Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, December 11, 2008

GotReception Maps Cellphone Coverage [Cell Phones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Jz55JTzayx8/gotreception-maps-cellphone-coverage

GotReception is a user driven map of cellphone reception strength. Users can login and submit reviews of the location they are at and the cellphone reception they are recieving there. GotReception then compiles the results of the thousands of user submissiosn into a cloud style map showing the clusters of good reception for the carrier you search for. The sample map in the screenshot above shows coverage for the five major carriers in Detroit. You can look at all of them to get an idea of where they overlap and which have the greatest reach, or par it down to just the carrier you are interested in. For another cellphone coverage tracking service, check out Signal Map.

GotReception? [via GeekSugar]

LimeWire 5 Alpha Adds Private Peer-to-Peer File Sharing, Integrates with Gmail [Early Adopter Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/my-wIMXom4Q/limewire-5-alpha-adds-private-peer+to+peer-file-sharing-integrates-with-gmail

Windows/Mac/Linux: Despite the rising popularity of BitTorrent, for many people there's still just one name in file sharing: LimeWire.

The widely used LimeWire actually does support BitTorrent these days, and yesterday, LimeWire released an alpha version of the new and improved LimeWire 5, adding private file sharing features that will allow user to privately share folders with friends. As Wired is quick to point out, LimeWire 5 still supports the downloading from strangers features that made LimeWire popular, but the new default settings publicly shares only files you downloaded from the public network. You can specifically set permissions for all the rest, including which files you want to share and with whom you'd like to share them. How does it know who your private contacts are? Through your Gmail account, of course!

Actually, as of this writing, LimeWire 5 supports Gmail (along with any other Jabber account) and LiveJournal. Once you log in with your Gmail account, you'll see your friends in your sidebar. According to Wired, LimeWire is looking into importing friends from Facebook and other social sites. You can chat with any of your friends from inside LimeWire 5, tell them to go download and install the alpha, and then it's sharing time.

Once you've found a friend you want to share with, just pick the files you want to share and go nuts (assuming your friend has installed LimeWire 5). Head over to Wired's review for an extremely detailed rundown, or download the alpha and start sharing with your friends. LimeWire 5 Alpha is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's an alpha release, so you! should expect some bugs, but the homepage claims that the core LimeWire functionality is a-okay.

LimeWire 5 Alpha [via Wired]

Google Chrome Officially Leaves Beta [Featured Windows Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/s8KJHooYAIc/google-chrome-officially-leaves-beta

Windows only: Google's new web browser, Google Chrome, has officially left its beta tag in the dust, graduating to a full-fledged 1.0 release today (just 100 days after the initial release).

Yesterday we told you Google Chrome would be leaving beta soon, but we had no idea it would be this soon. According to the Official Google Blog:

We have removed the beta label as our goals for stability and performance have been met but our work is far from done. We are working to add some common browser features such as form autofill and RSS support in the near future. We are also developing an extensions platform along with support for Mac and Linux.

Good news all around for folks excited about what Google Chrome has to offer. If you've been waiting to try it out until Chrome dropped the beta tag, check out our power user's guide to Google Chrome. Still a Firefox die-hard but like a few of Chrome's better features? Here's how to enable Chrome's best features in Fireox.

Google Chrome [via Official Google Blog]

8 Machines That Can Assemble Themselves [Self-assembling Machines]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/nouiPEGX0wU/8-machines-that-can-assemble-themselves

Ever find that "some assembly required" doesn't quite encapsulate the enormity of the task? Perhaps one day we will have gadgets that can assemble themselves, like the eight machines illustrated in this OObject list. [OObject]

Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 Graphics Card Is Insane: Two GTX 260s Bolted Together [Gtx 295]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/UaqgyUD2Xts/nvidia-geforce-gtx-295-graphics-card-is-insane-two-gtx-260s-bolted-together

Tired of ATI ruling the uberidiculous end of the graphics card space, Nvidia is apparently striking back with its own super-stacked GTX295—it's basically two GTX 200 GPUs hot-glued together.

Expected to be unveiled at CES, the GTX 295 (nee GTX260 GX2) actually is made up of two print-circuit boards, and each one has a GTX 200 GPU, 240 stream processors, 448-bit memory bus and 896MB DDR3 memory. It's totally outrageous, in other words, and requires 289W of power, so I hope you've got a behemoth of a power supply.

The price, while unknown, will be proportionately juggernaut-sized, crushing your wallet. Since it's designed to beat ATI's Radeon HD 4870 X2, it'll likely fall in the same price range, probably around or slightly north of $500. It could swing cheaper though, since Nvidia's current high-end card, the GTX 280, is trending south of $400 at the moment. Guess we'll see, but I can't afford it either way.

Oh, and first person to ask "will it run Crysis?" is banned. I'm not kidding. [Expreview via X-bit Labs]

RC Helicopter Modded 45 Caliber Handgun Will Probably End In Disaster [Gadgets]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/EiTV8Q2W6Io/rc-helicopter-modded-45-caliber-handgun-will-probably-end-in-disaster

This modded Bergen Gasser EB remote-controlled helicopter has a handgun on its nose. Yes. A handgun. And as you can see in the video, it can also be fired remotely.

On its own, the Gasser EB is a mean, noisy machine. At 54 inches long, it's equipped with a 34.5-inch (800-millimeter) blade, and a gasoline engine powerful enough to resist the drag of a hefty handgun. Which is precisely what the owner of this beast, Jim Simmons, added to it: A Springfield 1911-A .45 caliber weapon.

Simmons also added a remote-controlled firing system. And if you think that's pretty stupid because the pilot on the ground won't be able to aim, think again: He also added a gun-sight digital camera. In other words: This is a fully-armed mini-UAV, which you can actually use to fly anywhere, aim, and fire at whatever target you want.

Yeah, this is exactly how documentaries about loads of dead people start. Or maybe not people, but polar bears and elks.

Dear Santa,

I didn't get the VP job, but can you please bring me this RC Helicopter with .45 caliber handgun?

Thank you and merry Xmas,

xxxooo
Sarah

[LiveLeak]

iPhone Copy and Paste Now Working Between Safari and Mail [Apple]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/el7QulsfrBM/iphone-copy-and-paste-now-working-between-safari-and-mail

Finally, someone has conceived a way to copy and paste text from Safari to Mail, and between web pages. And this time, it doesn't require any software installation and it's legal:

Unlike other approaches, it works with the two apps that matter most, Mail and Safari, and gets around Apple's onerous App Store terms through a clever combination of javascript bookmarks and web services.

In fact, it doesn't require anything to be installed, so it avoids the App Store altogether. As you can see in the video, Pastebud—as the service is called—works using two bookmarks in Safari. One prepares and loads the page you are viewing, ready to select text at the touch of a finger. From there, you can copy any text you want and create a new mail message with that text in it. In addition to that, you will be able to copy and paste in the text field of a different web page.

While this is not full copy and paste capabilities, I, for one, welcome the ability do exactly this, which is basically what I want to do 95% of the time. According to Jed Schmidt, creator of Pastebud, they have been testing it for about a week and they are now "putting the finishing touches on the web site before launch".

Nikon D400 DSLR Spec List Claims 14.8MP Sensor, 1080p HD Video [Nikon]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/x3sfHjIs8L0/nikon-d400-dslr-spec-list-claims-148mp-sensor-1080p-hd-video

Nikon just announced the D3x, and popped out the D700 a little bit ago, so next to be updated is the D300, right? Here are the first round of supposed specs for the D400.

Nikon Rumors got these specs as anonymous tip—anonymous comment, actually—so the standard caveats apply, BUT they do look fairly plausible, and fall in line with what Nikon's been up to lately. The most significant update is the addition of the rumored 1080p 24fps video recording, a whack back at Canon's 5D Mark II, whose video capabilities have blown us away again and again. Of course, we'll have to wait and see how good it actually looks. (Here's why DSLR video is finally happening, if you're curious.)

The rest is fairly expectable with a mix of current Nikon features and new specs—14.8MP DX sensor, but I'm hoping it'll be more D700-like in the noise department—and $2000 seems about right as the price tag, though $1800 would be more aggressive.

* New 14.8 megapixel DX format CMOS sensor effective 14.3 megapixel
* Self-cleaning sensor unit (low-pass filter vibration)
* ISO 100 - 6400 (with boost up to ISO 25600 and down to ISO 50)
* 14-bit A/D conversion
* Movie capture at up to 1080p 24 fps with stereo sound
* Nikon EXPEED Plus image processor 30% faster than previous EXPEED image processor
* Super fast operation (power-up 13 ms, shutter lag 40 ms, black-out 90 ! ms)
* Kevlar / carbon fibre composite shutter with 200,000 exposure durability
* Multi-CAM3500DX Auto Focus sensor (51-point, 15 cross-type, more vertical coverage)
* Auto-focus tracking by color (using information from 1005-pixel AE sensor)
* Auto-focus calibration (fine-tuning) now available (fixed body or up to 20 separate lens settings)
* Vignetting control in-camera
* Automatic chromatic aberration correction
* Custom image parameters now support brightness as well as contrast
* Seven frames per second continuous shooting (nine frames per second with battery pack)
* 3.0″ 922,000 pixel LCD monitor
* Live View with either phase detect (mirror up/down) or contrast-detect AF, face detection
* 'Active D-Lighting' (adjusts metering as well as applying D-Lighting curve)
* Detailed 'Control Panel' type display on LCD monitor, changes color in darkness
* Buttons sealed against moisture
* Same ultra-fast startup and shutter lag as D700
* Scene Recognition System (uses AE sensor, AF sensor)
* Picture Control image parameter presets
* UDMA compatible single CF card slot
* Virtual horizon indicates if camera is level (like an aircraft cockpit display)
* Extensive in-camera retouching
* HDMI HD video output
* Magnesium alloy body with connections and buttons sealed against moisture