internationalnews
Apple Inc. said its HomePod smart speaker will be available for sale online Friday and hit stores on Feb. 9, after being delayed from December. The $349, Siri-controlled device was originally announced last June and marks the iPhone maker’s first foray into smart-home hardware. The speaker is designed to be a bulwark in Apple users’ homes, serving as a gadget to stream Apple Music, get weather information and control such accessories as lights, door locks and curtains. It can also serve as a speakerphone for iPhone calls, Apple said Tuesday. Later this year, a software update will let users play music throughout the house with multi-room audio. Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-23/apple-says-homepod-will-go-on-sale-friday-after-brief-delay

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A Facebook engineer has invented a new unit of time called a flick. The flick has been designed to help developers keep video effects in sync, according to a description on the code-sharing site GitHub. A flick, derived from "frame-tick", is 1/705,600,000 of a second - the next unit of time after a nanosecond. A researcher at Oxford University said the flick wouldn't have much general impact but may help create better virtual reality experiences. Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42787529

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Booming interest in crypto-currencies has been blamed for pushing up the prices of graphics cards. The cards are popular because they speed up the process of minting or "mining" crypto-coins. Keen miners are buying graphics cards in large quantities and running them in parallel to boost their coin-producing efforts. Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42774882

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