Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Google's New Indexing System Is Fully Caffeinated [Google]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5559015/googles-new-indexing-system-is-fully-caffeinated

Google's New Indexing System Is Fully CaffeinatedGoogle's latest web indexing system, the tool that pre-scans the entire web to have a ready answer to your search query, promises "50 percent fresher results for web searches." It's called Caffeine. And it comes with staggering Google search stats.

The main difference with Caffeine is that, rather than search one entire group of sites (represented in that lead graphic as a layer), then another, less prioritized group of sites, then yet another less prioritized group of sites, everything with the Caffeine algorithm is pretty much indexed constantly. Teased for several months now, Caffeine is the sort of update Google needs to follow the pace of searching services like Twitter. And indeed, Google will need to maintain/continue such innovations to keep up—our world is translated from analog to digital in more, quicker ways every day.

So now for those wicked Google stats:

• Every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel.
• If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second
• Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database
• Caffeine adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day.
• You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information
• If these iPods were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

[Google]

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Microscope Connects To iPads Wirelessly For Extreme Close-Up Views [Ipad Peripherals]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5559009/microscope-connects-to-ipads-wirelessly-for-extreme-close+up-views

Microscope Connects To iPads Wirelessly For Extreme Close-Up ViewsDesigned for the beauty and education industries, this microscope peripheral can connect to iPads wirelessly, displaying video and images of skin (or whatever else you shove under the microscope) zoomed up by 50 times.

It comes from Japanese company Scalar Corp, who hopes to sell 50,000 units this year. It's looking likely to cost just under $400 when it goes on sale in the US soon-ish, and has a compatible app which is already on the App Store. The AirMicro A1 microscope has a 5MP image sensor and 50x zoom lens, with the images transferring wirelessly to the iPad and displayed within the app, with the video shooting in 320 × 240 format at 15fps.

While it won't be for personal use it could definitely have its advantages in beauty clinics or schools. Going for a facial, for example, the beautician could show you just how bad your pores really are—though to be honest, I'd almost rather not know. [Tech-On]

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Macro Photography With the HTC Evo [Evo]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5559111/macro-photography-with-the-htc-evo

Macro Photography With the HTC EvoMagnetic cellphone lens attachments are admittedly ridiculous, but given that the HTC Evo has an 8MP camera (albeit sorta crappy), I can understand the draw. I mean, just look at what a macro Evo can do for some Fig Newtons:

Macro Photography With the HTC EvoNormal. Close-up. Macro lens.

Boom.

Good and Evo doesn't have a link to the particular magnetic macro lens they tested here, but they're probably right in suggesting that quality won't differ much generic manufacturer to generic manufacturer. Lenses cost about $30. [Ebay and Amazon via Good and Evo via Engadget]

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A HUD With Built-In Navigation Makes For a KITT-Worthy Windshield [Hud]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5559170/a-hud-with-built+in-navigation-makes-for-a-kitt+worthy-windshield

A HUD With Built-In Navigation Makes For a KITT-Worthy WindshieldIn-car GPS satellite navigation? Nothing special. A heads-up display for your windshield? Sure, we've seen that. But SpringTeq's WeGo HUD Navigator is the first to combine the two in one design.

The virtual image appears about 3.3 feet in front of the driver and measures 4.5 inches. The projector's 400x240 resolution and 13,000 cd/m2 brightness mean that it stays visible even in broad daylight, especially with the aid of an optical sensor that automatically adjusts brightness based on external conditions. Here's what else we know for sure:

• It runs Windows CE.
• It's got 2GB of built-in flash memory.
• It's dead sexy.

Additional pricing and availability info will come towards the end of the year, by which time we'll hopefully have some flying cars to put it in. And no, I don't think that's too much to ask. [GizMag]

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How-to: check your iPhone 4 upgrade eligibility

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/08/how-to-check-your-iphone-4-upgrade-eligibility/

AT&T's made it pretty clear how this upgrade sitch is going to go down for existing customers moving to an iPhone 4 on the 24th of the month, but if you want to double-check and make sure you're good to go (we can't blame you), there's an easy way that was briefly mentioned yesterday: dial *639# on your current phone. You'll be returned a text message from AT&T detailing your situation -- either you'll be told you can get a full upgrade price (meaning $199 / $299 for the 16GB and 32GB, respectively) or you'll be eligible at some particular date in the future. Not all's lost in the latter case -- you can still pay $200 more for the phone as an "early upgrade," which is less than the no-commitment price of $599 / $699. We'll have a more comprehensive breakdown in our full iPhone 4 guide coming later today, so stay tuned!

How-to: check your iPhone 4 upgrade eligibility originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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