Techlife News #161

PLENTY OF REMOTE CONTROL FUN TO BE HAD We're big fans of toys - especially ones that make the most of the very latest technology. As Christmas looms and your younger (or perhaps not-so-young) friends and relatives compile their wish lists, or even as you consider what you might want to buy for yourself, all manner of newly-launched toys are appearing on the horizon. One of them is the Sphero Ollie - and we'd like to reassure you that it's more than just another remote controlled toy. You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was, to be fair. On first spying this curious toy, we must admit that we thought it looked rather unassuming. Of course, many astonishing toys are like that these days, but even so, we found it hard to…

“Mad Men” stars Christina Hendricks and John Slattery will be presenting a special award at the International Emmys Gala to the show’s creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner who’s preparing the final episodes of the 1960s Madison Avenue ad agency saga slated to air in spring 2015. Weiner will be receiving the honorary International Emmy Founders Award at Monday night’s ceremony at the Hilton New York. “`Mad Men’ has really come to define television for a whole generation of viewers,” said Bruce L. Paisner, president and CEO of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “It’s an amazing global cultural phenomenon ... a force of nature as much as just a television series.” “Although these are stories in theory out of the 60s, part of the success of the show is that…

Yahoo will supplant Google’s search engine on Firefox’s Web browser in the U.S., signaling Yahoo’s resolve to regain some of the ground that it has lost in the most lucrative part of the Internet’s ad market. The five-year alliance announced Wednesday will end a decade-old partnership in the U.S. between Google Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation, which oversees the Firefox browser. The tensions between Google and Mozilla had been rising since Google’s introduction of the Chrome browser in 2008 began to undercut Firefox. Google’s current contract with Mozilla expires at the end of this month, opening an opportunity for Yahoo to pounce. Even though Chrome is now more widely used, Firefox still has a loyal audience that makes more than 100 billion worldwide search requests annually. Yahoo is hoping to impress Firefox users…

WHAT WE CAN EXPECT FROM WATCHKIT We were all excited about Apple's long-awaited wearable, the simply-titled Watch, when it first broke cover in September. We weren't even given a precise release date, still only knowing that it will become available to buy at some point early next year. What we do know, though, is that the Apple Watch is worth making a fuss about. Now, the device's developers' toolkit - WatchKit - has been launched. WatchKit is all that the already well-established iOS developer community needs in order to create apps for the upcoming wearable - that's right, they can get to work before it even makes an appearance on store shelves. In announcing WatchKit's launch, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, said that it was for the development…

Even casual viewers of online video will appreciate the ability to watch it on a big-screen TV. For about $100, you can get a great streaming TV device to do that. Or for about a third of that, you can get a pretty good one. Content selection varies, but all offer such basics as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. After trying out 10 streaming devices, I have three recommendations and an honorable mention: AMAZON FIRE TV STICK A “stick” is a cheaper, lightweight version of a regular streaming device, often with poorer performance. That’s not the case with the $39 Fire TV Stick, which is why I’m recommending it over the $99 Fire TV. The processor isn’t as powerful, and there isn’t as much working memory. But in my tests, video streamed well on…

One Direction won three honors at the American Music Awards, including artist of the year over powerhouse acts like Beyonce and Luke Bryan, while breakthrough newcomer Iggy Azalea beat out heavyweights Eminem and Drake in the rap categories. Katy Perry, who was absent from Sunday’s award show because of her world tour, matched One Direction for most wins with three. The boy band won also won favorite band, duo or group - pop/rock and favorite album - pop/rock for “Midnight Memories” at the fan-voted show. “This has been a real perfect day ... America feels like a second home to us,” Liam Payne said onstage with his band mates when they won the night’s first award. The group released its new album, “Four,” last week. They wore all black as they sang the groove…