Good guy Apple gives $2.5 million to Hurricane Sandy relief

After successfully raising "millions" of dollars toward the American Red Cross' Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees today that the company will donate $2.5 million of its own money to help the storm's victims recover.

Apple will donate $2.5 million to victims of Hurricane Sandy, according to an internal memo obtained by 9to5Mac. The charitable gift comes on top of untold millions raised by Apple customers for the American Red Cross through a special page on iTunes. 

Apple originally launched the Hurricane Sandy relief page in iTunes on November 1, just days after the storm decimated communities up the East Coast, including towns and cities in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Apple iTunes customers can give amounts ranging from $5 to $200 through the page.

Sandy is said to be the second most-costly hurricane in U.S. history, after 2005′s Hurricane Katrina. Eleven days after Sandy made landfall, around 265,000 homes in New Jersey, and more than 168,000 in Long Island remain without electricity. An untold number of people are displaced or homeless because of the storm.

News of Apple’s donation follows a joint project between Silicon Valley vacation rental starup Airbnb and the New York City Mayor’s Office, which are urging Airbnb hosts (or anyone with a bit of extra room) to lend out their space to displaced Sandy victims for free. As of this writing, more than 530 hosts have signed up for the effort.

Apple’s charitable giving has increased under CEO Tim Cook. In February, Cook revealed that the company had given a total of about $150 million to charity, a large number, but a small fraction of the electronic giant’s approximately $117 billion in cash it had on hand, as of this summer.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Gibbs Quadski: Redefining the meaning of “all-terrain vehicle”

This cross between an ATV and a jet ski really can go anywhere.

Off-road vehicles claim to be able to go anywhere, but they can’t. Cars, dirt bikes, and ATVs can’t fly, nor can they swim. The FAA might have something to say about the former, but Michigan’s Gibbs Sports Amphibians hopes to achieve the latter. The Gibbs Quadski is the mutant offspring of an ATV and a jet ski.

On land, the Quadski behaves like a normal ATV, but at the push of a button the wheels retract and power is transferred from the rear differential to a propellor. That power (175 horsepower and 103 pound-feet of torque, 140 hp on water) comes from a 1.3-liter four cylinder engine from a BMW K1300 motorcycle.

As with any vehicle that is neither one thing or another, there are compromises. Despite its considerable size, the Quadski can only carry one rider. It’s also rear-wheel drive, which may limit its performance on tough trails.

Amphibious motoring also doesn’t come cheap. Gibbs has not finalized the price, but company representatives say the Quadski will cost around $40,000. That is a lot of money for a quad, even if it can drive on water.

The Quadski may be flawed, but that’s not surprising given how difficult its development has been. Gibbs has been developing amphibious vehicle technology since 1996, spending $200 million and accumulating over 300 patents. Until now, the result of all that work has been nothing.

Gibbs spent years trying to bring the Aquada, an amphibious car, to market, but it was torpedoed (no pun intended) by supplier issues and regulations. That’s not surprising given the checkered history of amphibious vehicles. The German Amphicar was a sales failure, and even the World War II DUKWs that delivered supplies in support of Allied invasions (and now carry tourists on “Duck tours”) were said to drive “like trucks in the water and boats on land.”

When it goes on sale in November, the Quadski could be the first amphibious vehicle to sell in significant quantities. Gibbs has dealers lined up in Florida, Texas, New York, and the Midwest.

Technical issues aside, why would anyone want an ATV-jet ski hybrid? It would certainly allow outdoors adventurers to travel as the crow flies, but on another level, its just plain cool. Now if only Gibbs could add some wings…

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Study: Watching live TV becoming less popular while DVR usage rises

As more people transition to digital recording, consumers seem to prefer using the DVR over catching a television show when it's live.

According to Nielsen’s latest Cross-Platform report that studies how content is consumed, the average amount of live television watched each day has dropped by approximately two percent over the previous year. Alternatively, the amount of time spent watching content recorded on a DVR has increased by approximately eight percent over the same time period. In addition, the number of people watching television programs over the Internet on a computer or streaming shows on a mobile smartphone has increased year-over-year. Regarding physical media, the amount of people watching DVD or Blu-ray discs decreased slightly over the same time period and video game usage remained the same. 

Specific to age, older adults were vastly more likely to spend more time watching live television than younger adults. Men over the age of 35 spend approximately five and a half hours per day watching television while women of the same age range spend a bit over six hours. The younger 18 to 34 year old demographic spends about three and half hours watching television on the male side and slightly more than four hours per day on the female side.

DVR usage was highest among adults between the ages of 35 to 64 while watching video on the Internet was most popular with young adults between the ages of 18 to 34. When it comes to watching video on a mobile phone, children between the ages of 12 to 17 and young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 were the most likely to watch programming on their smartphone. Regarding ethnicity and race, African-Americans consumed the most traditional live television with an average of 210 hours per month while Asian-Americans watched the least with an average of 100 hours per month.

When it comes to cord cutting, the amount of people that are subscribing to cable television has dropped by about five percent year-over-year. Television service through satellite or telecommunication companies has stayed relatively stable. Interestingly, the number of people that subscribe to broadband Internet service and only watch broadcast television over-the-air has increased over the past twelve months.

Regarding home theater hardware, the amount of DVD or Blu-ray players used in U.S. homes decreased by nearly three percent while the amount of DVR devices has increased by nine percent year-over-year.

In addition, the amount of high definition televisions within U.S. homes increased by nine percent and video game console market penetration also increased by three percent. Specifically, forty-six percent of U.S. homes have a gaming console and thirty-nine percent have a seventh-generation gaming console within the home.

In addition, gaming consoles are getting more usage as an entertainment hub than a standalone DVD or Blu-ray player. Beyond simply playing games, PlayStation 3 owners spend an average of 36 minutes on the console each day for other entertainment like streaming video on Netflix, Vudu or Hulu Plus. In addition, Xbox 360 owners spend about 32 minutes per day on the console and Wii owners spend about 17 minutes on the console each day. Households that utilize a seventh-generations gaming console are more likely to have broadband Internet access, spend money each month on extra services and experiment with new electronic devices within the home. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Gamescom 2012: Cross Buy lets you buy PlayStation 3 games and get the Vita version for free

Cross Buy lets people who buy PS3 games like Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time get the Vita version for free, but Sony's mum on PS3 cost.

Amid Sony’s myriad game announcements for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 at its Gamecom conference on Tuesday was one announcement that effected both devices: Cross Buy.

A number of games on Sony’s late 2012, early 2013 menu are going to come out for both Vita and PS3. Among them are PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. There’s been no small amount of speculation over how Sony will incentivize purchasing both the portable and home versions of the games. This past spring, MLB 12: The Show hit both systems with Cross Play—meaning you could play on one, save your game, and continue on the other—and briefly packaged together for $80.

Cross Buy will do the same. Sony said at Gamecom that All-Stars as well as the new Ratchet and Sly games will give players free access to the Vita version of the games when they buy the PlayStation 3 versions.

Rejoice, you scarce Vita owners! Or not. Sony did not announce the pricing on these releases. PlayStation 3 games published by Sony come out at the standard $59.99, but there’s no guarantee that Cross Buy titles will stay at that price.

Cross Buy is promising, and a good way to encourage people to buy a Vita, but until Sony confirms how much Cross Buy games cost, it’s best to be cautious. We’ve reached out to Sony and will update this article when we hear back.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com