Category: News

R&B singer Chris Brown, best known for beating the crap out of then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009, is once again in the news for hitting a woman. This time, though, he did it with his car, rather than inside it. Fortunately, the woman he hit was also in her car, so the damage caused was relatively minor.

According to TMZ, Brown was driving his Range Rover with current girlfriend Karrueche Tran near Toluca Lake in Los Angeles when he rear-ended a woman driving a Mercedes.

According to a photographer who was apparently following Brown around the time of the accident, the singer quickly pulled his Range Rover in front of the Mercedes and exchanged insurance information with the driver. There was no police involvement. And nobody had to go to the hospital.

Independent game developers who are excited about selling new games on the Xbox One got some bad news on Wednesday. Microsoft confirmed to ShackNews that independent developers cannot self-publish their own games on Xbox Live Arcade, and are instead required to partner with Microsoft Game Studios or a third-party publisher. The policy is completely different from those employed by Sony and Nintendo. Sony embraces independent developers and welcomes them to create and self-publish content on the PlayStation Network. Microsoft’s upcoming console matches up with Sony’s PlayStation 4 on paper, however there are still some questions that have been left unanswered, such as the ability to play used games.

The Xbox One and PS4 are still a few months away so a few of the finer details won’t be available just yet. Usually, the box art is one of the final things to be revealed with any new console, but it may have been revealed early.

The official Battlefield Facebook account was updated after the Xbox One unveiling to announce Battlefield 4 for the Xbox One and PS4. The graphic provided with the announcement features what may be the box art design for both consoles:

Of course, the designs could be placeholders for now. If it is legitimate, Sony seems to be keeping a similar box art design from what it has used with the PS3 while Microsoft will be adopting a more minimalistic design with its box art. It’s not a bad thing at all, and the deep green color looks really good.

We’ll probably see final box art design a few months before launch, but third parties, like EA in this instance, will probably leak the final box art design long before Sony or Microsoft does.

Now if only Microsoft, or a third party, would be more forthcoming about its plans for used games on the Xbox One. The official statement is that used games will be playable on the console, but Microsoft is being entirely too vague about the whole thing.

[h/t: theoneandonly283 via Reddit]

In today’s modern social media-saturated culture, many people’s first instinct when something happens to them – good or bad – is to tell the internet. Find out your pregnant? Post it to Facebook! Find a great new restaurant? Check in on Foursquare! Think of a clever one-liner? Tweet it! Cut off your finger in a shop accident? Instagram, here we come, baby!

That, at least, was the approach of Jesse James. When the famed custom motorcycle builder lost the tip of his pinky finger in an accident yesterday, almost the first thing he did was post pictures – very graphic pictures – to his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Impressively, James was able to take a joking tone about the loss of his littlest digit. The first picture he posted came with the caption “OOOpps. Bad day at the office. Headed 2 Surgery in a few. #PayUpSucker.”

In the caption on his second picture expressed doubt that his fingertip could be reattached: “Doesn’t look like this little dude’s gonna make it. Nice know’n you little buddy.”

Now, you might think that a man who’s just had part of his body lopped off might take a day off work, right? Well, in this case, you’d be wrong. James was back at the shop today, welding with his bandaged hand.

As noted above, James was not optimistic as to the fate of his forlorn finger. That said, there has not been any conformation yet as to wether the piece of his pinky could be put back on.

Ever wonder what Leonardo DiCaprio’s dad – George DiCaprio – looks like? Wonder no more:

Doesn’t he look awesome? It’s not just the looks either. Leo’s dad is also a comic book author and distributor. Now, he doesn’t work on any major releases. He works in the underground comic scene on series like Baloney Moccasins and Greaser Comics.

Fun fact – George DiCaprio is credited with giving Leonardo DiCaprio his name. The story goes that the unborn Leo began to kick in his mother’s stomach as George and his mother –
Irmelin Indenbirken – were admiring a portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci at an art gallery.

Leo’s parents split shortly after he was born, but he still remains close to them both. He even hangs out with his father at many events. Most recently, he was spotted at the premier of Leo’s new film – The Great Gatsby.

[h/t: OMG]

In the aftermath of this week’s tragic tornado outbreak in Oklahoma, many people across the country have rushed to do whatever they can to help. Donations of money, food, and other supplies have been sent by individuals and organizations in every corner of America.

Midwest City, Oklahoma native Matt Kemp is certainly no exception. The Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder pledged via Twitter on Monday, the day of the tornados, that he would donate $1,000 for every home run he hit until the All Star Break (in mid-July) to relief efforts.

While the gesture is undeniably generous, there were many who felt that it wasn’t enough. After all, critics argued, Kemp will make $20 million this year. Surely he could afford a little more than the few thousand dollars his initial grand-per-home run pledge would amount to? Well, Kemp apparently took those criticisms to heart. He announced today via the Chris Singleton Foundation that he would also donate $250,000 to relief efforts immediately, while continuing to honor his earlier $1,000 per home run pledge. Check out the announcement below:

Dear Families of OKC,
On Monday, out of concern and emotion I committed $1,000.00 for every home run I hit until the All-Star Break. It was a quick and small gesture in advance of what I knew would be my greater contribution through your rebuilding process. I am keeping my pledge and in addition, donating $250,000.00. May God bless you through this and the many generous donations coming to your aid.” -Matt Kemp #PrayforOklahoma

Kemp has spent his entire career with the Dodgers, who drafted him in 2003. He rose to the majors in 2006 and has remained. In his seven years with the team he has hit 156 home runs. Only two of those home runs have come in the 2013 season.

Two students were bitten by a fox at an elementary school today which has sparked a “fox hunt” in the area for the animal.

The AP reports that two male students were bitten by the fox after the animal found its way onto the playground at Rocky Plains Elementary School in Covington, Georgia. The two boys were immediately rescued by a teacher, and treated for the bites.

Now Newton County Animal Control is searching for the fox to make sure it wasn’t rabid. Even if they can’t catch the fox, the two boys will be treated for rabies just in case.

It’s reported that 50 kindergartners were on the playground at the time of the attack. More could have possibly been bitten if it weren’t for the teacher kicking the fox away. Unfortunately for the other schoolchildren, all outdoor activities were canceled after the attack.

It appears that rabid fox attacks are rather common. Here’s another attack from three years ago that saw two Georgia men bit:

Earlier this year we learned about a patent holding firm that came up with a novel way of making money by threatening to sue small businesses that allegedly infringed upon its scanner technology patents by using scanners in their offices. Yes, you read that correctly: An entity called “Project Paperless LLC” really has been sending out letters to small and medium-sized businesses demanding licensing fees for using office scanners capable of sending PDFs via email. Ars Technica has now provided us with an update to this story and has found that Project Paperless is just one of roughly 40 shell entities owned by a company called MPHJ Technologies that’s been sending threatening letters out to small businesses demanding that they pay $1,000 per employee for the right to use office scanners.

Continue reading…

Wireless equipment makers Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks took important first steps toward the future heterogeneous networks this week at CTIA Wireless. Both vendors announced new traffic steering technologies that make Wi-Fi and cellular data networks play nice with one another.

Today Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks sit side by side, but they hardly work together. When you’re in the presence of an authorized hotspot your device will log in, leaving the cellular connection behind. As you wander away from the access point, your Wi-Fi connection gets weaker to the point of uselessness until your device finally disconnects and forces its way back onto the cellular grid. It’s hardly an ideal or seamless experience.

These new traffic steering technologies, however, make what were once two distinct networks act as one, selecting the optimal connection at any given moment. So if you suddenly wander into a congested hotspot, the network knows to keep you connected to your 3G cell, instead of forcing you onto a useless Wi-Fi link. As the congestion levels change on those two networks, the user’s device is shifted between them in real time.

This kind of traffic steering will be a key component of heterogeneous networks, or HetNets, which will make use of different radio technologies to create multi-layered and tremendously high-capacity mobile networks. But according to Petri Hautakangas, Nokia Siemens North American head of technology, it’s just a first step. Networks and devices will eventually be able to balance traffic between networks, as well as ship data simultaneously across multiple radio connections, he said.

For Ericsson, the news also represents the full integration of BelAir Networks’ Wi-Fi hotspot technology into its cellular architecture after acquiring the Canadian vendor last year. Nokia Siemens doesn’t make its own Wi-Fi gear but it partners with Wi-Fi access point and hotspot makers like Ruckus Wireless.

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Ellen DeGeneres is apparently riding high on the news that her day time talk show was renewed as she may have just bought a $26.5m mansion.

TMZ reports that DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, dropped $26.5 million dollars on a new home in Santa Barbara. As for the details, the house features over 10 square feet, has nine fireplaces, six bedrooms, six bathrooms and is spread across 13 acres. In short – this is the kind of house that you can only wish you had.

Of course, this is just the latest in a number of properties DeGeneres owns in the area. It’s reported that she owns homes in Beverly Hills and Hidden Valley.

In other Ellen news, the comedian will be reprising the role of fan favorite Dory in the Finding Nemo sequel – Finding Dory. We can only speculate that the advance from Disney for the 2015 film helped to pay for at least part of the new home.

Imagine you’re browsing through Goodwill, looking for some deals, then dropping $4.99 on a movie poster. Then discovering that your purchase is worth $53,900 in mint condition. For Tom Glenn, of Forest Lake, Minnesota, this story was an actual reality. He was browsing through his local Goodwill when he noticed an old-school styled Lady & The Tramp movie poster. At the time, Glenn didn’t know he was in the possession of an original copy.

Which he would later discover has the potential to be worth $53,900.

KMSP-TV

Glenn frequents his local Goodwill regularly, but even he couldn’t have anticipated this sort of payday. He even admits that he didn’t think it was an original when he dropped five dollars on it, “This wasn’t looked at as a true investment. It was, ‘Hey! It’s there. I’ll grab it; see what happens”

He took the poster to an antique store in Chicago, where he discovered that his poster was genuine original. The poster had some wear and tear, not in mint condition, so he was told that he could sell it for anywhere between $20,000 – $40,000. Something tells me Mr. Glenn will be perfectly fine with that haul.

[H/T: MyFoxTwinCities]

Chocolate in and of itself is pretty magical. Now, what happens when you carve out multiple chocolate sculptures and put them into a zoetrope? Well, just watch:

Still confused? For a better explanation, here’s Pixar showing off its own Toy Story zoetrope. It’s just as, if not more, magical.

[h/t: wrestler1977 via Reddit]

Major Nelson (Larry Hryb) is the public figurehead of Xbox. If he says it’s true, you better believe it. That’s why it’s a relief to finally have him chime in on the confusion surrounding used games on the recently announced Xbox One.

In an update on the official Major Nelson blog, Hryb confirms that the Xbox One will be able to play used games. Unfortunately, he doesn’t say much more than that:

We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we’ve confirmed today. While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail.

Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios.

Well, that’s nice to know, but it doesn’t really clarify anything. What’s keeping Microsoft from just coming out and discussing its used game policy with the Xbox One? Transparency is incredibly effective when gamers everywhere are tearing your new console a new one just because they think that it won’t play used games. The above statement confirms that used games will be playable, but it doesn’t serve to address any of the specific concerns being raised on message boards across the Internet.

Well, Hryb does address one specific scenario:

Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.

Wait, so does that mean that there is a fee when not signed into the account that activated the game? How much is this fee? Is it the full price of the game? We need these details and Microsoft remaining vague only serves to frustrate.

At this point in time, it seems that we’ll have to wait for more details around E3. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll hear anything more at that point either. The mixed messages being sent yesterday makes it seem that those within Microsoft don’t even know the used game policy. We might not hear anything until we’re a month or two away from launch. Now that would be unfortunate.

On Wednesday, Microsoft rolls out an update for its YouTube Windows Phone 8 app which takes away the ability to download content from the popular video-sharing website. The latest iteration arrives one week after Google sent Microsoft a cease and desist letter, demanding the removal of the app from the Store. The deadline passes today.

Google’s grievances regarding the Microsoft-developed YouTube app focus on the removal of playback restrictions “on certain platforms”, the lack of ads and the ability to download videos. Microsoft only resolved the third complaint and, despite the rapidly-approaching deadline, the company hints that YouTube will continue to be available to Windows Phone 8 users.

I reached out to Microsoft for a comment regarding the latest update and here’s the software giant’s response:

Microsoft updated the Windows Phone YouTube app to address the restricted video and offline video access concerns voiced by Google last week. We have been in contact with Google and continue to believe that our two companies can work together to hone an app that benefits our mutual customers, partners and content providers. We’re earning new customers every day, with IDC reporting recently that Windows Phone posted the largest year-over-year gain among leading operating systems. We look forward to working with Google to maintain a great YouTube experience for the growing number of people who rely on both of our respective products.

As I previously mentioned, Google cries foul regarding Microsoft’s homebrew app when even the mobile YouTube website fails to show ads in Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 8. A number of other unofficial clients available in the Store, like Metrotube, also do not meet all three requirements mentioned above.

It is, however, reassuring to know that the two companies have decided to work together and settle their differences. The removal of the app can only hinder the YouTube experience for Windows Phone 8 users and, in such a case, neither Google nor Microsoft would win.

Infinity Ward, the acclaimed developer behind hit games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and the upcoming Call of Duty: Ghost, is looking to bring strikingly realistic models and environments to the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise. The new gaming engine that will debut with Call of Duty: Ghost later this year will deliver a variety of graphical improvements such as enhanced visual fidelity, high-resolution textures and more. The company notes that one of its new technologies, known as Sub-D, greatly improves formerly blocky details by exponentially boosting polygon counts in real-time, allowing for incredibly realistic character models that can show fine hairs, bruising, cuts and even the dirt beneath finger nails. Call of Duty: Ghost is scheduled to be released on November 5th for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC. Infinity Ward’s video follows below.

Continue reading…

Let’s face it. Bill Murray is more awesome than you, me, your friends, my friends, our families. He more awesome than Garfield and Ghostbusters 3. Just ask Dan Aykroyd about that. Anyway, Murray’s commitment to being awesome (and succeeding at it) was again confirmed today by the great Reasons My Son Is Crying Tumblr blog.

The reason for this particular round of tears from his son? Meeting Bill Murray. Not be outdone by a crying baby, Bill Murray did what any awesome Bill Murray would do: he simply won the day:

Click for full size
There’s not much for me to add after that, but I will offer this as a way of demonstrating the images popularity: It has almost 10,000 notes attached to it, which, in Tumblr land means reblogs and likes. And now, the fantastic image has crossed over into full-blown viral territory, which is where it belongs. Something that awesome should be seen by as many people as possible.

In what can only be described as brutal, senseless, and disturbing, a british soldier was hacked to death in the middle of a street in London. He was hit with a car before the hacking, with the two men responsible not running from the scene but using it as a means to make a statement. The attack took place in a neighborhood called Woodwich, with the incident ending in a shootout and both suspects taken to separate hospitals.

The video below shows one of the attackers with bloody hands, trying to explain why they butchered the man on the street.

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone” the assailant continued, “The only reasons we killed this man this is because Muslims are dying daily”

There were numerous witness reports, with one claiming they were trying to remove the victim’s organs. The suspects were trying to get people to take pictures of them, as they wanted the event to be highly publicized.

The attack lead to heightened security around London, with the police anticipating counter attacks against the muslim community. Riot police were dispersed, as a top security measure. The Muslim Council of Britain immediately came down on the attack, ensuring that the attack didn’t represent the Islamic faith. They also urged London “to come together in solidarity to ensure the forces of hatred do not prevail.” There has only been one account of retaliation, as a man with two knives threw a smoke grenade into a mosque in east London. He demanded someone to come out and claim responsibility for the attack. The man was later arrested.

Along with heightened police security, London barracks were put on high alert in anticipation of another attack taking place. The victim was a member of the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, he was on his way back to his station when the attack took place.

David Cameron, prime minister of England, immediately responded to the attack.

We will never buckle to terror

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) May 22, 2013

[Source: CNN]

Trevor Bolder, a name famous among David Bowie fans the world over, died Tuesday at the age of 62 after a bout with pancreatic cancer.

Bolder was one of the founding members of David Bowie’s band – The Spiders From Mars. He also joined with the band Uriah Heep in the 70s and played with them throughout the rest of his career. In fact, he most recently appeared on the band’s latest album, Into The Wild, in 2011.

Things were looking up for Bolder earlier this year when he underwent surgery to have part of his pancreas removed. The cancer was not completely eliminated, however, and it eventually took his life.

Uriah Heep issued the following statement regarding the loss of their band mate and friend:

“It is with great sadness that Uriah Heep announce the passing of our friend the amazing Trevor Bolder, who has passed away after his long fight with cancer. Trevor was an all time great, one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, and one of the finest and most influential bass players that Britain ever produced. His long time membership of Uriah Heep brought the band’s music, and Trevor’s virtuosity and enthusiasm, to hundreds of thousands of fans across the world. He joined the band in 1976 and, barring one short break, was a fixture until his ill health forced him to take a step back early this year.”

It is doubly unfortunate that Bolder was actually meant to play with Uriah Heep in concert in June. The remaining members will undoubtedly pay a fantastic tribute to him, along with fans, at the concert.

[h/t: Yahoo Music]

Following a tsunami of bad news for electric car maker Fisker Automotive earlier this year, the company has been silent in recent months, as it’s been figuring out what will happen to it: will it be acquired, will it sell off its assets, will it declare bankruptcy? Well, according to Reuters, a group of investors that includes former General Motors exec Bob Lutz and Chinese auto tech company Wanxiang are offering to buy Fisker for $20 million in a prepackaged bankruptcy deal.

If Fisker is bought for $20 million that would mean the company would be bought for less than 1 percent of its reported $2.2 billion valuation when it launched the Karma in the late summer of 2011. Twenty million dollars is not quite two percent of the total funding ($1.2 billion) that Fisker raised. Fisker also owes the U.S. government another $171 million to pay back its loan. That’s got to be one of the biggest losses in venture capital history.

Earlier this year there were media reports that Fisker was being bids for between $200 million to $350 million from different Chinese auto companies. But either those reports put the bidding high (if so, I would speculate they were leaked by Fisker to help with bidding), something changed in the valuation of Fisker (it plummeted), or the bidders realized a lower valuation of Fisker after looking under the hood.

In a similar end game, solar thin film company Miasole was sold for $30 million to Chinese renewable power company Hanergy, after raising at least $500 million in venture capital funding. Both Miasole and Fisker were backed by Valley firm Kleiner Perkins.

Fisker’s potential bidders include VL Automotive, which is a joint venture between Lutz and Gilbert Villarreal. VL Automotive wants to turn the Fisker Karma into an internal combustion engine car, stripping out the electric drivetrain and giving it an engine.

Read my long investigative story on Fisker: A look under the hood: why electric car startup Fisker crashed and burned.

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An injection-molding method that can reduce costs and increase the use of titanium and other durable, lightweight and corrosion-resistant metals has earned a 2013 TechConnect National Innovation Award.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed an organic binder to reduce the impurities in reactive metals, allowing them to be utilized in a powder injection molding process. Standard binders used to hold metal powders together in high volume molding processes can introduce oxygen, nitrogen or carbon into the metal as impurities, which can result in impacts to their mechanical properties (i.e. potentially making machine parts less structurally sound). But the PNNL-developed method uses a novel binder system that leaves very few impurities when it is completely burned up during a later stage of fabrication.

The innovation also reduces or eliminates the swelling, cracking or other distortions to the component that can result from traditional binders used in powder injection molding processes. The result is faster production time and lower costs.

The TechConnect Innovation awards are given annually to top early-stage innovations from around the world by TechConnect, a global outreach and development organization based in Austin, Texas. TechConnect honors technologies based on the potential impact they will have on specific industrial sectors.

“Titanium is strong and corrosion resistant, making it ideally suited to the automotive, aerospace, chemical production, and biomedical implant or equipment industries,” said PNNL commercialization manager Eric Lund. “However, until now, use of injection molding to produce titanium components has been severely limited by the introduction of impurities with the binders, which then degrade the component properties.”

Lund noted the PNNL-developed method overcomes this problem by using an organic binder that is cleanly removed during sintering and leaves few or no impurities that can cause degradation in material properties.

PNNL will be recognized at the TechConnect National Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C. later this month. The PNNL research team includes Eric Nyberg, Kevin Simmons and former staff member Scott Weil.

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For information on commercializing the binder for use in injection molding processes, contact Eric Lund at (509) 375-3764.