Friday, December 28, 2012

iPhone Smartwatch to be launched in 2013?




Apple and Intel are working together to create a Bluetooth-equipped smartwatch in 2013, according to one Chinese technology news source.

Tech site TGbus says the watch would connect to the iPhone, allowing you to remotely operate the phone from your wrist. That means you could send out text messages, answer calls, or even update your Facebook status on the device while your iPhone is in a pocket or charging nearby.

An iPhone-compatible smartwatch is certainly in a high demand. Earlier this year a Kickstarter for the Pebble smartwatch raised over $10 million in funding from 70,000 people who want one of the watches, $500k of that funding raised during the company’s first day on Kickstarter’s website.

Pebble has yet to ship to customers, but the company is allowing customers who didn’t support the Kickstarter to pre-order the watch now for $150.

Another smartwatch, made by Martian, is expected to be available early next year. That watch is designed to look more like traditional watches, adding a small LED screen with users can see texts, as well as notifications from Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail.

The watch can also accept calls, and has Siri-integration.


Apple recently discontinued the square iPod nano, which many Apple fans have previously used to create their own Apple-branded smartwatches.





Thursday, December 27, 2012

Free Calling for Gmail Users



Gmail users in the U.S. and Canada will get free calling for another year (2013), Google announced Wednesday.

"You'll continue to be able to make free domestic calls through 2013," Mayur Kamat, a product manager at the company, said in a blog post.

Users with Internet connection and a microphone can make calls to any phone from within the email client. An option to "Call phone," indicated by a phone-receiver icon, is part of Google Chat's menu; when clicked, a pop-up with a dial pad appears.




Sunday, December 23, 2012

Apple iPad mini commercial: Christmas sale booster?


Apple released a new iPad mini commercial on showing off the FaceTime option. Is this a last ditch effort to get a few more Christmas sales in? It sure does appear that is what Apple is trying to do. The new TV commercial was released on Dec. 21 according to PadGadget.

Apple's 30 second video appears to show the need for the iPad or iPad mini in order to keep in touch with family and friend over the Christmas holiday. Apple is known for releasing last minute commercials in order to boost sales. The iPad and iPad mini has been on the top of most Christmas lists this year according to a Nielsen study.


Apple iPad mini commercial: Christmas sale booster?
The video features a little girl who is using FaceTime to talk to her Grandfather while singing "I'll Be Home For Christmas" on the ukelele. The iPad mini is featured side by side in the commercial.

So, will the last minute commercial from Apple have customers rushing to the stores to buy the iPad or iPad mini as a las minute Christmas gift? Apple will find out soon enough.

Check it out here



Thursday, December 20, 2012

Top 10 Doomsday Fears

Before going on the doomsday topic, it's the blogger's birthday so yeah, it's 1 day before 21/12/2012. So let's get back to the top 10 end of the world or doomsday fears.

With more and more technologies able to wreak mass destruction, a greater knowledge of what cosmic threats our planet faces, and more forms of media capable of trumpeting Armageddon, it seems as if there is more hype than ever about one supposedly impending apocalypse or another in 2012, despite all the failed doomsday predictions over the years.

Here are 10 apocalyptic scenarios that have raised fears about the end of civilization, in alphabetical order.



Aliens



Aliens have kidnapped, experimented and killed us en masse — at least in fiction. Of course, no extraterrestrials have been revealed to the world at large yet, so as far as we know we are alone in the universe. If aliens do cross interstellar distances to attack Earth, one wonders if they would really land and let themselves get shot first as movies often depict. It might be more sensible for them to bombard strategic targets and population centers from orbit first and then, perhaps, descend with robots to mop up.


Black Holes



There is widespread paranoia that the world's largest particle smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, will generate planet-gobbling black holes. Still, even if it can generate black holes, and even if these don't evaporate immediately as theory says they would, and even if these don't immediately go zipping away from Earth given the speed they would be traveling, they would be so tiny that it would take one of them about 100 hours to gobble up one proton. At that rate, the life sucker would take more than the age of the universe to consume even a milligram of matter.


There are much larger "rogue black holes," hundreds of which are suspected to roam near invisibly around the galaxy. Still, the closest rogue black hole should reside thousands of light-years away — where one light-year is the distance light travels in a year — about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).


Cosmic Impact



A catastrophic impact from a comet or asteroid is believed to be the culprit behind the mass extinctions that ended the age of dinosaurs. Even a relatively small cosmic impact could unleash untold havoc — the Tunguska explosion, which mysteriously leveled an area of Siberian forest nearly the size of Tokyo a century ago, might have been caused by an asteroid just 65 feet (20 meters) in diameter. Still, an early warning system against future cosmic impacts might be possible.


Gamma Ray Burst



Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions known in the universe, capable of releasing as much energy as our sun would during its entire 10 billion-year lifetime in anywhere from milliseconds to a minute or more. A fiery pinwheel in space named WR 104 about 8,000 light-years away could fire one in our direction, potentially causing mass extinctions on Earth.


Infection



Infectious diseases have devastated humanity throughout our history. The Black Death (bubonic plague was the most common form) killed nearly half the people in each of the regions it touched, and malaria, AIDS and other diseases continue to ravage the world today. As we encroach upon the wilderness, germs once confined to other animals are now jumping species to attack us, such as SARS, avian and swine flu and Ebola. An even greater threat might come from "superbugs," multidrug-resistant strains that might defeat our best attempts to stop them. Some say our overuse of antibiotics is driving an increase in these superbugs.


Nuclear War



Nuclear bombs ushered in decades of fear of Armageddon, and while leaders of countries with nuclear weapons are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals, nuclear terrorism still remains an urgent concern, and even a relatively limited nuclear conflict could alter climate and affect the entire globe.


Robots



Computers are getting smarter and sneakier all the time, prompting fears of robot conquest of the Earth. But it may be that robots will overcome us with love, not war — for instance, humans may prefer robot lovers.


The Sun




The sun is vital to our lives, but it could cause extreme damage to the high technology that humanity is more dependent on than ever. Solar eruptions in the modern era have disrupted radio communications and power grids, but past events may have been even more powerful, with a storm in 1859 shorting out telegraph wires, causing fires in North America and Europe, and triggering extraordinary auroras — the light shows visible near Earth's poles — bright enough to read by.

A storm that powerful nowadays would likely have devastating impacts, since our electrical and communications infrastructures are so much more developed, with a recent report from the U.S National Academy of Sciences finding that one could cause up to $2 trillion in initial damages by paralyzing communications on Earth and fueling chaos around the world.


Supervolcanoes



A number of volcanoes around the world are capable of gigantic eruptions unlike anything witnessed in recorded history, dwarfing those of Mount St. Helens, Krakatoa and anything else going back dozens of millennia. These supervolcanoes can disrupt the world's climate and challenge life globally. Unlike other threats to mankind, such as cosmic impacts or nuclear attacks, no known strategies exist for averting a super-eruption.


Zombies



There are brain-controlling parasites effectively capable of turning ants into zombies, but no known germs can turn people into the walking dead. Still, researchers do use the zombie scenario to study how epidemics spread.


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Boycott Instagram?




A day after Instagram's brazen new privacy policy landed on our virtual desks with a thud, the Interwebs are a-flurry with outrage and opposition.

Much of that outrage was taking place on Twitter, where the hashtag #boycottInstagram was trending early Tuesday. Its most prominent user: the hacker group Anonymous. This got more than 500 retweets in a few hours.


Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Google Maps for iOS




Google Maps became the top free app in the Apple App Store just a few hours after it was released late Wednesday. Now, we know just how popular the app has really been.

Jeff Huber, the SVP of geo and commerce at Google, revealed in a Google+ post that the company's new maps app for iOS was downloaded more than 10 million times in less than 48 hours after it was released.

"We're excited for the positive reception of Google Maps for iPhone around the world," Huber wrote in the post. "Congratulations to the Maps Team on the recognition for the passion and hard work they poured into it, for this release and over the last 7+ years."

Google's app brings back some of the functionality no longer found in the built-in maps software, which Apple replaced with its own data and services as part of iOS 6. That includes Google's Street View technology and public transit directions, while also adding new features like spoken turn-by-turn driving directions and vector-based map tiles.


To put the 10 million number in perspective: Apple in October said that more than 200 million users were running iOS 6, about half of the some 400 million iOS devices sold until that point. Users on iOS 5 and below continue to run Apple's mapping software that uses data from Google. Neither company has said just how long that functionality will continue.

Early reviews of the new Google Maps app have been incredibly positive with some top reviewers writing that it puts Apple's maps app to shame.



Monday, December 17, 2012

iPhone 5 Sales in China


Apple has sold more than 2 million units of the iPhone 5 in China, setting a new record for best first-weekend sales in the country.

"Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products."

Locals responded to the smartphone with less enthusiasm than in previous years, according to the the Wall Street Journal. The news is a turnaround for Apple, which saw its stock drop 4% in early trading on Friday, falling to as low as $509 a share over concerns about low demand for the iPhone 5 in China.

"Apple's flagship store in Beijing's upscale Sanlitun shopping district began selling the iPhone 5 for the first time on Friday in what was arguably the least eventful launch of an Apple device in the company's four-year history in the Chinese capital."

Three days after the iPhone 5's initial launch on Sept. 21, Apple announced that it sold more than 5 million units of the device, which was then available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK.

The company also reported that demand for the iPhone 5 exceeded its "initial supply." Apple's flagship smartphone, which features a 4-inch Retina display, is its thinnest and lightest ever.

Considering earlier negative reports, are you surprised by Apple's successful iPhone 5 launch in China? Discuss in the comments below.


Facebook Interns


Facebook has reclaimed the top spot of best place to work in the U.S., according to Glassdoor's Employee Choice Awards, and it's got perks even for interns.

Facebook's interns make between $5,600 and $6,300 per month -- the equivalent of $65,000 to $75,000 per year.

Are Facebook's interns making too much money? Tech interns are among the highest paid in the U.S., but summer banking analysts rake in roughly the same amount. Large salaries are a way for companies to lure top talent from schools early on, although Facebook seems to maintain this post-internship; a software engineering job brings in $114,000 a year.


Sunday, December 16, 2012

The end of the world



Worried the end of the world is coming on Friday? A new video from NASA will calm your fears, citing "the whole thing is a misconception from the very beginning."

According to news reports circulating for years, an ancient Mayan prophecy named Friday, Dec. 21 2012 as the day the world would come to an end. The NASA video says one cycle of the Mayan ends on this day, but that doesn't mean the Earth will cease to exist.

"Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012," NASA said in a statement on its webpage dedicated to questions about Dec. 21. "This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar."

The video comes shortly after NASA held a Google+ Hangout to discuss the topic. NASA scientist Don Yeamans stated no known asteroids, comets or rogue planets are headed toward the Earth. (If this was the case, we would already be able to see it in the sky). And the sun isn't a threat now either.

"The world will not end in 2012," NASA said. "Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012."


So will the world end on Dec 21? We'd soon find out


Thursday, December 13, 2012

Gangnam Style by PSY


"Gangnam Style" is a K-pop single by South Korean musician PSY. The song was released on July 15, 2012, as the lead single of his sixth studio album PSY 6 (Six Rules), Part 1. "Gangnam Style" debuted at number one on the Gaon Chart, the national record chart of South Korea. As of December 12, 2012, the music video has been viewed over 939 million times on YouTube, and is the site's most watched video after surpassing Justin Bieber's single "Baby."

The phrase "Gangnam Style" is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul. The song and its accompanying music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular culture since then. "Gangnam Style" received mixed to positive reviews, with praise going to its catchy beat and PSY's amusing dance moves in the music video and during live performances in various locations such as Madison Square Garden, The Today Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Samsung commercials. On September 20, 2012, "Gangnam Style" was recognized by Guinness World Records as the most "liked" video in YouTube history. It subsequently won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards held later that year.



It became a source of parodies and reaction videos by many different groups, organizations, and individuals, including The Oregon Duck, midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy, and the North Korean government. By the end of 2012, the song had reached the number one position in more than 30 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Although the song's reception in Japan remained lukewarm, the song topped China's Baidu 500 download list and was labelled by state-controlled media as having a "divine melody."

As the song continued to rapidly gain popularity and ubiquity, its signature dance moves were performed by many business and political leaders such as Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who hailed the song as a "force for world peace". The song's influence on political activism was exemplified by the film Gangnam for Freedom. It was produced by the British sculptor Anish Kapoor to advocate the freedom of expression and had subsequently won the support of various human rights organisations including Index on Censorship and Amnesty International. According to the United Nations' news division, PSY has become an "international sensation" through his song "Gangnam Style."

=======================================

How and why PSY wrote the "Gangnam Style"

People who are actually from Gangnam never proclaim that they are. It's only the posers and wannabes that put on these airs and say that they are "Gangnam Style" so this song is actually poking fun at those kinds of people who are trying so hard to be something that they're not.

-PSY


Check out PSY's Gangnam Style video if you still haven't seen this video because at this rate, he gets 8 million views per day and soon he will reach the 1 billion benchmark before the end of 2012.





Wednesday, December 12, 2012

12/12/12 or 12.12.12


For those who like to get a bit nerdy with their numbers, one of the century's most significant dates is approaching. Wednesday is 12/12/12, the last of the great repeating dates to occur in our lifetimes -- unless you're planning to live until Jan. 1, 2101, that is.
Despite its auspicious status, 12/12/12 doesn't seem to be quite as big a deal as 11/11/11 was. That milestone date had the added bonus of being a binary number; that's why it was also known as Nerd New Year (binary joke tagline: "it's ON!"). It was also Veteran's Day, of course, making 11:11 a.m. on that Nov. 11 even more sublime than normal.
So how to celebrate 12/12/12? Read all the signs in your daily horoscope? Bowl a perfect game in 12 strikes? Crank up "The 12 Days of Christmas" 12 times until your work colleagues run you out on a rail?
Well, first of all, there's the Concert for Sandy Relief, taking place at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night. The lineup is truly star-studded -- from Clapton to McCartney via the Stones, the Who and the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. It'll be streaming live on nearly 30 websites, including YouTube, MTV.com and Hulu. There are worse ways to spend an evening, and it's for a good cause.
So how are you going to celebrate 12/12/12 ? Are you gonna just share some 9gag pictures and post it in your Facebook wall " Brace Yourself, 12/12/12 posts are coming?" At least I made the 12/12/12 blog post and if you happened to stumbled to my blog, I hope you enjoyed reading this. 
:)










Tuesday, December 11, 2012

5/12/2012

This is the day that marks another great chapter of my life. 1 year and approximately 6 months attached with one of the top web hosting company.

Due to different directions, we have to part ways and I must say, I have had one of the best experience and also it has taught me a lot. Time for a new challenge. So yeah

Challenge Accepted !!!



Thursday, September 27, 2012

How do you handle adversity?


A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as when one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In
 the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil; without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?”

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. “Which are you?” she asked her daughter.

When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level?

How do you handle adversity?
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?



Friday, May 25, 2012

Mao Sugiyama, A Japanese Artist Cooks and Serves His Own Genitals to 5 Diners at Public ‘Ham Cybele’ Banquet




A Japanese artist publicly cooked and served his own surgically-removed genitals to five “lucky” diners in Tokyo last month.

CalorieLab reports  that Mao Sugiyama, aka “HC,” came up with the insanely unique idea of grilling his own manhood and was able to do so after undergoing a radical surgical procedure in which his penis and testicles were removed. Sugiyama, who is a self-described ‘asexual,’ treated himself to the surgery for his 22nd birthday.

After the surgery, Sugiyama tweeted:

[Please Retweet] I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen [$1,250]. I’m Japanese. The organs were surgically removed at age 22. I was tested to be free of venereal diseases. The organs were of normal function. I was not receiving female hormone treatment. The length at full erection was 16.1 cm [6.3 inches]. First interested buyer will get them, or I will also consider selling to a group. Will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location. If you have questions, please contact me by DM or e-mail.

That tweet generated so much buzz that Sugiyama decided to host a public tasting, which he called ‘Ham Cybele- Century Banquet,’ at Tokyo’s Asagaya Loft event space. Six people signed up for the $250/plate experience; five of them showed up for the big date. Sugiyama, dressed in chef’s attire, seasoned and braised his own genitals on a portable gas burner and served them up in various creative dishes.

Shigenobu Matsuzawa, a 29-year-old event planner, was one of the “lucky” diners. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so I decided on the spur of the moment to do it,” he tweeted.

Diners had to sign waivers releasing Sugiyama from anything that might have gone wrong from eating human genitals. A local police spokesman told CalorieLab that despite many citizen complaints, there was nothing they could do, since cannibalism isn’t illegal in Japan.

But, “we’re going to talk to the people at Asagaya Loft and ask them what is going on and why they hosted such an event,” the spokesman said.


From L to R: testicle, scrotum, penis. 



Dafuq did you just read???
Well this occured in my mind as well
:)

Monday, May 14, 2012

I am so lost

Dafuq? After months or years since I logged into my private property, I am so lost now. I feel like Captain America. Did I just slept for 70 years? The dashboard is so fresh and it even comes with Analytic? Is that Google Analytic? Ouuu Emmm Geeee (OMG), I mean this shit should have been implemented when I started blogging. My gosh!!!! I seriously do hope Blogger will kick WordPress's ass and Google can rule the world for once.

Just wanted to test out some features and update about my obsession on 4sq badges but it turns out I just opened up a Pandora Box and somehow a black hole just sucked me and put me through layers of dimension and throw my skinny ass into the land of Na'vi and I am seeing colorful shit in here. The dashboard looks fresh certainly and not forgetting the sleek layout as well. It's so Google+'ish if you know what I mean.

That's all for now as I'm actually blogging from my office workspace. I'll check you out real soon (I mean Blogger aka Blogspot) and I shall revamp lots of shiz niz. Now I seriously know how Captain America feels. So lost and so confusing but at the same time curious to find out what shit he can do after knowing the real shiz niz and gain ultimate POWAHHHHHH !!!!!

Where am I ???