Microsoft builds a new 3D holographic system you can touch
Microsoft Research has unveiled the work they have been doing into a 3D hologram system that allows you to interact with the projections floating in midair, with surprising precision.
The system, code-named Project Vermeer, is able to project a 3D image at 15 frames per second, emulating 192 different viewpoints at a time, and presents a counter-point to what technological implementations there are currently.
Nokia: solar charging mobile phones are possible but not ready yet
The results from Nokia's solar charging experiment are in, and while it is possible to juice up your phone via the Sun's rays, it's nowhere near consistent enough yet.
For the experiment, Nokia have used their C1-02 (one of their millions of dumbphones), attached solar panels onto the back, and sent them to a variety of countries over the last six months. Five participants were selected from across the world: two in the Arctic Circle, one in Southern Sweden, one in Kenya, and one in the Baltic Sea, each with varying lifestyles and varying weather conditions to give this a fair shot.
Art Deco Aerodyne PC takes us to the 1930s
As Andrew Ryan would ask, is a man not entitle to the sweat of hiw brow? No, says those with a small fortune, as designer Jeffrey Stephenson is selling a small run of this downright beautiful art-deco case mod.
Crafted out of mahogany with aluminium accents, this makes the Steampunk era of last year look downright crass. Each side invokes a completely unique visual style: from the streamline trains of old, to the Chrysler building, and then the side grilles looking as if they've been ripped straight from a 1930s radio.
The Church of file sharing recognised as a religion by Sweden
Swedish authorities has confirmed it's recognition of a 3,000 strong organisation of file sharers, called Church of Kopimism as a religion.
To help with the name translation, "Kopimi" pretty much means what it sounds like: "copy me." The organisation shares beliefs in the sharing and copying of data, as they see them to be a sacred act. Alongside this, monitoring and eavesdropping is seen as wrong. It's taken them a few attempts (their last declined application for official church status was in July of 2011); but Kopimism has finally been granted official recognition as a religion.
Microsoft to Sue Comet for selling '94,000 counterfeit copies of Windows'
UK electronics retailer, Comet, is being taken to court by Microsoft for allegedly creating and selling unauthorised copies of its Windows operating systems.
Microsoft claim that the retailer created more than 94,000 Windows recovery discs for Vista and XP, and sold them to customers. They were sold between March of 2008 and December 2009, and while Comet sold this as an added extra to customers who wished to restore their computers to original configuration in the event of problems, the Redmond based technology company claim this is unfair to the consumer.
Real-life model Wipeout circuit powered by levitation. Real or fake?
We're not quantum physicists by any stretch of the imagination, but what we are is keen admirers of truly breathtaking science...especially when it recreates the same sort of racing you'd find in Sony's futuristic racer, Wipeout.
White House denies sending Obama to Mars
Self-proclaimed time-traveling, universe-exploring government agents Andrew D. Basiago and William Stillings claim they served for DARPA in the 1980s, and witnessed a young Barack Obama sent to explore Mars as a top secret CIA project.
I would love to say we're making this up; but this fantastical story, which we're not surprised doesn't come complete with it's own Tinfoil hats, is one of such absurdity it's actually a pretty fascinating story to read. Reported by Wired's Danger Room, Basiago and Stillings told of how Obama has been lying about his identity and military service, revealing the shocking truth to be the president participating in a CIA intergalactic program, which was hosted at a California community college in 1980.
Google acquires 217 patents from IBM
In the last week of 2011, Google bought 217 patents from IBM in a deal that was officially recorded at the patent office on December 30, 2011.
The patent transaction was discovered by a reader via the United States Patent Trade Office (USPTO), who wishes to remain anonymous. It was for 188 granted patents and 29 printed patent pendings, across quite a large range of technological areas being covered by what's been bought. Things like network performance, email administration and instant messaging client functionality are all in place; but there also seems to be a significant lean towards covering phone and mobile technologies.
Steve Jobs Reborn As 12-Inch Tall Action Figure
Action Man, Captain Scarlet, Superman, He-Man... Growing up, there's a fair chance that you owned a variety of super-powered, feature-laden, articulating action figures of your favourite superheroes and supervillains. What you probably didn't have was a brilliantly lifelike plastic replica of an influential businessman. Kids growing up in 2012 might just get that chance.
Internet Explorer 6 is dying. Microsoft makes cake and merchandise to celebrate
After a decade, usage of decade-old IE6 in the US has dropped below 1%. This is now what Microsoft wants: they really does want it to die, making cakes, t-shirts and mugs to celebrate it's final steps towards the grave.
The Redmond-based company made a website in March 2011 to countdown the last few percent of usage, called (rather appropriately) IE6 Countdown. Since then, usage has dropped to 7.7%, down 12% since the launch of the countdown.
New Apple Patent to bring Face unlock to iOS
A recently discovered patent submitted by Apple details a method of unlocking an iDevice via face-recognition a'la Galaxy Nexus...kind of risky based on the privacy concerns surrounding using a photo to unlock the phone.
As described in the above image discovered by PatentlyApple.com, the device would sense a user approaching and wake from sleep to activate its image processor. At this point, facial recognition software can be executed to match the user's face and unlock the device. Business users can set even higher levels of security.
Apple planning a Media event this month. Not iPad or Apple TV related, says All Things D
All Things D have always been very close to on-the-ball in relation to Apple predictions, and if the latest from the sources close to the tech blog are to be believed, the Cupertino based company are planning a media-related event in New York for later this month.
Orangutan Outreach asks Apple for help popularising 'Apps for Apes'
Charity organisation Orangutan Outreach has invested both time and finance in its Apples for Orangs program, enriching the lives of these highly intelligent creatures with iPads. After it's work with regular 'human' apps (giving Orangutans Skype to see and communicate, music/matching apps to play), they have turned to Apple to create a special "Apps for Apes" category in the iTunes app store.
Editorial: Apple's Post-PC vs Amazon's Post-Web computing
So Wired published an insightful interview with Amazon's Founder Jeff Bezos, discussing all things content consumption, cloud computing, consumer culture disruption and an odd side-track about his financial pledges into public space travel. The bit that formulated opinion is where he starts to discuss the Kindle Fire as more than just a competitor to the iPad.
This pushes forward the two competing concepts of how computing should be done, aforementioned in the title. The Post-PC device, as predicted by Steve Jobs and the general trend of products from Apple is to be the new "car" when Personal Computers become trucks. On it's lowest base: Post-PC devices rely on new input / output methods and allow a new population of non-expert users to use the product more cheaply and simply. There is a focus on the OS, the experience is centralised around the device, and content is downloaded to the device.
The Post-web device is something that is best demonstrated by the Kindle Fire: a culmination of the services that Jeff has accrued over his illustrious 15 years. Taking the concept of computing up into the cloud, streaming media, taking the focus off the OS and the hardware, instead forming a more literal definition of a window to your content.
This has presented two interesting concepts for the future of computing, both have a bright future for sure; but which would be of preference in a world where many only choose one?
LG Reveals World's Largest OLED TV At Just 4mm Thick
We're quite the keen observers of advances in TV technology here at NRM. From heavy investment in the 3D market and glasses-free 3D, to ever larger, smarter, thinner and more energy efficient sets. LG Electronics has revealed that it is planning to unveil the “world's largest” OLED TV at this year's Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, beginning January 10.
Apple's Jonathon Ive Knighted
Jonathon Ive, Apple's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design has been granted knighthood as part of the New Year Honours ceremony.
Honoured for "services to design and enterprise," one of the key minds behind the look and feel of Apple products over the last 15 years joins a group of technology industrial pioneers who have also received this prestigious title, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Quite an impressive list to have your name added to.
Siri tells 12 year old to "Shut the f*ck up"
One particular aspect of Siri, beyond identifying the best locations to hide bodies, is the ability to instruct to refer to you as a name of your choice. A feature that was exploited, as young Charlie Le Quense fell victim to a hurl of expletive abuse.
Shut the f*ck up, you ugly tw*t.
In-store gadget trolling hits a new level. Regardless of the slight chuckle some people would share at the situation, you can't help but feel sorry for the kid in this situation, walking up to an iPhone 4S demo unit in his local Tesco (Coventry) and enquiring about how many people there are in the world, only to be told in a vulgar fashion to promptly be quiet.
China unveils plans for its space program
The country has published a white paper to celebrate its space achievements in 2011, including becoming the third nation to dock in space, and give a general idea as to where they want to be in five years.
From the paper, it's clear that China sees space exploration as a key part to its continuing development, revealing some rather ambitious plans for the next half decade.
MIT student builds an electric self-balancing unicycle
A rather fantastic DIY project to end the year: MIT student Stephan Boyer has built his own self-balancing electrical unicycle to roll with speed around the campus.
Called the "Bullet", the custom steel body holds two 7Ah 12-volt batteries, a 450-watt electric motor and an ATmega328 chip. This gives the solowheel transport a range of 5 miles with a max speed of 15mph. At that speed, it's not going to replace your daily commute; but it makes for the perfect round-campus mode of transportation, as the students in the video demonstration.
Lego Train set used to build data network
We're going to pick up the pieces, and build a Lego IP data-transfer network out of a train set, courtesy of Hackaday.com.
Possibly one of the slowest speed rates out there; but also the most charming. Hacker Maximillien has devised a system that utilises a USB flash drive, to carry data around to different nodes (we'll call them stations) on the rail. The four nodes consist of aluminium foil contacts, which establish the connection from the attached computer to the USB storage on-board the train. After the data is sent across, the drive is unmounted and the power flow is transferred to the train to propel it forwards to it's next requested destination.