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Monday 10 February 2014

Never fear, Flappy Bird is still available -- on eBay, for a thousand bucks



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New PlayStation Vita coming to North America this Spring for $199, packs in Borderlands 2 and 8GB memory card



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Report: Nokia to Launch Android-Based Smartphone in February



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You can now play most embedded YouTube videos on your Chromecast



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LG cuts the price of its curved OLED TV to a vaguely reasonable $7,000



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FreedomPop lets you save more by paying up front for cheap cellphone service



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Shazam's new iPhone app gives you faster access to lyrics and music videos



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Russian Rocket Hardware Looks Even More Badass in a Blizzard

Worms Battlegrounds and Nutjitsu are the first self-published games on Xbox One



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Over one million people are streaming gameplay on Twitch every month



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Hackers Can Take Over Your Car With This Simple $26 Device

Social Promotion Network CoPromote (Formerly Headliner.fm) Raises $1.8M

copromote

Headliner.fm, a site where users promote each other’s content, is taking on a new name, CoPromote, and announcing that it has raised $1.8 million in seed funding.


If you’re a CoPromote user, the site recommends content that’s relevant to your interests, which you can then share on Facebook, Twitter, and other networks. You can enter your own content into the system too, where it’s promoted in a similar fashion by other users. The system uses a virtual currency called Karma Cash, which you receive for promoting other people’s content and pay to promote your own.


Founder and CEO Mike More said the site was originally designed for musicians, but it now serves a variety of creators and marketers, such as bloggers, charities, app developers, small businesses, and online video producers. The “fm” in the company name continues to confuse some people, making them think it’s still limited to musicians, which is why the company is now rebranding as CoPromote.


More acknowledged that there are other services, such as Klout, trying to sell businesses on getting posts and tweets from social “influencers”, but he said they’re mostly focused on large brand advertisers, not the smaller content creators and content marketers that CoPromote is targeting. He added that advertising on a site like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube doesn’t make sense for these marketers, because “they do not deliver the one action which content marketers value the most: shares or retweets in a manner which [makes] economic sense.”


The worry, I suppose, is that people feel incentivized to just spam their followers with random links, but that’s why More emphasized CoPromote’s ability to match relevant content with the right users, as well as the effectiveness of the company’s campaigns. The product is supposedly used by 45,000 people daily, and that it leads to 26 times more sharing of a post.


You can use the service for free, but you have to pay for features like the ability to run more than one campaign at once.


The funding was led by ff Venture Capital (which recently raised a new fund of its own) with participation from Correlation Ventures, AlphaPrime Ventures, The Social Internet Fund, and Greg Raifman, president of Rubicon Project.






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Fingerprint and Eye-Scanning Drones to Make Deliveries in UAE



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You can now relive the Beatles' US invasion on your Apple TV



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How the Jacket Zipper Was Perfected After 100 Years

IMO messenger enables video calls right from your browser



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Russian authorities only accept real money



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Demostración de un disco superconductor súper enfriado que se súper desplaza súper levitando por una súper pista


En el vídeo se puede ver cómo un disco de material conductor enfriado con nitrógeno líquido se vuelve superconductor (conduce la electricidad sin ofrecer resistencia eléctrica y repele campos magnéticos débiles) con lo que basta darle un ligero empujón para que sigua el recorrido de una pista hecho con imanes, levitando sobre ella.


Vía GigaOm.


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Hidato: un nuevo rompecabezas lógico que aspira al trono del Sudoku

Hidato1


Dicen en el New York Times que puede llegar a ser el sucesor del Sudoku, así que atención. Se llama Hidato y es un nuevo tipo de rompecabezas lógico creado por Gyora Benedek, un matemático Israelí. Es incluso más sencillo de aprender que un Sudoku, pero a la vez increíblemente complicado de resolver, cual buen reto para afinar la mente.


La mecánica del Hidato es sencilla: hay que rellenar las casillas vacías con los números naturales, ordenados de tal modo que los números consecutivos se toquen. En el ejemplo de arriba, el 6 ha de ir obligatoriamente entre el 5 y el 7, que entonces solo deja un hueco al 4 y de ahí al 3 y el 2 que conecta con el 1 que estaba en el problema planteado.


484Px-Hidato-Puzzle


Puede haber Hidatos de diversas formas geométricas; en la explicación de la Wikipedia puede verse un ejemplo con cuadrados, en un formato más irregular. Se puede jugar tanto en papel como en diversas versiones online: Hidato en Smithsonian.com), es fácil encontrarlas en los periódicos online.


Si aprecias aprovechar tu tiempo tal vez no deberías probarlo: el Hidato tiene una pinta demasiado apetecible. Si lo puede entender hasta un niño, solo requiere lápiz y papel y se puede jugar en cualquier lugar y en unos pocos minutos ya tiene mucho ganado para arrebatarle el trono al mítico Sudoku.


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El pez se ha ido a dar una vuelta


Fish on Wheels es un curioso proyecto para motorizar una pecera: un cámara detecta los movimientos del pez y en función de éstos dirige una plataforma móvil de cuatro ruedas controlada con Arduino y sobre la que está situada la pecera. Así que si el pez nada hacia adelante, la plataforma se desplaza hacia adelante; y si el pez gira o cambia de dirección la plataforma sigue sus movimientos. En teoría el pez podría llevar el vehículo hasta el embalse más cercano, tirarlo al agua y liberarse.


«El pez puede así explorar más allá de los límites de la pecera». Si ese es el objetivo con menos tecnología también se puede hacer simplemente liberándolo.


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Apple to Release iOS 7.1 in March and Other News You Need to Know



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Urb-E, The Fold-Up Electric Scooter, Goes Live On Indiegogo

Screenshot 2014-02-10 08.56.58

Back at CES in January, among all the fun and interesting new projects we investigated, one gadget stood out among the rest. That gadget was Urb-E.


And today, almost a month later, the Urb-E scooter is live on Indiegogo. As part of the campaign, the company is launching two separate models to consumers.


The first is the Urb-E commuter, which has three wheels instead of two, making for a more reliable and smooth ride. The Urb-E GP, on the other hand, only has two wheels and can thus make sharper turns, though both models have the same speed and power specifications.


The Urb-E folds up to the size of a rollerboard suitcase for easy handling, and weighs just under 30 pounds making it an easy last-leg vehicle for urban commuters.


Topping out at 15mph, the Urb-E can last up to 20 miles on a single charge. And to top it all off, the Urb-E is easily customizable thanks to inserts that fit within the frame, giving the Urb-E a nice accent color alongside the metal.


Plus, Urb-E comes with a compartment to charge your phone and check in on the charge of your Urb-E through a dedicated Urb-E app.


According to creator Grant Delgatti, Indiegogo felt like a better fit than Kickstarter for this type of product, which he believes will be highly appreciated by the Indiegogo community.


The Urb-E campaign has just begun, with a goal of $150k in 40 days. The lowest price point to secure an actual Urb-E is $1,599, for ultra-early adopters. However, Delgatti says that the final price will be closer to $1,799, with shipments expected to go out at the end of this summer.


If you’re interested in participating in the e-vehicle revolution, head on over to the Indiegogo campaign and check it out.






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Location-Focused Ad Startup PlaceIQ Raises $15M More

placeiq

PlaceIQ, a startup that uses location data for mobile advertising, is announcing that it has raised $15 million in Series C funding.


The company was founded in 2010, back when most of the interest in location-based ads was focused on geofencing — i.e., if you’re close to a store, you get an ad for that store. CEO Duncan McCall told me that PlaceIQ’s approach is more about “a proprietary understanding of the world,” where location data is used to build a broader profile of user behavior, which in turn can be used for targeting ads and tracking their success.


In 2013, PlaceIQ says its headcount grew by more than 70 employees (543 percent). It claims to have achieved profitability as well, and it raised a $6.75 million round of funding.


So why does it need more money? McCall said that he told investors, “We’re not raising any money,” but VCs continued to show interest, and eventually he looked at the offers and decided that there was an opportunity to expand. He argued that location data can be used for more than mobile ads: “It’s sort of the next frontier for understanding consumer behavior.”


The round was led by Harmony Partners. New investor Iris Capital also participated, as did previous backers from the Series B, including US Venture Partners, IA Ventures, and Valhalla Partners.


PlaceIQ is also expanding its relationship with Publicis Group. The company was already working with Publicis’ agency SMG, but now it’s partnering with the ad giant’s innovation-focused group VivaKi to bring PlaceIQ technology to all Publicis agencies.


One of the big draws of PlaceIQ for agencies and brand advertisers, McCall said, is the fact that it offers them the aforementioned tracking and attribution. For example, if a travel company is running a campaign to convince people to visit a given state, PlaceIQ can tell them if how many people actually came after they saw the ad, and if they’d been to the state before.






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'Fish on Wheels' frees your guppy from the tyranny of the tank (video)



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Broadcom's new chips could put fast LTE in your budget smartphone



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Blackmagic now shipping its Production Camera 4K for $1,000 less than expected



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Rumor: Microsoft Is Building an Xbox Reader App

If Flappy Bird And Snapchat Spawned A Demon Love Child, It Would Be Amazing Cupid

Amazing Cupid

Imagine that you are a teenager and the most annoying person in your class has a massive crush on you. No matter what you do, your would-be paramour keeps following you around like a lovesick puppy. What do you do? Well, if you have a particularly sadistic streak, you send your object of disaffection a message through Amazing Cupid. The twist? In order to see your note, he or she has to earn a certain number of points within a time limit, set by you, by playing a Flappy Bird clone. Otherwise the message disappears forever.


There are already tons of Flappy Bird knockoffs (in fact, one even took its #1 spot on the iOS charts after developer Dong Nguyen pulled the game out of the App Store) out there. But its developer, TouchTen CEO Anton Soeharyo, is careful to point out that he got permission from Nguyen to copy Flappy Bird’s annoyingly addictive game mechanic before releasing Amazing Cupid, which Nguyen confirmed to me by email.


Amazing Cupid is currently available only in the Google Play store, but the iOS build has already been submitted to the App Store and Indonesia-based TouchTen, hopes it will be available for download by Valentine’s Day.


Soeharyo also says that TouchTen has not monetized Amazing Cupid and the only ads inside the app are for the studio’s other games. Instead, he made Amazing Cupid to test out the messaging feature. If it proves successful, Soeharyo plans to insert it into other TouchTen releases as the Jakarta-based studio, which is backed by CyberAgent Ventures, builds its mobile gaming platform.


Instead of a flappy bird, the game features a blue-haired cupid. Your goal is to keep him from crashing into a never-ending series of Doric columns. If you fail, Amazing Cupid treats you to tidbits of verbal abuse like “No wonder you’re alone.” or “Why am I grumpy? You are my only friend.” If you succeed, you eventually gain access to your secret message.

Amazing Cupid 2

Amazing Cupid also has a game-only mode, in case you really don’t have any friends. To make the game more difficult (and addicting), TouchTen added a few features that weren’t in Flappy Bird. For example, there are three levels: normal, hard, and “impossibro.”


I told Soeharyo that Amazing Cupid is funny but evil.


“That’s kind of the idea,” he said. Soeharyo first thought about self-destructing secret messages after realizing that many teenagers use Snapchat to send silly and obnoxious photos to their friends. “But Snapchat is just too easy. You send something and it disappears. So I thought, what if I add some gamification?”


If the messaging feature proves popular, Soeharyo thinks companies and celebrities can use TouchTen’s games as a marketing tool. For example, they can hold contests with a special prize for the first person who sees their message or have it be a promo code.


Soeharyo hopes to meet up with Nguyen one day. On his Twitter account, Nguyen, who runs indie game studio .GEARS, declared that he now “hates” Flappy Bird the game’s popularity ruined his “simple life.”


“I feel for Dong. He is overwhelmed. I was surprised that he was really friendly to me even though we hadn’t met before. It turns out that he’s a good guy and a good person,” Soeharyo said. “He mentioned on Twitter that he’s coming to Jakarta, so I hope to see him. I don’t want to force him, but if he wants to then maybe we can work on something together.”






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Japanese smart diaper is destined to have a lot of crappy days



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Sólo

Sólo


vs.


Solo


¿Quién va ganando en lo de la tilde de «solo»? en JotDown.


TL; DR: Sólo, aunque en general cada medio, agencia, escritor y redactor hace con esta regla lo que le da la real gana.


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Mapas de por dónde corre la gente en distintas ciudades



Los trazos negros representan las rutas por donde corre la gente en Barcelona.


A partir de los datos compartidos por los corredores desde la app Endomondo, estos mapas visualizan por dónde sale a correr la gente en varias ciudades europeas: Mapping public workout tracks from Endomondo .




Rutas seguidas por los corredores en París.


También en Where people run de Flowing Data se utilizan los registros de actividad física compartidos públicamente para incluirlos en mapas de distintas ciudades de EE UU, Europa, Japón o Australia.


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