced the PS Vita is, there aren’t many people willing to spend over $250 for it when they can buy an actual home console or an Android tablet for that price. Even after reaching one million sales in Japan this past October, the PS Vita still isn’t selling as great as Sony would like, which their CEO Kaz Hirai commented on this week at CES.

During an interview with the WSJ, Kaz was asked about the PS Vita, specifically how its sales were. Kaz responded by saying “I would say it’s on the low end of what we expected,” although he did go on to say holiday sales were “pretty much” in line with expectations.

He went on to say it takes 5-10 years before a he can if a product was successful. Kaz recalled when he was asked similar questions of the PlayStation 3 after it was released, and now, he considers it a success.

[CES 2013] For years now, gamers have been playing on screens that have advanced greatly in the last 30 to 40 years. We’ve gone from black & white displays, to CRT monitors, all the way up to what we play our games on now. What we didn’t think of was to try to expand our gaming view from our TVs and monitors to the entire room, which is exactly what Microsoft is proposing with its proof-of-concept that’s being demoed at this year’s CES.

Microsoft’s IllumiRoom uses a combination of Microsoft’s Kinect and a projector in order to project images around the TV onto your walls and even furniture while you’re playing a game. IllumiRoom can be used to expand what you’re seeing within your TV as well as to add ambiance to certain games such as snowflakes falling around the player as they’re in a level filled with snow.

The video above showcases what the IllumiRoom is capable of, all in real-time and captured for the concept video live as it happens. Microsoft assures us no special effects were added to the video after it was recorded, which means if this is the kind of technology we can expect from our next Xbox, then we plan on pre-ordering it immediately.

[CES 2013] When you think how far tablets have come since the original iPad, we’re sure you’re impressed as years pass, they seem to be getting thinner while providing a better experience through improved screen resolutions among other things. But tablets becoming as thin and bendable as sheets of paper were something we’re sure none of you would expect to be possible, but Plastic Logic’s Paper Tab is exactly that, and it’s debuting at this year’s CES.

The Paper Tab is a flexible, 10.7-inch, paper-thin E-Ink display that was brought to life with a little help from their partners, Intel and Queen’s University of Ontario, Canada. Paper Tab allows the user to interact with it in a number of ways, such as bending portions of the tablet in order to move through pages or tweak corners of the tab to rewind and fast forward through videos.

What makes the Paper Tab even more unique is how each of the tabs interact with one another depending on their location as well as what each tablet is running. Emailing someone is used as an example as the user is able to write an email on one Paper Tab, while using another one to attach an image within the email.

Current prototypes are only available with E-Ink displays, but it’s said color displays are in the works and we could be seeing this technology become commercial within three to five years.

[CES 2013] In case you couldn’t tell by the monster amount of content coming from us this week, CES is currently going on and if you’ve ever been to it, or any other kind of conference, you know Wi-Fi is a must-have as cell phone service is usually nonexistent as thousands of people converge into one convention center. The problem is, at its current 2.4MHz spectrum, often times Wi-Fi at conferences don’t work that great either, leaving you without any form of communication for hours. The FCC announced today it’s going to make some changes to help you tweet out your photo of you posing with Wolverine as fast as possible, right from the convention floor.

FCC Charman Julius Genachowski has announced they plan to open up 195 megahertz of wireless spectrum within the 5GHz band in order to “relieve Wi-Fi congestion at conferences, at airports, and in people’s homes.” The change will increase Wi-Fi speeds to at least 35 percent and the FCC is expected to review the proposal next month.

The spectrum the FCC will be opening up is currently used by the Department of Defense as well as other federal agencies. Once approved, the spectrum would end up being shared with government purposes.

A unidentified hacker in Japan is driving the state’s National Police Agency (NPA) crazy. Japanese policemen recently uncovered a memory card strapped into a cat’s collar. The cat was found wandering on an island in Toyko. Policemen believe the memory card held clues to the hacker’s notorious creation – a malware dubbed as the “Remote Control Virus,” which basically allowed the hacker to send out threats online while avoiding detection. On New Year’s day, messages were sent out to media outlets, inviting them to a new game which offered them the chance for a big scoop. It contained a number of complex puzzles, which eventually led the police to the cat.
Read full post →Hacker Baffles Cops By Strapping Clue To A Cat

Anonymous has been making the Internet interesting to be on for the past couple of years as they hacked a number of services like PayPal, breached the PlayStation Network, and hacked the CIA website. Today, they’re making their voice heard through the White House’s website, WhiteHouse.gov, but for once, they’re not relying on hacking methods to get their point across.

Anonymous have launched a petition on WhiteHouse.gov with the title “Make, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), a legal form of protesting.” In their petition, they write:

“With the advance in internet techonology, comes new grounds for protesting. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), is not any form of hacking in any way. It is the equivalent of repeatedly hitting the refresh button on a webpage. It is, in that way, no different than any “occupy” protest. Instead of a group of people standing outside a building to occupy the area, they are having their computer occupy a website to slow (or deny) service of that particular website for a short time.

As part of this petition, those who have been jailed for DDoS should be immediatly released and have anything regarding a DDoS, that is on their “records”, cleared.”

It’s interesting for Anonymous to attempt to rally the Internet around it in order to have a petition be considered to the U.S. Government. What makes this more interesting is their request to have anyone who has been jailed for DDoS attacks to be released and have their record cleared of the attacks. We’re not entirely sure why Anonymous would want that to be a part of the petition as it leads us to believe maybe one of their own is having a little bit of trouble with their record.

Answering phone calls by taking it out of your pocket or purse and placing it to your ear is so 2012. Now that a Japanese man has invented an iPhone quick-draw system, the only way we want anyone to answer their phone is by having it project out of their sleeve, to then hold it up to their ear in a super-cool manner.

The Japanese inventor featured in the video above shows a number of his prototypes for a quick-draw iPhone system. Some prototypes completely fall apart, while others shoot the iPhone out of his hand at screen-cracking speed. Ultimately, the inventor produces just the right prototype for him to begin using it for its obvious purpose: to perform a montage of cool-looking action moves, ending with answering his iPhone.

For some strange reason, at one point in the video, the inventor equips the quick-draw iPhone system to his legs. A moment later, he performs a quadruple quick-draw that makes us immediately wish we had such a system available to us right now.

The prototypes the Japanese inventor comes up with reminds us of the hidden blade assassins from Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed game uses. Except with the hidden iPhone system, you’ll be way more nerdy and a lot less deadly.

[CES 2013] As a teenager, I played a lot of PC games. But one thing I couldn’t stand anymore was the amount of cheating that went on in popular first-person shooters like Counter-Strike. Players would be able to see through walls to know where exactly enemies were located at all times and even be able to kill enemies with an automatic headshot using an “auto-aim” cheat. But what if something like the auto-aim was possible in real life? That’s exactly what an Austin-based startup is trying to do with its precision-guided firearms.

Each of the three customized hunting rifles are equipped with advanced computerized scopes powered by Linux. What the hunter sees through the scope is a video image taken from the scope’s objective lens, instead of being a direct visual scope. You can tag your target, which the scope will take into account a number of variables. The marked target is then kept in the scope’s field of view, and when the hunter pulls the trigger, the hunter will need to match the position of the reticle with the marked target, which will then fire the rifle.

TrackingPoint’s rifles start at around $17,000, which is pretty high in the gun-buying world, but when you consider you can perform a real-life auto-aim with it, then that is something you’ll want to show off with your other hunter buddies.

Samsung has just been tapped by global entertainment company Lionsgate to convert the studio’s films into 3D. At CES 2013, the two companies announced their newly-found partnership saying that popular theatrical titles, such as “Gamer,” “Crank,” “Bangkok Dangerous,” and “The Descent,” will be remade in 3D for DVD, Blu-ray, and video-on-demand. Other titles are expected to follow soon. To make that possible, Lionsgate will be using Samsung’s proprietary 3D processing technology to convert the films. Lionsgate says that its upcoming films will also be converted to 3D before seeing a theatrical release.
Read full post →Samsung Partners With Lionsgate To Convert Films Into 3D