MIT researchers create an ingenious device that will help blind people read print
Soon people who are visually impaired could have a way to read that doesn’t involve brail. MIT has created an incredible new device called FingerReader that is essentially a scanner that you wear on your hand that’s capable of reading words on a page and then reciting them aloud back to you.
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Horrifying survey shows 47% of us can’t even go one day without our smartphones
Forget holding up under torture — how many of us could even go a day without using our smartphones? Tech Guru Daily directs our attention to a new study from Bank of America (PDF) showing that 47% of smartphone users say they couldn’t last more than a day without their phone and that 13% actually said that they couldn’t last for more than an hour without it.
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Shocker: Hollywood downloads pirated content just like everyone else
Hollywood has been on a holy war against piracy for years, but that doesn’t mean it actually managed to achieve anything worth bragging with, especially as some studies have revealed that piracy doesn’t actually have an impact on Hollywood’s bottom line. No matter what Hollywood comes up with to defend against piracy, pirates still figure out ways to illegally download copyrighted content. In fact, TorrentFreak reveals that even Hollywood downloads just as much content as regular Internet users, no matter what its official stance against piracy is.
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Google just made Chromecast even cooler with an awesome new phone mirroring feature
Google announced on Wednesday on the Official Android Blog that Chromecast owners will now have the ability to mirror the screens of their Android tablets and smartphones to their TVs starting this Wednesday. Whatever you’re doing on your device, from viewing photos and videos to using an app or playing a game, it will be viewable on the TV screen.
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Here’s everything you need to know about Dragon Age: Inquisition
Some of the most exciting games we saw at E3 won’t see the light of day until 2015 at the earliest, but Dragon Age: Inquisition, the first new generation title from BioWare, is coming at the beginning October and there’s still a great deal we don’t know. That’s why BioWare took to Raptr for an lengthy Q&A session with fans of the series, answering dozens of questions about the game’s story, mechanics, romantic interests and returning characters.
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Sorry, Android users: No more Android L keyboard for you
We still have several months to wait before Google finally releases its highly anticipated new Android L update, but a few apps and nifty tricks gave eager enthusiasts a way to experience certain elements of L right now. Among them was Shen Ye’s great Android L Keyboard app, which — as the name might suggest — allowed users to install the sleek new keyboard from Android L on their smartphones running earlier versions of Android.
Unfortunately, Google has removed the app from the Google Play store.
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Rooftop solar power is making coal obsolete in Australia
Rooftop solar panels are becoming such a powerful factor in the energy market that they now can push the price of electricity to negative territory in the sunniest regions of the world. This is possible because powering down fossil fuel energy generators during peak solar power periods would be more expensive than paying customers to use the electricity.
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The Comcast-TWC merger suffers its biggest blow yet
Is the tide starting to turn inexorably against the hugely unpopular proposed Comcast–TWC merger? The Los Angeles Times brings us word that satellite TV company Dish has officially come out against the merger and has told the Federal Communications Commission that it should block the deal.
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New breakthrough could lead to HUUUGE improvements in smartphone battery tech
A research team at the University of Alberta may have made a breakthrough that ultimately leads to dramatic improvements in the batteries that power everything from laptops and smartphones to medical devices and tools. According to lead researcher Xinwei Cui, the lithium-ion battery technology his team is currently developing charges faster, lasts longer and outputs more power than current lithium-ion batteries.
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Is the Surface Pro 3 the much-needed hit Microsoft has been waiting for?
Microsoft’s first venture into the tablet market didn’t exactly go well but the company has been doggedly refining and improving its products to the point where it may be starting to see some sales success. ZDNet’s Ed Bott does a nice job of digging through Gartner’s latest report on PC sales and has found that there’s one category of PCs that has been surging this year: Premium ultra-mobile PCs such as the MacBook Air and the Surface Pro 3.
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