Apple in Talks With Comcast for Set-Top Box Video Service.

The never-ending rumors surrounding a possible Apple smart TV are likely to ramp up once again in the wake of a report that Apple is in talks with major U.S. cable provider Comcast to create a streaming TV service
According to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, the service would include an Apple set-top box that would allow for special access on Comcast's backend equipment, thus bypassing typical Internet congestion.

See also: The Comcast-Netflix Deal: Fact vs. Fiction

The major features of the Apple/Comcast service would reportedly include streaming, on-demand video and video recordings stored in the cloud.
A key component of the reported deal has to do with the delivery of video content. According to the report, Apple would not ask for preferential treatment on Comcast's pipes. The Wall Street Journal report states:

Under the plan Apple proposed to Comcast, Apple's video streams would be treated as a "managed service" traveling in Internet protocol format—similar to cable video-on-demand or phone service.

That particular detail would be key to any potential deal as Comcast has been under the spotlight in recent months over net neutrality concerns.
Fears that Internet access companies will cut lucrative deals with deep-pocketed companies for premium access, thus handicapping smaller companies without the financial heft to pay for premium access, have been the main topic of debate in recent months as streaming content continues to take center stage.
However, according to the report, the two sides aren't close to sealing the deal, and if a deal were to take place, Comcast would need to make major new investments in its networking infrastructure.

The most secure phones on earth

There's no such thing as a fully tamper-proof phone, but two new mobile devices come close.

Boeing is developing a smartphone, dubbed Black, that would make even the likes of James Bond's gadget man, Q, drool. Try to take it apart and it self-destructs. It also has built-in disk encryption, which protects stored data by converting it into garbled code. Boeing's staying mum on how much the device will cost and when and where it will be available, but the phone won't be in your local store -- it's intended for the government contractor's defense and security customers.

Flappy Bird' will fly back to app stores

(CNN) -- Let the flapless among us take heart. "Flappy Bird," the now defunct mobile sensation, will one day rise like a phoenix and fling itself awkwardly into an app store near you.

"Yes," Nguyen replied. "But not soon."Dong Nguyen, the creator of the infuriatingly addictive and deceptively difficult mobile game confirmed as much early Wednesday on Twitter. Responding to a tweet Dong sent last month, a follower directly asked if he plans to ever make the game available again.

That's an about-face from last month, when Nguyen, in a rare interview, told Forbes that "Flappy Bird" was "gone forever."

Originally released last May, "Flappy Bird" had largely languished before a surge in popularity, starting around December, that would see it become the most downloaded app in both Apple's App Store and the Google Play store for Android devices.

At the time of its demise, "Flappy Bird" had an average four-star rating from more than 543,000 reviews in the Apple App Store and 228,000 on Android. Many of the reviews were lengthy, tongue-in-cheek tales of time lost, marriages ended and people going cuckoo after playing the game.

At the time, Nguyen said he was afraid that what he'd intended to be a simple pastime had gotten out of control and become "addictive" to some users. The Vietnamese developer, who has stayed largely out of the spotlight, had also come under intense scrutiny, with some accusing him (without evidence, it should be noted) of using bots to artificially inflate the game's app-store rankings.

People who had already downloaded the app didn't lose it, but those who hadn't were out of luck.

And so, we wait. In the mean time, Dot Gears, Nguyen's studio, has two other games available for download -- "Shuriken Block" and "Super Ball Juggling." And he promises more to come -- probably before we see "Flappy Bird" again.

Or you could just busy yourself with one of the multitude of "Flappy Bird" clones, which continue to flood app stores at insane rates.

Solar-Powered Toilet Turns Poop Into Charcoal-Like Pellets

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

NIC HALVERSON for Discovery News 1 day ago

 

 

Though typically uttered with more vulgar language, the off-color remark of "defecating a brick" usually signifies a person's shock. Once you see this solar-powered toilet, you may be inspired to do the same, quite literally.

SEE ALSO: Photos of Tasty Tech Eye Candy Of The Week

Led by Karl Linden, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Colorado, a team of engineers built the Sol-Char, a toilet that scorches waste via fiber-optic cables, heated by solar concentrators on the roof. The system produces a useful byproduct called biochar, a sanitary charcoal briquette-like material that can be used for agricultural fertilizer and soil amendment.

"A solar concentrator has all this light focused in on one centimeter. It'd be fine if we could bring everyone's fecal waste up to that one point, like burning it with a magnifying glass," Linden told Motherboard. "But that's not practical, so we were thinking of other ways to concentrate that light.

"Eight parabolic mirrors aim the sun's rays onto a postage stamp-sized collector, which is then beamed into the cables. When heat combines with photons in the "reaction chamber," 700 watts incinerate the waste at up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

Though tweaking the toilet is an ongoing effort, Sol-Char's current design remains a high-powered, poo-torching outhouse. "The transmission efficiency is really high, it's like 90% as you don't have many losses," Linden said.

Researchers built the Sol-Char as part of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet challenge, which seeks to bring radical, sustainable change to sanitary facilities in developing nations. By sanitizing waste without the need of large treatment facilities or massive infrastructure, Sol-Char remains "off the grid," one of the challenge's goals. The project received $777,000 initial funding from the Gates Foundation and additional $1 million in a second round.

SEE ALSO: AirBlade Creates Life-Sized Air Hockey Rink

The team is currently in New Delhi for the second-annual Reinvent the Toilet Fair, where Linden and company will present their working prototype.

"Our system right now is not field ready. It can operate, and all our technology can work in an integrated fashion, but we have to be there," Linden said. "The next phase of the research is to take what we're doing now and make it ready for the field."

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This article originally published at Discovery News here

TOPICS: BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION, COLORADO, DEV & DESIGN, INDIA, SOCIAL GOOD,SOLAR POWER, TECH, TOILET, WORLD

Windowless Jet Will Let You Virtually Ride on Top of Clouds

The Windowless Supersonic Jet

OPEN GALLERY

Cabin Interior Day

IMAGE: SPIKE AEROSPACE

Show As List

BY ADARIO STRANGE

If you've ever wondered what it's like to fly in Wonder Woman's invisible jet, you may soon get a chance to find out.

Spike Aerospace announced plans to launch a windowless supersonic business jet that will feature video displays that take up most of the interior wall space. Outside of the aircraft, an array of cameras will send a live video feed of the exterior to the interior wall screens, giving passengers the experience of riding right on top of clouds.

SEE ALSO: Delta Airlines iPad App Has a 'Glass Bottom Jet' Feature

And while some passengers might be uncomfortable seeing visuals of high-altitude travel from such an immersive perspective, many others will likely jump at the chance to get a never-before-possible window-seat view of the clouds.

Adding to the surreal nature of the experience will be the fact that the flights will travel at supersonic speeds of Mach 1.6 to 1.8. According to Spike Aerospace, this means the company's aircrafts will be able to travel from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just five hours, and New York City to London in just three.

A concept illustration of the view from the Spike S-512 supersonic jet. 

IMAGE: SPIKE AEROSPACE

In the concept illustrations depicting what the aircraft's interior will look like, the company also shows off a PowerPoint-style presentation superimposed on top of the outside scenery. Spike Aerospace hasn't gone into great detail on this point, but the graphic (above) indicates that the displays will be somewhat interactive, possibly allowing activities that range from gaming to working on spreadsheets.

But as amazing as that all sounds, consider the virtual-experience possibilities: Imagine the plane's display panels showing the aircraft gradually ascending into space in concert with the aircraft's real-life movements.

Sure, you wouldn't get to experience the weightlessness that a company such asZero-G offers (and soon, Virgin Galactic, too) with its space-tourism service, but aside from that detail, such a scenario could become a popular way to mix virtual tourism with real-world travel.

According to Wired, the Spike S-512 supersonic jet will cost about $80 million to be ready for its public debut in December 2018.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

TOPICS: AIRCRAFT, AIRPLANES, AVIATION, CONCEPT DESIGNS, DEV & DESIGN, GADGETS, SUPERSONIC,TECH, TRAVEL, TRAVEL & LEISURE, VIRTUALTOURIST

Smart Light Bulb Doubles as Bluetooth Speaker

The range of new products promising to transform your humble abode into a "smart home" has exploded in recent months, but not all so-called "Internet of things" devices are created equal.

Bucking the trend toward everyday items that include obscure embedded features, France-based AwoX has come up with a simple smart-home solution that seamlessly merges utility with entertainment in its StriimLIGHT device.

SEE ALSO: Internet-Connected LED Bulbs Are in Our Near Future

The LED light bulb doubles as a Bluetooth speaker that you can control using the AwoX Smart Control app on your smartphone, or from your desktop on Mac OS X and Windows. The app allows you to brighten or dim the light, apply an alarm timer to its functions and control the speaker's volume.

The Android version of the AwoX Smart CONTROL app.

IMAGE: AWOX 

For those who don't have a smartphone to connect to the StriimLIGHT, each bulb comes with a separate credit card-sized remote control. Delivering 110 to 240 volts of LED illumination, the device pumps out sound via a 10-watt speaker, which is plenty of audio power for most rooms.

There's also a Wi-Fi version of the device called the StriimLIGHT Wi-Fi, announced at this year's CES, which operates in the same way as the Bluetooth version.

The Android version of the AwoX Smart CONTROL app.

IMAGE: AWOX 

So while the StriimLIGHT doesn't measure your energy consumption or produce fancy infographics detailing the ambient lighting metrics of your home, it saves space while intelligently wiring your home for sound.

Both versions of the StriimLIGHT, which have limited availability in the U.S., are priced at $99. The AwoX Smart Control smartphone app is available for iOS andAndroid.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

TOPICS: ANDROID, APPS, AUDIO, BLUETOOTH, GADGETS, INTERNET OF THINGS, IOS, LED , LIGHTING,SMART HOME, SPEAKERS, TECH, THE INTERNET OF THINGS, WI-FI

The First Android Wear Devices Are the Moto 360 and LG G Watch  

Earlier this afternoon, Google officially unveiled Android Wear, its new platform for wearables. Now both Motorola and LG have announced Android Wear smartwatches.

Motorola, Google's former-subsidiary apparently has big plans for Android Wear. It's calling its watch the Moto 360. The device is notable because it has a round face — something we haven't seen before in a smartwatch.

SEE ALSO: 10 Free Android Apps You'll Use Every Day

Like the Moto X, the Moto 360 is also designed to take advantage of gestures. Twisting a wrist will show an alert or your next meeting. On its blog, Motorola is hyping what it calls "premium materials" and says the Moto 360 will be available in a variety of styles.

LG's first Android Wear smartwatch is appropriately dubbed the LG G Watch.

IMAGE: LG

LG is calling its device the LG G Watch and the company says it will be compatible with a variety of Android smartphones. LG says it expects to release the G Watch in the second quarter of 2014 — so we should see it in just a few months.

The company released a mockup image, which looks similar to some other smartwatches we've seen — including Sony's Android-powered SmartWatch 2.

LG says it will release more details on the LG G Watch in the coming months.

The Moto 360 will be available in Summer 2014, first in the United States and then in the rest of the world.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Moto 360

iOS Now Alerts You When Your Kids Are Free To Spend All Your Money On Fake Cat Food

Apple has apparently learned a lesson. After several high profile stories of children spending literal fortunes on virtual nonsense, the latest version of iOS now reminds users of Apple’s policies towards in-app purchases.

Following an in-app purchase, such as virtual coins or fake cat food, a message now appears in iOS 7.1 stating that unless changed, for the next 15 minutes, more in-app purchases can be made without needing a password. A button to iOS device Settings is also visible.

This policy is not new. It has been in place since the App Store debuted in 2008, but is easy to overlook. Just ask any parent who leans on an iPad as an impromptu babysitter.

Earlier this year, Apple agreed to pay $32.5 million in refunds as a settlement over unauthorized in-app purchases made by children. The FCC had been investigating Apple’s seemingly lax policy on the matter. This new notification will probably not stop all unauthorized purchases, but it should curtail it a bit.

In-app purchases is a booming industry among itself. Give a kid an app, he’ll play for an hour. Give a kid an app where he needs to buy things to play, he’ll pay for your yacht.

After Apple Acquisition, Burstly’s SkyRocket Users Get 90-Day Notice

When we reported that Apple had acquired Burstly last month, a lot of the attention was focused on TestFlight, its popular mobile app testing platform — and specifically around how it would discontinue support for Android and the wider TestFlight SDK to new users. But it looks like this won’t be the only part of the Burstly business that will be winding down.

We are reproducing the text of the letter below, with names and other identifying data redacted. Another customer of SkyRocket’s, who used the service only on iOS, confirms that he has also received the same notice. And in the past day we have seen othersmention the same 90-day window for SkyRocket on Twitter and elsewhere.

To be clear, there is no mention in the letter we have seen specifically of SkyRocket shutting down, but this appears to be the implication. “As our Publisher and SDK License is being terminated in 90 days, it’s a pretty strong indication SkyRocket is being closed,” our source tells us. “Apple may revise and offer up some new terms, but winning customers back will be hard given the course of action.”

Anecdotally we have also heard that people on the mediation team at SkyRocket were laid off a couple of weeks ago.

We’ve reached out to Apple and to Burstly to ask for comment on the letter and more information, and we’ll update as we learn more.

We don’t know how many customers Burstly had for SkyRocket.

As for the SkyRocket product, it covered areas like ad mediation (essentially a platform that lets developers integrate multiple ad networks and direct ads in an optimised way); app cross-promotion services; and customer segmentation (offering ways of segementing different customers and offering rewards or other perks if they are seeing a lot of crashes, or for loyalty, for example, or removing ads for other users).

SkyRocket competed against other startups, many of which have also been subsumed into bigger companies. They include MoPub (now part of Twitter), Mobclix (part of Velit), and AdMarvel (part of Opera).

While the SkyRocket suite of products, which first started to appear in 2011, catered initially more to larger publishers, last year it opened the doors to more smaller developers with a self-service platform.

All in all, just the kind of technology and product that would serve Apple well in its own developer ecosystem. But even if that is the case, the termination notices seem to imply that Apple wants a clean break regardless.