The Week: Most Recent Tech Posts

Huawei's new super-thin P6 smartphone is also perfect for selfies

By Chris Gayomali — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:58:00 -0400

The thinnest smartphone in the world isn't made by Apple, Samsung, or even HTC. That semi-coveted title now belongs to Huawei, a scrappy and immensely profitable firm from China that is intent on joining the pantheon of tech heavyweights.

Today in London, the company started punching up by taking the wraps off the Ascend P6, a 4.7-inch Android built from sleek aluminum. At just a quarter-inch thick, it kind of looks like the iPhone 5 on a diet, save for its curved bottom-edge.

"Samsung is not at the same level as this product," said Huawei CEO Richard Yu. "We want to compete with the iPhone 5...

WATCH: This robotic cat prances around like a real kitty

By Chris Gayomali — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:50:00 -0400

Swiss engineers have created a four-legged machine that mimics the stride of cats.

Developed by robotics researchers at Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EFPL), the small, housecat-sized machine isn't that fast; its top speed is just 3.1 mph. But the robo-feline's creators think they can ratchet up its speed to somewhere around the 40 mph mark, making it ideal for traversing rough terrain and conducting search-and-rescue missions. (Once they take it off its tether, at least.)

Like Boston Dynamics' much larger robo-cheetah before it, our kitty here...

Digg's replacement for Google Reader is on the way

By Chris Gayomali — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:56:00 -0400

If Google Reader getting the axe has resigned you to a solitary life of romcoms and Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Buns ice cream, take heart in the fact that Digg's RSS replacement will hit computer screens shortly.

Version 1.0 of Digg Reader will begin rolling out next week for the first 17,000 people who gave Digg feedback, according to a blog post. And everyone else should have basic access by June 28th.

"First, we want to get the basics right, starting with a clean and uncluttered design and a powerful backend infrastructure than can operate well at scale," says Digg. The company's goal is to...

WATCH: Jay-Z reveals his new career as a phone salesman

By Chris Gayomali — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:15:00 -0400

Not one to be outdone by his BFF Kanye's recent goth phase, former Def Jam CEO and basketball magnate Jay-Z took some time over the weekend to announce the next stage in his own multi-hypenate career: Smartphone salesman.

During Sunday night's Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Hov re-introduced himself during a three-minute commercial, revealing that his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, will be available beginning July 4. In fact, the album's first million copies will be free to download — the catch being that you have to own a Samsung phone: Either the Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4, or Galaxy Note...

The next 'Instagram for video' might actually come from Instagram

By Chris Gayomali — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:31:00 -0400

Facebook is keeping quiet about about a press event it has slated for June 20, so no one really knows what's on the table. Some reports suggest the social network will launch an RSS news reader, ostensibly to fill the void Google Reader will leave behind went it shuts down on July 1. Another rumor, according to an anonymous TechCrunch source, is that Facebook will announce a new feature for Instagram that lets users post short video clips à la Vine.

TechCrunch notes that although the leak may be a "red herring of its own," getting video on Instagram "is a move that would make sense."

... More

The week's best of the internet

By Chris Gayomali — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:51:00 -0400

1. Animals Doing People Things
This is a perfect Tumblr.

See?

2. Yeezus leaked
Inadvertent Chicken Soup for the Soul contributor Kanye West's new album leaked on the innanetz Friday afternoon, a few days before its official June 18 release. What does it sound like? Try guttural rap sprinkled with "Dope Show"-era Marilyn Manson and late '80s Chicago acid house — an oddly perfect mish-mash for an artist as wrought with complexity as 'Ye. Go find it and listen to it.

3. "Get Lucky" in different eras
Instead of remixing Daft Punk's "Get Lucky", a YouTube artist named PV Nova imagined what...

Why Microsoft's Xbox One has already lost to Sony's PS4

By The Week Staff — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:25:00 -0400

It was with much fanfare and applause that Sony Computer Entertainment's CEO, Andrew House, announced at Tuesday's E3 Expo that Sony's foray into the next generation of video game consoles would hit shelves this holiday season at $399, a hundred dollars cheaper than its Microsoft-made counterpart, the Xbox One.

For many, this was the kicker, the critical point with which Sony had clinched a hard-fought match. For many others, myself included, the fight had already been won.

The key issue for me and many other gamers wasn't price but what the cost of the console and video games will buy. On...

You can now edit Microsoft Office documents on your iPhone

By Chris Gayomali — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:00:00 -0400

Like a unicorn trotting out of the wilderness on a rainbow, Microsoft Office has finally arrived on the iPhone after years of fevered rumors that bordered on myth. Starting today, workaholics can poke around on their phone's tiny screen to edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

The catch is you'll need to subscribe to Office 365 and save your work in SkyDrive, which means you'll have to pony up, oh, $100 a year.

So is Office Mobile worth it?

Microsoft "isn't quite re-inventing the wheel here," says Pete Pachal at Mashable. "Microsoft has done a good job of creating 'mini' versions of these...

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom: More camera than phone?

By Chris Gayomali — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:36:00 -0400

Smartphones are rendering point-and-shoots more obsolete every day, which is why it's perfectly okay to feel some cognitive dissonance gazing upon Samsung's latest variation of the Galaxy S4. Joining the original Galaxy S4, the S4 Mini, and the Galaxy S4 Active is the newly announced Galaxy S4 Zoom, which looks more like a camera than it does a smartphone.

You'll notice that the Zoom's defining feature is a 10x optical zoom lens with a f/3.1 aperture that attaches to a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, which is about what you'd get in a lower-tier point-and-shoot in the $100 to $200 range.

But there...

Facebook has hashtags now

By Chris Gayomali — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:15:00 -0400

Since Facebook users are always uniformly delighted every time the social network suddenly reveals big changes to its platform, Mark Zuckerberg and Co. have decided to bestow users with the ability to hashtag their status updates.

The Twitter-like feature hasn't rolled out for everybody quite yet. But starting today when you post something new to your timeline, you'll be able to tag it with a clickable "#" like you already can on Twitter or Instagram. For example:

According to a Facebook blog post, soon users will be able to….

• Search for a specific hashtag from the search bar...

Why Google wants to publish every NSA request it receives

By Chris Gayomali — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:10:00 -0400

In an attempt to assuage public fears that it has not been granting the National Security Agency "unfettered access" to user data, Google has penned an open letter asking the United States government for permission to disclose information about the secret court orders the king of search receives.

David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, writes that "Google has worked tremendously hard over the past fifteen years to earn [its] users' trust," and that it has "consistently pushed back on overly broad government requests" for user data.

Assertions in the press that our compliance with these...

iOS 7's most important new feature

By Chris Gayomali — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:23:00 -0400

In spring 2012, a talented young New York City chef named Hwangbum Yang, 26, was headed uptown after a typically long shift at The Modern — a trendy restaurant tucked away in a Manhattan art museum. A Sunday school teacher and son of immigrant parents, Yang dreamed of one day returning to Korea after making a name for himself as a premier chef in the big city.

That night, however, his dream of making his parents proud was abruptly cut short. About two blocks away from his apartment in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, a twenty-something in a grey hoodie stopped in front of Yang and fired...

Xbox One: 5 details revealed at E3

By Keith Wagstaff — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:50:00 -0400

Xbox One is the all-in-one media center that will replace basically every electronic device in your living room, Microsoft gleefully announced last month. Not mentioned: Anything about video games.

That all changed Monday at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Here is what gamers can expect from the Xbox One:

1. It's not going to be cheap
The Xbox One will set you back $499 with a controller and the new, more advanced version of Kinect. Compare that to $399, which is how much the Xbox 360 cost when it came out in 2005. That was $100 less than the Playstation 3, a price gap that helped Xbox...

7 things you should know about iOS 7

By Chris Gayomali — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:40:00 -0400

Apple announced a bunch of new stuff today to kick off its Worldwide Developer Conference. There is a powerful new Mac Pro that looks like Darth Vader's recycling bin, as well as new MacBook Airs with vastly improved battery life. (Still no Retina displays, though.) Also on the horizon is a new OS X called Mavericks — no more cat names! — that borrows style elements from, well, the iPhone.

But far and away the biggest event on Monday was the unveiling of iOS 7 — the most dramatic re-imagining of Apple's mobile platform since it was first rolled out six years ago. "We wanted to...

6 things social media is ruining

By Lauren Hansen — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:30:00 -0400

1. Our national parks
If you tag a tree with spray paint in the middle of the forest and no one is there to Instagram it, will anyone know how cool you are? Such is the existential question likely being asked by the disrespectful graffiti "artists" who would dare to cover our national parks' majestic scenery with black spray paint. Rangers at Saguaro National Park in Arizona initially noticed such out-of-place markings on one of their towering cacti and red-rock buttes before doing a full surveillance of the grounds. They later identified at least 45 graffiti tags. Over the past year, the level...

Apple's WWDC 2013 keynote: Live-blogging the announcements

By Chris Gayomali — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:45:00 -0400

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off today at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST). You can watch it live for yourself here (Safari only). Here's our previous coverage on what we can expect from iOS 7. Follow along! And be sure to hit refresh every so often.

3:15 p.m.: That's all, folks! We'll have a wrap-up post coming shortly. Thanks for following along.

2:50 p.m.: Sorry for the delay, folks! Ran into technical difficulties here at the office:

New camera: You can add filters a la Instagram and VSCO Cam. Multiple people can add to the same photo stream.

Siri: Now comes with Bing results if...