Monday, April 08, 2013

Blackmagic announces Production Camera 4K, $995 Pocket Cinema Camera with MFT mount (hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/08/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-production-camera-4k/

Blackmagic announces Production Camera 4K, $995 Pocket Cinema Camera with MFT mount handson video

A sub-$1,000 price tag makes any product a relative steal on the floor of NAB -- impressive specs and industry standard compatibility are just icing on the cake. If such figures are any indication, however, Blackmagic's new Pocket Cinema Camera, which leaked earlier today and ships in July, is potentially a very solid buy at $995, with a Super-16 Cinema 1080HD sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range, CinemaDNG RAW recording, SD card storage, Micro HDMI monitoring and a Micro Four Thirds lens mount. We got an early look at the shooter on the showroom floor, and the compact size is truly striking -- the body is comparable in size to any other mirrorless camera, though it definitely pushes the limits of what we'd consider pocketable. The design is very similar to Blackmagic's larger Cinema Camera launched at last year's NAB, with the same Micro Four Thirds lens mount. There's a very sharp built-in matte LCD for viewing footage and adjusting settings, and the build is quite solid -- it's significantly heavier than you'd expect.

Naturally, the camera isn't as capable as Blackmagic's pricier NAB model, the Production Camera 4K, which also made its debut today and ships in July. With that flavor, $3,995 buys you a Super 35 sensor with native Ultra HD and 4K support, a built-in SSD recorder, compressed CinemaDNG RAW and compatibility with EF lenses. We spent a few minutes with ! that mod el as well, and were equally impressed. The screen was very bright, sharp and not at all reflective, and the camera includes your standard array of inputs and outputs, including dual mic jacks, an SDI port, power and control. Both models are very competitively priced, as you might expect from Blackmagic, and with this wide range of appeal, there's now a little something for everyone. Be sure to head past the break to check out our hands-on video as we take a closer look at both models.

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Acer's 7.9-inch Iconia A1-810 outed with quad-core CPU

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/08/acers-iconia-a1-810/

Acer's 79inch Iconia A1810 outed with quadcore CPU

Acer doesn't seem to have officially announced the Iconia tab A1-810 yet... at least not that we can see. But French retailer Rue Du Commerce already has the 7.9 inch listed, though, since it was first spotted the spec sheet has been cleared. Thankfully, MiniMachines caught the page before someone scrubbed it clean. If the numbers are to be believed, then the Taiwanese company has the Nexus 7 and iPad mini squarely in its sights. The A1-810's crams some reasonably impressive internals into a diminutive and affordable package. Under the hood is 1GB of RAM, and a 1.2GHz quad-core processor. Granted, the Cortex-A9 chip is produced by MediaTek instead of one of the bigger boys like Qualcomm or NVIDIA, but it should prove plenty robust for everyday tasks. The 1024 x 768 IPS panel puts it right in league with Apple's mini, but it also means a lower pixel density than the middle child of the Nexus family. You'll also find 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS radios inside, along with a 3,250 mAh battery -- which is quite a bit smaller than its competitors (despite its 10.5mm thick, 430g body being quite a bit larger). The biggest news about this Android 4.2 device though, is the price: it's yet another uber-cheap slate, currently listed at €199, or about $259.

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Via: Android Authority, MiniMachines

Source: Rue Du Commerce

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Search Dominates Mobile Local Ad Spend; Videoâs Influence to Grow

Source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/interactive/search-dominates-mobile-local-ad-spend-videos-influence-to-grow-28394/

Search dominates mobile local ad spend to the tune of 58% share of revenues ($704 million of $1.22 billion in 2012), per the latest mobile local ad spend forecast from BIA/Kelsey. That compares with 31% share for display, 8% share for SMS, and just 3% for video. But that picture should change quite dramatically by [...]

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Sony responds to Red lawsuit with its own patent claims, seeks damages, injunction

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/08/sony-responds-to-red-lawsuit-with-its-own-patent-claims/

Sony responds to Red lawsuit with its own patent claims, seeks damages, injunction

If we've learned anything from the patent wars it's that lawsuits beget lawsuits, and Red and Sony's budding spat is no exception. In response to allegations that Sony's F5, F55 and F65 cameras violate a pair of Red camera patents, the Japanese manufacturer is filing a suit of its own. The company says that the Red One, Epic and Scarlet cameras infringe on seven Sony patents, and is seeking damages and a sales injunction on the offending products. Accessories like the REDMOTE are headed to the courtroom, too. Sony's demands aren't as specific as Red's, which originally sought to have its competitor's camera's destroyed -- but we'll sure things will heat up when litigation starts. Take a peek at Sony's brief statement after the break.

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Via: Verge, Sony Alpha Rumors

Source: Sony

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Sunday, April 07, 2013

Sony unveils 30-and 56-inch professional 4K OLED monitor prototypes, shipping in May

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/07/sony-unveils-professional-4k-oled-monitor-prototypes/

Sony unveils professional 4K OLED monitor prototypes, promises reduced color shift, better viewing angles

The 56-inch OLED TV Sony trotted out at CES may have lost an inch on its way to the market, but that extra few centimeters can still be had, at least in the professional sector. The company announced its A Series Trimaster EL monitors at NAB today, outing a 4,096 x 2,160 30-inch model as well as a 3,840 x 2160 56-inch display. Both panels boast of wide viewing angles and low color shift, promising accurate signal reproduction for industry professionals working with 4K content. No word yet on pricing, but professionals can look forward to upgrading sometime in May 2013. Hit the break for the official press release, item skus, and a quick break down of what products the A series will be replacing.

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Panera Exec: Secret-Menu Items Do Customers A Service

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/panera-exec-sercret-menu-items-do-customers-a-service-2013-4

Panera lunchEver heard the person next you in line ask for the Mc10:35 at McDonald's, the quesarito from Chipotle or the power steak breakfast bowl at Panera Bread and said 'huh' to yourself?

Restaurants are increasingly selling these off-menu items to bring in customers who are "in the know," but in an oxymoronic move they are showcasing these "secret" menus on their own websites.

The trend is being driven by restaurants, such as Panera and BurgerFi, that want to speed up the ordering process for complicated orders and cater to special dietary preferences. Secret menus also serve as marketing tools that make customers feel like insiders in the hope they will want to share the information with their friends.

"We don't want to overburden our digital menu boards by putting everything on there because simplicity and ease of ordering is probably the most important thing in this business," said Chris Ponzio, director of marketing at BurgerFi, a Florida-based all-natural burger chain. "People do not like to stand in line and say, 'Oh, my God, I'm overwhelmed.'"

(Read MoreRestaurants Hope Tax Refunds Bring Customers)

The secret of BurgerFi's hidden menu has been intentionally spilled since its first store opened in 2011. The company even features the off-menu items on its in-store menu handouts—b! ut not o n the big board itself.

Some of the items began as a way to simplify the complicated ordering process with picky customers. Steve Lieber, the company's brand ambassador and franchise sales director, recalled the origins of the Hippie Veggie, a sandwich first created by a frequent diner in Florida.

"He wanted instead of one vegetable patty, he wanted two," Lieber said. "He didn't want them fried—he wanted them grilled. He didn't like the wheat bun—he wanted a regular bun. He didn't like the lettuce, tomato secret sauce. He liked green neon relish."

To help employees ring up the item, the company added it to the secret menu and its internal payment system. Now, the custom sandwich is selling by the hundreds. The menu also features items created by employees and serves as a sort of soft landing space for one unpopular dish that used to be on the regular board.

(Read More: 'F' for Nutrition: Inside Restaurant Kids' Meals)

The not-so-secret menu was first pioneered on a large scale by fast-food chain In-N-Out. Carl Van Fleet, the company's vice president of planning and development, said the company doesn't see itself as having a "secret menu" at all but rather just a willingness to fulfill orders just the way the customer wants it. Several items from its not-so-secret menu, including the 4x4, a cheeseburger with four beef patties and four cheese slices, have inspired fervent followings.

"Over the years, many of those variations were given names, usually by the customers who frequently ordered their burger that way," Van Fleet said. "We never set out to create or pioneer a 'secret menu,' some of the names for those variations just stuck."

Other restaurants, such as Panera, use the menus to cater to diners following a specific diet, such as a low-carbohydrate or low-gluten one.

"Panera didn't want to take up valuable menu board space ! with ite ms that only had limited appeal, but they did want customers seeking low-carb items to know that they were available," said Bret Thorn, senior food editor at Nation's Restaurants News, a trade publication.

(Read More: Forget Fat—The Hot, New Thing to Avoid Is Gluten)

Chris Hollander, Panera's vice president of marketing, said offering "off-menu" items is a way to serve the needs of niche groups, while also keeping its in-store messaging streamlined and consistent.

"By keeping this menu 'hidden,' we can speak to this audience without investing in the infrastructure needed to promote these items within our walls," he said.

The program was also a way to reward its loyalty program members and social media followers, who were the first to learn of the new items.

"We are constantly looking for new and innovative rewards — beyond free menu items — in order to build deeper relationships with our MyPanera membership," he added.

These menus also give consumers a sense of insider knowledge and another way to experience a restaurant after they've already tested out the main menu, said Sam Oches, the editor of QSR Magazine, a separate trade publication.

(Read MoreRestaurant Nutrition Claims Put to the Test)

"Customers just really enjoy being able to go somewhere and to feel like they're on the inside, like they're in the know," Oches said.

That insider feeling often spurs customers to share their orders via social media, leading some to spread virally.

"Secret menus have been around for decades in some places, like In-N-Out," Thorn said. "And Starbucks has offered things like short cappuccinos probably since the ch! ain open ed. But social media has really made them catch on."

And as these items proliferate, restaurateurs have an added incentive for keeping these items hidden. Many of the secret items are made by combining multiple menu items. Take McDonald's Mc10:35, it combines a McDouble and an Egg McMuffin.

But sometimes these duos, can pack quite the waistline punch. By keeping these items off menu, their calorie counts stay out of sight as well—good news for fans of the quesarito, or a cheese quesadilla wrapped around a burrito, which can set customers back more than 1,0000 calories.

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Friday, April 05, 2013

Google's Android Has Hit A Wall, And Now It's Fading In The U.S. (GOOG, AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/androids-market-share-in-the-united-states-2013-4

Something is happening to Android in the U.S.

After years of runaway success, it's now losing share to Apple's iPhone, according to the latest data from comScore.

For the three months ended in February, Apple had 38.9 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, up from 35 percent for the same period ending in November. Android fell to 51.7 percent over the same period, down from 53.7 percent.

The United States is not the world, but it is a leading market for smartphones. So, it's worth paying attention to these trends.

Apple has been able to eat in to Android's lead thanks to increased distribution, and lowered pricing. The iPhone wasn't on Verizon until February 2011, four years after the iPhone debuted on AT&T. It later joined Sprint, then some regional carriers, and this year it's going to T-Mobile.

Apple offers the iPhone at a variety of prices on Verizon and AT&T, from $0 to over $400. A free-on-contract iPhone has make it an option for more people.

Android is a great operating system available on a number of excellent phones, some with gigantic screens. It's odd that it's gone flat. It's not just a U.S. phenomenon for Android, either.

When Andy Rubin stepped down, Google released new data on Android activations. While year-over-year growth remains spectacular, growth during the holiday season was relatively tepid.

We're not sure if this is a blip for Google, or the start of something bigger. We've seen Android have the occasional set back in the past.

chart android ios market share

SEE ALSO: Apple Is Preparing Major Changes To The iPhone's Software

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Scientists Can Read Dreams Using Brain Scans

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5993732/scientists-can-read-dreams-using-brain-scans

Scientists Can Read Dreams Using Brain ScansA team of scientists claim to have developed techniques which allows them to read dreams via brain scans—and it could help us better understand what goes on in the brain while we sleep.

The team of researchers, from the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, in Kyoto, have been performing MRI scans while people drift into early stages of sleep. Just after participants fall asleep, they are awoken and asked about what they have seen. Each tiny mental image—from bronze statues to ice picks—is recounted and recorded, and the entire process repeated 200 times for each participant.

That gives the scientists a database of images, linked with brain activity, which can be grouped together into similar visual categories. So, cars, trucks and buses might all be linked under the category of vehicles, for instance.

From there, the scientists were able to analyze brain activity while participants slept, and attempt to predict what they were dreaming about. The results, published in Science, show that the researchers could predict what volunteers were seeing—at least at the broad broad category level—with 60 percent accuracy. Not perfect, but pretty impressive. Professor Yukiyasu Kamitani, one of the researchers, explains to the BBC:

"We were able to reveal dream content from brain activity during sleep, which was consistent with the subjects' verbal reports. I had a strong belief that dream decoding should be possible at least for particular aspects of dreaming... I was not very surprised by the results, but excited."

But this is only the start. Crucially, the scientists have only so far considered light sleep—and now the researchers are particularly interested in studying more vivid dreams which occur during deeper sleep. Next stop, Inception. [Science via BBC]

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Turn a Raspberry Pi Into an Always-On Usenet Downloading Machine

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5993580/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-an-alway+on-usenet-downloading-machine

Turn a Raspberry Pi Into an Always-On Usenet Downloading MachineOne of the nice things about the Raspberry Pi is the that it doesn't require a lot of power to run. This means you can leave it on all day long without it putting a dent in your electricity bill. To take advantage of that, How-To Geek has a guide for using your Raspberry Pi as an always-on Usenet machine.

The setup hinges on SABnzbd, and includes setting it up to start automatically, UNRAR files as they come in, and sending all the files over to an external harddrive. The nice thing is that you can tap into SABnzbd with a mobile app so that you don't ever really need to look at your Raspberry Pi. If you're a big Usenet user who consumes a lot of power with a desktop PC that's always on and downloading, this low-powered solution is certainly worth a look. If you need a little primer on how Usenet works, check out our guide. Head over to How-To Geek for the full guide.

How to Turn a Raspberry Pi into an Always-On Usenet Machine | How-To Geek

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Asus Ai Charger Quickly Charges Your iPhone or iPad Over a Regular USB Port

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5993609/asus-ai-charger-quickly-charges-your-iphone-or-ipad-over-a-regular-usb-port

Asus Ai Charger Quickly Charges Your iPhone or iPad Over a Regular USB PortWindows: Asus's Ai Charger is a free utility that finally lets you charge the iPad from your PC's USB port, which otherwise doesn't offer enough juice to charge the tablet. Ai Charger also promises to charge iPhones and iPods 50 percent faster using standard USB ports.

Blogger Matthew Hunt posted this chart comparing charging time for the iPhone 5 with Ai Charger versus USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and the wall charger. In this test, Ai Charger is about as fast as the wall charger!
Asus Ai Charger Quickly Charges Your iPhone or iPad Over a Regular USB Port

Ai Charger apparently works by sending up to 1.2A through the USB port, so charging your iPad via USB won't be quite as fast as through a wall charger. Still, this means you can travel with your laptop and iPad and leave behind the power brick if you want to.

Asus says the Ai Charger works with all motherboards and systems, but because it's hacking the power going through the USB port, this is a use-at-your-own-risk utility and your mileage may vary. After installing Ai Charger on my Dell laptop, my iPad went from "Not Charging" to charging up. Some folks over on XDA Developers are even reporting the utility works on some non-Apple devices.

Asus Ai Charger | via PCWorld

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HTC One $649 64GB Developer Edition pre-orders start at 10AM ET, ship later this month

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/05/htc-one-developer-edition-pre-order/

Last month HTC announced the SIM and bootloader unlocked Developer Edition of its new One would be available at the same time as regular carrier versions, and it's held to that promise. Tonight it tweeted pre-orders will begin the morning of April 5th at 7AM PT / 10AM ET, a day after AT&T's list opened and the same day as Sprint. While there was no mention of ship or regular sale date, Android and Me reports being told by company reps at today's Facebook event that sales will begin April 19th, which it confirmed to us in a subsequent tweet. We're sure you'll cherish the hours / days left to decide if parting with $649 is worth having that 64GB metal-backed wonder (no, it is not transparent, this is just a rendering) to yourself without the phone company's interference.

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Source: HTCdev (Twitter), Android and Me

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Thursday, April 04, 2013

Scientists Use 3D Printer To Make Tissue-Like Material

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-use-3d-printer-to-make-tissue-like-material-2013-4

3d printer

British scientists have used a custom-made 3D printer to make living tissue-like material that could one day serve medical purposes, according to findings released Thursday.

The material is made up of thousands of connected water droplets, encapsulated within lipid films, that can carry out some of the functions of human cells.

These "droplet networks" could be the building blocks of a new technology used to pass on drugs and, down the road, could even replace damaged tissue, said a statement from Oxford University, where the scientists are based. Their findings were published in Friday's issue of the US journal Science.

Since the so-called droplet networks are completely synthetic, don't have a genome and and don't replicate, they lack the problems linked with other methods of creating artificial tissues — such as those using stem cells.

"We aren't trying to make materials that faithfully resemble tissues but rather structures that can carry out the functions of tissues," Hagan Bayley, a professor at Oxford's Chemistry Department who headed the research, said in a statement.

"The droplets can be printed with protein pores to form pathways through the network that mimic nerves and are able to transmit electrical signals from one side of a network to the other."

According to fellow Oxford scientist Gabriel Villar, "the printed structures could in principle employ much of the biological machinery that enables the sophisticated behavior of living cells and tissues."

Each droplet measures about 50 microns in diameter (0.05 millimeters), or about five times the size of living cells. However, the researchers believe "there is no reason why they could not be made smaller."

This synthetic material can be designed to take on different shapes once printed.

!

In t his way, a flat shape can be programmed to fold itself into a "hollow ball," the statement said.

As for the 3D printer used, it was custom built at Oxford.

In February, researchers said they had engineered artificial human ears that look and act like the real thing thanks to 3D printing.

Cornell biomedical engineers and Weill Cornell Medical College physicians said the flexible ears grew cartilage over three months to replace the collagen used to mold them.

Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

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Fwd: Phones


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ComScore: Apple up to 39 percent US smartphone share in February, Android on top at 52 percent

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/04/comscore-february-2013/

ComScore Apple was up to 39 percent smartphone share in February, Android on top at 52 percent

While there's no question that Android is thriving on the global scale, the situation is a little more complicated in the US when looking at ComScore's market share data for February. The platform is still comfortably ahead in the American smartphone sphere at 51.7 percent, but the figure represents the second consecutive dip in recent months, and roughly matches share that we saw back in June. Apple is headed in the opposite direction and appears to be the main beneficiary of Google's drop, albeit at a less-than-breakneck pace: the iPhone continued a gradual climb in February that put it at 38.9 percent. We're not surprised that BlackBerry declined once more in its last month before the Z10 reached the US, although Microsoft will be happy to hear that Windows Phone inched forward again to 3.2 percent.

Among individual smartphone makers, it's more of a familiar story. Apple's platform control gave it the lead at 38.9 percent, while Samsung at 21.3 percent was hovering roughly around the same share it had in January. As for everyone else? It's a bit ugly, to be honest. HTC, Motorola and LG all lost share in February, leaving the US ! firmly i n a two-horse race. That said, we wouldn't be surprised if the market plays a different tune around April and May: with 2013 Android flagships like the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4 just around the corner, there's room for a potential upset.

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Source: ComScore

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The Major Mobile Announcement Facebook Just Made Explained In A Single Graphic

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-major-mobile-announcement-facebook-just-made-explained-in-a-single-graphic-2013-4

Mark Zuckerberg swore his team wasn't making a Facebook phone. But today, he greeted a room full of press in Menlo Park with a different message.

"Today we're finally going to talk about that Facebook phone," the social network's CEO said. 

But by "Facebook phone," Zuckerberg doesn't mean actual hardware. Instead his team created Home, a concept that changes the "soul of the phone," the home screen.

"What would it feel like if our phones were designed around people, not apps?" Zuckerberg asked the audience. 

"We're not building a phone. We're not building a new MP3 player. And we're not building a new internet communication device," Zuckerberg said.

Instead, Facebook Home appears the moment you turn on your phone or wake it up from stand-by mode (Zuckerberg says people turn on their phones an average of 100 times per day).

Facebook Home doesn't display the typical static background photo. It shows story after story posted by friends to Facebook or Instagram in real-time. It displays status updates, photos, and other open graph stories with large images. 

Below is a graphic that simply explains what Facebook Home is. It's an integration on top of Android's Operating System but beneath the app icon layer we're all used to seeing on our smart phones.

Facebook has built the first home screen that comes to life, and updates in real time.

Facebook Android Layer

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