Oyster, the subscription e-book service, says it is opening up a retail component and has the Big Five publishers on board. The move sets up Oyster to challenge Amazon.
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Students Built the World’s Smallest Electric Wheelchairs
Three-year-old Tanner Jensen and his 20-month-old brother Skyler were both born with a rare genetic condition known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy which means they can’t walk, crawl, control their heads, or even lift their arms. But life for the young brothers will soon be improving thanks to students at Brigham Young University who built the pair a set of tiny affordable electric wheelchairs.
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Futuristic ‘SuperTruck’ doubles the MPG of other semis
The EPA estimates that motor vehicles contribute about half of America’s smog-forming volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide emissions every year. And given that the average fuel efficiency of your average 18-wheeler only hits about 6 miles pe…
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Why You Should Care About VP9, Google’s Clever Video Codec
As the ongoing Meerkatification of humanity proves, the internet (in one form or another) is becoming more and more about video. At peak times, Netflix and YouTube alone account for half of all web traffic. That’s an understandably huge burden for ISPs to carry. But as well as making the pipes bigger, we can also shrink down what goes through them.
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The Secret to China’s Most Valuable Startup
Xiaomi of China became the world’s fifth-largest smartphone maker by making its customers feel part of an exclusive club, such as by throwing parties for them.
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BlackBerry Messenger helps uncover a Brazilian corruption scandal
Some less-than-ethical businesspeople are learning the hard way that even secure messaging systems aren’t all that private. Brazilian authorities have used BlackBerry Messenger records (obtained through warrants and BlackBerry’s help) to level corrup…
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Sources: Amazon Spent Big Bucks On Crytek’s Engine
Last year, as the game company Crytek went through near-catastrophic financial struggles, they found help from an unlikely source: the tech giant Amazon.
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