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News: OnePlus 3 Leak Shows a Better Screen & NFC—But Smaller Battery

We've got some new information about the upcoming OnePlus 3, thanks once again to leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks). According to him, the phone will sport a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 820 SoC, 64 GB of internal storage, and a 16-megapixel rear camera. Also, for the first time, OnePlus's flagship line will include an NFC chip, so you'll finally be able to use digital wallet apps like Android Pay. One thing that won't be upgraded, however, is the battery. The OnePlus 3 will come wi...

How To: Will Installing OS X Mountain Lion Break My Apps?

Mountain Lion is here, and at such a reasonable price point, there doesn't seem to be many reasons why you wouldn't upgrade. That is, unless your apps aren't compatible. Just like a major OS upgrade, developers are having to adjust to Mountain Lion, and not every transition has been smooth. Before you jump into that Mountain Lion upgrade, take a moment to check that all of your apps are ready for the move.

News: The Trayvon Deception

If you've been reading, watching or listening to the news, you sure know about the Trayvon Martin case. If you visit this site often, you may also have noticed that I've not put up any news on this case. I have my reasons. And this post will describe why.

How To: Who Is Anonymous? How the Wall Street Journal and the NSA Got It Wrong

Over the past couple of weeks, there have been a series of high-profile hacks and leaks. From the rooting of CombinedSystems, to a secret FBI conference call leak, all the way to the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on U.S. government sites—with a lot in-between. As governments move to close their long fingers around the free speech that exposes their secrets, this shadowy collective of loose-knit, but like-minded individuals are hell bent on preventing them. Or are they?

CISPA: What You Need to Know

Though under a lot of the average consumer's radar, the CISPA is now making rounds again with a coalition of advocacy rights groups. The act, known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, forces companies to ignore existing privacy laws and share information with the Federal Government. This short article will bring you up to date on this bill. The CISPA is another bill 'designed' to help prevent thefts and prevent them in cyberspace. But again, like all the previous bill before...

News: Laser Blasts 2 Megajoule Beam 1,000 Times Stronger Than All U.S. Power Plants Combined

You might already know a little bit about what the National Ignition Facility has been up to lately, or what they could possibly achieve. But last week, even the scientists at the Livermore, California station couldn't predict the awesome power that their humongous laser was capable of. NIF's laser is already the record holder for the world's largest laser, and now it can also claim to be the first ever 2 megajoule ultraviolet laser after it generated nearly 100 times more energy than any oth...

Xbox LIVE Achievement: How to Earn Free Microsoft Points with Social Engineering

Sometimes, paying for the whole Xbox LIVE service might seem like a waste of money. You're constantly experiencing lag, you've got people modding and cheating, kids are being loud and obnoxious over the mic, and your kill-to-death ratio is getting dumped on. Basically, the whole multiplayer experience just isn't cutting it anymore—you want to go back to the classic world of single player. Well, there's always downloadable content—simply known as DLC.

How To: Find Out Who Unfriended You on Facebook

How many Facebook friends do you have? The average person on Facebook has around 140 friends while some hit the ridiculous Facebook friend limit of 5,000. Facebook states that its services are for people you know in person. I don't think anyone has 5,000 friends in person, do you? Personally, I don't even think Megan Fox has 5,000 friends in person, so how could any regular person have that many? But that's beside the point.

News: Easy Skype iPhone Exploit Exposes Your Phone Book & More

Like the recent XSS 0day exploit found in the Mac and Windows versions of Skype, a similar one has been found in the Skype app for iPhone. The vulnerability allows an attacker to send a message that contains malicious JavaScript code in the "Name" parameter. This code can steal your phonebook, crash the app, and potentially do a lot worse. The URI scheme is improperly identified for the web-kit browser. Instead of going to a blank browser page, it defaults to "file://". The code could steal a...

News: Unity3D Could Change the Gaming World Now That It Has Flash

Big news from the world of game development engines. For several years, Unity3D has been the free 3D game development engine of choice for aspiring and indie game designers around the world. While it isn't as powerful as Unreal Engine 3 or CryEngine, it's free and much easier to use. Now, according to an announcement made by Unity yesterday, Unity 3D is about to unleash a huge weapon that neither of those other engines can claim: Flash compatibility.

News: Super Mario Gets a Portal Gun in Stabyourself's Upcoming Mari0 Game

Many of the indie games featured at PAX Prime have been in development for years. That's how long it takes to make a great game. But the two-man development studio in eastern Europe called Stabyourself has existed for less than a year and has already created two games—three more are on the way. They may be spitting out games left and right, but they've got a few to be excited about.

News: The Perfect Hack for Enabling NFC Credit Card Payments on Your iPhone 4

Remember the good ol' days when you actually had to swipe your credit or debit card to make a payment at the store? Now all it takes is a flick of the wrist to purchase goods with your card, thanks to RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology from Chase (blink), Visa (payWave) and MasterCard (PayPass). But soon "contactless" payments will be made by an entirely different beast—NFC, which stands for near field communication.

News: New Android Market Update Lets You Rent Movies and Buy eBooks

Google has been slowly rolling out a new update for the Android Market in the United States, which gives mobile users a new interface and some additional content for their Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The update started a couple weeks ago, taking the Android Market to version 3.0.27 on devices running Android 2.2 or higher. The new Android Market has a Honeycomb feel to it with a more visually pleasing layout and new colorful promotional page which showcases top apps and games, as...

How To: Replicate Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken Secret Recipe

Kentucky Fried Chicken is one of those things that nearly everybody loves. But if your craving is strong and you want to make it yourself, think again – the Colonel’s not keen on parting with his top secret recipe. According to KFC’s official site, “one company blends a formulation that represents part of the recipe while another spice company blends the remainder. As a final safeguard, a computer processing system is used to standardize the blending of the products to ensure neither company ...

News: Mapping Your Music Collection with Mufin Player for Android

These days, there seems to be an endless amount of music player apps accessible on the web, from Pandora to Cantio, and the amount available in the mobile market is constantly growing. If you have an Android device, you're probably well aware of Jukefox, which lets you listen to your music collection on the go and provides you with a new way to interact with your songs, with 2D and 3D mapping of your albums. But as good as Jukefox is, it has problems (mostly technical).

News: Friday Indie Game Review Roundup: Turn-Based Storytelling for 2 Players

What's more fun? Winning against your friends or winning against others with them? It's an age old question, and in video games, the former one-on-one multiplayer has been the norm. But cooperative multiplayer has made a comeback, with Halo and Diablo II starting the trend, the first mainstream shooters and RPGs with great co-op modes. And now good local and multilplayer co-op games are available in almost every genre.

News: The Many Methods for Hypnotizing Chickens

Chicken hypnotism is pretty mind boggling. We were enthralled when young Ciaran hypnotized a chicken with his infectious little boy charm (and more importantly, the gentle back-and-forth sway of his arms). There are a wealth of videos on YouTube depicting the process—a bonafide practice tried and true among both farmers and scientists. So, what is the why and how-to behind the art of fowl hypnosis?

News: Supreme Court Deems Violent Video Games Protected Under Freedom of Speech

Video games are the newest major expressive media. As such, their role in society is still being defined continuously. A monumentally important example of this took place yesterday at the US Supreme Court. After a long deliberation, the highest court in the land handed down a decision invalidating a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors on the grounds that video games are protected speech under the First Amendment, like movies and books.

News: Danes One Step Closer to DIY Suborbital Spaceflight

They've been at it for a few years now, but the crazy group of amateur rocket scientists who call themselves Copenhagen Suborbitals have triumphed over adversity, successfully launching their DIY rocket nearly 2 miles into the sky last Friday. The privately funded, non-profit aims to one day send human beings into suborbital space on the cheap, without the need of government budgets and administration.

Miro 4: Syncing Media to Android Devices Just Got Easier

Android devices are becoming more and more popular with each passing day, so why is it that Google has yet to design a software program that allows users to manage their music and video libraries on their computers? Apple's iTunes offers iPhone users an easy way to control their media files, as well as effortless syncing capabilities. But where's the option for Android smartphones? Is there no easy way to synchronize your media library with your DROID?

Checkmate and... Checkmate: Bizarre Three-Way Chess Game

In a recent episode of The Big Bang Theory, character Sheldon Cooper designed a highly complicated three-person game of chess, with an odd-shaped nonagon board and two new pieces—serpent and old woman. Seemingly pioneering, in truth, three-player chess has been around since the early-1700s, with many different variations, most of which retain the basic game structure and sixteen pieces that each player controls.

News: Google Music Now Live in Beta Mode

At Google I/O this morning, Google finally announced the launch of its much awaited Google Music service. It's currently in invite-only beta mode, but they claim it will open up to the masses soon enough. To start syncing your music library with Google's Cloud now, you need make sure you're signed into your Google Account, then click here for a personal invite. It's currently free for a limited, undisclosed amount time.