ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition Review
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Bitcoin Acceptance Now Listed on Yelp
In a move that directly supports the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin, Yelp has announced that information on Bitcoin acceptance is now provided under a business listing. While users of the review website have been able to find quite a bit of information on businesses before the announcement, they have not been able to see if a business actually accepts Bitcoin as a form of payment. Because of the many benefits that Bitcoin offers, such as it being a one way payment option and it being accessible from any device that is connected to the Internet, Yelp figures that it will help consumers and businesses connect even more than before.
Business owners can update their Bitcoin acceptance through logging into their free business owner tools on Yelp.
Source: Yelp Official Blog
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Facebook Messenger Provides Quicker Media Sharing
Users of Facebook Messenger, which is now up to version 5.0 for iOS devices, can now send media even quicker than before. Through the standalone messaging application for Facebook contacts, users can find below the text box the ability to snap a quick photo, record a voice message, choose a sticker, or select an image or video from the Camera Roll. What is interesting about this newer and quicker media sharing capability is that some of the options, such as recording a voice message and tacking a picture, happen immediately. If a user takes a picture of themselves, it is automatically sent to the recipient without any option to preview the photo. Images and videos that are selected from the Camera Roll do have the ability to be previewed before sending however.
While the latest update is only available for iOS devices at this time, Facebook Messenger 5.0 is expected to be released on Android this week.
Source: Engadget
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Tumors 3D Printed for Research and Testing
Whenever working with something that has a risk with it, it is important to thoroughly test it as best as possible. For some things though, such testing is limited for many reasons, and among those things are cancers. Researchers at Drexel University however have developed a method of growing cancer tumors that should greatly improve our ability to test drugs on cancers, outside of patients.
To test drugs on cancer cells, samples of the cells are first harvested and then grown in a Petri dish. While this will create more cells to test the drugs on, the two-dimensional nature of the dishes is adopted by the cells as well. In the body though, tumors will have a three-dimensional shape, and that difference can cause disparities between how well a drug performs in the lab and in a patient. What the Drexel researchers developed is a means to 3D print tumors using living cancer cells and a hydrogel. The resulting, printed tumor better resembles actual tumors, so testing on it will provide better data on how drugs will perform in patients.
The research was conducted using Hela cells, which is from a particular form of cervical cancer and are very well understand, which was necessary as the researchers developed their methods. In the future the researchers would like to combine models of other tissues and even vasculature to the printed tumors, to make them even better representations of actual tumors.
Source: Drexel University
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Kadokawa Expanding Its Games Business by Acquiring Dark Souls Developer From Software
Kadokawa is a Japanese publisher and developer heavily involved in several forms of Japanese entertainment, from films to manga to video games. On the video game front, it's probably best known in the West for the Vita title Demon Gaze, released last week in North America and Europe, and Natural Doctrine (PS3, PS4, Vita), coming to North America and Europe later this year. Wanting to expand its games business even further, Kadokawa revealed today in its financial results that it has "decided to acquire 80% of the game maker From Software and make the smaller company a subsidiary." According to the report, "Kadokawa will be buying this stake of From Software from the game maker's previous owner, Trans Comos, and the transfer will conclude on May 21."
It is unclear at this time what kind of impact the acquisition will have on From Software's future development. Its most recent title, Dark Souls II, released on PC last Friday.
Source: Anime News Network via All Games Beta
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Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Coming to PC on June 27
The zany multiplayer third-person shooter Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare has been available on Xbox One and Xbox 360 since February 25, 2014, but the PC version had been no where in sight until now. Today, PopCap Games and Electronic Arts announced that Garden Warfare will finally be making its way to PC on June 27. In addition, the PC version will include the Garden Variety and Zomboss Down DLCs free at launch.
Pre-ordering the Standard Edition on Origin for $29.99 nets you two Booster Packs (Super Duper Pack and Craaazy Pack), while pre-ordering the Digital Deluxe Edition for $34.99 nets you both those packs in addition to 80,000 in-game coins and an Exclusive Custom Accessories Pack.
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Better Understanding of an Upcoming Superconductor
Some believe that in the future superconductors will be employed to transmit electricity over great distances and even improve the performance of our computers. While those are definitely some uses for superconductors, others include particle accelerators and MRI machines. Researchers at North Carolina State University have recently made some interesting discoveries concerning one superconductor that may be used in those applications.
Superconductors are materials that are able to conduct electricity without resistance, under certain conditions. This has obvious implications in transmitting power, but by building a superconducting ring it is possible to create very powerful magnetic fields. Such fields are used in MRI machines, for peering inside bodies, and in particle accelerators. One high temperature superconductor called bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide, or Bi2212, is of special interest as it is the only high temperature superconductor that can be made into a round wire. Producing it is tricky though, as it requires heat treating filaments to nearly 900 ºC, and at this temperature, impurities form. The North Carolina researchers investigated the impacts of these impurities, and found that they can have both a positive and negative effect on the superconductor.
Previous research showed that impurities of a large size will impair the superconductor's performance, but if they are between 1.2 and 2.5 nm wide, they will actually improve it. The reason is that at this size the impurities grab magnetic vortices and hold them in place. This prevents the vortices from disrupting the flow of the electrons, and causing resistance. With this new knowledge it may be possible to optimize the production of Bi2212 for better performance.
Source: North Carolina State University
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