Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, March 25, 2011

Search vs Display CTRs - which do you think won? (pics) http://bit.ly/hgJH4W

Clever iPhone App Only Shows You the Best of Everything [Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5785575/clever-iphone-app-shows-you-the-only-best-of-everything

The Village Voice has just put out a clever iPhone app called Best Of. The app basically uses your location to help you find every place that was voted the "best of" something—be it restaurant or hot dog.

The great thing about the app is that it's "utilizing the picks from publications like Houston Press, LA Weekly, Village Voice, Miami New Times and scores of other city guides and magazines" instead of using some sort of voting system which could be quickly gamed by businesses.

Currently only these cities are supported, but updates will bring more listings:

Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston/Providence), Broward / Palm Beach, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas / Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis / St. Paul, Nashville, New York, Orange County, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh / Durham, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco / Bay Area, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay / St. Petersburg, Washington
DC

The Best Of app is free and available in the iTunes store now. [iTunes]

How the iPad 2 Glass Bends to Incredibly Extreme Angles [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5785781/watch-how-the-ipad-2-glass-can-bend-to-incredibly-extreme-angles

When watched this video of someone bending the iPad 2's display glass I couldn't believe my eyes. Play it and see what I mean for yourself.

While the iPad and iPhone's glasses can shatter easily, they are all incredibly bendable. To the point that it's hard to believe that this is glass and not plastic.

And according to iFixyouri's test, the iPad 2's glass is a lot more resistant to breaking by bending than the original iPad, even while the former is quite thinner than the latter. iFixyouri also claims that, after multiple drop tests, they couldn't break the glass (don't try this at home, though). [9to5Mac]

Buffalo reveals slimline external BDXL burner for $275, affiliated media still makes your wallet weep

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/25/buffalo-reveals-slimline-external-bdxl-burner-for-275-affiliat/

BDXL is the optical storage medium du jour, but the options for those wanting its capacious quad-layer burning capabilities in a tasty to-go form factor are fairly limited. Previous drives have lacked a certain... aesthetic appeal, but now Buffalo has unveiled its BRXL-PC6U2-BK, a slim and shiny external model that'll handle all of your BDXL disc-creation needs. The drive can run off a single USB 2.0 plug, though writing at 4x speeds requires a second USB connection to give it the juice required to do the deed. Slated for a release by the end of March, otherwise known as next week, this hot little onyx number will set you back ¥22,100 (about $275). Just don't go blowing all your cash on the drive -- BR-R XL discs ain't cheap, y'know.

Buffalo reveals slimline external BDXL burner for $275, affiliated media still makes your wallet weep originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers produce cheaper, 'cooler' semiconductor nanowires

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/25/researchers-produce-cheaper-cooler-semiconductor-nanowires/

Advances in nanowires may occur on a pretty regular basis these days, but this new development out of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems could have a particularly big impact on one all-important area: cost. As PhysOrg reports, manufacturing semiconducter nanowires at an industrial scale is currently very expensive because they need to be produced at extremely high temperatures (600 to 900 degrees Celsius), and the process used to manufacture them generally uses pure gold as a catalyst, which obviously adds to the cost. This new process, however, can use inexpensive materials like aluminum as a catalyst, and it can produce crystalline semiconductor nanowires at temperatures of just 150 degrees Celsius. Of course, that's all still only being done in the lab at the moment, and there's no indication as to when it might actually be more widely used.

Researchers produce cheaper, 'cooler' semiconductor nanowires originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 09:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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