Niel Young and Pono pushing new top-quality digital music

Hawaiian for righteous, Pono is primed to do more than just ride the wave.

Lost in the shuffle of the 21st century’s transition to digitized music, is one omnipresent and obtrusive reality: MP3’s just do not offer great quality sound. The format simply doesn’t capture the nuanced and vibrant sound of studio sessions, and instead delivers music in a diluted, watered-down manner.

According to Rollingstone.com, Musician Neil young is poised to offer a high-quality alternative to services like iTunes — services he thinks offer an inferior listening experience. The project has been dubbed Pono — Hawaiian for righteous — and its aim is to reproduce recordings as they sounded in the studio.

Along with Meridian Audio, the legendary songster plans to release a line of high-quality portable music players, coupled with a download service. The service will reportedly utilize a digital-to-analog conversion technology capable of producing digital music files of unprecedented quality. 

Young’s being backed in his venture by such industry giants as Warner Music Group, Sony Music, and Universal Music Group, all of whom are in the process of converting their album libraries to the new format. Warner in particular had digitized roughly 8,000 album titles into 24-bit/192kHz form before Young was even on board. The willingness of industry giants to embrace the new format suggests that Pono may truly be on track to provide a revolution in the digital music industry.

Some are saying the service may even push iTunes to improve its quality, or be pushed aside. As of yet, there have been no details on release date and/or pricing, but it’s safe to say that the high-end audio Pono purports to offer will come with a hefty price tag; not to mention you’ll need to re-buy any songs you currently own if you want to hear them in the new format. Still, it’s always nice to see manufacturer’s forego quickness and quantity in favor of quality. Stay tuned for continuing coverage.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Former Reports of Jesus’ Marital Status Strongly Questioned by Vatican Newspaper

Reports that a 4^th century papyrus suggested that Jesus was married have been rendered false.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, expressed its disbelief in the cryptic message today in an article titled “At any rate, a fake.” Authors, Alberto Camplani, Coptic scholar, and Editor Giovanni Maria Vian, who are both experts in early Christianity, question the fragment’s authenticity and the lack of archaeological attribution upon purchase, according to the AP.

The article continued to criticize Harvard for contacting the media about its incredulous findings, considering the outcome to be “clamorous.”

Karen King, a professor of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the finding last week at an international congress on Coptic studies in Rome. The text, written in Coptic and probably translated from a 2nd century Greek text, contains a dialogue in which Jesus refers to “my wife,” whom he identifies as Mary.

However, in a paper on her discovery, King clearly states that this “does not provide evidence that the historical Jesus was married.”  Instead, it provided “direct evidence that claims about Jesus’ marital status first arose over a century after the death of Jesus in the context of intra-Christian controversies over sexuality, marriage, and discipleship.”

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Most Known Android Malware Apps You Should Be Aware of

Along with the great utilities, the high tech Android phone of the 21st century comes with loads of offenders as well. Yes the malwares, they offends are not limited to your computers and laptop. At point f time they can pounce on your chic phone as well and totally disorient the proper functioning of your phone. So just a word of caution, “beware of them” and protect your any of these malwares. A simple measure that is installing an anti virus in your phone can save it from all the troubles that you are going to face. So if have not installed an anti virus in your phone, it is high time that to do so. Do let the malware damage your phone as once it is damaged, the only thing that you can do is repent for it. You will always get to see new upcoming android releases in the various platforms but download form only the authenticated sites.

SMS Android Trojan

Though name sounds really classy, but you need to really beware of this malicious malware. It generally gets automatically downloaded in your phone along with the Movie Player apps. Once it get installed in your phone, it starts sending messages from your phone without your knowledge and that to unique numbers which charges much higher rate in comparison to the normal rate on any local numbers. Therefore, at the end of the month the phone bill is going to give you the ultimate shock of your life. It is best to download apps cautiously to avoid such situation.

Ikee Worm

This malware generally affects the phone when the users view some illegal site from their phone. This malware will automatically change the wallpaper of your phone. After affecting one phone it is carried forward to other phones to which it is connected and infects it as well. One funny thing it does after affecting your phone is that it post the message on the wallpaper of your phone saying that it would never give you up. But you definitely remove this virus from your by scan and then installing a good anti virus.

Gemini Trojan

This is one of the most malicious malware that you would never like to encounter in your life. It is generally used by the hackers to infiltrate in your phone and transmit all the vital information present in your phone like contacts, messages, saved password to a remote server. This important info’s can be thereafter used to cause severe damages.

Mainly it gets installed in your phone along with the other apps that you have downloaded form the internet, it can be a games apps or artist apps. It is best to install an anti virus in your phone first and then start downloading apps from the online platforms. Therefore is the application has any malware then you will get an automatic alert and the software of your anti virus is going to let you download it all.

3D Anti Terrorist

This malware get downloaded on your phone along with online games and starts making call to international numbers automatically. You would not even realize its intent until and unless you see the exorbitant bill amount at the end of the month. So keep your eyes wide open to see whether your phone has been affected by any such wicked virus. One thing that you can do is keep a check on the bill amount and any discrepancy in it would alert you about its presence in your beloved hand phone.

But in the new upcoming Android release market you will come across enough application that has the capability of safeguarding your phone. Moreover, these malware will only and only affect your phone if you download apps from unofficial sites. Therefore, the choice is yours, which is dearer to you your phone or the apps?

Author Bio: ProComputertech is a blog for people who specialize on computer technology and you have got a lot to learn from the website. We cover news, reviews, technology and others.

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Human Immortality in 33 Years Claims Dmitry Itskov’s 2045 Initiative

Twentieth Century Fox/AP Photo

Although James Cameron’s “Avatar” took place more than 140 years into the future, a Russian billionaire has teamed with  dozens of scientists to lay out a plan that would use avatars to transfer human consciousness into an artificial form. The goal:  human immortality by 2045.

The 2045 Initiative, a life-extension project founded by 31-year-old Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov in February 2011, offers a timeline for immortality over the next 33 years. Beginning with remotely controlled robotic avatars and re-creating the human brain through computer models, the end result would be human immortality in the form of holographic avatars.

The 2045 Initiative, which has  had a major social media blitz, brought together 30 top Russian scientists to develop the “imortal” technology, laying out  the plan for human immortality on its website.

“The first phase  is to create a humanoid robot dubbed ‘avatar,’ and a state-of-the-art brain-computer interface system. The next phase consists of creating a life-support system for the human brain and connect it to the ‘avatar.’ The final phase … is to create an artificial brain in which to transfer the original individual consciousness into,” reads the plan.

Got that?

Here’s the 2045 Initiative’s timeline for this feat:  

2015 – 2020: A robotic copy of a human body remotely controlled by a brain-computer interface

2020 – 2025: An avatar is created in which a human brain can be transplanted at the end of  life

2030 – 2035: An avatar that  can now contain an artificial brain in which a human personality can be transferred at the end of  life

 2040 – 2045:  A holographic avatar emerges

In addition to taking the Internet by storm, the 2045 Initiative has  also launched its own political party, called Evolution 2045, pushing a  new strategy for human development. The Russia-based party takes a global approach, encouraging other countries to follow in its footsteps “not in the arms race, but in the race for building a bright future for mankind.”

Last  month Itskov appealed to members of the Forbes World’s Billionaires List, urging  them  to take heed of  the “vital importance of funding scientific development in the field of cybernetic immortality and the artificial body.

“Contributing to cutting-edge innovations in the fields of neuroscience, nanotechnology and android robotics is more than building a brighter future for human civilization. [It's also] a wise and profitable business strategy that will create a new and vibrant industry of immortality — limitless in its importance and scale. This kind of investment will change every aspect of business as we know it,”  read Itskov’s open letter.

Itskov plans to host a Global Future Congress meeting next year in New York. A previous event was held last February in Moscow.

This  massive hypothetical technology would give the “new” mankind amazing survival abilities, according to the Initiative.

“The new human being will receive a huge range of abilities and will be capable of withstanding extreme external conditions easily: high temperatures, pressure, radiation, lack of oxygen,” claims the Initiative on its website.

And according to a slick video produced by the 2045 Initiative, once the hologram-like avatar reinvents mankind’s scientific and social structure, war and violence will go by the wayside as “spiritual self-improvement” becomes mankind’s primary goal.

But what about the average Joe who  just wants to live forever?

The cost of these avatars should be on par with that of an automobile, the Initiative’s website assures, as soon as mass production begins.

So start saving up.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Fox is not trading its film rights back to Marvel Studios

Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel Studios are currently negotiating a deal that could drastically alter the future of comic book movies.

When Marvel Comics opened a film wing (appropriately dubbed “Marvel Studios”) in an effort to grab a slice of the huge profits being made in the then-nascent comic book movie genre it was faced with a few issues. Sure the company has a massive catalogue of characters and stories to draw from to make its films, but the film rights to a number of its most popular heroes had already been sold to other production companies, long before superheroes proved to be box office gold. Twentieth Century Fox in particular had bought up a number of Marvel properties, including the X-Men, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and a large number of secondary characters important to each franchise.

Now that Marvel Studios has established itself as a major Hollywood player, ready and willing to create huge blockbusters — need we again mention that The Avengers has pulled down almost $1.5 billion at the box office? — it wants those film rights back, if only to have the freedom to use the characters created by Marvel Comics as it sees fit.

This morning word broke that Fox had agreed to give Marvel the rights to Fantastic Four villain Galactus — you’ll remember him as the inexplicable giant purple cloud in Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, or as an apocalyptic villain who eats planets in every other incarnation — as well as the Silver Surfer (pictured above), as part of a deal that would grant Fox the film rights to the Daredevil character for the foreseeable future. Fox has seemingly been planning to reboot its Daredevil film franchise in the wake of the disappointing (yet excellent in its “Director’s Cut” incarnation) 2003 Ben Affleck-starring Daredevil, but those plans have been put on the back burner ever since director David Slade stepped away from the hypothetical project. Joe Carnahan has since expressed interest in creating a Daredevil reboot at Fox, but Deadline believes that Fox’s confidence in Daredevil isn’t as high as it used to be, and that though the studio might agree to co-finance a Daredevil movie with Marvel Studios, it’s unlikely that Fox would mount the production by itself.

More crucially though, Deadline claims that its sources have strongly denied that Marvel and Fox are even having this discussion. Yes Fox is staring down a short timeline in which it must push a Daredevil film into production or forfeit the rights to the character back to Marvel, but as of yet, Deadline states, the two firms have yet to seriously discuss the possibility of swapping any of their respective film rights.

Unfortunately, the real losers in this situation are the fans. One of the cornerstones of Marvel’s popularity has always been that its characters live in a single, unified reality and that any one of them might bump into any other at any given moment. The Avengers was a great flick, but imagine how cool it would have been to see Spider-Man throwing punches alongside Captain America during the climactic fight. While we can’t really fault Marvel for selling off the film rights to its characters — these deals were all made back in the 1990s when Marvel was in very dire financial straits — it’s sad that the newly-minted Marvel Studios is unable to create a movie universe to truly rival its comic book universe simply because the publishing wing of the company needed cash during the Clinton administration.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com