Samsung's super-wide curved monitor makes your PC extra trendy

Samsung's super-wide curved monitor makes your PC extra trendy

If both ultra-widescreen and curved computer monitors are all the rage these days, then Samsung's new SE790C display is supremely fashionable. The 34-inch, 3,440 x 1,440 LCD has both a super-wide 21:9 aspect ratio and a gentle arc, combining two trends (fads?) in one. Supposedly, this all-encompassing design produces a "3D-like" effect that brings you into the action -- that's a little difficult to believe, but the screen will at least look futuristic sitting on your desk. Just don't expect it to make your photos pop.
Although the SE790C covers all of the sRGB color range, it's using a middle-of-the-road VA (vertical alignment) panel rather than something particularly vivid, like IPS (in-plane switching). There's also no mention of US availability or pricing, so it's hard to know if this represents a good deal. So long as the price isn't too outlandish, though, it could be a good way to immerse yourself in games and movies.
Samsung Tomorrow

Jon Fingas

 Engadget

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Michael Clifford Share His Tour Rider List Which Includes Taylor Swift As Must-Haves For Backstage

Michael Clifford Share His Tour Rider List Which Includes Taylor Swift As Must-Haves For Backstage

5 Seconds of Summer's Michael Clifford recently shared his concert rider — and he listed Taylor Swift as one of his requests! Since they  just started chatting on Twitter, we wonder if he's admitting that he has a crush on the "Blank Space" singer.

Besides the 1989 star, the 5SOS guy also listed grapes, Luke Hemmings, a dictionary, and "more wishes" as his backstage must-haves.

While he might be a little tongue-in-cheek with his responses, he was at her birthday party last weekend — and they took some of the cutest group pics together also.

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Instagram Deletes Tons of Fake Accounts, Celebs Lose Tons of Followers

Instagram Deletes Tons of Fake Accounts, Celebs Lose Tons of Followers

It’s a bad week for people who are obsessed with their follow counts on Instagram. The social media site decided to clean how and delete all kinds of fake and inactive accounts that were floating around. This means that normal people might have lost a few followers and that celebrities lost lots of them. Justin Bieber took the biggest hit during the Instagram purge, losing a whopping 3,538,228 followers! Yikes! Here’s what Instagram had to say about their decision:

“We’re in the process of fixing an issue that incorrectly includes inactive or fake accounts in follower/following lists. We want to maintain the best possible experience on Instagram, so we do our best to remove spam, fake accounts and other people and posts that don’t follow our Community Guidelines. As we remove these accounts, some people may notice a decrease in their follower/following counts.”

Justin wasn’t the only star we love to lose lots of followers in the Instagram purge. Ariana Grande lost 1,529,206, Selena Gomez lost 1,116,032 and Kendall Jenner lost 906,897. YIKES!

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Taylor Swift Lunches with Tavi Gevinson, Gets More Amazing '1989' News

Taylor Swift Lunches with Tavi Gevinson, Gets More Amazing '1989' News

Taylor Swift is joined by her palTavi Gevinson while leaving Lafayette restaurant after lunch on Friday afternoon (December 19) in New York City.

In case you aren’t familiar with Tavi, she is a fashion blogger-turned-actress who is currently starring on Broadway in the play This Is Our Youth.

It was just announced by Billboardthat Taylor is on track to have her sixth week at the top of the Billboard 200 chart.

It is expected that 1989 will sell 340,000 copies in the week ending December 21.

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Justin Bieber & Kyle Massey Rock Matching Colored Kicks

Justin Bieber and his best bud Kyle Massey have taken their friendship to a new level: they're wearing matching shoes! Justin posted a pic of him and Kyle showing off their super cool sneakers and we are totally loving their bold choice in colors.

Kyle went with an electric red shoe, which compliments his black, white and red Coca-Cola hoodie. Justin decided to wear his light blue sneakers with his all white outfit. His purple shades add a nice touch to his laid back look and it's been a while since we've seen him rock his signature color! 

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Is Liam Payne Working on Tracks Without One Direction?

Rumors have been swirling that Liam Payne is working on songs without One Direction, collaborating with a '90s Britpop band called Longspigs on some solo tracks — but those reports are totally false.

The source is a publication that focuses on satirical celebrity gossip, so we don't think they're actually serious.

Besides, we'd never believe Liam would leave the band for his own personal projects. Even though he initially wanted to go solo on X Factor, he's been very vocal about the fact that he loves being in the band. If he was working on some stuff, it would either be for 1D or for his DJ alter-ego, Big Payno.

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Amazon adds Disney and Dora to FreeTime Unlimited kids service

Amazon adds Disney and Dora to FreeTime Unlimited kids service

There's a new way to amuse, educate or just distract your offspring while Mommy has a little sippy-poo for the holidays -- Amazon has just dumped a bunch of new content into FreeTime Unlimited. The kid-centric service runs $2.99 a month for Prime subscribers, and includes around 4,000 educational books, 400 "age-appropriate" apps and several thousand TV shows and movies. Amazon's added "thousands of new titles," including games Frozen Free Fall from Disney and Dora's Great Big World, along with e-books from Dr. Seuss and Sesame Street. If you're on FreeTime Unlimited and have an Amazon Kindle reader, Fire TV or Fire tablet (like the Kids Edition shown above) you can access the content now, or sign up for a free trial.

Steve Dent

Engadget

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Instagram is now worth 49 times what Facebook paid for it

Instagram is now worth 49 times what Facebook paid for it

Many baulked when Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg agreed to drop $1 billion on Instagram in April 2012. "That's $33 per user," said some; "there's no business model!" screamed others. Less than three years later and Citigroup now says Instagram is worth $35 billion. That's almost 49 times higher than the $715 million Facebook ended up paying after its stock price fell, and considerably higher than rivals Twitter and LinkedIn. How did things go so right?

The short answer is "ads," as would be clear to anyone using Instagram. The long answer? First, the valuation hinges on Instagram's user count rising 40 percent over the next year, according to Citi analyst Mark May. That's likely -- it rose by 50 percent between March and December of this year alone -- but it's the second part of May's calculations that's up for debate. The analyst believes Instagram will be able to monetize its users further and rake in much more cash from advertisers. But what does that mean for you?

It's been just over a year since Instagram first introduced advertising into its apps, but May's expectations of higher advertising revenues don't necessarily mean you'll see loads more of them. You're worth more to Instagram than ever before -- more than $80 just for being you, according to May's calculations -- and it's unlikely Facebook will suddenly flood your feed with irrelevant ads. Citi thinks Instagram can get $1.48 from ads per 1000 views by the end of next year. That's less than Twitter makes (another service slowly working out how to make money), and May argues that Instagram has a larger, faster-growing, and more engaged audience. Simply put: Instagram is a better fit for prospective advertisers.

Instead of filling every page with ads, Facebook leverages its vast user data to argue it can target sponsored posts more effectively than others. The company uses your Instagram favorites to work out what kind of ads you'll respond well to, and also takes advantage of the many linked Facebook accounts to target ads based on your profile, likes and interests. It's a tough ask: balancing the demands of advertisers with ahistorically touchy audience. So far, Instagram has done a decent job of it; you're unlikely to see a jetskiing ad if you're a a 65-year-old man, for instance. You're still helping drive the company's profits by seeing ads, of course, but you're unlikely to be as annoyed by them since they're (mostly) aimed at stuff you like.

Instead of filling every page with ads, Facebook leverages its vast user data to argue it can target sponsored posts more effectively than others. The company uses your Instagram favorites to work out what kind of ads you'll respond well to, and also takes advantage of the many linked Facebook accounts to target ads based on your profile, likes and interests. It's a tough ask: balancing the demands of advertisers with ahistorically touchy audience. So far, Instagram has done a decent job of it; you're unlikely to see a jetskiing ad if you're a a 65-year-old man, for instance. You're still helping drive the company's profits by seeing ads, of course, but you're unlikely to be as annoyed by them since they're (mostly) aimed at stuff you like.

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Google needs partners to actually build its self-driving car

Google needs partners to actually build its self-driving car

Apparently Google's sufficiently kickstarted pursuits into autonomous driving, and is ready for some help with its own driverless cars. As the leader of the project told The Wall Street Journal, the folks in Mountain View aren't looking to replicate what Detroit-based and international automakers do best (build vehicles from the ground up). It's looking for an established player to help shoulder the load and bring the Google rides to market in the next five years. Until that happens, Chris Urmson says his team is partnering with automotive suppliers to move three generations beyond the cartoony-looking prototypes (pictured above) it has now. What's more, the search giant plans to on-road test this "beta one" fleet early next year. For California's sake, let's hope they're just as adept at sensing cyclists as their predecessors.
The Wall Street Journal

Timothy J. Seppala
Engadget

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BlackBerry And Boeing Build A Self-Destructing Spy Phone

BlackBerry And Boeing Build A Self-Destructing Spy Phone

Canadian mobile company BlackBerry Ltd. is working with Boeing Co. on a smartphone made for privacy-minded government agents, it announced Friday. The Boeing Black, as its called, is capable of self-destructing if it is tampered with.

“We're pleased to announce that Boeing is collaborating with BlackBerry to provide a secure mobile solution for Android devices utilizing our BES 12 platform," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said on a conference call held to discuss its mixed third quarter results. "That, by the way, is all they allow me to say.”

BlackBerry and Boeing’s smartphone encrypts communications as well as its stored data, such as sensitive photos or emails. The Boeing Black has space for two SIM cards, used to connect to multiple wireless networks, such as one for government calls and another for civilian communications.

Boeing, the the aerospace and defense contractor best known for its airplanes, markets the smartphone to government agencies and others who need to keep snooping to a minimum. BlackBerry’s Boeing Black is assembled in the U.S., from parts manufactured around the world.
The spy-phone boasts a chunky 13.25mm-thick body, almost double the depth found in Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone. The large frame allows it to be custom configured to include biometric sensors -- including fingerprint scanners -- and communication with satellites.

The Boeing Black operates on BlackBerry’s Enterprise Service, or BES 12, which allows companies and government agencies to secure and manage Android, iPhone and BlackBerry devices securely on their internal networks.

It’s not the phone of choice for James Bond, however. Sony Pictures has had a long-standing deal with its parent company to feature the Xperia line of smartphones in Bond films.

Thomas Halleck

International Business Times

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Michael Clifford Reacts to 5 Seconds of Summer's Worst Band of 2014 Nomination

5 Seconds of Summer and One Direction recently got nominated for Worst Band of 2014 by NME, and Michael Clifford had the best reaction. Instead of throwing a fit, he showed off his sense of humor by tweeting out that all their fans should vote for them.

"I'm not even being sarcastic it would be so incredible to win," he wrote.

While we can't believe someone would vote 5SOS and 1D as some of the worst bands of the year, both of them have had amazing successes (and lots of awards) in 2014. They're definitely not taking it too seriously — and Michael's response is proof!

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BlackBerry's surviving, but not as a smartphone company

BlackBerry's surviving, but not as a smartphone company

It's been almost a year since John Chen was appointed to save Blackberry and it's clear that his grand plan has, at least, stopped the company losing money hand over fist. In the Canadian outfit's latest three month report, it reveals that losses have been trimmed from $4.4 billion last year to a much more manageable $148 million. Of course, it's clear that as the business reinvents itself as a software-and-services company, manufacturing smartphones has increasingly become a side project.
At this point last year, the company had shipped 4.3 million smartphones, although the bulk of those were older BlackBerry 7 devices. This time around, less than half that figure -- 1.9 million devices -- found their way into the hands of consumers, with sales dwindling even in former strongholds like the Middle East and Asia Pacific. We're still waiting to see what impact, if any, new and "unconventional" devices like the Passport and Classic will have on fortunes, so there could be good news coming in the future on that front.

The company is still seeing its revenues split roughly down the middle, with 46 percent of cash coming from devices and the rest coming from software and services. It's the latter portion where John Chen sees the most potential, which is probably what prompted the company to buy mobile encryption company Secusmart. The company also saw big gains in its BlackBerry Enterprise Security platform, which grew over 100 percent in the last three months.
So, losses have been trimmed, software sales are growing and there's some cash in the bank. Someone should get a bottle of champagne and stick in the fridge, you know, just in case Chen's "eight quarter" plan pulls out something truly spectacular.
BlackBerry

Daniel Cooper

Engadget 

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