O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: kickstarter

  • Apple quietly purchases Silk Labs, may be looking to add assets to AI projects

    Apple is apparently expanding its reach in the artificial intelligence field via the acquisition of Silk Labs, an on-device AI technology startup.

    Last Tuesday, an anonymous source reported that Apple quietly snapped up Silk earlier this year.

    Details of the acquisition are unknown, though the report estimates the deal was a trivial investment for Apple. Silk had about a dozen employees at the time of the purchase, while startup financing firm PitchBook estimates the company raised approximately $4 million in funding.

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  • Pictar Pro Kickstarter looks to bring DSLR features, functionality to your iPhone or Android smartphone’s camera

    In what might be one of the cooler Kickstarter campaigns out there, the Pictar Pro camera system essentially turns your iPhone or Android phone into a DSLR camera. The accessories add the weight, feel, and options that you find with a DSLR camera, the Pictar Pro allowing users to download the iOS or Android app, snap their smartphone into the casing, have the devices automatically pair and have the camera ready to go.

    The kit offers a finer set of tools and more precise set of readily accessible controls. Features set as a better exposure control and zoom via the buttons are now available and some nice add ons such as a viewfinder help out as well.

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  • Wolfpack completes Kickstarter campaign, offers external GPU configurations for MacBook Pro notebooks

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    It’s a cool idea if it comes true.

    The Wolfe Pro Kickstarter campaign which became fully funded after one day is offering a choice of two external GPUs for MacBook Pros that offer up to ten times the performance of the top-end built-in one. Connected via Thunderbolt 2 or 3, the Wolfe Pro gets you an NVIDIA GTX 970 GPU for $599, with estimated delivery in March 2017.

    The GTX 970 has 1664 cores operating at 1050MHz, for a peak computing power of 3.49 teraflops, with rendering speeds almost ten times higher than a maxed-out 15-inch MacBook Pro with AMD R9 M370X GPU. Frame rates exceed 70 frames per second, creating a machine suitable for high-end gaming and VR applications.

    Wolfpack, Inc., the company behind the effort, has promised that backers will be given the option of upgrading to the next-gen GTX 1060 when it become available.

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  • Midas Touch Kickstarter project looks to bring DIY 24-karat gold kit to Apple Watch

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    If you don’t want to shell out US$10,000 or more for the 18 karat gold Apple Watch Edition, you can invest in a Kickstarter to be able to spend about US$100 to have the base model Apple Watch plated in 24 karat gold.

    The Midas Touch Kickstarter project, started by chemist Eric Knoll, offers a step-by-step kit for applying a 24K gold plating to your Apple Watch. The kit itself starts at just under US$100, and goes up to US$150 if you have a steel band to cover in addition to the watch casing itself. This works as a cheaper solution to sending your Apple Watch along to a company to do the work.

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  • Apple Pay adds 13 new retailers including Fuddruckers, Jamba Juice, JetBlue, others

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    The list of Apple Pay retailers is growing.

    As of Tuesday, the total now includes 61 merchants including the following 13 new additions:
    – Coca-Cola

    – Dan’s Fresh Market

    – Dick’s Fresh Market

    – Lin’s Fresh Market

    – Bashas’

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