Monday, March 04, 2013

How Your Smartphone Will Get Lytro-Like Superpowers

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988341/how-your-smartphone-will-get-lytro+like-superpowers

As neat as they are, the Lytro camera's re-focusing tricks aren't going to convince most of us to replace our highly pocketable cameraphones. So a California company called DigitalOptics has found a way to give us the best of both worlds with a new ultra-thin sensor that promises Lytro-like tricks.

Instead of employing clever 'light field technology' like the Lytro, the Mems|Cam simply snaps a series of photos with varying depth of fields in quick succession, and then combines them all into a single image that allows you to change the focal point afterwards. It's not only a less complicated approach, but the images from the new sensor could be as large as 13 megapixels in size, compared to the Lytro's measly one-megapixel.

It sounds like a win-win development that surprisingly gets even better because the Mems|Cam sensor is created with 'micro-electro-mechanical systems' technology that results in ultra-thin electronics with incredibly low energy consumption. To the point where this new sensor uses about one percent of the energy of a traditional cameraphone sensor, and facilitates handset form factors as thin as five millimeters. At the moment there are no official announcements as to what hardware manufacturer will be adopting the Mems|Cam sensor, but it's already ready to ship and should be appearing in phones later this year. [Digital Trends via PetaPixel]

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Google to monitor unused white space across the US, take us one step closer to spectrum sharing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/04/google-to-monitor-unused-white-space-across-the-us-take-us-one/

Google to monitor unused white space across the US, take us one step closer to spectrum sharing

One of the biggest hold-ups in the global deployment of LTE and long-range WiFi is a lack of available spectrum. Even when a particular frequency is free and usable for mobile broadband, it's often officially reserved for some other purpose. Google's charitable wing, Google.org, has long claimed that as much as 6 MHz of white space kept aside for TV channels in the US is actually untapped, and now it's going to get a chance to prove the point. The FCC has just granted it a 45-day window in which to run a trial public database (linked below) to keep track of exactly which bits of spectrum are free in which parts of the country.

If all goes well, Google should find itself among up to ten other organizations that are allowed to supervise spectrum sharing -- in other words, allowing mobile devices to temporarily exploit available TV spectrum that isn't being used by the primary holder. Google's ultimate aim, we're told, is simply to "improve connectivity" at a global level. As to whether the other nine names on the FCC's list -- like Microsoft and Ericsson-owned Telcordia -- are equally altruistic, we have absolutely no idea.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Google.org Official Blog, Google.org's Spectrum Database

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Supposed Galaxy S4 Spec List Suggests Eight-Core Processor

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988263/supposed-galaxy-s4-spec-list-suggests-eight+core-processor

Supposed Galaxy S4 Spec List Suggests Eight-Core ProcessorSomeone who claims to be in possession of a Galaxy S4 prototype decided it would be fun to benchmark it, giving us a look at how the phone might, possibly, perform and what might be inside Samsung's next Android flagship.

The Antutu benchmark test reports that the S4 is powered by Samsung's own Exynos 5410 chipset, with its eight cores running at 1.8GHz clock speed. It's coupled with a PowerVR SGX 544 graphics processor, with 2GB of RAM onboard. The S4 in this allegedly current state also feature a 4.99″ display running at 1920×1080 resolution, with Android 4.2 the phone's launch OS.

The tested machine featured GSM and LTE radio capability, meaning one version of the device ought to launch worldwide. And there's a 13-Megapixel camera in it.

No holes can be picked in those specs. If, of course, these results are genuine—so best keep a grain of salt to hand for now. We're expecting Samsung to give us all a good look at 2013′s inevitably massively successful phone on March 14. [Sam Mobile]


Supposed Galaxy S4 Spec List Suggests Eight-Core ProcessorOur newest offspring Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix.

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CloudKafé Indexes All of your Content in the Cloud

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5988013/cloudkafe-indexes-all-of-your-content-in-the-cloud

CloudKafé Indexes All of your Content in the Cloud

CloudKafé is a free, attractive webapp that helps you search through all the documents, photos, and videos you have scattered across the web.

Once you create a CloudKafé account, you can connect it to your various cloud services. The site supports major players like Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, YouTube, Google Drive, and more, so most everyone should be covered. Once your accounts are connected, you can search them all with a single search box, and get instant results organized by file type. The concept and execution is similar to previously-mentioned Mac app Found, but as a web app, CloudKafé will work on any platform.

As a relatively new service, CloudKafè isn't perfect. For example, I couldn't get it to pull in my Facebook photos. Still though, it's worth checking out if your digital life is spread across the web.

CloudKafé via AddictiveTips

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Sunday, March 03, 2013

Would You Watch a Stream Of Pure Ads To Earn Free Streaming Movies?

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988076/would-you-watch-a-stream-of-pure-ads-to-earn-free-streaming-movies

Would You Watch a Stream Of Pure Ads To Earn Free Streaming Movies? Free streaming is supported by ads. It's just a feature of the form. You see it in Spotify, Pandora, Hulu, even YouTube. But you usually don't get the chance to separate the two and control your ad-seeing power. HitBliss is looking to change that.

By signing up for the HitBliss service and offering up your soul to be targeted by ad after ad after ad after ad, you can earn credit on the HitBliss store to stream the movies of your choice. Ones that they've got to offer anyway. It's prostitution, in a way, but hey: free, legal streaming movies. Would you sell your eyeballs and brain-time for that? Try to cheat the system? Ignore it all and keep pirating? [Mashable]

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