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Walyou

Microsoft’s release of the Destiny fragrance is a clever ploy
Microsoft Vows to Protect Your Data From Government Snooping
A Closer Look At Nintendo’s First 12 Amiibo Figurines
Artist Has Robot Printing His Selfie with Blood
Intel MICA Is a Luxury Smart Bracelet for Geeky Women
SCEJA Press Conference 2014: The 5 Things You Need To Know
The Yerka Project: unstealable bike for the big city

Microsoft’s release of the Destiny fragrance is a clever ploy

Posted: 05 Sep 2014 11:09 AM PDT

By this time last year everyone was talking about the release of GTA5. This time around everyone’s discussing Destiny, which Microsoft wants you to know is not a Playstation exclusive.

Destiny is an upcoming game created by Bungie (you know, the creators of Halo) that is releasing next week. The publishers, Activision have let Microsoft UK know that they are not allowed to advertise the game for Xbox One as Sony has the exclusive rights to do so, even though the game is releasing on both platforms.

Well, Microsoft still wanted to let their fanbase know they had something to look forward to, and if it’s not the game, then anything else would do. How about advertising the game as a fragrance, without mentioning the game at all? And that’s exactly what they did. As Microsoft UK explain in their Twitter account, Destiny is a “new fragrance by Xbox” … or an actual advert that is not an advert for real. Clever, Microsoft, clever. So, no, there’s no actual Destiny fragrance, which might be a good or bad thing depending on what you think gamers smell like.

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Microsoft Vows to Protect Your Data From Government Snooping

Posted: 05 Sep 2014 06:00 AM PDT

In the wake of the NSA scandal, Microsoft announces plans to fight back against government data requests.

Since last year, a devastating storm has been brewing after security analyst Edward Snowden revealed to the global masses that not only is our data unsafe, it's also being snooped and spied on by an official arm of the United States government. According to the United States, the searches of our emails, text messages and various other electronically transmitted data are all fair game as they help the United States acquire information about terrorist plots and criminal threats. This would be fair enough but according to Snowden, the data-snooping goes far more than that and has even gone to heights of the NSA (National Security Agency) finding out citizens' private nude photos and spreading them around the office for, presumably, entertainment purposes.

So problematic is this that various tech companies, including Yahoo, have chosen to encrypt data or store it elsewhere so that the long arm of the US government won't be able to reach it or legally use it against people, while products such as the Blackphone have popped up claiming to be the most secure un-hackable phones in the world. However, as the US government works its way through a loophole, Microsoft is having to take the fight right to them.

To explain, the NSA from time to time (read: on a regular basis) submits warrants or requests to companies demanding they hand over their data. Often times the company is forced to comply. Unless, that is, the data in question isn't stored or based on US territory in which there is the slimmest amount of wiggle room. Technically, even if you use a US company to store data on non-US soil, you should be alright but now the NSA is looking for a way around that. They've tried to do this by unfreezing a search warrant that commanded Microsoft to hand over data that's stored overseas. Microsoft refused to comply. The company explains that not only will they "not be turning over the email [data]" they also plan to appeal. Furthermore, Microsoft also argue that domestic search warrants should not be able to access data that's stored abroad and it's a viewpoint that's received mass support from other technology companies.

While such a stance is in Microsoft's best favour – failing to protect their users hurts their profits after all – in the larger scheme of things it can be seen as them fighting the good fight. If Microsoft was quick to hand over the goods to the NSA, what's stopping the organisation from using domestic search warrants against other companies headquartered in the US even if their data is stored in other countries too? Not only this but it could have messy, faecal-spattered snowball consequences for us, resulting in the NSA having more power than they should rightfully have at all.

Other pertinent questions that have popped up are 'what would happen to the US company if everyone jumps ship for companies that aren't based in the US and therefore won't be forced to hand over data to the US government?', 'why does the US government want data from Microsoft's Ireland data centres that might not even pertain to a US citizen?' and 'how would the US government feel if China tried to play a similar hand against them?' These are all valid queries and ones that no one has the answer to just yet but we'll keep you posted once we know more.

Source: Windows IT Pro

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A Closer Look At Nintendo’s First 12 Amiibo Figurines

Posted: 05 Sep 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Nintendo finally reveals which famed characters will be apart of the initial batch of amiibo figures.

This holiday season brings the arrival of Nintendo's own line of in-game interactive figurines, amiibo. Although they proceed into an already crowded field, rubbing up against the hugely successful likes of Disney Infinity and Skylanders, the company hopes its own draw of familiar faces will set them apart from the competition.

Amiibos, in case you're wondering, will first make their use in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. for both Wii U and 3DS. Each 8 inch figure, from the likes of Link from The Legend of Zelda to the Villager from Animal Crossing, allows users to sync them up to the game via NFC communication, level them up RPG-style, and then do battle against other figures.

Right now you can pre-order an amiibo figure through Amazon, where each one comes in at a price of $12.99. The first wave of figures will feature 12 Nintendo characters: Mario, Donkey Kong, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Link, Samus, Villager, Kirby, Star Fox, Pikachu, Marth, and Wii Fit Trainer.

From the highly detailed images provide by Nintendo themselves, they look pretty darn impressive.

Visit Nintendo’s amiibo website to check out the rest of the first 12 amiibo figures in greater detail. I’ve only post a few here, but they are totally worth a closer look. We’ll also get back to you once Nintendo announce an official release date for these guys.

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Artist Has Robot Printing His Selfie with Blood

Posted: 04 Sep 2014 01:47 PM PDT

Oh, the things people do for the sake of art! Brooklyn-based artist Ted Lawson had a robot draw a selfie of him with blood as the medium.

The robot-printed blood selfie (does it still qualify as a selfie if it’s shot – or in this case, printed – by someone else?) will be part of the artist’s The Map Is Not the Territory (named after a concept used in NLP) exhibition, which will open on September 11 at the Joseph Gross Gallery in NYC. It should be noted that Lawson didn’t plan on using blood as the medium for his selfie (and no, the robot didn’t tie him to a chair in order to extract blood from him, you know, for art), but something must have

The good thing about printers in general, and the CNC milling machine that was used for this art project in particular, is that they don’t use a lot of ink (erm… blood) to put the symbols on paper. Otherwise, the artist would have ended in an ER rather than at his own exhibition. The paintbrush that’s handled by CNC’s robotic arm

To make things even weirder, Lawson pointed out that the selfie is actually a nude picture of himself. He proceeded to turning the photograph into code that the milling machine can understand, and the robot went to turn the code into a pixelated selfie.

Everything started as an experiment, though. Lawson placed a pen in CNC’s arm one day and how well the drawing ended up being: “I was doing a drawing of the moon and thought, “Oh, this could be really cool to do in my own blood. It was a logical progression.” Most sane artists would think otherwise, as it’s a long way from ink to blood. It’s not as if Lawson would be the first artist to use “secretions magnifiques” (yes, that really is a perfume created by Etat Libre d’Orange) for painting.

After finishing the work of art Lawson had to apply an acrylic preservative on it so that it doesn’t rot. Had he used normal paints, he obviously wouldn’t have had such problems, but in that case he probably wouldn’t have made the news, either. It would be interesting to see the public’s reaction after attending the exhibition.

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Intel MICA Is a Luxury Smart Bracelet for Geeky Women

Posted: 04 Sep 2014 01:00 PM PDT

Wearables are not something Intel is known for, but that doesn’t mean that the CPU maker isn’t allowed to give them a try. The MICA luxury smart bracelet mark’s Intel’s debut in this industry.

This is a bit of a surprising news, as most people expect any announcements coming from Intel to be related to their processors. Surprises aside, it looks like the company is only targeting a niche with its first wearable, namely rich women from the US. Why from the US? Mainly because that’s where luxury retailer Barneys New York and Opening Ceremony stores, the main distributors of this wearable, are located. The latter, which is a fashion house, also collaborated with Intel on making this high-end smart bracelet.

MICA, whose name is an acronym for “My Intelligent Communication Accessory,” features a curved sapphire touchscreen display, and that’s probably its main selling point. Priced at under $1,000, MICA doesn’t do much besides displaying SMS messages, calendar reminders, meeting alerts and other such notifications. For doing so, Intel’s MICA bracelet obviously needs to be paired with a smartphone. However, the wearable also packs a 3G cellular radio that permits two-way wireless data communication for a smartphone-free operation. Charging the bracelet is quite simple, and can be done either via a USB cable, or wirelessly with the help of a charger that might be sold separately. Other than that, not much is known about the device, but Intel is said to provide more details in October.

Intel’s high-end smart bracelet should be a hit among fashionistas. After all, models Kirsten Owen and Ajak Deng (pictured above, from left to right) were used in the promotional campaign for this device, so the target audience should resemble them.

Both versions of the wearable will be built around water-snake snake, with the mention that one is white and the other one is black. The black one features pearls from China and lapis stones from Madagascar, while the white version will include white water-snake skin, tiger’s eye from South Africa, and obsidian from Russia. With Intel and Opening Ceremony’s smart bracelet, it’s more about the style than the functionality, but that doesn’t mean that the device should be dismissed right away. Who knows what innovative functions Intel will announce next month?

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Intel’s plans of letting people build their own 3D Printed robots, and the Asus Nexus 8 with Intel chipset that might be launched this year.

SCEJA Press Conference 2014: The 5 Things You Need To Know

Posted: 04 Sep 2014 06:00 AM PDT

You missed Sony’s latest media event? Catch up by finding out the 5 things you need to know from their Japanese directed event on all things PlayStation.

During the early morning hours of September 1st, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan & Asia kicked off their formal showcase for Tokyo Game Show 2014. From start to finish, the event certainly earned its Japan & Asian branding, with lots of gaming announcements flavored with the popular trends of geek culture in Japan.

Not all was solely directed to our friends living across from the Pacific, of course. There were some neat surprises for the international crowd, which is why I put together this easy helpful countdown of what you need to know from Sony's pre-TGS press conference.

1. Yes, The PlayStation Vita Lives, And It Lives For Japan

A depressing no show at both E3, and more recently, Gamescom, the PlayStation Vita surprisingly had a sizable portion of Monday morning's presser all to itself.

Coming this November 13 in Japan, in fact, is a Light Pink/White version of the portable that Sony claims is aimed specifically for women. SCEJA is even promoting games squarely at that demographic, too, with popular dating sims for females (or Otome games as they're culturally called) from Japanese third-party publishers Marvelous Entertainment and Tecmo Koei.

2. New System Update Bringing Customizable Themes To Both PS4 & PS Vita

Along with their focus on the PlayStation Vita (it lasted a good 15 minutes, too!), Sony also debuted a new feature to an upcoming 3.30 system update, customizable themes. The system update is supposedly going to drop in October, and when installed, should let users personalize their wallpaper, icons, and sounds on the system’s main UI.

In the video shown along with the announcement of customizable themes, Sony provided examples of themes based on popular Japanese video game franchises like Freedom Wars and Danganronpa. Sony also revealed that the customizable themes feature would also be coming to the PlayStation 4 in the upcoming 2.00 system update that is currently in the works.

3. New PlayStation 4 Games For Japan Announced

When it came time for Sony to switch gears over the PlayStation 4, it focused much of its time on titles coming soon to the platform in the west, Destiny, Assassin's Creed Unity, The Order: 1886, and Bloodborne (which got a Japanese release date of February 5). But there were some never-before-seen surprises, like the announcement of a Hot Shots game (known in Japan as Everybody’s Golf) teeing off on the PS4 in 2015.

Capcom meanwhile came on stage to reveal Resident Evil Revelations 2 for the PlayStation 4 (also coming to on other consoles), arriving in early 2015. The game is a sequel to the Nintendo 3DS title of the same name – later ported to the PS3 and Xbox 360 – which starred Chris and Jill from the first Resident Evil game. Apparently, Revelations 2 will be set in new period and location never before seen in the franchise and will star two different characters.

Lastly, we come to Yakuza Zero from Sega, another title in the company's long-running Japanese-mafia centric action game that will apparently be a prequel of sorts. Zero will take place in 1988, before the events of the first Yakuza game, and will be based on the underground crime exploits of Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima.

Yakuza Zero will launch in Spring 2015 for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 with cross-play functionality for the PS Vita.

3. Tons of New Japanese Role-Playing Games Revealed

If there was one thing Sony's pre-TGS press conference was top heavy with, it was Japanese role-playing games for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. Perhaps one of the greatly anticipated releases from the Japanese developer of the Megami Tensei series, Atlus, is their next RPG, Persona 5. Originally announced last year as a PS3 exclusive, Persona 5 will now have a PS4 release alongside it come next year.

As for RPGs from niche Japanese studios: Nihon Falcom, famous for their Ys series of RPGs, is creating a new Ys game for the PS4 and PS Vita that’s also headed for release next year; Nippon Ichi Software is bringing out another title in its cutesy strategy RPG series, Disgaea 5, to the PS4; finally, Marvelous Entertainment is developing a new tactical RPG for the for the PS Vita called Luminous Arch Infinity.

To round up the list, Namco Bandai is re-issuing an enhanced version of their action RPG series on the PS Vita, God Eater, awesomely titled God Eater 2: Rage Burst. That along with Senran Kagura’s Estival Versus, another popular PS Vita action RPG, are both heading to the Sony handheld and the PS4 in 2015.

5. Square Enix's Dragon Quest Gets Dynasty Warrior-styled Spin-off

One of the more head-turning, and show-stopping events during the presser was the final announcement, which brought out Yuji Horii, legendary creator of the Dragon Quest series, a fantasy RPG series that has lasted since the NES days, to show off Dragon Quest Heroes.

Essentially, Dragon Quest Heroes is a tide-and-true Dragon Quest game in sight and sound, but plays like a Dynasty Warrior game. And that’s because it’s being co-developed by Omega Force, the driving force behind the Dynasty Warrior series.

The game is expected in 2015 for both the PS4 and PS3, and will even launch with a special edition Metal Slime PS4 console.

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The Yerka Project: unstealable bike for the big city

Posted: 04 Sep 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Living in big cities poses some dangers that inhabitants of the suburbs or small towns might not be aware of. Here comes an idea for those who are fond of their bikes and would hate to see them stolen.

Thieves are getting pretty creative, but the Yerka Project will test their tenacity. It’s a secure bike that instead of having the user lug around a padlock becomes a lock itself. Owners just have to separate it in two parts, unhook the seat post, and then locks itself into place using a post or a tree. Being that the bike itself is the lock, finding the right spot shouldn’t be too hard.

Hard to grasp? Well, the Yerka Project team has created a video where they demonstrate exactly how it works, and you can judge for yourself how useful it is right below these lines.

Have the team won you over yet? We don’t know just how secure the lock is, but just imagining the confused faces of thieves everywhere might make the whole project worth it, if you ask us.

Via Craziest Gadgets

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