Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook: 3/13/11

Friday, March 18, 2011

#RutgersCMD - consistent theme from presentations is a focus on content and cadence of dissemination - right on!

#RutgersCMD - relationships can be created starting with one tweet; can you provide enough value to sustain them?

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Whoa! Your New iPad Will Stick To Your Fridge [Ipad2]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5782954/whoa-your-new-ipad-will-stick-to-your-fridge

Provided your new iPad is attached to its magnetical Smart Cover, it'll cling on to your refrigerator like a spider monkey to a tree branch. Or like something magnetic to something metal. It's true! That's my iPad sticking to my fridge this very morning. It seems like it's all being held up by the magnets on the flap of the Smart Cover, and I must say it feels surprisingly secure—I could definitely use it as a reference while cooking (read: doing FaceTime with my Mom while she tells me how to cook) without being too worried about slippage. Disclaimer: don't do this at home, because maybe your refrigerator isn't as magnet-friendly as mine, or maybe you're clumsy, or I don't really know, just know that I'm in no way responsible if you break your iPad trying to use it as a giant refrigerator magnet. [9to5Mac]

Samsung shows off 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV prototype

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/17/samsung-shows-off-55-inch-glasses-free-3d-tv-prototype/

Samsung hasn't exactly been as big on glasses-free 3D TVs as some other manufacturers in recent years, but it's now showing one off at the FPD China trade show -- or a prototype of one, anyway. According to Tech-On!, the 55-inch display is able to accomodate nine different viewpoints for glass-free 3D viewing, and it can be switched into a 2D mode at any time, which works by changing the optical refraction index of an LCD panel that sits on top of the main LCD that's actually used to display images. Right now, the prototype is also relying on a direct-lit CCFL backlight, although Samsung notes that would likely be replaced with an LED backlight before it actually hits the market -- something that's still a good three years away.

Samsung shows off 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Tech-On! | Email this | Comments

Tesla Model S will support third-party apps and text-to-voice, red lights will never be the same

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/17/tesla-model-s-will-support-third-party-apps-and-text-to-voice-r/

Now that pretty much every gizmo from your smartphone to TV has apps available for it, what's the next logical frontier? Of course, your car! Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Cleantech Forum attendees in San Francisco that the upcoming Model S would indeed come with support for third-party applications to run on that monster 17-inch infotainment console. We're happy to see the company encouraging developers to put that Tegra chip to good use, though we can't help but worry about the myriad distractions that could come along with it. Of course, we're still in the dark about what OS is powering the whole shebang, but we're sure there will be a port of Angry Birds before you can come to a complete stop.

Tesla Model S will support third-party apps and text-to-voice, red lights will never be the same originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

SlashGear | source

VentureBeat | Email this | Comments

Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/17/lynx-augmented-reality-stunt-drops-scantly-clad-angels-on-terres/

It isn't exactly a spring chicken, nor is it particularly new to the advertising game -- Best Buy utilized the stuff back in 2009 to push electronics -- but a new ad campaign from manly body spray purveyor Lynx (Axe in the US) is making augmented reality nearly unavoidable. Created by BBH, a global ad agency, the video below shows travelers at London's Victoria train station staring up at a giant screen to find themselves greeted by a skimpily attired fallen angel. The stunt, launched on March 6, drew a lot of attention from passersby, and in more than one instance elicited some pretty, well, bold behavior. Up until now, augmented reality has mostly been a play thing of the geek set -- even previous advertisements enlisting such tactics required a decent amount of work from the audience -- but if these fallen angels are any sign, we could all be traversing a more unreal world very soon.

[Thanks, Ben]

Continue reading Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video)

Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Monday, March 14, 2011

Four Out of Five of Toddlers Use the Internet [Factoid]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5781878/four-out-of-five-of-toddlers-use-the-internet

Four Out of Five of Toddlers Use the Internet Apparently 80% of children age five and under are active internet users, according to a recent study. So that's where all those illiterate YouTube comments come from! Snark aside, there's nothing inherently wrong with kids that young being online, so long as what they're watching is heavily supervised. And given the motor abilities of your basic pre-schooler, I'm guessing they're not typing in too many URLs on their own. [Mashable]

Google VP lays down mobile stats, boasts 150 million Maps users

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/google-vp-lays-down-mobile-stats-boasts-150-million-maps-users/

Care for a cup of Google data, anyone? At SXSW, the vice president of location services, Marissa Mayer, stated some interesting facts about the state of all things mobile at the Goog. Most notably, the company provides its map service to 150 million users. Just to give you an idea of how many peeps that is -- it's about half the number of individuals in America. Crazy, we know. What's more, Mayer claimed that Google Maps guided users 12 billion miles per year and that its latest build of the app saves people an average of two days worth of travel time each year. Another bit worth noting is how the company feels about Google Maps for iPhone. "We like being the default provider, but we'd like to get some of these updates out to a broader audience. That's still a debate / question we're considering." Updates? An actual Google Maps application that works as a GPS on an iPhone? Wake us up when iOS 5 is previewed, or we can just keep dreaming.

Google VP lays down mobile stats, boasts 150 million Maps users originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

BGR | Email this | Comments

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/berkeley-lab-scientists-create-nanocrystal-hydrogen-storage-matr/

If you could run your celly on hydrogen you'd have power for days and days -- but, you'd also need to lug around a high-pressure tank to store the stuff. That's no fun, and that's why we're still using Li-ion batteries and the like. But, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory look to have found a way to possibly ditch the tank, creating a gas-barrier polymer matrix out of polymethyl methacrylate, allowing the H2 gas in but keeping oxygen and everything else out. That matrix contains magnesium nanocrystals that react with the hydrogen to form MgH2, enabling safe, (relatively) low-pressure storage. The H2 can then be released again and the magnesium nanocrystals are freed to bond with another batch of H2 when refilled. It sounds a little like the Cella Energy hydrogen storage solution, but a bit more promising if we're honest. Now for the long, painful wait for this to come to production.

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

PhysOrg | source

Nature Materials | Email this | Comments

MIT's Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/mits-junkyard-jumbotron-turns-your-motley-collection-of-devices/

Got a handful of mobile devices layin' 'round when what you actually need is one large display? The kids at the MIT Center for Future Civic Media got you covered! The Junkyard Jumbotron, designed by Rick Borovoy, Ph.D. and Brian Knep, is an ingenious project that makes stretching an image across damn near any collection of displays with web browsers. When you assemble the displays (such as in the picture above), the Junkyard Jumbotron website will ask you to point them all to the same URL. This will cause each device to load the same QR code, which -- once you snap a digital pic and email it to the project -- will allow it to calibrate and stretch a JPEG across your assemblage. It certainly does look like something scrounged up at a junkyard, doesn't it? Well, sometimes that's part of the fun. Hit the source link to try it for yourself. Video after the break.

Continue reading MIT's Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video)

MIT's Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Gizmodo ! | source

Junkyard Jumbotron | Email this | Comments

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer passes through the FCC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/asus-eee-pad-transformer-passes-through-the-fcc/

Well, it hasn't reached Eee PC levels of confusion just yet, but it looks like ASUS's Eee Pad line is well on its way to filling store shelves with numerous different models. One of those has now hit the FCC under the guise of the Eee Pad TF101, although it's also referred to as the EP101 in some of the documents. Assuming nothing has changed with ASUS' naming scheme (always a possibility), that would peg it as the Transformer -- a tablet / keyboard dock combo that we first got our hands on back at CES (and later at CeBIT). Unfortunately, ASUS wasn't able to give us a release date then, and that still hasn't changed, although the FCC certification does certainly suggest that it could be coming sooner rather than later.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer passes through the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Wireless Goodness, FCC | Email this | Comments

Wirefly: 'no Skype' on Thunderbolt, but simultaneous 3G voice and data is a go; ships on March 17th

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/wirefly-no-skype-on-thunderbolt-but-simultaneous-3g-voice-an/

Wireless retailer Wirefly is pushing ahead with pre-orders for the beleaguered HTC Thunderbolt starting at midnight Pacific Time this evening with the promise that they'll start shipping this Thursday, the 17th; that lines up with a whole lot of noise we've heard recently, so we can't really argue with it at this point. They're also confirming a couple rumors that have been floating around since the phone's January debut: first, they're saying "no Skype," which we're taking to mean that the promised Skype video calling app won't be installed out of the box. We're also assuming (or at least hoping) that you'll be able to install the standard voice-only version. Secondly, they're saying that the phone definitely does simultaneous voice and data over 3G, a feature that was just recently made possible on Verizon's CDMA network through software upgrades -- and the Thunderbolt, it seems, will be the first retail device to have the pleasure of taking it for a spin.

Wirefly: 'no Skype' on Thunderbolt, but simultaneous 3G voice and data is a go; ships on March 17th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Wirefly | Email this | Comments

iPad 2 specs discerned, 900MHz dual-core ARM CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU blow away graphical benchmarks

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/12/ipad-2-specs-discerned-900mhz-arm-cortex-a9-and-powervr-sgx543m/

iFixit may have physically uncovered Apple's latest silicon, but it's the processor gurus that have discovered what's truly inside -- using software benchmarks, they've unearthed the speeds and feeds of the Apple A5. As you'll no doubt be aware having read our headline above, there actually isn't a 1GHz CPU at the helm, as AnandTech and IOSnoops report the dual-core ARM chip is dynamically clocked around 900MHz, likely in search of reduced power consumption. Perhaps more interestingly for all you gamers in the audience, the iPad 2 reports that it has a dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU on the die as originally foretold -- and, spoiler alert -- it mops the floor with both the original iPad and the Motorola Xoom. Though the new chip didn't quite demonstrate 9X the graphical prowess of its predecessor, it rendered 57.6 frames per second in a GLBenchmark test where the (admittedly higher-res) Tegra 2 tablet managed only 26.7fps, and last year's iPad pulled only 17.6fps. That's some serious Tai Chi. Hit up our source links to see the difference it can make in games like Infinity Blade.

Update: Though it sure sounds like there's a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 in there, that's not yet a proven fact -- we only know that it's a dual-core ARM v7 chip which performs relatively similarly in non-graphical tests. [Thanks, Jim]

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

iPad 2 specs discerned, 900MHz dual-core ARM CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU blow away graphical benchmarks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

AnandTech (1), (2) | Email this | Comments

Google ships last Cr-48 laptop 'for now,' partner Chrome OS devices still on track for summer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/13/google-ships-last-cr-48-laptop-partner-chrome-os-devices-still/

The very same gentleman that introduced us to Google's Cr-48 laptop, Product Management VP Sundar Pichai, has disclosed the unfortunate news that Google has shipped the last of them, at least "for now." The next opportunity to catch a ticket to ride the Chrome OS bandwagon will come in the middle of this year, as promised, with devices from Acer and Samsung coming to market. Rumor had it that Google received about 60,000 Cr-48s from ODM Inventec back in December, though whatever the number of manufactured units was, the fact is that it's now been fully depleted. We'd urge Google's partners not to stray too far away from the Cr-48 template in the summer -- we're huge fans of its minimalist good looks, even if the OS itself could do with a few more layers of spit, polish and features.

Continue reading Google ships last Cr-48 laptop 'for now,' partner Chrome OS devices still on track for summer

Google ships last Cr-48 laptop 'for now,' partner Chrome OS devices still on track for summer originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Mar 2011 12:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

thechromesource | source

@sundarpichai (Twitter) | Email this | Comments

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 showcased on video, doesn't look all that inadequate to us

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-showcased-on-video-doesnt-look-all-tha/

We have no small amount of respect for Samsung for coming out and admitting that its Galaxy Tab 10.1 slate won't necessarily be the best thing since sliced Apples, but we wouldn't go so far as to describe it as "inadequate," which is what company VP Lee Don-Joo recently called it. It's a handsome, svelte and undeniably powerful device, a set of qualities that is in full show during AndroidHD's 11-minute long video of a day spent in the company of a Tab 10.1. Now, this isn't a hands-on video so much as a commercial made by someone other than Samsung. You can tell Sammy didn't author it because nobody tries to fit this Galaxy Tab inside a pocket. Jump after the break for the ocular feast.

[Thanks, Taylor]

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 showcased on video, doesn't look all that inadequate to us

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 showcased on video, doesn't look all that inadequate to us originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

AndroidHD | Email this | Comments

Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, March 18, 2011

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Whoa! Your New iPad Will Stick To Your Fridge [Ipad2]

Samsung shows off 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV prototype

Tesla Model S will support third-party apps and text-to-voice, red lights will never be the same

Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Four Out of Five of Toddlers Use the Internet [Factoid]

Google VP lays down mobile stats, boasts 150 million Maps users

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries

MIT's Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video)

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer passes through the FCC

Wirefly: 'no Skype' on Thunderbolt, but simultaneous 3G voice and data is a go; ships on March 17th

iPad 2 specs discerned, 900MHz dual-core ARM CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU blow away graphical benchmarks

Google ships last Cr-48 laptop 'for now,' partner Chrome OS devices still on track for summer

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 showcased on video, doesn't look all that inadequate to us

Recent Articles

Favorite Blogs

Blog Archive

Friday, March 18, 2011

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Monday, March 14, 2011

Subscribe To

Recent Articles

Favorite Blogs

Blog Archive