Tag Archives: rip

Amazon shutters its ‘Destinations’ travel site after just six months

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Amazon Destinations, the travel site that offered deals on hotel stays, is no more. The company shut down the site yesterday, just six months after it began offering reduced rates on one- to three-night stays within driving distance of a city. Dest...

Distro Issue 109: Turning the lights off on innovation

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Distro Issue 109 Turn the page

Well faithful readers, the day has come. In this final issue of our weekly, we examine the death of innovative devices that despite miscalculated timing, still had their influence on a handful of gadgets that we use today. We also throw down the review gauntlet for the Jambox Mini, HP SlateBook x2 and one of Sony's newfangled "lens cameras." Eyes-On goes after a hunk of stainless steel, Rec Reading has Tim Cook on the new iPhones and Weekly Stat tallies digital publication readership. Head to those trusty repositories one last time and enjoy some end of the week leisurely reading.

Distro Issue 109 PDF
Distro in the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Google Play Store
Distro in the Windows Store
Distro APK (for sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter

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Source: iTunes, Google Play, Windows Store

Audio pioneer Ray Dolby passes away

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Audio pioneer Ray Dolby passes away

We've sad news to report today in the world of audio: Ray Dolby has passed on. His death comes relatively soon after losing both Dr. Fritz Sennheiser and Dr. Amar Bose, and as with those two gentlemen, Dolby's legacy will continue to impact viewers and listeners around the globe for many years to come. Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories in 1965, seeking to provide a place for like-minded engineers to "push the limits of sight and sound," as is stated on the outfit's homepage.

He is perhaps best known for the Dolby noise-reduction system, and in more modern times, for his company's iconic stamp on just about every major motion picture and piece of AV equipment known to man. Dolby's surround sound magic continues to lead the industry, with Dolby 3D and Dolby Atmos as its latest contributions. Ray Dolby was 80 years old, and is survived by his wife Dagmar as well as sons Tom and David. A tribute video compiled by Dolby Labs can be found after the break.

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Source: Dolby, Twitter (Dolby)

Computing UI visionary Douglas Engelbart passes away at age 88

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Computing UI visionary Douglas Engelbart, passes away at 88

The computing world lost one of its great minds and true pioneers yesterday. Douglas Engelbart passed away at age 88, just over a half-century after he joined the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) -- the place where much of his ground-breaking computing research would take place. Among his (and his research team's) many inventions made at SRI are the mouse, bitmapped screens, hypertext, networked computers and elements of a modern, windowed GUI. Should you be among those unfamiliar with his work, we've included a video of his epic and appropriately named "Mother of All Demos" that he gave in 1968 to introduce many of his computational contributions to the world. Tip of the cap, Mr. Engelbart. You will be missed, but assuredly not forgotten.

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Source: Computer History Museum (Twitter)

RIP: Google Reader

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We hope you've had time to say your goodbyes, because Google Reader bows out today, ending its eight-year existence. The search giant gave a two-month warning, with many users incensed that they'd be losing their defacto RSS reader -- their favorite way to absorb news and internet goings-on. We'd like to hear why Reader managed to pull in such a devoted following, so leave us your memories in the comments below and let us know which service you've moved your feeds to, because some of us haven't decided yet.

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Spotify’s web player exploited by Chrome extension to download songs as MP3s

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Spotify's web player exploited by Chrome extension to download songs as MP3s

This is why we can't have nice things. Spotify's web player has been rolling out to more users since its closed beta launch late last year, but today an extension popped up in the Google Chrome store (it's already been pulled) allowing users to download songs as MP3 files. According to the notes left by its author, the company wasn't using any encryption on its HTML5 player, making it a pretty simple project to put together. We're waiting to hear back from Spotify about the breach, and while Google appears to have been quick on the ball to remove the extension -- in a similar manner to how it's treated YouTube download tools in the Chrome Web Store -- hopefully this won't give others pause on distributing premium content using HTML5.

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Via: The Verge

Source: Tweakers.net

Apple’s Ping no longer pinging back, leaves memories of white noise in its wake

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Apple's Ping no longer pinging back, leaves memories of white noise in its wake

"I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside... the day the music died."

R.I.P. Ping (09.01.2010 - 09.30.2012)

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Apple's Ping no longer pinging back, leaves memories of white noise in its wake originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69

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William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69

The next time you hinge open that notebook PC and smile at a feature that makes it easier to use, give a thought to Bill Moggridge, who passed away Saturday from cancer at the age of 69. The pioneering designer invented the modern clamshell design seen in all modern laptops, and is also viewed as the father of human interaction software design.

The Compass Computer he designed for Grid Systems with the screen folded over the keyboard appeared in 1981, flew on the space shuttle, and inspired virtually every notebook design since. Perhaps more importantly, when he tried to use the machine himself, Moggridge was exasperated with the difficulty and decided to take the human factor into account for software design. To that end, he engaged experts from fields like graphics design and psychology, and tried to "build empathy for the consumer into the product," according to former partner, Professor David Kelly. The pair merged their design firms to form Ideo in 1991, and worked with clients like Apple, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble, designing products like the first Macintosh mouse and Palm V handheld along the way.

In 2010, Moggridge became the director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, and was a recipient of that institution's lifetime achievement award. He also won the Prince Philip Designer's Prize, the longest running award of its type in the UK, given for "a design career which has upheld the highest standards and broken new ground." See why that's true by going to Cooper-Hewitt's tribute video, right after break.

Continue reading William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69

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William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OnLive reportedly shutting down, new company forming in its wake (update: OnLive says ‘of course not’)

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Well, here's a bit of a shocker. After a strong showing at E3 and partnerships with companies like OUYA, gaming service OnLive is reportedly closing down, with an entire staff layoff resulting. At a glance, this sure feels a lot like the similar rise and fall of InstantAction, which was attempting to pull off something similar with cloud-based gaming. Polygon is reporting the story as relayed to the site by game developer Brian Fargo. We've reached out to the company and received a non-comment comment, "We don't respond to rumors and have no comment." Our OnLive contact also used the opportunity to plug its Google TV tie-ins and few giveaways -- so, for the moment at least, things seem to be moving along as usual.

Update: Joystiq has reached out for comment as well, getting a similar, yet decidedly more blunt response: "We don't respond to rumors, but of course not." Blunt response or no, we're sure this isn't the last we'll be hearing about this one.

Update 2: We reached out to OnLive again for clarification on whether the denial pertained to both the shutdown and layoff rumors. The response reads thusly: "I have no comment on the news other than to say the OnLive service is not shutting down. I'm sorry I cannot be more specific."

Update 3: Martyn Williams from IDG has reported there are employees leaving the OnLive offices with moving boxes.

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OnLive reportedly shutting down, new company forming in its wake (update: OnLive says 'of course not') originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 15:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Minitel to be shut down tomorrow: France bids adieu to the internet’s precursor

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minitel-to-be-shut-down-in-france-tomorow

Back in the mid-80s, the idea of transferring funds, checking your email, buying stocks and booking a trip online was all a faraway dream. But if you happened to be in France at the time, you might've already been wired up and doing these things for years -- thanks to the state-subsidized Minitels that were in each and every household. The country was far more interconnected than any other and proud of the text-only terminals, even though government-owned France Telecom monopolized access and you had to be newspaper company to supply any content.

It took off anyway, and soon faux-newspaper companies sprung up everywhere for the not-so-secret purpose of delivering paid Minitel services. They supplied information, financial access, ticketing, online shopping, and even some naughty text-based services (sacré bleu!). At its apogee in 1998, the system generated over a billion dollars a year in revenue, and accounted for nearly 15% of the annual income for online retailers 3 Suisses and La Redoute, to name a couple.

But France can be an insular nation, and Minitel never really spread anywhere else. The internet gave the coup de grace to the system and displaced it, and though it's still accessed by millions each year, France Telecom will pull the plug once and for all this Saturday. Some regret that the nation didn't build on its technological lead, but most French folks will probably remember the boxes nostalgically, knowing that they beat the internet by almost 20 years.

[Image credit: Musée De l'Informatique]

Minitel to be shut down tomorrow: France bids adieu to the internet's precursor originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 08:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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