You might want to think twice about sitting down and watching an entire season of "Game of Thrones" in one afternoon, especially if you make a habit of the couch-potato lifestyle. A study conducted in Spain has reached the conclusion that people who watch over three hours of television each day have a twofold higher risk of mortality compared with people who watch less than an hour each day. The study was published this week in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
A research team from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, followed 13,284 Spanish university graduates with a mean age of 37 years over a median follow-up time of 8.2 years. The researchers looked at how much time each person spent watching television and adjusted results for age, sex, smoking status, total energy intake, Mediterranean diet adherence, body mass index, and physical activity.
"Television viewing was directly associated with all-cause mortality. However, computer use and time spent driving were not significantly associated with higher mortality," the study reports. The information was gathered through self-administered questionnaires sent every two years by mail.
Over the course of the research, 97 participants died, which is actually less than the expected rate of 128 for the general population of a similar age, sex, and income. The cause of death broke out into 19 deaths due to cardiovascular disease, 46 due to cancer, and 32 that could not be attributed to either of those more common causes.
The researchers are puzzling out how television in particular might impact mortality by entertaining the possibility that the connection could be due to the low-energy expenditure required to view TV, versus driving or even working on a computer.
We've been hearing about the dangers of too much sitting for quite some time. "Our findings suggest that not only the promotion of physical activity but also the reduction in sedentary activities (especially television viewing) is a priority for the prevention of premature mortality," the study reads.
While the study has generated some interesting data, the researchers feel there needs to be some follow-up studies. "Further cohort studies and trials designed to assess whether reductions in television viewing are able to reduce mortality are warranted," the paper concludes. "The lack of association between computer use or time spent driving and mortality needs further confirmation."
Switching between apps in Android isn't too difficult, but it's still not the smoothest feature on the platform. When trying to copy text from one window and add it to another, you can only do one section of text at a time. And going back and forth between the two can start to feel rather cumbersome.
With Copy Bubble, you'll gain a floating clipboard that lets you create a list of copied text. This way you won't have to leave the original text and go back and forth for the rest. Ready to get started? Here's how:
Step 1: Install Copy Bubble on your Android 4.0 and up device. The file is only 2MB, so it won't take much room.
Copy Bubble's floating app interface. Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET
Step 2: Highlight text and copy as you normally would. Copy Bubble will add each chunk of text to the clipboard list. The number of items on the list displays in the floating bubble.
Step 3: When you're ready to paste something, select it from the Copy Bubble list and tap the copy icon along the top of the window. If you want to paste the very last item you copied, you can just use the regular paste function. The share button is also present, in the event that you want to share the text with another app like Facebook.
Copy Bubble settings menu. Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET
To remove any of the copied items, simply tap the X next to them in the list. You can also adjust whether or not the notification shade icon displays, and also move the bubble around on your screen. What do you think? Will this help you be more productive when copying text and pasting elsewhere? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Yours and yours alone: The 'buds are expected to be available later this year. OwnPhones
Jasmine France, a former CNET editor who reviewed audio products, used to write about having "absurdly tiny ears" that made it hard for her to find perfectly fitting earbuds.
Well, @WeirdEaredJas, listen up. A startup called OwnPhones is getting set to make personalized, 3D-printed wireless earbuds.
"Ears are like fingerprints -- each one is unique, so it is time that consumers were able to get earbuds that actually fit their ears properly," said Itamar Jobani, founder and CEO of the San Diego-based company.
OwnPhones plans to launch a $250,000 Kickstarter campaign in July to finish developing its product, but it's currently offering a 50 percent early-bird discount to those who sign up to be notified when the campaign goes live. Regular retail prices are expected to range from $299 to $449.
To get their custom earbuds, users will access an OwnPhones mobile app and create a short video that shows both their ears (I, personally, am planning some sort of artsy ear-related "Game of Thrones" remix).
The mobile app then uploads the video to the company's servers, and OwnPhones uses photogrammetry, the science of making measurements from photographs, to convert the images into a 3D model. Customers can choose from a variety of materials, including plastic, gold, and silver, as well as a range of styles. They can even specify their favorite physical activity (snowboarding, say), and OwnPhones will combine motion capture analysis data and a mechanical simulation for that activity to help determine the best earbud design for the task.
Yeah, you could call these prototype earbuds unique. OwnPhones
The 'buds themselves will also sport some smart features, allowing users to customize what they hear, for example, (from a complete sound seal to a combination of a user's own music and street sounds). A status indicator light will broadcast the wearer's personal status (green = go ahead, bug me; amber = busy, but approach anyway; red = stay at least 10 feet away from my aura).
Jobani, a sculpture/installation artist, came up with the idea for the customized 3D-printed earbuds because his 'buds constantly popped out while he jogged.
"Normal earphones hurt because they pressure the ear, and if they don't pressure, they fall out," he said. "The custom-fit OwnPhones earbuds feel perfect while jumping and running, for example."
An opportunity to have my own ears scanned fell through this week, so I haven't yet been able to see how well the customization process works. Still, I think there's a chance I might have just met my new best buds.
What were you doing this time last year? What about two, three, four, and even five years ago? If your memory is fuzzy, let an app called Timehop help you out. What started as just an email service, Timehop has grown into a social media time capsule that you can dig up each day on your Android phone or iPhone.
The app has a cute design, and it's a really pleasant way to take a walk through your personal history to remember where you were in your life years ago. It's fun to peak at vacation photos from three years back, or remember what was in the news, and how you felt about it, last year. It's particularly fun for me to see when my history includes major milestones, such as graduations or new jobs, and to look at what I did during major holidays, like Fourth of July and Thanksgiving.
Connect your accounts
It works like this; download the app and connect your social media accounts. The app supports Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, your phone's Photo Gallery, and Twitter. While the app can access most of your posts over the last five years, it can only access 3,200 tweets from your Twitter account. To supplement that, you can upload your entire Twitter archive to the service, but that's completely optional.
You can also use a handy feature called Timehop Sync to upload your photos from your computer and/or Dropbox account, and Timehop will pull those into your daily update. When you install the program, you can tell it which folders to look at to find photos, and it will only pull in pictures that were taken with a camera. Using the metadata from the photos, Timehop knows when it was taken, provided the camera date was set correctly.
You connect your social media accounts to Timehop to see what you've shared in the past. Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Your daily Timehop
Once you've connect all of the accounts and content you want, and uploaded your Twitter archive, you're ready to start getting your daily Timehops, which is what the app calls your daily snapshot of your social media activity over the last few years. Every day you'll get a notification that your Timehop is ready, and you can scroll through a timeline of updates, organized by year.
For each year, you'll see what day of the week that date fell on, plus the "one year ago" section shows a brief weather report with the temperature and conditions wherever you were. As you scroll through the years, you'll see what you shared on each of your social media accounts, which gives you a great snapshot of what you were doing that day, or what you talked about. You can then share any of your past updates to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through the app.
A small snapshot of one of my Timehops. Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Of course, some entries will be more meaningful than others. For example, tweets where I responded to someone else, and there's not much context, aren't very insightful because I can't see what the other person tweeted. Luckily, you can hide "@ replies" from your timeline in the settings menu, so those responses won't show up. Timehop's mascot Abe. Sarah Mitroff/CNET
At the end of your Timehop, there's a small graphic with a historical fact about that day, usually related to pop culture. It always features Timehop's mascot, Abe, an adorable cartoon dinosaur. Abe also hangs out at the very bottom of the screen with an inspirational or philosophical thought about time.
That's really all there is to it. Timehop might not change your life, or make your day easier, but it's a wonderful digital daily diary that you don't even have to create yourself. All you have to do is keep sharing bits of your life through the social media accounts you already use, and Timehop does the rest.
While smartwatches have been big news in the gadget world, there still aren't a ton of them wandering around on people's wrists in the wild. Google hopes to give the smartwatch market a boost as the first Android Wear gadgets finally reach consumers.
The $229 LG G Watch and $200 Samsung Gear Live are both due July 7. These square-faced watches were shown off at Google's annual I/O conference as some of the first to sport the Android Wear OS, which will pair with any smartphone or tablet running Android 4.3 or up. The Samsung Gear Live includes the bonus feature of a heart-rate monitor on the back, which may tempt fitness buffs to buy it.
The Android Wear system relies heavily on voice commands for navigation. Notifications arrive like little versions of Google Now cards. The reliance on voice control may end up being the biggest shift for people who are already into smartwatches.
Though the G Watch and Gear Live are expected to be the early arrivals at the Android Wear party, some smartwatch-watchers are looking beyond them to the debut of the Moto 360. This circular watch is expected sometime this summer, though pricing and an exact release date haven't been announced. The round look certainly stands out and may entice fashion-conscious smartwatch shoppers to wait a bit.
Apple has yet to officially weigh in on smartwatches, but an eventual iWatch could make a big splash. Considering all the options, including simply passing on buying a smartwatch at all, what's your inclination? Are you ready to slap an Android Wear device on your wrist, or are you waiting for something more enticing to come along? Vote in our poll and share your thoughts in the comments.
Gamers looking to grab an Xbox One console, accessories, or games may want to head over to your local GameStop store to check out a new sales promotion.
Running just Friday and Saturday, the new promo slashes the prices of certain Xbox One accessories and games and promises to lower the cost of the console itself depending on what you offer as a trade-in. One example, you can save $10 on an Xbox One controller and $20 on an Xbox Live Gold Membership when you buy the console. You can also save $20 on an Xbox One stereo headset and $30 on a Turtle Beach Ear Force X07 headset.
The selection of video games designed for the Xbox One has also initially been limited. Microsoft took advantage of the E3 gaming industry event earlier this month to emphasize games and promise more titles to come. Until then, any promotions from major retailers such as GameStop could provide the Xbox One with a much-needed shot in the arm.
On the game front, GameStop's sale is offering Wolfenstein: The New Order, NBA2K14, and Zumba Fitness World Party for $20 off the regular price. The retailer is also juicing up its trade-in deals to try to convince gamers to give up their current systems in exchange for an Xbox One. In a deal good until July 13, consumers can score an extra 50 percent credit by trading in any system toward an Xbox One.
For example, trading in an Xbox 360 (S Model) 320GB console normally scores a trade-in value of $75. Add in the 50 percent bonus, and you get $112 total that can shave the cost of an Xbox One. GameStop's Trade Center website provides all the details on trade-in offers and values.
Facebook revealed that since last summer it's been fighting a court order that required it to disclose social-media information involving hundreds of people.
"This unprecedented request is by far the largest we've ever received -- by a magnitude of more than ten -- and we have argued that it was unconstitutional from the start," Chris Sonderby, Facebook's deputy general counsel, wrote in a statement Thursday.
The situation raises concerns over privacy in the digital age, when much of a person's sensitive information is often available online and on mobile devices. This week, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected warrantless searches of cell phones, saying the practice went against the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizure. The court added that modern cell phones are "not just another technological convenience."
Facebook said 381 people's accounts were subject to warrants out of an unspecified New York court, though only 62 were later charged in a disability fraud case. The company said it was under a gag order, preventing it from discussing the case or notifying the people affected until recently.
Facebook, the largest social network in the world, asserted that the search was "overly broad" and allowed the government to keep the seized photos, private messages, and other information indefinitely. It has called for the government to return the data and claimed the search ignored the Fourth Amendment.
Facebook, as well as other tech companies like Google and Apple, discloses data on the number of search warrants, subpoenas, and emergency disclosures requests it receives from government bodies. Facebook said that from July to December 2013, it received 12,598 total requests from US law enforcement, requesting information from 18,715 users or accounts. In all, some data was produced from 81 percent of the requests, Facebook said.
As a full-time blogger, there are countless times when I'd like to put two screenshots or product photos side by side. Alas, the blog tools I use either don't allow for that or don't make it very easy.
The solution? A fast and easy Web tool called, aptly enough, Quick Picture Tools - Combine Images. Here's how to use it to join two images into one. (It can also create a four-image collage, a process that becomes obvious after you start with two.)
Step 1: Open Quick Picture Tools in your browser. You'll see a blank window, with various options below it.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Step 2: Click the Add button in the first of the four boxes, the one in the top left. Navigate to the folder containing the first image you want, click it, and then click Open.
You might need to zoom out so you can see both images side by side. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Step 3: Repeat the process, this time clicking the Add button in the top right box. Now you should be looking at two side-by-side images. If they're roughly the same size, you're in good shape. If either one is on the large side, though, you should click the zoom selector and choose 25 or 50 percent. That should allow you to at least preview them side by side.
Step 4: If necessary, change the values in the Width and Height fields so your two images are roughly the same. Obviously with a pair of screenshots, you can probably leave their sizes alone.
The width/height and padding tools can help you properly size and space your images. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Step 5: If you want extra white space between your images, use the Padding tool. You can click and hold the up arrow until you get the space you want, or just manually enter a value. Likewise, the Margin tool will add a border around the outside edge, and Rounded Corners will round the edges of your two images.
Step 6: Want to add text? Type some words into one of the fields below the Add Image tools. A preview will appear instantly, and you can drag and drop it in whatever position you want. You can modify the color, font, and size as well.
Step 7: Choose your desired output format (JPEG or PNG), then click Generate Image. In the Save As box that appears, pick your save folder and give the new image a name.
None of this is very complicated, obviously, but it does offer and fast and effective solution for combining images. Hope you find it useful!
Planning to mount your TV on a wall? Hope you like cables, because you're probably going to be looking at a lot of them snaking out from the back. And even if you run them inside the wall, here's hoping you can place all your connected components -- cable box, Roku box, game console, and so on -- close enough to reach, without being a total eyesore.
Nah. Time to consider a different kind of cord-cutting, a wireless adapter that allows your home-theater gear to reside just about anywhere -- and greatly reduces cord clutter.
The NAVM6 consists of two main components: a receiver that plugs into one of your TV's HDMI ports, and a transmitter with an effective range of about 65 feet.
That transmitter has four HDMI inputs and two sets of component inputs, which means you can also use this kit as an HDMI switch: If your TV has only two or three HDMI ports, bam -- now it has four. (Plus whatever's left on the TV itself, of course.)
The gear can handle full 1080p video and promises lag-free performance, which is especially important for gaming. The included IR remote extender means you should have no trouble using your existing remote(s), while the Matrix's own remote is logically designed, with grouped, numeric buttons for easy switching between the six inputs.
This could also be a great asset for anyone installing a home-theater projector, again letting you stream up to six sources while needing just one cable (and power, natch). The receiver even comes with mounting screws so you can easily affix it to a wall or ceiling.
CNET hasn't reviewed the NAVM6, but over at Amazon it scored 4.2 stars out of 5 from about two dozen buyers. I had the chance to demo a unit, and it worked like a charm with my four sources: TiVo, Apple TV, Roku box, and PS3. Your mileage may vary, of course, but this is a smokin' deal on a genuinely useful home-theater accessory. The coupon code is good through July 3.
Bonus deal: I'm not entirely sure of the numeric significance, but today and tomorrow only, Amazon is giving away 31 Android apps that have a combined value of over $100. Among the highlights: media-streaming app Plex, classic game Sonic the Hedgehog 2, remote-access utility Splashtop Remote Desktop HD, and because pinball on a phone or tablet is more fun than you think, Pinball Deluxe Premium.
Xiaomi's Redmi Note isn't a new flagship phone from the Chinese company. Rather it's an affordable dual-SIM device powered by MediaTek's octa-core processor that's under $160, £95, or AU$170.
While you'd expect Xiaomi would have had to make a bunch of compromises to hit such a low price, the Redmi Note is surprisingly packed full of useful features, including a 13-megapixel camera and a 5.5-inch IPS 720p display. The only thing lacking is it still runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, but the custom MIUI skin does a good job of helping to hide the fact.
The Redmi Note is currently only available in Asia (China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan) but you can get it online from third-party retailers. It will cost HKD$1,239 ($159) in Hong Kong, RM509 ($157) in Malaysia, and S$199 ($154) in Singapore. Those prices convert to around £95 or AU$170.
Design
Resembling a super-size version of the Redmi, the Note is pretty hefty. Its 5.5-inch screen has a lot of plastic around it, and that makes it heavy: 7 ounces (199 grams). While the weight does give a solidity to the phone, it can feel a tad too big when placed next to the smaller LG G3, which has a similar screen size.
The Redmi Note's display may be the same size as the G3's, but the LG phone is noticeably smaller. Aloysius Low/CNET
But that's quite an unfair comparison, to be honest. The G3 is a top-of-the-line device engineered to be ridiculously small (for its screen size), while the Note is much cheaper, aimed at a less demanding market. That said, it's not like Xiaomi hasn't paid any attention to how the Note was designed.
Clad in glossy white plastic, the phone feels just like any other plastic phone on the market. The choice of color is a good one, as it helps to hide the inevitable fingerprint smudges you'd expect from glossy surfaces. As the cover is removable, you can swap it out for other designs if that's your preference, but those are only available in China for now.
The phone has rounded corners, which sit well in the palm. If you're using this phone to play games in a landscape orientation, you'll find it pretty comfortable to grip. One thing though: the glossy plastic back does feel slick after some use, due to residue left by fingerprints.
Aloysius Low/CNET
Also found at the back of the phone is a 13-megapixel camera that boasts a 28mm wide-angle lens with LED flash. The front shooter packs 5 megapixels.
Internally, the Note is powered by a 3,200mAh battery and runs off a MediaTek MT6592 octa-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz. There are two versions of the phone: the other uses the same chip but clocked at 1.4GHz and only has 1GB RAM. The 1.7GHz version, which this review is based on, comes with 2GB.
Onboard storage is limited to a mere 8GB but the phone has a microSD card slot for another 32GB of space. Lastly, there's no 4G connectivity, but the phone supports 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0.
Aloysius Low/CNET
Software and features
Like all Xiaomi handsets, the Note comes with MIUI, which is Xiaomi's take on the Android operating system -- in this case, Android 4.2.2 and not the latest, 4.4 KitKat. One of the included features is drawerless home screens similar to iOS. This means all apps appear right on the home screen.
Xiaomi's MIUI runs over Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Screenshot by Aloysius Low/CNET
See the bright green circle on his shoulder? Sydney Morning Herald screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
The World Cup is hard to understand for many Americans.
Today, the US team lost, but progressed. The Russians tied, but were eliminated.
What sort of justice is this? It sounds like a peculiarly European form.
The Russians, however, believe that technology was largely responsible for their exit. The team's coach, Italian Fabio Capello, insisted that his goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev had been blinded by a green laser aimed from the crowd.
As the Guardian reports, this happened just before Algeria scored an equalizing goal, hence sending the Russians back to a chilly reception.
TV footage certainly confirms that a laser was shone at Akinfeev. Capello explained in a press conference: "He was blinded by the laser beam. There are pictures. You can see that in the footage. This not an excuse, it is a fact. There was a laser. I have never come up with excuses to get by in my entire life."
He has, to be accurate, coached several excuses for soccer teams and has only managed one win in seven World Cup games.
How much of a distraction the laser might have been is, moreover, open to some debate.
Akinfeev is not the sort of goalkeeper you'd want to catch your auntie if you threw her from the second floor and he's waiting down below.
In this case, he missed the corner entirely, allowing Algeria's Slimani to score. Could he really blame the laser for that?
And then, as they say in British cop shows, he has previous. In Russia's first game against South Korea, an utterly harmless shot was heading straight for him. He contrived to allow it to not only slip through his hands, but to go behind him into the goal.
While the use of a laser is clearly ignorant and dangerous, I wonder whether Russia's abject performance in its first two games might have contributed more to the nation's exit.
"A stool for your nose, Captain?" Tuneknob/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
There are people, somewhere out there, whose job is to consider what happens in the event of disaster.
It's not a job everyone would want, but it's socially rewarding on occasion.
Here, then, is one example of a simple invention that averted an event that, to a lay eye, might have been troubling.
Earlier this month, the pilot of a Marines AV-8B Harrier jet took off from an aircraft carrier and soon realized he had a problem with his front landing gear.
"I went above the ship at about 2,000 feet," he said in a YouTube video, "and started talking to 'Paddles,' who's another jet pilot in the tower that controls us when we land."
This particular ship, however, the USS Bataan, was unusually equipped. As Mahoney explained: "The ship had this amazing invention that was, like, basically a stool, that was built specifically for this reason."
Who would have thought? Certainly not Mahoney, who must have conceived that the obstacles to a landing without nose wheels would be considerable.
His job, however, was to position the aircraft's nose to land precisely on the stool. There was one problem.
"I'm at 20 feet stabilized and I can't see the stool," explained Mahoney. Still, he managed.
After the successful landing, he said: "I don't remember feeling it bounce like it does on the videotape."
He said that after he landed, he had to sit for a while to remember how to turn the plane off.
Mahoney admits to being shaken by the experience because, he admitted, "there's no way to train for this situation."
I still wonder, though, who originally thought of such a simple idea for such a potentially dangerous circumstance.
Perhaps someone who was looking at a footstool one night and thought: "Aha."
Here's a stat that will make most people nod in agreement: time spent on mobile apps is at an all-time high and just keeps growing. But, breaking down the data piece-by-piece does carry some surprising facts -- such as people use Internet radio, social media, and photos far more on their mobile devices than on their PCs.
What's more, for the first time ever, time spent on mobile apps is higher than any other digital medium, coming in at 51 percent.
This new data comes from ComScore's latest mobile app report. The analytics company looked at roughly 10 billion minutes of user engagement on apps during the month of May.
Just a year ago, mobile platforms commanded 50 percent of users' total digital media time, and now that number is up to 60 percent -- the majority of that within apps.
According to ComScore, of all the app categories, digital radio is where people spend the most amount of time, with 96 percent of user engagement coming from mobile devices and Pandora leading that category. Coming in a very close second, also with 96 percent, was photos, which was led by apps like Instagram and Flickr. Other categories, like maps and instant messaging, were also overwhelmingly used on smartphones and tablets.
"While the mobile platform shift continues unabated, not every content category has experienced the shift at the same speed," ComScore wrote in its report. "Amazingly, but perhaps not altogether unexpectedly, a couple of important categories have shifted almost exclusively to mobile."
ComScore also points to the importance of growth in the social networking category, with apps like Facebook and Twitter. While only 70 percent of user activity comes from mobile, the category has seen huge increases in the last year -- total mobile engagement in this category has grown 55 percent and has accounted for 31 percent of all Internet growth since 2013.
"While social networking does not rank at the very top of this list among the most mobile-skewing content categories, it is arguably the most important," ComScore wrote.
The Bottom Line: With its reliability, its overall ease of use, and its undeniable value, the iSmartAlarm is an intriguing, legitimate alternative in home security, especially for small-home owners and budget-minded consumers. / Read full review
Facebook's $2 billion deal to buy virtual reality pioneer Oculus VR brings the promise of new technologies that literally change how people see the world.
But the acquisition of the headset maker, expected to be completed in coming weeks, is also giving Facebook some headaches.
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in March he was buying a virtual reality company that, on the face of it, has nothing to do with social networking, company watchers were surprised. Oculus makes a headset, called the Rift, that plugs into a computer and displays images designed to transport users into virtual worlds. Put on the goggles and you could suddenly be exploring a sandy beach halfway across the world or battling an enemy from the cockpit of a starship -- without leaving your chair. The Rift has become a darling of video game industry veterans who extoll its virtue as an entirely new way of engaging in virtual experiences.
But Zuckerberg says games are "just the start." Oculus' technology will change industries, from health care to education and beyond. "People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives," he wrote in a March 25 Facebook post explaining how virtual reality is no longer the "dream of science fiction." Oculus's technology, he said, "opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences."
What Zuckerberg perhaps didn't see was that making consumer hardware is expensive -- and more so for Oculus than initially expected. The costs associated with researching, developing, and building Oculus's headset has begun raising eyebrows among Facebook's executives, people familiar with the matter say. Some of that is the result of Oculus's efforts to keep expanding its operations and building out its teams, as well as new initiatives such as publishing and research and development. Some has to do with a change in the components Oculus wants to use to build its devices.
The result is that the acquisition is proving more complex than other large deals, such as of photo-sharing app Instagram, though Oculus is a larger company with more than 100 employees.
Facebook declined to comment, as did Oculus.
No matter what's driving up costs, the surprise at Oculus' increasing financial demands could stem from Facebook's lack of experience producing mass market consumer hardware. Facebook partnered with hardware makers in the past, including with HTC on its Facebook Home initiative- which was launched and abandoned last year.
But building technology on its own is different. With Oculus, the decade-old social networking giant is now funding everything from industrial design to manufacturing -- and tackling all the rigmarole that comes with becoming a serious player in the consumer electronics market.
"Hardware is hard," said Michael Geyer, who researches manufacturing technologies for design software maker Autodesk. The logistics of mass production are usually more expensive than newcomers expect, he said, particularly when they begin grappling with finding reputable factories that can churn out products quickly, and at a high quality. "Getting where Oculus got with their first prototypes was fantastic, but the work is only beginning for them."
Oculus has said it will be happy to break even, though investment costs could reach into the billions before that happens.
Those costs are accentuated by an increasingly serious lawsuit from ZeniMax Media, which claims a former employee and now one of Oculus' executives, John Carmack, misappropriated its technology in helping build initial versions of the headset. Oculus denies those assertions, painting ZeniMax as an opportunist looking for a payout after the surprise acquisition.
ZeniMax did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Still, one of the people says, Zuckerberg is committed to the deal.
From fantasy to virtual reality
Oculus made waves in 2012 when it announced a developer kit for its virtual reality headset and launched a successful Kickstarter campaign that pulled in more than $2.4 million to fund development. The Irvine, Calif.-based company has since sold more than 85,000 headsets to developers. It's been iterating along the way, adding new sensors that can more precisely track a user as their bodies move. The company has also created versions of its headset that can display higher-resolution images.
Oculus currently sells prototypes to developers for $350, and said it plans to sell the Rift to consumers for as close to cost as possible when it's publicly available. The company hasn't publicly committed to a launch date.
In recent months, Oculus has been on a hiring binge, poaching industry veterans from game makers such as Valve, Bungie, and Electronic Arts. The company is also hiring employees in Menlo Park, Calif., Facebook's hometown, to help manage publishing deals. And Oculus has already started lining up content, including signing an exclusive agreement with a new company headed by Paul Bettner, one of the creators of the hit mobile title "Words With Friends."
Oculus' other areas of focus have been on its R&D crew in the Seattle area. The company earlier this week agreed to acquire Carbon Design, the team that helped create the controller for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console and original Kinect motion sensor. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Oculus says it's given its research teams a nearly unlimited budget and carte blanche to hire whomever they need, though that team is still expected to grow relatively slowly.
In an interview earlier this month, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said board members were surprised by the R&D moves. He said they reminded him that the Rift headset hadn't yet shipped and the investments made in the company were for the startup, not a research outfit. "But this is what you have to do," Iribe said. "This is VR. It's so new."
Oculus has also made a commitment to higher-quality hardware. A day after the acquisition was announced, Palmer Luckey, Oculus's founder, told The Wall Street Journal that Facebook's financial reserves will allow his team to build headsets with custom-made parts. He and Iribe said that using those parts, rather than off-the-shelf-components originally designed for mobile devices like smartphones, will lead to a higher-quality product.
Tom Dinges, head of analysis firm Carriage Group International, said costs may rise further as Facebook and the Oculus team face the inevitable production struggles that hit all new hardware. If Oculus decides to create custom parts, it may be even harder to perfect the manufacturing process and produce working Rift goggles in high-enough quantities and at a quick enough pace. This isn't uncommon though, Dinges said: Young hardware companies often miscalculate their development and manufacturing costs by millions of dollars.
Mark Dziersk, managing director at the design and engineering firm LUNAR, said the increasing investments send a good signal to consumers and the market. Many companies often make the mistake of rushing a product out to meet a set launch time, resulting in cut corners and unfinished features like an app store or vital content.
"I don't know how investing in getting the product right can be a bad idea," Dziersk said. "I think it's the only way companies will succeed in the future."
Luckey shared a similar sentiment in March, saying part of why Oculus agreed to Facebook's takeover was to ensure they could afford to make the Rift headset the way he and his team wanted. "A lot of people don't understand how much money it takes to build things--especially to build hardware," he said.
For Facebook and Zuckerberg, that learning is just beginning.
With nearly unlimited energy, a lot of very useful things can happen. You get propulsion, sure, but also electricity. And with electricity you can take seawater and make pure drinking water. You can also separate out those pesky H molecules and make as much Oxygen as your crew needs too.
CO2 scrubbers (lower left) take out that deadly gas.
As a French word, Redoutable is pronounced with little concern for the letters involved. Essentially Hoo-doo-tab-leh, means "formidable," which is as apt a name for a boomer as I've ever heard.
Launched in 1967 and commissioned in 1971, the Redoutablespent 20 years at sea, was home to thousands of sailors (135 at a time), and clocked up nearly 800,000 miles on the odo. Unlike the hunter/killer subs most commonly found as museum ships, the Redoutable is a missile boat, a boomer, its main purpose to hide quietly as a silent threat of nuclear annihilation.
After an extensive refurbishing (and some serious, let's say "decontenting"), the Redoutable is open to the public. See inside this massive submarine in many pictures and a bunch of words. See the image gallery here.
Cherbourg is a gorgeous and quiet French seaside town. Its advanced ports, replete with rail links and dockyards, caught the fancy of Sir Winston and Ike themselves, and was a key target for the Allies which aimed its might towards Normandy to breach the Atlantic Wall.
After the war, Cherbourg became known for building ships, and in the 60s, gave birth to France's first nuclear submarine. While other countries were designing fast attack subs to use nuclear power, France started with boomers, ostensibly a deterrent.
Le Redoutable was launched in 1967, and commissioned 4 years later, she was the first of her class, a state of the art war machine designed for stealth.
After 20 years at sea, she was decommissioned. In 2000, the process began to make her a museum ship, to my knowledge, the only missile sub available for tours. The biggest challenge: removing the nuclear reactor.
The hull was split in three pieces: the bow to the reactor area, the reactor area, and everything aft. Though not much larger than a refrigerator, the reactor had extensive lead shielding to protect the crew. So the entire donut of the reactor and pieces, the inner hull, and the outer hull, were all removed completely, then the outer hull was replaced with thin steel plating. From the outside, you can't tell such surgery was performed. From the inside, well, you'll see.
Sitting in it's glove-like drydock, there's a certain sadness at seeing such a proud ship out of its element. But the sea is a harsh beast, and would have surely been harder on the Redoutable than air.
You start the tour in the engine room, through a purpose-build door in the hulls. You work your way forward, past the hauntingly creepy missile tubes, the bridge, and then the crew decks.
I've been on many submarines, the B-427and the USS Bowfin to name two. All have that intense Das Boot-cramped nature to them. There is significantly less of that here. This is a much larger boat than what came before. For comparison, the USS Nautilus, the first combat nuclear sub, was 320 feet long, and 28 wide, vs the Redoutable's 420 and 35, respectively. The difference while being on the Redoutable is like being on a small ship, versus being inside an ornate and tube-filled closet.
Certainly everything is still compact, but wait till you see how big the mess is, or the Officer's Lounge (ok, it's technically their mess, but still...). There are multiple decks, multiple showers (thanks to unlimited fresh water), and more that you just don't see on smaller subs.
Geoffrey Morrison
On an older sub, or an attack sub, there are little to no concessions for the human occupants. Space is such a premium that you can never quite escape the feeling of the machine crowding in around you. That's less so with the Redoutable. The hallways are a bit more generous, the rooms a little more spacious.
You don't always see the curve of the hull, or the tubes and conduits that let the machine keep itself moving for a thousands and thousands of leagues at a time (basically until the squishy bits inside run out of food).
The US Navy's current missile subs are the Ohio-class, much larger than the Redoutable, at 560 feet long and 42 wide. I can only imagine what one of them looks like inside. Then there's the " Red October" Typhoon-class Soviet sub, at 574 feet by 75(!) wide. Maybe, sometime after this current crop of boomers is decommissioned, we'll get to tour one of them. If we're not too old....
Great exclusive titles can mean the difference between a system that's flying off the shelves and, well, Nintendo's Wii U. At their press conference on Monday night, Sony came out swinging with a fairly impressive list.
We got our first glimpse of The Order 1886 at last year’s E3 , but it wasn’t much more than that -- a glimpse. In tonight’s reveal, we saw bit of the action as one of the game’s seemingly Victorian-era protagonists took pot shots at something like a cross between a werewolf and an especially lithe, highly articulate zombie.
The Bottom Line: The PlayStation 4's beautiful graphics, blazing interface, near-perfect controller, and lower price give it a slight edge on the Xbox One -- for now. / Read full review
Review Date: Nov. 13, 2013
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Photo by: Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET / Caption by:Nate Ralph
Josh Miller/CNET
Sony has a new console -- and it's smaller than a DVD case.
The PlayStation TV, formerly called the Vita TV, is tiny. It costs $99. It plays Vita games. It streams PlayStation Now games. It can act as a remote hub for your PS4 to play in another room. And it might be the latest example of the next trend in gaming: the micro-console. Amazon Fire TV, launched this past spring, cost a similar amount: $99, plus extra for a controller. Sony's newly-renamed PlayStation TV will have a similar type of bundle for $139, with a Dual Shock 3 controller, an 8GB memory card and a copy of the Lego Movie Vita game.
The Vita TV, as it was previously called, debuted in 2013 at the Tokyo Game Show. It didn't make a big splash then, but the proposition is different now: Sony described its PlayStation TV as a box that would be an affordable conduit to not just play Vita games, but bridge PS4 console games to another TV and be a way to access the PlayStation Now streaming game service without buying a PS4 or Sony-branded TV. Indeed, Sony pledged "hundreds" of PS3 games on the PlayStation TV via the PlayStation Now streaming service, as well as "access to video and music streaming services."
Josh Miller/CNET
The PlayStation TV will be available in the fall in the US, Canada, and Europe (it's already out in Japan). It'll enter the arena alongside Amazon's Fire TV, albeit with a much better game library than Amazon's tiny box. Whether it will also be going up against a next-gen Apple TV -- possibly one with enhanced gaming abilities -- is anyone's guess.
For those who can't afford $400 consoles, these microconsoles could be interesting. But it really isn't clear how fun, or flexible, the PlayStation TV will feel when it's finally ready to play here in the US.
We'll try to grab some hands-on time with the PlayStation TV later this week at the E3 show in Los Angeles.
The phrase "Gran Turismo" may be most closely associated with a certain digital racing game by many members of the PlayStation generation, but the term harkens back to the proper concept of grand touring. That is, covering big miles with style, with performance, and with luxury. Those directives are often contradictory, and so we see some GT cars that are as razor-sharp as the Ferrari F12 (video) and some as cossetingly smooth as the Bentley Continental GT.
In many ways, the Aston Martin brand typifies the gran turismo concept, with nearly all of its cars slotting somewhere in the middle of that broadly defined genre. For years, the Aston DBS had been the quintessential GT. The Vanquish is that car's sportier successor, familiar in many ways but new, with a lightweight carbon fiber body, completely refreshed interior, smarter infotainment options, and a bigger trunk to boot. Oh, and it's absolutely lovely to behold.
Is this the new grandest of grand tourers? Let's find out.
The look
Tim Stevens/CNET
Far and away the most magnificent component in the 2014 Vanquish Coupe is the 6.0-liter V-12 engine slung low behind the front wheels. It burbles with a refined civility while idling through town and roars like a lion when the roads open up in the country. But let's save that for later, as it's the exterior of the car that makes for a truly captivating first impression.
In shape and details it's unmistakably cut from the same cloth as the DBS that came before, which itself wasn't all too dissimilar from its own predecessor, the previous-gen Vanquish. Familiarity isn't necessarily a bad thing when dealing with brands such as this, and the new Vanquish looks fresh and modern and ever so slightly more sophisticated than its predecessor. It has all the same agressive vents on hood and fenders as before, expanses of bare carbon fiber on display here and there as statements of purpose, but it's all a bit less angular than the DBS. Less of a fitness model, more of an underwear model, if you would.
The biggest swath of naked carbon is the front lip, but strip off the paint and you'd see every body panel is made of the stuff. Ours was dipped in the lovely green you see here, dubbed "Appletree," a bit lighter than your typical British racing colors. On paper it seems like a subtle color, but on the curves of the Vanquish it's a real stunner, especially in verdant springtime surroundings.
Tim Stevens/CNET
The long hood is slender and light, exposing that massive V-12 beneath, which well and truly fills the engine compartment. The rear half, at least, with the portion ahead of the front wheels being largely covered by a black plastic panel hiding a lot of... nothing. A rearward-placed motor offers better weight distribution, after all.
Doors, on the other hand, feel fairly heavy, but that weight is well-balanced and supported by dampers. As on the Rapide S and other Astons they open with a slight upward tilt, better clearing pesky curbing that could otherwise be a problem in a low-slung car like this. The doors terminate just before the swollen fenders at the rear, hinting at the 565 horsepower conveyed through these 20-inch wheels.
The rear of the car is high and gives the illusion of thinness thanks to a dark carbon fiber panel along the bottom that's penetrated by dual exhaust tips. Brake lights look like slices in the curving bodywork of the tail, flanking a trunk that has a somewhat narrow opening. Nevertheless, it will accomodate two sets of golf clubs with ease. Important stuff for a grand tourer.
The interior
Tim Stevens/CNET
The quilted leather seats that receive you are comfortable for long stretches of road, but could perhaps do with a bit more bolstering for those twisty bits between. Our review car was outfitted with the same steering wheel that graced Aston's One-77 hypercar, which is a lovely bit of familial patronage, but I wasn't particularly fond of the shape. It's wrapped in a mix of leather and Alcantara, which feels nice beneath the hands, but it has an oddly angular shape. It's thick and closer to square than circular, sometimes making it feel like you're trying to shuffle-steer a dictionary when working the car hard. Thankfully, a more traditionally shaped (read: round) wheel can be selected instead -- if you can do without the One-77 lineage.
Twin dials of the old-school mechanical variety dominate the instrument cluster, speed and tachometer, though small LCDs are inset giving information like a digital speed readout, trip computer, and fuel consumption. A third small LCD between and above the gauges shows the current gear, turning red when it's time to upshift. Other than that subtle indication, there's no red line on the tachometer, encouraging you to rev that V-12 for all it's worth.
The center stack of the car, wrapped here in a subtle (and optional) carbon fiber weave, is tastefully laid out, far cleaner than the inside of the Rapide S. Along the top are buttons that control the six-speed automatic transmission: P, R, N, and D. (A "manual" mode can be toggled by commanding a shift with either of the paddles mounted behind the steering wheel.)
Amazon and T-Mobile may have press conferences on the same day and in the same city, but their announcements will won't be linked in anyway.
T-Mobile sparked a bit of conspiracy theorizing when it suddenly moved its Uncarrier 5.0 event up to Seattle, where it would draft behind Amazon's own Seattle event, also scheduled on June 18. For some wishful thinkers, the hope was that T-Mobile would play a critical role in the widely expected launch of Amazon's first smartphone.
But it's just a case of coincidence and bad timing, CNET has learned.
"We have a lot of news, but it's not tied to Amazon," said a person familiar with T-Mobile's plans.
As the company explained in its new invitation, sent out earlier Monday, the move was done to accommodate the press, who were initially forced to divide their coverage between Amazon's Seattle event and T-Mobile's Los Angeles event.
T-Mobile's event is scheduled for the evening of June 18, long after Amazon's own event wraps up.
Check back in with CNET for full coverage of both T-Mobile and Amazon next week.
Samsung will introduce new tablets at an event in New York. Screenshot by Roger Cheng/CNET
It's tablet time.
Samsung will show off its newest device during an event Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York. The invitation didn't give many details but included the tagline "Tab Into Color" -- which indicates we'll see a new version of Samsung's Galaxy Tab line of tablets.
CNET will kick off the action at 6:30 p.m. ET with our live preshow, where Donald Bell, Eric Franklin, and Brian Tong will take your calls and Twitter questions. At 7 p.m. ET, we'll toggle over to the live video stream from Madison Square Garden. David Carnoy, Sarah Tew, and I will bring you all the news, commentary, and photos from the event, via our live blog.
After dominating the smartphone market, Samsung has turned its attention to tablets. The company has released a wide variety of different screen sizes, ranging from devices just above its popular phablets -- phone and tablet hybrids -- to its 12.2 inch Galaxy TabPro. It has stuck to two main categories -- its Galaxy Note tablets, which include a stylus and are pricer, and its Galaxy Tabs, which are lower priced and typically have slightly less functionality.
However, Samsung's tablets still haven't become as popular as its smartphones. Nearly two-thirds of tablets in the market -- including from Samsung -- run Google's Android operating system, but Apple and its iOS-powered iPad remains the most popular single vendor, according to IDC. Samsung has been gaining, though. In the first quarter, Apple's global market share totaled 33 percent, down from 40 percent in the year-ago quarter. Samsung's share rose to 22 percent from 18 percent a year earlier, IDC said, as the Korean company continued "to work aggressively with carriers to drive tablet shipments through attractively priced smartphone bundles."
The overall tablet market has been going through tough times of late. There are worries people are increasingly choosing cheaper models and are holding on to their tablets longer. In addition, phablets are getting so big that some people are finding they don't really need a tablet as well. In the first quarter, worldwide tablet and 2-in-1 PC shipments dropped 36 percent sequentially and rose only 3.9 percent from the previous year, IDC said. The firm noted the slowdown hit the various tablet operating systems and screen sizes and "likely points to an even more challenging year ahead for the category."
Microsoft kicked off the 2014 E3 video game conference on Monday. But perhaps the most interesting part of the Xbox One presentation was what Microsoft did not talk about. There was no mention of any Xbox One system features -- not even talk of the Kinect motion-sensing camera accessory. Microsoft only highlighted upcoming games, and most were not exclusive to the Xbox One.
Today's Update episode explains why Microsoft may be afraid to venture beyond game talk. Sony is next to present, and it won't take much to outshine Microsoft. Get your fill of E3 coverage all week long at cnet.com/e3.
CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under three minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for a breakdown of the big stories, hot devices, new apps, and what's ahead. Subscribe to the podcast via the links below.
