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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

drag2share: Leeds researchers tout gel-based batteries as better, safer and cheaper

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/13/leeds-researchers-tout-gel-based-batteries-as-better-safer-and/

They're some fairly bold claims, but a team of researchers at the University of Leeds say they've managed to develop a new type of polymer gel that could lead to batteries that are safer, cheaper to manufacture and more flexible than traditional lithium-ion batteries. That last detail could have some particularly interesting consequences, as the researchers say it allows for batteries that can "shaped and bent to fit the geometries of virtually any device." What's more, all of that apparently comes with no compromise in performance, and the team has already licensed the technology to Polystor Energy Corporation, which is now conducting trials to commercialize the battery cells. The only catch is that there's not so much as a hint as to when such batteries might actually be available.

Leeds researchers tout gel-based batteries as better, safer and cheaper originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Samsung, NTT DoCoMo to develop smartphone chips in proposed joint venture

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/13/samsung-ntt-docomo-to-develop-smartphone-chips-in-proposed-join/

Qualcomm may be facing some new competition in the mobile chip space, now that NTT DoCoMo and three other Japanese firms are looking to join forces with Samsung. According to Japan's Nikkei business daily, the quartet of firms (which includes Fujitsu, NEC and Panasonic's mobile unit) is currently finalizing negotiations with Samsung over a proposed joint venture that would design, develop and market smartphone chips. The partners are reportedly planning to incorporate the new chips into their own devices, while selling them to other handset manufacturers, as well. DoCoMo would hold a majority stake in the ¥30 billion (about $390 million) partnership, which could help lower procurement costs, while reducing the partners' dependency upon industry-leading Qualcomm. A DoCoMo spokesman acknowledged that the provider is exploring a variety of collaborations, but was quick to point out that nothing's been finalized. Samsung and Fujitsu, meanwhile, have yet to comment.

Samsung, NTT DoCoMo to develop smartphone chips in proposed joint venture originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Five Best Screencasting or Screen Recording Tools [Hive Five]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5839047/five-best-screencasting-or-screen-recording-tools

In some cases, the best way to illustrate something happening on your screen is to show someone. Whether you want to train people on a particularly difficult program or show everyone how to fix a problem you've run into before, recording a screencast is an easy way to do it. Thankfully, there are plenty of applications that let you record your screen, save the video, and share it with friends.

We asked you earlier in the week which application you preferred to record your screen when you wanted to make a screencast. You responded with plenty of suggestions, and we collected the votes. Now we're back to highlight the top five.

Five Best Screencasting or Screen Recording Tools

Camtasia Studio (Windows/Mac) - Win: $299.00/Mac: $99

Camtasia Studio is the most expensive screen recording tool in the roundup, but it's also one of the most feature packed. The last time we looked at the app it was Windows only, but the latest versions support Mac OS as well, and allow you to record your entire screen, single applications, or part of your display, save your screencasts in multiple formats, upload directly to YouTube, and more. You can quickly edit audio tracks separate from the video, so you can narrate what you've recorded later and then combine the tracks into a final video, and more.

Five Best Screencasting or Screen Recording Tools

CamStudio (Windows) – Free

CamStudio may be Windows only, but it's free, open-source, easy to use, and one of the most lightweight apps in the top five. You won't get as many features from CamStudio as you will from most of the others, but if you just want a quick way to record an occasional video, save it, and then work with it in another application that you prefer, CamStudio is perfect for the job. Still, there's as much love for CamStudio as there is hate for it, so your mileage may vary.

Five Best Screencasting or Screen Recording Tools

Jing (Windows/Mac) – Free/Pro: $14.95/yr

Jing is another TechSmith product, the same company behind Camtasia Studio. In addition to being a free and effective screenshot utility, it's also a free tool to take screencasts, and an affordable alternative to Camtasia Studio. Both the free and the pro versions only allow you to record five minute videos, and both of them allow you to upload video to Screencast.com and come with a free 2GB account for video sharing. They allow you to record all or part of your screen, and share your videos when complete. The free version only allows you to save videos in SWF format, while the pro version added MPEG-4 format. You'll have to shell out for the pro version if you want to upload videos directly to YouTube, record your webcam, or take screen recordings without the Jing branding on them.

Five Best Screencasting or Screen Recording Tools

Screenflow (Mac OS) - $99

Screenflow may be Mac-only, but it's one of the most feature-rich screencasting utilities in the roundup. You can record your entire or part of your display in HD, record from your monitor or a video camera, and record audio from your computer and your microphone simultaneously. You can also customize your cursors, add tiles and text to your video, and more. When you're finished recording your display, you can edit the audio and video streams independantly, decouple the audio and the video, add transitions to your video, annotate your video, export it in multiple formats, or upload directly to YouTube.

Five Best Screencasting or Screen Recording Tools

Screencast-o-Matic (Windows/Mac/Linux) – Free/Pro: $12/yr

Screen recording webapp Screencast-o-Matic has come a long way since it was launched. The tool uses Java to record your screen and upload it to the web, so it works anywhere Java is supported. You can add captions to the video, share it, upload it to YouTube (in HD, even,) or save the video as an MP4, AVI, or flash video. Free accounts can do all of this, but pro accounts allow you to remove the Screencast-o-Matic watermark, password protect your screencasts, and download a Java app that lets you record screencasts offline. Pro accounts also get video editing tools.

Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to vote for an all out favorite.

What's the Best Screencasting or Screen Recording Tool?

Honorable mentions this week go to Apple's Quicktime X – in Max OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and 10.7 Lion, you don't need a separate app to create screencasts. Lion can do it for you. Another honorable mention goes to Microsoft Expression Encoder, a feature-packed video production utility for Windows. It'll set you back $199, but for that price you can create live webcasts, screencasts, add watermarks, and publish it all for the Web in Silverlight.

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your favorite? Sound off in the comments.

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

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drag2share: Use Google Docs to Translate PDFs [Clever Uses]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5839079/use-google-docs-to-translate-pdfs

Need to translate a pdf from one language to another? Technology blog Tech Dows advises uploading the pdf to your Google Docs account, then opening the document and click on Tools then Translate document. Google Docs will make a copy of that document in the new language.

I play a lot of board games, many of them from Europe, and at times it can be difficult to find rules in English for newer games rather than German. Using this trick not only provides an English translation, but it also keeps the original copy as well. This trick also works for HTML, ODT, RTF, and DOC files. For more Google Docs tricks, see our guide to using Google Docs to convert file formats.

Translate PDF Files & Word Documents with Google Docs | Techdows

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drag2share: Insert Text Stores Blocks of Text For Quick Pasting [Chrome Extensions]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5839285/insert-text-stores-blocks-of-text-for-quick-pasting

Chrome: If you don't like Chrome's Autofill function for forms, Insert Text is an extension that stores any text you want for quick pasting into forms or emails.

With a right-click in any input field, you can pull up a list of the text you'd like pasted into the field, or create a new one. You can store as many different different notes as you like, from addresses to email signatures.

Insert Text | Chrome Web Store

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drag2share: Dolphin Browser HD Brings Its Gesture-Based Browser to iPad [Ipad Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5839307/dolphin-browser-hd-brings-its-gesture+based-browser-to-ipad

Dolphin Browser is already our pick for the best web browser on Android and as a great alternative for iPhone, and now it's available on iPad as Dolphin Browser HD.

Like its predecessors, Dolphin can recognize custom gestures to navigate to pages. It comes preloaded with a set to help you navigate, but it also allows you to add your own so you can quickly load pages without typing anything. The iPad build is similar to the Android and iPhone apps and runs on top of Safari, but it also includes the Dolphin Webzine, which allows you to flip through news similar to Flipboard.

Dolphin Browser HD | iTunes App Store via Mashable

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drag2share: Pixel Qi Hits the Big Time [Displays]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5839430/pixel-qi-hits-the-big-time-with-3m-collaboration

Pixel Qi's Transflective LCD technology has been blowing minds since late 2009 but has yet to gain much traction in the market—beyond the Notion Ink Adam, that is. But that may change with its latest round of funding, provided largely by 3M.

Traditional LCD screens are a pain to read in bright light and suck down power like electric Kool-aid because they have to brighten the display to compensate for the glare. E-Ink displays are great for reading outdoors because they lack that glare but can't display the vibrant color of normal LCDs. The disruptive display LCD technology developed by Pixel Qi, on the other hand, combines the best of both screen types into a single, low-consumption, full-color display that's easily readable indoors and out.

"The combination of Pixel Qi's low energy, reflective display technology with 3M's innovative technologies will create exciting products for the mobile, handheld, tablet and other display markets." said Jim Bauman, vice president of the 3M Optical Systems Division in a press release. It's expected that this investment by 3M will allow Pixel Qi access into larger consumer markets as well as digital touch-screen signage. 3M, alternately, will get access to Pixel Qi's sweet energy saving technology for its own displays. [Market Watch via Tech Crunch]

You can keep up with Andrew Tarantola, the author of this post, on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

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drag2share: The Most Wicked Optical Illusion I've Seen So Far [Wtf]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5839481/the-most-wicked-optical-illusion-ive-seen-so-far

This is sick. Sick because the spiral effect is making me sick and sick because it reminds me how flawed/awesome/trippy our color perception is. Believe it or not, the green and the blue in this spiral is the same color.

I couldn't believe it either, but I just measured the value in Photoshop: Red 0, Green 255, Blue 150 on both. Crazy. How could this be possible?

The reason why we are perceiving one color as different colors is because of the other colors surrounding the stripes. Each eye has six to seven million cones, which are concentrated in a central yellow spot known as the macula (I recently got mine lasered to fix some leaking blood vessels). These cones measure color in different wavelengths, overlapping in some of them. Our brain then compares those signals in an antagonistic manner, measuring differences in wavelengths between them. When some colors are combined, the brain can't process the info from the cones correctly and we simply get confused. [gsu and Techi]

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drag2share: Americans Spend 53 Billion Minutes A Month on Facebook, Wait, What? [Facebook]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5839561/americans-spend-53-billion-minutes-a-month-on-facebook-wait-what

Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other US website. And cumulatively, it's not a small amount of time, it's a lot of time. Nielsen estimates that Americans spent 53 billion minutes on Facebook during the month of May.

These 53 billion minutes are equal to 100,000 years or 36.8 million days. Before your mind blows up, this number represents the usage of 150 million Facebook users. Breaking it down, each user is spending about 350 minutes per month on the social network or about 10 minutes per day. Looking at it that way, 53 billion doesn't look so bad, does it? [Nielsen via SF Gate]

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drag2share: Photo Academy App Teaches You How to Be a Better Photographer [IPhone Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5839557/photo-academy-app-teaches-you-how-to-be-a-better-photographer

You could have a fancy DSLR, an expensive lens, a sturdy tripod, an extra battery pack, heck even a gnarly camera bag but if you don't know how to take pictures, you don't know how to take pictures. Photo Academy is an app that teaches you how to take better snappies.

It's like a tutorial app, or a how-to-in-an-app, that covers the basics like how to hold your camera and what tweaking ISO and exposure do to more complex instructions like professional photographer tips and editing ideas. There's literally hundreds of different tips for various situations along with ideal camera settings to maximize your pictures—basically, if you're an amateur photographer, you're bound to learn something.

You can even add your photos to "track your progress" though it's sorta unnecessary given that the app's goal is for you to take pictures with your DSLR and not your iPhone cam. $1 [iTunes]

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drag2share: Fusion Garage hacks $200 off of Grid 10 tablet, aims to play the undercutting game

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/fusion-garage-hacks-200-off-of-grid-10-tablet-aims-to-play-the/

Looks like we're all indebted to HP in one way or another. Since the TouchPad fire sale began, we've seen a noticeable southward shift in tablet pricing -- it's as if iPad rivals finally figured out that battling on price was just about the only way to make a dent in Apple's enviable market share. Now, we're seeing Fusion Garage wipe a full $200 from its Grid 10 tablet... before the thing even ships. If you'll recall, the outfit was aiming for a September 15th release date here in the States, with initial pricing for its 16GB model set for $499 (WiFi-only) / $599 (WiFi + 3G). Out of the blue, those pre-order rates have plummeted to $299 / $399 this morning, giving prospective Grid OS adopters entirely more motivation to buy in. It seems that Amazon hasn't received the memo quite yet, so those hoping to get in the low-cost line should scurry down to the source link. Naturally, we'll be bringing you a full-on review as soon as we procure one, and we're guessing that just became a lot more relevant to your interests.

Update: A Fusion Garage spokesperson told Engadget that the company had planned to launch with the lower price all along, but negotiations with an ODM made it impossible to announce the price earlier. The company also added that the Grid 10 will experience a slight shipping delay, being pushed back to October 1st due to a "new criteria in [the] Adobe Flash Player (FP) 10.3 approval process."

Update 2: Looks like UKers can also get in on the fun! Those prices are listed at £259 (WiFi-only) / £359 (WiFi + 3G).

[Thanks, Jeff]

Fusion Garage hacks $200 off of Grid 10 tablet, aims to play the undercutting game originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: 3M makes Mary Lou Jepsen's dreams come true, showers Pixel Qi with cash

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/3m-makes-mary-lou-jepsens-dreams-come-true-showers-pixel-qi-wi/

Chances are you've heard plenty about Pixel Qi's super-efficient, transreflective displays. The odds are equally as high that you've never touched one before, either. Well, 3M aims to change all of that and make good on founder Mary Lou Jepsen's continued promises to get those screens out into the consumer wild. Infusing the LCD company with an undisclosed amount of cash, 3M's New Ventures investment arm is betting the combo of its Optical Systems Division's LCD film technology expertise and funding will not only ramp up production of the sunlight-readable color screens, but also innovate uses for it across "...consumer markets as well as digital signage and touch applications." It's a nice shot of confidence for the display maker's much-touted, albeit scarce tech, and could be the financial boost necessary to take Jepsen from underdog to industry heavyweight. We'll keep a close eye out for how this develops. In the meantime, you can jump past the break to read the hyperbolic PR for yourself.

Continue reading 3M makes Mary Lou Jepsen's dreams come true, showers Pixel Qi with cash

3M makes Mary Lou Jepsen's dreams come true, showers Pixel Qi with cash originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our t erms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Intel reveals January 2012 Gingerbread arrival for the Atom E6xx (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/intel-reveals-january-2012-gingerbread-arrival-for-the-atom-e6xx/

Intel wants a piece of the smartphone market -- bad. The company has made no bones about its attempts to break into that booming space. Despite big talk, however, it hasn't really given smartphone manufacturers something they can work with. A new promotional video for its pint-sized Atom E6xx series, however, reveals that chipmaker may be taking a step in the right direction, highlighting a January 2012 date for bringing Android 2.3 to the processor. Keep in mind, of course, that this isn't a smartphone chip that we're talking about here -- the primary applications as outlined by Intel are retail, fitness equipment, digital signage and in-vehicle systems. Still, perhaps it marks a next step in the company's push toward your mobile devices, or moreover, a shift for Android into more non-mobile things.

Continue reading Intel reveals January 2012 Gingerbread arrival for the Atom E6xx (video)

Intel reveals January 2012 Gingerbread arrival for the Atom E6xx (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Netbook News, Carrypad | | Email this | Comments

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drag2share: Microsoft's Mouse Without Borders: the KVM that killed the KVM (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/microsofts-mouse-without-borders-the-kvm-that-killed-the-kvm/

Until now, running multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse has tended to require KVMs or wormholes, but Microsoft developer Truong Do has a better idea. Working at Microsoft's Garage -- Redmond's after-hours pet project program -- he built Mouse Without Borders: software that lets you control computers on the same wireless network with one set of inputs as if it was one machine with a multiple display. Up to four systems can be tied together and the software also provides for seamless drag-and-drop file transfer. Microsoft is releasing it free of charge at the source link, plus you can see Truong Do talking up his creation after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft's Mouse Without Borders: the KVM that killed the KVM (video)

Microsoft's Mouse Without Borders: the KVM that killed the KVM (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Samsung pushes Galaxy Tab 10.1 through FCC with T-Mobile AWS bands

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/12/samsung-pushes-galaxy-tab-10-1-through-fcc-with-t-mobile-aws-ban/

Sure, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is great when using Verizon's LTE network, but what if you're looking for something in more of a GSM, magenta-colored flavor? You might be in luck, if a new tablet pushed through the FCC makes its way to store shelves. The device, identified only as the Samsung SGH-T859, comes complete with 1700MHz AWS for T-Mobile as well as 850 / 1900 GSM / EDGE / WCDMA / HSPA, and has the same dimensions as the WiFi-only version we saw in May. We can't say with a surety that it'll use the Galaxy Tab branding, but we think it's unlikely this would be anything else. And of course there's no guarantee it'll become a subsidized device on T-Mobile, but we know there's more than a handful of diehards that'd be willing to fork out a couple extra Benjamins for the privilege of using this beauty on their own carrier. So if your day is now a little bit brighter because of the news, feel free to check out the device in the gallery below.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with T-Mobile AWS

Continue reading Samsung pushes Galaxy Tab 10.1 through FCC with T-Mobile AWS bands

Samsung pushes Galaxy Tab 10.1 through FCC with T-Mobile AWS bands originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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