Google offers a glimpse of Japan's tsunami devastation
Back in July of this year, Google announced its intention to “digitally archive” panoramic images of areas of North-Eastern Japan in an attempt to bring home to billions all over the globe the tremendous size and scale of, and devastation caused by, the March 11 tsunami that tore through eastern coastal regions following the country's most powerful earthquake since records began.
The MorpHex spherical robot crawls; but doesn't quite roll...yet
Norwegian engineer Kåre Halvorsen has developed the MorpHex robot sphere prototype that reminds us somewhat of a Metroid morph ball mixed with the design ethic of a Portal turret.
The robot has six retracting legs that allow for dancing and some rather fluid, sort of artistic movement that reminds you of the swelling and fading waves of a stock screensaver on your computer. However, as the spherical shape would initially have you presuming, it doesn't roll yet.
DARPA invests $13.4 million in thermal cameras for smartphones
As the US military request thermal vision for every soldier, they needed a better option than the current thermal, extremely low resolution yet rather pricey pocket thermal cameras they have currently. The new idea to get there is by giving Raytheon $13.4 million to miniaturize the IR imagers to the point that it fits in the likes of PDAs and smartphones.
Graphics researchers discover the secret behind rainbows
What started as a research project into improving the amount of finite detail that goes into CGI film and video game backgrounds, turned into a discovery about the physics of rainbows and how they are formed.
What defines an English person? Google knows.
The Google search algorithm: one of pure intelligence that doesn't only pick out results based upon the quantitative results; but also the qualitative information.
The reputation of the site is analysed, the social agreement of the link is recorded, and the relevance to your search is decided upon. So when you Google 'What defines an english person,' well...erm...you're best off seeing for yourself. Hopefully it will be fixed soon, for the sake of the search engine's public image. For those uncomfortable with swearing, don't bother carrying on; but if not, click through for the picture. Just don't say we didn't warn you.
Fly like Iron Man with the Water-powered Flyboard
Since Bond rose into the air in Thunderball, all the way up to Robert Downey Jr's CGI exploits with personal flight technology, we've always been fascinated with jetpacks and various other forms of solo propulsion. With this in mind, we'd like to introduce you to Zapata Racing's concept, the Flyboard: the water propelled waterboots that look more familiar to the exploits of Iron Man.
SETI begins looking for alien life again. Restarts Allen Telescope Array
The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), has re-launched Allen Telescope Array operations in California in order to continue their search for alien life forms.
Due to a lack of funding the project was stopped in April; but public donations and a huge investment from the U.S. Air Force has meant they can continue their research. This comes at rather convenient timing, as NASA announced the discovery of 1,000 new potential life-supporting planets via its Kepler space telescope.
8-foot iNuke Boom iPod Dock ready for debut at CES
Take a look at the image of the $30,000 iNuke Boom iPod dock from Behringer above, and we mean really look. You maybe able to make out the iPod Touch that's mounted right there on top of this beast of an audio system.
Study: Teens aren't really sexting that much any more
A report went out yesterday, concluding that teen sexting is not as prevalent as you may have thought. In fact, the number of youth who have shared or taken images of themselves naked is around 1%.
The definition of this gets thrown around in many different shades from what we've read, so to make it clear what it's meant in this form, we turn to Wikipedia.
Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones. The term was first popularized in early 21st century, and is a portmanteau of sex and texting.
The study was released by The University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Centre, to coincide with one released a few months ago: the first called "Prevalence and Characteristics of Youth Sexting: A National Study," and the second titled “How Often Are Teens Arrested for Sexting? Data From a National Sample of Police Cases.”
Senseye: smartphone control with your eyes. Launches next year
We saw eye-controlled interface on the odd episode of Tomorrow's World in the 90s, and a couple times on The Gadget Show nowdays; but this is the first time that an this technology could become a mass produced and mass sold product. Presenting the Senseye.
Samsung releases concept video for flexible AMOLED 'mobile display'
So after Nokia took a stab at the flexible display, Samsung had to throw it's hat into the ring after dancing with the technology for quite a while, by introducing a rather curious conceptualism in the form of the Samsung Mobile Display.
Tower built by quadcopters
What happens when a roboticist and two architects team up? The Flighwt Assembled Architecture installation, where a fleet of quadcopters have built a 20 feet twisting tower out of 1500 foam bricks.
UK mobile networks insist they don't use Carrier IQ
So masses of concern have amassed since the recent discovery about what Carrier IQ's smartphone diagnostic software actually records, and the fact it's on more than 141m handsets worldwide. UK mobile networks have been forceful in completely denying use of the software on their devices.
Google shows us the evolution of search
Google posted a blog a couple days ago taking users for a peek 'under the hood' of the mechanics of its search engine: talking about the origins, improvements and the future of search, all from what started as a research project in 1996.
Editorial: Spotify, not everything needs an app platform
Your phone has an app store, your computer has an app store, your web browser has an app store, your music streaming app (which you found in an app store) has an app store. I don't know where you would define 'the line' to be here; but I feel it has been crossed.
Little printer makes print media awesome
Presenting the Berg Little Printer, a novel little idea that prints out your daily updates from various online occasions onto receipt-style ticker tapes, sealed with a smile...it's just adorable, there's no other immasculating word for it!
So why did that iPhone 4 combust? Can it happen to you?
So the news has (understandably) gone massively viral overnight, as the report came in of a Regional Express flight passenger's iPhone 4 going a bit beserk: presenting "a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow."
Nobody was harmed and the flight attendant did his duty by promptly extinguishing the glow; but the big questions here need to be answered before I go anywhere near a plane with my iPhone: what happened? And could the situation be symptomatic of all the iPhone 4s out there?