Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Google creating a tool to port Chrome apps to Android and iOS

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/03/google-mobile-chrome-apps/

Google's been shepherding web applications to the desktop as packaged Chrome apps (think the browser-based Google Keep) for a while now, and it turns out the search titan is building a tool to help them go mobile. The Next Web noticed that Googler Michal Mocny has been hard at work on a project dubbed Mobile Chrome Apps that's been hosted on Github since May. The repository's description reveals the code is a toolkit for porting Chrome packaged apps to ones that will run on Android and iOS by using Apache Cordova (formerly known as PhoneGap). Though the applications will retain their HTML, CSS and Javascript innards, they'll look like native apps and can even be submitted to their respective app stores. While the software is publicly available, it's not expected to be in beta form until January. Ready to lunge into development anyway? Venture to the source and hack away.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Mobile Chrome Apps (Github)

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Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Vuzix's Android-powered M100 Smart Glasses now available to pre-order for $1,000

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/03/vuzix-m100-smart-glasses-now-available-to-pre-order/

If you want Android-powered eyewear that's readily available, you won't have to wait for Glass' commercial launch next year; Vuzix has already beaten Google to the punch. The company's M100 Smart Glasses have started shipping to developers, and the general public can now pre-order the eyepiece ahead of its expected December release date. Do be prepared to pay for the privilege of seeing your Android and iOS apps on a heads-up display, however. The M100 will officially sell for $1,000 -- about twice as much as Vuzix predicted in January.

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Via: Electronista

Source: Vuzix, PRNewswire

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Square absorbs Viewfinder team, picks up some ex-Googlers in the process

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/03/square-viewfinder/

If you're in the market for a few more engineers, you could go through the rigamarole of posting a listing on some job site - or you could just pick up a whole team. The small staff behind photo-sharing app Viewfinder will be setting up shop in Square's New York offices, including co-founders Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis, who'd previously done time at Google and created image editor GIMP. While Square's engineering blog happily talks up the fact that the move will effectively triple the company's NYC staff, no mention is made regarding the fate of Viewfinder itself, which may not bode well for the future of the app.

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Via: Techcrunch

Source: Square

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KYLE BASS: My Worst Trade Was One Of The Best Things To Ever Happen To Me

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/kyle-bass-interview-in-steve-drobny-book-2013-12

Kyle Bass

Hedge fund advisor Steven Drobny, the author of global macro books "Inside The House of Money" and "The Invisible Hands", is coming out with another book called "The New House of Money." 

Drobny has just released the first chapter available for free on his website.  It's a Q&A with Texan hedge fund manager Kyle Bass.

Bass, who runs Dallas-based Hayman Capital, crushed it by shorting subprime.

In his interview with Drobny, Bass discussed a gamut of topics, including how he got into the hedge fund business and how he stays grounded by spear fishing in the Bahamas.  Bass also talked extensively about his Japan trade where he's been predicting a debt collapse for some time. Bass said that he's also worried about inflation.  He thinks that globally we're going to be hit with the "ugly kind" of inflation (cost-push inflation) due to having too much money in the system.  

Bass also revealed the worst trade he has ever made and what he learned from that experience.   

From "The New House Of Money": 

What was the worst trade of your career?

The second company I ever sold short was a disaster. The first one was actually a great trade. It was an East German shipbuilder that was being heavily subsidized by the government when the Berlin Wall came down. The executives were not applying the subsidies to the shipyards. We shorted the stock around 100 Deutsche marks and it never saw an uptick – it went from 100 to 80 to 60 to 40 to 20 to zero, where they were literally chaining the gates after that.

The second short was a technology company. The COO had just quit under suspicious circumstances and in doing our homework on the capital structure we figured it could be a zero.

Right after we got short this stock, an active and influential newsletter at the time came out and said they thought it was the stock of the century. It doubled! on me s o fast that it carried me out. All the money I had saved up until that time was literally gone. I did an enormous amount of work on the balance sheet, met with some of the players, thought I understood what was going wrong, had almost all of the data, and in the end,
was even right. But I just couldn’t withstand the move.

It was such a beautiful learning experience because I came from no money. I was so broke in college. I came from a middle class family, and by that point I had made a few hundred thousand dollars and saved it, and it was gone. I was apoplectic.

When I think back now, thankfully it happened to me then – it only cost me a couple hundred thousand bucks, and it was the most important lesson in short selling that anyone could ever learn. It taught me the humility and the respect that you must have when you’re on the short side of anything. It wound up being one of the best things that ever happened to me.

What do you do differently today with short sales?

We do a lot differently. We do short individual equities from time to time, but we short with respect, experience, and proper sizing and stop-loss levels.

Read the full chapter here >

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Monday, December 02, 2013

This Machine Cuts Out The Coffee Middleman By Roasting, Grinding, And Brewing Beans

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/coffee-machine-roasts-grinds-and-brews-2013-11

bonaverde coffee machine

Truly fresh coffee is hard to come by, since it takes the average bean six months from when its harvested to reach your cup.

The Bonaverde Coffee Changers company in Berlin is trying to change that and cut out the coffee middleman with a new machine that not only grinds and brews coffee beans, but roasts them as well.

The machine has a rotary system in a stainless-steal container that heats up and roasts the raw beans at the desired setting. After 3-4 minutes, the beans are cooled, and then ground and brewed with pre-heated water. 

bonaverde coffee machineThe entire process from roasting to brewing takes roughly 12-14 minutes, depending on your selected roast profile (there are six options available), and can brew between 2 and 12 cups.

The project has been in development for the past two years after founder Hans Stier had a vision to put farmers more in control of their beans. The company currently has relationships with farmers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India and Brazil that sell their beans directly through Bonaverde, thereby cutting out the "roasting middleman" and giving the farmer more control over — and money for — his beans. 

Now after testing four earlier prototypes, Bonaverde Coffee Changers has finally reached the final step of its two-year-long project. The team of German engineers currently has a Kickstarter campaign to create working machines for serial production with early-bird delivery expected in October of next year. 

There are still 9 days left to go, and the all-in-one coffee machine has already earned $459,740 dollars, well above their Kickstarter goal of $135,00! 0. Find out more about the coffee machine or order your own (with raw beans included) over at Kickstarter for $300.

SEE ALSO: The 10 Best Coffee Shops In San Francisco

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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Gigaset gets into Android tablets with two models, including a Tegra 4 flagship

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/28/gigaset-gets-into-android-tablets-with-two-models/

You likely won't know Germany's Gigaset unless you've bought one of its cordless phones, but you may want to take notice now that the company is launching its first tablets. Both the 8-inch QV830 and 10-inch QV1030 have relatively upscale aluminum shells and run stock Android 4.2, all the while targeting very different audiences. The QV1030 is the high-speed flagship with a 1.8GHz quad-core Tegra 4 processor, a 2,560 x 1,600 display, 16GB of expandable storage and both 8-megapixel rear as well as 1.2-megapixel front cameras. The QV830 aims at a more frugal crowd with its 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek chip, 1,024 x 768 screen, 8GB of expandable storage, 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.2-megapixel front shooter. Both slates should reach Germany in early December, starting at €199 ($271) for the QV830 and jumping to €369 ($502) for the QV1030. There's no word of an American launch, although we're not counting on it when Gigaset doesn't have much of a footprint in the US.

[Thanks, Martino]

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Via: Tabletsmagazine.nl (translated)

Source: Gigaset (1), (2), GlobeNewswire

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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Learn Over 60 Google Now Commands with This Infographic

Source: http://lifehacker.com/learn-over-60-google-now-commands-with-this-infographic-1471859787

Learn Over 60 Google Now Commands with This Infographic

There are a ton of cool things you can do with Google Now, but with Google constantly adding more voice commands (and integrating Google Now even more with Android KitKat), it's easy to forget all your options. This graphic shows many of the latest instructions available if you just say "Okay Google..." or tap the microphone.

If you say or type in "help" in Google Now, you'll only get a few examples, and Google's own voice commands list isn't that long. This graphic, created by trendblog.net, highlights many commands you probably already know, but it's a nice long and updated list, complete with easter eggs. Also, it's just a good reminder of how great Google Now can be as a personal assistant and quick information tool.

Here's the full graphic (click to expand, right-click to save):

Learn Over 60 Google Now Commands with This Infographic

Awesome List of Google Now Voice Commands - KitKat Updated | trendblog.net

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The Prettiest Way to See How Screwed Up Your Holiday Flights Are

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-prettiest-way-to-see-how-screwed-up-your-holiday-fl-1471971341

The Prettiest Way to See How Screwed Up Your Holiday Flights Are

Flying this holiday? I'm sorry. Here's to hoping you don't get stranded in East Nowheresville on the way. As for the rest of us, the Misery Map is a fantastic way to sit back and bask in the misfortune of others. Or, uh, give thanks that we're not stuck at an airport. Yeah, that second one.

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MIT's New $500 Kinect-Like Camera Even Works With Translucent Objects

Source: http://gizmodo.com/mits-new-500-kinect-like-camera-even-works-with-trans-1472478392

MIT's New $500 Kinect-Like Camera Even Works With Translucent Objects

Microsoft's Kinect is great, but it has its limitations. Not so MIT's new nano-camera, though, which uses similar technology but can weave the same magic with translucent objects, and even work in snow or rain.

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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Acer's first touchscreen Chromebook arrives next month for $299

If you'd rather get hands-on with your Chromebook work sessions, Acer is looking to lend a hand. The company has outed the C720P: its first touchscreen Chromebook. The Google-fied laptop sports an 11.6-inch HD LED display with 1,366 x 768 resolution alongside an Intel Celeron 2955U processor, 32GB SSD and 2GB DDR3 RAM. Weighing in at only 2.98 pounds and measuring 0.78 inch thick, the C720P claims up to 7.5 hours of battery life -- an hour less than its Haswell-powered sibling, the C720. There's both USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, an HDMI jack, SD card slot and two years worth of 100GB Google Drive space for extra storage. Sound too good to pass up? Well, you'll be able to snag one in early December for $299 from Amazon, Best Buy and the Acer store.

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Monday, November 25, 2013

Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Review: Flipping Fantastic

Source: http://gizmodo.com/lenovo-yoga-2-pro-review-flipping-fantastic-1471231347

Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Review: Flipping Fantastic

Two years ago, Windows 8 birthed what feels like a thousand different varieties of twisting, bending, hybrid laptops. In the vast army of oddities, only a few stood out as being actually good. Of those select few, the Lenovo Yoga was our favorite. Now it's back with a refresh, and it's better than ever.

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Move Over Graphene: The Wonder Conductor of the Future May Be Stanene

Source: http://gizmodo.com/move-over-graphene-the-wonder-conductor-of-the-future-1471032563

Move Over Graphene: The Wonder Conductor of the Future May Be Stanene

When it comes to super materials, graphene seems to get all the attention. But a team of researchers has developed Stanene: a single layer of tin atoms that could just be the world’s first material to conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at the temperatures that computers work at.

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Want to make apps for Glass? Google opens Mirror API to all developers

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/24/google-opens-mirror-api-to-all/

Finished poring over that API documentation for, like, the millionth time? Good. Managed to hustle your way to a hackathon? Great! Finally, then, it's time to put all that knowhow to practical use -- the Mirror API is now open to all developers. Before now, you'd have needed to find your way onto a whitelist to get in on the action, but as from a few hours ago, access to the cloud-and-cards based app API is a free for all. Glassware is finally a go go go..?

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Via: Abraham Williams (Google Plus)

Source: Google

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Amazon's next-gen Kindle Paperwhite reportedly arriving in Q2 with a sharper screen, lighter design

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/24/new-kindle-paperwhite-reportedly-coming-in-q2/

Amazon's next-gen Kindle Paperwhite reportedly arriving in Q2 with a sharper screen, lighter design

Amazon only just released a new Kindle Paperwhite e-reader two months ago, but we're already hearing rumors that a newer model is on the way. According to a new report from TechCrunch, the new version, to be released in early Q2 of next year, will boast a sharper 300-pixel-per-inch screen, allowing it to better compete with models like the Kobo Aura, which has a 265-ppi screen. (Not that Kobo's represents much of a threat to Amazon's book-selling empire.) Also it's worth noting that E Ink makes the displays for basically all these e-readers, so it seems unlikely that Amazon would hold an exclusive on a 300-ppi panel -- at least not for long.

Additionally, TechCrunch claims the new Paperwhite will have a lighter design that mimics the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets, with chamfered edges, a rear power button and a glass screen that sits flush with the bezels. The device is also rumored to have haptic feedback along the edges, which will give vibrating feedback when you do things like move to the next page. There's no big software update planned, apparently, although Amazon is said to be working on a new custom font that's more conducive to marathon reading sessions. We suppose if this report is true, all will be revealed over the coming months -- hopefully those of you who just bought a new Paperwhite won't be too cheesed off by the timing.

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Source: TechCrunch

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Friday, November 22, 2013

Google's Getting Serious About Prescription Glass

Source: http://gizmodo.com/googles-getting-serious-about-prescription-glass-1469880397

Google's Getting Serious About Prescription Glass

Google really knocked everybody's socks off when it revealed Glass last year—everybody except glasses-wearers, that is. As the company prepares to bring the device to market, though, Google doesn't want to leave anybody out, and that means creating Google Glass with prescription lenses.

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