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cryptocurrency With the aggregate cryptocurrency market cap soaring above $150 billion, an  above-800% increase  in the first eight months of this year, parties that previously dismissed digital currencies as a niche market are starting to make their mark. Governments and financial institutions, which were previously observers, are now taking a more active role in the development of  token sales  and the trading of digital currencies. Some analysts and speculators are interpreting these developments as the glimmers of  the cryptocurrency bubble  preparing to burst. However, some interesting developments are indicative that the landscape might in fact be evolving into a more stabilized market. While stricter regulation might put a plug into the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies, it will also help bring order to the chaotic landscape of cryptocurrencies. In tandem, startups and projects are emerging to help the market adapt to the new rules. Crypto exchanges mature The first crypto

Google Wifi If you use a modern home Wi-Fi solution like the  Google Wifi  or our favorite mesh system, the  AmpliFi HD , you’re undoubtedly enjoying lightning fast internet all over your home. It’s great for phones, tablet, and other light-duty devices, but we have a better recommendation for your PC, streaming devices, or anything else that needs the fastest and most reliable connection possible. Wiring your house for Ethernet is a pain in the neck, which is why devices like the  TP-Link AV200 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit  are so fantastic. You get the same reliability and sustained speeds as you would with cat5, but you don’t need to install anything at all. Plug one box in near your router, another box near your PC, and you’re done! Here are the highlights from the product page: Up to 200Mbps speed for seamless HD video streaming and online gaming300-meter range over electrical circuitry for better performance through walls and floorsMiniature design with compact housing

  Anthropology in Practice Supportive. Curious. Unafraid. These are some of the words that advertising agencies use to describe their company culture. But do any of these words actually connect them with what culture actually is? This article is part of the Workplace Anthropology series. Perusing the top ten of Ad Age’s 2017 agency list, there is one common theme in how advertising agencies describe their company culture: collaborative. There are plenty of supporting words that carefully surround “collaborative,” such as passion, insightful, supportive, entrepreneurial, borderless, and unafraid, but you would be correct in arguing that these descriptors are more relevant to the people these companies hope (will) work for them, rather than being indicative of a culture itself. Culture statements, which tend to reside on About Us and Career pages online, sit comfortably under the recruitment banner. In our current pursuit of work/life balance, a company’s culture is

    LG Mobile There are several reasons why a company like LG might finally decide to make the switch to an OLED display on their latest flagship. The move to a plastic OLED screen on the  V30  is, for many, one of the biggest deals about it, but what prompted LG to make the change? Daydream support could be one of those reasons, with Google’s Daydream VR spec requiring an OLED display, among other hardware components, in order to be supported. But that’s not it, even if the  V30 is LG’s first Daydream Ready phone . See also: LG POLED vs Samsung Super AMOLED LG POLED vs Samsung Super AMOLED Customer preference could also be the cause, with Samsung’s AMOLED screens largely  setting the standard  for what is considered a “good” screen on Android phones. But LG didn’t have any internal research or numbers to share with media, as most OEMs typically have when they introduce (or backtrack on) something new. LG Display’s increased P-OLED production capacity  and recent reductions in

Only Expedia's US site will accept bitcoin during the trial Travel website Expedia has become the latest company to accept bitcoin transactions as a form of payment for hotel bookings. When Expedia's US customers come to pay to reserve their hotel, bitcoins will be offered as a payment method alongside Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Diners Club and Paypal. To begin with, the company will only accept the virtual currency for hotel bookings, and will restrict the trial to its US site. Expedia boss Michael Gulmann said: "We're continually looking at ways consumers want to pay for their travel; bitcoin is a great example of how Expedia is investing early in an array of payment options to give our customers and partners more choice in the ways they interact with us." Other big businesses such as Virgin Galactic now accept bitcoin, as do a range of  UK companies from Theatre Tickets Direct to the law firm Sheridans.  Video:Shop Holds Bitcoin-Only Trial

If you aren’t sure which coins to mine then it can be a difficult process carrying out the required research to find the largest profit margins. Thankfully there are already websites available that simplify the selection process. First you need to establish whether you are mining with a GPU or ASIC’s device. Then head over to  whattomine.com  and then select GPU or ASICS link from the top of the page. You will instantly be presented with the crypto coins with the highest profitability in realtime. Now once you have mined your coins you may want to convert your cash back into a safer currency such as BTC or LTC. Well there are tools for this as well. Check out  Shapeshift  a website that allows you to instantly convert your coins from one coin to another. I for example would generally move some of my profits back into LTC or BTC as I feel more comfortable with the stability of these currencies. As of today the most profitable coins to mine by GPU are as follows The most profitabl

Welcome to the 206th Android Apps Weekly! Here are the the headlines from the last week: Android Oreo will get non-root theming . A third party app called Substratum will include the feature. There are some caveats. You have to use a computer to make it work. It also breaks a bit of basic functionality. It’s nothing serious, though. It’s a bit unconventional. However, it’s one step closer to native theming on Android. Plus, Substratum is a fairly excellent app on its own. Telltale Games launched a huge summer sale this week . Included are four The Walking Dead games, both Minecraft: Story Mode titles, The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, Guardians of the Galaxy, and others. The sale includes the base game as well as the season pass for those titles. That means you can get the whole game at a discount. It might be worth it for adventure game fans. Google is trying to help depressed people . They’re working with the National Alliance of Mental Illness to get people help. Google Searchin

The number of countries with banks experimenting with blockchain technology is growing rapidly. The Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG), north of Australia, has joined the movement with its own central Bank of Papua New Guinea running blockchain trials. Central Bank Governor Loi Bakani,  known  as a champion of new technologies as a way to enable financial inclusion, recently hosted a conference to showcase his country’s commitment to blockchain technology, with participants from at home and around the world, including Abt Associates, Paycase, Othera, IDbox, Pacific Markets, UCash, Seso and ADCCA. At the conference, Bakani described the blockchain trials underway at the  Bank of PNG  and introduced the  PNG Digital Commerce and Cryptocurrency Association  for the growing number of Papua New Guinea tech entrepreneurs and businesses interested in blockchain technology. Bakani said, “This will allow PNG to join the Global Blockchain Forum, which gets PNG a cutting edge in

Using our handy guide, you may have already familiarized yourself with the ins and outs of Bitcoin. But aside from bitcoin, there are hundreds of other digital currencies out there. These are known as “altcoins,” or alternatives to bitcoin; for example, ether, ripple, zcash, monero and dash, to name just a few. Altcoins can differ from Bitcoin in a range of ways. Some have a different economic model or a different coin-distribution method, like altcoins that were given away to all citizens of a country. Others employ different proof-of-work mining algorithms, perhaps to resist specialized mining hardware — or maybe they don’t even rely on proof of work at all. Several altcoins offer a more versatile programming language to build applications on top of, while yet others offer more privacy compared to Bitcoin. And there are also altcoins that serve very specific, non-monetary use cases, like domain name registry or data storage pointers. However, there are also

One of the fundamental questions many people have about Bitcoin revolves around the tokens themselves. Questions about its value, security and history, all eventually lead to one place: Where do bitcoins come from? While traditional money is created through (central) banks, bitcoins are “mined” by Bitcoin miners: network participants that perform extra tasks. Specifically, they chronologically order transactions by including them in the Bitcoin blocks they find. This prevents a user from spending the same bitcoin twice; it solves the “double spend” problem. Skipping over the technical details, finding a block most closely resembles a type of network lottery. For each attempt to try and find a new block, which is basically a random guess for a lucky number, a miner has to spend a tiny amount of energy. Most of the attempts fail and a miner will have wasted that energy. Only once about every ten minutes will a miner somewhere succeed and thus add a new block to the bl

The digital currency Bitcoin has a dedicated following, regularly makes headlines and inspires countless investors to consider making digital currency part of their portfolios. Yet it enjoys the backing of no government or third-party entity like a bank, and it can be hard to understand where its perceived value comes from. So, you may be asking, what makes bitcoin valuable? Fundamentally, bitcoins derive their value just as anything else does: because people want them. Like any other currency, bitcoin follows the basic rules of supply and demand. Currencies have always been useful tools to make trade easier, enabling holders to convert goods into a widely tradable commodity through sale, then use the proceeds of that sale to purchase nearly anything they wish. While fiat currencies derive value from the governments that back them, currencies like gold are valuable in and of themselves. Currently, bitcoin isn’t like other currencies in that it is not universally

If you’ve made the decision to buy some bitcoins, you may now be asking yourself how to store the digital currency. In name, the answer is what you might expect from experiences with fiat currency. But the details require a little explanation. The private keys that are necessary for accessing a Bitcoin address are stored on a “bitcoin wallet.” In general, wallets grant you access to your public Bitcoin address and allow you to sign off on transactions, but they differ based on how you choose to access them. Factors to consider when choosing  the best bitcoin wallet  for you  include security, anonymity and control. Desktop wallets  allow users to create an address for sending and receiving bitcoins and provide a place to store the private key for doing so. This can be done by downloading software to an individual computer. Mobile wallets , accessed through apps, allow users to transact on the go. While “full Bitcoin” clients download the entire Bitcoin blockch

With a firm understanding of what Bitcoin is and how bitcoin wallets work, chances are that you’re interested in getting some of the digital currency for yourself. The question is: How can you get bitcoins? Based on an understanding that bitcoins originally come from mining processes, you might think this is the best way to get some for yourself. Sadly this has become increasingly difficult as Bitcoin has grown in popularity. As more powerful, mining-specific devices have been introduced and the number of bitcoins out there to be mined has fallen, it is becoming increasingly unrealistic for average individuals to participate. Another way to get bitcoins is to earn them like you would any other currency: by providing goods or services in exchange for the digital currency. There are websites that list offers for jobs that pay in bitcoins, rather than traditional currency. You can also ask your current employer to pay you in bitcoins, which can be a good option for

Bitcoin means different things to different people. For some, it is a future of freely moving currency untied to any central bank. To others, it is a purely digital entity of questionable value and dubious origin. But what is Bitcoin, in the most basic sense? In most casual conversations, you can get away with knowing that bitcoin is, basically, a digital currency. But of course, it’s much more complicated than that. In fact, it is two much more complicated things. Bitcoin has been with us since 2009, when a person (or group) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto introduced a platform (Bitcoin, uppercase) that hosts a digital currency (bitcoin, lowercase). Bitcoin the platform is built on the concept of “ proof of work ” data that is expensive and time-intensive to produce but can be easily verified. In Bitcoin’s case, proof of work is created through the process of “mining.” To mine a bitcoin, a computer must complete a complicated algorithm, essentially going through the work of a

Tax season can be confusing enough with complicated rules about what types of income are taxable and which are not; what can be written off and what can’t; and which assets need to be listed and which do not. Add to that the confusion around digital currency and its status in the eyes of governments, and there are bound to be questions about how Bitcoin relates to taxes. In the United States, for example, “taxable income” encompasses anything received as payment for goods and services. There is no reason that this would exclude payment in bitcoin. Bitcoin received from another person in the exchange counts as gross income, which is subject to income tax. Bitcoin earned through trade or by running a bitcoin exchange could fall under the “capital gains” category, like gold, and will be taxed. Bitcoins that are mined are counted as income received from the act of mining and are taxable with the expenses accrued (such as computing power) being deductible. When miners s

It might not matter what you think about  how the Pixel looks  — it worked for the company and it hasn’t deterred demand. The process of getting to the Pixel’s look was profiled by  CNET  last week and Krishna Kumar, Product Lead for the Pixel, decided to take the opportunity to throw some food for thought to the Pixel User Community. The forum has been a discussion center for fellow owners to discuss issues like  image corruptions  and  broken speakers , but it also inadvertently played hub to what people wanted from  a Pixel 2 . “What do you like about the design? What do you hate about it? What did we get right?,” Kumar asked.  “What would you like to see us improve?” Well, that’s a sequel confirmed, right? The discussion took turns supporting more buttons, fewer buttons, stereo speakers, wireless charging here,  waterproofing there  and a lot more. Storage and RAM upgrades were requested with better overall specs and biometrics and the camera app and sometimes the rails just cam

As the huge company that it is, Google tends to have a way of seeping into things through means you aren’t aware of. Yes, even into (or out of) Tizen OS. The  Korean Fair Trade Commission , though, is aware of a couple of stipulations between the firm and Samsung and is investigating some antitrust concerns it has. Specifically, it is looking into the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement and the anti-fragmentation agreement signed. The first agreement basically ensures that manufacturers  pre-load Google Mobile Services apps  like YouTube, Drive and Gmail onto their devices and also mandates  Google’s search engine as the default  — leaving competitors feeling edged out and regulators mad. Why? Unlike  minimum hardware requirements  that ensure an impressibly decent experience, dictating which web services a manufacturer’s phone must have as an irrevocable default allegedly deprives users of choice for such things — you can’t just Bing things from the intrinsic search bar on t

We’ve all been there before. You’re either at the gym or out and about listening to your favorite music with your Bluetooth  headphones , and then suddenly the music stops. Crap. You forgot to charge your  headphones  or thought there was more juice left. One option is that you could pack a portable charger in your gym bag or plug them into your car charger. But that doesn’t help keep your expensive  headphones  protected. That’s where the  Mophie Power Capsule  comes into play. Design: Mophie  is well known for providing some of the best high-quality portable chargers for numerous devices, whether they are cases or the good ole’ charging blocks. The Power Capsule is a bit different as it provides a case for your  headphones , while making sure that you can charge your  headphones  or fitness trackers on the go. As a fan of high-quality products, I became more and more enamored with the Power Capsule as I used it. The matte feeling on the outer casing makes for easy handling, and

ZTE's sub-brand nubia has confirmed its presence at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC). The company sent out invitations for media to visit its stand at the industry's largest event. While the teaser reveals where exactly nubia products will be showcased at the MWC venue, there aren't any details on which products will be displayed. Also, it looks like nubia won't be holding any MWC-specific press conference, so chances of new announcements are slim. Still, rumors say the successor to  the nubia Prague S  (allegedly dubbed Prague S2) could be showcased at the event so hope remains

Inevitably your computer slows down. You try to open a website and it grinds to a halt, or read an email and it churns along sluggishly. A slow computer, in many ways, is worse than a broken one—or at least infinitely more frustrating. If you’re going to have any chance of reversing the serious slowdown that’s affected your computer, you’re going to have to work out what’s at the root cause of the sluggishness. Don your detective’s hat and identify the source of the problem with the help of these tools and tricks. Tidy up your start up items and OS A good place to start is with the apps currently running on your machine and the ones that try and load themselves at the same time as your operating system. For that we need Task Manager on Windows or Activity Monitor on macOS. Task Manager, which has gotten a lot more user-friendly and useful over the years, can be found by right-clicking on a blank part of the taskbar and choosing  Task Manager . Over on macOS, launch Spotlight ( C