Uber could face charges in Brussels, reports say

Belgium's capital allegedly plans to file a complaint against Uber as the ride-sharing service continues to operate despite being banned in the city. Also, reports surface of a possible investment from Baidu.


Uber's smartphone personal vehicle service is in some hot water in Brussels. Uber

Another day, another potential roadblock for car-hailing service Uber.

Pascal Smet, the mobility minister for Brussels, has announced plans to file a complaint with police against Uber in the coming days, charging that the company is operating illegally in Belgium's capital, according to local reports on Friday. Smet also will file a formal complaint with federal regulators, asking them to block access to the company's mobile app.

Uber's service, which enables people to earn money by using their personal vehicles to give rides to people who traditionally might have called for a taxi, was banned in Brussels in April after taxi companies there took aim at the service. The consortium of taxi companies argued that Uber was in violation of taxi regulations. The city agreed and ordered that Uber stop providing its service.

Rather than shutting down, however, Uber continued operating in Brussels and has risked a fine of €10,000 per car to do so. It's unclear whether Uber has been levied any fines, but Smet's reported next move suggests there could be more at risk for the car-hailing service.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Brussels news is just the latest in a string of issues the company has faced recently. Last week, one of its drivers in New Delhi, India, allegedly attacked and raped a passenger who used the service late at night. A few days later, the city moved to ban Uber. Thailand and Spain have both moved forward with charges against Uber, saying that the service was operating illegally within their countries. Additionally, Uber has disregarded South Korea's warnings not to set up shop in Seoul and launched its service in that country this week.

Uber's troubles aren't limited to foreign cities. On Friday, Uber began operations in Portland, Ore., even though city officials have deemed the service illegal. Officials there said they're ready to issue civil and criminal penalties against the company and its drivers. Last month, after a judge issued a restraining order against the company, Uber decided to shut down its service in Nevada until it finds a legal way to resume business in the state.

Despite the setbacks and controversy, Uber remains defiant, saying that its service is being embraced in every city where it operates. Last week, Uber announced it raised a $1.2 billion round of funding that could put its total valuation as high as $40 billion. Uber operates in more than 250 cities in 50 countries.

Uber might also stand to generate even more cash in the coming weeks. China-based search engine Baidu is planning to buy an equity stake in Uber for as much as $600 million, Bloomberg reported late Thursday, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the companies' discussions. Baidu would take a minority stake in Uber and the deal could help the car service expand rapidly across China.

If the deal is sealed, Uber could quickly overcome some of the issues it's facing in Europe and the US. China's consumer market is exploding and Uber has a massive growth opportunity in China. Best of all for the company, partnering with Baidu -- a company in the good graces of the Chinese government -- could safeguard Uber from any issues with the government.

Back in Brussels, despite the calls for formal charges, Smet indicated that he might be willing to relax his stance on Uber. In a comment to local news outlet De Morgen, Smet said that Uber could be "welcome in the city" but must adhere to all local laws and regulations.

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Microsoft offers $130 Jawbone speaker for $69

Early birds who buy it at a Microsoft store can snag the portable speaker for $50.




Those of you looking for a good portable speaker can grab one made by Jawbone at a hefty holiday discount, courtesy of Microsoft.
For day five of the software giant's 12 Days of Deals, the Jawbone Mini Jambox speaker is selling for a jaw-dropping $69, down from the regular price of $130. Like all the daily deals, the Jawbone speaker is available at Microsoft's online store, starting at 5 a.m. PT, and at Microsoft retail outlets when they open. The first 50 customers who buy one at a Microsoft retail store can snag it for $50 -- a total savings of $80.

What's so special about the Mini Jambox?

Well, it's small -- about half the size of its predecessor. It offers a pair of front-facing stereo drivers to better direct the sound and a bass radiator that delivers a high-quality sound, especially considering its compact size. It supports Bluetooth 4.0 and can stream audio from any Bluetooth-connected device from a distance of about 33 feet. It also includes a stereo port for direct connections. The speaker's rechargeable lithium-ion battery will give you around 10 hours of playback in a single charge.

The Jambox also comes in seven different colors.

CNET's review of the Mini Jambox said that "while you'll pay a premium for it, the Jawbone Mini Jambox is the best-sounding and best-designed micro wireless speaker." Microsoft's deal now trims that premium price tag, making the Jambox certainly worth considering if you need a good wireless speaker for your smartphone, tablet or other device.

The deal runs for a full 24 hours or until supplies last. Microsoft's 12 Days of Deals promotion runs through December 19. Saturday's deal halves the price of two Xbox One/Xbox 360 games. Normally selling for $60, Destiny and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will each sell for just $30.


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Facebook wants right to challenge search warrants for user data

Should the social network be able to contest a search warrant on behalf of its users? That issue is now being debated in court.

Facebook is arguing in a New York court that it should be able to push back against search warrants, to protect the rights of its users.

Facebook is trying to convince a panel of judges that it should have the right to challenge search warrants that let law enforcement sweep up private user data, even of people not charged with a crime.

On Thursday, a group of five judges on the New York State appeals court started hearing arguments between Facebook and the Manhattan district attorney's office over a legal issue involving bulk search warrants. The case stems from warrants issued to the social network in 2013 that forced it to disclose the complete Facebook accounts of around 300 people not charged with an actual crime, The New York Times reported Friday.

Facebook was required to share private information of 381 different people in a case where prosecutors were trying to get indictments against police officers and other public employees for disability fraud, the Times said. But 302 of the people whose accounts were exposed were never charged with fraud.

The case involves the ongoing question of if and how someone's online but private information should be protected, and a ruling could affect not just Facebook but other social-media companies as well. Google, Twitter and LinkedIn have all filed briefs in support of Facebook's position, the Times reported.

The FBI has argued that it doesn't even need a search warrant to access a person's Facebook chats, emails and other private data. That goes against a 2010 ruling by an appeals court that law enforcement officials must secure warrants in order to obtain such information.

But in the case being considered by the panel of judges, known as "In Re 381 Search Warrants Directed to Facebook Inc.," the social network has contended that even the search warrants themselves were too wide in scope and because of that the company should have had the right to reject them.

Though the judges also seem to be bothered by the wide scope of the warrants, they've so far fallen back on the fact that state law prevents people from appealing search warrants. The Manhattan district attorney's office has emphasized that point, saying Facebook has no more right to reject a search warrant than the operator of a brick-and-mortar storage company does, the Times reported.

Facebook's attorney has countered that argument, saying the company had to take an active role in searching for the information and handing it over to the prosecutors. That makes these warrants "different from a typical search warrant where you stand aside and let the police come in with a box," attorney Thomas Dupree said in Facebook's court brief.

One of the judges asked if government requests for user information could be thought of as a subpoena or a mixture of a warrant and a subpoena. Such an approach would give Facebook the right to challenge them. And in a case that clearly is a difficult one for the court, that approach could provide the legal justification Facebook would need to back up its position.

When asked to comment, Facebook pointed to its legal brief, which includes the following statement about its position:

This case, of course, concerns Facebook--an online social networking service with more than one billion users. Many of these users treat Facebook as a digital home where they share personal and private information. They use Facebook to share photographs, videos, and communications of a personal nature, and they control the audience with whom they share this information. The Government's bulk warrants, which demand "all" communications and information in 24 broad categories from the 381 targeted accounts, are the digital equivalent of seizing everything in someone's home. Except here, it is not a single home but an entire neighborhood of nearly 400 homes. The vast scope of the Government's search and seizure here would be unthinkable in the physical world.

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NASA interns launch spoof video 'All About That Space'

After the successful launch of the Orion spacecraft, a group of NASA interns cut loose with their very own pop cover tune.

They're bringing rockets back. Go ahead and tell the whole world that. Video screenshot by Michael Franco/CNET

Now here's a line from a pop song you don't hear too often: "If you got boosters boosters, just raise 'em up/'Cause every spacecraft needs propulsion/From the bottom to the top."

While they might not be as catchy as the original lyrics from Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" -- the song that's parodied -- it's easy to look past that because the starring NASA interns are just so goofily endearing in their spoof video titled "All About That Space."

In the video, the interns dance -- as only young engineers can -- around a bunch of NASA tech while replacing Trainor's lyrics with ones that talk all about the Orion mission, which had its first successful test flight last week.

"All about that Space" was created by interns at the Johnson Space Center to bring attention to the Orion spacecraft, which may one day take humans to Mars.

This, of course, isn't the first cover version of Trainor's runaway hit song. There's the classic, "All About That Bass," the Thanksgiving favorite, "All About That Baste," and the inimitable (and kind of creepy), "All About The Chase." Our favorite here at CNET though, is most definitely this "Star Wars"-themed cover called "All About That Base."

But this NASA one is running a close second. Party on, interns!

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Microsoft's end to clip art makes Fallon weep

What are Microsoft Office users to do now that clip art is no more? "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon is not happy. He also says goodbye to Google's Captcha.

Fallon would like Microsoft to know that it dropped the ball. NBC/The Tonight Show screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Change can clip human wings.

People are used to doing things a certain way. Then some upstart comes along and decides it just isn't going to be that way anymore.

It seems that Microsoft, with its decision to no longer offer clip art with Office, has caused minds to stir and emotions to boil. Instead, Office products will now surface image results from Bing.

Last night, "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon couldn't help but lament this parlous development in online life. He offered that this was "a devastating blow for church newsletters."

How, indeed, will the hosts of the holy attract the attention of the craven and unworthy? I know you're not supposed to worship graven images, but a few scattered drawings here and there help focus the mind to Sunday mornings.

So Fallon though he'd used a few of Microsoft's old images to express his concern. Why was there an alien pretending to be the Easter Bunny?

When he finished expressing this sadness, he moved along to Google's "improvement" of Captcha. What else could he do, but offer a memorial to some of the great captchas of all time?

"Weiner tower," for example. The legendary "scrape myanal," too. And life will surely never be the same without some human being having to type: "grinding pube fuel."

One day, we will all look back on this as having been a golden era, one in which so much was created and so many habits were disrupted.

We won't know for many years how affected we were by all of this and how the sudden withdrawal of such mental stimulus will influence our future development.

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The first of J.K. Rowling's 12 'Harry Potter' short stories is here

The initial short whisks us away to Severus Snape's hometown of Cokeworth.

There's no spell casting today, but J.K. Rowling has given us a good look at Cokeworth, hometown of Harry's mother, aunt and Severus Snape. Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.

On the first day of Potter-mas, J.K. Rowling gave to me, a new story involving Harry. Well, peripherally involving Harry, anyway.

Rowling kicked off the "Harry Potter" version of the "Twelve days of Christmas" on Friday with a short story about Cokeworth, hometown to Severus Snape, Harry's Aunt Petunia and Harry's mother, Lily. There's admittedly not much story in Friday's three-paragraph blurb posted to Pottermore, but there is some interesting information about the town and the role it plays in the "Harry Potter" series. For example, Cokeworth is the town Harry's Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley Dursley fled to in an attempt to escape the barrage of Hogwarts admission letters sent to Harry in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

Getting to the story wasn't terribly easy, as Pottermore users (you need to be logged in) must first correctly solve a riddle before being treated to the day's content. The riddle for today was "In a house on Spinner's End, a meeting takes place, a mother begs help for her son, tears on her face. Agreeing to help, though he doesn't know how. Which potions master performs an unbreakable vow?"

The answer to the riddle is Severus Snape, but Snape's name needs to be entered as "Professor Snape" to gain access to the story. Tricky, tricky, J.K. There will be new content posted to Rowling's Pottermore site daily over the next 12 days, leading up to what we can only hope is another lengthy tale like the one about Dolores Umbridge, the singing sorceress Celestina Warbeck or the tale of a middle-aged Harry from earlier this year.

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Need storage for your Chromecast? Toshiba’s AeroCast Wi-Fi hard drive does that

External, wireless hard drives aren’t a new way of storing and enjoying your precious data anywhere, anytime, on any kind of device, but Toshiba’s just-unveiled Canvio AeroCast has the potential to eclipse all its established rivals.

The AeroCast is only available with 1TB of storage, which is slightly disappointing, but its complete PC, Mac, tablet and smartphone compatibility more than makes up for the lack of capacity options. You may have to limit your digital hoarding, but at least you know accessing and sharing the content will be as easy as pie on all mobile and computing platforms.

Even better, the tiny contraption can wirelessly pair to a separately sold Google Chromecast and beam your home movies and pictures on the big-screen living room TV via Toshiba’s proprietary Google Cast Ready app. Speaking of size, we should mention the Canvio AeroCast measures 4.8 x 3.4 x 0.95 inches, so it tucks nicely into a home theater or can be hidden in a bookshelf. Battery life is said to be five hours, which is quite good for a portable hard disk.

Wireless connectivity works with devices besides Chromecast, of course, so you can sync up to a phone, tablet or laptop in the blink of an eye. Transfer rates can reach a thunderous 150 Mbps courtesy of 802.11 b/g/n support. Connections can be made directly with the drive over Wi-Fi, as it can be configured to appear as an access point. There’s also an Internet Pass-Through mode, which ensures PCs and other machines connected to the wireless HDD in this way can also connect to the web.

At $220, Toshiba’s portable hard drive is a little steeper than competing products from WD or Seagate. But it’s faster, better-looking and easier to use both at home and on the go – or so it would seem a first glance. Make sure to check out the AeroCast if you’re shopping for Wi-Fi capable network drive.

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A wild NUC appears! Intel leaks new mini-PCs

It appears Intel has just leaked the new version of the Next Unit of Computing, or NUC, the pint-sized PC form factor the company started to promote several years ago. New hardware has appeared, unannounced, on the official NUC webpage.

The miniature computers are simple silver and black boxes that measure about five inches wide and five inches deep by two to three inches tall. Each is powered by an Intel NUC board which is only four inches on a side and has a processor soldered to it.

What processor? That’s a key question. NUC is not new; versions with 3rd-en and 4th-gen Intel Core processors have been available for some time. What Intel just posted appears different than the systems and NUC  boards that came before, however, leading to speculation that it’s based on Broadwell (aka 5th-en Core).

Other new features visible in the pictures include a sleep-and-charge USB port and an M.2 SSD slot. The latter is an expansion card format that allows the use of hardware much smaller than a typical SATA or even mSATA drive. Its availability means the new NUCs will be slightly more compact than those that came before.

The board also includes a standard SATA port, USB 3.0 and room for two laptop RAM DIMMs.

While NUC is promoted by Intel, it doesn’t intend to become a system builder. As with ultrabooks, the purpose of the initiative is to popularize a design that might become popular with consumers. Manufacturers and hobbyists can purchase NUC boards for their own builds. A new page on Intel’s site lists eight new kits, but they don’t include hardware specifications as yet.

We’ll probably hear more about the new NUC at CES 2015. Whether or not this leak was intended is unclear, but it lines up with what is likely to be addressed at the Las Vegas show. Intel’s continuing rollout of its 5th-en Core products is almost certain to be a focal point, and a new NUC announcement would fit snuggly into that narrative. Hold on; we’ll know more in just a few weeks.

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This 4K display turns digital art into an analog experience (and that’s OK)

We love looking at art, and we have plenty of it on our walls in our homes. But the one thing we don’t love is having to replace them when we get bored of something. Which is why the Depict Frame is exciting. It’s a huge 4K digital display designed to showcase art you’ve created or purchased, which you can easily change through an iOS app.

The 50-inch display has a native resolution of 3,840 x 2,160, which is the standard for 4K Ultra HD. However, it isn’t a television, so don’t expect to tune into your favorite show. Think of it like a tabletop digital photo frame, but the extremely high resolution makes digital paintings and photography resemble more like those in museums rather than a digital signage (perfect for cameras that can shoot 4K photos). The large physical size also gives the artwork more impact. Because it supports animated GIFs, you can display interactive art too.

But the Depict Frame doesn’t want viewers to know that it’s a digital screen. Its industrial designers intentionally made it to resemble a regular framed art – digital meets analog. The frame is made out of natural birch wood. All the electronics are hidden, and there are no ports or anything to worry about, except the power cord. Once it’s hung on a wall (you can also leave it on a floor, if that’s what the decorator in you prefers), it can easily pivot from landscape to portrait.

Digital art displays aren’t new, but Depict’s frame was created to work with the Depict iOS app and service.. Within the app, you can browse for a variety of art, many costing as low as $8 each. Depict adds digital watermarks to each piece, so it sort of makes them exclusive to Depict users. Once it’s purchased, you simply “cast” the art to the Frame. Depict says the app will be updated to allow Frame owners to cast their own art or photos.

Attendees at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair recently had a chance to see the Frame is use. Depict partnered with artist Rashaad Newsome to debut his latest digital artwork, ICON. For the rest of us, Depict is taking preorders now for delivery in June 2015.

At $1,800, the Frame is pricey for a limited-purpose item (naturally, some of the Frame’s first buyers are the well-heeled of Silicon Valley). And, sure, one must wonder about power consumption. But for those of us who can’t afford the Frame, we can turn our regular big-screen TVs into one. With Chromecast or Apple TV, you can use the Depict app to cast art to the screen, just as you would with the Frame. Unless it’s a 4K TV, you may not get the same visual experience out of a Full HD display, but it’s a cheaper solution using something you already own.

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Sony secures a spot in the smart home market with its crowdfunded Qrio lock

Recently, Sony has been in the news because hackers leaked social security numbers, salary information, and unreleased films from Sony Pictures. That division is obviously just one piece of the conglomerate’s pie, but it’s a tad ironic that its latest project is all about security.

Yesterday, Sony launched a crowdfunding campaign for Qrio Smart Lock on Makuake, a sort of Kickstarter in Japan. Claiming to be the smallest smart lock available, Qrio is retrofittable and lets you open your front door (or, we suppose, your bathroom door if you really wanted) with your smartphone.

Slipping over the existing hardware on your door, you don’t even need a screwdriver to install Qrio, according to the Wall Street Journal. It uses an adhesive that apparently won’t damage the door, so it can be used in rental houses, or temporarily on a stairwell door if you’re having an exclusive rooftop party. Anyone who has the encrypted key can use their smartphone to unlock the door. (We’ll admit, we’re not quite sure how to get the smart look off the door, because the crowdfunding page is all in Japanese.)

While there are lots of other smart locks entering the market, including the recently released August, Sony is hoping to get feedback from users by launching on Makuake.

This isn’t the first time Sony has turned to crowdfunding; it did so for the FES Watch, hiding behind its offshoot brand Fashion Entertainments to “test the real value of the” e-ink product, as one representative told WSJ at the time.

This time around, Sony went ahead and put its name on the (very bottom of the) Makuake site. Even if they hadn’t, it might not have been too difficult to figure out the company was involved; Sony named its dancing robot from the early ‘00s Qrio.

Related: August Smart Lock review

The device is expected to retail for $120 (¥15,000), less than the $250 August. Though it’s only been a day, the smart lock has already exceeded its goal and has raised over $22,000 USD. That’s a lot of “Cash Money” (aka, Jessica Alba’s alter ego, a fact we learned from the Sony hack).

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Google Fit tracks your steps offline and logs 100 more activities

Google Fit received a huge update along with a bunch of other apps and Android 5.0.1 Lollipop. The fitness-tracking app can now track your steps even without an Internet connection and supports 100 new activities. Bug fixes and improvements to the app’s overall performance were also included, with special attention to the Android Wear app.

Google overhauled its algorithms to improve its activity tracking, after some users complained of inaccurate step counts. The app should now measure your steps more accurately and even keep tabs on your movements when you’re offline. As soon as you get back to your phone and sync up, all the data that you stored on the watch while offline will cross over to your phone.

Google Fit can differentiate between walking, running, and cycling, so you won’t have to enter those activities manually into the app. However, you will have to log the 100 other activities because Google has yet to determine a way to tell the difference between each type of activity. Regardless, it’s nice to have more options to enter for activities. Users can now log in workouts of skiing, skating, biathlon, volleyball, circuit training, boxing, cricket, dancing, kite surfing, and many more with the Google Fit app.

Perhaps the best part of the app update, though,  is Android Wear support. Now that Android Wear has Google Fit and offline music playback, it’s more likely that fitness buffs will take their smartwatch to the gym, go for a run, or perhaps even a swim with their wearable gear.

The Google Fit app update should roll out to users over the next week, but you can also go download it from the Play Store right now for free.

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You can now officially download YouTube for Android videos, as long as you’re in Asia

Since September, Google promised the idea of YouTube offline viewing would come to fruition, though it would make its initial mark in emerging markets. It looks like El Goog kept its promise, as the functionality is now available in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

When watching videos, a download prompt will appear above the Subscribe button. From there, you can choose to download the videos in either standard definition or high definition (in this case HD is720p). File sizes are shown to make sure you have adequate space for your videos. After your video finishes downloading, it can be found in the Offline section of the YouTube app.

Related: Google pulled the plug on the Nexus 5, so you’d better hurry if you want one

There are several catches, however, the main one being you have 48 hours to watch your downloaded videos before they disappear. In addition, not every video is available for offline viewing, as licensed content can’t be downloaded. Finally, as mentioned previously, this feature is only available in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

In its blog post, Google explained that it chose these regions first because of the importance of mobile Internet in these locations. “Asia has proven itself to be a mobile-first world in terms of smartphone adoption, but access to high-speed, affordable data remains a big challenge,” wrote Google. “In response, we’ve been working on ways to lessen the demands of speed and data for people using our products in places where there are challenges to access.”

There’s no word on when YouTube offline viewing will make its way to the West, though Google did update the app to adopt its Material Design guidelines.

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ZX Spectrum is back from the dead and loaded with 1,000 classic games

Home computing visionary Clive Sinclair is bringing back a new version of his groundbreaking computer, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Called the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega (currently seeking funding on IndieGoGo), the console was designed in collaboration with startup Retro Computers.

The ZX Spectrum Vega plugs directly into the TV, much like the original, but advances in storage and processing allow it to hold the original console’s entire game library. The first version of the Vega comes with 1,000 games pre-installed, and Retro Computers promises more to come as free downloads.

At time of this writing the campaign has raised £108,737 out of its £100,000 with 59 days to go, which leaves plenty of time for retro gaming fans to get involved. The small initial run of consoles is already sold out, but it’s possible to jump on right now for the more expensive second run (£150 instead of £100). Retro Computers is working with the rights holders of the Spectrum games to donate all software royalties to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

The original ZX Spectrum was one of the first widely available home computers in the U.K., originally released in 1982. It is roughly analogous in timing and significance to the Commodore 64 in the US. Its game library was full of the era’s classics like Pac-Man, Joust, Pitfall, and Tapper.

Check out this charmingly retro commercial for the new console:

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In case of catastrophe, listen to vinyl! And more from the Pixies’ Joey Santiago

“When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily. I should have been in that band — or at least in a Pixies cover band.”

That was the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, talking about his deep reverence for the Pixies, the pioneering four-piece alternative rock band from Boston who honed and shaped the loud/soft/loud song dynamic that Nirvana cut to perfection on their seminal 1991 instant-gamechanger, Smells Like Teen Spirit. Cobain freely admitted to Rolling Stone that “I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies.”

And while Nirvana indeed took Teen Spirit into the pop stratosphere and beyond by transforming the swerve and verve of then-rock culture from hair-metal swagger to alternative angst-o-rama, it was the Pixies — singer/songwriter Black Francis (born Charles Thompson, a.k.a. Frank Black), guitarist Joey Santiago, bassist Kim Deal, and drummer David Lovering — who really set the tone for the ’90s template many indie bands continue to follow today. That blueprint can be found all over their second album, 1989’s Doolittle, from the caterwauling crunch of Debaser to the angular harmonics of Here Comes Your Man to the twisted parable of Monkey Gone to Heaven to the punk fury of Crackity Jones.

It was the Pixies who really set the tone for the ’90s template many indie bands continue to follow today.

To celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary, the triple-disc, 50-track Doolittle 25 collection (out today via 4AD and also available digitally) commemorates this pivotal album’s ongoing impact with an ace remastering job in addition to scores of unreleased demos, B-Sides, and key Peel Sessions. Yes, there’s indeed a lot to love about Doolittle.

Digital Trends rang up a pair of Pixies to get the lowdown on why Doolittle endures. Today, in Part 1, Santiago, 49, tells Digital Trends how silence is a crucial element of the band’s signature sound, why you should avoid MP3s, and shares the secret behind “The Hendrix Chord.” In Part 2, which we’ll publish later this week, Lovering, 52, will have his say about Doolittle’s ongoing legacy. Gouge away and stay all day, if you want to…

Digital Trends: Did you ever think there’d be such fanfare about Doolittle 25 years later?

Joey Santiago: The only thing we knew when we recorded it was we were fairly proud of it, you know? The goal, when you’re in the studio, is to record something that’s going to last forever. And we happened to hit the mark.

Did you have a particular sound in mind for yourself when you started working with producer Gil Norton? Did you give him some pointers on how you wanted to sound on this record?

I just wanted the guitar to be dry, not affected — and we did that. I went straight into the Marshall amplifier I had at the time. Just a guitar cord and the amp.

Early on in the sessions, was there a point where you went, “Ahh, Gil’s got the dry sound that I want”?

I think Tame is the one where I really, really noticed it. And that song has to be dry. For what I play there, it wouldn’t have made any sense any other way. It’s a very aggressive sound.

Besides the physical three-disc set, we have high-resolution downloads and a 180-gram vinyl version of Doolittle 25. What’s the best way to listen to this collection? Personally, I’m hearing more of the details in hi-res.

Oh yeah, the remastering is great. To be fair, I hardly listen to our records, but we listened to Doolittle so many times at the studio, and we were just blown away. In fact, Gil taught us how to rewind the tape and listen to it the right way. We just could not stop listening to it.

“When I put on a vinyl record, I pay attention to it. It’s not background music. And you’re gonna have to flip the thing over.”

You do lose the subtleties on MP3, yeah. It becomes exhausting listening that way, because the waveform isn’t smooth at all, with all of the different steps. MP3s are just not conducive to active listening. That’s what I think. When I put on a vinyl record, I pay attention to it. It’s not background music. And you’re gonna have to flip the thing over — the physical aspect of flipping it over (laughs), but the ritual is worth it, you know? It sounds great! Putting it on, dropping the needle — ritual de habitual.

I’m with you on that. I call it appointment listening whenever I put a record on. No distractions allowed.

Exactly! I have a chair that’s perfectly aligned, and I just sit back. I’m in the perfect spot, and I just listen.

Me too. You have a really good sense of when not to play and let the songs breathe, like letting Francis sing the lines alone or let Kim’s bass line come in before you strike. Is that a conscious compositional thing when you were listening to the demos — how you put yourself in the mix?

Yeah! It was very thought out, yes. I scribbled something at our rehearsal place — this is very deep, man (chuckles) — I said, “When you’re not making any sounds, you are.” You actually are. Silence is a part of the deal. It’s a sound that you’re making — it’s more of a statement. It’s a rest. It’s on there in the musical notes, on the music sheet, transcribed as a rest. It’s part of the musical vocabulary.

Point taken, though — a lot of times, you could have been winding out throughout the entirety of certain songs and totally changed the vibe of them by overplaying.

Exactly! Back then, it was heavy-metal time where people just played constantly on stuff, and that didn’t turn us on at all. Maybe that was the conscious effort — to sound different than the rest of the pack.

That kind of reminds me of the way Andy Summers played in The Police — he took a very minimalist approach to his chordings and his solos, and I think a lot of people may have underestimated the power of that in the context of the song itself and how he compared with other, flashier players.

Yeah, yeah, I can see that. Especially in the studio, when we were practicing, we’d hear the groove of the bass and the drums — and it was groovy, and cool, and we didn’t want to ruin that. At points, we just wanted to have people groove out, you know?

“We doubled up with two different guitars, and it just gives it that je ne sais quoi.”

I’m thinking one of the better examples of that has to be Monkey Gone to Heaven — knowing where to come in and add the power to the choruses and let the verses just breathe. 

Exactly, exactly.

Was that solo doubled?

I think that one might have been a single, but I know we doubled up a lot. Once you start doubling guitars, it becomes pretty addictive, you know? It’s like, “Ohhh!” We doubled up with two different guitars, and it just gives it that (pauses) je ne sais quoi.

In 2009, you toured to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Doolittle, and you’ve pretty much been on the road fairly regularly since then. Do you have a particular favorite track on the album, one that you could play every single night of your life?

Well, unfortunately, we hardly do this one song that’s called Dead.

Oh yeah! You have a great, eerie lead on that one.

I love it. I just go by one word, “dead,” and I went with the Psycho vibe, you know — Bernard Hermann, the shower scene? (sings the creeping Psycho strings sound) I mimicked it with what I was doing throughout that song.

You got some good feedback in there, too.

Mmm, yeah. Love doing that. Those are hard to do in the studio. (chuckles) You have to find the perfect spot to be in.

And then we get a bit of a different vibe on Crackity Jones, where you guys are totally punking it out.

Yeah, that was just Charles, punking it out. There were a cluster of chords on that one, and he did say, “Well, Joe, good luck with this one.” (both laugh)

But, hey, you were up to the challenge.

Oh yeah — the more clustered the chords are, the more challenging it becomes.

Earlier, you were telling me how much you liked vinyl. What kind of turntable do you have? What’s your setup?

I’ve got a VPI ’table with a Benz Micro [cartridge] — those are beautiful.

“We do have a young audience. Maybe the young people just have more energy to put up with being upfront.”

Oh yeah, those are great. I have a PerspeX ’table with a Blackbird cartridge myself.

Ohhh! Nice, nice! The stylus is the most important part, because that’s the first thing to touch anything, you know? The other thing I like about vinyl is that if there’s some kind of catastrophe and you couldn’t listen to music, you couldn’t do anything with a CD or a download, but you could make some kind of pointy thing and spin the vinyl around to listen to it.

Right, you’d have to find something like an arrowhead, and spin the record on your finger —

Yeah, I like that idea. (both laugh)

No argument here. I’m glad Doolittle 25 is coming out on 180-gram vinyl, which you must love. Did you give any directions for that mix?

Yes, 180-gram is a good thing. You get more bass out it. The only thing I said was we probably should half-master it, on 45. That’s the ultimate hi-fi experience.

Listening to tracks like Mr. Grieves and No. 13 Baby — which is probably my favorite song on Doolittle — I don’t immediately get a sense of, “Oh, that was cut in year BLANK.” It could have been cut at any time.

Oh yeah. We avoided that because we wanted our sonics to be timeless, so that you couldn’t put a date on the music. That’s the production value of it. The songs are usually timeless, but more than anything, the production will give things a date.

True. Any time I hear a gated drum, I go, “Ok, that’s so 1984.”

In the ’70s, I remember thinking, “Oh my God, what’s happening to music?” [Elton John’s] Philadelphia Freedom (1975) was the last good recording before it all changed to disco — it all changed. All that bullshit reverb and other things going on. It was like, “Oh no! What are these guys doing?”

It would be interesting to hear you guys do a mono fold-down mix of this album. I could see how a song like Silver, which has that Western twang to it, would be really interesting in mono.

That would be interesting. That would be cool. Any song would be cool in mono. And I love stereo too, obviously. Quadrophonic never made it. (chuckles)

There was always something missing in quad mixes. But the surround format really gives you the broad scale of separation of instruments, plus the feel of people recording in a room together. Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and I have talked about this a lot.

Surround, for — (pauses) … well, I don’t want to label them — but surround for prog like Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd makes a lot of sense.

Without a doubt. So where do you think the newer generations are discovering your music? YouTube, Spotify?

I have no idea. We do have a young audience, predominantly younger than the older folks. Maybe the young people just have more energy to put up with being upfront. (chuckles) Maybe it’s a combination of them knowing Nirvana was heavily influenced by us. They keep saying that everywhere. And also maybe Fight Club. [Where Is My Mind plays during the 1999 movie’s final scene and over the end credits.]

And that Nirvana myth just keeps on growing.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. They’re such a good band. They might have only done one song like us, Smells Like Teen Spirit, but they took it to a good level. I gotta hand it to them. It’s not that derivative at all.

I look at it like parallel lanes on a highway. You guys went on your own exit, and they went off on theirs.

Yeah, exactly!!! That’s cool. You just gotta be different — as different as you can.

“The 6th interval, the devil’s interval, that people thought it was — but I like that. Maybe the evil aspect of that chord is what I love.”

Like I was saying earlier, you understood how to create a sense of space in an arrangement, making songs a little more special than playing the same thing for 2-and-a-half minutes. Actually, hardly anything on Doolittle is even 4 minutes long.

As long as a song takes you on a journey, it doesn’t have to be that long. One of the examples Charles had was, “Listen to the Box Tops — The Letter.”

Right, that’s not even 2 minutes long! [1:58, to be exact.] Every note counts. Like Buddy Holly, too. I think Rave On isn’t much over 2 minutes long, if even that. [Rave On runs 1:47.]

Exactly! You get enough information.

Ok, real quick, last thing — can you give me the definitive statement on what you call “The Hendrix Chord”?

(laughs) I just love it! When I learned Purple Haze, I went, “Wow, this chord is pretty cool!” Obviously, it’s like the difference between a minor and a major. A minor sounds sadder, but that chord to me just has a neutral feel, and it’s got that interval — the 6th interval, the devil’s interval, that people thought it was — but I like that. Maybe the evil aspect of that chord is what I love.

“Then God is 7,” as somebody else has said [a line near the end of Monkey Gone to Heaven].

(laughs) Hah! Yeah, that’s right! You got it.

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Internet Explorer enjoys usage upsurge, Chrome and Firefox remain blips on IE’s radar

Beyond personal preference and taste, it should come as little surprise to all ye PC enthusiasts that Internet Explorer keeps towering above its traditional desktop browser adversaries. IE boosted its market share in November, while both Chrome and Firefox’s numbers slipped away.

According to the all-knowing Net Market Share data collection agency, Internet Explorer accounted for 58.94 percent of online visits made over the last 30 days on a global scale. That’s up from 58.49 in October, and 58.37 in September.

Related: Internet Explorer and Chrome following grows in October, Firefox falls again

We’re talking marginal increases, no doubt about that, but once you hit such a high and go over the 50 percent mark, any small gain is a great bonus. Especially when your two arch-rivals fail to mount a serious title challenge, and see their scores drop.

Google’s Chrome remains the silver medalist with a 20.57 percent share, down from 21.25 in October. This result is well below Chrome’s September share of 21.19, too.

Meanwhile, Mozilla has even bigger problems on its plate, as Firefox just reported its third consecutive loss. Back in August, the third most popular browser accounted for over 15 percent of web traffic. The figure tumbled to 14.18 in September, 13.91 in October and 13.26 in November.

If Firefox keeps that pace up it could collapse to single-digit share numbers in a matter of months. Which would of course be good news for Safari, Apple’s OS X-focused contender. Safari actually performed best among all web browsers in November, including Internet Explorer, surging a staggering 0.8 percent, from 5.1 to 5.9.

Related: Wondering what the best web browser around is? This comparison should help

To our knowledge, Safari didn’t receive any updates or stability fixes of late to explain the sudden hike in popularity. But maybe that new OS X Yosemite build solved the highly publicized Wi-Fi glitches after all, convincing Windows fans to leave their favorite ship and board Apple’s bandwagon.

Bizarrely enough, both Chrome and Firefox have recently received updates that look pretty major at a first glance, whereas Internet Explorer hasn’t. Then again, Windows PC sales tend to grow around the holidays, and IE comes pre-installed on them all, so perhaps that justifies the splendid form of Microsoft’s proprietary browser.

While these figures look good to IE, it’s worth noting that StatCounter, another reputable source of usage share, does not agree. It currently shows Chrome in the lead with a hair over 50% of the market; IE is behind with only 21.65%. Why the gap? StatCounter shows raw, unweighted data while Net Market Share weights its data based on country of origin to eliminate possible over-representation of a specific region in its statistics. Net Market Share also counts only daily unique page views while StatCounter collects all page views.

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What if there was a way to touch what you see in VR? Enter haptic holograms

Researchers at the University of Bristol, UK, have developed a system that uses a high-resolution grid of speakers to project “haptic holograms” into the air with sound waves that you can feel on your bare hands. By tracking your hands’ location, the UltraHaptics system lets you convincingly feel virtual objects, opening up a wide range of practical and fun possibilities for physically interacting with digital objects and spaces (via New Scientist).

The addition of Leap Motion 3D gesture tracking is what allowed Ben Long and his team to make the jump from projecting 2D outline to 3D forms. An array of tiny speakers project ultrasound onto your hand at just the right time and frequency to create the sensation that you are touching a virtual object. The researchers have thus far tested basic, geometric forms like spheres and pyramids.

Related: This holographic touchscreen is projected into thin air, but it looks incredibly real

The level of detail is currently limited, but the resolution can be improved over time with a greater number of smaller  and more precise speakers. Even without perfect resolution, our minds do a lot of the work to make sense of the sensations and line them up with what we are seeing. “Even if there are discrepancies, the brain will bend what it sees and feels to fit the overall picture,” explained VR developer Sébastien Kuntz.

Potential applications include practical uses like doctors physically examining anomalies detected by a CT scan; museum visitors could handle virtual objects while the originals are safely behind glass nearby, allowing for a hands-on education. Any advances in VR also of course have potential uses in games.

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Once impenetrable, Google Maps scales walls of NYC’s Gramercy Park

For 183 years, the guardians of New York City’s Gramercy Park have successfully kept it closed to the public, and only those living around the private park are granted access. And since commercial photography on park grounds is forbidden, few have truly seen what the inside of the park looks like – until now. As a consequence of today’s technology, The New York Times reports that now anyone can virtually wander beyond the park’s fences, all thanks to Airbnb, a smartphone, and Google Maps.

No, it’s not because the gatekeepers of Gramercy Park have decided to give people a glimpse of this fortress of a garden through the Internet – photography is still off limits. The 360-degree panorama view on Google Maps were created with the good fortune bestowed onto Shawn Christopher, a computer programmer who visited New York City on his honeymoon in May.

Related: Google intros new-look Maps for mobile, plus Uber and OpenTable integration

Christopher had rented a room in a Gramercy Park apartment via Airbnb, which included access to the famed park. Realizing he had been given the key to a place not even Robert De Niro or Woody Allen were able to shoot in, Christopher used the Photo Sphere app from Google on his smartphone to document the park, which were then uploaded to Google Maps.

“The Internet is all about sharing knowledge, especially these secret, hidden things,” Christopher told the Times.

Despite having its walls now breached on the Internet, don’t expect the park to be opened up to the public. But Arlene Harrison, the park’s chief steward, told the Times that with smartphones and other technology, there was only so much the park’s trustees could now do to keep it entirely private. Harrison also said that she has no plans to ask Google to remove the images, although Google said it would take them down if asked.

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Next-gen elevator goes sideways as well as up and down

The humble elevator looks set to get its first major makeover since its invention some 160 years ago with a design that means we can pretty much leave our legs at the door.

German engineering giant ThyssenKrupp has come up with a system that does away with ropes and cables and instead utilizes magnetic levitation technology. Now, while this is indeed the same ‘maglev’ technology associated with some of the world’s fastest trains, ThyssenKrupp’s elevators will obviously travel at a more leisurely speed, ensuring your stomach doesn’t exit through your mouth.

So what exactly makes the design so special? First, it can travel sideways as well as up and down, making it ideal for building designs such as Google’s under-construction “groundscraper” in London, which, as it’s nickname sort of suggests, is longer than it is tall.

Secondly, multiple capsules can run throughout the building at the same time, offering a subway-like service that should mean vastly reduced waiting times and therefore fewer manic presses of the ‘call’ button.

It’s also designed to do away with that uncomfortable sensation associated with high-speed elevator rides where it feels like your head’s about to cave in on itself, a boon for anyone whose office or apartment is located toward the top of a building.

The good news is that this groundbreaking design isn’t just sitting on some dusty drawing board surrounded by excited engineers pointing at it in awe. ThyssenKrupp has been making solid progress with its idea and is set to have a prototype installed inside a 240-meter-high building being constructed right now in the city of Rottweil in south-west Germany.

Related: Japanese firm determined to build an elevator into space

Once initial tests are complete, it plans to open the building and its maglev elevators to the public, probably in 2016.

The company says that with more and more people living and working in ever-expanding cities, it’s important to reevaluate building design and to examine ways of making the most of available space.

Patrick Bass, who leads R&D at ThyssenKrupp’s elevator unit, told the Financial Times its technology could revolutionize high-rise structures resulting in “futuristic buildings that previously could only be dreamed of.”

[Quartz vis Discovery]

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Move over, Project Ara: the Puzzlephone wants to make modular smartphones even simpler

With Project Ara and Finnish startup Vsenn promising to bring modular smartphones to the world sometime next year, it’s only fitting that another Finnish entrant, Circular Devices, enters the ring with a modular smartphone of its own. Dubbed the Puzzlephone, the handset provides an alternative concept to Project Ara and Vsenn by emphasizing simplicity and approachable pricing.

The Puzzlephone is broken down into three main components: the Spine, the Heart, and the Brain. The Spine is comprised of the LCD and speakers, while providing the basic structure of the phone. The Heart, meanwhile, is where you’ll find the battery and secondary electronics. Finally, the Brain contains the processor and camera modules.

Related: This startup wants to take on Project Ara with its own modular smartphone

The project has been in development since 2013, though Circular Devices as a company was formally founded in September 2014 and is based in Espoo, Finland, where Nokia is headquartered. According to Puzzlephone’s website, the company is now at a point where it can produce working prototypes, though mass availability won’t happen until the second half of 2015. Even so, Circular Devices looks to undercut its competitors by selling the Puzzlephone at a mid-range price, so long as the funding and support is there. The pricing could undercut Vsenn, which plans to sell its modular handset for under 590 euros in Europe.

Circular Devices is intent on setting open source standards with the Puzzlephone, even though the company will utilize a forked version of Android for the first go-round. This runs contrary to Project Ara, which will surely use a stock version of Android with a few changes here and there. At their cores, however, the philosophy driving the Puzzlephone and Project Ara, as well as Vsenn’s modular smartphone, remains the same: the drive to lower electronic waste.

As things stand now, if the camera on your phone is damaged for some reason, there is no way to fix it, even though the LCD screen and processor may still work fine. That’s just one example. These modular smartphone companies hope to change this by building phones where you can swap out components you want to replace without throwing the whole thing away. Whether the Puzzlephone will be successful is another matter, but with Project Ara, Vsenn, and now Circular Devices all entering the modular smartphone space, things will get interesting in the years to come.

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Valve stares down Twitch with the launch of Steam Broadcasting

Valve has joined the game streaming scene with the announcement of Steam Broadcasting. This new feature, just launched in beta, allows Steam users to watch other people playing games live without leaving Valve’s storefront/launcher client.

Steam users already get a pop-up notification whenever someone from their friend list starts playing a game. Now they also have the option to jump right in to observing and commenting with the click of a button. The user of course has control over their privacy settings for a stream, ranging from invitation-only to public. Public play is accessible through the given game’s hub page.

Streams can be watched both from the Steam client and in a Chrome or Safari browser. Currently, the service only enables live streaming, with no way to archive and share feeds later.

Related: Amazon gets into games by acquiring Twitch streaming service for $970 million

Twitch, the current leader in game streaming (recently acquired by Amazon), has already responded to the new competition, expressing satisfaction that the field is growing.

VP of Marketing Matthew DiPietro explained in a statement: “We are huge fans of Steam and work with Valve regularly on various events and product integrations. While Steam’s broadcasting solution and the Twitch platform are very different things with vastly different feature sets, it’s really validating to see a company like Valve embrace streaming in this way. Live video is the future of social connectivity for gamers and this is another proof point. We wish them the best of luck.”

Any Steam user can give the new feature a try now. Go to Settings > Account and set “Beta Participation” to “Steam Beta Update” to enable it.

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Why Kickstarter is great for coolers, and terrible for feature films

My junior year of college, a business grad student came into one of my film classes seeking help for a project. His project wasn’t a student film. It wasn’t a film at all. It was a website that would allow anyone with Internet access to help finance the production of independent films. I’d love to say this guy went on to found Kickstarter … but, alas, this was back in 1999. His venture, MovieShares.com, despite some Wall Street backing, never got off the ground.

That’s a shame, because in many ways, his idea was much better for film-lovers than Kickstarter. It’s a great way to crowd source the development of tangible products that can one-day ship to backers. But it’s a terrible way to finance feature-length films that you hope will one day be seen in theaters by as many people as possible.

Kickstarter gets around the whole “profit-sharing thing” by avoiding the issue entirely.

Let’s go back to MovieShares.com for a minute. The thing that made it better than Kickstarter (for film financing, at least) is, sadly, the reason it was doomed to fail. The idea behind Movieshares was to let people “invest” in independent films and own a piece of them. Not only could you help finance the production of a film, but once the film turned a profit, you’d get your investment back and then some. The problem? Most films never make a profit, particularly independently-produced ones. Had the MovieShares.com site had launched, it wouldn’t have lasted very long with that kind of a track record.

Kickstarter gets around the whole “profit-sharing thing” by avoiding the issue entirely. As of this writing, the most successful Kickstarter campaign ever – for any kind of product – is a fancy drink cooler. Yes, a cooler, the kind you’d take camping or to the beach. Initially seeking $50,000, the project went on to garner over $13 million in funding. People didn’t contribute that much money for a piece of the company. They did it for an awesome (if overly elaborate) way to keep their drinks cold. The company essentially pre-sold $13 million worth of product.

Feature films are a lot harder to “pre-sell” than a fancy tail-gating accessory. Take Zach Braff’s famous Kickstarter campaign for Wish I Was Here. For a $10 contribution, about the price of a movie ticket, you got production updates via email and a PDF of the script “right before the movie comes out.” What didn’t you get? An actual movie ticket to see the thing you backed. For $20, more than the price of a movie ticket, you got the updates, the PDF, and a link to stream the movie’s soundtrack (not download, just stream), and still no ticket. It wasn’t until you gave $30 that you actually got a chance to see the movie you backed without shelling out for tickets on top of your contribution. And even then, the “screening” you got to attend was available only online, and only at certain times. No level of backing got you a DVD or Blu-ray of the film, and only the highest levels of support even got you invited to a live screening in select cities.

Feature films are a lot harder to “pre-sell” than a fancy tail-gating accessory.

Let me be clear on this: I’m not harping on Zach Braff for asking fans to finance a film sight-unseen, as some critics have. But his experience shows how hard it is to presell something intangible like a theatrical experience.

The Veronica Mars movie, another high-profile Kickstarter campaign, had similar benchmarks for contributors – and no actual tickets to see the movie. The reason you haven’t seen any Kickstarter-backed films include tickets is simple: They can’t. Kickstarter can help finance the production of a film, but you’re still going to need a distributor to get it in theaters, and you’re not going to get a good distribution deal if a high percentage of first weekend gross is already off the table. That’s why filmmakers have to offer things that won’t eat into a distributor’s potential earnings. Veronica Mars was able to at least offer a digital download of the movie, because Warner Bros. had already signed on as a distributor (though even that didn’t go smoothly).

Without even offering real movie tickets, the producers of Wish I Was Here and Veronica Mars still raised millions, enough to greenlight the production of both projects. That’s because they were able to target their Kickstarter campaign towards established fan bases. For Zach Braff, it was fans of Garden State. For Veronica Mars, it was fans of, well, Veronica Mars. But if you don’t have an established fan base to target, you’re basically screwed for crowd sourcing. Just ask acclaimed-director Paul Schrader and best-selling novelist Bret Easton Ellis, whose original project The Canyons got just a tiny fraction of the support Wish and Veronica got.

Preselling a film to an established fan base comes with its own major risk, though. By tailoring the experience to such a core group, it’s harder to sell your feature to a wider audience upon release without alienating your fans and backers. The version of Veronica Mars that Warner Bros. would’ve put into 2,000 theaters (as opposed to the 291-theater release it did get) probably wouldn’t have been as faithful to the source material as the one that ultimately got made, which is steeped in the mythology of the series. Attracting new fans without losing old ones is a terrible catch 22 faced by the makers of any adaptation, but Kickstarter amplifies the risks because you’re asking fans to give you more than just their time. You’re asking fans to financially invest in the success of the film, without actually rewarding them if new fans do show up. All you’re doing is risking pissing them off.

If you don’t have an established fan base to target, you’re basically screwed for crowd sourcing.

Zach Braff was very open about his reason for turning to Kickstarter. Despite having other options, he turned to Kickstarter in order to retain as much creative control as possible, as taking money from a studio (or any other single investor) before a film is made frequently comes with strings attached. Braff won. He got his movie made while retaining complete control of the project. But Wish I Was Here wasn’t nearly as successful as Garden State. Could a studio partner at the onset have changed the film’s fortunes? Possibly, but I think the “critical consensus” on RottenTomatoes.com summed things up best:

“There’s no denying Wish I Was Here is heartfelt, but it covers narrative ground that’s already been well trod — particularly by director Zach Braff’s previous features.”

Zach Braff delivered exactly what the film’s Kickstarter supports wanted – a thematic sequel to his directorial debut. That also limited its appeal beyond the diehard fans of Garden State.

There’s a reason why the overwhelming majority of successful crowd-sourced film campaigns are documentaries and short films: Those kinds of projects aren’t reliant on a theatrical exhibition for success. Until crowd-sourcing gets its own My Big Fat Greek Wedding or Napolean Dynamite (two low budget crowd-pleasers that defied their indie roots to find mainstream success), that’s going to continue to be the case.

Making any movie is a nearly impossible task, and if Kickstarter can help make a film that otherwise wouldn’t exist, go for it. But when make a movie with crowd funding, you had better be prepared to appease the crowd.

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Office’s clip art finally succumbs to modern image search

Say goodbyte to the best friend of PowerPoint presentations throughout the 90’s, adder of pizzazz to financial reports, and the best way anyone and their grandma could make a birthday card feel a little more personal. Today Microsoft announced it’s shutting down the Clip Art website in a bid to get more people to switch over to their in-house search service Bing.

According to a blog post by the company the image library has seen a steady decline over the past ten years as more people grow past the need to plaster outdated vector drawings around the edges of their book reports and instead opt to use services like Google Images to give their project that extra pop. The aging archive of Clip Art just isn’t as attractive as it used to be.

Related:

The Office.com Clip Art and image library has closed shop. Customers can still add images to their documents, presentations, and other files that they have saved to their devices (phones, tablets, and PCs), OneDrive, and SharePoint. Customers also still have the ability to add images to their documents using Bing Image Search [which has] higher quality images that are more up-to-date,” the Office team wrote.

And while the move makes sense, all things considered, the demise of Clip Art does feel like the end of an era.

Microsoft says that once the library closes up shop for good all Clip Art images will still be searchable through Bing under a creative commons license. That’s good news if you’re feeling especially nostalgic and Clippy just isn’t getting the job done like he used to.

A guide to how to find these images can be found in their own tutorial, linked on the Office Support site here.

Contributor Chris Stobing provided the text for this video news post.

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Xiaomi’s on the move: Firm invests in Shine makers Misfit, and may launch a $100 tablet

Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi is already a significant challenger to established mobile manufacturers in China, and according to the latest rumors it’s turning its attention to the low-cost tablet market, and may launch a new slate to take on the iPad Mini, Samsung’s Galaxy tablets, and any number of models from Huawei, ZTE, and others. Additionally, the firm has made its first investment in a U.S. company, after pledging $40 million to wearable tech company Misfit.

Starting with the tablet, the news comes from Business Korea and quotes anonymous sources in the industry, who state Xiaomi has a 9.2-inch tablet waiting to be released next year. The screen size puts it midway between the iPad and the iPad Mini, but the potential price is well below both Apple models and the majority of its competitors. It’s expected to cost around $100.

Related: Leaked Xiaomi Mi5 could mean the end of firm’s budget prices

Normally, a low price like this would mean a low specification, but Xiaomi is best known for producing well-specced hardware at a great price. The unnamed tablet may have both Wi-Fi and 4G LTE connectivity built in, a 1280 x 720 pixel screen, a Snapdragon 410 processor with 1GB of RAM, plus two cameras. Xiaomi’s modified version of Android will most likely be installed, providing access to the company’s own application store, rather than Google Play.

If the tablet turns out to be real, it won’t be the first time Xiaomi has launched one. In May, it released the Mi Pad, a $240, 7.9-inch tablet directly aimed at the iPad Mini 2, complete with a Retina Display-matching resolution, and a strong 2.2GHz Nvidia Tegra K1 chip inside.

Industry analysts IDC show Apple has nearly 30 percent of the tablet market in China, with Samsung struggling at 7.6 percent in second place. Xiaomi is right behind with 7 percent, which it has obtained by selling a single tablet. A cheaper Xiaomi tablet probably won’t cause Apple much worry, but it could upset Samsung, which is already having to deal with falling smartphone sales, and won’t want similar problems with its tablet range. It’s unofficial for now, but if the report is accurate, the new Xiaomi tablet will be out early in 2015.

Xiaomi’s investment in Misfit is a first for the company. Best known for its Shine fitness tracker, Misfit confirmed on December 2 the Chinese smartphone brand was among its latest investors. Xiaomi’s no stranger to the world of fitness wearables either, and launched the $13 Mi Band earlier this year. Hugo Barra, the executive responsible for Xiaomi’s international expansion, has mentioned in the past Xiaomi is experimenting with other wearable devices including a smartwatch.

The company is among the top smartphone manufacturers in the world, but its co-founder remains cautious on the future. Speaking at a summit in Hong Kong, he said that just because Xiaomi is doing well now, the intense competition in the mobile world means it could all change tomorrow. “The biggest challenge for us,” he explained, “is if we can push innovation and low prices on a yearly basis. Technology innovation is the most important element for success.”

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OnePlus Two news: Launch date is still up in the air

Smartphone newcomer OnePlus has a new phone in the works, which is being referred to as the OnePlus Two. First discussed in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) Reddit session, the OnePlus Two is set to debut next year between April and September, assuming everything goes according to plan. The company has also hinted at the possibility of a wearable device, but did not mention any specifics.

Since then, more news of the OnePlus Two smartphone has leaked on the Internet, so we’ve put together everything we know so far about the phone into this handy roundup post.

Updated on 12-03-2014 by Malarie Gokey: Added news from Carl Pei, Director of OnePlus Global, confirming the launch date of the Two.

A few months ago when OnePlus first confirmed the existence of the OnePlus Two, the company stated that the Two will launch between April and September of 2015. Since then, OnePlus’ Carl Pei has continued to place the release date in that large timeframe, without specifying an exact date. In early December, Pei told BGR India the handset will launch in either the second quarter or the third quarter of 2015, reiterating the vague window mentioned before.

OnePlus’ first smartphone wowed tech fans with its unique design and original style. It seems that OnePlus is continuing on that path with the Two, as a report from Business Insider states the company’s next handset will be even more customizable. The first time around, OnePlus offered limited numbers of special StyleSwap backs for the One, including the very popular and extremely elusive bamboo back. Those who manage to get their hands on a OnePlus Two will have even more color and material options.

The main attraction of the OnePlus One was its incredibly low price paired with high-end hardware. The Chinese company priced its phone so low that it barely makes a profit off of the sales. Luckily, a source told Business Insider that OnePlus will sell the Two for much less than the standard $500-and-up price tag of your average high-end smartphone. No specific number was mentioned.

Related: Read our OnePlus One Review

Although the specifications have yet to be announced or leaked to the public, those familiar with OnePlus’ plans say the hardware on the Two will be high-end and powerful. Additionally, the startup reportedly has a few surprises in store for us when it comes to hardware.

The first OnePlus smartphone runs CyanogenMod’s own custom ROM built upon Android and many expected that it would appear on the OnePlus Two as well. However, CEO Peter Lau recently told a Chinese publication that he has a team working on a home-grown custom ROM for the next phone. OnePlus later clarified those reports in a statement to Android Authority. The startup smartphone maker says the in-house ROM will only ship on units that are bound for China. Other versions of the OnePlus Two will operate on a different system, though the team did not confirm whether that ROM will be from CyanogenMod or not.

The AMA was hosted by OnePlus’ Carl Pei and David S. on Reddit. The two answered questions on several topics, including preorders, the limited supply of OnePlus One smartphones, and future products. The company agreed that it underestimated demand for its first smartphone, but added that it remains committed to its motto of “Never Settle.” Initially, preorders for the OnePlus will only be open for a limited amount of time, due to production limitations.

“Things definitely haven’t gone as planned,” Pei said. “Looking back, we probably misjudged demand by 30x, and are scrambling to catch up. Our team wasn’t built to handle this growth. We’re hiring like crazy, and things should be under control in a few months.”

In the meantime, OnePlus said it’s focused on creating the OnePlus Two, so that sufficient numbers of the device will be available ahead of the projected 2015 launch. The company didn’t reveal much about the device’s specs or price, but it did hint that the OnePlus Two may be smaller than the original.

“We’ve seen a lot of people asking for a smaller device, and want to let everyone know that we hear you,” OnePlus said. “We’re thinking about it.”

Related: OnePlus axes the invite system, promises to add preorders

Unfortunately, OnePlus said that it will probably use the invite system for its next smartphone too, before moving on to limited preorders again. “It will probably be invite-only for a short period of time, after which pre-orders are rolled out,” OnePlus wrote, much to the chagrin of every fan who’s been slighted by the highly selective system.

The company also addressed rumors that it’s working on a wearable device. “Re: wearables,” OnePlus wrote in response to a fan’s question about the new category. “Yes. Unsure if/when/how we’ll release it though.”

Images of the OneWatch leaked earlier this summer, so it’s entirely possible that OnePlus was just being coy. Either that, or the pictures aren’t real.

Updated on 11-24-2014 by Malarie Gokey: Added new report detailing design, price, and other surprises.

Updated on 10-29-2014 by Malarie Gokey: Added confirmed report that OnePlus will build its own custom Android ROM for the company’s next handset.

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Twitter beefs up tools to fight trolls

Twitter says it’s implementing changes to make it easier for its users to report abuse while at the same time rolling out improvements to its ‘block’ feature. The move follows increasing pressure on the company following a number of high-profile cases of harassment on the service.

“We’re improving the reporting process to make it much more mobile-friendly, require less initial information, and, overall, make it simpler to flag Tweets and accounts for review,” Twitter’s Shreyas Doshi wrote in a post announcing the enhancements, adding that the changes will also make the reporting procedure easier for those who come across abuse directed at others.

The Twitter team charged with dealing with reports of abuse has also reviewed its own procedures, and should now respond in a more timely fashion, Doshi said.

Starting today we’re rolling out an improved way to flag abusive Tweets. See how it works. https://t.co/Yf6cStz0z1

— Twitter Support (@Support) December 2, 2014

Related: Twitter to track your apps to help it deliver ‘a more tailored experience’

Relentless abuse directed toward some Twitter users – both those in the public eye with millions of followers and general users with far fewer – has led many to quit the microblogging service in disgust, with a number of them urging Twitter to do more to deal with harassment.

A tipping point appeared to come over the summer when Zelda Williams left the service following abuse related to her actor father who’d ended his life just a few days earlier. Twitter said at the time it was evaluating its policies “to better handle tragic situations like this one.”

Another high-profile case, this time in the UK, involved a Twitter user threatening a UK lawmaker with rape and resulted in a 33-year-old man receiving a four-month jail term in September. More recently, Gamergate highlighted the issue of abuse on social media sites.

This week’s Twitter update is currently being tried out with a small number of users, and will be rolled out to all in the coming weeks. Doshi added that Twitter is “nowhere near being done making changes in this area,” with further enhancements set to be introduced early next year.

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Verizon gives up on SugarString, the odd tech news site that never was

Definitely one of the stranger experiments from Verizon in recent history, the wireless service provider has shut down a fledgling tech news site that was forbidden to write stories about U.S. surveillance issues or take a position on Net neutrality. Called SugarString, Verizon took the site completely offline as well as removing the official SugarString social pages on both Facebook and Twitter.

During November, Verizon was forced to distance the company from the site after a recruiting email from former SugarString editor-in-chief Cole Stryker mentioned that specific topics would be censored on the site. Stryker has been fairly silent on Twitter since the public release of the email.

Originally, Verizon attempted to defend the site by stating “SugarString is a pilot project from Verizon Wireless’ marketing group, designed to address tech trends, especially those of interest to our customers. Unlike the characterization by its new editor, SugarString is open to all topics that fit its mission and elevate the conversation around technology.”

However, according to a statement provided to DSLReports from a Verizon Wireless representative, the company now says “We’ve always said this was a pilot project; and as with any pilot project, we evaluate, take our learnings, improve our execution and move forward. That’s what we’ve decided to do here.” It’s likely that part of the decision to shut down the site was due to the tarnished reputation of SugarString and ensuing mockery that occurred on social media.

Of course, the misguided content direction on the site wasn’t the only obvious misstep of Verizon. The marketing group behind SugarString appeared to have dumped significant amounts of money into promoting early content on both Facebook and Twitter as well as purchasing ads to increase likes and follows by tens of thousands on those social accounts. That tactic was likely chosen to artificially make the pages appear active. Since both of those pages have been wiped from the Web at this point, that marketing budget was completely wasted on social advertising.

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The new YotaPhone 2 has a touchscreen on the front and the back (Updated)

Back in February, Yota showed off a new prototype of the famous dual-screened YotaPhone, and now the company has unveiled the YotaPhone 2 at an event in London. The second-generation YotaPhone has the same party trick as the original – an AMOLED screen on the front, and an e-paper screen on the back.

Updated on 12-03-2014 by Andy Boxall: Added in final specifications, pictures, and details from the launch event

Yota teased the YotaPhone 2 on its official Twitter account in November, so the design and the specifications are familiar. On the front of the YotaPhone 2 is a 5-inch, 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, and on the rear is a monochrome 4.7-inch, e-paper display with a 960 x 540 pixel resolution. While a dual-screened phone sounds like a real battery hog, the combination of the two actually helps preserve battery life, due to the e-paper display only drawing power when it refreshes.

Related: Putin presents Chinese leader with a YotaPhone

#YotaPhone2 will be presented December 3! We will celebrate with a by-invitation only event in London – stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/Ip7ImCSu5F

— YotaPhone (@YotaPhone) November 17, 2014

A major difference between the YotaPhone 2 and the original is the rear screen is now touch controlled, rather than relying on the awkward touch panel used before. Each display is covered in Gorilla Glass 3 for improved feel and protection.

In addition to the two screens, the YotaPhone 2 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0. A wirelessly charged 2500mAh battery is inside the 9mm thick phone, and depending on how you use the YotaPhone 2, that e-paper screen could save you a lot of energy — especially if you read ebooks on your phone.

There is an 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and autofocus fitted to Yota’s newest phone, plus a 2.1-megapixel selfie cam. Other features include 4G LTE connectivity, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and 32GB of internal storage space.

Yota will put the YotaPhone 2 on sale in the UK during December, and it’ll be available in limited numbers through both its own online store, and selected retailers including Clove Technology. The price and exact release date has yet to be confirmed, but in Russia, it costs the equivalent of $600. A U.S. release isn’t expected.

Article originally published on 11-17-2014

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