Last year's revelations of the National Security Agency's sweeping data collection programs were not particularly good for U.S. technology companies. Following the Edward Snowden leak, the D.C.-based think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation predicted that U.S. cloud computing c...
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/04/04/bittorrents-cloud-solution-bypass-it-altogether/
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Follow Duncan Frazier has made impressive stunning timelapse footage, but when he and his business partner Stephen McGuigan (working together as Bitbanger Labs) sent us a link to Pixelstick, we experienced the kind of awe that was formerly reserved for Apple product launches. Pixelstick is a tool...
http://thenextweb.com/creativity/2014/04/04/pixelstick-light-painting-evolved/
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Among the unedifying terminology revealed in the Apple v Samsung patent war was Steve Jobs’ belief that his company should go thermonuclear in its dispute with Google , and regard it as a Holy War. How inappropriate! Yet Jobs hit a point of real contention, rather than hyperbole, in the same ‘hol...
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A revolutionary new method of encrypting confidential information has been patented by scientists inspired by their discoveries from human biology, which model how the heart and lungs coordinate their rhythms by passing information between each other.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140403132111.htm
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Sometimes a company is interesting not because of the utility of what it can provide now, but because of the slightly hard-to-pin-down possibilities it opens up — particularly if those possibilities may help us navigate a new age of user interfaces and experiences. Random is such a company, and h...
http://gigaom.com/2014/04/04/why-random-is-developing-an-irrational-browsing-experience/
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(Credit: CSIRO) The CSIRO is putting RFID sensors on Queensland fruit flies to study their behaviour in the hopes of saving Queensland's crops. What do Tasmanian bees and Queensland fruit flies (AKA Q-flies) have in common (aside from six legs, two wings and segmented eyes)? They both wear little...
http://www.cnet.com.au/fruit-flies-fitted-with-tiny-backpacks-to-save-farms-339346996.htm?feed=rss
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Not to be outflanked by rivals, Intel has released the $99 Minnowboard Max, a tiny single-board computer that runs Linux and Android. It is completely open source – you can check out the firmware and software here – and runs a 1.91GHz Atom E3845 processor. The board’s schematics are also availabl...
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Enjoy this reversed footage of a man walking backwards across Tokyo, proof that a simple, seemingly silly idea can result in something strangely confusing and attractive.
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Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-most-elegant-iphone-speaker-is-just-a-single-piece-1557674716
Here is a sleek way to showcase your iPhone's looks and sounds. There are no wires or buttons or even plastic in this passive amp—just a single piece of glass, handcrafted to exacting proportions, that can wrap a room in sound.
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Source: http://gizmodo.com/glowing-sticks-and-long-exposures-turn-drumming-into-a-1557736797
It can be mesmerizing watching a talented drummer beat away on a set of skins, but even more so when they're sitting in the middle of a long-exposure camera rig with a pair of glowing drumsticks in hand. What's usually a blur of arms and sticks suddenly becomes an intricate web of mid-air streaks and squiggles that only add to a drummer's performance.
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/03/project-ara-video-update/
Project Ara has only exploded in prominence since Google unloaded Motorola earlier this year, and now we're getting yet another peek at the work in progress. The Phonebloks team just released a video showing off the progress Google and its partners have made on those modular smartphones, and things are coming along just as quick as you'd expect.
While this is ostensibly a video meet-and-greet with some of the folks working for the cause, there are still some tantalizing parts to gaze upon. We're given a quick look at how component modules like processors and cameras are held in place by electropermanent magnets -- they slide into place easily, and are locked and unlocked with a quick burst of voltage that'll ultimately be controlled with an app. For a few brief moments, we also get a look at the three different endoskeletons that those parts pop into side by side... if only in render form. The mainstream medium model is the one that's been getting all the attention lately, but the phablet-sized endo looks like it'll support 9 modules on its rear and the mini model that could sell for about $50 can handle at least 6. Not enough Ara meat for you? Never fear: the first Ara Developer Conference will take place on April 15, so expect most of the project's secrets to be spilled very shortly.
Filed under: Mobile
Source: YouTube
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/04/google-project-loon-world-journey/
One of Project Loon's hot air balloons just completed a journey 'round the world, but unlike Vernes' Phileas Fogg who took 80 days to do so, Google's creation took but a mere 22 days. That far exceeds Mountain View's expectations (the team thought it would take around 33 days), all thanks to data collected by previous test flights. You see, the folks behind the project make sure to assess and use those findings to continue improving their balloons. In fact, this model (called Ibis-167), which had to brave particularly strong winds, might not have made it if not for the changes the team made.
The team writes on the project's Google+ page:Since last June, we've been using the wind data we've collected during flights to refine our prediction models and are now able to forecast balloon trajectories twice as far in advance. In addition, the pump that moves air in or out of the balloon has become three times more efficient, making it possible to change altitudes more rapidly to quickly catch winds going in different directions. There were times, for example, when this balloon could have been pulled into the polar vortex - large, powerful wind currents that whip around in a circle near the stratosphere in the polar region - but these improvements enabled us to maneuver around it and stay on course.
Project Loon is one of Google X Lab's (the company's more adventurous outfit also responsible for Glass) brainchild, which hopes to offer hot air balloon-powered internet connection someday. Until then, the team will continue doing more test flights -- the Ibis-167 is already on its second journey, clocking the project's 311,000th mile -- to ensure the hardiness of their balloons.
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Google
Via: CNET
Source: Project Loon
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Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/sustainable-silicon-valley-home-2014-4
To many observers, Silicon Valley is the land of cookie-cutter developments and massive McMansions. But a recently completed home in the area could provide a useful model to change that.
Situated on a half-acre lot in Menlo Park, the "Low/Rise house" is an impressive example of sustainable living. The house uses a number of energy-efficient techniques, including radiant floor heating and hidden solar panels that generate 90% of the home's energy.
"Given the great advances of technology emerging from Silicon Valley, architectural innovation surprisingly lags behind. The house is intended as a counter proposal to the suburban McMansion, the sprawling suburban developments that represent costly wasted space, resources, and energy," Dan Spiegel, founding partner of San Francisco-based Spiegel Aihara Workshop, said to Business Insider. "The Low/Rise House proposes a more responsive, flexible approach to the single family home."
Spiegel designed the home for his parents, two professors at Stanford. It has some pretty amazing green features.
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For nearly 40 years, American photographer Alex S. MacLean has been taking pictures from the sky.
In 1975, the photographer started the Landslides Aerial Photography project to provide illustrative aerial photography for architects, landscape designers, urban planners, and environmentalists. Photographing American and European landscapes from 5,000 feet and above, MacLean's pictures reveal the hidden geometry and gorgeous patterns of the world around us.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/beautiful-custom-motorbike-is-actually-a-360-security-1556862288
This gorgeous custom motorbike began its life as an utterly mundane Honda P25, a fuel-efficient 1960s scooter. But motorcycle artisan Chicara Nagata turned it into a sweeping sculpture with a social-commentary twist: the tiny bike carries four infrared security cameras in its frame, built at the behest of a Japanese security company.
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