Showing posts with label COOL STUFFS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COOL STUFFS. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Edit photos like a pro with MyPhone's Magic Camera Feature!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Take your ultimate selfie from space! Hi-Def near realtime images coming to your browsers soon!
The cameras are launched aboard on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The near real-time HD video stream online is expected to be online in the next few months through the company's web portal.
Pictures can be taken anywhere between 51°N and 51°S latitude (from England to Chile). The camera is so powerful that it captures Ultra-HD or 4K quality and offers one-meter resolution that it can zoom even on large crowds at the vast ground of Earth.
The crisp images will allow users to see everything from storm systems to vehicles, and even large crowds. Videos that web surfers see on the web portal are near real-time that there will be delays of up to 45 minutes to 2 hours until it will be viewed on mobile devices and desktop computers.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
A replica of the popular Assassin's Creed hidden blade by Man at Arms!
Awesome hidden blade and pirate cutlass from the Assassin's Creed, thousands requested, he does it! Man at Arms makes a real hidden blade! Watch how he made the impossible.
Watch the video
Sunday, November 24, 2013
It's a laptop, tablet, and PC, it's whatever you want it to be - ASUS Transformer Book Trio
The tablet has an Intel Atom processor while the PC Station is powered by a 4th Gen Intel i7/i5 processor. The tablet is ran by Android Jelly Bean 4.2 OS while the PC Station with a Windows 8 OS. The tablet has a 2GB RAM which can handle multitasking and the PC Station has a 4GB RAM. The PC station only has an Intel HD graphics which cannot handle games with too much heavy graphics.
World's 1st 3-in-1 notebook, tablet and desktop PC
- The productivity of a notebook with the mobility of a tablet and powerful PC Station
- Efficient and powerful performance from Intel® and Atom™ CPUs
- Run mobile apps without limitation, even full compatibility in Windows legacy apps
Specifications
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Share the view on TV on what you see on your tablet with the ASUS Miracast Dongle!
Plug-N-Play
Setting up ASUS Miracast Dongle is easy. Simply plug your ASUS Miracast Dongle to a power source and attach it to your display’s HDMI port. Power up your tablet or mobile device, log onto your Wi-Fi network and follow the onscreen instructions.
Full HD Video
ASUS Miracast Dongle lets you experience wireless entertainment in Full HD. Dual-band wireless support ensures a high data transmission rate for you to stream your favorite movies and videos.
Specifications
Monday, November 11, 2013
Swedes Develop Invisible Bike Helmet
Tired of strapping ugly, uncomfortable styrofoam-and-plastic turtle shells to their heads, the pair came up with a pretty revolutionary solution that does manage to give you full head protection without, remarkably, wearing anything on your head.
I'd like to just come out and tell you the secret of how their Hövding helmet works, but this video does such a nice job of building suspense I kind of don't want to ruin it. So I won't post any pictures showing the operation, and don't follow that link to their site if you don't want to spoil a minor surprise.
Once you see how it works it all makes sense, and is a very clever solution that draws from a number of technologies that are well-established and familiar.
If you're so jaded that the tiny joy of a mild surprise doesn't appeal to you, click away.
Regardless of how wrong they are about discounting cars in the future, they've done a pretty impressive job with the design and engineering of this, and I wish them all sorts of luck.
Credit: JASON TORCHINSKY
http://jalopnik.com/swedes-develop-invisible-bike-helmet-1460189477
Credit: JASON TORCHINSKY
http://jalopnik.com/swedes-develop-invisible-bike-helmet-1460189477
Saturday, October 26, 2013
iPhone App Tells You If a Satellite Is Watching
Orbit Logic of Greenbelt, Md., has created SpyMeSat, an app that provides notifications when spy satellites and unclassified imaging satellites are zooming above your head and may be taking your picture. A dynamic map shows orbit tracks and the location of remote sensing satellites with upcoming passes over a user's specified location.
Alex Herz, president of Orbit Logic, said that SpyMeSat is the firm's first app designed for everyday folks, and a product that extends the company's customer base beyond the aerospace, defense and government intelligence communities.
"I actually got the idea for the app from talking to friends outside the aerospace industry who were always very interested in space and satellites and imaging from space. This app answers those questions in a fun and interactive way," Herz told SPACE.com.
The SpyMeSat app makes use of multiple sources, including orbit data from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The NORAD spacecraft data come via CelesTrak, a website designed to provide current orbital software, educational materials and links to software to support tracking satellites and understanding orbital mechanics.
That information is melded with available public information about commercial and international imaging satellites.
The iPhone app user can see a satellite’s trajectory around his or her location, as well as get an alert when a camera-snapping or radar-scanning satellite might be in range.
Moreover, the app user can learn more details about each imaging opportunity, and also peruse a page describing the satellite that's zooming by overhead. According to Orbit Logic, SpyMeSat users can organize the app in several ways, such as modifying the location of interest.
All of the imaging satellites in SpyMeSat are in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of about 500 miles (805 kilometers). Enabled SpyMeSat satellites include such zoom-lens notables as GeoEye, the French space agency’s SPOT-5, India's CartoSat-2A, DigitalGlobe's WorldView satellites and Canada's RADARSAT-2.
Of course, a SpyMeSat imaging-pass notification doesn't necessarily mean that a satellite is taking your picture. An identified satellite could have its camera in off mode or pointed elsewhere along its ground track.
SpyMeSat does not include all imaging spacecraft. No classified imaging satellites, from any nation, have their orbit information published, so these satellites do not show up in the app.
Image: ISTOCKPHOTO
Credit: LEONARD DAVID, SPACE.COM || http://news.discovery.com/tech/apps/iphone-app-tells-you-if-a-satellite-is-watching-131018.htm
Friday, October 25, 2013
Receive notifications with the perfect iOS accessory, the Cookoo Watch!
With the COOKOO App, you can receives notifications of
* Incoming calls
* Missed calls
* Facebook messages and posts
* Twitter mention
* Calendar reminders
* SMS / Google Voice SMS
* Email notification with true filtering
* Your device is out of range
* Low battery on iPhone or iPad
* Alarm and Timer alerts
To order, please text us at 0905-320-1818, 0922-885-9799, 0908-886-9799!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Animal that can Predict Earthquakes? Maybe the Oarfish can do the job!
Finding a giant oarfish washed up on the beach is a rare occurrence, since the fish is a deepwater species that's rarely seen at all. So when a second oarfish was found just five days later, the rumor mill kicked into high gear.
An 18-foot-long (5.5 meters) oarfish carcass discovered on Oct. 13 was considered a once-in-a-lifetime event for beachgoers on Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. But that event was followed five days later by a second oarfish, measuring 14 feet (4.3 m), found on a beach in San Diego County.
Now, some are claiming that oarfish washing ashore is a sign that an earthquake will soon follow. Shortly before the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, about 20 oarfish stranded themselves on beaches in the area, Mark Benfield, a researcher at Louisiana State University, told LiveScience in an earlier interview.
The oarfish is known in Japan as ryugu no tsukai or "messenger from the sea god's palace," according to the Japan Times. Dozens of the deep-sea denizens were discovered by Japanese fishermen around the time a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile in March 2010.
Kiyoshi Wadatsumi, a specialist in ecological seismology, told the Japan Times, "Deep-sea fish living near the sea bottom are more sensitive to the movements of active faults than those near the surface of the sea."
Animals sensing earthquakes
These weren't the first times researchers suggested links between animal behavior and earthquakes. Indeed, there's a long history of anecdotal reports of pets, zoo animals and wildlife acting very strangely in the days or minutes before a tremor is felt by humans.
One famous instance is recorded in the history of Helike, an ancient Greek city. During the winter of 373 B.C., "all the mice and martens and snakes and centipedes and beetles and every other creature of that kind in the city left," wrote the Roman author Aelianus. "After these creatures had departed, an earthquake occurred in the night; the city subsided; an immense wave flooded and Helike disappeared."
In February 1975, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Haicheng, a city of 1 million people located in China's Liaoning province. But one day earlier, city officials ordered an evacuation based in part on reports of strange animal behavior: Hibernating snakes in the area, for example, abandoned their winter hideouts months before normal. The early evacuation of Haicheng is credited with saving thousands of human lives. (The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History)
Zoo officials at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., reported that many of their animals sought shelter or made distress calls in the minutes before a 5.8-magnitude quake struck the region on the afternoon of Aug. 23, 2010. Nocturnal snakes like copperheads came out of hiding, apes moved into the treetops and flamingos huddled tightly moments before the temblor was felt by zookeepers.
Toads moving uphill
Among the first scientific studies to document animal behavior before an earthquake comes from Italy, where a team of scientists spent a month investigating the breeding behavior of common toads (Bufo bufo) in April 2009. The toads typically breed in a shallow pool on a lakebed.
But at one point, most of the site's toads suddenly disappeared — and five days later, a strong earthquake struck the region. The toads returned to the pool once the quake's last aftershocks occurred. The researchers published their findings in the Journal of Zoology.
"It's the first time that any study has really documented unusual behavior before an earthquake in a scientific and methodical way," lead study author Rachel Grant, a zoologist from The Open University in the U.K., told LiveScience in an earlier interview. "We did it properly and scientifically, and consistently looked at behavior."
What could animals detect?
If animals can sense earthquakes before they occur, what could they be experiencing? There's no agreement on what — or if — animals can sense quakes, but there are some intriguing hypotheses.
In the study involving toads, researchers noticed that "toad activity coincides with pre-seismic perturbations in the ionosphere, detected by very-low frequency (VLF) radio sounding," they wrote. Nonetheless, the scientists weren't able to draw any conclusions from their research about what might have triggered the unusual toad behavior.
In research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2011, Grant and a research team found that tectonic stresses in the Earth's crust send "massive amounts of primarily positive air ions into the lower atmosphere."
When these ions reach a body of water, they oxidize "water to hydrogen peroxide. Other reactions at the rock-water interface include the oxidation or partial oxidation of dissolved organic compounds," the authors wrote. The resulting compounds "may be irritants or toxins to certain species of animals," possibly resulting in the toads' migration from an otherwise welcoming pond.
No early-warning system
A group of physicists at the University of Virginia — investigating reports of animal behavior before earthquakes — discovered that rocks, when crushed under high pressure that mimicked the force of an earthquake, emitted high levels of ozone gas.
"Even the smallest rock fracture produced ozone," researcher Catherine Dukes told LiveScience in an earlier interview. "The question is, can we detect it in the environment?" And can animals detect a sudden rise in atmospheric ozone?
None of these hypotheses, however, is ready to be developed into an animal-based, early-warning system for earth tremors.
"This is not a way to predict earthquakes," Dukes said. "It's just a way to warn that the Earth is moving and something — an earthquake, or a landslide or something else — might follow."
Credit: MARC LALLANILLA, ASSISTANT EDITOR, LIVESCIENCE
http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans/can-oarfish-predict-earthquakes-131023.htm
Monday, October 21, 2013
Flying Submarine: The $1.7M Underwater Airplane
Bloomberg’s Emily Chang interviews marine engineer Graham Hawkes and takes you inside Hawkes Ocean Technologies for a close-up look at an underwater aeroplane called the "DeepFlight Super Falcon".Credit: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/video/flying-submarine-1-7m-underwater-123615845.html
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
'The Faces of Facebook' displays all of Facebook's 1.2 billion profile pics in one project
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| This is the overview of Faces of Facebook. |
Facebook has over 1.2 billion users, and a new web project from programmer Natalie Rojas has brought them all together as a mosaic of user pics on The Faces of Facebook.
Visually impressive, the site loads up as a supposed view of Facebook's 1.2 billion users. You can select any area of the picture to zoom in for a closer look at clusters of individual profile images, all chronologically ordered, according to Rojas. Hovering over a user's picture will give you their name and "FACE #," representing the order all profiles were created. Clicking a user's picture will even launch their full profile page on Facebook.Of course, if a profile is marked as private, no information that isn't publicly available is shown here or when following the link to the full profile. "Relax. We're not breaking any Facebook privacy rule because we don't store anyone's private information, pictures or names," Rojas writes.
"We've just found a harmless way to show 1,260,866,093 Facebook profile pictures and organize them in chronological order"
The Faces of Facebook experience is enhanced if you sign in to your Facebook account while visiting. The project will give you the FACE #s for you and your friends, and also point out the areas where you each lie on the overview.
So visit the page and see which of your friends has the longest Facebook tenure. Just understand that none of you have been around longer than Mark Zuckerberg - he is, naturally, FACE #1.
Credit: Daniel Bean, Yahoo News, http://ph.news.yahoo.com/the-faces-of-facebook--displays-all-of-facebook-s-1-2-billions-profile-pics-in-one-project-173703201.html
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Gates calls Ctrl+Alt+Del command a mistake!
Originally designed to trigger a reboot of a PC, it survives in the Windows 8 operating system as the command to access the task manager toolbar and is still used in older versions to log on.
In an interview, the Microsoft co-founder blamed IBM for the shortcut, saying he had favoured a single button.
The keyboard shortcut was invented by IBM engineer David Bradley.
Originally he had favoured Ctrl+Alt+Esc, but he found it was too easy to bump the left side of the keyboard and reboot the computer accidentally so switched to Ctrl+Alt+Del because it was difficult to press with just one hand.
During IBM's 20th anniversary celebrations, he said that while he may have invented it, Bill Gates made it famous.
His involvement in the invention has made him something of a programming hero though- with fans asking him to autograph keyboards at conferences.
Finger strike
The shortcut, also known as the three-finger salute - came to prominence in the early 1990s as a quick fix for the infamous "blue screen of death" on PCs.But speaking at a fundraising campaign at Harvard University, Mr Gates said he thought that it had been a mistake.
"We could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't want to give us our single button."
While some loathe the clunky command, others took to news site Reddit to express their fondness for it.
"I feel a single button would be a mistake," said one.
"There's a conscious commitment and in many cases a sense of satisfying sword play in executing the two-handed finger strike of Ctrl-Alt-Del."
Credit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24283185
Monday, September 30, 2013
Valve reveals haptic game controller for release in 2014
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| The controller has two trackpads that provide haptic feedback |
Games developer and publisher Valve has shown off its Steam Controller, the final part of its strategy to bring its PC-based platform to the living room.
The controller offers two trackpads which provide "haptic" feedback capable of delivering various physical sensations to the player.
Valve said it offers a better way to play games that have traditionally been controlled with a keyboard and mouse.
Gamers have been invited test the device before it goes on sale in 2014.
"Traditional gamepads force us to accept compromises," the company said via its announcement page.
"We've made it a goal to improve upon the resolution and fidelity of input that's possible with those devices.
"The Steam controller offers a new and, we believe, vastly superior control scheme, all while enabling you to play from the comfort of your sofa."
Research and testing
The controller is the third announcement the company has made this week. On Monday, it outlined plans to create an entire Linux-based operating system for running games, and followed up on Wednesday with details of the Steam Machine, essentially a new type of games console.The widely-anticipated controller completes what Valve will hope is a strategy that can shift gamers that use traditional PCs - which is seen as a market headed for decline - and coax them into the living room.
However, the biggest challenge the company faces in doing so is in convincing gamers who have spent years playing titles, particularly first-person shooters, by using a combination of keyboard and mouse that a handheld controller can offer a more enjoyable solution.
The company said it had spent a year researching and testing different control methods. It said the haptic feedback offered new possibilities for creating immersive gaming.
"This haptic capability provides a vital channel of information to the player - delivering in-game information about speed, boundaries, thresholds, textures, action confirmations, or any other events about which game designers want players to be aware."
The company is to send out 300 early versions of the controller to people who sign up for beta testing.
Giant owl eyes
Rob Crossley, associate editor of Computer and Video Games, has been following Valve's announcements throughout this week. He has described the latest move as "fearless"."Controller design standards haven't changed since the first PlayStation... the D-pad, the two sticks... that's evolved only slightly over the last 20 years.
"Sure, it looks a little funny - those two giant owl eyes - but I think that this could lead to a change in the way we look at controllers."
Valve is banking on the trackpads providing the same kind of precision offered by a mouse, Mr Crossley added.
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| Valve will solicit feedback on the controller from 300 early beta testers |
"If it does pay off, if they do manage to emulate the mouse on a controller, that opens up whole new genres."
Some had speculated - somewhat hopefully - that Valve would make a surprise announcement about the next instalment in its Half-Life series.
However, there was no mention of the game in any of Valve's announcements - but many now speculate that Half-Life 3 could be a launch title for the new Steam system and controller.
"The natural thinking is surely they will show off Half-Life 3 when SteamOS is launched," said Mr Crossley.
"A lot of people are also saying that it would be exclusive to the Steam Machine - but that would be a very un-Valve-like thing to do. They've always been very open."
Credit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24304272
Sunday, September 29, 2013
How Genius Carl Haber Restores Long-Lost Sounds
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| Physicist Carl Haber shows recordings by Alexander Graham Bell at Volta Laboratory during a news conference at the Library of Congress in Washington in December 2011. Photo by: Jose Luis Magana, AP |
Carl Haber was the first person to hear Alexander Graham Bell's restored voice, speaking from 1885.
Haber, a physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is a recipient of a 2013 MacArthur "genius grant."
Several years ago, he heard an NPR report about the delicate condition of historic sound recordings at the Library of Congress. That report inspired him to look into restoration of these audio artifacts.
"I'm really trained to think about how to measure things," Haber explained. "We were already using a suite of optical methods to measure things in our lab. I just saw a connection between [that] and what I perceived to be a problem. I just thought it would be a good thing."
Getting Groovy
Haber's work uses physics, photography, and image processing to mathematically extract information from recordings.
"We focus on sound recordings which are mechanical, so there's a groove in it," he explained. "We take a picture of these things – a thousand times more magnified than what you're getting from normal photography."
These detailed photographs allow researchers to study the minute groove patterns inlaid within the disks, and then emulate sound patterns with digital equipment.
"There's so much information on these images that we can calculate how a needle would move through these images through digital analysis."
The result? Sounds are preserved as they were recorded, with no damage done to the original disk.
"This Recording Was Made by Alexander Graham Bell"
The Alexander Graham Bell recording was made on a disk very different from any of today's technical gadgets.
But it was high tech for the times: The Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory, also known as the Volta Laboratory, was doing innovative research in the use of sound technology.
"The disk was cut out of binder board"—the material that hardcover books are wrapped in—"and coated in wax," Haber explained. "The recording was on the wax. The grooves were cut into the surface of the wax."
Haber used a three-dimensional photographic technique to accurately capture the grooves in the wax.
Bell, a regent of the Smithsonian, left over 200 sound artifacts to the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress when he died in 1922.
The disks and related recordings were left untouched—until last year, when Haber was contacted about a potential Bell recording.
Haber went to work bringing Bell's voice to life and was able to hear the recording, made in 1885 in Washington, D.C. (Bell was a founding member of the National Geographic Society in Washington a few years later, in 1888.)
"It's a rather clearly heard voice," Haber said. "He even says, 'This recording was made by Alexander Graham Bell.' It's over four minutes long. It's him counting integers and numbers"—which made sense, since Bell envisioned sound recording as a way to keep audio business records.
Haber remembers taking the data and going back to his office to analyze it.
"And then, I heard it," he said. "I emailed my colleagues and said, 'It's him.'"
The "Greater Goal" of Sound Restoration
Reproducing Alexander Graham Bell's voice has brought a kind of fame for Haber, but he aims to use the genius grant to restore less-famous lost voices. One of his goals is to restore Native American recordings from the early 20th century. He's also open to going international with his work: He's been contacted by representatives from the Middle East and Slavic regions to restore delicate audio recordings.
Giving voice to those who are otherwise stifled because of time and history is Haber's overarching objective.
"There's thousands of recordings," Haber said. "Cultures are going extinct; some have vanished.
"Working with those types of collections—that's the greater goal of this. To get access and to share research. It's a societal good."
Credit/Written by: Tanya Basu - National Geographic
Friday, September 27, 2013
CNN: Scientists create light-matter like Darth Vader's lightsaber
A beam of light is supposed to shine off into infinity, but when Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker whip out their lightsabers for some spark-flying action, the light blades extrude like stick deodorant and then just stop.
It's like they're sticks of light-matter.
Hollywood may have made that stuff up, but now, scientists at MIT and Harvard have actually made that stuff -- not enough for a lightsaber, only a subatomic smidgeon. But even that much is a big deal.
Light-matter existed previously only in theory, but now, for the first time, it has been observed in reality, researchers from the Center for Ultracold Atoms say.
To oversimplify things, we'll say that photons are subatomic particles that make up light. They have no detectable mass the way most matter does, and usually, they don't stick together. You can shoot two lasers at each other, and the photons will pass right through one another.
But physicists Mikhail Lukin and Vladan Vuletic recently got them to stick together to form molecules.
They published the results of their work in the science journal Nature this week
The newly created photon molecules don't behave like traditional light, but more like a lightsaber, Lukin said. "The physics of what's happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies."
But don't picture yourself swashbuckling with a lightsaber just yet. As in the creation of pretty much all unusual matter, scientists have to produce extreme conditions in laboratories that can't exist naturally anywhere on Earth.
They pumped atoms of rubidium, a kind of metal, into a vacuum chamber -- air would otherwise rapidly alter them. This created a metal cloud that they cooled down with lasers to about -450 degrees Fahrenheit, near what is called absolute zero. That makes atoms almost stand still.
Then they the fired photons into the atom cloud.
The photons, elements of light, did not shoot through at the speed of light but acted a little like regular matter instead. They bumped into the atoms in a way similar to the way regular matter would.
In the process, the photons slowed down enough to bump into each other and bond into molecules.
It was a first.
Though that's fascinating, it doesn't make for a handy lightsaber.
But it could help in the future development of super computers known as quantum computers, Lukin said. And with some work, scientists could make whole crystals out of light.
So, if Darth Vader shows up with a lightsaber, your great-grandchildren may be able to throw photon rocks at him.
But don't count on it.
Credit: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/26/us/new-lightsaber-molecule/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
First Human Brain-to-Brain Mind Meld Achieved
This year, we’ve seen remarkable breakthroughs in rat-to-rat brain interfaces and even human-to-rat interfaces that put us one step closer to telepathy. But now researchers at the University of Washington have achieved the ultimate: a non-invasive telepathic interface between two humans brains.
By wearing an EEG cap that read his brain’s electrical signals, UW computer scientist Rajesh Rao was able to use his thoughts to control the actions of assistant professor Andrea Stucco, who wore a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil that stimulates brain activity. A code was used to translate brain signals from EEG readings into brain commands.
With both hands on his chair’s arm rests, Rao envisioned his right hand moving, as if he was clicking a “fire” button on a cannon shooting video game. Across campus, Stucco had his back to the computer screen where the video game was playing out. Still, he involuntary moved his right hand and pushed his keyboard’s space bar to fire the cannon.
“It was both exciting and eerie to watch an imagined action from my brain get translated into actual action by another brain,” Rao said in a university news release. “This was basically a one-way flow of information from my brain to his. The next step is having a more equitable two-way conversation directly between the two brains.”
Before you clutch your skull and run for the hills, Rao said the technology only reads certain kinds of simple brain signals, not a person’s thoughts. Also, the interface doesn’t give anyone the capability to control actions against a bother’s will. Still, Stocco jokingly referred to the breakthrough as a “Vulcan mind meld.”
In the future, researchers say the technology could allow a person with disabilities to communicate his or her thoughts or help a flight attendant or passenger land an airplane should the pilot become incapacitated. Next, Rao and Stocco plan to conduct an experiment that will transmit more complex information from brain to brain, which will require a larger pool of participants. In the meantime, check out the jaw-dropping video of Rao and Stucco’s mind meld.
Credit: University of Washington
Credits to this site: http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/first-human-brain-to-brain-mind-meld-achieved-130828.htm
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Yahoo Links Voice Search to 3-D Printers
Yahoo Japan has developed a voice-activated Internet search that links to a 3-D printer, letting users look online for blueprints to deliver solid objects in a few minutes, the company said.
The search engine scours the Internet for information that it can use to print palm-sized renderings of items as diverse as hippopotamuses or fighter jets.
Heralded as a technology that is potentially as game-changing as the steam engine was in its day, 3-D printers have become a more commonplace reality over the last few years.
The devices use slices of information about a three-dimensional object and gradually deposits fine layers of material -- such as plastic, carbon or metal -- to build a copy.
Design information for a working handgun was posted online earlier this year, sparking warnings that the technology needed to be tamed amid fears of a wave of home-built weaponry.
Yahoo Japan, which is part-owned by Japanese mobile carrier Softbank and US Internet giant Yahoo has no firm plans on commercializing the technology.
As part of the project, Yahoo Japan has introduced the 3-D search engine to a school for blind and visually impaired students in Tokyo on a temporary basis, it said, adding they can use it for free until mid-October.
Hack iPhone's Fingerprint Scanner, Win Big Bucks
Two security experts Nick Depetrillo and Robert David Graham have launched a website that lets people know if the sensor has been cracked yet. While bragging rights and message-board fame are certainly a big enough incentive for the first person to successfully hack it, there’s an even bigger prize. The website has collected a $16,000 bounty for the winning hacker who lifts fingerprints, say from a beer mug, to crack the system.
“Hackers had used gummy bears to lift fingerprint sensors a while back,” Graham told ABC News. “We are arguing that it is a lot harder. We are all offering money, betting that it is going to be hard. We are betting that no one tomorrow is going to grab a gummy bear and get through tomorrow.”
People from the security and hacking community have contributed to the bounty by tweeting their contributions with the hashtag #istouchidhackedyet. Besides many cash donations of $50 and $100, the bounty also includes bottles of booze, Bitcoins, a lock picking tool and a “dirty sex book.” Venture capital firm I/O Capital Partners sweetened the pot with a monster donation of $10,000.
“One of the principals in the security community is you can’t trust something unless there is a bounty for it,” Graham said.
The only downfall for the winning hacker? He or she will need to go collect the money from each donor, a task I’m sure will be easily forgotten once 16 large is in the pocket. “This isn’t Kickstarter,” Graham said. “It’s more like LOLstarter.”
Even you come out on the loosing end, at least it will be a good excuse from drinking beer and eating lots of gummy bears.
Credit: GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP/Getty Images
Sony Smart Watch 2 Price and Specs
Smart phones are a modern day necessity, but digging them out of your bag every time you have a call can be a hassle. Fortunately, Sony has thought of a very intelligent plan that could very well be a game changer and a trendsetter in the years to come. It's the called the smart watch--a peripheral that works directly with your smartphone.
Get it now at Lazada.com for only Php 4,900!
Overview
- Scratch and splash - proof multitouch display
- View time and date, text messages, call and music handling, email, facebook, twitter, and more
- Download apps from the android market
- Customize with any 20mm wristband
- Screen: 36 mm x 36 mm, thickness: 8 mm
- Operating range 10 m
- Multi-touch color OLED display
Features
MessagingRead email, SMS and other notifications on your SmartWatch. Swipe to scroll.
Touch to navigate. Gmail, POP3 and other email plugins are available at Google Play Store.
SmartWatch vibrates gently for every calendar notification in your phone. Tap the screen and read the details.
No need to check your phone to see if your Facebook friends are up to anything. SmartWatch lets you know. You can read Facebook messages and tweets as they come in.
Dimensions
42 x 9 x 41 mm
Weight
SmartWatch 2 + Wrist strap (incl. in kit): 122.5 grams
Kit contents
SmartWatch 2 SW2
Wrist strap
USB – micro USB charging cable
Documentation
Durability
Water resistant IP57
Compatible
- Works as an NFC watch with all smartphones using Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and later
Battery time
- Low usage 7 days*
- Normal usage, 3-4 days*
- *Watch always on
- Bluetooth 3.0
- Android release: 4.0 and later
- Charging with micro USB
- Water resistant IP57
- SmartWatch
- Transflective LCD 1.6”
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Friday, September 20, 2013
How Long Can Earth be Livable?
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| Even if an errant asteroid, nuclear holocaust or other disaster don't doom Earth, in another 1.75 billion years the planet will travel out of the solar system's habitable zone and into a hot zone that will scorch away its oceans. |
Even if an errant asteroid, nuclear holocaust or other disaster don't doom Earth, in another 1.75 billion years the planet will travel out of the solar system's habitable zone and into a hot zone that will scorch away its oceans.Earth could continue to host life for at least another 1.75 billion years, as long as nuclear holocaust, an errant asteroid or some other disaster doesn't intervene, a new study calculates.
But even without such dramatic doomsday scenarios, astronomical forces will eventually render the planet uninhabitable. Somewhere between 1.75 billion and 3.25 billion years from now, Earth will travel out of the solar system's habitable zone and into the "hot zone," new research indicates.
These zones are defined by water. In the habitable zone, a planet (whether in this solar system or an alien one) is just the right distance from its star to have liquid water. Closer to the sun, in the "hot zone," the Earth's oceans would evaporate. Of course, conditions for complex life, including humans, would become untenable before the planet entered the hot zone.
But the researchers' main concern was the search for life on other planets, not predicting a timeline for the end of life on this one.
The evolution of complex life on Earth suggests the process requires a lot of time.
Simple cells first appeared on Earth nearly 4 billion years ago. "We had insects 400 million years ago, dinosaurs 300 million years ago and flowering plants 130 million years ago," lead researcher Andrew Rushby, of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "Anatomically modern humans have only been around for the last 200,000 years — so you can see it takes a really long time for intelligent life to develop."
Rushby and his colleagues developed a new tool to help evaluate the amount of time available for the evolution of life on other planets: a model that predicts the time a planet would spend in its habitable zone. In the research, published today (Sept. 18) in the journal Astrobiology,they applied the model to Earth and eight other planets currently in the habitable zone, including Mars.
They calculated that Earth's habitable-zone lifetime is as long as 7.79 billion years. (Earth is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old.) Meanwhile, the other planets had habitable-zone lifetimes ranging from 1 billion years to 54.72 billion years.
"If we ever needed to move to another planet, Mars is probably our best bet," Rushby said in a statement. "It's very close and will remain in the habitable zone until the end of the sun's lifetime — 6 billion years from now."
While other models have been developed for Earth, they are not suitable for other planets, he added.
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