G.O.O.D. Music members Common and Big Sean talk about how the competitive vibe of Kanye West's hip-hop collective inspires members to make their best music. More...
Mobile network builder Nokia Siemens Networks unveiled tools to optimize video performance on mobile devices on Monday, just in time for the CTIA Wireless trade show that begins Tuesday in Las Vegas.The new capabilities come out of Liquid Broadband, a portfolio of network performance technologies that NSN announced in February at Mobile World Congress. That lineup includes Liquid Applications for boosting app performance, plus other tools.Amid all the effort going into small cells, more spectrum and other ways to boost total available wireless capacity, mobile vendors are also crafting tools for using that capacity more intelligently. Around the same time Liquid Broadband debuted, NSN rival Cisco Systems introduced Quantum, a software architecture that can analyze real-time data about the network to improve performance, among other things.NSN wants to help carriers satisfy their subscribers with smooth video streaming, which may pose a challenge when many users on the same base station want to watch. The company says its new capabilities can reduce video stalling by 90 percent while also cutting demand for capacity by 25 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here More...
Ready for an unconventional upgrade? How about this: You can turn an old, pokey external hard drive into a blazingly fast one with about 10 minutes of your time and $15 of your money.
See, most modern computers have at least one USB 3.0 port. You can plug an older, USB 2.0 drive into one, but you won't get the faster throughput afforded by the newer technology.
Thankfully, you don't need to get a new drive just to enjoy speedier file transfers; you just need a new drive enclosure.
You can buy one for around $15, give or take $5, and from there it's a fairly simply matter to transplant your old drive. Just unscrew the old enclosure, remove whatever screws are holding the drive in place, then separate the drive. Now install it in the new enclosure using the provided instructions (if you even need them; it's a pretty self-explanatory procedure).
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here More...
Google will retire its Checkout payment processing tool on Nov. 20, and warned retailers they will need to move to a different payment processing platform.Checkout, which launched in 2006, was merged with Wallet, which is a mobile payments tool, last November. The product was aimed at taking on eBay's PayPal service, which dominates Web-based payments.Google said it has partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer discounted options for retailers that have not yet selected an alternative payment processor.Wallet will now be the company's focus. Developers for its Play store will be moved to the Google Wallet Merchant Center, Justin Lawyer, senior product manager for Google Wallet, wrote. There will be no changes for consumers using Wallet on sites such as Priceline and Uber, according to Lawyer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here More...
Sprint Nextel said it had received permission from SoftBank to negotiate a rival acquisition offer from Dish Network.The board of Sprint Nextel has the right to terminate its existing merger agreement with SoftBank, subject to certain requirements, to accept a "Superior Offer," the company said in a statement late Monday. The board has not determined that the Dish offer is in fact superior, and has not changed its recommendation with regard to the SoftBank offer, it added.SoftBank of Japan announced in October last year that it had reached a deal to acquire a 70 percent stake in Sprint for US$20 billion. Dish, a satellite TV service provider, made a $25.5 billion counter-bid to acquire Sprint last month.The Japanese company said on Monday that it had given Sprint a waiver of certain provisions under the merger agreement including allowing Sprint to give Dish access to certain non-public information for due diligence purposes, and to negotiate with the rival bidder.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here More...
The Star Trek franchise continues with this follow-up to 2009's J.J. Abrams-directed reboot. Abrams returns to direct from a script by Damon Lindelof and the writing team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. The crew of the Enterprise engages in an epic battle of good versus evil after being summoned home, only to discover Starfleet in ruins, and they venture into a war zone to find the powerful villain (Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch) responsible for the devastation. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi More...
Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) wrestles with inner demons while contending with monsters of his own creation in this sequel from writer\director Shane Black. The story in Iron Man 3 picks up shortly after the events of The Avengers. Having previously entered another dimension in order to save New York City, Tony remains deeply haunted by the experience. Unable to sleep, he throws himself into his work with such intensity that it begins to take a heavy toll on both his mental health and his relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tony has only started to appreciate the gravity of his problems when an enigmatic terrorist named the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) hijacks the airwaves and threatens to bring America to its knees with a painful series of "lessons" that even President Ellis (William Sadler) won't be able to ignore. When Tony's former security guard Happy Hogan (Favreau) is badly injured in an explosion caused by one of the Mandarin's agents, the vengeful playboy issues a public threat that results in his home being completely destroyed in a devastating attack, leaving him to face his enemy with only one badly damaged prototype suit. Fortunately, Tony isn't on his own, and with the help of Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and a young boy named Harley (Ty Simpkins), he pieces together the mystery of the Mandarin, whose final "lesson" promises to be the most painful of all. ~ Rovi More...
An aspiring writer falls under the spell of an aloof millionaire with designs for the young scribe's unhappily married cousin in director Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's celebrated novel. It's the spring of 1922, and wide-eyed Midwesterner Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) has just moved to New York City in pursuit of the American Dream. Settling into a home next door to wealthy Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), Carraway grows increasingly fascinated by the elaborate parties held at his new neighbor's estate. Meanwhile, across the bay, Carraway's cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) flounders in her marriage to philandering aristocrat Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). Inspired by the debauchery on display at Gatsby's wild parties and the lives of the wealthy elite, Carraway begins putting pen to paper as it gradually becomes clear that his cousin and the millionaire share a complicated romantic past that remains unresolved. Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, and Elizabeth Debicki co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi More...
Director Michael Bay takes the helm for this over-the-top action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie as three Miami Beach bodybuilders who hatch an extortion plot that goes hilariously awry. Ed Harris, Rob Corddry, Ken Jeong, and Tony Shalhoub co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi More...
