A ‘Netflix’ magazine, the next attempt to press publishers to distribute the tablets

Raise your hand if you Have a tablet (brand or model that is) and you read traditional magazines in digital format. Okay, now all that they do so legally and can lower your hand. How many hands are raised? Few or none. And not by the desire to hack, but the lack of a convenient alternative. And that’s just what they want to do some publishers in the United States, planning a sort of ‘Netflix’ of journals in which a reader can access an unlimited number of magazines for a monthly fee.

This service would be present in various platforms, and participate publishers like Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith and Time Inc. including famous magazines such as Time, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Esquire, Elle … about 32 magazines that could be read without limitations for a minimal fee $ 10 per month for monthly magazines and $ 15 a month for monthly and weekly.

This service would offer digital versions of journals without subscription option to the physical versions. The tablets are becoming more screen resolution (just look at the new iPad), and are a perfect way to distribute content and magazines. But as often happens, the infrastructure is usually ready before that companies understand the need to change the basis to evolve and not stay stuck in a market that is slowly antiquating. We’ll see if this subscription method gets more attention.

Widget Earth, 3D globe with information on Meteorological Dashboard

From time to time get any interesting or funny widget for our Mac Today we will talk about Earth Widget, a 3D globe that updates weather information from the Internet, so that the clouds we see on it correspond to real clouds . The widget is just out and is at version 1.0. Maybe it therefore has no option configuration or customization. Just start, load and weather information gets to turn in our Dashboard. A pity we can not set the day and night correspond with reality, or the size of the widget, or speed of rotation, to give some examples.

Earth Widget is free and as an addition to our Dashboard is pretty good. Let me get better in future revisions of the same with some of the suggestions above.

Red Hat donates $ 100,000 to the open source community

Red Hat is a clear example that you can make money with open source. Following the results of the fourth quarter of 2011, the company has posted Red Hat annual revenue of more than 1,000 million dollars.

The annual profit for the company has been $ 146.6 million, which will allocate $ 100,000 to four projects: Creative Commons , Electronic Frontier Foundation , Software Freedom Law Center and UNICEF Innovation Labs

In an entry posted on Open Source (website created by Red Hat for open source community), entitled “A billion thanks to the open source community from Red Hat”, Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of the company has said:

The milestone of one billion dollars is not only a victory for Red Hat, is a victory for open source. [...] Last December, Red Hat decided that the milestone of one billion dollars would not be complete without honoring the open source community. Therefore, we donated $ 100,000 to the future of open source.
The first thing that came to mind is the absence of the Free Software Foundation , headed by Richard Stallman, the sharing of the gift. Recipients are chosen by lottery. I do not know, maybe I need more.

Apple shows an application for creating 3D avatars in a patent proposal

Probably agree with me that one of the most bland that Apple has developed over the years is the Game Center, surpassed only by the worst design of IOS audio player (it was long time since I messed with this application so any excuse to do so). Joking aside, I read in today 9to5mac an entry about an interesting patent which shows a possible iPhone application designed to designing 3D avatars. Basically what it amounts to saying is that patent applications for the design of avatars, such as video game consoles (Is this a clue?) The options for customization of the avatars are limited to a palette of colors 256 bits. It also speaks of a better adjustment of the elements in the avatar, such as a plaster or glasses placed on the hair, thanks to better detection of the normal (perpendicular at each point of a surface) of each element of our ” another self. “

In this way we could build our avatar with color gradients and transparencies in a three-dimensional application, using elements that would be true to their equivalent in the real world. The odd thing is that Apple claims that the application could be used in next generation displays, including systems with motion, three-dimensional (eg holographic) and projected display as on airplanes . Will have to see what Apple is up and what you want to use.

Galaxy S3: release date before the iPhone 5 on 22 May 2012

A photo from a PR presentation will reveal the presentation date of the Samsung Galaxy S3. If you believe the information, the Galaxy S3 is on 22 18-19 May 2012 as part of a clock presented Unpacked Events, which is expected to take place in London. The date fits to the previously discussed Samsung’s schedule and the start of the Galaxy S3 in the first half, but should be close to the summer of 2012.

The London office has for Samsung this year anyway an important role. In the British capital will take place in this year’s Summer Olympic Games, where the South Korean company is one of the main sponsors. Could come onto the market, the Samsung Galaxy S3 then immediately afterwards, presumably in June 2012. The launch of the Apple iPhone 5, however, can be longer in coming. Apple will also use this year to a presentation in the fall.

The Apple iPhone 5 is therefore expected to be presented in September 2012 and in October 2012 hike on the shelves. Both smartphones will get larger screens, faster quad-core processors and support for LTE and NFC. Which smartphone are in favor of the user front remains to be seen. A time advantage in the Galaxy Samsung S3 seems to have in each case.

Chrome improves the graphics hardware acceleration

With the arrival of version 18 of Google Chrome browser also reach expected improvements in both hardware accelerated graphics in two dimensional and three-dimensional graphics. If until now it was a high performance browser, now has even one step further.

Specifically announce improvements in rendering the Canvas 2D through our GPU s if we use computers with OS X or Windows. In this way applications such as games, which are constructed on Canvas, will have a higher yield due to this hardware acceleration.

But the improvement has not been on the plane, but has also come to the rendering of three-dimensional images through the bookstores WebGL. No returns will we see in the games installed on your computer, which directly squeeze our charts, but it certainly is an interesting move.

Square adds encryption to your credit card readers

The startup of payments via mobile Square is determined to not let any of his closest competitors go to his hump. Good example is the recent update to its service renamed Pay with Square , which is added the improvement of its readers by incorporating hardware encryption.

In fact, the company plans to replace existing readers with new units at no cost to user establishments, to take advantage of the new security measure that encodes the information provided by credit card over the short route from the reader itself to the application.

Obviously, the update operation of the devices require an additional cost which includes the manufacture of new readers and distribution. Although everything is small compared to just over 4,000 million (3,060 million euros) in fees collected in the past year, provided to close the gap with the main competitor to tertiary PayPal Here , in addition to not company known as Verifone.

Supply and price situation of the GTX 680 and HD 7970

Nvidia’s Kepler architecture is in the form of GK104 on the GeForce GTX 680 ( Computer Base Test can convince) compared to the Radeon HD 7970, but without the circles to pull AMD’s current flagship. Because this is thanks to strong own performance on a pursuit course.

And that’s what one notices at the current price situation. The GeForce GTX 680 officially introduced yet not quite a week and the delivery situation is to not necessarily good indeed, but perfectly acceptable. Who wants a copy, this gets too easily, but must pay more under circumstances in your pocket.

The cheapest offer currently stands at € 490 for a Gainward GeForce GTX 680, which is available for an additional ten models of € Palit , Point of View and Zotac are. Sometimes there is an attempt, usually smaller, cheaper online shop with bait advertising, but they are sold out after a handful of cards again. There is still a lot of movement with the GeForce GTX 680 to detect, so that the offers and the delivery situation changes almost daily.

Aerocool Strike-X ST

The name Aerocool is associated primarily with very well-designed modern midi-towers which are mainly to be had for under 100 €. With the Strike X-ST dares the manufacturer, at least as far as the price jump to the upper class. Whether a price is justified by around 150 € for this case and whether there is more than just eye-catching appearance has to offer, we will examine in the following pages.

Aerocool Strike-X ST
The box in which the Strike X-ST is supplied, is already an impressive appearance and leaves a nasty expect in terms of weight. The balance, however, shows only slightly more than 15 kilograms, surprising for a tower, which consists largely of steel and such large-scale dimensions have their own names. The design is certainly heavily dependent on personal taste, Aerocool remains true to his line and relies on a very modern look. It is striking that the whole body not only through continuous smooth surface is, is a grid or a mesh insert in there somewhere. The front is very rugged and it is not obvious at first glance, that part is really a function, or what is embellishment. In our, as ever, detailed review, we will unravel the mystery and a critical eye on workmanship and practicality to throw a lot of fun reading it.

BBM Music releases new beta version: improved random, imaginary friend and more

The streaming music service RIM gets a new update that will no doubt appeal to current users may have. BBM Music reaches the version number 1.2.0.13 and with it come some improvements, though few, no doubt assert test of the beta version.

The main improvements are a better way to shuffle smart as favorites, artist, album … And another interesting improvement, and I promise it’s true, is an imaginary friend. As we know, friends BBM Music required for maximum enjoyment and for those who have no friends who use this service there is a small button that adds a few songs to your list.

This version is in the BlackBerry Beta Zone and you can try when you want (access to the site is free). I already do not have a BlackBerry so I can not prove it, but if anyone does, please tell us your impressions.