Drew Houston founded online file-sharing service Dropbox seven years ago. The firm is now estimated to be worth about $10bn (£5.9bn).
Monday, 30 June 2014
Friday, 27 June 2014
Amazon gives 30 Android apps away for free
If you own an Android device, get ready to fill your boots. TheAmazon Appstore is hosting a two-day giveaway that anyone can take advantage of, even if you don't own a Kindle Fire device.
Amazon already has a policy of giving away one free app from its store every day, but it's clearly feeling extra generous this weekend as there are 30 apps you'd usually pay for up for grabs. They're all free, and even more importantly, some of them are actually really good.
The bundle apps will be available today and tomorrow only, so if you don't already have Amazon's Appstore on your Android phone or tablet then get downloading. Some of the game highlights include puzzler The Room Two, Ravensword: Shadowlands and Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Also worth downloading are Plex, which is great for organising your media across devices, OfficeSuite Pro 7, which is usually priced at £8.90, and Travel Interpreter, which usually costs £7.
The full list includes:
Card Wars -- Adventure Time
OfficeSuite Professional 7
Notepad+
The Room Two
Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Plex
Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek
Wedding Dash Deluxe
Dr. Panda's Bus Driver
Ravenswood: Shadowlands
Pho.to Lab PRO
CLARC
AccuWeather Platinum
Dungeon Village
CrossMe Premium
EZ Money Manager
Business Calendar
Jump Desktop
Travel Interpreter
Informant 3
Root Explorer
MyBackup Pro
Splashtop Remote Desktop
MobiLearn Talking Phrasebook
aCalendar+
Pinball Deluxe Premiere
2Do: Todo List
PUZZINGO Puzzles
Loco Motors
League of Heroes Premium
Along with the 30 apps on offer, don't forget to check out the separate free app of the day. Today it is MacGyver's Deadly Descent, but there will be another option available tomorrow.
The deal is also on in other regions, including the US, Australia and India.
Thursday, 26 June 2014
Costco makes up with Apple, starts selling iPhone and iPad online at discounts of up to $120
It seems Costco has once again started selling specific Apple products several years after it dropped the company’s wares over Apple’s decision to not let the retailer carry the iPad. Not every model, carrier, capacity, or color are represented in Coscto’s stock, and all of the devices are only available online (except for the T-Mobile versions, which aren’t available online at all).
The 16 GB iPhone 5s on AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon will run you only $77.99 through Costco, saving you about $120. As noted above, the T-Mobile model is only available through “select Costco wireless kiosks.” All of the color and carrier combinations are available except for one: the gold iPhone on T-Mobile.
The iPhone offering is rounded out by a a blue AT&T iPhone 5c, also only available in 16 GB, for $99.99.
On the tablet side of things, the 16 GB iPad mini is available on Verizon at $419.99, and the iPad Air (again, only on Verizon) can be yours for $519.99. Like with the iPhone, the 16 GB T-Mobile versions of each iPad model can only be purchased at certain Costco wireless kiosks. Sprint and AT&T iPads are nowhere to be found at the moment.
It doesn’t appear that the company is offering any higher-capacity models of either device at this time, and the iPad color selection seems to be restricted. The only silver iPad for sale is the Verizon iPad Air, while the others are all limited to space grey, including the T-Mobile variant of the Air.
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Dinner at your door: Amazon launches food takeout service
Photo via Flickr user Jeff Kramer.
Amazon already delivers groceries. Now, the Seattle giant is quietly moving into the takeout business.
Amazon is launching a food takeout service as part of Amazon Localbeginning in Seattle and will compete with companies like GrubHub and DeliveryHero.
A source told GeekWire that the new service was available in the Amazon Local iPhone app earlier this week, but was disabled Wednesday due to a bug.
Today’s news follows reports from earlier this month that Amazon is prepping to compete with the likes of Yelp and Angie’s List with a local marketplace platform to help people find restaurants and other services like babysitters, handymen or contractors.
Amazon has been delivering groceries via Amazon Fresh for more than five years and finally introduced the grocery delivery business to Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2013. An Amazon spokesperson toldTechCrunch that the new food delivery service may follow a similarly slow rollout.
We’ve reached out to Amazon for more details on the takeout service, and will update this story when we hear back.
It’s unclear what types of restaurants Amazon will partner with, but it certainly will face competition in the Seattle market. Delivery services like Postmates,Caviar and Eat24 already bring food to doorsteps, so it will be interesting to see how Amazon tries to differentiate with its program — drones, perhaps?
Tuesday, 24 June 2014
iPhone 6 Could Feature Optical Image Stabilization, Analysts Predict
This is also a feature that has made its way into high-end smartphones, like theSamsung Galaxy S5 and the LG G3, but could it also be making its way into the iPhone 6? While it remains to be seen if it will, a new prediction from Pacific Crest Securities analysts, John Vinh and Kevin Chen, seems to think that it will.
In fact they go on to state that optical image stabilization will be a feature that could be limited to the 5.5-inch version of the iPhone 6. The analysts claim that optical image stabilization technology will cost anywhere between $4-5 more than a traditional focus component, and could be used to help differentiate between the 4.7-inch model and 5.5-inch model, apart from the obvious difference in screen sizes.
Apple’s iPhone 6 is rumored to enter into production this July. Both the rumored 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models are expected to begin production at the same time, so word has it that both phones will be launched simultaneously, although supply of the 5.5-inch model is said to be constrained at the early stages due to it being a more complicated device.
Monday, 23 June 2014
Google begins testing a domain registration service
Google today revealed that it is building a domain registration service called Google Domains. The product is still an early work in progress, so it’s in invite-only beta for now.
Google’s small business-facing division decided to build the product because, according to its research, 55 percent of small businesses still don’t have a website. Since the domain acts as a website’s foundation, Google decided to do more to help companies get started with their online presence. While Google Domains won’t include hosting, website building providers Squarespace, Wix,Weebly and Shopify have signed on as partners.
When Google Domains launches to the public, you’ll be able to buy and sell domains through the service. Unlike some other domain registration offerings, Google won’t charge you extra to register your domain privately. You’ll be able to create up to 100 email addresses on the domain and as many as 100 customized sub-domains. Google Domains will also use the company’s own DNS servers, so visitors should get a snappy response time when they hit up your site.
If you’re interested in trying out Google Domains, head to the link below, click on “Manage My Domains” and then follow the instructions to request an invite code.
Sunday, 22 June 2014
YouTube is coming to cable TV set-top boxes, with a little help from the cloud
Cable subscribers are starting to get access to YouTube and other online video services, thanks to cloud-based technology that brings modern apps to legacy set-top boxes.
Saturday, 21 June 2014
Friday, 20 June 2014
This Ex-Muslim Started a Tumblr for Women Who Have Abandoned the Hijab
Hiba Krisht. All screenshots courtesy of interview subject
A little over a year ago, Hiba Krisht started writing about her experiences as an ex-Muslim and former hijabi (a hijab wearer who practices traditional conservative Muslim modesty) living in the US, using the pen name Marwa Berro. The 25-year-old had worn the hijab throughout her childhood and young adulthood in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, but took it off when she came to the US; this August will mark two years that she has been hijab-free.
This week Krisht suddenly found herself in the media spotlight after she launched “The Ex-Hijabi Fashion Photo Journal,” a Tumblr shedescribes as “dedicated to celebrating body and fashion, specifically for those who have broken away from Islamic modesty requirements.” The day after she started it, she woke up to find a piece about it featured on Mediaite, thousands of hits on her personal blog, and her “social media feeds blow[ing] up with people who love the idea.” Having met Krisht briefly at the Center for Inquiry’s recent Women in Secularismconference, I reached out to her to find out more about the project.
VICE: How would you characterize the interplay between your atheism and your feminism and the decision to no longer wear the hijab?
Hiba Krisht: My move away from religion was very much driven by my inability to settle with women's gender roles and modesty doctrines in Islam and other Abrahamic faiths. My body was constantly scrutinized and stigmatized. My behavior was policed in line with how my body was perceived. Too often Islamic modesty doctrines have bodies treated like a shame, with rhetoric in favor of the hijab comparing women to objects to be claimed and consumed, like pearls in oysters and wrapped pieces of candy. The Arabic word used in Islam to refer to body parts that must be covered up is 'awrah (عورة), a word whose root means defectiveness, imperfection, blemish. In Arabic, women's uncovered bodies are also referred to as fitnah(فتنة) to describe their temptation, the same word we use to refer to sedition, civil strife, and discord. These are words we grew up hearing in reference to our bodies and selves.
But my body is not an object of discord to be covered up. Many of us have left Islam or rejected its modesty norms because we refuse to be treated as such, refuse to have our hair and limbs hypersexualized to the point that we are considered a danger and temptation simply for having them where eyes can see. The move to celebrate the body and reject doctrines of modesty is one that I have seen openly embraced by many religious people as well.
And after having our bodies treated with such denigration and restriction, I feel it is very apt for us to have a space to celebrate our bodies in all their shameless glory, publicly, to tell our bodily histories, publicly, to adorn ourselves in beautiful things, publicly. To finally be able to determine how we want to present our bodies, how we want to look and be and feel.
What has been the most challenging aspect of being an ex-hijabi for you?
Although I wore the hijab, for too much of my time wearing it I was only behaving as a hijabi would, i.e., modestly, quietly, restricting my public presence, my voice, my interaction with other people, because I was compelled to by my family rather than out of conviction in those roles. I had to practice enormous amounts of self-suppression and control. I was forced to lie in every way—lie with my body, my actions, my face, my words—because I had to carry out rituals I had no belief in, had to agree with sentiments I abhorred and hold my tongue in the face of misogyny, racism, and homophobia. I learned habits of hiding and coding to cope, so that I could have outlets of warmth and human interaction on the side, so I could not just survive but live.
Every person has a different story, but I personally could not have imagined the damage that so much lying, hiding, and fear was doing to my psyche, how torn-in-two I would come out of it being. I could not have imagined how lasting and debilitating the effects of those years would be—the dysphoria that would develop, how disconnected I would feel to my body, how the ghosts of a fearful past still hid behind sudden knocks and late-night phone calls. I developed PTSD when I came to the States—a full six years after the most severe abuse I faced for attempting to defy my family occurred. My mind packaged a lot of things away to deal with later, and much of it has only come out now that I am free.
This is probably the strongest motivator for me—it is healing to have a space where we can talk about this, where we can have fun and take joy and pride in our bodies, reclaim them as ours, ours, and only ours.
As with many endeavors that progressive Muslims or ex-Muslims might engage in, there is always the possibility that it might be used to advance a right-wing agenda or even promote outright anti-Muslim bigotry in the US and abroad. What are your thoughts on this?
This is a legitimate concern. Anti-Muslim bigotry is a very real and unfortunate phenomenon—one, I might add, that ex-Muslim atheists are not immune to by any means, largely because it is based on blanket generalizations rooted in ethnicity, culture, and race that do not pass us by. Plenty of non-Muslims are subjected to anti-Muslim bigotry because they are assumed or perceived to belong to Muslim culture. We also resent having the past and present circumstances of our lives so grossly misrepresented and othered by right-wing rhetoric aimed at destructive divisiveness rather than fostering progress or change. We have plenty of reasons to be concerned with anti-Muslim bigotry, to condemn it, and to try to make sure that our endeavors are not co-opted in its favor.
The possibility that our work will be misused is always present, but it is work that is too important to set aside for that reason. There is too much progress to be made in securing basic freedoms in Arab and Muslim societies and communities everywhere, in supporting the right to religious dissent and apostasy. That's not to say we ignore the problem. We hope that our attempts to bolster our work with reason and empathy, especially by discussing particular circumstances rather than generalizing about Muslims or Islam, will minimize this. We attempt to be very clear and open about our liberalism and anti-racism, to be staunchly on the side of asserting personal freedom and autonomy, for the godless and the godly alike.
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Siri Is For Sale: Will Apple, Samsung Fight Over Nuance?
While Apple and Samsung battle for mobile phone supremacy, Carl Icahn may be hoping their rivalry will drive up the price of one of his largest holdings.
The legendary activist investor has accumulated a 19% stake in Nuance Communications, the speech-recognition firm behind Apple’s Siri, and now Nuance is exploring the possibility of a sale. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nuance has already held preliminary talks with Samsung.
The Samsung leak may be timed to encourage Apple to put some of its $150 billion cash hoard into a bid. The current market value of Nuance is $6.1 billion, about twice what Apple just paid to buy Beats Electronic.
While Siri remains a limited service, it has expanded since its initial launch in October 2011, and remains prominent in Apple’s marketing and product demonstrations. Since Nuance’s technology enables Siri on the back end, many analysts have speculated that the company would make sense as an acquisition target for Apple.
However, Nuance generated its $1.8 billion in revenue last year from more than just Apple. Its customers include Apple’s competitors Samsung, HTC, LG. It also partners with other tech giantsNintendo, Panasonic, and Intel — as well as car manufacturers Audi, BMW, Ford, GM, and Toyota. Some or all of these companies could be potential buyers.
While Nuance shares spiked on Monday after the news of a possible sale, they have fallen steadily since their peak in early 2012, when the stock approached $30 per share. Icahn has increased his stake in Nuance over the last year and his son Brett now sits on Nuance’s board.
Monday, 16 June 2014
Google Fiber Cleared to Set Up Shop in Portland
The most anticipated Internet service in the land, Google Fiber, has now been cleared to operate in Portland, Oregon, courtesy of an approved franchise agreement by the Portland City Council.
As part of this arrangement, Google Fiber can offer its standard slate of services to customers in the Portland area, and would only pay a 5% franchise fee on video revenue through its service, and would avoid the additional 3% fee tacked on to other fiber services like Comcast.
Portland is one of 34 cities in the United States that Google has deemed a potential grassroots location for its Fiber technology, though Google hasn’t actually made the final call on whether Portland customers can look forward to it at all. That decision will happen before the end of the year, most likely.
Google is currently only dedicated to three cities in the US in terms of providing Google Fiber – Kansas City, Kansas, Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah.
It’s also in-the-works to come to my city of Charlotte, NC in the near future, but we’re still waiting for word on that one…
Sunday, 15 June 2014
SINGAPORE IS PLANNING THE WORLD'S LARGEST FLOATING SOLAR FARM
There isn’t much extra space in Singapore, since the entire country is smaller than New York City and fully developed. So when the government decided to install more solar power to help meet the area’s energy needs, they turned to water instead of land: When finished, the country's new power plant would be the world’s largest floating solar farm.
“The vast majority of photovoltaic installations in Singapore will obviously be on rooftops, but even those are limited,” says Thomas Reindl, deputy CEO of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, the organization that will be managing the project for the government. “Alternative areas have been explored, and one of the most promising options is inland water reservoirs.”
Since only a handful of demonstration floating solar farms have ever been built anywhere, the project will start by testing out smaller versions of 10 different designs. The best design will be expanded into the full plant, which will eventually generate 3.3. gigawatt-hours of solar energy in a year--and even as much as 4 gigawatt-hours if it turns out to be more efficient than solar on land.
The reservoir will eventually be used to provide drinking water, so one of the challenges of the project will be making sure that none of the components in the solar panels can leach into the water. As each of the test designs run, the agency will also carefully monitor other environmental impacts. In some ways, the solar panels and water may actually help each other: By shading the water, the panels are likely to help reduce evaporation, and the water may help keep the panels cooler so they run more efficiently.
When the system is completed, Singapore hopes that it can be used as a model for other countries with limited space. “Singapore is already one of the major hubs for offshore floating platforms for the marine and oil industries,” says Reindl. “Combining that expertise with solar could also end up in offshore floating PV systems, or even energy islands that generate energy from various sources like solar, wind, and ocean currents.”
The idea of floating solar farms isn't new. Singapore has been considering the idea for several years, and others, like the French company Ciel et Terre, are developing similar ideas. But it's only now that the cost of solar tech is low enough to make it a truly viable idea.
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