quality

  • Wendy's new fry guarantee: hot & crispy, or exchange them 'no questions asked'

    Wendy's is ready for battle with its new Hot & Cripsy Fry Guarantee.

  • Twitter will no longer destroy the quality of uploaded JPEGs

    Twitter is making some changes to the way it processes image uploads, and photographers on the platform are delighted. According to Twitter engineer Nolan O'Brien, JPEG encoding will now be preserved in images uploaded to Twitter via the web. Previously, images were transcoded, which meant lower quality pictures, much to the rightful annoyance of talented creators.

  • FandangoNow streams IMAX Enhanced 'Spider-Man' on Sony 4K TVs

    We heard back in January that streaming platform FandangoNow was going to get some IMAX Enhanced content -- now it's arrived. Just a week after the streaming service made its catalog available on Oculus Go and Quest headsets, it's continuing its push to get crystal-clear movies right in your face with the launch of IMAX Enhanced on select Sony 4K Android TVs in the US.

  • Google explains how it's fighting fake news

    Like all online platforms, Google is not immune to the scourge of fake news that has dominated headlines over the last few years. The company has taken various steps in fighting the problem -- from partnering with fact-checking networks to launching the $300 million Google News Initiative. Now it's expanded its transparency efforts further by detailing at length the steps it takes to fight disinformation across its services.

  • Netflix alliance helps filmmakers meet its stringent video demands

    Netflix doesn't care whether its content comes from small producers or large studios, but cash-strapped filmmakers might blanche at its strict video quality requirements. To make it easier to figure out what to buy or rent, Netflix has launched the Post Technology Alliance. It's partnered with camera, editing, color correction and encoding companies to show producers exactly what equipment they'll need to create Netflix shows from start to finish.

  • Samsung's ISOCELL Plus camera sensor upgrades low light performance

    While Samsung may be playing catch up in some fields, it continues to charge ahead with its smartphone camera tech. Today it's unveiled its new ISOCELL Plus technology, which means sharper and more accurate photos even in challenging light environments.

  • What’s Cheap? A Factor Perspective

    There are a hundred ways to evaluate whether an investment is cheap–discounted cash flows, competitor multiples, mean reversion, multiple of projected earnings–the list goes on…and on. To each his own on what is the “best” valuation methodology, but suffice it to say that the persistent tug of our own behavioral biases suggests that objective measures (as opposed to subjective) are preferable. While valuation is a terrible timing metric, its a pretty good mental model for helping understand what is driving the market.

  • Why wine has an indentation on the bottom of the bottle

    It has little to do with taste.

  • The world's best wine is cheaper than you think

    Not only because the best bottle of wine in the world turned out to cost less than a fiver, but because the former managing director of Waitrose, Mark Price, has revealed when he thinks wine quality and price best meet. According to him, the optimum amount of money to spend on a bottle of wine is £10. “So if you buy a bottle of wine for £5 the value of the wine inside that bottle is just under 50p.

  • Google's AI gets human help to avoid offensive search results

    Google is making a new push to eliminate offensive search results such as those that appeared from US neo-Nazi site Stormfront in response to queries about the Holocaust. As Search Engine Land noticed, the site has revised its guide on how to assess search result quality for around 10,000 of its "quality rater" contractors. That includes a new "upsetting-offensive" content flag for the promotion of violence or hate against minorities and other groups, racial content, graphic violence and human trafficking.

  • This Savvy New Site Only Sells Products That Last A Lifetime

    All thanks to a casserole dish! It was a Le Creuset pan that sparked Tara Button’s business idea. The brains behind the blurb is entrepreneur Tara Button. Inspired by her long-lasting Le Creuset casserole dish, Tara started to believe there must be more products out there with a lifetime guarantee, or at the very least some sort of promise from the manufacturer that they are designed to stand the test of time.

  • Study: Toyota Corolla Is Most Reliable Car In America, But Fords Are Cheaper To Repair

    December means many things to many people. Chief among them: holiday meals, shopping for gifts, and socializing with family members and co-workers you'd ordinarily never speak to. December also means that it's time for year-end wrap-ups. CarMD has just published one that should be of interest to anyone who owns or is looking to buy a car, especially those planning to purchase a used vehicle. <strong>ALSO SEE: Nearly All Domestic-Brand Vehicles Miss 2016 IIHS Top Safety Cut</strong> The annual CarMD Vehicle Health Index Manufacturer & Vehicle Reliability Rankings survey is exactly what it sounds like: a ranking of makes and models, according to the number of repairs they've needed.  To dole out those scores, CarMD studies thousands of car problems and repair bills related to vehicles' "check engine" lights. The data is provided by CarMD's nationwide network of technicians. This year, the company analyzed over 251,000 incidents on vehicles from model-years 1996 to 2015, and there were plenty of interesting findings: <strong>Hyundai produced the most reliable cars</strong> of any automaker, just edging out silver medal-winner <strong>Toyota</strong> for the top spot. <strong>Honda</strong>, <strong>Ford</strong>, and <strong>Chrysler</strong> rounded out the top-five most dependable brands.  That said, among the top-ten ranked automakers, <strong>Ford vehicles were the cheapest to repair</strong>, with an average cost of $309.55. Nissan vehicles earned the dubious distinction of being the most expensive, at a price of $430.83. In terms of specific makes and models, CarMD judged the <strong>2015 Toyota Corolla</strong> to be the most reliable on the market. Other top-five winners included the 2013 Lexus ES, 2014 Toyota Prius, 2013 Toyota Avalon, and 2013 Honda Fit. It wasn't all good news for Toyota, though: of the top 100 cars, the least reliable was found to be the <strong>2013 Toyota Prius C</strong>. Other poor performers were the 2014 BMW 428, 2014 Buick Encore, 2011 BMW 528, and 2013 Mazda Mazda5.  In terms of sheer numbers, <strong>Toyota took home the trophy for putting 18 models in CarMD's top 100</strong>. Ford followed with 14, and Honda with 10. <strong><strong>READ: Chevrolet Volt Vs. Toyota Prius: Compare Cars</strong></strong> And for the curious, here are CarMD's rankings by segment: <strong>Compact</strong>: 2015 Toyota Corolla <strong>Minivan</strong>: 2014 Chrysler Town & Country <strong>Sedan</strong>: 2013 Toyota Avalon <strong>Luxury</strong>: 2013 Lexus ES <strong>Full-Sized SUV</strong>: 2008 Volvo XC70 <strong>Wagon/Crossover SUV</strong>: 2014 Ford Edge <strong>Truck</strong>: 2014 Ford F-150 <strong>Hybrid</strong>: 2014 Toyota Prius <strong>Electric</strong>: 2013 Ford C-MAX You'll find complete details about the 2015 CarMD Vehicle Health Index Manufacturer & Vehicle Reliability Rankings at CarMD.com. Be sure to click through to the PDF at the bottom of that page to see the most common problems by brand.    

  • Consumer Reports Cuts Tesla From Its Recommended List Over Reliability

    The best car ever tested by Consumer Reports—the all-electric Tesla Model S—is no longer recommended by the magazine after owners reported a litany of bugs and defects. Last year, Consumer Reports had ranked the Model S as “average” in reliability, allowing it to maintain the magazine’s sought-after recommendation.

  • Neil Young says his music is too good for streaming services

    Neil Young's been touting the merits of high-resolution audio for some time now, and he's had enough of streaming services' quality. The singer is pulling his music from those subscription-based libraries, a move fellow artist Prince made just days ago (Prince's tunes are still available on Tidal, of course). "I don't feel right allowing this to be sold to my fans," Young said. If you really need your fix of "My My, Hey Hey," he'd probably suggest you try Pono. He may rethink the decision when and if sound quality improves, but for now, he'd rather his music not be compromised by "the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution." I wonder what his thoughts are on Tidal's lossless tier. [Image credit: Photo by Tommaso Boddi/WireImage]

  • How General Motors Boosted Quality to Rival Japan

    General MotorsGeneral Motors has done surprisingly well in recent quality surveys. Consumer Reports has had high praise for several new GM models, including the Buick Regal sedan. The latest auto reliability rankings from Consumer Reports and J.

  • Food Supplier Scandal Rocks U.S. Fast Food Chains in China

    Brent Lewin/Bloomberg/Getty Images Like many other business sectors, big fast food is -- or at least was -- thriving in China. China is a tough market, with stiff competition from Western rivals and local chains and several recent food supply

  • A Mild-Mannered Reporter: What's the problem with Marvel Heroes?

    Marvel Heroes is going to release soon. Maybe. Probably? It's hard to say. We have a release window for the game but not a large amount of evidence that the game is actually moving toward that release window; there are beta updates but no clear signs that the game's open beta will be coming soon. That's a bit duplicitous for people already asked to purchase the game's high-end item packs, but that's a strategy employed by more than a couple of games now, so I'm not going to be too harsh about that. Or maybe I am, seeing as how the game is asking you to spend a lot of money sight unseen when it has some pretty stiff competition out already. I'm increasingly of the mind that Marvel Heroes is taking a hard sell and making it endlessly harder by launching into the teeth of other games without a solid strategy. Worse yet, it might be far too late for the game to change anything for the better in a significant fashion.

  • Apple wins patent rights to new curved glass process

    Apple has been granted patent rights for a new process using high temperatures to shape and mold a curved glass casing, similar to the one currently on newer Samsung devcies, as opposed to the very flat screen found on the iPhone 5. This exact patent doesn't have a huge influence on Apple's actual production line, and definitely doesn't portend anything as interesting as a new iPhone design. But it does show that Apple has been researching how to make this kind of curved glass for a long time, and that the company's very interested in finding more and easier ways to make its world-famous device components. The process also covers glass of all shapes and sizes, so while the images included with the patent (as seen above) hint that it would be used to make new iPhones and other portable devices, the documents also say that the glass could be shaped for larger devices, including "displays, monitors and televisions." Apple's work on processes like this is an investment not just in determining how to create today's devices, but a look ahead to what it might create in the future as well.

  • Toyota's Still Tops to Consumers, but Ford's Closing In Fast

    Toyota (TM) may have lost the U.S. sales lead, but it still leads in one key survey -- and that lead should give fans of the automaker hope as it gears up to retake lost ground. Toyota retained its crown in the latest edition of Consumer

  • Earthrise killing subscriptions, going free-to-play in 2012

    The struggling sci-fi sandbox Earthrise is no longer interested in competing in the subscription market, and is instead veering toward a free-to-play model in 2012. As of December 1st, all players will be able to experience the game without a monthly charge as Masthead Studios prepares for a F2P version. Masthead CEO Atanas Atanasov says that the move is an effort to retain customer trust while the developers shore up the game's weaknesses: "We decided to let all our players unlimited gaming experience until we all are satisfied with the experience in our game. At the moment Earthrise features one of the best visuals, content, and gameplay of all sci-fi MMOs on the market. However, it is missing polish and has annoyances that spoil the fun in the game. We are learning from our experience and that is why we will remove monthly charges until we bring the game to a quality state that is satisfactory to us and our players." Once the title is brought up to par, Masthead will transition it to a true F2P model, although Atanasov assures players that it will not incorporate pay-to-win purchases. Until Earthrise goes F2P, new accounts will be invitation-only as Masthead restricts the number of incoming players. All current subscribers will be able to invite a few of their friends during the transition, however. [Source: Masthead Studios press release]

  • Motorola's Jha blames apps for poor battery life, says Blur can save the day

    Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha took time yesterday to talk business strategy, the advantages of Android, and to take developers to task for poorly optimized apps. At several points during the 50-minute chat the topic turned to lackluster battery life, and Jha placed blame squarely at the feet of hastily tested apps -- which he said can sap between 30 and 40 percent of your phone's juice. The chairman even suggested their effect on longevity and performance were the impetus behind 70 percent of handset returns. But, the company has a solution, and (surprisingly) its name is Blur. In a moment of presumably unintentional creepiness Dr. Jha said, "MotoBlur allows us to know, with precision, what battery life you're seeing," before suggesting that future phones could warn you about power draining apps and bandwidth hogs. What wasn't clear though, was if he was talking about the existing Android battery manager or if Motorola has been collecting usage data -- since we never opted-in to such a program, we're really hoping it's the former. Hit up the source link for the entire conversation, you'll find the relevant bits at the 4- and 25-minute marks.

  • Ask Massively: The next internet fad will be tires edition

    Tires are round bits of rubber that are placed upon the wheels of vehicles in order to facilitate spinning or something. Also, sometimes your parents might string some rope around one because they're too cheap and lazy to buy you a decent swingset. Anyhow, the next thing on the internet will be tires. I'm calling it right now. Don't look at me like that. We're talking about the same people who made Rebecca Black and Happy Cat famous. Just... tires. Rolling or... whatever. It's time for Ask Massively this week, as you could probably tell from the introduction about half a step away from a schizophrenic rant. This week, we've got a question about scaling instance difficulty and a couple of questions from our forums, none of which has anything to do with tires. If you'd like to ask a tire-related question, leave one in the comments or mail it along to ask@massively.com. I guess I can answer MMO questions, too.

  • Pioneer debuts new Sound Wing HVT speakers, novel tech touted within

    There's a ton of gadgetry that goes into speakers, but the notable thing here is that the Pioneer folks have begun using HVT, or Horizontal-Vertical Transforming technology -- but more on that in sec. This beauty is engineered to reduce unwanted vibration and preserve bass caliber while outputting 100W of sound. Featuring a double diaphragm packaged close together, the Sound Wing gives off omnidirectional sound -- that's 360 degrees of noise. And thanks to HVT, the coils within the speaker have been rearranged to reduce the wasted space in traditional speakers -- though for some reason this particular unit still measures a portly 109mm thick. Seeing that the tech Pioneer has implemented here is novel, we're interested to see how this thing will sound in the real world. You'll find the Sound Wing in Japan for ¥41,000 (about $507) come June.

  • WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

    You'd think Leo Apotheker, HP's newest CEO, would want to save a bit of thunder for his March 14th event. Instead, the man continues to unleash stentorian quotes with unabashed candor like today's claim that "HP has lost its soul." He's also making bold proclamations about every HP PC being able to run WebOS and MIcrosoft Windows as an integrated experience in 2012 -- a move the company hopes will create a "massive platform" to attract those all important developers. Apotheker's strategy will reverse Mark Hurd's cost-cutting emphasis with a renewed focus on product quality and innovation -- the latter achieved by breaking down inter-company barriers that currently separate product groups and by boosting the R&D budget already pegged at $2.96 billion last year (a pittance by some measurements). Click the source link below to read the Businessweek article in full if you're interested in Leo's issue with being the smartest person in the room and his attempts at Californication. Cool? Awesome.

  • J.D. Power: Verizon has best call quality nationwide, T-Mobile consistently below average

    J.D. Power, that well known arbiter of human opinion in the United States, has just released its latest study on customer satisfaction with wireless carriers. It addresses such things as (the lack of) dropped calls, failures to connect, voice distortion, echoes, static, and late-arriving text messages, and ultimately churns out a rating out of five stars relative to the regional average and other carriers. In testing done between July and December last year, Verizon had the best or tied for the best satisfaction ratings in five of the six studied areas, while AT&T and Sprint traded blows for second and T-Mobile had to admit defeat as the laggard of the top four. US Cellular managed to score highest in the North Central region, but J.D. Power's overall assessment isn't very rosy for any of the carriers -- the stats collector says growing smartphone usage, heavy texting and more indoor calls are collectively causing call quality to stagnate, and even warns that "increased adoption of smartphones and wireless tablets may continue to compromise the quality of network service."

  • Apple and other music retailers purportedly looking at 24-bit, high-fidelity audio downloads

    Digital downloads, at least pertaining to music, have come a long, long way. The iTunes Music Store in particular has surpassed Walmart as America's leading seller of music, and it's evolved from a DRM-laden mess to a restriction-free(ish) marketplace with higher-than-average bitrate support. But it seems that 256kbps simply isn't high enough. According to unnamed "executives involved in talks," Apple -- as well as a few other digital music retailers -- are currently in discussions with labels to "improve the quality of the song files they sell." Essentially, these retailers are hoping to hawk 24-bit audio rather than the compressed 16-bit files available today, possibly with a price premium attached. The real trick, however, won't be coercing the labels to cooperate, but to retool future devices to actually play back 24-bit files. iTunes itself is already capable of handling 'em, but the iPod, iPhone and a slew of other handheld devices aren't. The report doesn't mention how close to a deal anyone is, but we're guessing it'll be sooner rather than later. Here's hoping the iPhone 5 ships with 128GB of capacity -- we're going to need an awful lot of space to handle those lossless Police albums.