drag2share: A Timelapse of All the Earthquakes From This Record-Breaking April

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-timelapse-of-all-the-earthquakes-from-this-record-bre-1570401997

Didn't it seem to you that the ground was exceptionally shaky last month? That there were reports on big earthquakes happening somewhere pretty much every week? It wasn't just your imagination: April produced a higher-than-normal number of moderate-to-large earthquakes, and you can see it for yourself.

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drag2share: The Not-So-Crazy Plan to Build a Colossal Energy Skyscraper In Arizona

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-not-so-crazy-plan-to-build-a-colossal-energy-skyscr-1569874669

This week, a small town near the U.S.-Mexico border gave an unusual company the right to build a 2,250-foot-tower, destined to become the tallest structure in the U.S. The company, Solar Wind Energy Tower Inc, is only three years old. But the idea it's hocking dates all the way back to the 1960s.

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drag2share: These Tiny Desktop Robots Are A Total Reinvention Of How We Could Interact With Software

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/thumbles-robot-user-interface-2014-5

Those sexy Minority Report-style user interfaces where menus float in front of your face seem likely to happen eventually, but we'll still need some sort of stepping stone to get there.

Thumbles might be just the intermediary to do the trick.

Instead of swiping around in the air, Thumbles have you interacting with tactile objects on a tabletop. These are tiny three-wheeled robots steered by a computer. They employ "omniwheels," which make it possible for them to move in any direction without having to turn, so Brooklyn-based Patten Studio imagines these robots as elements of a user interface.

Different software would respond in different ways — spin a robot like you're adjusting a dial and the software might adjust music volume or video color (as demoed below). It's pretty cool — check out how Patten Studio hypothesizes that Thumbles could be used.

While these are still purely hypothetical use cases, it's an impressive display of technology.

They could be used to dispatch emergency vehicles.

Or for playing games.

Even for editing video — watch as the robots become color dials.

Check out the video below for a full demo:

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drag2share: This Is What Amazon's Smartphone Will Look Like

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-smartphone-renderings-2014-5

Via BGR's exclusive reporting, here's the world's first clear look at Amazon's new smartphone:

The phone will make use of a data plan called "Prime Data," and while the details on it are far from totally known, it's expected to piggyback on AT&T's "Sponsored Data" program. Sponsored Data allows companies to subsidize your data use, paying for the data you consume inside certain apps and services — the data used inside of certain apps effectively doesn't count against your data plan. This might mean that Amazon could offer unlimited data for music and video streaming, but this is still speculative.

BGR describes the phone as "a bit large [but] reasonably comfortable to use with one hand." It will feature a 4.7-inch 720p display, a quad-core processor, 2 GB of RAM, and Amazon's own flavor of the Android operating system, which will be instantly familiar to anyone who's used a Kindle Fire table.

It'll also have a bunch of front-facing cameras that will help produce a 3D effect on the screen.

The phone is expected to be formally unveiled sometime in the third quarter of this year.

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

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drag2share: This Is What Amazon's Smartphone Will Look Like

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-smartphone-renderings-2014-5

Via BGR's exclusive reporting, here's the world's first clear look at Amazon's new smartphone:

The phone will make use of a data plan called "Prime Data," and while the details on it are far from totally known, it's expected to piggyback on AT&T's "Sponsored Data" program. Sponsored Data allows companies to subsidize your data use, paying for the data you consume inside certain apps and services — the data used inside of certain apps effectively doesn't count against your data plan. This might mean that Amazon could offer unlimited data for music and video streaming, but this is still speculative.

BGR describes the phone as "a bit large [but] reasonably comfortable to use with one hand." It will feature a 4.7-inch 720p display, a quad-core processor, 2 GB of RAM, and Amazon's own flavor of the Android operating system, which will be instantly familiar to anyone who's used a Kindle Fire table.

It'll also have a bunch of front-facing cameras that will help produce a 3D effect on the screen.

The phone is expected to be formally unveiled sometime in the third quarter of this year.

Join the conversation about this story »

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

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Summary only...