So, how did Thom Yorke’s latest music-distribution venture go? Pretty well, it seems. The Radiohead-frontman’s second solo album, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, achieved over a million downloads in six days via BitTorrent Bundle, according to the peer-to-peer network’s blog. Exactly how the numbers break down is a bit nebulous, though. BitTorrent says that those million downloads also include the freebie single and video as well as the $6 album, noting to Consequence of Sound that precise sales numbers were being withheld at Yorke’s request. Still, it’s a little exciting to see that Bundles could be a viable way for musicians to earn a living — especially when streaming services are well-known for less-than-favorable pay-outs and business practices. Let’s just hope this success isn’t limited to acts with Yorke’s inherent star-power. After all, even Trent Reznor went back to a traditional record label after toying with total independence.
[Image credit: Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP]
Wondering what it’s like to get behind the wheel of Lexus’ high-performance 2015 RC F sports coupé? Now you can find out — well, sort of. The company has built a virtual reality RC F using the car’s actual steering column, foot pedals and an Oculus Rift DK2 headset. It calls the setup the Lexus RC F Rift, naturally, and it’ll be at select auto shows across the nation for the next several months. The player can race the car around a virtual track, but it’s not clear if the VR test drive is an accurate representation of how the real vehicle handles. At the very least, it’s a novel way to get a feel for the car’s interior, and a good look at how companies outside of the gaming industry may use virtual reality technology in the future.
Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share
Elon Musk left a lot of people wondering what, exactly, Tesla’s upcoming “D” will be. Is it a brand new car? A self-driving vehicle? As it turns out, it may be something much more familiar-looking. Tesla Motors Club forum member Adelman has posted a photo of what looks like an unannounced Model S P85D — that is, another high-end variant of Tesla’s current luxury EV. It’s not clear just what that suffix would mean, although most of the speculation points to an all-wheel drive, dual-motor upgrade borrowed from the soon-to-arrive Model X SUV. That could make the Model S quicker (or at least, better-suited to tough road conditions) than the already speedy P85 trim level you see on the road today. Whatever’s under the hood, you’ll likely know the full story in about a week.
Both the Argentine and the UK police have nabbed bad guys with the help of drones in the past, but what about American cops? Well, the police department in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for one, is putting its drone to good use — just recently, the city’s cops have caught four underage men who’ve been pulled over for drunk driving using a quadcopter called Qube. The teenagers reportedly ran into a cornfield after being pulled over, but instead of giving chase, the cops flew their trusty Qube to find them amidst rows upon rows of corn.
Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share
Roku has unveiled its latest shot in the increasingly-crowded set-top box wars: screen mirroring. Even Microsoft and Firefox OS are lining up to challenge Google’s Chromecast and Apple’s AirPlay, so Roku had to compete somehow. Launching in beta, Roku’s version of the tech works from (some) Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 devices, and broadcasts to Roku 3 or the Roku Streaming Stick. There’s no mention of the word ‘Miracast‘ but that appears to be the tech in use. If your Roku has the latest update (rolling out over the next few weeks) it should show up as an option to pair, and have a connection good enough to display presentations, emails or even video.
Nokia first trotted out its Here Auto connected car platform just over a year ago, and at this week’s Paris Motor Show, the company is showing off the latest developments. In order to properly equip the rise in heads-up display tech, Here Auto now shows its info in more places around on the dash. In addition to the main display between the driver and passenger, navigation details and more can be beamed to a HUD or under the steering wheel. The central cluster’s route data is “context aware,” so when you’re low on fuel, it’ll show gas stations along the way. During the drive, passengers can employ smartphone and tablet apps to examine the trip and make the most of stops. If a nearby national park is selected, the driver can okay (or reject) the detour and directions get automatically updated. And with a new SDK, auto makers can customize Nokia’s system as needed, adding in of CarPlay, Google Auto and more.
Groupon has always been pretty good for scoring cheap dinners and discounted skydiving lessons, but now that disseminator of daily deals wants to help you save money on your groceries too. Yes, really — the company just launched a new app called Snap that promises to give you ardent shoppers money back when you buy certain products at the store. The formula is simple enough: once you’re done your weekly jaunt to the local grocer, you use the app to snap a photo of your receipt for Groupon to chew on. Buy the right item and you claim some cash back that sits in a wallet of sorts until it hits the $20 threshold — after that, Groupon cuts you a check and that’ll soon land in your mailbox. If that sounds a little unlike the Groupon we all know and tolerate, well, you’d have a point. With so many players vying for recognition in the daily deals space, companies like Groupon have had to search to new ways of making money… even seemingly out-of-character ones like this and the home bulk shopping endeavor it kicked off earlier this year..
Remember Karsten Nohl? The security researcher who discovered how to infect just about any USB device with scarily savvy malware and delivered a lengthy talk about it at this year’s Black Hat conference? At the time he didn’t want to share the code for his exploit, but fellow researchers Adam Caudill and Brandon Wilson figured out how to pull off some of the same tricks and they’ve published their findings on GitHub. Why? To try and force device manufacturers to get their security acts together.
Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share
Need a little more Adam Sandler in your life? Lucky for you, Netflix just landed four exclusive films with the comedy star. But that’s not all we have on deck — read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Engadget Daily: The Tesla D, Netflix lands four exclusive Adam Sandler flicks, and more!
Is it just that time of year, or are data breaches just becoming more and more common? No matter: following the report that JPMorgan Chase and a handful of other banks had been hit by hackers comes confirmation from the main financial institution itself. The banking juggernaut says that as many as 76 million households and 7 million small businesses had names, phone numbers, street addresses and email addresses stolen in a cyberattack, according to a regulatory filing spotted by Bloomberg. The nation’s largest bank noted that despite these intrusions, however, sensitive information like Social Security and account numbers, login credentials and dates-of-birth were not pilfered. If you have accounts at Chase, now might be time to reset your passwords and contact your local branch, regardless.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
This article is automatically posted by WP-AutoPost : WordPress AutoBlog plugin
HTML Tags Filtering, WP-AutoPost
Engadget | Technology News, Advice and Features
No comments:
Post a Comment