Computers

OCZ is unleashing a new lineup of SSDs, the Vertex 450 series.

Android users who are avid video viewers now have cause for cheer – the interactive video platform Videogram, which even Jennifer Lopez took to releasing her new music video on earlier this week, has launched on Google Play. The startup behind Videogram, Tokyo-headquartered Cinemacraft, has introduced the Android version following closely after its iOS launch last month. However, Videogram for Android doesn’t have the same functionality as the iOS app. Cinemacraft CEO and founder Sandeep Casi said this is so the company can “launch these features exclusively in the near future with telcos.” “This will provide differentiation from what is available on Google Play versus telco-controlled Android stores,” he said. The 500 startups-backed firm started its Videogram service last November, and has since collaborated with Sony Pictures to promote Battle of the Year, a movie due in cinemas September 13. Besides J-Lo, other celebrities including Christian Milian have also caught on to using Videogram. The video platform breaks content up into clickable and embeddable pictorial summaries, and users can share specific clips to social networks including Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. (See J-Lo’s “Live It Up” music video below.) Headline image via Thinkstock

It turns out that at least one of the 100,000 downloads of Defense Distributed's Liberator 3D printed gun blueprints was done by the NSW Police Force, who today confirmed that the technology is dangerous.Using a 3D printer acquired for $1700 and $35 worth of materials, the NSW Police force printed one Liberator gun to test the legitimacy of the concept.The police constructed the weapon in about 27 hours. In a secure facility it fired the weapon, with the nail used as a firing pin penetrating 17cm into the gelatin block it was fired into. In the department's own words, "This would be more than capable of killiing someone."Liberation BoomedAs much as NSW Police are concerned that people will print the gun as an undetectable weapon for nefarious purposes, they also stress the dangers posed to anyone who prints the weapon themselves out of curiosity.Their concerns are justified, given that their second attempt at firing their printed Liberator saw the weapon explode."The message goes out to anyone with the resources to purchase a 3D printer. Don't attempt to use a 3D printer to produce a weapon. A 3D-printed gun is not potentially dangerous, it is dangerous," Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said.The Commissioner also stressed that printing the weapon is very illegal, and that the Police would crack down on anyone printing, selling or owning a 3D gun.""Make no mistake, these things are firearms. You do not need bullets to make it a firearm. It is a firearm. If you produce a firearm using a 3D printer, you are committing at least two crimes: Manufacturing a firearm and possession of an illegal firearm. We will prosecute offenders caught manufacturing, selling, owning or in possession of a 3D gun," Scipione explained.

OCZ Introduces New SSDs Based on Indilinx Barefoot 3 Controller

It's not rocket science: Texting while driving is dumb, not to mention dangerous. Yet we still do it, especially teenagers who as new drivers should be taking extra precautions.

When you think of event planning and ticketing services, companies like Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, Ticketfly, and Ticketleap probably come to mind. But event planners often times need more than just ticketing services. Enter Splash, a one-stop shop for planning events, selling tickets, and engaging with attendees after the event. At South by Southwest, the one-year-old startup powered nearly 200 events and collected 384,000 RSVPs, Splash CEO Ben Hindman tells Business Insider. "It's clear, the "winner" of SXSW13: @splashthat," Union Square Venture analyst Brian Watson tweeted about a week before the festival started. "Splash this event, splash that event." For comparison's sake, 7-year-old company Eventbrite powered 778 events. It also just passed two major milestones: 100 million tickets issued and $1.5 billion in ticket sales on the platform. So Splash still has some ways to go, but it seems to be on the right path, nonetheless. Since launching a little over a year ago, Splash has attracted 25,000 event planners to its platform, including representatives from Spotify, Wired Magazine, Columbia Records, Vevo, Funny or Die, and Buzzfeed. Meanwhile, former Eventbrite NYC Evangelist Staci Perkins recently left the company to work for Splash. Perkins is also the COO at CatalystCreativ, a socially conscious experience agency that helps brands create meaningful communities. Even though Splash is creeping into Eventbrite's territory, Hindman says it's not their intention to wage war with Eventbrite. "I think that they are the best in the business at tickets," Hindman says. "They're a ticket portal and they are so good at it. That said, that's not what I need as an event planner. What I need is an event website. And often Eventbrite, to me, because the way it's structured, they don't allow you to make events look beautiful." Still, Hindman admits that Eventbrite inspired many aspects of Splash. "The fact that we copied them, we copied almost every single thing we could from them, because they were so good," Hindman says. "But to me, they're ticketware and we're eventware. There are so many things that go into an event that we really wanted to help people with and that includes email, that includes contact management, that includes picture storage." Each Splash page comes with a dedicated drop space for photographers. So once the event is over, the photographer can quickly upload photos directly to the site. Then, the event planner can make beautiful galleries to feature on the event page. In Splash's early days, Hindman says the company thought about doing a revenue share deal with Eventbrite, but ended up not working with them. And it looks like that decision is about to pay off. Now, Splash is about four months into its ticketing service and has already processed $650,000 in gross sales. Earlier this week, Splash processed $25,000 in ticket sales in one day. Hindman says the company is approaching profitability, with a burn rate of less than $10,000 a month. Hindman has vast experience in the event space. Before Splash, Hindman worked as director of events at Thrillist, where he realized the need for a full-fledged events platform. He's also one of the founding members behind the super exclusive Summit Series retreat for entrepreneurs and innovators. "A song is a song is a song," Hindman says. "But, the way that you package it, the way that it looks that's what's important. And it's kind of the same with an event. It's all just about a space, but it's the way that you present it, and start that event from the second that person hits the page. That's what we're pushing here. Really extending the life of your event both before the event and after the event." While Eventbrite would not specifically comment on Splash, its senior public relations manager Vanessa Schneider tells Business Insider that there is certainly value in capturing shared live experiences. But at Eventbrite, the company is currently focusing on making it easie

The GeForce 320.18 WHQL drivers provide a "day-of-launch" update for the GTX 780 and also includes a number of other performance improvements and SLI profiles

Well, there's no guarantee, but the same team that worked on the "Trinity" Xbox 360 Slim unit is behind the hardware in Xbox One, and that's a good thing.

Exactly one year (to the day) after it began offering music content, global video streaming site Viki has announced a deal with Universal Music that will see it offer the label’s entire worldwide music video collection in South Korea and nine markets in Southeast Asia. Viki made its debut streaming movie and TV shows from a diverse range of countries and global broadcasters, including NBCU. It makes the content accessible to global audiences thanks to its unique, crowdsourced translations, which are managed and translated entirely by its community. Last year, the Singapore-based company landed deals to stream music videos from Warner Music, SEED Music Group of Taiwan and Korea’s LOEN worldwide. Now, users in South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will gain access to 7,500 music videos from Universal Music’s global roster. That includes US artists like Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Lady Gaga, as well as those from Korea, other parts of Asia and worldwide. Razmig Hovaghimian, CEO and co-founder of Viki, tells TNW that the move to expand its music catalogue makes perfect sense since it “cross-pollinated” its TV and movie content in many markets, such as Korea, where a number of music artists also act or appear in TV shows. Not to mention that it will bring music videos from truly global stars in a number of markets in Asia that are not served by streaming services. Hovaghimian says Viki in the process of introducing new content to its global markets after it took time to review and analyse how its content was being consumed. Interestingly, he says that there are some unusual patterns emerging, for example Korean dramas are particularly popular in Saudi Arabia — thanks to the subtitles — while Bollywood is popular worldwide. That opportunity to search new audience segments that, without Viki’s subtitles, would struggle to consume content in their native language is attractive for music companies, which can broaden their reach using the service. That’s the message from Loo Yew Ming, VP of Digital & Business Development in Southeast Asia for Universal Music Group International, who comments thusly: We see a lot of potential in Asia and Viki offers an interesting and innovative way for our artists to engage fans who don’t speak their language. At the same time, translations help fans discover new music from artists they’ve never connected with before. Hovaghimian also reveals that mobile is becoming a prominent platform for Viki, with video consumption from phones and tablets overtaking that of desktops in a number if markets, including Singapore. That is, he says, in part due to a deal that sees the Viki service bundle on the Samsung Galaxy S4. For now, that deal is operative in Singapore only, but Viki is in talks to expand it to other “significant markets”, Hovaghimian explains. Viki fans in the selected countries can access the following initial 10 channels as of now, the remainder of Universal Music’s collection will follow very soon: B2ST Black Eyed Peas Maroon 5 Psy Rihanna Taylor Swift Demi Lovato Lady Gaga Ne-Yo Carly Jae Repsen Headline image via piitaaraq / Flickr

New hardware companies are one of the hottest trends in the startup world. Instead of building apps and Web services, companies are building real physical hardware that you can buy and use. A lot of these find life on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, where the community votes with its wallet on what gadget they want to use. Most notably, there's Pebble, a company that makes smartwatches, and Ouya, a company that makes an Android-based video console. Both companies have raised millions in regular VC money after seeing success on Kickstarter. But they're not alone. Check out some other cool hardware startups you need to know about.Grand St. helps hardware makers sell their products Startup: Grand St. Founded: 2012 Location: New York, NY Founders: Amanda Peyton, Aaron Hendhsaw, and Joe Lallouz Concept: An e-commerce consumer electronics marketplace. Why you should care: Grand St. is an online hyper-curated boutique that sells creative technology. Grand St. is a great way to discover new products because the site only stocks gadgets that have been tested by someone on staff. Funding: $1.3 million Pebble makes a smartwatch that connects to your Android phone or iPhone Startup: Pebble Founded: 2012 Location: San Francisco, Calif. Founder: Eric Migicovsky Concept: A fully customizable e-ink smartwatch. Why you should care: Pebble was one of the largest Kickstarter campaigns ever, raising over $10 million in about 30 days. The watch uses sports and fitness apps, allowing you to get notifications from your smartphone. Pebble also lets users wirelessly control music without having to remove your smartphone from your pocket. Funding: $26.1 million Ouya is a $99 game console that challenges traditional systems. Startup: Ouya Founded: 2012 Location: Los Angeles, Calif. Founders: Julie Uhrman and Yves Behar Concept: A $99 open-sourced video gaming console based on Android. Why you should care: Ouya is re-imaging how we consume video games. Traditionally, consoles cost upwards of $300, but this device is tiny and cheap. The Ouya runs its own version of the Android operating system and is in the process of developing exclusive content. The platform is completely open, meaning any Ouya owner and gamer can also become a developer. Funding: $23.6 million See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.