Thursday, February 05, 2015

drag2share: The best sketch app for iPad just made its drawing tools free

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/XlUr6h2i-SM/paper-sketch-app-makes-drawing-tools-free-2015-2

Paper by FiftyThree Mix

Paper by FiftyThree is the best iPad app out there for creatives to illustrate their ideas, and as of Thursday, all the drawing tools that used to be in-app purchases are now free.

Paper has always been free to download, but the app's drawing tools — called Draw, Sketch, Outline, Write, and Color — were previously only available as in-app purchases costing $0.99 each or $3.99 for the bundle.

FiftyThree recently revealed that Paper has been downloaded 13 million times. With the move to make all drawing tools free, FiftyThree is hoping that more people will give the app a try with all the tools at their disposal. 

Removing in-app purchases does means closing the door (at least temporarily) to revenue from in-app purchases, but FiftyThree also has a thriving physical Bluetooth stylus business selling "Pencils," which retail for $49.99 to $59.99

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Wednesday, February 04, 2015

The CEO of 'Wichcraft explains why he eats a 1,000-calorie breakfast every morning

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/wichcraft-ceo-jeffrey-zurofsky-breakfast-morning-ritual-2015-2

Jeffrey Zurofski headshot

Jeffrey Zurofsky has the distinction of being one of the select restaurateurs who has not only survived the harsh New York City restaurant business but has figured out how to make a name for himself.

Along with his business partners, including celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, Zurofsky cofounded the gourmet sandwich chain 'Wichcraft and the fine-dining restaurant Riverpark and its accompanying urban farm. The two also cohost the new Bravo television series "Best New Restaurant."

Zurofsky tells Business Insider that part of his success is due to the sustained energy he gets from the huge, carefully concocted breakfast he eats each morning and the routines that surround it. "I'm an animal about my rituals," he says.

Zurofsky likes to think of his morning ritual starting the night before. Before going to bed sometime between midnight and 2 a.m., he writes out his to-do list for the next day on a small slip of paper he can carry around. The small size also ensures that he keeps his list focused.

Then he'll go through his emails, replying to the most important and moving important but non-urgent messages to a folder he'll go through when he starts work the next morning. He also gives his calendar a quick look.

He makes sure to eat two scoops of almond butter before calling it a day, a trick that "4-Hour Workweek" author (and Zurofsky's favorite writer) Tim Ferriss recommends as a way to provide sustainable blood sugar while sleeping. Ferriss found that for him, it "eliminated at least 50% of 'feel like shit'" awakenings.

After Zurofsky wakes up at 5:30 a.m. (he makes up for the limited sleep with a nap later in the day), he walks his dog and does some exercise, whether running, gym training, or squash. He follows it up with meditation, and then he's ready for an intense meal.

He changes up the cuisine and preparation of his breakfast each morning, but it always contains 1,000 calories and 30 grams of protein. It includes the following:

Zurofsky showers after breakfast and then walks or bikes to work, often listening to an e-book during the commute. When he arrives at the office sometime between 7:30 and 8:30, he gets through two hours of uninterrupted work before he takes any meetings or calls.

The point of this structured, approximately two-hour morning ritual is to build sustainable energy and diminish stress.

"It's just about keeping your mind clear and staying focused on the most important work of the day," he says.

SEE ALSO: 15 successful entrepreneurs share the most important lesson they learned in their 30s

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Article: ARM’s new chips will come with 3.5x performance boost

ARM holdings, the company behind the mobile processor architecture that powers the iPhone and iPad, unveiled its next generation processor blueprints today that it says will increase performance three fold compared to its current designs. The new Cortex-A72 chips aimed at smartphone and tablets w...

http://www.cultofmac.com/310943/arms-new-chips-will-give-iphone-3-5x-performance-boost/

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drag2share: We're One Step Closer to Blazingly Fast Computer Chips Made of Silicene

source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/vip/~3/b_PhNkwxzcY/were-one-step-closer-to-blazingly-fast-computer-chips-o-1683541326

We're One Step Closer to Blazingly Fast Computer Chips Made of Silicene

Move over graphene, today is silicene's day to shine. Silicene is a single-atom thick layer of silicon, whose theoretical properties could have exciting applications in computer chips. Now, scientists have made the first silicene transistor, and guess what, it's amazingly fast.

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drag2share: London has a real problem with thieves targeting keyless cars

source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/03/london-keyless-car-theft/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Audi Start Button

If you own a new car, there's a good chance that it features some form of keyless security. Whether it helps unlock your car or lets you start it with the push of a button, it makes driving all that bit easier. That's unless it's the reason your car gets stolen. Police forces all over the UK are reporting a rise in keyless car thefts, but a new report released by the Metropolitan Police today suggests that it now accounts for over a quarter of all vehicle thefts across London.

According to the Met, 6,283 cars and vans were pinched in the capital last year by crooks without the owners' key. That works out at 17 vehicles a day. Gangs reportedly use devices (which are originally intended for mechanics) that "bypass the vehicle's electronic information as the owner locks it" or are physically breaking into cars to gain access to their OBD port, which then allows them to download the car's information and imprint it on a new key in no time at all.

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ARM's latest processor design puts fast 4K graphics on your phone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/03/arm-cortex-a72-processor/

You've probably heard no end of hype for 4K video on TVs and computers, and now it's about to invade your phone... at least, so long as ARM has its way. The company just took the wraps off of Cortex-A72, a processor reference design that promises a huge boost to computing power, especially when graphics come into play. Thanks to updates that include optimizations for an efficient 16-nanometer chipmaking process, 30 percent more memory performance and an 80 percent speedier graphics core (the Mali-T880), the A72 is about 3.5 times more powerful than ARM's earlier Cortex-A15. That's beefy enough to record 4K video at an extra-smooth 120 frames per second -- many current smartphones only manage 30FPS at best. You should get "console-class" gaming, too, and there's a promise of Google Now-style natural voice commands that don't depend on a distant server to interpret what you're saying.

The design should be more miserly across the board, too. It uses about 75 percent less energy than its A15 ancestor when it's at a similar performance level, and even the graphics use about 40 percent less power. And as you might expect, it's built to take advantage of both ARM's established big.LITTLE tech (which switches to lower-power CPU cores for lighter workloads) and 64-bit platforms like Android 5.0 Lollipop.

You'll have to be patient if you want to try any of this first-hand, though. Huawei (HiSilicon), MediaTek and Rockchip have already signed up to make A72-based processors, but ARM doesn't expect the first shipping hardware until sometime in 2016. This is more of a preview of what's possible than anything else. It's up to chip and phone builders to translate what ARM has made into something you'll appreciate, whether you're making 4K home movies or playing intensive shoot-em-ups.

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Source: ARM

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Monday, February 02, 2015

'Doctor Who' coding game for kids arrives on tablets

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/02/doctor-who-coding-game-on-tablets/

'The Doctor and the Dalek'

You no longer have to fire up your computer just to give your children some programming lessons from Doctor Who. The BBC's educational coding game, The Doctor and the Dalek, is now available on iPads and Android tablets (both through Amazon and soon Google Play). You'll get largely the same instruction-based Boolean logic puzzles as before, but with a few new levels and new abilities for your one-of-a-kind Dalek companion. The catch? While the game is still free, it's only available in the UK for now -- here's hoping that the BBC makes it available worldwide so that more kids can help their favorite Gallifreyan.

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Source: BBC, Amazon, App Store

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Raspberry Pi 2 announced with substantial hardware upgrades

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/02/raspberry-pi-2/

While Raspberry Pi fans were told to expect a brand new board somewhere around 2017, it turns out that wasn't quite true. This is the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B: a substantial upgrade from the Model B+ that will go on sale later today for $35/£25. The new board has some fundamental upgrades that could well warrant the upgrade for existing Raspberry Pi dabblers -- that is, if smaller wasn't better. Raspberry Pi Foundation lead Eben Upton told The Register that the new Model B "is a usable PC now." A fact borne out by official support for Windows 10.

"You could use a Raspberry Pi 1 as a PC but you had to say 'this is a great PC in so far as it cost me 35 bucks'. We've removed the caveat that you had to be a bit forgiving with it. Now it's just good."

How much better? Well, the team's upgraded the processor on-board to a 900MHz quad-core chip and have loaded in 1GB of RAM, which the foundation reckons will offer at least six times the performance of the old Model B+. It may look the same, but the board (with that processor which has apparently been in development for years), also has a special a tweak connecting to the quad-core brains to ensure it handles the gig of RAM on board. Naturally, it'll be up to the Raspberry Pi community and makers to show what is possible with this sequel PC -- but we're assuming the specification bump will mean "a whole lot more". Older boards will likely get cheaper over time, but the Raspberry Pi 2 will still go on sale for the same price as last year's B+; $35/£25. Just like its predecessor, at launch, it's only available via a limited number of partner outlets on either side of the Atlantic.

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Via: The Register

Source: Raspberry Pi

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A British company has invented a boiler that generates electricity as well as heat

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/flow-energy-launches-boiler-that-produces-electric-power-2015-1

Flow gallery

A British company has launched an innovative boiler that could totally change the way people pay for their energy and heat their homes.

The Flow boiler provides both hot water and heat for the flats and apartments it is installed in but, on top of that, it also produces electric energy that can power household appliances.

It aims at covering several energy needs with one single energy source, potentially allowing customers to generate their own power inside their homes. The more people will be able to generate electricity on their own, the less demand there will be on the national grid.

Flow believes that its boiler can reduce a household's emissions by 20%.

FLOW tech zone banner graphic By switching electricity sources from an external service to the Flow boiler, a family can save up to £80 a month, according to the developers.

Here is how it works: In a traditional boiler, gas is burned to heat water, which then passes through the home's pipes and radiators.

The Flow boiler instead uses the gas to heat a high-pressure liquid coolant that is sealed inside the system. The vapour created then moves through a dynamo called a "scroll expander," which spins and acts as a mini electric generator.

The hot vapor then moves through a heat exchanger, heating up the hot water for the house. The vapor returns to the boiler as the hot water is pumped around the house.

The Flow is using gas from the national grid to do two jobs (create heat and drive a turbine) where a normal boiler does one, in other words.

FLow tonyThe product was 10 years in development. Flow CEO Tony S tiff is looking forward to seeing how it performs in the market. "I think it is a game-changer for a family," he said to Business Insider. 

Stiff said that the company has stocked up interests for 15,000 boilers prior to launch, but the company has the capacity to produce 200,000 units per year. If that is the case, the company will be able to hire 700 people at its headquarters in Ipswich, the Ipswich Star reports.

The boilers are also produced in the UK: in Livingston, Scotland, by the American manufacturer Jabil.

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Saturday, January 31, 2015

Google's 3D-Scanning Project Tango Just Got a Little More Real

Source: http://gizmodo.com/googles-3d-scanning-project-tango-just-got-a-little-mor-1682894029

Google's 3D-Scanning Project Tango Just Got a Little More Real

Google ATAP (that's Advanced Technology and Projects) is where wonderful things are born. Things like the animated magic of Glen Keane's Duet or the modular Project Ara smartphone. It's all great stuff, but it's also all experimental—if a project doesn't make enough progress in two years, it's dead. But Google's Project Tango is alive and well: it just graduated from ATAP.

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Friday, January 30, 2015

Google's 3D-sensing Project Tango is no longer an experiment

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/30/project-tango-is-no-longer-an-experiment/

Yet another project is graduating from experiment to proper part of Google. Only two weeks ago, Glass left the confines of the Skunk Works-like Google X and became its own division headed up by Nest co-founder Tony Fadell. Now Project Tango, the 3D-sensing and -mapping concept, is moving on from the ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) labs to become a part of the company proper. Unfortunately what that means for the technology or what products it might eventually end up in isn't exactly clear. Will the next Nexus sport a depth-sensing IR camera? Maybe. Or perhaps they'll be used to build more advanced home automation and home monitoring tools for Nest. All we do know is that Tango will live on, even if the name "Project Tango" eventually fades away.

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Source: Google ATAP (Google+)

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Article: IBM joins forces with Mars, taps genomics, to boost food safety

Tech heavyweight IBM has joined forces with food manufacturing giant Mars in an attempt to boost global food safety. Scientists from the two companies have founded the Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain, tapping advances in genomics to gain a better understanding of food safety. IBM ...

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/01/29/ibm-joins-forces-with-mars-taps-genomics-to-boost-food-safety/

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Thursday, January 29, 2015

LG's phone sales are way up, but killing plasma TVs had a cost

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/29/lgs-phone-sales-are-way-up-but-killing-plasma-tvs-had-a-cost/

LG is still trailing Samsung and Apple in total smartphone sales (and profits from them), but the company just revealed its financial data for the last year and has plenty to be happy about. It sold 59.1 million smartphones last year, up nearly a quarter from what it moved in 2013. The report didn't explain when we can expect the G Flex 2 in the US or leak what's in the next big G series phone, but said the company will "concentrate on improving its brand power, operating more efficiently, and focusing on selective key markets." Its TV business is doing well too, where profits grew 31 percent from last year to $482 million. Still, the company had a net loss in the last quarter of 2014 because of write-offs related to shutting down its plasma TV business as it ramps up Ultra HD and OLED.

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Source: LG

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Leak hints that HTC's next flagship phone comes in two sizes

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/29/htc-one-m9-evleaks-shot/

HTC One M9 leak

You'd be forgiven for not knowing what to expect from HTC's next flagship smartphone. The images that have emerged are frequently dodgy, and there are even claims that the company is seeding decoys to throw people off the scent. However, you might finally be looking at the real thing... or rather, things. Well-known leaker Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) has posted a supposed product shot displaying a pair of differently-sized, previously unseen devices that he believes to be HTC's successors to the One M8. Both have edge-mounted front speakers, a large front camera (UltraPixel?) and the super-thin bezels that many have been asking for. The designs are feasible, although that Galaxy S5-style home button on the larger version gives us reason for pause -- either this is sketchy, or HTC's lawyers have decided that Samsung won't get angry. You'll likely know more at HTC's media event on March 1st.

Old habits die hard... pic.twitter.com/eQ81vxQl2S

- Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 28, 2015

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Source: @evleaks (Twitter)

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Microsoft's Office for Android tablet apps arrive today

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/29/office-for-android/

It's only been a few weeks since Microsoft released the preview versions of Office for Android, but the software giant is finally ready to bring the final version of those apps to Google Play. Starting some time Thursday morning -- we're hearing from around 10 a.m. ET onwards -- you'll be able to download the finished versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint to your Android tablet. As before, the requirements for downloading said apps include having a tablet that's 7-inches or larger that's also running Android 4.4 KitKat or newer. They also have to have an ARM-based processor and 1GB of RAM or above.

I had a chance to take a brief early look at the Office for Android apps, and I have to say Microsoft did a pretty good job in porting over its Office apps from desktop to the tablet. However, the first thing you'll be asked to do when you launch any of the apps is to sign up or log in to your Microsoft account -- that's the only way you can edit, save or print documents. It's a bit of annoyance, but seeing as the apps are free to download, I'll acquiesce. If you wish to use the app on screens that are 10.1 inches or larger, you'll have to pony up $6.99 a month or more for an Office 365 subscription. A subscription also offers premium features such as tracking changes in Word and getting the "Presenter View" in PowerPoint. You're also able to sync documents across devices if you have a subscription.

All of the Office apps have a similar home screen. Recently opened documents reside on the left column while templates for new documents sit on the right. At the bottom of that left column is a link to open other documents. You can store your files either locally on your device, on your Microsoft OneDrive account, at a SharePoint location or on Dropbox. The interface for each app is strikingly similar to that of their desktop cousins. As far as I can tell at first glance, the layout and functions on the apps are the same -- everything from editing slides in PowerPoint to creating charts and tables in Excel.

I was a little skeptical that the apps would register my taps accurately, especially on a complicated spreadsheet on Excel, but they did. Resizing tables, text and images was easy and I didn't encounter too many bugs in general. Indeed, there were a few functions that actually benefited from a touch interface -- the ability to doodle and draw circles right on the PowerPoint slide with your finger is pretty great. It's worth noting here that while Word and Excel work in both portrait and landscape modes, PowerPoint is strictly landscape-only. That's not really a big dealbreaker though, as you would want your presentation slides to be in that format anyway.

We'll need a little more time to test these apps to really suss out their worth in day-to-day use, but at first glance, they're not too bad at all. Some of you must have thought so too, as Microsoft tells us that the previews alone generated more than 250,000 downloads across 33 languages and more than 110 countries. It's obvious that a lot of folks are Office aficionados who also happen to own an Android tablet. If that applies to you, stay tuned to that Google Play store, download the apps and let us know what you think. Here's hoping the Windows version of these tablet apps are as good or better.

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Source: Word (Google Play), Excel (Google Play), PowerPoint (Google Play)

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