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Moleskine has valiantly tried to bridge the divide between analog writing and digital files for years. The company released its Smart Writing Set in 2016 as a $200 holistic solution of pen, proprietary smart paper and app that instantly sent whatever you wrote or drew over to your paired device -- which worked as long as your smartphone or tablet was nearby. But its newest writing implement, the $180 Pen+ Ellipse , liberates you from the latter need, saving all your scratchings in an offline mode until it connects to your device again. This could actually be handy for writing in busy situations -- trains, outdoors, in low-light -- where pulling out your device to sync up is cumbersome. Unlike the pen that comes with the Smart Writing Set, the Pen+ Ellipse also has a little clip on the cap to slide on to your favorite notebook -- though, of course, you'll be using a $30 one from Moleskine's Smart Writing Set line, since those are the only ones with the aforementioned Ncode ...

Amazon Studios is ramping up its efforts in the streaming space lately in a push to focus on bigger movies and television shows. The company hired NBC's Jennifer Salke as its new head executive to take the place of the disgraced Roy Price , and has picked up some high-profile content, like Ian M. Banks' well-regarded Culture novels for a television series. Now Amazon won the rights to Alafair Burke's novel The Wife , which is heavily influenced by the current #MeToo zeitgeist. According to Deadline , Amazon was one of five bidders for the novel, which is Burke's 13th novel. She's also set to write the movie script in a deal that reportedly reached seven figures. Burke is a graduate of Stanford Law, former prosecutor, a professor of criminal law and the daughter of crime novelist James Lee Burke. The Wife came out last month, and revolves around a woman named Angela Powell who finds out that her high-profile celebrity husband has been accused of sexual assault...

This week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference Facebook chose to maintain a booth for attendees that includes an Oculus virtual reality demo. Now This writer Sean Morrow noticed that it included a demo of a shooting game, Bullet Train , where players teleport around a train station killing waves of masked enemies. The timing of the demo came into question as it's so close to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting last week. After the photos surfaced, Facebook VR VP Hugo Barra said that it's part of a standard package, but "In light of the recent events in Florida and out of respect for the victims and their families, we have removed them from this demo." Bullet Train lead programmer Nick Whiting told Engadget in 2015 that in this game, the player is "badass...you can't die. You can grab bullets out of the air and throw them back. You can throw guns at people, and then teleport back and shoot the guy next to them." Whi...

Last December, Twitch announced that it would be making a live-streaming reality show, Stream On . In it, Twitch creators who need a boost to make streaming a full-time gig compete against one another in a series of challenges, Survivor -style, for a grand prize of $60,000, delivered across 12 months. Now the details are out, with the live game show set to debut with 14 competitors on March 8th at 3:00 pm PST. With Stream On , you'll get to see up-and-coming Twitch Partners judged on their ability to perform various essential skills for streaming, like motivating viewers with a call to action. You'll also be able to take part via a custom interactive overlay, which will let you vote on who to eliminate after each round. The 14 participants include competitive gamers, of course, but also chefs, musicians and other creative artists, including 88bitmusic, Banzaibaby, CiraCorellia. CookingforN00b, FerociouslySteph, GlanFM, Koibu, MajinTaj, Suchikuchi, thaButtress, TheOnlyRyann,...

You no longer have to head to a reseller's site or post a social media diatribe to let others know what you think about a Switch game. Nintendo has updated its website to enable customer reviews on Switch games' product pages -- so long as you sign into your Nintendo Account, you can tell would-be buyers whether or not a title is worth their time. They're not just the usual star ratings and comments, either. Similar to Steam , you can tag your review with qualities that describe a title (such as "kid appropriate" or "challenging") to help people find titles with similar traits. You can even summarize your overall experience with games, whether you're a "core gamer" (read: you play games often) or a parent gauging your child's reaction. The reviews aren't consistently available yet, but they're listed for at least some first- and third-party releases. We've spotted them on Super Mario Odyssey , Legend of Zelda: Breath of...

CamSoda , an adult entertainment platform, announced a new product this week that aims to satisfy you in a number of ways. The RubGrub is a 3D-printed button attachment made to fit on a Lovense Nora vibrator. And the idea is that when you're done using the Nora, all you'll have to do is tap the button and the RubGrub will order you a large pizza. It's essentially an Amazon Dash Button meant to fulfill your post-coital cravings. However, it orders you a Domino's pizza, so I hope the time spent with the Nora was more satisfying than your dinner will be. All you have to do is connect your RubGrub to your phone via Bluetooth and plug in your payment and delivery information. Domino's is the only option as of now, but CamSoda says that it plans to add Mexican and Chinese food chain options in the future. You can snag the RubGrub alone for $20 or buy it with a Nora for $120. While RubGrub was developed in collaboration with Lovense , Domino's appears to have had...

In July, Chinese tech giant Xiaomi jumped into the smart speaker race with its answer to Amazon's Alexa and Google Home, the $45 Mi AI -- though it probably won't find its way to American shores, given how had a time it's had penetrating the US and European markets. Today, the company made a different move with artificial intelligence, signing a deal with Microsoft to partner up on projects involving AI, cloud computing and hardware to help the device company expand into other markets. As part of the Memorandum of Understanding, Xiaomi will harness Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to expand services for its users, including data storage and bandwidth. The American tech company will consult the Chinese tech giant on joint marketing and channel support to get Xiaomi's laptops into new international markets. And, of course, partnering will give Microsoft access to Xiaomi's users across the world. And that Mi Speaker? Both companies will see how well it work...

Earlier this week, YouTube took down a video from one of Infowars' channels. It was one of many videos out there claiming that students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are not in fact students and school shooting survivors, but are instead paid "crisis actors." The video, which was titled "David Hogg Can't Remember His lines In TV Interview," was removed by YouTube from the Alex Jones Channel on Wednesday and the platform said it violated its policies against harassment. CNN now reports that this qualifies as one strike against the Infowars channel and if it gets two more within a three-month period, the channel will be terminated. YouTube's policies on harassment and cyberbullying say, "In cases where harassment crosses the line into a malicious attack, it can be reported and the content will be removed." And a YouTube spokesperson told CNN , "Last summer we updated the application of our harassment policy to include hoax vid...

Apple may be close to launching another one of the numerous products it teased last year. Sources talking to both MacOtakara and the Apple Post have claimed that the company's AirPower wireless charging mat should ship sometime in late March, about half a year after its September premiere. This would reportedly include the wireless charging case for AirPods , too. You might have to buy the case directly from Apple if you're upgrading an existing pair of earbuds, but multiple stores would sell a version of the AirPods with the wireless charging case included. It's not clear why Apple needed the extra time to ready the AirPower mat, but it might have something to do with the Apple Watch . Although at least a few Qi chargers will top up an Apple Watch, the wristwear wasn't really designed for it -- according to MacOtakara , the AirPower Mat has to use a "special wave" to detect the watch. Combine that with the mat's signature (though not completely un...

In a move reminiscent of Snap's IPO journey , Bloomberg sources claimed last month that Dropbox had quietly filed to become a public company. Suspicious hires last year had tipped their hand, and we waited to see what would happen for a company valued over $10 billion a few years ago. Today, Dropbox's IPO filing surfaced , and while we still don't know what day its stock will hit the market, their documentation pulls back a bit of the veil on the company's situation as it gears up to go public. BREAKING: Dropbox files for IPO. https://t.co/jn8limUSe7 — CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) February 23, 2018 Per the filing itself , Dropbox has over 500 million registered users but only 11 million of those are paying subscribers. Some might sign up multiple times for multiple accounts, so the number of unique users is certainly lower. Ultimately, the company admits in the document, "a majority of our registered users may never convert to a paid subscription to our platform....

If you have a 1Password membership, you can now check to see if your passwords have been compromised by data breaches and leaked on the internet. It's just a proof of concept feature for now, but 1Password says that in future releases, it will be added to Watchtower within 1Password apps. The feature is an integration of Troy Hunt's Pwned Passwords service that includes over 500 million leaked passwords. To use the proof of concept feature now, sign into your account on 1Password.com and click Open Vault. Click on an item in the vault, then Shift-Control-Option-C or Shift+Ctrl+Alt+C depending on your operating system. That unlocks the proof of concept and allows you to click the "Check Password" button next to your password. You can see in the video below what happens next. If your password matches one in Pwned Passwords, 1Password will let you know. If it doesn't, 1Password will tell that you're all good. We want to note that if your password matches on...

It's been an interesting few months for HTC. Google bought the team responsible for Pixel phones last year for $1.1 billion. The president of HTC's smartphone operations just resigned , claiming a "personal career plan" for the move. Now, the remaining US workforce is facing layoffs. As first reported by Digital Trends this week, HTC has confirmed that it will combine its smartphone and VR divisions, resulting in employee reductions. Digital Trends ' sources report that between a few dozen to around 100 employees have been let go. The company told Engadget that it was still very committed to the smartphone business. "We have recently brought our smartphone and VR businesses under common leadership in each region," a company spokes person said. "Today we announced a restructure in North America for the HTC Smartphone business that will centralize the reporting structure within the region. In doing so, there have been some employee reductions to ...

If you're a music fan, the first wave of smart speakers was probably a disappointment. While Alexa and Google Assistant have definitively proven they have a place in the home, the first Echo and Google Home devices were unimpressive when it came to actually playing music. They did the job in a pinch, and being able to command Spotify with your voice is a killer feature, but many longed for better-quality audio. Fortunately, that call has been answered. In the past six months, Sonos, Google and Apple have all released music-first speakers with voice assistants built in. There's no doubt that the Google Home Max, Alexa-powered Sonos One and Apple HomePod all sound far better than just about any other voice-powered speakers out there. If you value audio quality above all else (and have about $400 to spend), what's the right smart speaker for you? Let's break it down. How we tested For the purposes of this story, we compared a single HomePod ($350), two Sonos One speak...

While Facebook and Netflix are (reportedly) spending billions on new programming, YouTube is said to be holding its investments at current levels. Google's video wing is only spending "a few hundred million" on original shows for Red this year according to Bloomberg 's sources . Other details are scant, but unlike the competition, YouTube also has a live TV service that's expanding in reach . Google could just be taking a "wait and see" approach to its investments this year. There's also the chance that the reticence to invest stems from recent black eyes. Its biggest stars have been in the headlines pretty frequently lately and not for flattering reasons. YouTube put a hold on Logan Paul's projects for Red in January after shooting video in Japan's "suicide forest," as one example. And last year the company did similar to PewDiePie over the top-grossing star's videos featuring anti-Semitic messages. Even if it isn'...

We just learned all the ways Russian propaganda agents fooled American social media companies, thanks to the recent indictments of Russian nationals by Team Mueller. After years of these companies forcing us to adhere to their contrived "community safety" policies and made-up rules to police our identities (which they swore was for our own good), their failures are rather spectacular. Russia's low-rent spies -- I mean, trolls -- leveraged every hypocrisy (like "real names" policies), weakness (tolerance of hate groups, impersonation, and false information), and flaunting of laws (political advertising disclosures) inherent in America's biggest social media companies to do the unimaginable: divide and conquer US democracy. If you missed it, the Internet Research Agency indictment outlined an operation that ran hundreds (if not tens of thousands ) of fake accounts, impersonated the GOP and civil rights groups, stole identities from actual US citizens ...

Using AR to promote movies isn't entirely new. We've already seen official movie tie-in augmented reality apps for Spider-Man: Homecoming and the Jon Hamm vehicle, Marjorie . Now, though, Sony Pictures is taking things a bit farther with Ghostbusters World , a mobile AR game based on the popular film, television and comic book franchise. The title is currently in development with 4:33 Creative Lab and should launch sometime this year on iOS and Android. Sony's announcement comes just as Google released more information on its own official augmented reality toolkit for Android developers, called ARCore 1.0. Similar to Apple's own ARkit , Google's version provides a framework to allow app makers bring virtual objects into the real world via compatible phones. Ghostbusters World will apparently get you out and about, battling and capturing hundreds of ghosts, Pokemon Go -style. The ghosts will come from all the different Ghostbusters media, including films, TV s...

Netflix appears to be looking to pull in more of that HGTV crowd, as Deadline reports that the streaming service just ordered its first property-focused original series. With a working title of Amazing On The Inside , the show will reportedly feature homes that look ordinary on the outside but have incredible interiors that reflect their owners' passions and identities. Deadline says Netflix has ordered 12 30-minute episodes. It won't be the only home property show on Netflix -- it already hosts series like Reno My Reno , Brojects and Grand Design s -- but it's the first original of this type of show commissioned by the service. The show comes from British production company Barcroft Productions. Netflix also recently announced it would be expanding its slate of animated originals with a new Tiffany Haddish-led series from the team behind Bojack Horseman called Tuca & Bertie . It also just snagged the rights to the Duplass Brothers' next four films. Via: ...

Despite the hype and hoopla surrounding the burgeoning field of quantum computing, the technology is still in its infancy. Just a few years ago, researchers were making headlines with rudimentary machines that housed less than a dozen qubits -- the quantum version of a classical computer's binary bit. At IBM's inaugural Index Developer Conference held in San Francisco this week, the company showed off its latest prototype: a quantum computing rig housing 50 qubits , one of the most advanced machines currently in existence. Quantum computing -- with its ability to calculate and solve algorithms in parallel, at speeds far faster than conventional computers -- promises to revolutionize fields from chemistry and logistics to finance and physics. The thing is, while quantum computing is a technology for the world of tomorrow, it hasn't yet advanced far enough for anyone to know what that world will actually look like. "People aren't going to just wake up in three or...

Last year, billionaire Joe Ricketts shut down Gothamist and DNAInfo a week after newsroom employees unionized. Though there was immediate public outcry over the decision, the sites' future has remained bleak and uncertain, but, as Wired reports, they're now getting an unexpected helping hand from some old-school media -- public radio . At least three public radio stations -- New York's WNYC , Washington DC's WAMU and Southern California's KPCC -- will be taking over Gothamist and associated sites like LAist, DCist and DNAInfo, maintaining their archives and adding new content in the near future. Gothamist founders Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung said that the sudden shutdown of the sites last year was unexpected. "We tried to do our best to improve the situation and bring something positive out of it, and we did," Dobkin told Wired . Two anonymous donors have provided funds for the deal, though the amount hasn't been disclosed. Going forward, WNYC will ...

By Chris Heinonen This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After researching every currently available 4K Blu-ray player, and spending more than 20 hours testing the features and performance of six contenders, we're sure that the Sony UBP-X800 is the best for most people. All the players we tested had indistinguishable 4K disc performance, but the Sony's disc-loading speed, snappy menus, and superior 4K upscaling of DVDs and non-4K Blu-rays set it apart from the pack. Why buy a 4K Blu-ray player If you have a TV that can show off 4K resolution with true HDR and wide color gamut support, 4K Blu-ray discs will outperform any video you've watched at home and look more dynamic and colorful than what you'll see in almost any movie theater. Although the majority of 4K video content comes from ...