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Entries for January, 1970

Facebook Cancels UK Launch of HTC First

redletterdave writes “After AT&T unceremoniously canceled the HTC First after just one month on the market, Facebook announced the first phone running the Facebook Home operating system will not be launching in the U.K., as originally planned. From Facebook: ‘Following customer feedback, Facebook has decided to focus on adding new customization features to Facebook Home [...]

Judge Thinks Apple Will Lose E-Book Price-Fixing Case

Nerval’s Lobster writes “Apple could face a difficult time winning its court case against the U.S. Department of Justice over e-book pricing, according to the federal judge overseeing the trial. ‘I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise [...]

Predicting IQ With a Simple Visual Test

New submitter trendspotter writes “Scientists at the University of Rochester found a unique way to measure high IQ and IQ of the brain in general just by studying individuals and their abilities to filter out noise in images (abstract). The results of a visual test where people were told to quickly detect movements showed similar [...]

Ask Slashdot: When Is the User Experience Too Good?

gadzook33 writes “I had an interesting experience at work recently. A colleague suggested during a meeting that we were building something that would make it far too easy for the customer to perform a certain task; a task that my colleague felt was deleterious. Without going into specifics, I believe an apt analogy would be [...]

UC Berkeley Group Working On Creating Inexpensive 3-D Printer Materials

phrackthat writes “A UC Berkeley group, in a bid to drive down the costs of 3-D printing, has been focusing on more natural materials such as salt, wood, ceramics and concrete (the last two, while not naturally occurring, are made of naturally occurring components). The use of these materials create new avenues for architecture, such [...]

FiOS User Finds Limit of ‘Unlimited’ Data Plan: 77 TB/Month

An anonymous reader writes “A California user of Verizon’s FiOS fiber-optic internet service put his unlimited data plan to the test. Over the month of March, he totaled over 77 terabytes of internet traffic, which finally prompted a call from a Verizon employee to see what he was doing. The user had switched to a [...]

HP Unveils ENVY Rove, a 20-inch Tablet That Doubles as All-in-One PC

Unlike other tablets, the 20″ HP ENVY Rove The is not only a Windows 8 tablet, but it can also be used as an all-in-one PC. It’s powered by an Intel Core i3M Haswell CPU, has 1TB of internal storage as well as an 8GB solid-state drive. The company claims that the device can hold [...]

Xbox One Used Game Policy Leaks: Publishers Get a Cut of Sale

Chewbacon writes “Details about the used-game policy on Microsoft’s newly-announced Xbox One console have been leaked. The policy explains how used-game retailers can survive Xbox One destroying the used-game market as we know it: they have to agree to Microsoft’s terms and conditions to do so. In summary, the used game retailer can still buy [...]

Possible Collision Between Cube-satellite and Old Space Junk

photonic writes “The BBC is reporting on a possible collision between Ecuador’s first satellite (a small cubesat) and debris from an upper stage of an old Russain rocket. If confirmed, this might be the third case in recent years, after a high-speed collision of an Irridium satellite with a dead Russian satellite in 2009 and [...]

11 Awesome Cakes That Geeks Would Love

The term “cake” has a long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word “kaka”. Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive. For example, banana bread may be properly considered either a quick bread or a [...]