Install Google Fonts on Windows or Mac for Faster Web Browsing

Source: http://lifehacker.com/install-google-fonts-on-windows-or-mac-for-faster-web-b-487124077

Windows/OS X: Google is now offering a convenient way to download Google Fonts, its 1,000+ collection of free, open-source fonts, to your desktop. Not only will your downloaded fonts sync to Google, they'll also help load websites faster if they use those fonts.

Although there are other ways to download Google Fonts to your computer, if you use the free tool SkyFonts as Google recommends, your fonts will be synced with Google's directory. So you'll always have the latest versions of the fonts (for example, if new characters are added).

Even if you don't plan on using the fonts for your own projects, installing the fonts locally, Google says, will make browsing websites that use those fonts faster, since your browser won't have to fetch the font data.

Download SkyFonts and Google Fonts via the link below. Once you've installed SkyFonts, browse the fonts collection on the website and select the ones you want to install. (Too bad there's no "select all" option.)

Sync Google Fonts to your Desktop with SkyFonts | Fonts.com via Google Developers Blog and TechCrunch

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Add Google Calendar Events Directly from Gmail

Source: http://lifehacker.com/add-google-calendar-events-directly-from-gmail-487750718

If you use email as a primary means of communication, chances are you're moving between Gmail and Google Calendar to schedule various meetings and events. Good news: now you don't have to! You can now add events directly from Gmail.

This new feature doesn't require much effort on your part. Any time someone specifies a date and/or time in an email it'll become a link that you can use to create a Google Calendar event. Not everyone has this feature just yet but can expect to see it hit their account over the next few weeks. For more information, check out the full post over at the Official Gmail Blog.

Add events to Google Calendar from Gmail | Official Gmail Blog

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Pelican Imaging's 16-lens array camera coming to smartphones next year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/02/pelican-imaging-array-camera-coming-2014/

After yesterday's news about Nokia investing in Pelican Imaging's plenoptic camera system, it was hard not to feel impatient about exactly when this technology might arrive in real, commercially available smartphones. Well, we have an update on that front: although the company's CEO, Chris Pickett, wouldn't tell us which OEM(s) he's been talking to, he did say that his product is currently being trialed by device manufacturers and is scheduled to be part of at least one new smartphone launching in 2014. Now, this next bit is pure speculation on our part, but given that carrier testing alone can take six months, and we're already nearly halfway through 2013, this strongly implies that a hardware deal has already been inked -- which means next year could potentially bring the biggest news in smartphone cameras since the eternally underappreciated Nokia PureView 808. Speaking of which, Pelican Imaging also has some intriguing things to say about what could happen if its array camera was paired with Nokia's PureView technology -- read on for more.

Gallery: Pelican Imaging 16-lens reference design samples

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile, Nokia

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Camera inspired by insect eyes can see 180 degrees, has almost infinite depth of field

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/02/camera-inspired-by-insect-eyes/

Technologists have been drawing inspiration from the insect world for a long time. And folks working on robotics really seem to love their creepy-crawlies and buzzing arthropods. Researchers at the University of Illinois are looking to our eight-legged planet mates, not for mobility lessons, but as a reference for a new camera design. The system mimics the vision of bees and mantises by combining multiple lenses on a half hemisphere to provide a 180-degree view with a nearly infinite depth of field. The optics themselves are described as "soft, rubbery" and each individual microlens is paired with its own photodiode. The work gets us a heck of a lot closer to the dream of a digital fly eye than previous efforts, though we're likely still quite a while from seeing applications outside of the lab. DARPA funding suggests the artificial compound eyes may have a future in surveillance, though the researchers also see uses for it in medicine.

Filed under: Cameras

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Via: The Verge

Source: University of Illinois

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WSJ: Samsung Galaxy and iOS devices to be approved by US Defense Department

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/01/wsj-android-ios-us-dod-pentagon/

Our armed forces began embracing Android and iOS some time ago, and now it appears that the US Department of Defense is finally jumping on the bandwagon, too. The Wall Street Journal reports that the DoD will be announcing security approvals for Samsung Galaxy handsets, iPhones and iPads in the next couple weeks -- allowing them to join BlackBerry in the government's secure smartphone stable. Apparently, Samsung's approval was facilitated by its Knox security platform, which has been deemed secure enough to allow it to be used to send and receive internal emails, and Apple devices running iOS 6 and up are also expected to get the go-ahead for nonclassified communications. So, people of the Pentagon, it looks like it's only a matter of time before you can put down your BB7 handset and pick up a smartphone with a more modern OS.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Wall Street Journal

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