Google is hoping these offers make you want to buy a Chromecast

Google is hoping these offers make you want to buy a Chromecast

Google isn't just using Chromecast Offers to reward existing users, the company's also loading it freebies in an effort to more households to get one. For instance, if you buy a Chromecast from March 20th to April 19th, you'll get $80 worth of rewards. Namely, 3 months of subscription to Play Music, 1 month of Qello Concerts, 3 months of DramaFever, 3 months of Sesame Street GO and a free movie rental from Play Movies. While Google has reportedly sold over 10 million streaming sticks last year, having more users means getting more leverage when negotiating with content providers. That, in turn, could lead to bigger rewards or exclusive deals similar to Apple TV's HBO Now offering.
Chromecast Offers

Mariella Moon
Engadget 

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Advanced optical fibers could give rise to human-like AI brains

Advanced optical fibers could give rise to human-like AI brains

We haven't built a truly sentient artificial ntelligence system yet, like the Terminator or C-3PO -- you know, the kind of AI that scares Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking. But a team of researchers believe they've at least found the secret to creating human-like artificial brains. More specifically, they've discovered that optical fiber made from chalcogenides can create synapses to latch onto each other, just like what happens in our gray matter. Chalcogenide is a light-sensitive compound typically used to manufacture glass for photocopiers, and it allows the the fibers to process vast amounts of data.
See, while computers these days are becoming increasingly fast and powerful (take Watson, for example), the human brain is still a lot faster and more efficient. The researchers from the University of Southampton and the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore still have to find a way to combine multiple fibers to form an artificial neural network, but it's a start. If you're well-versed in scientific lingo, check out the scientists' paper published in Advanced Optical Materials for more technical details. And if the study scares you, you can follow in Musk's footsteps and support the research program, which aims to ensure that AI systems don't turn into evil masterminds that want to wipe out humanity.
Advance Optical Materials

Mariella Moon

Engadget

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Samsung can put 128GB of storage in your low-cost phone

Samsung can put 128GB of storage in your low-cost phone

Just because you're not splurging on a top-of-the-line smartphone doesn't mean that you have to settle for a tiny amount of storage. Samsung certainly thinks that way -- it just announced a 3-bits-per-cell flash memory chip that promises 128GB of storage in "mass market" (read: more affordable) mobile devices. It's based on the plain eMMC tech you see in most phones instead of the fast UFS format inside the Galaxy S6, but you probably won't complain about the speed when it can still read sequential data at a very respectable 260MB per second. The one catch? There's no word on when it'll be ready, so you may be waiting a while before you're carrying a budget phone with more drive space than some laptops.

[Top image credit: Samsung Tomorrow, Flickr]
Samsung (BusinessWire)

Jon Fingas
Engadget 

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TV-ready game turns your Android phone into a tennis racquet

TV-ready game turns your Android phone into a tennis racquet

Android fans: you no longer have to watch on the sidelines as your friends play TV tennis with their iPhones. Rolocule has released Motion Tennis Cast, an Android version of its free sports game that uses screen mirroring tech (such as Chromecast, Miracast or Samsung's AllShare Cast) to turn your phone into a Wii Sports-like motion controller, with your TV or a Chrome browser tab serving as the screen. You'll largely be lobbing and volleying like you did in the iOS version, although there's a new multiplayer mode that lets you challenge your Facebook and Google+ friends. The real party trick may be coming down the pipeline, however. Rolocule is teasing plans for an Android Wear version, so you'll one day have the option of swinging with your smartwatch.
Google Play

Jon Fingas

Engadget

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Facebook Messenger will now let you send money to friends

Facebook Messenger will now let you send money to friends

We reported on rumors that Facebook was going to add payments to its messaging services back in October of 2014. Today the company made it official, introducing a new feature to Facebook Messenger that lets users send and receive money at no cost. Facebook says the money is sent right away, although it may take one to three days to show up in your bank.
The company, understandably, put a lot of emphasis on the security it built into this system. "We use secure systems that encrypt the connection between you and Facebook as well as your card information when you ask us to store it for you." The company is also building out new teams for in-house security. "These payment systems are kept in a secured environment that is separate from other parts of the Facebook network and that receive additional monitoring and control. A team of anti-fraud specialists monitor for suspicious purchase activity to help keep accounts safe.
Facebook says the first time you use payments, you'll need to add a Mastercard or Visa debit card issued by a US bank. It's not clear yet when the option for credit cards will be added, or when the service will expand internationally.


Ben Popper
The Verge 

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NVIDIA's latest and greatest GPU will cost $999

NVIDIA's latest and greatest GPU will cost $999

While NVIDIA unveiled its latest powerhouse GPU last week, it unveiled more information about the brand new Titan X at its own developer's conference earlier today. For those who squirm at tech speak, look away now, because we're going to indulge in quite a bit of it: The Titan X comes with eight billion transistors, 3,072 CUDA cores, 7 Teraflops worth of single-precision performance plus 0.2 Teraflops of double-precision workloads. It also has 12GB of VRAM, which NVIDIA says is twice the amount of previous graphics cards. What does this mean for you? Well, NVIDIA is promising better gaming performance of course, but Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's CEO, says that the Tegra X also has great potential in scientific applications. A 16-core Intel Xeon would normally take 43 days to process data for a deep neural net analysis, but the Titan X can do it in just 1.5 days, he says. Suffice to say, the Titan X is a monster of a GPU, which might explain its hefty price tag: $999. That's about the same cost as its predecessor, the Titan Black, so we're betting that the cost of that will likely drop some time soon.
NVIDIA

Nicole Lee
Engadget 

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Buy the Moto X Pure Edition, get a free Moto E

Buy the Moto X Pure Edition, get a free Moto E

Want to buy a smartphone for yourself, but also need to snag a cheap phone for family (or, let's be honest, a backup for yourself)? Motorola might have you covered. It just kicked off an unusual promotion that gives you a free 3G version of the new Moto E when you buy a Moto X Pure Edition. That's not so hot if you insist on LTE data for every device, but it's a no-brainer if you were either set on getting a Moto X or don't relish the idea of splurging on two phones at once. Don't spend long deciding what to do, though -- Motorola is only running the promo through March 24th.
Motorola

Jon Fingas

Engadget

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eBay and Sotheby's high-end auctions will launch next month

eBay and Sotheby's high-end auctions will launch next month

You wouldn't expect to be let in to a fine art auction wearing nothing but tighty whities, but starting April 1st, no one's going to be able to stop you. Sotheby's has teamed up with its digital counterpart, eBay, to launch its long-promised digital sales channel. Now, online collectors flush with Beanie Baby sales cash can fight as equals against
 entitled Manhattan socialites for Ansel Adams' photography and Andy Warhol watches.
For now, a single auction per day will be streamed live from Sotheby's New York outfit, with catalogs from the April 1st and 2nd events available to view right now. The biggest item currently listed is the sign from Yankee Stadium from 1976, which is expected to fetch up to $600,000. Let's just hope no one from overseas wins that particular auction -- imagine the shipping fees!
[Image credit: Robert Orion Martin, Flickr]
eBay

Daniel Cooper
Engadget 

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Apple is reportedly willing to share viewing data to clinch TV deals

Apple is reportedly willing to share viewing data to clinch TV deals

Apple is apparently bending over backwards to make sure that its oft-rumored streaming TV service gets off the ground. New York Post sources claim that the company is willing to share viewer data with the networks, including demographics and viewing habits, if it means getting channels ahead of its service's reported fall launch. It's not clear just how much info broadcasters would get, although there's talk of letting them run ads if they don't think the subscription fees are enough.
No matter what, Apple would be breaking from tradition to grant this kind of access to its customer base. The company often likes to brag about how it doesn't share your data, and once told magazine publishers that they couldn't collect subscriber details unless they asked readers directly. If the rumor is at all true, though, it suggests that Apple is willing to make exceptions if it can prevent rivals like PlayStation Vue or Sling TV from getting an early lead.New York Post

Jon Fingas
Engadget 

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Autodesk's new app lets kids design their own toys

Autodesk's new app lets kids design their own toys

3D printers can build anything from prosthetics and musical instruments to Hershey chocolates. But, even as the technology continues to make strides with materials (metal, concrete, etc.) and takes on full-fledged architectural projects, it seems to move further away from the reach of children. Tinkerplay, a new kid-friendly 3D printing app, makes it quick and easy for all age groups to design and experiment with minimal assistance.

The app is the brainchild of Autodesk, the company best known for its flagship AutoCAD design software. It's an evolution of Autodesk-acquired Modio, an iPad app that worked with desktop 3D printers. Like its predecessor, Tinkerplay eliminates the need for additional rafts and support materials which tend to complicate the process for at-home designs. But new features and functions allow kids (and older humans) to choose from the pre-loaded character templates or create their own versions from modifiable parts. Users can drag and drop parts to create characters or create their own complex little parts with customizable textures and colors for a new design. For the latter, connectors available with the larger Tinkercad family can be employed. In the end, the printer processes similar color parts that can be snapped up together for a ready-to-pose figurine.

Engadget

The app, available on iOS, Android and Windows, is an addition to a growing list of 3D printing tools that encourage at-home experimentation. But it also engages a more pertinent audience –– a generation that learns to swipe screens and tinker with gadgets before they can walk.

[Image credit: Tinkerplay]

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Windows 10 launches this summer in 190 countries

Windows 10 launches this summer in 190 countries

Microsoft's leaner, meaner, latest iteration of Windows is coming in just a few months, and it's launching in 170 countries, in 111 languages. Don't forget: Windows 10 is a free upgrade if you're already using Windows 7 or 8. Hiding in its imposing shadow, and launching at the same time, the company will release special free version of its OS for Internet of Things devices, which Microsoft's Terry Myerson reckons could well find its way into ATMs and ultrasound machines. Curiously, anyone that has a Xiaomi Mi 4 will also able to download the preview of Windows 10 ahead of it's release -- despite it being an Android phone.
Windows Blog

Mat Smith

Engadget

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Calum Hood, Luke Hemmings & Ashton Irwin Wear Matching Outfits

Calum Hood, Luke Hemmings & Ashton Irwin Wear Matching Outfits

Calum Hood, Luke Hemmings and Ashton Irwin obviously spend a ton of time together since you know they happen to be a in a band together. The 5 Seconds of Summer boys are even dressing like each other, which just makes us love them even more.

Calum posted this pic on his Instagram account showing us how he, Luke and Ashton all wore T-shirts repping their favorite band, Red Hot Chili Peppers. We like to think that Michael Clifford was busy taking this photo, which is why he wasn't in it, but it's kind of adorable that the guys showed up all wearing the same shirt. Great minds think alike!

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