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The home theater environment continues to evolve. We have set-top boxes from the likes of Google, Apple and Roku, along with gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, DVRs and Smart TVs. All are capable, in one way or another, of getting more media into the home. But a move to consolidate through the TV would be welcome, at least to me.

One of the biggest forces behind-the-scenes in the Smart TV world is now Opera, which is frequently thought of in the web browser world. But the company has a thriving app store system for this, and it now announces adoption by RCA to release panels to the US market.

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Gmail has always supported HTTPS, and even made the communications protocol the default option in 2010. Today Google announces it will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send email.

"Today's change means that no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail’s servers -- no matter if you're using public Wi-Fi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet", Nicolas Lidzborski, Gmail Security Engineering Lead says.

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Apple’s iPhone has been getting lighter (and thinner) with each iteration, and while most of us view that as a good thing, UK based healthy living brand Desirablebody.co.uk has a different opinion, believing much, much heavier phones could help us get fitter.

"In the 80s carrying around a mobile phone meant carrying some serious weight -- and that could sometimes be a mini workout all by itself," Fitness Manager, James Finlayson states. So Desirablebody.co.uk has introduced a case that takes mobile phones back to their roots and transforms the iPhone into a dumbbell. No, seriously.

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Social media has become so entrenched in modern society, that it is hard to remember life without it. It almost feels as if services like Facebook have always been with us. Remember though, these networks are still relatively new phenomenons.

That said, Twitter is surprisingly rather long in the tooth. Even though it feels like a newcomer to the social media scene, it will be 8 years old tomorrow. Rather than celebrate with cake or presents, the company has decided to give users a new "First-Tweets" tool.

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For many people webmail has become their main method of handling email, whilst corporates cling to a client model. Integrating with cloud services can be a chore in either case.

Powerbot is a clever browser extension that connects Gmail and Google Calendar to Evernote and Dropbox making it easy to share data between them. It's now extended its functionality to Yahoo Mail and the Outlook client.

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The gaming industry continues to move forward. While consoles and PCs are still popular platforms, mobile has become a growing force for game developers, with smartphones and tablets providing the perfect platforms for casual touch-based entertainment. The market becomes a bit more crowded today, as one more major name jumps into the ring.

Yahoo announces a new Games Network that will feature classic titles that it hopes will spark interest and nostalgia. It comes in two parts, really, because it is also for developers who wish to distribute new titles.

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The data contained in logs can be useful for a variety of purposes, but analysing it in order to extract what you need can be difficult and time consuming.

Search analytics specialist Elasticsearch is aiming to make log data more accessible with the release of Logstash 1.4.

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Poverty tends to breed crime. While I am not defending criminals, the financial status into which a person is born has a huge impact on their likelihood to become a criminal. Being born poor does not guarantee a person will be a criminal, but it definitely increases the odds. Being born into a wealthy family definitely lessens a need to steal. Not only that, but the wealthy can afford a better education for their children.

Sadly, this often becomes a vicious cycle -- poverty is handed down from generation to generation. For example, a poor person is more likely to steal, and people that are caught stealing are more likely to end up in jail, which will give them a criminal record. Last year, New York City passed a law requiring the creation of a crime map. The city partnered with Google, to accomplish the goal. Unfortunately, this is a horrible idea which can potentially ruin communities and lower property values.

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Samsung is a powerhouse. Driven by an endless list of new technology and features, it has consistently dominated the consumer electronics market. Where once it was no more than a footnote in the mobile industry, Samsung is now the number one player (by volume) for smartphones. Particularly impressive about Samsung’s success in the mobile device market is the fact that it has built its business on Google’s Android software. The company’s real strength remains its ability to create compelling consumer hardware, but, as we know, consumer mobile devices are increasingly finding their way into the enterprise, which is a critical market for Samsung.

Not quite a year ago, in its first real attempt at being considered an enterprise-level mobile solution, Samsung announced "Samsung KNOX, an end-to-end secure Android solution that provides security hardening from the hardware through to the application layer".

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Non-profit organization The Blender Foundation has released Blender 2.70, a major new release of its cross-platform, open-source 3D graphics tool. Version 2.70, also available in 64-bit and portableform on Windows, adds new features and begins a revamp of its user interface.

There’s initial support for volumetrics in Cycles, plus faster rendering of hair and textures. Also improved are the Motion Tracker, mesh modelling and game engine tools.

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You are likely well aware by now that, come April 8, Microsoft will officially drop support for its dated Windows XP. Considering that the operating system will celebrate its 13th birthday this year, the company's decision is hardly surprising. Users have had plenty of time to plan for this moment, and move to newer, better versions of Windows.

Yes, there are still many Windows XP users, as the operating system's market share tops nearly 30 percent, far more than the newer Windows 8.x branch, combined. As a result, the extent of the public support cutoff is huge, even effecting security companies which have declared their commitment to supporting Windows XP past its due date. In a blog post, Avast details potential issues users might encounter starting next month.

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We're used to reading reports that the PC is dying, but chip maker Intel has used the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to reveal a roadmap for the reinvention of the desktop.

Intel sees enthusiast users as some of the most important supporters of desktop computing, and new form factors including mini PCs and all-in-ones driving renewed interest in the sector.

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A black swan is what we call an unexpected technical innovation that disrupts existing markets. Intrinsic to the whole black swan concept is that you can’t predict them: they come when they come. Only today I think I’ll predict a black swan, thank you, and explain exactly how the automobile business is about to be disrupted. I think we’re about two years away from a total disruption of the automobile business by electric cars.

One of the readers of this column is Robert Cumberford, design editor at Automobile Magazine. Nobody knows more about cars than Bob Cumberford, who has written about them for more than half a century. Here’s what he told me not long ago about the Tesla Model S:

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It used to be that if you were a gamer, you needed to run Windows or buy a console. For the most part, that is still true -- Windows is the king of PC gaming. However, gaming on OS X and Linux has made incredible progress. One of the biggest game-changers for Linux gaming has been Valve's SteamOS. This is a specialized Linux distribution that focuses on game playing and management.

While Valve deserves the appreciation of the Linux community, it is never a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket. The old saying is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. With that said, the future of Linux gaming cannot be trusted with Valve alone -- nothing against the company, of course. Today, Dell's Alienware division announces a partnership with game-developer Crytek to further the progress of Linux-gaming.

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Netflix and I go way back -- to February 1999, when renting my first-ever DVD. I am a streaming customer now and increasingly dissatisfied. Netflix is the overly friendly store clerk -- the kind you never find in retail -- persistently making suggestions for stuff I wouldn't ever want. "Excuse me, because you bought toilet paper last time, lookee here! Beano gas-relief pills and Febreze air freshener are on sale this week". Yeah, right. Let me soak your hoity-toity head in the toidy bowl, bud.

Online retailers like Netflix (yeah, you too, Amazon) attempt to improve service by tracking what you consume and helpfully suggesting something like it. Last decade, analysts labeled the process "personalization". But they frequently invent or change labels to sell new services, and I don't rightly know what the thing is called now. I call it goddamn annoying and limiting. The more I watch, the less often compelling content comes my way.

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