Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, April 24, 2014

drag2share: Amazon's Prime Pantry service lets you ship 45 pounds of groceries for a $6 fee

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/23/amazon-prime-pantry/

Amazon's dead-set on killing off the grocery store, with a same-day delivery service and even a Dash gadget for restocking items around the house. Now the retailer's going one step further, taking on Costco and Walmart with a new program called Prime Pantry. If you're a Prime member living in the 48 contiguous states, you can ship 45 pounds' worth of household essentials -- in "everyday sizes," not in bulk -- for a flat fee of $6. (Yes, that's on top of your Prime membership payment.) Amazon told us the items available include "popular soft drinks and bottled water, a new range of paper and laundry products in popular pack sizes, single boxes of breakfast cereal, potato chips, convenience-sized personal care products and more." Rumors about an Amazon Pantry service began circling late last year, and while the service is live now, the company hasn't formally announced it.

To help you stay within that weight limit, a virtual Amazon cardboard box will show you how much room is left. While you could easily fill a Prime Pantry box with obscene amounts of Fruit by the Foot and gummy bears, the program is especially attractive for customers who want to stock up on heavier and bulkier items that don't usually ship for free. Check out a video introduction below, and find more info at the source link.

Filed under: Internet, Amazon

Source: Amazon Prime Pantry

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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

drag2share: Here's The Difference Between Walmart America And Whole Foods America

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/states-where-walmart-and-whole-foods-are-dominant-2014-4

Walmart country and Whole Foods country are very different places.

Morgan Stanley is out with a retail "atlas" that breaks down retail stores by geography. Based on their data, we made the following maps showing the number of Walmarts and Whole Foods per one million people in each state.

Here's Walmart: You can see it absolutely dominates in the center of the country. Arkansas, where Walmart was born, has the most per capita, with Oklahoma a close second. Walmart is much less popular on the coasts.

walmarts per million people

Here's Whole Foods: It's not that big in the center of the country, but it's huge on the coasts. Colorado is also huge.

whole foods per million people

There are, of course, far more Walmarts than Whole Foods in each state overall, but it's fun to see where the stores are more and less concentrated. Bottom line: Whole Foods America is much more coastal, while WalMart America is much more central.

Here are tables showing the number and population-adjusted number of Walmarts and Whole Foods stores in each state:

walmart table

whole foods table

SEE ALSO: Here's How Stuff Gets Shipped Across America

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Monday, April 21, 2014

drag2share: Google Glass now displays your iPhone's text messages

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/21/google-glass-update-calendar-iphone-sms/

On the heels of last week's KitKat update, Google Glass nabbed up two more notable improvements today. First, iOS users can now have their text messages displayed on Glass, after a quick toggle of the Bluetooth settings. Here's the catch: "due to some limitations with iOS," you wont be able to reply to those messages directly from the headset. There's also a new Calendar Glassware that situates an agenda to the left of the home screen. Tapping a card in that timeline will allow you edit title, time, location and even RSVP. If you'd rather just skip those festivities altogether, you can delete events or hide them from view. Both of the new features are said to be rolling out to early adopters "in the next few days," so keep your eyes peeled.

Filed under: Wearables, Software, Mobile, Google

Source: Google Glass (G+)

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Sunday, April 20, 2014

drag2share: Rufus Cuff wants to dominate the wearable market and your forearm

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/19/rufus-cuff-wrist-monster/

We told you to put on your disappointment pants for the Galaxy Gear 2, but for the Rufus Cuff we suggest rolling up your absurdity sleeves. Seriously, given its three-inch screen you might just have to. This wearable boasts a built-in mic, a camera, a speaker, web browser, voice control, GPS and full access to the Google Play store -- if the Cuff sounds like a smartphone that straps to your wrist, well, that's basically what it is. It connects to your Android or iPhone via Bluetooth for mobile data, making calls and sending texts, but it's running a full version of Google's mobile OS and can hook on to WiFi if you're in a cellular dead-zone or if your phone's battery runs out.

While the gizmo doesn't exactly look practical (we're pretty sure that it won't play nice with the cuffs of a slim-cut oxford), as of this writing it's has raised over $150,000 of its $200,000 IndieGoGo goal, with a handful of days to go. If you dig the idea of strapping one of these monstrosities on your wrist, all it takes is a $249 pledge.

Filed under: Wearables, Mobile

Source: IndieGoGo

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Saturday, April 19, 2014

drag2share: Magic material is both a reflecting mirror and a see through window

Source: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/magic-material-is-both-a-reflecting-mirror-and-see-thro-1564985739/+caseychan

Magic material is both a reflecting mirror and a see through window

No, it's not a one way mirror. It's much cooler than that. MIT scientists have invented a new invisible mirror that can show reflections like a typical mirror but also be see through like a window. The magic is in the alternating 84 ultra thin layers typical glass and tantalum oxide. It's a mirror but when you spin it, it becomes transparent. Some light passes through, some light gets reflected.

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drag2share: Holy Cow, Another Crazy Meteor Caught on Russian Dashcam

Source: http://gizmodo.com/holy-cow-another-crazy-meteorite-caught-on-russian-das-1565040438

Holy Cow, Another Crazy Meteor Caught on Russian Dashcam

Last night, yet another eye-searing blue meteor screamed across the dark Russian sky. Lucky for us, Russia is the land of dashcams, meaning that yet again , we get a driver's seat view of the phenomenon. How do you say "wow" in Russian?

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drag2share: Google Is Planning A $100 Smartphone [Report] (GOOG)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-100-smartphone-2014-4

google nexus 5

Google is planning a low-budget smartphone that may retail for as little as $100, according to rumors coming from Taiwanese supply chain sources.

We saw the news on 9to5Google but you can read more about it here, too. Treat this info with skepticism: There's little more to go on.

Nonetheless, the rumor is enticing for several reasons.

First, Google is actually expected to launch the Nexus 6 later this year. That's the successor to its well-regarded (but modestly sold) Android flagship phone with a big screen.

Second, we saw recently these internal documents from Apple showing that the market is moving away from Apple's iPhone business, if that business is defined as $300+ phones with small screens. Apple sells the iPhone at around $700. Virtually all the growth in smartphone sales recently has been in the sub-$300 price range, and among large-screen phones. Apple knows its own customers actually complain about the price and screen size. So if Google was to bring out big-screen, high performance Android at the $100 level it could terrify Samsung and Apple.

The emphasis is on "could" here, because profits on such phones are tiny or non-existent. Only Apple and Samsung actually make profits selling phones. So a $100 Google phone would be a money-loser for Google.

Third, all the buzz at Mobile World Congress back in March was about the $35 C! hinese A ndroid business. It's not that anyone thinks these things are going to catch fire in the U.S. or Europe. Rather, it's the principle of the thing: You can make a moderately good Android and sell it for $35. So why should anyone pay $700 for an iPhone or a Galaxy S5 (which retails at about $660)?

Fourth, and this is the most speculative part of the whole thing, a $100 high-quality Android would look especially enticing in the U.S. market if Apple did actually pursue the rumored — and suicidal? — plan of raising the price of the iPhone 6 to nearer $800.

At that point, consumers would be faced with a choice of the "best" phone for ~$800 and what could be the second best phone for $100.

Here's the rumor from Taiwan:

According to the source’s “trusted insiders from Taiwan supply chains”, Google has now teamed up with the chip maker “MediaTek” in order to build a very low priced smartphone. The handset would supposedly hit the shelves at prices as low as $100!

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drag2share: This Military Robot Can Jump From The Sidewalk Onto A Roof

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/boston-dynamics-sand-flea-jumping-robot-2014-4

Meet the Sand Flea:

sand flea

Google-owned robotics company Boston Dynamics makes a number of stunning robots, perhaps most notably its Atlas humanoid and the "Big Dog" cargo-carrying robot.

But the "Sand Flea," weighing in at a mere 11 pounds (compared to Atlas' 330 pounds) can do something that none of these others can. It can jump, and it can jump high.

It moves along the ground like a remote control car, but when the operator wants to get airborne, the Sand Flea props itself up at an angle and fires a piston into the ground that sends the robot hurtling forward through the air at heights of up to 30 feet. That's high enough to jump onto the roof of an average house from the ground.

It's not all about height, however. Boston Dynamics boasts that this thing is also handy for "precision hops through windows or doors, on to tables," even up staircases. Developed with funding from the U.S. Army's Rapid Equipping Force, it's plain to see that this robot could be a handy surveillance bot that can get itself into otherwise inaccessible locations.

Check out the full video below:

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drag2share: Google Trends email alerts will guarantee you never miss another cat meme

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/19/google-trends-email-notifications/

You can always swing by Google Trends if you want to gauge the popularity of a given search, but visiting that website every time can be a hassle. Thankfully, there's now an easier way: Google has added a subscription option that sends email notifications when there are changes in the interest levels for most searches, including hot searches, specific topics and the top US charts. If you want to see how long an internet meme survives or find out when your favorite team is creating a lot of buzz, you just have to visit Trends' subscription area to get started.

Google Trends in email

Filed under: Internet, Google

Source: Inside Search, Google Trends

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drag2share: AllCast's screen-mirroring magic arrives on Amazon's Fire TV App Store

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/19/allcast-android-app-amazon-fire-tv/

Been putting off sideloading AllCast's SDK to your brand new Amazon Fire TV? Well, friend, your procrastination has paid off. Now, all you have to do to install the casting and screen-mirroring app is download it straight from the Amazon App Store. So long as you also have AllCast installed on an Android device, you can beam photos, videos and music from your phone or tablet to Amazon's set-top box. Plus, you can use the app to view images and videos saved on Google+ and Dropbox. If you don't plan to pick up a Fire TV (waiting for the second one, eh?), you can still use AllCast with a number of other devices, including Chromecast, Xbox One, Roku, Apple TV and a smattering of smart TVs.

Filed under: Household, HD, Amazon

Source: Koushik Dutta (Google+), Amazon

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drag2share: Nike Has Fired Most Of Its FuelBand Team And Will Stop Making Wearable Devices

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/nike-fires-fuelband-team-2014-4

nike fuelband

There have been rumors that Nike will stop making its FuelBand wearable device, and now it looks like the rumors have come true.

A person familiar with Nike's plans confirmed to CNET that the company will get out of the fitness band business and will stick with software, such as the Nike+ app for the iPhone.

"As a fast-paced, global business we continually align resources with business priorities," Nike spokesman Brian Strong tells CNET. "As our Digital Sport priorities evolve, we expect to make changes within the team, and there will be a small number of layoffs. We do not comment on individual employment matters."

As many as 55 people of the 70-person hardware team, part of the larger Digital Sport division, were let go on Thursday, according to CNET's source.

It seems obvious that Nike would jump out of the hardware game right now, with the upcoming iWatch on its way, as well as wearable Android devices, such as Samsung's Gear Fit, flooding the market.

But as CNET reports:

As Apple enters the fray, Nike has a potential partner. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was seen wearing a FuelBand at the company's launch of the in October of 2012, sits on Nike's board, and has for the last nine years. That relationship has been fruitful over the years, helping Nike enter the wearable market as early as 2006, with the Nike+iPod shoe sensor package, with a strong brand partner.

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Friday, April 18, 2014

drag2share: Satellite photo shows giant, monster-like biological shape at Loch Ness

Source: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/satellite-photo-show-giant-monster-like-biological-sha-1564884841/+caseychan

Satellite photo shows giant, monster-like biological shape at Loch Ness

Is that the Loch Ness monster in this satellite photo used by Apple Maps? Or at least something that looks like a giant biological form underwater? It's strangely similar to the shape spotted in Google's satellite imagery. Could it really be an underwater creature, a long-forgotten aquatic dinosaur?

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drag2share: 7 Charming and Wacky Treehouses You Can Rent For a Night in the Forest

Source: http://gizmodo.com/7-charming-and-wacky-treehouses-you-can-rent-for-a-nigh-1563869303

7 Charming and Wacky Treehouses You Can Rent For a Night in the Forest

At Treehotel in the north of Sweden, the rooms rise up like trees in an enchanted forest: a UFO, a mirrorcube, a giant bird's nest. It's some of your wildest childhood fantasies—brought to life by Swedish architects. So how did it all begin?

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Thursday, April 17, 2014

drag2share: Hadoop analytics startup Karmasphere sells itself to FICO

Source: http://gigaom.com/2014/04/17/hadoop-analytics-startup-karmasphere-sells-itself-to-fico/

The Fair Isaac Corporation, better known as FICO, has acquired the intellectual property of Hadoop startup Karmasphere. Karmasphere launched in 2010, and was one of the first companies to push the idea of an easy, visual interface for analyzing Hadoop data, and even analyzing it using traditional SQL queries.

According to a press release announcing the acquisition, Karmasphere’s technology will be folded into FICO Analytic Cloud service, which lets users analyze consumer credit data. Martin Hall, Karmasphere’s founder, will join FICO. I have reached out to Karmasphere for further details about the acquisition.

A screenshot of the Karmasphere product.

A screenshot of the Karmasphere product.

From the outside, though, the deal looks like a fire sale. I began hearing questions about the company’s future in early 2013 after some key executive departures, although the company did still release a new version of its analytics software in June. Karmasphere had raised $14.5 million in venture capital from Hummer Winblad, US Venture Partners and Presidio Ventures, but the last round was only a partial close ($3.5 million out of the $5 million it was looking for) in December 2012.

When I asked Hummer Winblad Managing Director Mitchell Kertzman (whose firm was one of Karmasphere’s main investors) about the fate of Karmasphere on the Structure Show podcast in November, he had this to say:

“To some extent, I think what happened in that space was real Hadoop adoption happened slowly … In other words, if Hadoop had really taken off … then the bet [on Karmapshere] would have gotten to market faster. Since Hadoop wasn’t being adopted as fast, then tools for Hadoop weren’t being required as fast.”

That’s a fair point. By the time the idea of real interactive analytics on Hadoop data really took off, there were newer, shinier options such as Datameer and Platfora available. Popular tools such as Tableau began connecting nicely with Hadoop, too, and the Hadoop community helped improve that story with SQL query engines that sped up backend processing.

Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:
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drag2share: Twitterâs data grants will be used to research food poisoning, cancer, happiness

Source: http://gigaom.com/2014/04/17/twitters-data-grants-will-be-used-to-research-food-poisoning-cancer-happiness/

Twitter announced on Thursday the six winners of the data grants program that the social networking platform announced in February. The winning researchers will get access to the entire history of tweets to search for posts relevant to their studies.

Here is the list of winners and winning projects, as described by Twitter:

Harvard Medical School / Boston Children’s Hospital (US): Foodborne Gastrointestinal Illness Surveillance using Twitter Data

NICT (Japan): Disaster Information Analysis System

University of Twente (Netherlands): The Diffusion And Effectiveness of Cancer Early Detection Campaigns on Twitter

UCSD (US): Do happy people take happy images? Measuring happiness of cities

University of Wollongong (Australia): Using GeoSocial Intelligence to Model Urban Flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia

University of East London (UK): Exploring the relationship between Tweets and Sports Team Performance

However, as interesting as these projects might be, they represent just a small fraction of the types of questions that could be researched using data from Twitter and other social networking sites. As I wrote when Twitter announced its grant program, there’s a bit of tension between researchers who want access to data and companies that want — often for good reason — to keep it largely under wraps. For this program alone, Twitter says it received more than 1,300 submissions.

Gnip, which Twitter bought this week and which runs a service around letting users access social data, is supplying the data for the grant recipients. One can only imagine the volumes of data they’ll be receiving: Gnip recently supplied me with one month worth of bitcoin-related tweets, which numbered more than 1.3 million and spanned dozens of metadata categories. Measuring tweets about sports for any prolonged period? Ouch.

Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:
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