Monday, July 27, 2009

Video: life-altering 3D projection gets splashed on German building

Video: life-altering 3D projection gets splashed on German building


It's not often that we take time to highlight the creativity and innovation involved in an artistic projection, but this one excited a few too many nerve endings to pass up. The latest in a long line of fantastical wall splashings comes to us courtesy of Urbanscreen, who has designed a downright mesmerizing 3D projection to "dissolve and break through the strict architecture of O.M. Ungers' Galerie der Gegenwart. The project is entitled "How it would be, if a house was dreaming," and it's without a doubt one of the most amazing spectacles you'll see in the next six to ten minutes. Hop on past the break to have your skepticism put to rest, your world view changed forever and your hope in humanity temporarily restored.

[Via freshome, thanks Hale]

Continue reading Video: life-altering 3D projection gets splashed on German building

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Video: life-altering 3D projection gets splashed on German building originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer's Aspire Timeline 1810T gets a price, release window

Acer's Aspire Timeline 1810T gets a price, release window


If you're in Europe and you love Acer laptops, today is your lucky day. The company has gotten totally official with its Aspire Timeline 1810T notebook, at least according to ComputerBase in Germany. If you'll recall, the laptop boasts an 11.6-inch, 1366 x 768 display, a 1.4GHz ULV CPU, can support up to 4GB of RAM, and sports a GMA 4500MHD graphics chipset. The base model includes a 250GB hard drive, and all the systems come with an HDMI out, Bluetooth 2.1, a 3G option, and are preloaded with Vista -- just in case you were worried. For the low-ish starting price of €499 (or about $708) you can take one of these puppies back to your flat soon (they're on preorder now and should be available in two or three weeks). Hit the read link for all the nasty details... if you dare.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

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Acer's Aspire Timeline 1810T gets a price, release window originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic's new LUMIX consumer lineup: the high-powered FZ35, fashionable FP8 and thin-lensed ZR1

Panasonic's new LUMIX consumer lineup: the high-powered FZ35, fashionable FP8 and thin-lensed ZR1


Panasonic is going at it from all angles today, with three new 12.1 megapixel LUMIX cameras with surprisingly distinct aims:
  • LUMIX FZ35 (pictured) - The requisite "superzoom" of every lineup, the FZ35 doesn't disappoint on features, but the $400 pricepoint certainly pushes the limits of "consumer" camera. Features include 18x zoom and HD video recording, including a Creative Movie Mode with shutter speed and aperture settings for video. It also expands on typical facial recognition functionality with a "Baby mode" for... finding babies.
  • LUMIX FP8 - While it can handle HD video, the FP8 is more about looks. Still, the 12.1 megapixel sensor and 4.6x zoom aren't bad for the form factor -- though the $300 pricetag isn't nothing.
  • LUMIX ZR1 - Featuring the "world's first 0.3mm thin aspherical lens," the ZR1 manages a full 8x optical zoom while keeping its girlish figure when extended. There's also room for a 12.1 megapixel sensor. The cam goes for $280.
All the cameras pack optical image stabilization and facial recognition, and the ZR1 and FZ35 have a "High Dynamic Mode" which presumably emulates HDR photography to some extent. All three will be out in September. Full PR is after the break.

Continue reading Panasonic's new LUMIX consumer lineup: the high-powered FZ35, ! fashiona ble FP8 and thin-lensed ZR1

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Panasonic's new LUMIX consumer lineup: the high-powered FZ35, fashionable FP8 and thin-lensed ZR1 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nissan shows off latest electric car prototype with battery monitoring system, iPhone app

Nissan shows off latest electric car prototype with battery monitoring system, iPhone app


Nissan's started showing off its latest prototype electric car, based on the Versa. This one will house a 108 horsepower / 206 pound-feet electric motor to drive the front wheels, and a 24 kWh, lithium ion battery pack will be fitted under the floor for storing electricity, with an expected range of 100 miles. To top things of nerd-style, the newest prototype will have a navigation system which will show the current life of the battery, and the mile range its current amount of juice will support, and will boast the ability to download info about nearby charging station locations. And need we say, "there's an app for that?" That's right, Nissan also has a working prototype of an iPhone app making the rounds in Japan which would allow users to communicate with their car remotely and find out the state of the battery's charge. Can this get any cooler?

Read - Nissan shows off new Versa-based electric vehicle protoype
Read - Nissan dials iPhone for car remote control

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Nissan shows off latest electric car prototype with battery monitoring system, iPhone app originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung jumps into e-book reader game with the SNE-50K

Samsung jumps into e-book reader game with the SNE-50K


Samsung's announced it's jumping into the best game in town -- the paperless book trade -- with its SNE-50K e-book reader. With 512MB of onboard storage, a five-inch touchscreen and stylus, and a complete lack of wireless or internet capabilities, it's not the most advanced reader we've ever seen, but it's slim and light, at nine millimeters thick and weighing about 6.5 ounces. In South Korea, where the reader will be launched first, Samsung has partnered with Kyobo Bookstore, one of the largest booksellers in the country. There's no word on launches outside of South Korea at this time, but Samsung does plan on showing a prototypes for other countries at a trade show in January (most likely CES).

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Samsung jumps into e-book reader game with the SNE-50K originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Averatec debuts thin-and-light N3400 laptop

Averatec debuts thin-and-light N3400 laptop


Averatec's already rolled out not one but two all-in-one desktops this month, but it looks like it's also found the time to churn out this fairly impressive looking thin-and-light laptop, which takes a few cues from the nettbook side of things and few from some pricier pastures. Weighing in at less than four pounds, the N3400 laptop packs the usual 13.3-inch screen, along with a slightly underwhelming Pentium Dual Core T3400 processor, plus 3GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and integrated Intel GMA X4500HD graphics -- not to mention a bundled external DVD burner. As you might expect, this one also packs a price tag right between netbooks and some higher-end ultraportables, with it setting you back $799. Hit up the gallery below for a closer look.

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Averatec debuts thin-and-light N3400 laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brando HD Media Player Docking Station does multi-format 1080p

Brando HD Media Player Docking Station does multi-format 1080p


It seems that Brando can't go a month without bringing out yet another slightly-improved domicile for your orphaned SATA HDDs. Following in the footsteps of the very recent Multimedia Dock, the latest unit adds H.264 decoding to the already present DivX, Xvid and MPEG-4, while output graduates to full 1080p. Featuring HDMI and a plethora of supported media formats, the humble docking station has certainly grown up, but is it enough to compete with standalone media players? Input flexibility would suggest so -- the new device accepts 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives, alongside USB flash memory, SD, MMC, and MS cards -- but alas, Brando loses the plot at the final hurdle, asking for an astronomical $199. With prettier alternatives available at half the price, this is unlikely to sell like hotcakes, but Brando's breakneck refresh cycle give us the feeling it won't be long before we see that perfect do-it-all dock.

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Brando HD Media Player Docking Station does multi-format 1080p originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Tip: Recover your password via text message

Tip: Recover your password via text message

Posted by Cristelle Blackford, Online Operations Strategist

Even the best of us forget our passwords from time to time. In fact, recovering passwords is one of the top reasons people visit the Gmail Help Center. To help with these situations, we recently added the ability to recover your password via text message.

To turn this on for your account, just sign in, select 'Change Password Recovery Options,' enter your cell phone number and click 'Save.'

Next time you forget your password, enter your username on the password-assistance page, and Google will text you a recovery code. No need to check another email account or even leave the page.

In general, it's a good idea to add as many password recovery options to your Google Account as possible, like a secondary email address and security question. And don't forget to keep them up-to-date.

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New in Labs: The super-trustworthy, anti-phishing key

New in Labs: The super-trustworthy, anti-phishing key

Posted by Brad Taylor, Gmail Spam Czar

We're always looking for new ways to protect Gmail inboxes from spam and phishing. Last year, we started taking extra steps to protect you from fake eBay and PayPal emails, requiring that any email claiming to come from one of eBay's or PayPal's domains actually comes from them. We do that by looking at the "From" header, and when it says "ebay.com" for example, it means it really did come from ebay.com. Anything else is rejected; it won't even appear in your spam folder because Gmail won't accept it.

Now, unless you are a regular reader of this blog with a photographic memory, you may not be aware of this extra protection. So, we thought we'd add a little something to remind you. Turn on "Authentication icon for verified senders" from the Labs tab under Settings, and you'll see a key icon next to verified emails that are super-trustworthy.










"Super-trustworthy" is a technical term I just invented that means: (1) the sender, usually a financial institution, is a target of phishers, (2) all of the sender's email is authenticated with DKIM, and (3) Gmail rejects any fake messages that claim to come from this sender, but actually don't.

It's a bit of work for sender! s to mak e their email super-trustworthy, which is why this feature is limited to just eBay and PayPal right now. We hope to add more senders in the future, and when we do, you'll know because you'll see the super-trustworthy key icon magically appear by those senders too. Give it a whirl and let us know what you think.

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Unsubscribing made easy

Unsubscribing made easy

Posted by Brad Taylor, Gmail Spam Czar

We believe you should only get the mail you want to get. Some of you already use the "Report Spam" button on all kinds of unwanted email, and for that we're very thankful: the more spam you mark, the better our system gets at weeding out junk mail.

Unsubscribing from mailing lists and newsletters you subscribed to a while back but no longer want to receive should be just as easy. Searching through individual messages for little unsubscribe links is too big a pain —you should be able to unsubscribe with a single click.

So we just launched something that makes this all work better, both for Gmail users and big email senders. Now, when you report spam on a legitimate newsletter or mailing list, we'll help you unsubscribe. After clicking report spam, you'll see a little dialog like this:


Clicking "Unsubscribe" will automatically send a request back to the sender so they'll stop emailing you.

This only works for some senders right now. We're actively encouraging senders to support auto-unsubscribe — we think 100% should. We won't provide the unsubscribe option on messages from spammers: we can't trust that they'll actually unsubscribe you, and they might even send you more spam. So you'll only see the unsubscribe option for senders that we're pretty sure are not spammers and will actually honor your unsubscr! ibe requ est. We're being pretty conservative about which senders to trust in the beginning; over time, we hope to offer the ability to unsubscribe from more email.

For those of you senders who are interested in this feature, the most basic requirements are including a standard "List-Unsubscribe" header in your email with a "mailto" URL and, of course, honoring requests from users wishing to unsubscribe. You'll also need to follow good sending practices, which in a nutshell means not sending unwanted email (see our bulk sending guidelines for more information).

With an easy way to unsubscribe, everybody wins. Your spam folder is smaller, and senders don't waste time sending you email that you no longer want.

Update (1:50pm): If you want to unsubscribe without reporting the message as spam, click "show details" in the top-right corner of the message, then click "Unsubscribe from this sender."

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Netflix Prize Competition Comes to a Thrilling Conclusion [NetFlix]

Netflix Prize Competition Comes to a Thrilling Conclusion [NetFlix]

After a last-second buzzer beater put them in the front runner position for the Netflix Prize on Saturday, it appears as though "The Ensemble" has held off any late surges from other developers to take top honors in the competition.

The competition, which was kicked off by Netflix back in 2006 as a way to improve the accuracy of its movie recommendation algorithm, saw a flurry of activity in its final days between two development teams: The aforementioned Ensemble, and the previous leader, BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos.

Up until Saturday, BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos was the leader, with work that surpassed the contest's 10% barrier by .08%. Their 10.08% score, submitted one month ago, kicked off a 30-day countdown meant to allow other teams to turn in last-minute improvements of their own. On the second to last day, The Ensemble swooped in with a 10.09% score and an all-but-assured victory.

However, Bellkor, not to be outdone when the prize was seemingly already in their grasp, submitted a lightning quick 10.09% match to tie and presumably share the $1 million prize.

But it was not to be. Twenty minutes after the tying submission was submitted, The Ensemble (perhaps with a secret reserve?) submitted a 10.10% submission with four minutes to spare.

With the contest closed, this is what Netflix had to say:

Contest Closed

Thank you for your interest in the Netflix Prize.

We are delighted to report that, after almost three years and more than 43,000 entries from over 5,100 teams in over 185 cou! ntries, the Netflix Prize Contest stopped accepting entries on 2009-07-26 18:42:37 UTC. The closing of the contest is in accordance with the Rules — thirty (30) days after a submitted prediction set achieved the Grand Prize qualifying RMSE on the quiz subset.

Team registration, team updates and the dataset download are also closed. The Contest Forum and Leaderboard remain open.

Qualified entries will be evaluated as described in the Rules. We look forward to awarding the Grand Prize, which we expect to announce in a few weeks. However if a Grand Prize cannot be awarded because no submission can be verified by the judges, the Contest will reopen. We will make an announcement on the Forum after the Contest judges reach a decision.

Once the Grand Prize is awarded, the ratings for the qualifying set will be released and the combined training data and qualifying sets will become available upon request at the Machine Learning Archive at UC Irvine.

Thank you again for your interest in the Netflix Prize. Keep checking this site for updates in the coming weeks.

Congrats are in order to the quick-thinking Ensemble team. They played this one to perfection. [TechCrunch via Slashdot]




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FiiO PS1110 Walkbox portable speaker says 'buy more'

FiiO PS1110 Walkbox portable speaker says 'buy more'


$15 for a hunk of metal and plastic that makes noise and looks pretty cool? Sure, it's not quite that pink cube that OMM told you pick up on the way home from your occupation, but FiiO's PS1110 Walkbox portable speaker is just that right blend of retro and modern that makes us all weak in the knees. Let us be thankful we have commerce.

[Via technabob]

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FiiO PS1110 Walkbox portable speaker says 'buy more' originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell Studio 14z hits the review bench, disc drive stays behind with few regrets

Dell Studio 14z hits the review bench, disc drive stays behind with few regrets


While ASUS is busy adding an optical drive to its Eee PC line, Dell is diving into the low-priced, optical-free, thin-and-light category with its new Studio 14z portable. The folks at Laptop Mag have taken the new laptop for a spin, and seem to like what they see. While its 4.4 pound weight isn't quite best in class, the 14z outperforms most of its brethren thanks to GeForce 9400M graphics and a "real" Core 2 Duo processor -- none of that weak sauce CULV stuff. The battery life isn't bad either, and for $750 it's easy on the wallet. You just have to ask yourself: can you live without instant access on-the-go to your limited edition set of Billy Joel hits on Compact Disc?

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Dell Studio 14z hits the review bench, disc drive stays behind with few regrets originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

O, but I forgot that the orange was such an exciting color, that combined w/ the blue deathstar logo drove tons & tons of UNmeasurable sales

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If brands had equity, then when AT&T flipped to Cingular and flopped back, they must've lost way more than the $120M paid to brand agencies.

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