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Submission + - Betting with bitcoin: Site lets Americans gamble on elections, sports (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: The digital currency bitcoin — once used to facilitate online drug deals — now appears to be enabling people to get around regulations banning online betting. Predictious.com, a new company from Ireland, offers a "prediction market" that allows people to bet on everything from the U.S. presidential election to the Olympics and the Oscars. And it’s all made possible by bitcoins. Betting of this sort is a legal gray area in the U.S., where the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) decided in a 2012 regulatory order not to allow prediction markets on the grounds that they are "contrary to the public interest." While the CFTC forbids prediction markets that use cash, it is less certain that it will go after one that uses bitcoins. “There is no way I can answer [that]. Too speculative for us,” CFTC spokesman Steven Adamske told FoxNews.com.

Submission + - Yup, there's already someone lined up to buy the iPhone 6 (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: Last year ahead of Apple’s iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c launch, lines began forming outside Apple stores weeks in advance. At the time, we thought it was pretty crazy that anyone would line up that far in advance to buy a cell phone — but now we know what crazy really looks like. A Japanese man named “Yoppy” says he has already lined up to buy Apple’s unannounced iPhone 6, which isn’t expected to launch for another seven months...

Submission + - What if feels like to ride in a car of the future (foxnews.com) 1

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: V2V or vehicle-to-vehicle communications will allow cars to warn each other of their presence. One car could alert another that, "Hey, my idiot driver isn't going to stop for the red light, look out!" or "My owner has just hit something ahead of you, stop!" To see how such V2V technology will work, last month Ford gave me a demonstration of the technologies involved on a closed course. I sat in the front passenger seat of a specially tricked out 2014 Ford Taurus. Although the drive seemed engineered to scare the pants off me, it actually proved how much safer V2V cars can be, preventing accidents and saving lives. At a T-intersection a truck was strategically placed to block our right-hand view of oncoming traffic. As we edged into the intersection, another Ford test driver barreled down the road toward us. An audible alarm and red flashing lights swept from left to right above the dash, tipping us off to the impending danger and allowing us to stop safely.

Submission + - Google Fiber launches in Provo -- and here's what it feels like (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: I’ve seen the future. It’s called gigabit Internet by Google Fiber, and it just launched in my hometown of Provo, Utah, the second of three scheduled cities to get speeds that are 100 times faster than the rest of America. “What good is really fast Internet if the content stays the same?” you may ask yourself. I certainly did, before testing the service. Besides, my “high speed” Internet from Comcast seemed fast enough, enabling my household to stream HD videos, load web pages quickly, and connect multiple devices as needed, largely without hiccup. I was wrong. Using gigabit Internet, even in its infancy, opened my eyes to speed and reminded me of why I love the Internet.

Submission + - New digital audio revolution is coming (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: MP3 is great and all. But it's really not all that great. Compressed music sucks. And a growing number of musicians, composers and sound engineers aim to fix that by putting the fidelity back into your digital hi-fi, and getting the output — the song you listen to — to match the input that went into it at a mixing board. Your ears won’t believe the detail and clarity, they say. “It’s like cleaning off a dirty windshield,” said MIke Mettler, former editor in chief of Sound and Vision magazine, during a panel at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show that delved into high-resolution digital music. And with a new line of home audio products from Sony and a new push from the CEA, expect to hear great things in 2014.

Submission + - NASA's LLCD Tests Confirm Laser Communication Capabilities in Space (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This week, NASA released the results of its Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration’s (LLCD) 30-day test carried out by its Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) that is currently in orbit around the Moon. According to the space agency, the LLCD mission proved that laser communications are practical at a distance of a quarter of a million miles and that such a system could perform as well, if not better, than any NASA radio system.

Submission + - PC makers plan rebellion against Microsoft at CES (foxnews.com) 1

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: Fearing rapidly plummeting sales of traditional laptops and desktop computers — which fell by another 10 percent or so in 2013 — manufacturers are planning a revolt against Microsoft and the Windows operating system, analysts say. At the 2014 CES in Las Vegas, multiple computer makers will unveil systems that simultaneously run two different operating systems, both Windows and the Android OS that powers many of the world’s tablets and smartphones, two different analysts said recently. The new devices will be called “PC Plus” machines, explained analyst Tim Bajarin. "A PC Plus machine will run Windows 8.1 but will also run Android apps as well," Bajarin wrote. Another analyst put the threat to Windows bluntly: "This should scare the heck out of Microsoft."

Submission + - Small Businesses Claim U.S. Government Stealing Their Ideas (foxnews.com)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: Fox News reports, "Hnatio claims the government has put his company, FoodquestTQ, nearly out of business by stealing his firm's software ... The FDA "took our ideas, plagiarized my doctoral dissertation on which a patent was based, and then they infringed on our patent. ...The U.S. Army settled a case in November by paying $50 million to a Texas company, Apptricity, which claimed the government took some of its software, which tracks military equipment from MRE's to troops, without paying for it. ... In 2009, NASA was ordered to pay $28.3 million to Boeing after the court found that the government infringed on the company's aluminum alloy patent. ... "There is no reason to think it can't happen," observes New York University law Professor Jeanne Fromer, an intellectual property and copyright law specialist. "The government can take patent rights, as long as they compensate for it. It is not dissimilar, in that sense, to notions of eminent domain." ... "We are hearing more frequently from companies about intellectual property theft by the government," notes John Palatiello, head of the Washington, D.C.- area lobbying group, the Business Coalition for Fair Competition ... "Companies are becoming more vocal about it." Hnatio believes there is a troubling explanation for alleged government flinching. "What we are seeing is a direct competition between the private sector and the U.S. government. The problem for small businesses is that they are simply being destroyed by their own government in spite of the fact that we hear politicians say all the time, that small business is important...it's extremely disturbing because it means we lose jobs, and it means we lose our competitive edge in the world. ...""

Submission + - JPMorgan files patent application on 'Bitcoin killer' (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: Banking giant JPMorgan Chase has filed a patent application for an electronic commerce system that sounds remarkably like Bitcoin — but never mentions the controversial, Internet-only currency. The patent application was filed in early August but made publicly available only at the end of November; it describes a “method and system for processing Internet payments using the electronic funds transfer network.” The system would allow people to pay bills anonymously over the Internet through an electronic transfer of funds — just like Bitcoin. It would allow for micropayments without processing fees — just like bitcoin. And it could kill off wire transfers through companies like Western Union — just like Bitcoin. There are 18,126 words in the patent application. “Bitcoin” is not one of them.

Submission + - Moon Express unveils next moon lander (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: A U.S. spacecraft hasn’t made a controlled landing on the moon since Apollo 17 left the lunar surface on Dec. 14, 1972. That’s about to change. Moon Express will unveil the MX-1 spacecraft at the Autodesk University show in Las Vegas Thursday evening — a micro-spacecraft that will in 2015 mark the first U.S. "soft" landing since the days of the Apollo program, FoxNews.com has learned. The craft looks for all the world like a pair of donuts wearing an ice cream cone, and the tiny vehicle clearly isn’t big enough for a human being. But it is big enough to scoop up some rocks and dirt, store them in an internal compartment, and return it to Earth. After all, the moondirt Gene Cernan, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin once trod holds a king’s ransom of titanium, platinum, and other rare elements. Moon Express plans to mine it.

Submission + - Explorer plans hunt for Genghis Khan's long-lost tomb (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: The tomb of brutal Mongolian emperor Genghis Khan — the one who created the world’s most powerful empire by raiding and invading across Eurasia, not Kirk's nemesis — is a lost treasure archaeologists have sought for years. And one man thinks he knows where it is. Last fall Alan Nichols, the president of The Explorers Club, mapped out possible locations for the tomb of Khan (also known as Chinnggis Qa'an). His hypothesis: Khan’s tomb is located in the Liupan Mountains in Northern China, where the emperor who was born in 1162 is said to have perished from an arrow wound in August 1227. Next fall, Nichols plans the next phase of his research: pinpointing Khan’s exact resting place. “Ghengis Khan’s tomb is my obsession,” Nichols, a noted authority on the emperor, said recently. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But I’m not happy just reading about it, or knowing about it. I need to have my feet on it.”

Submission + - 1 Year Since John McAfee Fled Belize -- and a Murder Scene (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: It has been a year since fallen software magnate John McAfee fled his adopted home and country — wanted by police for questioning in connection to the murder of his neighbor. In that year, the often eccentric programming pioneer led the media and the public on a wild ride with his outlandish behavior and off-the-wall statements during a catch-me-if you-can escape from the small Central American country. McAfee is a person of interest in the investigation surrounding the murder of his neighbor, American ex-pat Gregory Faull, near his compound in San Pedro Town on the island of Ambergris Caye. No headway has been made in the investigation — and authorities in Belize are still looking to speak with McAfee. “Nothing has really changed. It’s not a closed case,” police spokesman Raphael Martinez said. “He is still a person of interest.”

Submission + - Blackberry's secret weapon (foxnews.com) 1

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: What's going on in Canada, eh? Toronto is being run by a wild man — Mayor Rob Ford just admitted to smoking crack during a “drunken stupor" — and one of the country's leading technology lights has got not just a black eye, but a black berry (yes, I went there). No longer hooked on the Crackberry, the world has moved on to iPhones and Android handsets. Fortunately, Blackberry has a secret weapon — if only they realize it. In 2010, Blackberry purchased QNX Software, ostensibly to power a growing panoply of Blackberry devices, including a tablet computer (we all know how that went). But QNX's real strength, indeed what it's famous for in the tech world, is what's in the car.

Submission + - It's hard NOT to use Google Now on the Nexus 5 (citeworld.com) 2

Submitted by mattydread23
mattydread23 writes: Google's latest Android showcase device is really a showcase for its services, particularly Google Now. It's so deeply integrated into the platform, you're practically compelled to use it for everything. That may be the whole point.

Submission + - My life as a robot (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: I bumped into someone recently. Admittedly, I wasn’t watching where I was going — in fact, I was heading for the food table. The person who brushed against me wasn’t paying attention, either. In fact, it wasn’t really a person at all. It was a robot. I was too. I was controlling the Beam remote-presence device at the RoboBusiness conference in Santa Clara last week. The person who brushed against me was also controlling a Beam. There were approximately 50 robopresence operators in attendance there, along with a few hundred “real” humans.

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