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Friday, August 14, 2009

FatSecret Looks To Become A Central Hub For Nutrition Data With New API

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ofaYTCuz5lA/

FatSecret, an Australian social network focused on nutrition and weight loss that we covered back in 2007, is launching a new API tonight that allows third party sites and services to tap into its database of nutritional data, excercise information, and other health stats. You can access the new FatSecret Platform here.

CEO Rodney Moses says that FatSecret is allowing developers to access the API for free, in the hopes of turning FatSecret into the reliable and accurate resource for nutritional information. He points out the fact that while there are plenty of diet sites on the web that contain nutrition info for various foods, much of the data is disjointed — there’s no established comprehensive source that people turn to first. FatSecret hopes to become the authoritative hub for this kind of information. The site has gathered its data from a number of publicly available resources like the USDA, and also has many user-submitted entries from users on its social network. Moses says that all of the data has been curated to ensure accuracy.

The other component to the new API is a brand utility, which invites food and beverage brand owners to submit their nutrition facts into the system so that they can be retrieved using the FatSecret API.

Moses says that the site itself is still growing steadily, with half a million monthly visitors and around double that number when including users who access the site through other means, like its mobile applications.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Dell's Android Smartphone: New Photos and Specs [Dell]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/JFukSxyzyTE/dells-android-smartphone-new-photos-and-specs

We've mentioned Dell's rumored phone could hit China in very near future, and if legit, this info backs up the impression of the device being all-but ready. Specs could include a 3.5-inch display (640x360), GPS, MicroSD slot, and 3Mp camera.

These new pics look pretty real, and match what we've seen before. Seems like the Ophone mini3i (as China Mobile may call it), is looking increasing like a done deal.

* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12
* Size: 68.6cc
* 103g grams weight
* Dimensions: 58 x 122 x 11.7mm
* Display: 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors
* OTA capable
* Microsoft Exchange support
* Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support
* 3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor
* USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
* A-GPS
* On-screen QWERTY keyboard, hardwriting recognition, multi touch UI
* MicroSD slot

[Boy Genius Report]

Pentagon Wants a Flying Bug: This Flapping Nano Bot Is Phase One []

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/OBW316A5zBo/pentagon-wants-a-flying-bug-this-flapping-nano-bot-is-phase-one

Last year, DARPA granted aerospace firm, Aeronvironment, a chunk of change and six-months to demonstrate a bird-sized Nano Air Vehicle (NAV). This video shows the result: the "smallest ever free-flying aircraft to hover and climb with flapping wings."

The image above comes from Aeronvironment, and shows what it wants the prototype in the video below to ultimately look like. DARPA's goal is to have a 10-gram aircraft with a 7.5-centimetre wingspan that can get into tight hiding spaces and send back GPS and image data.

And Aeronvironment's progress is notable because such robots previously couldn't carry their own batteries, and had to use guide wires.

"It is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, as well as forward and backward, under remote control," says the company. [New Scientist]

Vision Research rolls out high-speed Phantom Miro eX-series cameras

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/14/vision-research-rolls-out-high-speed-phantom-miro-ex-series-came/

In the market for a high-speed camera that's compact but definitely won't be mistaken for a regular point-and-shoot? Then you may want to look no farther than one of Vision Research's new Phantom Miro eX-series cameras, which boast a "DSLR-like" design and a spec list intended for high-speed video and not much else. That includes your choice of 640 x 480 or 800 x 600 resolution cams, video frame rates from 500 fps to "over" 100,000 fps (at a reduced resolution), ISO settings up to ISO 1200 for color or ISO 4800 for monochrome, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, and 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of internal memory, plus a CompactFlash card slot for expansion. Of course, these also won't be mistaken for a point-and-shoot when it comes to price, with the base eX1 model starting at just under ten grand.

[Via PhotographyBLOG]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Vision Research rolls out high-speed Phantom Miro eX-series cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI dishes five new C Series laptops, all of which are perfectly average

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/14/msi-dishes-five-new-c-series-laptops-all-of-which-are-perfectly/

Okay, so maybe "new" is being a bit generous here, but whatever the case, MSI has a fresh five piece of C Series laptops ready and willing to be purchased, opened and openly abused. The C Series never has been much to look at nor swoon over, with the whole lineup packing only decent specifications and a rather unexciting motif. Not that there's anything wrong with the all-business approach, but nothing here is going to set the world ablaze like, say, Toshiba's inglorious X305. The CX600, CX700, CR600-013, CR600-017 and CR700 are all either being introduced or mildly tweaked, with the 600 models packing a 16-inch display and the 700 flavors getting things done on a 17.3-inch panel. The CR600 and CR700 offer up a discrete GeForce 8200M GPU and optional Blu-ray drive, while the other guys get by with a Mobility Radeon HD 4330 and DVD burner. Hit the read link for the full specs list, and feel free to select one to call your own starting at $549.99.

Gallery: MSI dishes five new C Series laptops, all of which are perfectly average

< img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/08/msi-c-series_21_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" />

Filed under: Laptops

MSI dishes five new C Series laptops, all of which are perfectly average originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Lenovo IdeaCentre Q700 Wants To Be Your Lounge Room's Black Box [PCs]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/0oMM50Hjxro/lenovo-ideacentre-q700-wants-to-be-your-lounge-rooms-black-box

The Q700 looks like a nettop, but has a little more balls thanks to a 2.5GHz Pentium Dual-Core E5200. Top specs include a TV tuner, HDMI, 4GB RAM, 1TB hard disk, and Intel GMA X4500 graphics. Prices start from $499.

About the size of a DVD player, the compact HTPC sits either horizontally or vertically (with stand), and has a metal liner to shield against electromagnetic radiation. Lenovo also says it'll support 1080p.

On the front you'll find a slot-loading DVD writer, four-in-one media card reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro), four USB 2.0 ports, plus microphone and headphone jacks.

One the back: eSATA and HDMI connections (nice!), VGA, four further USB 2.0 ports, and a variety of audio connections, including S/PDIF-out. Ethernet is standard, while options include 802.11g Wi-Fi, the TV tuner, and various flavors of Windows Vista. [Lenovo via Nexus404]

Manhattan's Population By Day vs Manhattan's Population By Night [Data Visualization]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QRjDK5XMAl0/manhattans-population-by-day-vs-manhattans-population-by-night

I love NYC to bits. But when I see the millions of people shifting in and out Manhattan in a pretty pretty graphic like this, I feel vertigo. And then, when I see the subway statistics, I feel panic:

From 8:00AM to 8:59 AM on an average Fall day in 2007 the NYC Subway carried 388,802 passengers into the CBD [city business district] on 370 trains over 22 tracks. In other words, a train carrying 1,050 people crossed into the CBD every 6 seconds.

Absolutely mindblowing. Now, off I go to get a bagel. [Frumination—Thanks David]

Samsung Reclaim Corn-Fed Ecophone Impressions and Gallery [Cellphones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/9mfKunR-o6I/samsung-reclaim-corn+fed-ecophone-impressions-and-gallery

Yes, it's a dumbphone, but it's a dumbphone with ideals. The Samsung Reclaim is as much an environmental statement as it is a slide-out QWERTY messaging phone.

The first thing you'll notice about Sprint/Samsung's $50 ~~green~~ blue handset is its size—it's adorably small and pebble-like when it's closed. Actually wait, no, the first thing you'll notice is the packaging. Remember all that talk about minimizing cardboard waste, and not including a manual? This is what we got:

To be fair to Samsung, the packaging is apparently recyclable and made with "soy-based" ink, and I'm pretty sure that notebook full of paper was just an ill-advised PR gift, but even so, they didn't exactly go all the way with this. (Thanks to tipster Shiron for inspiration!)

Anyway, minor quibble, back to the phone. This Pre-shaped texter runs a proprietary in-house OS, which, aside from slight input lag, is par for the course for its category—you know, not-so-hot on the browser front, but it gets phone'n'text duties done just fine. and texting comes fast and easy on the rubberized keyboard. An no, no part of this phone feels like it's made from corn, even if it is.

We've been ! thinking about how to review this thing, and we're not sure. Do we treat it as a feature phone with environmental tendencies, or an exercise in environmentalism with feature phone tendencies? Mark says we should bury it for a few months and see if it biodegrades; I say we should break it down and make cornbread. Any ideas? [Samsung]

Google Chromium on Mac Kicks Every Other Mac Browser's Ass [Browsers]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/LQcJVMJ2c5s/google-chromium-on-mac-kicks-every-other-mac-browsers-ass

Google Chromium 4.0, the pre-alpha version of Chrome, may still be buggy and crashy as all hell, but it's also incredibly fast, according to benchmarks: 34% faster than Safari, for one, and more than twice as fast as Firefox.

These numbers are based on Javascript benchmarks, which don't give a total view of a browser's speed but do tell us how adept a browser is at dealing with intensive code. Chromium scored 657ms on the test to Safari's 886ms. Firefox scored 1,508ms and Opera 10 Beta 3 (my personal browser of choice) lagged way behind with 5,958ms. Keeping in mind that Chromium is pre-alpha and thus better seen as a fun dev project than an actual candidate for a primary browser, we're pretty excited. Once Google irons out the bugs and gets some damn extensions, Chrome on Mac is going to be a stiff challenger to Firefox. [CNET]

Corsair's Flash Voyager GT: The World's Fastest 128GB USB Flash Drive [Flash Memory]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/OPtg0_Dg9EM/corsairs-flash-voyager-gt-the-worlds-fastest-128gb-usb-flash-drive

Corsair, who seem to spend all their time finding speed records and then breaking them, announced their Flash Voyager GT USB flash drive at the droolworthy 128GB capacity. Even better, the speeds totally don't suck: 32MB/s and 25.6MB/s read/write, respectively.

The first 128GB USB flash drive we say, the Kingston Datatraveler 200, was mostly a proof of concept, with relatively slow read/write speeds of 20/10MB/s. It was also prohibitively expensive at nearly $550. Corsair's drive has the speed to be really enviable, and it comes in even cheaper than the Kingston drive. Note, however, that we didn't say it's affordable, at all—Newegg is selling it for $400. Still, it's pretty great to be able to carry around even a massive music collection in the change pocket of your jeans. [Corsair]

A Beach On Mars [Space]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/TEEOGMQqXaQ/a-beach-on-mars

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE—High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment—camera has captured one of the most beautiful photographs of Mars to date: An oblique view—at 22 degrees east of straight down—of the Victoria Crater, in the Meridiani Planum region.

Click on the image to enlarge to see all the incredible detail. Warning, it's huge and takes time to load.

According to NASA, this unique angle will give scientist a great opportunity to study the geological layers in this area. It looks like a dried lake to me—of course is not—but that's just my ignorant untrained eye making things up. [NASA]

And you saw this one coming, didn't you?

ROS: a common OS to streamline robotic engineering

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/13/ros-a-common-os-to-streamline-robotic-engineering/

The biannual International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence has this year shed light on a new effort to standardize robot instructions around a common platform, so that designers won't have to "reinvent the wheel over and over" with every project. Presently, robot design is undertaken in an ad hoc fashion, with both hardware and software being built from scratch, but teams at Stanford, MIT and the Technical University of Munich are hoping to change that with the Robot Operating System, or ROS. This new OS would have to compete with Microsoft's robotics offering, but the general enthusiasm for it at the conference suggests a bright future, with some brave souls even envisioning a robot app store somewhere down the line. Video after the break.

Continue reading ROS: a common OS to streamline robotic engineering

Filed under: Robots

ROS: a common OS to streamline robotic engineering originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Infrared sensors hit 16 megapixels, can now spy on an entire hemisphere

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/13/infrared-sensors-hit-16-megapixels-can-now-spy-on-an-entire-hem/

Aerospace and defense manufacturer Raytheon wants everyone to know it has developed the world's first 16 megapixel infrared sensor, which is set for a life of orbiting the Earth and generally being a lot more useful than lesser models. With its higher resolution, the unit is able to cover an entire half of the planet without "blinking" to relocate its focus, and should be warmly received by meteorologists, astronomists and military types, all craving for a bit more real-time reconnaissance. We advise wide-brimmed tin foil hats to shield your body heat from these Sauron-like satellites while working on those plans for a global uprising of the proletariat.

[Via TG Daily]

Filed under: Science

Infrared sensors hit 16 megapixels, can now spy on an entire hemisphere originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BenQ grabs green card with LED-backlit V2200 / V2400 Eco monitors

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/13/benq-grabs-green-card-with-led-backlit-v2200-v2400-eco-monito/

We firmly believe that the all-too-popular 'green card' is flailed about far too haphazardly these days, but whatever the case, BenQ's sure doing its darnedest to explain just how much Ma Earth adores its latest duo of V Series monitors. The 24-inch V2400 Eco and 21.5-inch V2200 Eco are both outfitted with LED-backlit 1080p panels, comically inflated dynamic contrast ratios (5,000,000:1, if you can even believe that) and a shell constructed from 28 percent recycled plastic. Meanwhile, we're told these panels can suck down around 30 percent less power while in Eco mode, and overall, they consume approximately 36 percent less power than CCFL displays. If you're onboard with everything, look for these to land in your neck of the woods soon, with China getting 'em first in a week or so.

[Via Far East Gizmos]

Filed under: Displays

BenQ grabs green card with LED-backlit V2200 / V2400 Eco monitors originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung crams WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth 2.0 into well-specced CL65 point-and-shoot

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/13/samsung-crams-wifi-gps-and-bluetooth-2-0-into-well-specced-cl65/

If you're anything like us (and let's face it, you're exactly like us), you've been counting down the nanoseconds until Samsung finally revealed what its 'Tap and Take' campaign was all about. This, folks, is it. As many of you sharp folks surmised, Samsung is delving deep into the intelligent camera arena, equipping its luscious CL65 (no, not that CL65) with a 12.2 megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 720p (30fps) movie mode, an HDMI output, and a 3.5-inch touchscreen that utilizes a Smart Gesture user interface. Furthermore, the camera can access certain features when simply tilted, and the built-in Bluetooth 2.0 module enables users to easily share images with other BT-equipped devices.

Considering that you're probably still not impressed, how's about a little more on the cutting-edge front? The point-and-shoot also includes WiFi (much like Sony's disappointing DSC-G3 and Panny's Lumix DMC-TZ50), giving users the ability to upload directly to Facebook, Picasa and YouTube. Unfortunately, all photos uploaded via WiFi will be reduced to a resolution of two megapixels, and while we understand the reasoning, we figure an option for full / reduced res would've been a much better compromise. At any rate, the device also includes DLNA support for streaming to HDTVs and the like, while the integrated GPS chip handles the geotagging. The cam, which is admittedly bursting at the seams with features, will land next month in the US for $399.99. ! Full rel ease is after the break.

Gallery: Samsung CL65 digital camera

Continue reading Samsung crams WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth 2.0 into well-specced CL65 point-and-shoot

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Samsung crams WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth 2.0 into well-specced CL65 point-and-shoot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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