Category: GReader

Education is important and all that good stuff. But, sometimes there are just things that have to take precedence.

Source: Imgur

Education is important and all that good stuff. But, sometimes there are just things that have to take precedence.

Source: Imgur

Zune Pass isn’t something new, nor is it something that hasn’t been widely covered online, but we’re convinced that it really could be the first good attempt at the fight against piracy. We tested out the music subscription to see how well it really works, and if it could actually…

The badly-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has been upgraded from 5 to 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. That’s, in case you were wondering, out of seven. The only other nuclear crisis to reach the same level is Chernobyl, and though authorities believe “the cumulative amount [of radiation] from the Fukushima plant is less than that from Chernobyl,” another aftershock—6.6 magnitude—forced workers to evacuate on Monday, and Reactor No. 4 is apparently on fire. [NHK; image via AP] More »

A federal appeals court has ruled that former Harvard University schoolmates of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg can’t undo their settlement over creation of the social networking site.

We've all gotten emails with disclaimer signatures, like "This email was intended for the recipients only" or "Our company accepts no liability for this email's content". It turns out they're not just annoying—they probably hold no legal weight, either. More »

If you signed up the Xbox 360 preview program it’s time to start camping out by your mailbox and pestering your delivery person — the update discs are shipping. A few lucky gamers now have their sneak peak at the next Xbox Live update and free copy of Halo: Reach in hand, and one was kind enough to send us the shot above to prove it. The disc bears a serious warning though: do not try and install it on a non-preview approved system. Doing so will completely disable Xbox Live until the update is officially released, which may be months away. So, if your friend got a disc don’t even think about trying to mooch your way into the beta program. After all, what fun is playing Halo if you’re stuck trying to save Reach by yourself?

[Thanks, Adam]

Xbox 360 Update Preview discs are in the mail originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Late to—but not quite out of—the app store game, Microsoft has a challenger after all: images have surfaced of the Windows 8 App Store, the company's challenger to Apple's Mac app emporium. More »

Over in Acer HQ, it’s out with the old and in with the new. Having bid ciao to former CEO Gianfranco Lanci, the Taiwanese company is now slapping a fresh coat of paint and a softer typeface upon its corporate identity. The new Acer green is lighter and brighter and the more rounded new shape looks a lot safer for kids to play around with, should the occasion ever arise. We doubt this will make a big difference in the company’s push to be “more like Apple,” but hey, at least we now have a visual marker to distinguish the products that came before this shift in strategy from those that come after.

Continue reading Acer changes its logo, hopes to start afresh

Acer changes its logo, hopes to start afresh originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Engadget Chinese  | Email this | Comments

Well, it’s a bit past the end of March, but Intel has now finally gotten official with its new Atom Z670 processor for tablets, which you might know better by its Oak Trail codename. Built using a 45nm manufacturing process, the Z670 runs at 1.5GHz and promises to support 1080p video with the aid of Intel’s GMA 600 integrated graphics, while also keeping power consumption to a minimum and allowing for smaller, thinner, and fanless devices. As we’ve seen, there’s also plenty of manufacturers already lined up to release devices based on the processor, and Intel says we can expect to see over 35 “innovative tablet and hybrid designs” from the likes of Fujitsu, Lenovo, Razer and Viliv over the course of 2011. What’s more, Intel also took the opportunity to tease its next generation 32nm Cedar Trail platform that it will be showing off at its Developer Forum in Beijing, saying that it will enable a “new wave of fanless, cool and quiet, sleek and innovative netbooks, entry-level desktops and all-in-one designs.” Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Intel rolls out Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor for tablets

Intel rolls out Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor for tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET  |   | Email this | Comments

Heavy snow melt, moist soil, and North Dakota’s peculiar geography combined over the weekend to turn the roads and fields around Fargo into a seemingly giant shallow ocean. Called overland flooding, it creates bizarrely apocalyptic scenes like this. More »

When ASUS dumped the source code for its 10.1-inch, Honeycomb powered Transformer tablet online we knew it was only a matter of time before someone cracked it open and bent it to their will. Before it hit store shelves here in the U.S. MoDaCo founder Paul O’Brien managed to get his hands on one of the upcoming Android devices and, with a little help from Twitter user BumbleDroid, gained root access to the tablet. So, you’ll still have to hang out for a bit before getting yours, but at least when it lands you won’t have to wait to get your hack on.

[Thanks, Alessandro]

Transformer rooted before ASUS can get it out the door originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  @PaulOBrien  | Email this | Comments

If you have a number of sites that use the same account (like Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and Gawker), you can save yourself from creating a new LastPass entry for each one with LastPass’ Equivalent Domains feature. More »

Watch what happens when a powerful tractor is on the loose, running rampant in a Walmart parking lot in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.

How loud is too loud? Check out this infographic to take a look at some of the loudest sounds on earth–KISS concerts included–and their effect on your hearing.

The above infographic, courtesy of SonicElectronix, outlines what dB levels lead to hearing loss, what some of the loudest sounds on earth are, and the signs of hearing loss. Want to read more about dB levels and see examples of things at the loud and soft end of the scale? Check out this chart of sound pressure levels courtesy of Wikipedia.

How Loud Is Too Loud [via Daily Infographic]

Jailbreak Your Kindle for Dead Simple Screensaver Customization	How To Get Started With Minecraft, a Game Geeks Love	How to Enable Flashblock in Chrome (And Make it 5000% More Secure)

Acer already announced UK pricing for the Windows 7 and Android Honeycomb versions of its Iconia Tab, and now it’s ready to take both stateside. Days after Best Buy started taking pre-orders for the Android 3.0-powered Iconia Tab A500, the Windows-based W500 has shown up on B&H's site for $549. Like its cousin, the W500 has a 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) display, HDMI-out and dual cameras, though it steps up to 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics, and a 1GHz Ontario (C-50) AMD Fusion APU. It also comes with a keyboard dock, putting it in the same price range as ASUS’s Android-based Eee Transformer, which costs less but doesn’t include its similar-looking keyboard. Acer rates the W500’s three-cell battery at up to six hours — a far cry from the iPad’s promised 10-hours and, perhaps, a good reason to wait for slates featuring that lower-power Fusion APU AMD's been shopping around to tablet makers. B&H says it'll ship starting April 15th, but head on over to its website if you're psyched enough to place an order now. Or you can keep saving your pennies for Acer's other Iconia.

Acer’s Windows-powered Iconia W500 up for pre-order for $549, ships April 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Netbooknews  |  B&H  | Email this | Comments

When things go utterly wrong loading a page, Chrome lets you know with a somewhat iconic “Aw, Snap!” response. If you’re tired of waiting for a page, you can speed things along by typing about:crash into your address bar and forcing the “Snap” page yourself. More »