Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Doodle 4 Google 2013 challenges kids to dream big, describe their best day (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/15/doodle-4-google-2013-challenges-kids-to-describe-their-best-day/

Doodle 4 Google 2013 challenge invites kids to

Google loves inspiring kids to go wild with ideas in its annual Doodle 4 Google competition, and that tradition is carrying on for 2013. This year's just-started drawing exhibition asks American kids to visualize what they imagine would be their best day ever -- no mean feat, as you'll see in the video after the break. The K-12 student who wins on the national level may find all that daydreaming worth the effort, however, as the top prizes are about as grand as they were for 2012. Along with seeing their drawing become the homepage doodle for a day, the top-ranking child gets a $50,000 technology grant for their current school, a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook and a Wacom tablet to foster that now-obvious creative talent. Budding young artists need to get their entries to Google's real or virtual doorsteps by March 22nd; we have a hunch the winner's best day ever will be May 23rd, when millions of searchers will catch a glimpse of that early magnum opus.

Continue reading Doodle 4 Google 2013 challenges kids to dream big, describe their best day (video)

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Via: SlashGear

Source: Doodle 4 Google

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Quantum dots help return 'Triluminos' RGB LED lighting to Sony HDTVs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/14/sony-triluminos-quantum-dot-qdvision/

Quantum dots power the return of 'Triluminos' RGB LED lighting to Sony's 2013 HDTVs

While 4K TVs are excellent, for the next couple of years most of us will still be selecting a 1080p model when we're out shopping, and now we've got a little more detail about some of the new ones Sony announced last week. After letting its "Triluminos" RGB LED lighting technology fall by the wayside after 2009 because of its high cost, Sony has brought the brand back in this year's HDTVs. Noted in the press release and highlighted today in the MIT Technology Review, this iteration uses QD Vision's quantum dot technology to enhance the red/green/blue LED backlighting the series is known for. According to the CTO of QD Vision, the TVs start with a blue backlight -- instead of the standard white LED -- which stimulates quantum dots that emit "pure green and pure red." Sony was very proud of its Triluminos tech at the show and our experience at demonstrations seemed to validate the quality of the approach. While we've been hearing about quantum dots for years, this is reportedly their first appearance in a mass produced consumer product, once it hits homes we'll be able to tell if the wait was truly worth it.

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Source: MIT Technology Review

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Garmin announces new dog collars, talks up 'Bark Odometer'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/14/garmin-barklimiter/

Garmin announces new dog collars, talks up Bark Odometer

Garmin's not content with just a spot on your dashboard -- the company's also hoping to help you out with your pet problems. The GPS-maker's got a couple of new additions to its line of dog collars, including the BarkLimiter series, which offers up an accelerometer-powered bark identification system and a Bark Odometer to help you keep track of your canine's woof mileage. The collar is lightweight and waterproof and promises to increase "stimulation" as barking continues. The collar'll run you $80 for standard and $100 for the deluxe edition. You can also get the BarkLimiter technology in the company's Delta series of collars, which let you set a virtual leash up to three-quarters of a mile. That line runs $200 without the bark limiting and $250 with.

Continue reading Garmin announces new dog collars, talks up 'Bark Odometer'

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Via: Slashgear

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DCM Dealer software platform mines social media for stock sentiment, Wall Street licks its chops

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/14/dcm-dealer-software-platform-social-media-stock-investment/

DCM Dealer software platform mines social media for stock sentiment, Wall Street licks its chops

In this episode of "What could possibly go wrong?!", allow us to introduce you to DCM Dealer. Billed as an "online trading platform," this here project was whipped up by the same London-based investment outfit (DCM Capital) that went belly-up after losing some $40 million in assets in just one month during the summer of 2011. Granted, that was a pretty tough time in the market, and it did manage to squeeze out a 1.9 percent gain in the period it was open, but it's still worth keeping in mind. Now, the firm is hoping to catch a second wind with a tool that mines Twitter, Facebook, and the whole of social media in order to pick up clues about the public's view on a stock. Reportedly, it'll spit out real-time ratings from 0 (negative) to 100 (positive), giving investors yet another "leading indicator" on what to invest in flip for a quick buck.

Founder Paul Hawtin confesses: "This is not some kind of holy grail of buy-sell signals that's guaranteed to make you money. This is an additional layer of market information...markets are driven by greed and fear, so if you can understand fear and quantify it in real-time, you could use that to protect yourself." We'll leave it to the 99 percent to comment on the idea below.

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Source: CNBC, DCM

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Huawei G520 outed as an inexpensive, quad-core smartphone for China

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/15/huawei-g520-smartphone/

Huawei G520 outed as an inexpensive, quadcore smartphone for China

Huawei put its best foot forward (twice) last week at CES, but it seems that the company has yet another smartphone up its sleeve: a 4.5-inch Android device known as the G520. According to Gizchina, the phone is said to wield a quad-core 1.2GHz Mediatek MT6589, but its key selling point will be the price -- it's said to be in the neighborhood of ¥1,399 ($225). The specific resolution of the G520 is currently known, and the same is true for the version of Android it'll ship with. That said, Ice Cream Sandwich seems most plausible, as the smartphone includes just 512MB of RAM. The Huawei G520 also includes a 5-megapixel rear camera and is said to go up for sale on January 21st within China. Hopefully by then, we'll know a bit more about this one.

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Via: Unwired View

Source: Gizchina

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China adds 51 million internet users in one year, mobile numbers increase by 18.1 percent

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/15/china-adds-51-million-internet-users-in-2012/

China's internet dealt with 564 million users during 2012, increasing its user base by 10 percent. Despite continued efforts to monitor residents and restrict access to subversive content, these substantial gains were apparently driven by mobile internet access, with the number of Chinese users tapping into the web from phones and tablets rising by 18.1 percent, now totaling 420 million. That's 75 percent of all internet users.

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Source: Yahoo News (AP)

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Man Goes On 60-Day Juice Fast To Save His Life

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/joe-cross-fat-sick-and-nearly-dead-2013-1

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

Australian businessman Joe Cross tipped the scale at 310 pounds when he realized he needed to regain control of his life. His solution? A 60-day juice fast. 

To do this, the 40-year-old traveled halfway around the world to America, home to some of the the fattest people in the world

See how Joe lost 90 pounds > 

Under the supervision of a doctor, Joe drank his way across the country while interviewing Americans about their diet and attitudes toward food.  

Joe's transformation and his quest to understand why people are electing to live an unhealthy lifestyle is chronicled in the film "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead," released in 2010. 

Following the film's success, Joe founded Reboot Your Life, a health and wellness company that helps people lose weight by teaching them how to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their diets. 

We downloaded the documentary on Netflix and have pulled out the highlights. 

You can learn more about J! oe's per sonal journey on the official website.  

This is Joe Cross. Joe hails from Australia where he is an entrepreneur and investor. Joe's poor eating habits over the last decade have made him fat and sick.

Watch the film here >



At 310 pounds — 100 pounds overweight — Joe is finally ready to take control of his life.

Watch the film here >



Joe has come to America, the fattest country in the developed world, to lose weight.

Watch the film here >



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.



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Monday, January 14, 2013

What The iPhone 6 Will Need To Truly Impress Users (AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-projector-trick-2013-1

There's been a lot of talk lately about Apple losing its edge and being out-innovated by rivals like Samsung.

It's at the point now where it seems like nothing Apple does is good enough.

Reddit user Inspector-potatoeface hilariously points out what the next iPhone will have to do in order to truly satisfy users.

Check it out:

iphone 5 expectations

Don't Miss: The Story That's Killing Apple Today Is A Month Old >

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New Lighting Could Replace Fluorescents, CFLs, and LEDs As The Light Source Of The Future

Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-12/new-kind-lighting-could-replace-fluorescents-cfls-and-leds-light-source-future

FIPEL Lighting Could Replace Fluorescents Ken Bennett, Wake Forest University photographer
FIPEL technology produces the soft, white light our eyes crave without that annoying fluorescent hum.

Like the desktop printer and the fax machine, the fluorescent overhead light might soon see a diminished role around the office. Researchers at Wake Forest University have developed a field-induced polymer elecroluminescent (FIPEL) lighting technology that silently gives off a soft, white glow, sans the annoying hum and yellow tint of fluorescent bulbs or the sharp, bluish hue of LED light fixtures.

FIPEL technology is by no means brand new, but turning it into a viable light source has taken some time. The Wake Forest team used a multi-layer white-emitting blend of polymers imbued with a small amount of nanomaterials that glow when stimulated with an electric charge. This nano-engineered polymer matrix is essentially a whole new type of light bulb, different from both the filament-filled Edison bulb and mercury-exciting fluorescent, as well as the LEDs and compact fluorescents (CFLs) that have been slowly replacing some traditional light sources in recent years.

Moreover, it is at least twice as efficient as CFLs (which are filled with hazardous materials that can leak into the environment if the bulb is broken--FIPELs are not) and roughly on par with LEDs, both of which emit light that is not quite suited to the human eye. And the FIPEL technology is tunable--it can be manufactured to give off the soft, white light human eyes prefer or to emit any other color, making it potentially useful for billboard lighting and other displays. Its form factor is even customizable--it can be molded into bulbs with Edison connections to fit existing fixtures, but also into large sheets or panels that could fit into ceiling tiles or wall spaces to provide lighting that is unobtrusively embedded in the spaces around us.

Perhaps best of all, FIPEL technology has been around for quite a while and is already well-understood, meaning two things: Firstly, we know the technology is long-lasting (one of the researchers has had a prototype FIPEL light source that he claims has worked for a decade), and secondly we already know how to produce it. This kind of FIPEL lighting could be on the consumer market as early as next year.

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ClamCase Pro makes your iPad look like a thick MacBook Air

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/14/clamcase-pro-makes-your-ipad-look-like-a-thick-macbook-air/

ClamCase Pro makes your iPad look like a thick MacBook Air

When we reviewed the original ClamCase, we found a few flaws that kept it from being a homerun: a cramped keyboard, a mediocre plastic build and a cumbersome power switch. It was decent, but it could have been better. The peripheral's makers seemed to agree -- the ClamCase Pro addresses every single one of our original complaints. Although the Pro is still a double-jointed iPad Bluetooth Keyboard at heart, it now features a more widly spaced chicklet keyboard, aluminium and polycarbonate construction and automatic wake / sleep functions, to keep its battery life in check. Drop in your tablet, and the whole package looks a lot like something that might come straight from Cupertino. Groundbreaking? No, but it's always nice to see follow up product directly answer its predecessor's flaws. The ClamCase Pro is compatible with the iPad 2 and up, too -- so you won't have to worry about buying different versions for multiple generations. The asking price sits at $170 -- but the company will toss you a $20 discount if you "like" them on Zuckerberg's social network.

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Source: ClamCase

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Eliminate Touchscreen Lag From the Surface With This Tiny Hack

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5975689/eliminate-touchscreen-lag-from-the-surface-with-this-tiny-hack

Eliminate Touchscreen Lag From the Surface With This Tiny HackNow that hackers have sunk their teeth well and truly into the Microsoft Surface RT, loads of things are being probed, including lag. Apparently, with a tiny registry edit, you can speed up the Surface RT no end and eliminate touch lag. Here's how.

Simply put, for some reason Microsoft's built in some lag or latency into the touch experience of the Surface RT, and you can nuke it with two simple registry edits.

As with all things registry and Windows, back up your shit first, OK? Then bust out the Registry Editor (hit the start screen and type "regedit"), find the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TouchPredict ion

Change "latency" from 8 to 2, and "sample time" from 8 to 2. Voila, your Surface should be faster. If all that was a bit much for you (why the hell are you messing with the registry, then?) you can download the required changes to inject into the registry automatically with a double click.

If you're a heavy user, you might notice some battery life decrease after the change, as the device is polling the screen a lot more, but considering the Surface RT has pretty decent battery life to start with, it's probably not an issue. Check out the full details of the hack over at the XDA forums. [XDA via TechRadar]


Eliminate Touchscreen Lag From the Surface With This Tiny HackOur newest offspring Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix.

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Sunday, January 13, 2013

DIY Altoids Make âCuriously Strongâ Mints in Unique Flavor Combinations

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5975442/diy-altoids-make-curiously-strong-mints-in-unique-flavor-combinations

DIY Altoids Make “Curiously Strong” Mints in Unique Flavor CombinationsIf you don't just buy Altoids for the tin you may want to consider making your own to experiment with flavors we'll probably never see in a mass produced product. If you already have flavoring or essentials oils and food coloring on hand the only specialty ingredient you need is gum paste, which is found in the cake decorating section of hobby shops or you can purchase it online for less than ten bucks.

Household DIY weblog One Good Thing By Jillee shares a simple recipe for curiously strong mints. Remove a piece of gum paste the size of an egg and knead it with your hand for a minute or two until it becomes pliable and then add any flavoring and/or food coloring you'd like (see the source link below for combinations and ideas) such as wild orange, raspberry, or pineapple. Continue kneading until the additions have been worked into the gum paste and then roll out the paste on a work surface covered in powdered sugar. You'll want it to be around one-eighth of an inch thick. To cut out the mints use a drinking straw to cut out little circles, toss the mints with a bit more powdered sugar to keep them from sticking together, and let them dry for 48 hours before putting them into a tin or other container.

I don't know about you but I'm now thinking about all kinds of crazy mint flavoring ideas such as root beer, wasabi, and mango.

Make Your Own "Curiously Strong Mints" | One Good Thing By Jillee

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Mini-Aquaponics Setup Made from Ikea Parts

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5975473/mini+aquaponics-setup-made-from-ikea-parts

If you've ever wanted to try Aquaponics, growing fish, plants, and bacteria in a nearly-closed loop ecological system, you can get your feet wet by building a basic system using Ikea Antonius frame and wire baskets, two plastic bins, PVC pipe, and a submersible water pump.

You'll also need to create a bell siphon, which you can build from PVC components in the full instructions list from aquaponics store Japan Aquaponics's weblog. The structure of the system comes from assembling the Ikea frame as per the instructions and using the wire baskets to hold a 25-liter liter bin for the grow tray and the bottom 50-liter bin to house the fish. You'll then create a bell siphon from PVC parts or buy one from Amazon for $45, and assemble the plumping from PVC pipes. You can then add water to the tank and test out the operation of the system. If all is go you then add a growing medium such as perlite, lava rock, or river stones to the growbed and add fish and plant seeds.

For further instructions on making the system and on aquaponics in general check out the source link below. This seems like a great starter kit if you're interested in the subject and it's much more productive than most pet aquariums.

Indoor Aquaponics System Plans | Japan Aquaponics via Instructables

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Samsung's 85-inch Ultra HD TV up for pre-order in Korea, priced at just $38k

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/13/samsung-s9-uhdtv-pre-order-korea/

Samsung's 85inch Ultra HD TV up for preorder in Korea, priced at just $38k

At CES last week Samsung set a new benchmark in size with its 85-inch S9 that edged past the Ultra HD competition by one inch, and now it's setting a new high mark for price as well, at least in Korea. While we still don't have any US pricing or release details, the first 77 models encased in that "Timeless Gallery" frame are going up for pre-order, priced at 40,000,000 won ($37,877 US). Other than the obligatory 214cm of 4K goodness, it has built-in 2.2 channels speakers, quad-core CPU and Precision Black Pro LCD panel. We've heard that sales of Sony and LG's models have been surprisingly brisk despite their high prices so you may want to run, not walk to your local Korean high-end electronics retailer to get one first. Of course, if you wait, you can always snag the 95- or 110-inch model that are promised to ship later this year, albeit at similar prices. While you're deciding, check out our hands-on pictures and video to get an idea of what awaits.

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Source: Samsung Tomorrow (Flickr), Korean Newswire

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Flipboard refresh supports Android 4.2's Daydream mode

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/13/flipboard-refresh-supports-android-4-2-daydream-mode/

Flipboard on a Nexus 10

Flipboard readers on Android have a little more reason to celebrate beyond just the recent addition of tablet support. A quick update this weekend lets the curated news reader hook into Android 4.2's Daydream mode: news covers can become part of a screensaver that automatically updates with the freshest stories while on WiFi. It's a simple tweak, but it may help Android users catch stories they would miss while their mobile devices sit idle. Hit the source link if you're not already on Flipboard's latest page.

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Via: Android Police

Source: Google Play

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