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Tech News Today For August 12, 2016

Tech News for August 12, 2016

There are playlists of party music, dance music, there's music to fall asleep to, or run to or you know do other stuff too. But I had no idea there was a whole category of music for gaming. Today Spotify launched a gaming channel which not only includes music from your video game favorites, but also includes music designed to listen to while you are gaming.  Read more at CNET.com.

Both the Information and TechCrunch have sources that say Lyft, the ride sharing company that plays second fiddle to uber most of the time, turned down an offer by General Motors for acquisition. GM went so far as to propose a dollar amount for the deal, but Lyft decided instead to go about raising more funding and go at it alone. Lyft and GM first announced a partnership back in January with GM’s $500 million strategic investment, which has the two companies working together to create a network of on demand autonomous vehicles along with rental hubs for short term vehicle rentals.  Read more at theinformation.com.

Engadget spotted a tweet by a developer for Mojang that support for Minecraft on the Oculus Rift will be available next week. Minecraft fans have been looking forward to a Oculus Rift aversion for a while. Creator Markus Persson imagined the game on Occulus four years ago, but cancelled the project after Facebook bought Occulus because Facebook creeps him out.  After Microsoft bought Minecraft, they started up the project again. Although Minecraft in VR will be interesting, it may pale in comparison to Minecraft in AR on Microsoft's own upcoming HoloLens.  Read more at engadget.com.

Researchers have already proven that if you listen to someone typing on their keyboard for 15 minutes, it’s possible to determine everything they typed due to all keys having their own distinct sound traits. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University in Israel focused on how to extract data from computers that are unplugged from the Internet, lacking any connectivity like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, no speakers, and fans disabled. They realized that hard disk drives make enough sound to transmit data binary code to an external device simply by using the drive’s faint clicks generated by the mechanical arm inside.  Read more at computerworld.com.

Selena Larson at the Daily Dot reports on a new study claiming that virtual reality therapy might help some patients with spinal cord injuries achieve partial recover. The research in Scientific Reports says a woman who had been paralyzed from the waist down for 13 years has regained some control over her legs after using the new VR brain-machine treatment. The aggressive training regimen uses brain-controlled robotics and asks patients to visualize moving lower limbs and use their EEG activity to control avatars in virtual environments. The level of recovery is beign heralded as unprecedented in patients with long-term paralysis.  Read more at thedailydot.com.

AdBlock Plus saw an early lead in its defeat of Facebook’s adblock block defense, but it was a short lived victory as a team member from team Facebook rallied and returned an almost instantaneous block of the adblock that blocked Facebook's original adblock block first delivered days ago. This tournament is turning into quite a doozy. The score is tied at zero.  Read more at techcrunch.com.

Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica stops by to talk about No Man's Sky and Microsoft's announcement that it has acquired Beam.

So, you want an Apple Watch, but you're tired of everyone thinking you're a tech-obsessed elitist? Enter the Sinn Dual Strap system that bills itself as two worlds on one wrist. It's a strap system that lets you wear a mechanical watch in the front and attach an Apple Watch on the inside of your wrist. You really have to watch the video to understand.  

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