Motorola Moto X first press images leaked

The press render images for the highly anticipated handset from Motorola are featured above after leaking online, tech site TheUnlockr reports.

as well as rumoured specs of a 720p 4.5-inch display, 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 2 GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.

According to pocket-lint, Evan Blass - the man behind @evleaks has stated the Moto X is, "Designed not as an early adopter's phone, but instead as an everyman phone, the X is the new Motorola's first attempt to push some serious volume under the new-ish owner Google."

Motorola have sent out press invites this week for a private event in New York on August 1st.

The event for the Moto X, expressed as being "No sSage. No Crowds," will be held in five separate sessions and the news given at the sessions will be released from embargo at 3PM.

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iPhone 6 to include fingerscanner in its screen?

It has been rumoured for several months now that Apple is looking to implement the technology. However, the rumours have rarely been backed up by hard facts, until now.

The US Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday published a patent application filed by Apple. It identifies a way of scanning fingerprints using a sensor that is embedded into a device’s screen.

The technology is based on the work of mobile security firm AuthenTec. Apple acquired the company in July 2012.

The filing suggests that the scanner would be embedded into the LCD display and used as a secondary input method.

In recent months, Apple and the other major smartphone makers have all been requested by US authorities to make their devices less attractive to criminals.

The iPhone 5s is also rumoured to include a faster A6 processor, improved graphics, 2GB of RAM, an upgraded LTE radio and a 12-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash.

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Apple buys two mapping companies

On Thursday, the company bought Locationary, a crowd-sourced local data company. Then on Friday, the company acquired city-navigation app HopStop.

Both companies were bought for an undisclosed sum by the the iPhone maker.

Apple has been criticised in recent months for its weak mapping app Apple Maps. It replaced Google Maps as the standard map app when the company introduced iOS6.Locationary focuses on ensuring that business listing data is accurate. That includes that the business listed is where it says it is, as well as that it is still open.

Its rivals currently acquire business listings from the likes of Yellow Pages and Yelp.

The company likely bought HopStop in order to improve Maps’ navigation and mapping tools.

Apple refused to comment on the acquisition, saying in a statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans”.

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These 3D Printer FFVIICharacters Are Badass

While 3D printers might be coming on leaps and bounds in the quality that they're able to output, we're still a far way off from them becoming the way that most people produce figures or models - because the level of detail just isn't there yet. However, when it comes to late 90s video game characters, 3D printing is more than capable.

Take for example, these fine Final Fantasy VII characters, complete with paintbrush hands and all.

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It's ironic really, that while the battle sequences of the game were far superior in graphical quality and the cut scenes even more so, it's the crude (by modern standards) chararacter models that are most memorable - perhaps because they told the story so well despite their lack of detail.

And it's that lack of detail that lends them perfectly to 3D printing. It would be great to see some larger builds based in the Final Fantasy VII universe. Perhaps a chocobo or one of the weapons?

Really, I would love a set of these. If any of you has a 3D printer, want to hook me up with a few?

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5 Game That Can Give You Overs 100 Hours of Play

These days you get less and less for your money, sadly that seems to also be the case with games. Most current releases retail at extortionately high prices whilst only delivering 8-10 hours of gaming, that’s not exactly bang for your buck. Thankfully there are some quality titles out there that can supply you with literally hundreds of hours of gaming, if you like to get value for money out of your gaming habits (let’s be honest, who doesn’t) then read on.

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Google Making Android-powered Gaming Console?

Although there has been no official confirmation, the Internet is abuzz with reports that software giant Google aims at getting a slice of the hardware market, first by releasing an Android-powered gaming console.
The rumor was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and has been spreading across the world wide web, yet Google refuses to confirm or deny the story, which also mentions plans to develop a smartwatch.


The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources as saying that besides an Android-powered gaming console and a smartwatch, Google is also planning to release a revamped, improved version of the Nexus Q. The Nexus Q set-top media streaming device was first announced at last year’s I/O conference but was never released for sale.

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Mozilla’s Smartphone OS Launches in Spain

One of the world’s leading Internet browser providers has joined the smartphone business with a new operating system. Mozilla’s smartphone OS was officially released in Spain.
First details about the operating system emerged at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress in February and Mozilla has just released the first two smartphones equipped with the new Firefox operating system.


The two smartphones, a ZTE Open and an Alcatel OneTouch Fire, are only available in Spain for the time being. Mozilla partnered with Telefonica on the project, which aims at making available a series of more affordable smartphones to the general public.

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Google Whitespace Broadband

Google has been granted official permission to develop its plans in the USA to use portions of the unused television broadcasting spectrum for broadband Internet access.  This method is typically used for remote areas where traditional cable hookups cost far too much money.

White Space Database called “TV white space,” are those unused broadcasting frequencies that have been eyed up in the last several years as a potential way to distribute broadband Internet to users who can’t get it because they live too far away from cities and towns where appropriate communication infrastructure and facilities exist.


Google has been seeking certification from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to become a certified database administrator for those segments of  TV white space across the United States of America.  That final certification from the FCC has now been confirmed as Google’s database of white space has recently been accepted by the commission, according to a post by Alan Norman, principal of Google’s Access team, on the Official Google.org Blog on June 28th 2013.  This certification of Google as a database administrator means that the company will be able to provide information to service providers about which areas of the TV white band will be available for providing Internet use.

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EU & Japan Team Up for 100Gbps Fiber Optic Internet

Unhappy with your current Internet broadband speed? Well, fingers crossed for this new project to succeed: the European Union and Japan have joined forces to build 100Gbps fiber optic Internet, about 5,000 times faster than the average broadband speed in Europe – 19.7Mbps.
The project is called STRAUSS and is just one of a total of six research projects that the EU and Japan have partnered for.

More details about the six projects were recently unveiled by the European Commission. The partnership is aimed at finding ways to increase the efficiency of data transfer networks, given the massive online data explosion. The trend is expected to continue over the next ten years.


According to a press release from the European Commission, up to 1.7 million bytes of data are generated worldwide every minute. Moreover, the volume of data traffic has already doubled since last year and is believed to grow 12 fold by 2018, but current networks are not able to keep up with this growth rate.

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Garmin Produce Sat-Nav App For Head-Up Display

The satellite navigation firm Garmin has produced a portable head-up display (HUD), that projects directions directly on to a windscreen.
It works by combining a smartphone and a Garmin app to generate navigation information. The HUD projects directional arrows, distances, current speed and speed limits on to the glass.


In order for it to work, the HUD’s reflector lens is attached to the glass of the windscreen. Brighness levels are automatically adjusted so that the information is easy to read both during the day and night.
As well as visual directions, the navigation system also provides voice prompts through either a smartphone speaker or the car’s stereo.

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Turn Your Display Into A Touch-Screen With STATINA

Everybody these days seems to want the latest and greatest in new technology and who could blame them? With a banquet of gadgets on the table, there are so many to choose from; but what is the fascination with touch-screens? Maybe we all watched far too much Star Trek when we were younger (in my case, now).  The problem is that touch-enabled surfaces tend to cost more than their non-touch standard counterparts. Well, it appears as though this trend is no more.



A low cost system called STATINA developed by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) relies on the principles of vibration and imaging to track the movements of multiple fingers and of objects to achieve the same thing. With this technology it will be possible to retrofit existing flat-panel TVs and transform them into new, touch sensitive displays, at only a fraction of the cost of a new touch-sensitive display screen.

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Bukito: The Fast, Travel-Friendly Portable 3D Printer

Most of the 3D printers currently on the market are bulky, hard to carry around and rather slow. So it’s pretty hard to imagine one of these gadgets being able to continue printing upside down or in flight.
But the Bukito, from Deezmaker, can do all this and more: this portable 3D printer is sturdy, fast, very light and affordable, making it a promising addition to the personal-use 3D printing market.


The Bukito portable 3D printer weighs only six pounds and has a printable area of 5 x 6 x 5 inches.  The device is equipped with sturdy aluminum rails, which make for a very stable printing platform. Due to this fact, the device is able to continue printing even when carried around or turned upside down.

Deezmaker president Diego Porqueras said the printer was specifically designed to be lightweight and stable and therefore appropriate for travel. The device will be ideal for classroom use and can be easily shared between teachers or students, he explained.

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DARPA Unveil A Robot That Would Give Terminator A Fright

DARPA has unveiled a new 6-foot robot named Atlas. Although this robot looks as though it has just stepped off the film-set of Terminator, the 330-pound machine has been designed to help us.

Atlas is a testbed humanoid for disaster response. The Petman soldier robot showed it was possible for a humanoid to do pushups and run on a treadmill, designed to test chemical protection clothing but Atlas goes further than that.





Not only can it walk and carry things but it can also travel on rough terrain and climb using its hands and feet. Its head has stereo cameras and a laser range finder. Thankfully it is tethered to an off-board, electric power supply; no need to worry about it turning against us then!

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Download Software KeePass 1.26 Free Full Version

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).

 

KeePass is really free, and more than that: it is open source (OSI certified). You can have a look at its full source and check whether the encryption algorithms are implemented correctly.

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