GTA 5 bags 'Game of the Year' at this year's Golden Joystick Awards

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5 has won the 'Game of the Year' at this year's 'Golden Joystick' awards, held at an event in central London. Unveiled barely a month back, GTA 5 has become the fast selling game ever, generating a revenue of around $1 billion in just three days. GTA 5 recently got caught up in a controversy, as human right activists have expressed contempt towards the latest installment, courtesy of a graphical torture scene. “Rockstar North has crossed a line by effectively [...]

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Edward Kenway to be present at midnight launch of Assassin's Creed 4 in India

Edward Kenway, the new assassin in Ubisoft's upcoming title Assassins Creed4: Black Flag, will be present for the midnight launch event of the title at Oberoi Mall, Mumbai on October 28. Edward Kenway is the main protagonist in Black Flag, father of Haytham Kenway and grandfather of Conor from Assassin's Creed 3. Edward is known as a Privateer, Assassin and occasional pirate. The game is set in the Caribbean, on multiple islands including Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas. Black Flag is one of the [...]

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Nexus 5 images leak yet again

Yet another leaked images of LG Nexus 5 have appeared on the web before its official announcement, thanks to @eveleaks. Other than a different wallpaper, the image is exactly the same as the leaked image that appeared last week, when it appeared on the Google Play Store. Coming from the same source, there is an image of the white colour variant of the Nexus 5. According to a leaked service manual, the document claims that the smartphone will have a 4.95-inch IPS display with a 1920x1080 pixel [...]

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Micromax to enter the European markets soon

After having gained a significant share in the Indian mobile phone market, home-grown mobile phone maker Micromax has now set its sights on the European markets. According to reports, Micromax will be entering Russia and Romania markets by the end of this year - with an objective to become a global brand. Reports come shortly after the company signed Hollywood actor Hugh Jackman as its brand ambassador. “Our end goal is to go global as an Indian hardware brand. I do not want to be seen as [...]

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Airtel launches new SD Set-Top box with recording feature at Rs. 2,000

Airtel has launched a new set-top box that features recording by plugging in an external storage device such as a pen drive. Users can schedule the recording even via Internet or their smartphones. The set top box has been priced at Rs. 2,000 in India. According to Airtel, users can view the recorded programs with a DVD like control of TV viewing that has features such as pause, slow-motion viewing, rewind and fast-forward. The company added customers can record on an external storage device of [...]

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LG officially unveils G Flex with curved OLED display

LG has officially unveiled the G Flex smartphone. The biggest feature of the device is the curved glass display. The smartphone will be available starting next month in South Korea. There is no information on an international release date or price. Coming to the specifications of the smartphone, the OLED screen is curved and 6-inches in size. It has a 720p resolution and its thickness measures between 7.9 and 8.7mm. The smartphone weighs 177 grams. Under the hood, a 2.26GHz quad-core Snapdragon [...]

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Google search now reaches users from 700 percent more locations: Study

Google Search has increased its reach to more than 1400 locations globally this year, an increase of more than 700 percent since last year. According to researchers, Google is re-purposing existing infrastructure to change the physical way that Google processes web searches. A technical report on the study will be presented at the SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference in Spain on October 24. The researchers found that from October 2012 to July 2013, the number of locations utilising Google's [...]

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Xolo LT900 smartphone with 4G-LTE support to launch in India next month: Reports

Information circulating the Internet suggests that Indian smartphone maker Xolo will launch a 4G LTE capable smartphone in India. The smartphone christened as the LT900 is expected to be unveiled in the first week of November. There is no information available on the price of the smartphone. In terms of its specification’s, the LTE capable Xolo LT900 will house a dual-LED flash at the back along with an 8MP BSI camera. The smartphone will have a 4.3-inch HD IPS OGS display with a pixel de [...]

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BBM for Android clocks 10 million downloads; no more waiting list

BlackBerry Messenger for Android shows no signs of slowing down, with the application crossing 10 million downloads on Android alone, worldwide. However, not everyone who downloaded BBM on their Android or iOS devices could sign in immediately, because BlackBerry had deployed the waiting list method for a majority of users to ensure there was no repeat of the server load issues that the first release attempt faced. However, that test of patience has now been removed as well, with anyone download [...]

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Yahoo Image Search's Fullscreen Slideshow

One of the features I've always wanted to see in Google Image Search is slideshows. Google lets you quickly go to the next image result using the right arrow shortcut, but a slideshow button would make things even easier. Picasa Web search used to have this feature. I know that webmasters will say that this wastes their bandwidth, so let's get past this.



It turns out that Yahoo already has this feature. Yahoo's search results are powered by Microsoft Bing, but Yahoo has its own UI and it does a pretty good job. Yahoo uses the same infinite scrolling interface (Google it borrowed from Bing), but things look different once you click a search result. Images occupy the entire page and you can click the small "play" button at the bottom of the page to start a slideshow. There are some cool zoom effects for big images and, if you use a browser that supports the HTML5 fullscreen API (Chrome/Firefox for desktop and Android, Safari for desktop), you can click the "view fullscreen" button at the top of the page and only see the images. You may want to restrict the results to large images.

Yahoo has a similar interface for the mobile search engine and it looks more like the old Google Image Search for mobile. The new Google interface has some benefits if you don't want to see all the results sequentially, but the old UI placed more emphasis on the images. The nice thing is that Yahoo has the slideshow button in the mobile interface, as well.

Almost A Year Later: Are You Using Twitter’s Vine? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Last week we asked you if you’re using a third-party firewall on your computer. In the day and age of built-in firewalls, you’d think we’d get a clear-cut answer. Not so. Out of 427 votes in total, 2% use a third-party firewall but don’t think it’s actually necessary, 10% don’t use a firewall but think they probably should, 40% don’t use a third-party firewall, and 48% of the voters use a third-party firewall on their computer. Full results and this week’s poll after the jump. Don’t forget to check out last week’s best comment by Keefe K, who gives a...

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Google WiFi Passport

Google found a new way to get people online: a service called WiFi Passport that's currently tested in Jakarta (Indonesia) and allows people to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots for free or at affordable rates.



"WiFi Passport powered by Google is a fast, easy and affordable way to get online when you're out and about in Jakarta. To use it, just get a voucher, sign into your Google account, enter the code then head to the nearest participating hotspot. It's exclusively available for Android users and works across official Android smartphones and tablets running version 2.2 (Froyo) and above."

"After connecting, you'll be online for the next 24 hours so long as you're in a hotspot. You can use up to 3GB of video, music, photos and other content in a single day – or 7GB over seven days and 10GB over 30 days. With hotspots around the city, you can connect with buddies, watch the big matches, or stay in touch with the office all day long."

There's a free voucher that lets you use WiFi passport for 10 days and there are vouchers that cost $1.82 and $4.55 for 20 and 50 days of use. Here's the Android app that lets you add Wi-Fi time.



{ Thanks, Florian K. }

YouTube Drops Support for 1080p Streams in the Regular HTML5 Player

I've mentioned in the previous post about Media Source Extensions and YouTube's HTML5 player. For now, only Chrome, Opera and IE11 for Windows 8 support Media Source Extensions. If you're using Firefox, Safari or an old version of IE, you're out of luck.



Why is this important? YouTube switched to adaptive streams in the Flash player and now does the same thing for the HTML5 player, but this requires Media Source Extensions. The adaptive DASH player uses separate chunked streams for audio and video, so that YouTube can switch the stream to a lower or higher bit rate, depending on the network bandwidth.



A few days ago, YouTube removed the non-DASH streams for 480p and 1080p. This means that you'll no longer be able to watch 1080p videos in YouTube's HTML5 player if you use Firefox or Safari. Here's an example of video that includes the 480p and 1080p options in the Flash player and the DASH HTML5 player, but not the regular HTML5 player.



Firefox screenshot:

Chrome screenshot:

This change affects desktop browsers and mobile browsers, third-party mobile YouTube players, as well as the apps and extensions that download YouTube videos and break YouTube's terms of use. You're not affected if you use the Flash player, the HTML5 player in Chrome, Opera and IE11 or YouTube's mobile apps.

YouTube Shows if Your Browser Supports Media Source Extensions

YouTube has recently updated the HTML5 player's page and now shows if your browser supports Media Source Extensions for H.264 or WebM VP9. I loaded the page in various browsers and Chrome is the only browser that supports both containers and Media Source Extensions. Internet Explorer 11 also supports Media Source Extensions, but you need to install a Google software to play WebM videos in IE.

The W3C draft explains that this "extends HTMLMediaElement to allow JavaScript to generate media streams for playback. Allowing JavaScript to generate streams facilitates a variety of use cases like adaptive streaming and time shifting live streams."



If your browser supports Media Source Extensions, YouTube's HTML5 player can use the adaptive streaming feature that's already available in the Flash player. You can also right-click the player, select "stats for nerds" and see if you can find "DASH: yes" - this means that YouTube uses adaptive streaming, slices videos and only loads the slices when they are needed. Here's a screenshot from IE11 in Windows 8.1:

"IE11 introduces support for MPEG-DASH media streaming through HTML5 Media Source Extensions (MSE). MSE extends the video and audio elements that you can dynamically change for a media stream without using plug-ins. This gives you such things as adaptive media streaming, live streaming, splicing videos, and video editing. This feature is not supported in IE11 on Windows 7," informs Microsoft.



With the introduction of Media Source Extensions and Encrypted Media Extensions, sites like Netflix or Hulu can switch to HTML5 players and no longer rely on plug-ins or separate apps. The downside for users is that it will no longer be easy to download videos from HTML5 players, since the DRM code will generate streams dynamically.

How to Copy Someone Else’s YouTube Playlists

Learn how to copy any existing YouTube playlist, which may or may not be owned by you, into your own YouTube account.

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This story, How to Copy Someone Else’s YouTube Playlists, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 26/10/2013 under YouTube, Internet

How To Keep Your Files Synced With SkyDrive In Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 includes deep SkyDrive integration, far beyond the simple SkyDrive Modern app included with Windows 8. SkyDrive isn’t just an app in the tiled interface; it’s also available from the desktop. Macs have iCloud, Chromebooks have Google Drive, and Windows 8.1 PCs have SkyDrive. Microsoft wants you to consider SkyDrive your new hard drive where you store all your personal files. Microsoft didn’t just include a Dropbox-style syncing solution. SkyDrive on Windows 8.1 is smart, offering a new way of syncing files that saves on disk space. It’s great for devices with small amounts of local storage. What Is...

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F1 2013 (PS3) Review

For any true Formula 1 fan, this the THE game that they wait for, every year. Codemasters have done a rather good job of it for the most part, with the critical aspect being - it is actually out there to buy and play. F1 2012 was an extremely impressive evolution over F1 2011, but the 2013 iteration is actually a minor upgrade, with newer cars and the difference in performance. However, the Classic Mode is what really gets the attention. Getting Started: Two routes you can choose The F1 2013 i [...]

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Get More Learning Options As 13 New Institutions Join Coursera

It isn’t too early to say that Coursera is at the vanguard of MOOC platforms. Along with Udacity and edX, Coursera makes up a large part of the online learning universe. The numbers seem to suggest that it is leading the pack. To add to their ranks, 13 new institutions have signed up to bring the number of international institutions using its platform to deliver online courses to 107. Coursera also reached the milestone of 5 million students enrolled and now offers them more than 500 courses to choose from. The new institutes are: Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Eindhoven University...

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Too Many RSS Feeds? Use These Tools To Make Reading Easier

Many RSS users complain of information overload with too many RSS feeds cluttering their inbox. Fortunately, a number of RSS organization tools can tame even the wildest of feed collections. Some of the most effective methods include using “folders” and “views” in aggregators, filtering web apps, and prioritization tools. This article covers some of the Internet’s best tools for organizing, filtering, and prioritizing feeds. In short, by combining a variety of methods, RSS use can be made more efficient, without wasting time with feeds that focus on information you don’t care about. For example, Facebook articles tend to plague my...

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Microsoft Releases Visual Studio 2013 For Download

Microsoft have been busy lately. First they bring out the highly anticipated Windows 8.1, then they bring out a new remote Windows desktop app for iOS and Android, and now they have released Visual Studio 2013 for you to download. Keeping in line with their desire to get everyone to tie a Microsoft account to the services they use, you are prompted to sign in to Visual Studio with your Microsoft account, once you have downloaded and installed the program. This will allow you to keep all of your settings synced across devices, via the Cloud. You can read more...

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