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Monday, March 31, 2014

drag2share: Samsung's new monitors include one with a billion-color, 3,840 x 2,160 screen

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/31/samsung-ud590-sd390-sd590/

Samsung's new monitors include one with a billion-color, 3,840 x 2,160 screen

Now that Samsung's shown us the GS5, Gear 2 smartwatch and its latest Chromebook, it's time for the company's lesser-known product teams to come out of the woodwork. Next up: the display division, which today introduced three new models for 2014, including one with a billion-color, 3,840 x 2,160 screen. That would be the beaut you see above, the 28-inch UD590, which is up for pre-order for $700. In addition to that stunner of a display, it does Picture-in-Picture, with no downgrading in resolution as you move to a smaller frame. There's also a dual-screen feature called Picture-by-Picture, which you could theoretically use for split-screen gaming, even though this was really designed with creative pros in mind. Design-wise, it's fashioned out of metal, with thin bezels and a T-shaped stand that leaves room for speakers and other items you might have on your desk. Around back, you'll find a single DisplayPort, along with two HDMI 1.4 sockets for outputting 4K.

In addition, Samsung announced two other monitors: the SD390 and SD590, each of which comes in 23.6- and 27-inch screen sizes. Throughout, all the monitors have 1080p resolution; the main difference is that the UD390 uses the same "Touch of Color" accents that Samsung first introduced on its TV line on a few years back. In this case, that means an emerald-colored accent and a see-through neck, in case those other black boxes are just too plain for your tastes. Those SD390 models have one HDMI and one VGA port apiece, and will start at $250 and $310 when they arrive in April. Meanwhile, the SD590 adds an extra HDMI port, and features that same space-saving T-stand used on the flagship model. That'll cost you either $270 or $330, depending on whether you get the 23.6- or 27-inch version. And yes, that too will go on sale sometime in the coming weeks.

Filed under: Displays, Samsung

Source: Samsung UD590 (Amazon)

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drag2share: Vudu's 1080p movies and TV shows are now streaming on Chromecast

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/31/vudu-chromecast/

After a short test period, Walmart's movie streaming service Vudu has launched Chromecast support across its website and mobile apps, adding to the long list of devices it's already available on. A far cry from Vudu's $399 set-top box that launched in 2007, owners of Google's $35 HDMI dongle can now stream their entire collection of movies and TV shows in 1080p with just a press of the Cast button. That includes Ultraviolet digital copies, and while the code redemption process has been a source of frustration for many, Chromecast support means easy and cheap access without needing to log in, activate another device or set up an account again. In updated apps on Android or iOS the feature should already be live, and on Vudu.com if you have the Google Cast browser extension installed.

Filed under: HD, Mobile, Google

Source: iTunes, Google Play

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drag2share: BlackBerry Will Increase Revenue From Services, As Its Hardware Business Is Effectively Over

Source: https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/welcome

BlackBerry shipments sunk to a new historical quarterly low of 1.3 million units in the first quarter of this year, according to its earnings report for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ends March 1.

That's down almost 80% compared to the 6.2 million units BlackBerry shipped in the same period a year ago. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, when shipments hit a previous record low of 1.9 million units, shipments in the first quarter declined 32% sequentially.
About 3.4 million BlackBerry devices were sold to end users during first quarter of 2013. And almost 68% of those devices ran on the superseded BlackBerry 7 OS instead of the newer BlackBerry 10 operating system.
In fact, sales of new BlackBerry 10 devices have been so bad that BlackBerry is going to re-release the 2011 version of the BlackBerry Bold in order to spur consumer interest.
BlackBerry's total revenue for the quarter sunk below $1 billion, coming in at $976 million, a 64% year-over-year decline.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that BlackBerry's hardware manufacturing business is only going to continue sinking.

While for the full year, a majority of BlackBerry's revenue still came from hardware, at 55%, the plunge in shipments over the course of the fiscal year meant that in the past quarter, hardware fell to just 37% of revenue. Just three quarters prior, hardware made up 71% of total revenue at the company.

Last quarter, BlackBerry agreed to offload some of its manufacturing operations to Foxconn. Now, alleviated of some expensive manufacturing costs, BlackBerry is also attempting to diversify and improve its software and services revenue stream.

Beyond its well-known enterprise mobility management services, BlackBerry's BBM messenger is proving a crucial avenue toward growth. The cross-platform messaging service has 85 million monthly active users, up from around 60 million back in October prior to the release of iOS and Android apps. Like other messaging services, BlackBerry can leverage BBM as a platform to sell other services like payments.

"... A lot of our growth, I believe will come -- at least in the immediate future ... from software and services, messaging like BBM and embedded software like QNX. We're building new features and value-added services into BES 12, and we have a very solid BBM monetization plan," said CEO John Chen in the company's ear! nings ca ll.

Click here to download the chart and data in Excel

BlackBerryShipments

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drag2share: How 3D Printing Will Create On-Demand Swarms of Disposable Drones

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-3d-printing-will-create-on-demand-swarms-of-disposa-1553933989

How 3D Printing Will Create On-Demand Swarms of Disposable Drones

New advances in 3D printing are making it not only possible but also viable to manufacture cheap, print-on-demand, disposable drones designed simply to soar off over the horizon and never come back. Some British engineers did just that, and this is only the beginning.

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drag2share: Olympus brings five-axis image stabilization to the point-and-shoot with $400 Stylus SH-1

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/31/olympus-sh-1/

Olympus introduced its five-axis image stabilization in 2012 with the OM-D E-M5. That $1,000 camera was mighty powerful for its day, but the new IS tech was perhaps its most impressive feature, enabling sharp stills and steady handheld video. It's very exciting, then, that Olympus is bringing that same stabilization to its point-and-shoot line with the Stylus SH-1. This compact cam has plenty of other tricks up its sleeve, too. Take the f/3-6.9, 25-600mm 24x optical zoom lens, for example, or the 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor and TruePic VII processor (the same found in the OM-D series). There's also a 3-inch 460k-dot LCD, 1080/60p video, an 11fps burst mode and integrated WiFi. The SH-1 is expected in stores this May in black, white and silver. It'll retail for $400, which, considering the optics and the five-axis image stabilization on board, is a pretty solid deal.

Filed under: Cameras

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drag2share: Olympus Stylus Tough TG-3 ships with WiFi and f/2 lens for $350, dead fish sold separately

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/31/olympus-tg-3/

We question Olympus' decision to photograph its latest ruggedized cam next to a dead fish, then send that image out to reporters. But puzzling marketing practices aside, this is one impressive point-and-shoot. The Stylus TG-3 hails from the company's Tough line, which means it's waterproof (to 50 feet), freeze-proof (to 14°F), shockproof (from seven-foot drops) and crushproof (to 220 pounds). Unlike many other ruggedized cams, however, the TG-3 is equally impressive when it comes to traditional capabilities. There's a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, an f/2-4.9, 25-100mm optical zoom lens, a 3-inch 460k-dot LCD, 1080p video, GPS and WiFi. A new microscope mode lets you snap macro shots just 10mm from your subject and a ring light accessory (perhaps our favorite feature) mounts atop the camera's built-in LED to provide even light with small subjects positioned just in front of the lens. The TG-3's expected to ship this June for $350 in black and red.

Filed under: Cameras

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Saturday, March 29, 2014

drag2share: Crystal Clear Putty Is Like Playing With Molten Glass (Minus Burns)

Source: http://gizmodo.com/crystal-clear-putty-is-like-playing-with-molten-glass-1553639032

Crystal Clear Putty Is Like Playing With Molten Glass (Minus Burns)

Play-Doh's all well and good when it comes to entertaining a toddler. But when you grow up, you need science to deliver something a bit more captivating. And what could be a better way to waste away the hours at work than with a handful of crystal clear putty that looks like liquid glass?

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Friday, March 28, 2014

drag2share: Scientists Can Reconstruct Faces by Reading Your Mind

source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/vip/~3/U7eT8Si2dd8/scientists-can-reconstruct-faces-by-reading-your-mind-1553577287

Scientists Can Reconstruct Faces by Reading Your Mind

Fantasizing about an old flame? Lusting over a celebrity instead of your current squeeze? Watch out: scientists can reconstruct the faces you're thinking about from a brain scan alone.

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drag2share: A Majority Of Americans Say They're Likely To Buy A 4K TV In The Next Two Years

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/gjs7fOO_i1Y/a-majority-of-americans-say-theyre-likely-to-buy-a-4k-tv-in-the-next-two-years-2014-3

Over half of Americans are at least "somewhat likely" to buy a 4K Ultra HD TV in the next two years, according to a survey by Strategy Analytics.

Strategy Analytics sampled 2,204 Americans and 4,095 Europeans ages 15 through 74 in the final quarter of 2013.

One-fifth of the survey's U.S. respondents said that they are "very likely" to buy a 4K TV in the next two years. Another one-third said that they are "somewhat likely" to do so.
Less than one-fifth said that they are basically neutral on whether or not they will buy a 4K TV.
Only 23% expressed a fair degree of certainty that they would not buy a 4K TV.

European respondents reported being about equally likely to buy a 4K TV in the next two years as Americans. Fifty-six percent of Europeans said that they are at least "somewhat likely" to buy a TV with this new technology. Just 21% said they were either "somewhat unlikely" or "very unlikely."

We think 4K Ultra HD will roll out much faster than standard HD. Our forecast anticipates that 4K televisions will be in roughly half of all North American households by the end of 2024, just ten years from now, a fast adoption curve for such a new technology. A Parks Associates forecast is even more bullish, anticipating that 4K-capable TVs will be in over four-fifths of U.S. households with broadband Internet access in the same time frame. That quick pace of 4K adoption will primarily be driven by rapidly falling prices.

Download the chart and data in Excel.

IntentionToBuy4KUltraHDTV

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drag2share: The Spray-On Surgical Film That Could Make Sutures Redundant

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-spray-on-surgical-film-that-could-make-sutures-redu-1553539956

The Spray-On Surgical Film That Could Make Sutures Redundant

Surgeries, major or minor, virtually always require sutures—but they can prove uncomfortable and painful, or even become infected. Now, a spray-on film of biodegradable polymer nanofibers could replace them for good.

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drag2share: ZTE's incoming Grand S II could be first smartphone with 4GB RAM

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/28/zte-grand-s-ii-4gb-ram/

ZTE's Grand S II already looks like a pretty fine handset with its brushed metal back and Snapdragon 800/801 CPU, as we saw at its launch earlier this year. But judging by a leak at Chinese regulator Tenaa, it could take it up another notch with 4GB of RAM -- a first for any smartphone and double the original spec. That's the maximum possible RAM on a 32-bit ARM chip, and 4GB modules were only recently teased by Samsung and SK Hynix. We wouldn't be surprised if it ends up as a high-end option for the Grand S II, in the same way that ZTE's Nubia X6 is available in a 3GB RAM variant. Take all this with a grain of salt for now, but remember that until we see a 64-bit CPU and Android OS, 4GB will be as good as it gets.

[Image credit: Tenaa]

Filed under: Cellphones

Via: G for Games

Source: Tenaa

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Article: Enlisting a Computer to Battle Cancers, One by One

When Robert B. Darnell was a graduate student in the early 1980s, he spent a year sequencing a tiny fragment of DNA. Now Dr. Darnell is an oncologist and the president of the New York Genome Center, where the DNA-sequencing machines can decode his grad-school fragment in less than a ten-thousandt...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/science/enlisting-a-computer-to-battle-cancers-one-by-one.html

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Article: With Microsoft's Project Spark, Anyone Can Build A Video Game

Microsoft wants gamers build their own worlds—playable game worlds, in fact. Microsoft’s Project Spark, in open beta now for Windows 8 and the Xbox One, splices together a Minecraft-like sandbox with actual developer tools, enabling budding game makers to actually build a playable game from scrat...

http://readwrite.com/2014/03/27/project-spark-microsoft-beta#awesm=~ozLQw73rfGhK1M

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Article: Sigfox picks up $15M to expand its dedicated internet-of-things network

The French internet of things startup Sigfox has taken €15 million ($21 million) in new funding, to allow it to continue its international expansion. Sigfox is a network operator of sorts, having designed a wireless architecture that’s purely for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. Its netwo...

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/28/sigfox-picks-up-15m-to-expand-its-dedicated-internet-of-things-network/

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drag2share: Control Any Circuit with a TV Remote and an Arduino

Source: http://lifehacker.com/control-any-circuit-with-a-tv-remote-and-an-arduino-1553002471

Since you probably don't use most of the buttons on your remote control, why not make them work for other things? This project shows you how to use an Arduino to decode the signal from a remote and then use it to make an outlet switch keyed to that code.

This little hack comes from one of our favorite Instructables users, DIY Hacks and How Tos. To build this project, you'll need an Arduino, an infrared receiver module, some LEDs, switches, and a few other electronic odds and ends. When you're done, you'll be able to power on or off pretty much anything you want using your TV remote. And yes, you can buy remote outlets with separate controls, but this one lets you use a control you already have. Plus, it's an excellent learning project if you're just getting started with Arduino.

Control Any Circuit With a TV Remote (and an Arduino) | Instructables

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