Yes, it sounds like a terrible joke, but it’s a real business. People in China are paying for fresh air bottled in a different country and having it shipped to them from abroad. The air in some of China’s cities is so bad that this is actually a thing, and citizens who are concerned about their safety are paying more than $10 a pop for just a few breaths of clean air originating from anywhere but their home country.
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Apple’s recent decline in iPhone sales is bad news for more than just shareholders. A report in the WSJ details the losses being suffered by some of Apple’s biggest component suppliers. While that’s bad news for the manufacturers, it could lead to even worse problems for Apple down the line.
The report makes for dire reading, if you’re an Asian manufacturing magnate: Foxconn, Apple’s long-term assembler, saw its first-quarter profits down 9.2%; Sharp, the screen manufacturer recently bought up by Foxconn, fell into an operating loss, as did the Sony division that makes camera modules. It’s not just Apple — profits for smartphone assemblers and component manufacturers took a dive across the board. But bad times for Apple’s iPhone manufacturers could have serious knock-on problems for iPhone production down the line.
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Google isn’t the only company with a surprise app release today.
On Thursday, the developers behind Dark Sky finally launched their popular weather app on Android — four years after it originally released on iOS devices. The team says that Android support has been the most requested “feature” ever since the initial release, but only now do they finally have the resources to pull it off.
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Yesterday, Hyperloop One conducted the first test of the propulsion system that may eventually shoot people through tubes at very high speeds. Hyperloop One’s CEO Rob Lloyd described the test as an “engineering milestone,” but while it was undoubtedly impressive, Hyperloop still has a long way to go.
It’s worth remembering how Hyperloop is supposed to work. In Elon Musk’s original plans, a pod carrying humans travels down a tube in a partial vacuum, levitating using compressed air, and being propelled forwards using electromagnets.
Yesterday’s test only involved the propulsion component. A “sled” carrying the linear induction motor shot down an empty track, accelerating from 0 to 120mph in 1.5 seconds, and topping out at 300mph. It was a good spectacle for the assembled press, but in reality, little more than a glorified roller coaster.
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Instagram released a major app update earlier this week for iPhone and Android that brought some user interface changes as well as a major icon design change. Unsurprisingly, Instagram fans freaked out when they saw the logo change. That’s certainly understandable; after so many years of pressing that tiny skeuomorphic image of a Polaroid camera, the new logo is jarring to say the least.
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One of the advantages Amazon has over its competitors is the Amazon Prime service. Among the many perks Amazon Prime has to offer is speedy free two-day shipping, which is a good enough reason to subscribe to the service if you shop online regularly.
Walmart has in the past experimented with its own Prime-like subscription service that offered customers three-day free shipping for $50 a year. Now, Walmart is ready to up its game and challenge Amazon with an upgraded ShippingPass program.
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People often shy away from wireless headphones because they don’t always deliver the killer bass response most listeners are looking for. There are exceptions to every rule though, and the Sony MDR-XB950BT/B Extra Bass Bluetooth Wireless Headphones are definitely the exception to this one. Just look at all these killer reviews on Amazon, where these Sony headphones have a 4.3-star rating from nearly 800 customer reviews.
They typically retail for about $150 which is a solid price for the bassiest wireless headphones we’ve ever tried. But if you move quickly and you don’t mind a manufacturer refurbished pair, you can get these headphones for just $80 shipped on eBay.
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In today’s modern age, a passport and some cash are all that you really need in order to see the vast wonders that make up world. Whether you want to travel to Australia, China, the rain forests of Costa Rica or even to North Korea (though we wouldn’t recommend it), the world today is more accessible than it’s ever been at any other point in history.
There are, however, a few notable and interesting exceptions. While a passport can get you to and from most places, there exist a few locations throughout the world that are effectively off-limits. Touching on this topic in fascinating detail, a recent Quora thread set out to list all of the forbidden places located across all corners of the globe. While some locations on the list are off-limits to certain groups of people due to religious reasons, others are completely off-limits to all humans due to safety considerations. We’ve since pored over some of the more interesting examples Quorans brought to light and have them listed below for your reading enjoyment.
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For as long as I can remember, thepiratebay.se has been the place to go for illegal torrents. But a ruling handed down by Sweden’s court of appeal says that those domain names are going to be handed over to the Swedish government, and you can bet that they’re not fans of illicit Game of Thrones.
The ruling from Sweden’s Court of Appeals upholds a ruling from the Stockholm District Court from last year. The case was actually against Punkt SE (IIS), Sweden’s domain-name authority, which has ultimate control over all .se addresses. The prosecution charged that because thepiratebay.se and piratebay.se were being used for illegal content, the domains should be suspended, and IIS held responsible for damages.
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If you’re looking for ways to cut back on your monthly expenses, we’ve got something that’s about to make you a very happy camper.
Some people are fine with only having a cell phone but others still like having a home phone. The quality is way better and you don’t have to worry about dropped calls or running down your smartphone battery. At this point you’ve probably switched from an old copper line to a VoIP phone service offered by your cable company, but we’re here to tell you that you should cancel that service right away.
Check out the Ooma Telo, which provides unlimited nationwide calling over crystal clear VoIP at absolutely no charge.
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