Xbox now sold in China!

China has had a ban on gaming consoles that were not created by Chinese companies since 2000, as we know the major console companies are all based outside of China, so more or less, its safe to say that no good console was legal in china for a very long time. This ban, china claimed, was due to parental complaints that gaming consoles were having a negative impact on the productivity and mental well being of their children. This ban was lifted near the end of 2013 and now, a few months later Microsoft has been granted permission to sell its Xbox in China. This may be what the Xbox needs to pull ahead of the PS4, as they have been lagging behind since its release.

reference:
Charles Riley (April 30 2014) Microsoft's Xbox one to be sold in China for the first time

Retrieved from:http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/30/technology/xbox-china/index.html

Bill Gates no longer Microsoft's biggest shareholder

Bill gates has been the shareholder in possession of the largest amount of shares in Microsoft since its creation in 1975. Recently, Bill gates sold a huge amount of his shares (over 8 million)  resulting in him no longer being the largest shareholder. He now owns approximately 330 million shares. Steve Ballmer, who was one of the first people bill gates hired, now owns the most shares in the company, he owns over 3 million more shares than bill gates does. Ballmer was Microsoft's CEO from January 2000 to February 2014 when he resigned. He ranks number 32 on the Forbes 400 with a worth of 20.7 billion.

Is this Bill Gates' first hint that he plans to take a step back from his company?

What do you think this means for Microsoft? 

reference:
Patrick M. Sheridan (May 2 2014)  Bill Gates no longer Microsoft's biggest shareholder

Retrieved from:http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/02/technology/gates-microsoft-stock-sale/index.html

France Considers Banning GPS

The French Government is planning to put a ban on GPS services and any apps that allow tracking, this stemmed from complaint taxi drivers had about GPS causing a decline in their revenue since travellers used this to track taxis in order to share rides and split the fees. In addition to banning tracking apps France seems to be going against what seems to be the norm in most countries when it comes to technological advancements as they are yet to accept many aspects of it. Legislation has also been passed to save newspapers by preventing Google news from using snippets from French media, special taxes are being imposed on electronic devices in an effort to fund cultural endeavours. There are also special restrictions against Amazon aimed at saving the traditional idea of books.

reference:
David Vranicar (April 25 2014) France Mulls Banning GPS-Enabled Driver-Finding Apps

Retrieved from:http://www.technewsworld.com/story/France-Mulls-Banning-GPS-Enabled-Driver-Finding-Apps-80360.html

Denmark recreated in minecraft

                                

Minecraft is a sandbox indie (virtual world) game originally created by Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Person and later developed and published by Mojang. It was publicly released for the PC on May 17, 2009, as a developmental alpha version and, after gradual updates, was published as a full release version on November 18, 2011. A version for Android was released a month earlier on October 7, and an iOS version was released on November 17, 2011. On May 9, 2012, the game was released on Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade game, co-developed by 4J Studios. All versions of Minecraft receive periodic updates.

Minecraft allows players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. Other activities in the game include exploration, gathering resources, crafting, and combat.

Recently the Denmark Government reproduced the entire country to scale in minecraft and is urging residents to "freely move around in Denmark" and "find your own residential area, to build and tear down".

     Around 50 million copies of Minecraft have been sold worldwide.

reference:
BBC news (April 25 2014) Minecraft : all of Denmark virtually recreated
Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27155859

Programming Through Speech Recognition

                                      

For those of us who code regularly or do any coding at all, you'll know that it can be a very time consuming and at times frustrating process, this can be attributed to the many repetitive codes or precise syntax that call for a lot of focus and attention. I came across the idea of coding through speech recognition today and found it rather interesting, although for many, it doesn't seem to be a new phenomenon; it’s something I've never thought about before today. After reading a few articles online I realized that there are conflicting opinions on its effectiveness and efficiency (which is understandable since coding isn't similar to our typical everyday writing). Voice recognition is used by creating macros that help carry out certain repetitive commands like methods and functions, instead of being used to code a program in its entirety. For most it is used to enhance coding by hand instead of completely erasing it. I'm optimistic about this idea and hope that with time it will grow into something more effective that more programmers will use to ease the frustration of extremely long programs and repetitive coding.

Pocket Printer

ZUta labs is on its way to changing the traditional design of the printer that will show a dramatic decrease in its size and bring a completely different spin on the way it operates. Printers, unlike many of the other devices we use on a daily basis are far from being portable and with mobile devices being used even for professional or work purposes these days; printers seem to have been left behind in their ability to be carried around. With ZUta lab's new invention this may be about to change, the printer they created is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and instead of having to fit paper in it, it goes the opposite way and prints while moving across a page using robot-like movements. This is an ongoing project and its makers are asking for funding as they try to improve the device and hope that they can reduce its size even further. I believe that soon enough there will be a portable version for almost every immobile device you can think of, smaller and smaller versions are even being created of devices that are already portable.

reference:
Chris Maxcer(April 15 2014) Printing from the palm of your hand
Retrieved from: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/80298.html

Charge Your Phone In 30 Seconds

I was a bit amused after watching the above video that shows a phone being fully charged in about 30 seconds. Many people complain about having to charge their phones multiple times per day and I happen to have the same problem.Cell phone batteries typically don't last very long and many times cause problems after being repeatedly charged, a bad battery is sometimes the reason for ditching a phone that works perfectly well otherwise. The makers of the video are from an Israeli company called "StoreDot", who claims that the invention came about as a result of Alzheimer research. The research showed that certain Amino acids and Peptides could be used to create Nano-crystals whose properties are useful in creating batteries and other devices. This product is however not yet ready for the commercial market but may be in as little as 2 years.

This idea has the potential to make billions for its  inventors and remain on the market for a long time, conventional batteries and chargers may become a thing of the past given that this invention actually goes mainstream.

Reference:

Samuel Burke ( April 7, 2014 ). Charge your cell phone in 30 seconds
Retrieved from: http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/07/technology/innovation/cell-phone-charge/index.html