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For over 20 years, the internet has made purchases easier than ever in human history. With one-click buying and free-shipping programs, people have flocked online to buy nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars of stuff per year. Many of those transact…
Having payment card information is crucial for keeping customers within one’s ecosystem, and the biggest tech companies have done a great job at convincing people that their services for sending/receiving payments and purchasing goods are trustworthy and worthwhile. But no company has more cards on file than Apple.
Based on estimates charted for us by BI Intelligence, Apple is nearing a billion iTunes accounts on file, and that number is likely to surge immensely. Customers in China can now link their UnionPay payment cards to their Apple IDs: For context, UnionPay is the largest card network in the world with more cards in circulation than Visa and MasterCard combined. (Not on this list: Uber, which has north of 12 million payment cards on file.)
SEE ALSO: For The First Time Ever, Americans Spend More Time Using Mobile Devices Than TV
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This morning, Dell announced it is now shipping the Alienware Alpha, the company’s all-in-one gaming “console” PC originally marketed as a Steam Machine earlier this year. The Alpha comes at four price points—$550, $700, $800, and $900—and ships with an Xbox 360 Wireless controller, given that Valve’s Steam controller was delayed into 2015, just like the finalized SteamOS.
The low-end model features an Intel Core i3-4130T dual-core processor clocked up to 2.9 GHz, a customized 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M GPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 500GB internal hard drive. The $699 model doubles the memory and internal storage but keeps the other components the same.
The $799 model bumps the processor up to a quad-core i5-4590T clocked up to 3.0 GHz, while the top-end $899 SKU goes all out with an i7-4765T clocked to 3.0 and 2TB of internal storage. All four models sport Wireless AC and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, four USB ports—two 2.0 on the front and two 3.0 on the back—and connections for all your standard Ethernet, HDMI, and optical audio cables.
The console has been designed for easy upgradeability, allowing users to swap in a newer CPU or more RAM. The GPU, unfortunately, won’t be upgradable. The Alpha’s GPU is based off the Nvidia 860M, which is already outdated compared to Nvidia’s 970M and 980M mobile GPUs released in October. The 860M should be more than capable of streaming, but it’s not going to fare well against the most demanding games releasing in late 2014 and beyond. Alienware claims its overclocked 860M will be up to the task of 1080p gaming, but it’s notably running on 2GB of GDDR5, unlike the 4GB Maxwell version in 860M-equipped gaming laptops. At $550, though, the Alpha is far more affordable than those laptops.
Out of the box, the machine loads up Alpha UI—a controller-minded interface designed by Alienware—but it can be configured to boot directly into Steam Big Picture mode or Windows 8.1. In other words, you can treat the Alpha like a standard desktop PC, a plug-and-play console, or something of a hybrid—whatever suits your fancy.
First revealed earlier this summer, Hasbro’s latest version of the most iconic spaceship in the Star Wars universe is finally available to add to your collection. The two-and-a-half-foot long Millennium Falcon toy (if you can even call it that at this scale) is packed with details and believe it or not is powered solely by imagination—no batteries required.
Goodwell is a modular, open-source toothbrush with replaceable heads that can be swapped out for flossers, tongue scrappers, and other instruments. The toothbrush also includes an aluminum handle that can be used to store small objects like pills and toothpicks. The company, which is currently seeking crowdfunding support, is also looking to launch a subscription service so users can have a new brush delivered each month.
Our toothbrush is a supremely minimal and has a modern aesthetic with a sustainable platform that the toothbrush market today is missing. Sustainable because it is made of materials that last but also because it’s lifecycle is literally a lifetime, unlike traditional toothbrushes that you throw away 2-4 times a year.
The brush also features a built-in three-axis accelerometer for tracking brushing activity via a mobile app.
images via GoodWell
submitted via Laughing Squid Tips
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