MySpace this week quietly opened up its redesigned site to the public. The so-called "New MySpace" entered internal beta testing in July, and was previewed in September. Thus far, however, it has only been accessible on an invite-basis, though it finally opened its doors to the masses this week,...
Timberlake flips the switch
HMV, a 91-year-old retailer of music, film and games on the UK high street, is set to fade into financial oblivion, having failed to counter the rise of online shopping. The 239-store chain has confirmed it will appoint accountancy firm Deloitte...
An international team of astronomers led by the University of Central Lancashire in the UK has discovered "the largest known structure in the universe." The team says that the recently observed large quasar group — comprised of dozens of highly energetic star-like objects — has a typical size of 500 Megaparsecs, but the size of the cluster is closer to 1200 Mpc at its widest point. To put...
What can a film's color scheme say about its narrative? According to Spotmaps, quite a lot. Created by Andy Willis, Spotmaps is a Python-based project that conceptualizes classic movies not in words or storyboards, but highly-detailed color patterns. The project, which was inspired by Brendan Dawes' Cinema Redux experiment, translates every second of a film into a single block of color, based on a composite of every frame within that second. These blocks are then arranged in chronological order for every film, with 60 in each row (representing one minute of screen time). The result is a massive, pixelated map that allows viewers to visualize the chromatic contours of a film in a single glance.
The project also makes for some interesting comparisons across directors and genres. Animated films like Wall-E, embedded below on the left,...
Chromatic and cinematic
Udacity, a startup that provides online college courses, is set to announce a partnership with San Jose State University this week, in a move that could set the stage for broader, less expensive web classes across California. According to the New York Times, this marks the first time that college professors have collaborated with a massive open online course (MOOC) to create a full slate of...
Professors remain wary as startup swoops in
Huawei, Hisense, Changhong. These names are unfamiliar to Americans for now, but in a few years they will be as synonymous with consumer electronics as Sony and Samsung.
That’s the party line out of China, at least, where major electronics makers seem to have simultaneously decided that this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas would be their coming-out party.
When Microsoft...
At 59 years old, Wayne Dobson should be enjoying the relaxed, stress-free life of a retiree. Instead, he's been spending the past few years dealing with people who think he's a cellphone thief.
As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, that's all due to an apparent glitch in Sprint's location-tracking services that, for some reason, has been directing owners of missing phones (as well as police) to Dobson's home in North Las Vegas. As a result, he's had people knocking on his door at all hours of the night, asking for cellphones he doesn't have. "It's a hell of a problem," Dobson said. "It...
It should come as no surprise that web use is up worldwide in 2012, but some countries are feeling it more than others. China saw its internet-connected population swell to 564 million, up 10 percent over last year, reports the AP. That’s an increase of 51 million users — equal to one and a third times the population of California, the entire population of Spain, or nearly half the population of Japan.
The increase owes to a huge increase in mobile web users — up 18.1 percent over last year to 420 million, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC). And the growth hasn’t been going unnoticed. Apple CEO Tim...
Kaspersky Labs reports that over the past five years, a co-ordinated malware campaign called "Rocra" (short for "Red October") has been funneling classified information and geopolitical intelligence from diplomatic, governmental, and scientific research systems all over the world. It uses known exploits in Microsoft Word and Excel documents to gain access to users’ systems, relying on a targeted social engineering or "spear phishing" element...
The hunt is on
We just met with the team behind the Oculus Rift, which started out as a DIY project that quickly morphed into into a Kickstarter success story. Oculus is here at CES showing off the dev kit it plans to ship out to backers in March, and got a chance to play with near-final hardware and software...
The family of Aaron Swartz pulled no punches in their comments after the 26-year-old's suicide, blaming a "criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach." Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Heymann is one of the individuals that's been named in particular —...
We're on the ground in Vegas at CES 2013. CES is typically an event which sees a lot of news and product announcements, but over the week, we'll also be bringing you original reporting and features. This is the place to find them all.
Following last month's launch of the iPad mini and 4th-generation iPad in China, Apple has announced that cellular data-enabled versions of both products will be coming to the world's largest mobile market this week. Apple will sell the tablets online and in stores from...
Google has had some pretty heavy supply shortages since putting the Nexus 4 handset on sale in November, but manufacturer LG doesn't see a problem from its point of view. An official speaking to the Chosun Ilbo has said that production is proceeding as planned at the Pyeongtaek plant in South...
S01E01: Where no Han has gone before (Director: Zack Snyder)
After the Millennium Falcon attempts to cross the Great Barrier at the edge of the galaxy, C-3PO and R2-D2 develop "godlike" psychic powers which threaten the safety of the crew.
S01E02: The Carbonite Maneuver (Director: Zack Snyder)
The Millennium Falcon is menaced by a gigantic ship whose Bounty Hunter commander condemns the crew to being sealed by...
Are news and reviews subject to different ethical standards? That appears to be the message from CBS in response to Dish's controversial Hopper DVR. Official CBS policy now bans CNET from reviewing products implicated in lawsuits, but claims CNET...
Defense Distributed, a group dedicated to making viable 3D printed firearms, has enjoyed increasing publicity during the recent debates over gun control. Now, it's directly addressing efforts to ban one of the most frequently criticized components: rifle magazines holding over ten rounds, often...
Nintendo's humble Wii may now play second fiddle to the recently-launched Wii U, but that isn't stopping Amazon from bringing its Instant Video...
Wired recently published John McAfee's Last Stand, an in-depth look into the circumstances surrounding McAfee's bizarre life in Belize and his recent flight after suspicions that he murdered his...
The recent spate of shootings, particularly the one in Newtown, CT, have sparked a wave of debate that tends to focus on both gun control and violent media, mostly video games. Now, in an uneasy...
In May of last year, PayPal sought to make its in-store payment platform more ubiquitous by rounding up a number of new retail partners including Home Depot, Guitar Center, Barnes & Noble, JC...
During their visit to Samsung's demo room at CES, AnandTech spotted a roadmap that could help confirm details about the expected Galaxy S IV. According to AnandTech, the poster seen above shows a...
Pulse is one of the better-known RSS readers out there, with apps for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire as well as browser integration. Now, a new...
CNET has confirmed what we reported this morning: the commercial-skipping Dish Hopper had been chosen for its "Best of CES" award before being overruled by parent company CBS. In a post, Editor-in-Chief of Reviews Lindsey Turrentine describes the site's battle over the Hopper, which is the subject of a lawsuit by CBS and other networks. The Hopper, she says, was chosen "because of innovative...
If you're unable to make the trek to Washington, DC but still want to witness President Obama's second-term swearing in, for the first time ever we can say, "there's an app for that." Obama's second inauguration, the 57th in US history, will be the first to have an official smartphone app of its...
