via bgr.com
Apple’s next generation iPhone may feature a 12-megapixel camera with an improved night shooting feature and HDR reports Vietnamese site Tinhte.vn.
According to the site, the rumor comes from a source at Wonderful Saigon Electricsin Binh Duong, which specializes in providing camera modules for the iPhone.
An improved camera has been a long rumored feature of the iPhone 5S, but there are few specifics available.
Martin Missfeldt has published an informative infographic, detailing the functions of the Google Glass Project. The infographic reveals a revolutionary design which employs a mini-projector to display images on the main prism display that focuses directly on the retina.
Users can adjust the focus by moving the unit closer or further away from the eye. This means that Google Glass will have to be worn outside regular user spectacles.
The revolution that the Google Glass Project has inspired is nothing short of awe-inspiring. It goes without saying that it has generated enough criticism over time but then the opportunities that it promises are eagerly anticipated.
One of the Trekkies among us
The Californian auction house, Julien’s has managed to sell Captain Kirk famed Star Trek rifle, used in the 1960s original series, for a whopping $231,000.
via The Verge
Amidst the new hardware and software inside Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 is one feature that emulates some decidedly old-school technology: the bar code.
Thanks to “light-based communications” technology from a company called Mobeam, the Galaxy S4 uses pulses of infrared light to essentially fool traditional scanners into thinking the light represents a barcode.
The reason I and others probably overlooked that as a useful new feature (apart from the nerdy coolness of it), is because it’s hard to see why you would be beaming bar codes at the supermarket checkout.
But then the light came on.
via newlaunches.com
If you are happy to give up your colour display, you’ll be able to get an Android Smartphone that will last a week on a single charge.
In what looks like something from the Palm Pilot days, the same tech that’s driving the latest Kindle displays will offer the most readable and sharp text, but, only in shades of grey.
And what if you want both a long battery life and a colour display? Then perhaps a phone line this would work for you Read more »
via cultofandroid.com
Mike Elgan writes
I understand the religious wars between iOS and Android, and have deep appreciation for both sides.
In a nutshell, the iOS platform offers appliances not meant to be tinkered with. Apple controls everything, and in exchange consumers get a controlled environment where apps play by the rules, have consistent designs and things work very seamlessly without any effort, optimization, customization or anything else required of the user.
Android, on the other hand, offers user control and it gives more latitude to developers to do things their own way. In the phone market, the Android platform offers vastly greater variety and choice in hardware design.
When some random, non-technical relative asks me which phone to buy, the iPhone is a safe recommendation. It will be easy for them to use. They’ll have an Apple Store to go to if it breaks. There’s a place in the world for phones that are integrated appliances like the iPhone or open platforms like Android.
But for home automation? No way. I want Google.
That’s a pretty fair summary. But why Google for home automation?
home automation is a category of a gazillion hardware devices — thermometers, smart beds, lighting systems, GPS dog collars, easy-bake ovens (for grownups), intelligent fire places — we can think of hundreds of categories for home automation products, and there are hundreds more we can’t think of.
I want the platform for this to be a wide-open system like Android, where device and appliance makers can grab the code and run with it without getting permission from a central authority.
There’s another reason. I want home automation tied in with Google Now. I want to talk to my house like it’s a person, and have my house give me information and take action based on our “conversation.”
And it looks like that just might happen.
Creative people are getting together, and with the ever decreasing cost of electronics and wireless communications, appliances of all kinds will be able to start to communicate with its owner.
The future where the fridge tells you that you’re down to half a litre of milk is really not that far away.
Google released the 4.2.2 update to Android this week for Google’s three Nexi phone and tablets. Future, top-of-the-line phones will also get the new version.
What’s really interesting about this release has nothing to do with phones or tablets.
A reference to mesh networking in the context of home automation has been spotted in the new code. The reference popped up in the following comment:
“Allows access to the loop radio (Android@Home mesh network) device.”
If you’re unfamiliar with mesh networking, it’s a type of networking that functions a little bit like the Internet itself.
Each device on a mesh network acts as a relay for other devices.
The future where your house could be plotting to get rid of you is nearly here.
But now for the most promising and awesome news of all: Recently, the same source that found the mesh networking comment discovered many new “com.android.athome” references in new code in Google Now, as well as a reference to a “Card” for turning lights on and off.
(Home automation systems always start with lights, because they’re so simple. The control is either on or off.)
But you can imagine a Google Now “card” for every conceivable home automation appliance in your home.
I don’t know about you, but the very idea of Google Now being the interface for home automation makes me feel all funny inside. (In a good way.)
This is going to take a while to shake out. We need an open home appliance communications standard for example. But you can see what will happen. Enthusiasts will just be tinkering with this like mad. And where home automation was previously the domain of the very rich, the day where you can check on the milk in the fridge from your phone before driving past the supermarket isn’t that far away.
It will be cheap, highly integrated, and only limited by imagination.
Add Google Glass, and… I can’t wait.
Source: Cult of Android
via amysrobot.com
I’m posting this myself, as Cam is currently being restrained in a padded room. (A place a lot of people would like him to remain).
Why? Because of the travesty that is 3D printed meat. As one of meat’s greatest aficionados, Cam simply thinks this isn’t acceptable.
The CEO of Modern Meadow, Andras Forgacs, did an AMA on Reddit a few days ago about his company’s tech that includes the 3D printing of leather and meat.
His AMA introduction was this
At Modern Meadow we’re developing technology to 3D-bioprint meat and leather. In fact, we’ve already made some, which you can see my co-founder and father eat in his TED talk here (at 5:33).
Why are we doing this? Meat is one of the most environmentally taxing resources, taking up one third of all available (ice-free) land and is a leading contributor to climate change. Conversely, growing cultured meat requires 99% less land, 96% less water, emits 96% fewer greenhouse gases, and harms no animals in the process.
Our work has been covered in TIME, Scientific American, CNET, and here’s a video of a recent talk I gave at Google’s Solve for X conference. Ask me anything!
Even though the idea of laboratory meat may be abhorrent to Cam, the truth is that basic proteins for use in sausages, pate and other deli products don’t have to come from the nicest marbled Angus steaks. Read more »
Should you buy the Pixel? Read more »
via defcad.org
If you’re a Trekkie, you will be aware of the replicator. A fantastic machine that essentially makes an exact copy of an object. Better still, it has a huge database of what it has copied before, so it can create a perfect copy for you at the press of a button.
We may only be in the first stages of that particular future, but enter 3D printing – the ability to create objects from stored file of instructions. No longer do you need expertise. You only need a 3D printer and the raw “printing” materials, combine it with a library of things to print, like guns, and you’re away. Read more »
via Opte Project
Six degrees of separation is the theory that everyone is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.
Someone looked into the same concept, for web pages: Read more »
