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Microsoft has created a four-foot high interactive art installation for Seattle's Decibel music and arts festival.

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Aluminum is a soft metal. Anyone who has used tinfoil to wrap up food should know this. As such, there are ways you really shouldn't handle a personal device made of the metal. Front or back pocket is a no-no without a case, at least. Better: Not at all -- or use a plastic phone made by Motorola, Nokia, or Samsung.

That's my short response to colleague Mihaita Bamburic's analysis: "If your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus bends, it's Apple's fault" He is "inclined to believe that Apple did not thoroughly test its new devices, based on my engineering background". You read that right. Mihaita may be a prolific writer, but his real profession is engineering. I trust his judgment but nevertheless disagree. If iPhone 6 or 6 Plus bends, it's your fault.

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Whenever something in tech is new, I generally get pretty excited about it. In other words, I tend to be an early adopter. Unfortunately, upgrading to the latest and greatest is not necessarily worth the cost; sometimes throwing money at things isn't the best option. I remember upgrading my optical burners at every single small increase in speed. Ultimately, I probably wasted thousands of dollars to save myself seconds in CD and DVD burning. So why did I do it? Other than stupidity, we nerds like to brag about our computers. Hell, even on IRC (Internet Relay Chat), where no one can even validate your claims, it is fun to boast about new PC components.

Wi-Fi can be a rather tricky subject when it comes to upgrades; sometimes it is worth upgrading to a new standard and sometimes not. You see, it really depends on what you are doing. If you are simply using Wi-Fi to connect to the internet, a faster router and card won't make a difference if it is exceeding the speed that your ISP supplies. It does make sense however, if you are sharing files with a home network or streaming from a desktop to a media box. Currently, the best home wireless gear you can get is 802.11ac, and that standard starting to grow in adoption. According to  ABI Research, by the end of 2014, the amount of worldwide access points is predicted to reach over 176 million, and 18 percent will be 802.11ac.

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Immersion, a company that specializes in adding an extra dimension to touch screen displays, has created new software to add a layer of feeling to smartphone videos.

With mobile devices becoming the primary video platform for many users, the company hopes to solve the problem of providing excitement on a small screen.

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Roku, the tiny set-top box, has been on a roll with new content lately. This time the company heads north for its latest score of new content, bringing Cineplex to its devices. The service will lend much new content to viewers in Canada.

If you aren't familiar, Cineplex is like many other streaming services. It allows customers to stream movies whenever they wish, much like Netflix or Amazon Prime.

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While financial pundits will declare that the economy is getting better, many of us are not experiencing this. Money is tight, and people cannot afford to waste their hard-earned funds. So how do some people get the products that they want, but cannot afford? An Amazon Wish List, of course!

Yes, consumers have the ability to compile a list of their desired items in hopes that friends, family or even strangers will buy it for them. It works surprisingly well, and makes it easy for people to buy you a Christmas or birthday gift. Hell, even the famous Eric 'The Actor' Lynch, who recently died (Rest in Peace), utilized Amazon's Wish List to get gifts from fans. Today, the retailer announces that you can easily add products that you see on Twitter by using a hashtag.

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Whenever news comes from BlackBerry it feels like a voice from the past calling. Today is no different as the company announces the launch of the BlackBerry Passport, a square-screened phone designed with the corporate market in mind. This might be a phone aimed at business users, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a little joking around: CEO John Chen quipped that the Passport is harder to bend than the iPhone 6 Plus.

The most striking feature of the handset is the 4.5 inch display with its 1400 x 1400 resolution with 453PPI, but nestling beneath this is the Passport's second most interesting feature: the three-line, touch-enabled physical keyboard.

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Facebook is ready to shake up its advertising efforts through a new platform that has already been dubbed by some as having the potential to be more powerful than Google’s current offering.

Atlas, which should be announced next week, allows marketers to track Facebook users that have seen, interacted with or acted upon ads on the social network, as well as third party sites and applications.

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No one likes to be in the middle seat on airplanes, right? It's a metaphor appropriate for retail -- and the place where Windows sits in NPD's final assessment of U.S. 2014 back-to-school sales growth. Chromebook continued a nearly two-year unit-sales surge, while Macs made last-minute gains, and Windows PCs survived only by aggressive tactics that pulled down average selling prices. For Microsoft and its partners, the strategy cut market share losses but at great hidden costs.

Back-to-school 2013 was a bloodbath, with unit sales through U.S. channels dropping by 2.5 percent annually -- a loss that pulled down overall PC sales during first half of last year. For 2014, sales are up about 3 percent overall, or 3.5 percent for notebooks and flat for desktops.

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By virtue of the fact that we carry them around most of the time, mobile phones often get damaged and the iPhone is no exception. Insurance company Protect Your Bubble has analyzed its customer data to reveal the most common ways in which iPhones suffer problems.

Cracked screens are, as you might expect, the most common type of damage on 41 percent. Water damage accounts for 24.4 percent, though unfortunately no details are given on how this occurs or the exact nature of the liquids involved. We'd guess toilets are a factor in quite a few and Protect Your Bubble says it has had calls about phones damaged in Ice Bucket Challenge related incidents. It seems a high number of people manage to completely destroy their phone by smashing it into pieces too with nine percent admitting to running over their phone with a heavy object.

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It's important for any business to establish an online presence, and this is certainly true in emerging markets. It's something recognized by Google, and the company is teaming up with Endurance International Group to help SMBs in Africa and Southeast Asia to launch online ventures.

Google's reputation online precedes it, but Endurance might not be a name that's overly familiar. The company provides hosting, and the new partnership with Google is set to benefit businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia and Malaysia.

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Apple could have a huge problem on its hands if iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are susceptible to bending. According to some early adopters, the new iPhones can show visible signs of damage after only a few days of normal use.

That's because the build quality does not appear to stand up to the challenges posed by pants' front pockets, which are causing the metal shells to bend near the cutouts for the physical side buttons. Light metal shell, meet thin profile.

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Key to the sales process is communicating with customers and often that means sales people being away from the office. Mobile technology means that there's no excuse for being out of touch though.

CRM specialist Selligy is launching a set of tools that allow sales professionals to manage their deals and update their sales forecasts quickly and accurately from their smartphones. IT uses information from the phone including location and calendar details to deliver relevant information when it's needed.

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In its first major updates for almost 18 months, Foxit Corporation has unveiled Foxit Reader 7.0 and Foxit PhantomPDF 7.0. Both builds gain Shared Review capabilities along with 2D Barcode Display.

Each build also gains unique functionality -- user environment customization is the biggest draw in Foxit Reader, for example, while Foxit PhantomPDF users gain an Outlook Add-in, plus PDF Portfolios and Document Sanitzation features.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is among the most important new mobile devices to go on sale in the second half of 2014, alongside Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (which launched last week); the latter is a direct competitor. The Android phablet was slated to go on sale next month, but, in no small part thanks to the strong sales performance of the new iPhones, Samsung wants to get it in consumers' hands much sooner.

Samsung has announced that Galaxy Note 4 officially goes on sale this Friday, September 2014, in its home country of South Korea. There pre-orders started earlier this month, with consumers reportedly showing a strong interest in the device. But what if you live outside of South Korea?

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