If you're a thrill ride junkie that enjoys the sensation of falling several hundred feet, then you'll be happy to hear that the world's tallest roller coaster will soon be constructed in Florida. Called the 'Polercoaster', it will extend 520 feet into the air and reach high speeds of 60 miles per hour. Unlike similar tower-style coasters, customers will get on the ride at the top of Polercoaster. Continue reading for a video and more information.
Jerry Jones wants to be Cowboys GM through at least 2028: The rest of the NFC East wants the same thing. [CBS Dallas]
    
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Heroes, villains, spacemen, aliens, barbarians and cartoon characters packed Austin Convention Center on Saturday for the second day of Austin Comic Con.
Attendees let their nerd flags fly, with hundreds dressing up as their favorite comic book and television characters.
The weekend-long event attracted an abundance of Star Trek fans, ...
There's not much reason to open the Chromecast app once everything's set up, but that doesn't mean Google's still not paying attention to it. the Chromecast app got itself a bit of a redesign tonight, adding the pull-out drawer that all good apps should have. A link to Chromecast-compatible apps is tucked away in that drawer, and the settings menu has been moved there as well.
You get a couple new things when looking at individual Chromecasts, too. The time-zone selector now shows the time relative to GMT, and you can now see the Chromecast MAC address, should you need to do some network troubleshooting.
All in all, a nice little answer to those who have worried that Google had forgotten about the high-def dongle.
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Why ESPN didn't call its sports update app "SportsCenter" in the first place is beyond me. They seem to have rectified this with version 4.0 of the app, now named after the ubiquitous sports show. (Da-na-na, da-na-na.) The app was also updated with a new all-white interface and a standard slide-out menu.
Oh, and ads. Lots of ads. While the previous version had in-network advertising at the bottom of the screen like a lot of free apps, this new one gets interstitial ads that pop up two or three times while scrolling through scores or updates, plus random pop-up ads.
ESPN Score Center App Renamed To SportsCenter, With A Swanky New UI And Lots Of Ads was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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The Nexus 10 might be a year old, but it's still a formidable tablet with an amazing screen. Google is still selling the 32GB Nexus 10 for $499, which seems a bit steep. Tech Woot is offering the same device as a refurbished unit for a mere $279.
The Nexus 10 has a 2560x1600 10.055-inch LCD, a dual-core Exynos 5 ARM chip, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage in this model.
[Deal Alert] Refurbished Nexus 10 (32GB) For $279 Plus $5 Shipping (US Only) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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Android has received a fair bit of criticism for it’s lack of apps designed specifically for the tablet form factor. While the latest Google Play Store update won’t solve the problem outright, it will definitely make it easier for tablet users to find apps tailored to their devices. A new update to Google’s digital storefront is pushing out now to users, the key addition being a new “Designed for tablets” section that will be placed front and center for users of devices with larger display sizes.
Apps not built with tablet-specific form and function will be tagged as “Designed for phones,” making a distinction that will no doubt make it easier for tablet users to find quality apps. While it won’t fix Android’s issues with tablet apps overnight, the small tweak should help guide users toward the most appealing apps while subtly nudging developers toward overhauling their own app designs for tablets.
[via Google+]
Remember how the physical Google Wallet card showed up in some APK teardowns only to be removed without a word from Google? Well, it's back and you can place an order for it right now. Google says the card should be delivered to interested parties in 10-12 days.
The Wallet card will let you pay for items at any retailer, even those that don't have the little NFC kiosks Wallet has thus far relied upon.
The Physical Google Wallet Card Is Real, And You Can Order One Now [Update: New Wallet APK] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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It’s definitely a unique sales model, that’s for sure. There’s no question Amazon’s Kindle Fires are a great value for the money. Where Amazon has always given Kindle buyers a no-hassle, 30-day money back guarantee on their Kindles, things just got really interesting now that they’re practically giving them away… sorta.
It looks like Amazon fired up a new program where special VIP customers are receiving invitees to try out the Kindle Fire HDX, Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 or Kindle Paperwhite free for 30 days. No upfront cost, no commitment to buy, and free shipping. It’s just you, your new Kindle Fire, getting cozy on a bear skin rug, next to a warm fireplace. At least, that’s how Amazon envisions it.
Amazons hoping at the end of the 30 days, someone will end up pregnant you’ll have fallen in love with one of their new Kindles and decide to keep it. At that point, then and only then will your credit card be charged.
We get what Amazons up to. Not having a storefront where customers can walk in and test out their tablets for hours on end puts them at a disadvantage versus the competition (Apple). Placing a Kindle Fire in your lap free of charge is an interesting workaround and sounds just crazy enough to work.
No word on the criteria of Amazon customers that can/will be invited, but we’ll let you know if we hear more.
We’ve got a little something for both Glass developers and users here, so listen up. For the former group of folks, Google is showing off their new Glass GDK, which will give developers a hefty suite of tools to create all the Glassware (Glass apps) they can handle.
They obviously want to get developers equipped with the tools as soon as possible as they try and get a nice catalog of apps built up for a release that should be going down early 2014. A full GDK Preview will be out soon for those who can’t wait to dig in, but the presentation above should whet your whistle while you wait for those goods. Highlights include the ability to write Glassware apps that work offline, deeper access to Glass hardware and sensors, and more.
As for users, Google also revealed some new Glassware apps from GolfSight, AllTheCooks, Strava, Spellista, IFTTT, and more. All of it can be found in the 37 minute YouTube clip above, and you can get your hands on them for yourself later today by visiting the MyGlass site right here.
[via Google]
Trainers for Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios had to be separated after an altercation in Macau this morning, ahead of their scheduled fight.
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In the winter, it gets dark so early that it's easy to start fading long before the work day is done.
Just fifteen minutes of sleep, and you're sure to go from a Walking Dead extra to star employee, but nap time isn't easy to come by. Still, there are a few steps you can take to get that much closer to sleep between meetings.
Disclaimer: we're not responsible if your boss isn't on board with a little siesta, tips or not
Image: Flickr,Jonf728 Read more...
More about Lists, Sleep, Gifs, and Watercooler
As one of its daily deals, Joe's New Balance Outlet offers the New Balance Men's 981 Work Boots in Black, style no. 981MBK, for $34.99 plus $5.95 for shipping. That's $100 off list and the lowest total price we could find. They're available in standard and wide widths in sizes from 6 to 15, although not in all size/width combinations. Deal ends today.
A new bugfix build, KRT16S, has been made available for Android 4.4 KitKat. Google is currently pushing the code to AOSP and has already published a new batch of factory images and binaries for the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (all variants), and Nexus 10. Additionally, you’ll be happy to know that many users are reporting a very small OTA update rolling out to their devices. The Nexus 5 wasn’t mentioned over at the Android building group, nor has the Nexus 5′s images been updated.
If you’re an owner of a Nexus 4, Nexus 7, or Nexus 10, there’s a good chance you’re still waiting for your over-the-air update to arrive. Hopefully the previous slow roll-out was due to a bugfix that was caught early on, fixed, and now updates will commence once again.
Did you get the latest OTA update? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Android Building, Ryan Lestage
Harry Potter is such a cultural touchstone for children and adults the world over, that it's easy to forget that the characters and the world they live in doesn't actually exist
In Improv Everywhere's latest video, the viral prank group suspended reality for a few employees and travelers in New York City's Penn Station when a real-life Harry Potter lookalike strolled through the station in search of his train to Hogwarts.
See also: 'Harry Potter' Actors: Then and Now
The young Potter doppelgänger — complete with the character's signature monogrammed trunks and a would-be Hedwig perched in his cage — makes his way through Penn Station, asking transportation employees and fellow travelers for directions to the infamous Platform 9 3/4 Read more...
More about Viral Videos, Harry Potter, Improv Everywhere, Youtube, and Watercooler
It’s never too soon to start your holiday shopping. Those of you looking for a deal on the hottest 7-inch tablet on the planet, the Nexus 7 (2013) has been slashed on both Amazon and Newegg to just $240 (32GB version). That’s about $30 off the sticker price of the tab in the Play Store.
Looks like this newly discounted price applies only to the 32GB version, with the 16GB model sticking to its guns at $230. Avoid the long lines at your local store and get them with free shipping from either retailer (2-day shipping with Amazon Prime). Links below.
Thanks, Bryan!
Right in time for the holidays, the official Nexus wireless charger has just hit the Google Play Store. The wireless charger is compatible with both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 handsets, as well as the Nexus 7 tablets. The best part is the wireless charger comes with the Nexus branding, letting the world know the only way you roll.
Of course given all these devices are currently using the Qi standard, there are definitely some cheaper options out there. We’ve even seen a few Nokia wireless chargers pop up on daily deals sites in the past. Anyone happy with a particular wireless charger you’re currently using for your Neksessez?
Amazon offers its Prime members Gears of War: Judgment for Xbox 360 for $19.96 with free shipping. (Non-members can spend $35 or more to qualify for free shipping; otherwise, shipping adds $4.98.) That's the lowest total price we could find by $23, outside of the price below, although we saw it for $2 less in September.
Design consultants Teague were responsible for the green and black monolith that was Microsoft's original Xbox. Now two designers from the firm have used their console-creating experience to review the aesthetics and ergonomics of Sony's PlayStation 4 for Fast Co. Design. They judge its positives — including the "emotional" light bar that's found a secondary use as a signifier of broken consoles — and its perceived negatives, including its sloped shape and disc drive placement. The designers also weighed in on the console's updated DualShock controller, praising the slight increase in scale to make it more comfortable, but highlighting a "design disconnect" between the pad and the console it belongs to.
It was only last week we showed you guys a video from LG where they put their self-healing properties of their new LG G Flex to the test. In a very controlled environment, we watched as LG took a steel brush and scraped the LG G Flex numerous times across its back surface. True to their word, the scratches began to disappear as the phone healed itself, granted, over a few minutes time.
All of that sounded great, but if you were looking to see how the device would perform in more real-world scratch tests, YouTuber MKBHD is here to help. Getting a hold of his own LG G Flex, we watched as he takes a set of keys — and even a knife — over the back of the LG G Flex with surprising results.
While it the devices isn’t capable of healing 100%, over time (and under warm conditions to accelerate the healing process), we can see just how much less prominent those scratches became. He also gives the G Flex some CPR to test out its flexibility, and spoiler: the phone comes out unscathed.
So, what have we learned here today? Although nothing incredibly groundbreaking, the new technology behind the LG G Flex is just the first step to what will someday spring forth the even more truly flexible (and possibly even unbreakable) smartphones. Great work, Skynet LG.
A 75-year-old grandma was funneling beers at a Penn State-Purdue tailgate Saturday. This is absolutely tremendous. 75-year-old. Grandma. Funneling beers. Look at her!
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Warner Bros. Online Shop offers Band of Brothers on Blu-ray Disc for $23.09. Pad your order over $25 (Lethal Weapon 2: Director's Cut on DVD is $2.99) and apply coupon code "ANYCODES5" to drop the price to $18.09, excluding the padding. With free shipping, that's $10 under our mention from June and the lowest total price we've seen. (It's also a current low by $10.) This 6-disc set features all 10 episodes, an 80-minute documentary called "We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company," and a 30-minute "making of" featurette.
Filmmaker Christopher Nolan isn't afraid to get creative with planes, as evidenced by the opening scene of The Dark Knight Rises. The director has also been an avid supporter of IMAX, and for his upcoming movie Interstellar, he's combining those passions to pull off at least one memorable shot. During filming for the sci-fi drama that stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, Nolan's crew at some point attached an IMAX camera to the front of a Learjet. The photos were posted to the Twitter account of Paul J. Franklin's, Interstellar's visual effects supervisor. Obviously the plane wouldn't have flown as pictured here; a nose that protects the incredibly valuable camera would've been affixed before filming.
Interstellar is...
Cliff Alexander is a high school senior from Chicago. Despite his age, he stands at an extremely powerful 6 feet, 8 inches and 240 pounds — and is one of the nation's top basketball recruits. On Friday, he announced his college destination live on ESPN
The decision-making process took on a disproportionate and somewhat bizarre level of importance for fans. When the time arrived to announce his final choice on ESPN, Alexander cruelly fake-grabbed an Illinois hat before donning a Kansas cap to announce his intention to go to school out of state. The result is the priceless reaction video above. Read more...
More about Entertainment, College Sports, Videos, and SportsWith Android 4.4 KITKAT, Google brought a ton of changes. Most of those were new features and under-the-hood goodness, but Google also brought a few significant aesthetic changes that had some people a little uneasy. For starters, they eliminated the blue and decided that white was going to be the one, and only, color for things like keyboard text, status bar text and icons, and the trace trail inside the keyboard.
Another key change Google made was moving the network status indicators from the status bar to within the quick settings toggle menu. A lot of people might not have ever noticed it on their current phones, but the arrows on the network icon (whether you were on 4G/3G or WiFi) would light up whenever bits of data were being transferred — up is upload, and down is download, natch. Beyond that, the network icon would turn gray whenever access to the Google Cloud Messaging service was not available (that is, the protocol that handles push notifications through Google’s system).
These weren’t just random changes, though, as Google’s Dan Sandler thankfully reminds us that everything happens for a reason. In the comments thread for this Google+ post, Sandler gives a pretty in-depth explanation about it all. Long story short?
A more neutral color scheme makes it so that the OS doesn’t clash much with an app’s custom look, and the network indicators were confusing for a lot of casual users, so they tucked it into a secondary menu where the geeks can find them (if they really need them). You can find the full explanation below if you’re interested.
Seems like this is as good a place as any to explain the changes to the system status icon colors in KK.
1. Whiten ALL the status bar icons! Aesthetic concerns definitely factored into this (as has been mentioned elsewhere, a more neutral SystemUI allows apps to manage their own color palettes a bit better), but also keep in mind that with the new translucent bars feature, the color became a usability problem. Good old 33b5e5 doesn’t pop as well on top of random wallpapers, even with the background protection.
2. What about the
MCSGCM indicator? +Liam Spradlin basically called it: “Overall, network connectivity has been made strangely more opaque in KitKat, though for many average users this isn’t a huge concern.” In fact,most users find the colors confusing, if they notice them at all. Even the vanishingly small fraction of users who understood what the gray meant only really looked for it when things weren’t working right; now you and I just have to remember to actually pop into quick settings to look for things like GCM liveness (orange is the new gray) and in/out indicators. Which brings me to…3. B—BUT MY BLINKENLIGHTS?! So this (the removal of the little in/out data traffic arrows from the RSSI) was mostly a performance consideration, believe it or not. The way the data bits are bubbled up and drawn was not only causing a ton of extra rendering work, but actually forcing a layout (!) in the status bar as well. We could have more aggressively cached the bitmaps (rather than creating new BitmapDrawables from resource IDs every time, which was causing the relayout) but that would still have left all the drawing—multiple times per second in some cases—sucking away precious CPU and GPU from your game or Launcher animations or whatever. In the end it seemed like a lot of work (and battery) for what was effectively visual noise, so this too was booted to Quick Settings where it would be available for us nerds.
