News
- Leica unveils G-Star RAW edition of D-Lux 6 compact, co-branded with Dutch denim label (video)20 June 2013, 10:09 am
Leica's just taken its vintage branding strategy to a new level with the D-Lux 6 "G-Star RAW" compact model, styled by the Dutch denim maker of that name. Design touches include a textured leather body and gun-metal grey accents, along with an embossed leather case and strap, all firsts for a compact Leica camera. The 10-megapixel model (based on the Panasonic LX7) arguably merits such a treatment, though, packing as it does a 24-90mm (35mm equivalent) f/1.4-2.3 fixed zoom, 1/1.7-inch sensor, ... 
- Samsung user manual confirms Galaxy S 4 variant with Snapdragon 800 chip20 June 2013, 9:12 am
Welcome to Samsung Day, 2013. While we wait on some big (and little) product launches this afternoon, here's a quick bite to keep us going: an interesting processor spec mentioned in the user manual for the SHV-E330S, which we think will be the new LTE-Advanced variant of the Galaxy S 4 intended for South Korea. How the folks at RBmen spotted it we have no idea, but one of the pages (shown after the break) confirms the presence of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974), which not only supports th...
- Public Enemy backs BitTorrent, releases new single in a Bundle, announces remix contest for fans20 June 2013, 8:35 am
BitTorrent announced its new file format, the Bundle, just over a month ago, giving artists new tools to control content distributed P2P. Now, Public Enemy is one of the first to take advantage of those features by releasing its latest single as a Bundle and announcing a BitTorrent-based remix contest. Downloading the torrent gets you a copy of "Get Up Stand Up," and giving Chuck D and his mates your email address unlocks the Bundle -- thereby netting you the song's music video, outtakes and 3...
- Qualcomm grows Snapdragon 200 family with six new chips, targets emerging markets20 June 2013, 7:37 am
Just because Qualcomm's gone to plaid (aka. reached ludicrous speed) with its Snapdragon 800 flagship doesn't mean the company's been standing still at the other end of the market. The Snapdragon 200 family just received a major boost with the introduction of six new chips geared at China and other emerging markets. Available with dual- and quad-core CPUs, the processors are manufactured using a 28nm process and incorporate HSPA+ (21Mbps) and TD-SCDMA radios. The new SoCs are optimized to prov...
- Adafruit smart helmet guides bike riders with Arduino-based light shows (video)20 June 2013, 7:04 am
Bike sharing systems like New York's Citi Bike may be taking off, but it's doubtful that many participants can find every station without checking a map. Thankfully, Adafruit has unveiled a smart helmet project that could help at least a few of those riders get to their destinations while keeping their eyes on the road. The DIY effort feeds locations to an Arduino-based Flora board and its positioning add-ons, which in turn use a string of NeoPixel LEDs on the helmet as turn indicators. Commut...
- Dolphin browser for Android adds redesigned UI, new store for web apps20 June 2013, 6:25 am
Dolphin has done a pretty fine job when it comes to keeping its browser loaded with plenty of handy features, both on Android and iOS. Now, the Dolphin's hit version 10 for Android, bringing along an array of things including a revamped user interface, drag-and-drop support for speed dials on the home screen, additional swipe-based gestures and a new store for web-based applications. In addition to all that, Dolphin brought back support for Adobe Flash, while also taking to this release to imp...
- Netflix renews Hemlock Grove for a second season20 June 2013, 5:52 am
Netflix's first foray into the horror genre seems to have gone well, as the company announced it's renewing Hemlock Grove for a second season. The 10 episode run will debut next year, presumably after fellow Netflix Originals Lilyhammer (later this year) and House of Cards (currently in production) make their second run through the gauntlet. Hemlock Grove didn't receive the same level of critical praise as other series Netflix has premiered, but executive producer Eli Roth called worldwide fan...
- Hey, bounty hunters: Microsoft is paying $100k for Windows 8.1 Preview exploits20 June 2013, 5:27 am
Chalk up one more reason to check out Windows 8.1 Preview when it becomes available on June 26th. Today, Microsoft announced that it'll pay up to $100,000 in cash to those who discover and report novel security exploits within its latest OS revision, along with up to $50,000 in bonus loot for defensive suggestions that relate to the attack. But wait... there's more. Starting on June 26th and running through July 26th, the Redmond outfit will also pay up to $11,000 toward the discovery of criti...
- FTC planning to take on patent trolls, hopes to reduce frivolous lawsuits20 June 2013, 4:46 am
Sick of endless patent wars yet? According to the New York Times, so is the Federal Trade Commission. Referencing the usual persons briefed on the matter, the NYT reports that FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez is preparing to propose an inquiry that will put patent-assertion entities -- companies that exist solely to buy and collect royalties on patents -- under federal scrutiny. If approved, patent trolls that catch the FTC's attention will need to detail how they operate and if their legal procee...
- Samsung reportedly shipping 55-inch OLED TV to South Korea next week20 June 2013, 4:17 am
Samsung told us to expect its 55-inch OLED TV sometime in July, but there's now a chance that South Koreans will get an early look. Yonhap News Agency hears through tipsters that the premium set could ship to Samsung's homeland next week, with a price somewhere north of 10 million won ($8,840). It might not be alone, either -- those same sources also claim that the company's curved OLED TV may arrive at the same time. Samsung hasn't confirmed anything, but such moves would line up with the fir...
- AP Takes A Stake In Bambuser, The Real-Time Mobile Video Service That Helps Eyewitnesses Tell Their Stories20 June 2013, 8:30 am
Bambuser, the upstart mobile video service that has carved out a name for itself as a crucial tool for eyewitnesses to record and transmit footage of major events -- be they political uprisings, bombings or a star sighting -- is today announcing another step along the route to becoming a part and parcel of the traditional media world. It's taking an investment from the Associated Press, the storied news organization that works with dozens of newspapers, websites and broadcasters to source and re...
- Zuckerberg Replies To His Facebook Commenters' Questions On Immigration20 June 2013, 8:26 am
"If it's just about tech wanting to hire more people, not as impressive" commented one of Mark Zuckerberg's 18 million Facebook followers. "It's definitely not just about tech immigration" Zuckerberg shot back in the comments for a video he'd posted from his political advocacy group FWD.us. Replying to average joes and reporters alike, Zuckerberg tried to clear up confusion about his lobbying....
- Live From Facebook's ‘New Product' Mystery Announcement20 June 2013, 7:52 am
Just last week, a small chunk of the tech press was surprised to find invitations for a Facebook announcement waiting in their mailbox.
"A small team has been working on a big idea," it read.
The only other thing Facebook would say is that they'd be showing "a new product". No comment on what it might be, or which team it would come from. We're live at Facebook HQ to find out what it is....
- Rad, A Parisian Hipster Fashion Portal, Gets $3.3M Led By Index To Go International20 June 2013, 7:14 am
Because fashion never goes out of style, fashion portals continue to bring in the money not just from consumers looking for the next big thing -- be it style or bargain, and ideally both -- but also investors keen to ride the wave. The latest example is Rad, a Paris-based startup that focuses on hipster clothes and accessories and likens itself to the online equivalent of Urban Outfitters. Today, Rad is announcing €2.5 million ($3.3 million) in funding. Rad is just under one year old, but on i...
- LinkedIn Outage Due To Possible DNS Hijacking [Update: Fidelity.com Also Affected]20 June 2013, 5:24 am
LinkedIn confirmed via Twitter that its site suffered an outage due to "a DNS issue."...
- Rocket Internet's Lazada Lands $100M As It Seeks To Become The “Amazon Of Southeast Asia”20 June 2013, 3:03 am
Lazada, the e-commerce site founded by Rocket Internet in a bid to build the "Amazon of Southeast Asia," announced today that it has landed another $100 million from returning investors Holtzbrinck Ventures, Kinnevik Investment AB, Summit Partners and Tengelmann Group, as well as new investor, Belgian-based family-owned investment holding company Verlinvest. This is the largest single round that Lazada has raised to date, and brings its total amount of funding raised since its launch in March 20...
- 30 Days In, Bitcoin Angel Group BitAngels Doubles Network To 120, Puts First $100K Into Seasteading Venture, Blueseed19 June 2013, 11:23 pm
As has been written ad nauseam, we've seen a lot of activity in the wild and wacky world of cryptocurrency of late, thanks primarily to the tech industry's new obsession with Bitcoin. Depending on whom you ask, digital currency like Bitcoin will either be worth nothing in 10 years, or its value will make Warren Buffet weep. It's a polarizing topic at its very essence, but one thing is for sure: So far, venture capitalists are loving this emerging market, and startups are beginning to follow sui...
- EMC Acquires Israeli Storage Startup ScaleIO For $200M-$300M To Compete Better With The Cloud Kings19 June 2013, 10:58 pm
Palo Alto-based ScaleIO is one of a new generation of startup storage providers that's using intelligent software to help big companies streamline and converge their data storage operations at scale, across thousands of servers. On a mission to re-imagine the very operations of enterprise data centers, the startup's tech takes aim at the core business of storage giants like EMC and IBM. In fact, ScaleIO claims that its block storage technology offers 80 to 90 percent savings compared to the bi...
- Why MakerBot Is Like Apple19 June 2013, 10:41 pm
When we first discovered that Makerbot was looking to partner with Stratasys I was a bit non-plussed. Makerbot, as I've noted before, has a certain indie cred that makes this move a bit unpalatable....
- Well Done, Microsoft19 June 2013, 10:39 pm
The reveal of the Xbox One didn't go as Microsoft hoped. Gamers loved the system, but hated the absurd restrictions placed on the games. But Microsoft listened and just today reversed its stance on some of the more ridiculous policies. Good for them. Good for us.
I mean, the outcry was hard to ignore. The memes, the tweets, the visceral anger was everywhere. Even the talking heads on nationwide morning talk shows were debating the curious DRM restrictions....
- BlackBerry Bold 9900, 9930 Will Run BlackBerry OS 720 May 2011, 4:09 pm
RIM kicked off its BlackBerry World event in Orlando, Florida by launching the not-so-secret BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 models, also dubbed "Bold Touch."
While the devices don't noticeably stray from RIM's design choices from the past decade -- they're instantly recognizable as QWERTY keyboard BlackBerrys -- the 9900 and 9300 pack some impressive guts. While the 2.8-inch VGA touchscreens won't impress many in today's world of 4-inch screens, but the devices are RIM's thinnest yet at 10.5mm....
- BlackBerry OS 7 Features Announced--But It Won't Run On Older Devices2 May 2011, 3:47 pm
This morning, RIM finally unveiled its next generation mobile operating system, BlackBerry OS 7. It's not a giant leap forward, but RIM is detailing a faster and easier-to-use OS that comes with an integrated, voice-enabled Universal Search system.
BlackBerry fans that have been frustrated by the operating system's chronically sluggish Web experience will be pleased to know that OS 7 offers a "significantly enhanced" browser with HTML5 video support and speed updates.
Interestingly, OS...
- Farewell, Internet12 April 2011, 5:00 pm
Well, here we are. More than four years after launching, Switched and DownloadSquad are unfortunately being closed. I've been thrilled to work at these two sites that have expanded tech coverage beyond the usual gadgets and social networks to cooking, culture, design, art and more. It's been humbling to work with these incredibly dedicated and talented teams of writers, and it would have been impossible to do it without them.
Going forward, you'll still be able to get the best tech news cove...
- Interview with Digital Camera Inventor, Making Game Boy Music11 April 2011, 11:45 pm
Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.
Read:
Research In Motion Eyes a Rebound
"They've been caught flat-footed," said Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple executive, the former chairman of Palm's software spinoff and a partner at Allegis Capital in Palo Alto, Calif. "They've built a tremendous company; they are people with distinguished backgrounds. They are not idiots, but they've behaved like idiots."
W...
- Dinos and Trenches in '1916 - The War You Never Knew'11 April 2011, 11:00 pm
This week's batch of games take its inspiration from real life, but twists your expectations in weird and wonderful ways. Consider it an alchemical transformation that results in gaming gold.
We're no history buffs, but we're fairly certain that World War I did not involve ferocious velociraptors stalking hapless soldiers through the trenches. (But who knows? Maybe we were absent the day it was covered in history class.) The creators of '1916 - The War You Never Knew' -- a first-person survi...
- Swedish File Sharers Get Religious About Stealing11 April 2011, 10:15 pm
Swedish philosophy student Isaac Gerson thinks that file sharing is sacred. The 19-year-old leader of the Missionary Church of Kopimism believes that stealing and sharing are signs of appreciation, and has compared closed-source software to slavery. Last year, Sweden rejected the church's application to be recognized as a religion, but Gerson isn't giving up so easily. He'll be reapplying after meeting with government officials.Swedish File Sharers Get Religious About Stealing originally appe...
- Google's New Crossword-Style Trivia Game Wants Puzzlers to Search11 April 2011, 9:30 pm
Fellow puzzle fans, Google has brought us joy. The engine's newest venture, A Google a Day, asks cunning participants not to use the knowledge they have but rather the knowledge they can unearth with Google search to solve riddles. Much like crossword puzzles (possibly your author's favorite pastime), the questions ask the solver to change the way they think. For today's riddle, searching "two presidents signed" automatically gives some good hints -- but the Google Gods seem to want us to rel...
- As Expected, Smartphones and Social Networks Targeted by Malware11 April 2011, 8:40 pm
As security firms have been warning for some time, malware attacks are now more frequently focused on social networks and mobile devices. In Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report, the company noted that the number of malware attacks delivered through the Web practically doubled from 2009, with 65-percent of malicious links on Facebook arriving in the form of shortened URLs. The company also took special care to highlight the growing field of smartphone-based attacks, in particular...
- Facebook Strikes Deal to Create New Social Network in China11 April 2011, 7:50 pm
Facebook is reportedly working with China's largest search engine to create a new, jointly owned social network. The collaboration with Baidu would allow Facebook to get a foothold in the Chinese market while giving Baidu the chance to capitalize on Mark Zuckerberg's network-building expertise. The new site would still need to be approved by Chinese's Internet regulators, who retain final say on pretty much everything. And it definitely wouldn't be able to use the Facebook.com URL, which rema...
- Google Will No Longer Collect Street View Photos in Germany11 April 2011, 7:00 pm
Google has decided to stop collecting Street View photos in Germany, where regulators have spent much of the past two years railing against the search giant for violating the privacy of German residents. A company spokesman confirmed the decision in a statement sent to the Register, explaining that the images gathered across 20 German cities will remain available online, but reiterating that Google has "no plans to launch new imagery" in the country.Google Will No Longer Collect Street View Phot...