Thursday, May 15, 2014

drag2share: How to get started with home automation through Z-Wave

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/14/home-automation-z-wave-how-to/

For many of us, smart homes seem like a far off concept from a science fiction novel set hundreds of years in the future. Imagine things like appliances that learn our schedules, lights that turn off after we leave a room, locks that can be remotely triggered to let yourself (or others) into your house and more. You know what though? The future is here. Engadget reader Dignan17 shows us what it takes to get started with home automation using Z-Wave compatible devices.

Have questions? Head over to the forums and ask away or share your own experiences with home automation.

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drag2share: Xiaomi's 49-inch Android TV boasts 4K for just $640

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/15/xiaomi-mi-tv-2-4k/

The Mi Pad wasn't Xiaomi's only announcement today. Following the Chinese company's first smart TV from last September, today it has unveiled a slightly larger model with a nice surprise: 4K for just CN¥3,999 or about $640! Like its affordable predecessor, this 49-inch TV comes with built-in Android (with MIUI TV skin), though you can easily side-load other TV apps. On the hardware side, you'll find a 4K 3D panel made by either LG or CSOT within a 6.2mm aluminum bezel, and underneath that lies a MediaTek MStar 6A918 chip (1.45GHz quad-core CPU, Mali-450 MP4 GPU) plus 2GB of RAM to drive all those pixels. On top of the built-in 8GB space, you also get to add up to 64GB of storage via microSD.

The MI TV 2 comes with a few nice goodies. Most notably, it has a Bluetooth LE remote instead of the old infrared version, and should you lose it in your room, you can even tap the bottom of the TV to make the remote beep. Alternatively, you can also install the remote app on your phone, with which you can use gestures and voice to control the TV, as well as read up related info -- some of which comes from IMDB -- about the show you're watching.

Another nice feature here is the audio part. CEO Lei Jun said that in order to keep the TV's thickness at 15.5mm, his team decided to store the speakers in separate parts: a wired audio bar with the mid-range and treble drivers, and a Bluetooth subwoofer with the 8-inch driver. Better yet, you can also use this kit with your mobile devices via Bluetooth.

As for availability, Lei admitted that his company didn't do so well with the production rate of the original MI TV, but this time he said this should no longer be a problem, partly because he's teamed up with Wistron and Pegatron. Folks in China will be able to order one on May 27th, but for the rest of us, chances are we'll never see one outside the country any time soon.

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drag2share: 'Two And A Half Men' Ratings Plummeted After Charlie Sheen Was Fired [CHARTS]

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/two-and-a-half-men-ratings-without-charlie-sheen-2014-5

two and a half men ashton kutcherWe recently shared some charts from "Graph TV,” a site that indexes the IMDB ratings of TV shows.

It’s pretty useful if you want to see fan’s favorite — and least favorite — episodes of shows quickly or if you want to see when viewership of a popular show started to wane.

After CBS announced "Two and A Half Men" would come to a close after season 12 Wednesday, we decided to take a look at the long running show.

Charlie Sheen was ousted from the show following negative comments about the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, initially on radio and TMZ followed by a series of network interviews where he exhibited strange behavior and continued to bad mouth Lorre and the network.

As a result, the show awkwardly killed off Sheen’s character at the start of the ninth season. 

The episode may have been a rating’s high for the network (more than 28 million viewers tuned in to watch); however, Sheen’s absence wasn’t received well by long-time viewers.

No w in season 11 an average of million watch weekly.

According to Graph TV, here’s how IMDB ratings and reviews look for episodes with Sheen replaced by Ashton Kutcher.two and a half men without charlie sheen

Now in its 11th season, the show receives between 8-10 million viewers (much less than the average of 15 million when Sheen was around). 

In comparison, here's an overview of the show's ratings by season average. See how the ratings fared with and without Sheen.

two and a half men ratings

SEE ALSO: These charts show when your favorite TV show peaked

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Article: Samsung 28-inch 4K UHD LED 60Hz Monitor $600 shipped (Reg. $700)

Amazon offers the Samsung 28-inch 4K UHD LED 60Hz Monitor (model U28D590D) for $599.99 with free shipping. That's a savings of $100 off the already low list price of $699.99 and a match for the best price we've seen since its release last April.It features two HDMI 1.4 and one DisplayPort, audio ...

http://9to5toys.com/2014/05/15/samsung-28-inch-4k-uhd-led-60hz-monitor-600-shipped-reg-700/

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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

drag2share: Science Is Finally Making Glass That Birds Won't Fly Into

Source: http://gizmodo.com/science-is-finally-making-glass-that-birds-wont-fly-int-1576519346

Science Is Finally Making Glass That Birds Won't Fly Into

Birds flying into window panes might be the stuff of cartoon comic fodder, but the reality is bleak: Hundreds of millions of birds die from flying into transparent glass every year. Thankfully, science is finally putting a stop to it.

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