Did you know that there are a million germs on just one shopping cart handle? I hate to imagine how many are living and crawling on the actual inside of the cart… you know where you put your food.
Never mind the fact that it’s the food itself (spinach, tomatoes, beef…) that has posed all the recent dangers. The fact that I know creepy-crawlies are on my shopping cart makes me want to stand up and do something about it.
On Monday, computer scientists at Stanford demonstrated their AI helicopter, sending it flying around campus all on its own. Instead of reveling in its new found freedom, the ‘copter performed aerobatics that it learned from watching a radio-controlled helicopter flown by a human.
The AI system communicates with a ground-based computer that does the actual guiding. Each helicopter costs approximately $4,000 and is outfitted with an accelerometer, gyroscope and a magnetometer to determine its orientation and acceleration, and a GPS or two ground-based cameras to determine its location.
Potential uses for the helicopter include not only the obligatory military mission, (where it will certainly learn its taste for blood) but also for investigating wildfires or other surveillance and mapping applications.
I’m getting all wrapped up in this interview with Peter Moore over at The Guardian. In today’s second part, he recounts his transition from the demise of the Dreamcast to his eventual move over to Microsoft. Seems he held some resentment against Sony PR for getting in the way of his Dreamcast plans.
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This just makes sense. A nice little portable digital photo frame. Small and compact, the frame is perfect for showing off pics of the fam. It even comes with a leather protective case.
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Here’s a pretty sweet looking new frame from HP. A mahogany solid wood frame surrounds the 10.4” LCD panel. It comes with two sets of interchangeable double mats allowing the ability to match a wide décor.
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Ceravision has been producing a lamp system they call Ecolumination. Using microwaves to supply the energy, they focus the power into a small quartz or ceramic bulb. The company explains that because they are electrode-less, they last longer, while the technology provides high quality, energy efficient light.
Last month they worked their technology into the headlights of a BMW racecar and took it out for a fast test spin. They ran the test at Silverstone, the home of the British F1 Grand Prix.
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Whether you’re slogging your way through a long flight, or just need a little peace of mind with your music, check out this affordable set of cans.
The Plane Quiet Platinum Noise Canceling Headphones roll in at $99.95 and is compatible with… well, you know, stuff. So plug ‘em in to your whatever and cancel up to 80% of ambient noise.
Tech specs and features after the jump.
We already know how Apple feels about tethering, which is sometimes Apple-legal and sometimes not. However, for jailbroken phones you now have what is promised as a quick and easy way (10 second-easy, that is) to tether your laptop to your iPhone.
On Saturday, Addition released iPhoneModem for iPhones using the Cydia package manager. Apple has been dragging their feet in responding to their application request, so now you can get it as shareware for only 10 bucks.
Ten bucks for ten second ease. Consider this your PSA for the day. Check out the forums over at ModMyiPhone for a quick rundown of how it’s working. (Hint: Very good)
via Gizmodo
The Guardian has a pretty cool interview up with Peter Moore, president of EA Sports. Back in the day, he was head of Sega of America. In fact, he was the guy who killed the Dreamcast.
As awesome as the Dreamcast was, maybe it’s a good thing it died; it served its purpose. It helped usher in the next-gen era of console gaming by supporting broadband capabilities. It could even be argued that they forged the casual gaming space with games like Samba de Amiga and whatever-the-hell that Leonard Nimoy fish game was called. Oh yeah, Seaman. Anyways, I have a hard enough time choosing between the 3 current consoles, I don’t need a fourth cluttering up my mind.
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Damn, that’s harsh. A woman in India has been convicted of murder because her brain scans said so. If that sounds like a pretty shaky conviction to you, you’re not alone.
BEOS begins with a silent suspect and an EEG. When details of the crime are read aloud the resulting brain scans are then analyzed. Basically, if something lights up where it shouldn’t then that person is “proved” guilty. It’s important to mote that software converts the EEG readings into viewable scans. Naturally, the inventors have high praise for the system, claiming that it can even differentiate the difference between crimes committed and events witnessed.
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HP denies that they are making an OS to rival Vista, but, they do acknowledge that they are developing software that would bypass some of its functions altogether. HP formed the “customer experience” group nine months ago in an effort to give customers a quick and easy alternative to certain applications. The team is focusing on touchscreen technology where users can watch movies or view pictures.
While HP will not go as far to say that they are developing a complete OS, Business Week claims to have sources that say employees in their PC division are doing just that. A Linux based OS could be “simpler and easier for mainstream users”.
Phil McKinney, chief technology officer in HP’s PC division says the idea is a possibility, but HP is not funding a massive move away from the Windows ecosystem:
“Is HP funding a huge R&D team to go off and create an operating system? [That] makes no sense. For us it’s about innovating on top of Vista.”
Intel and Dell have also recently made strides away from Microsoft, with both promoting Linux based systems for their netbooks.
It’s not cold yet, but winter is just around the corner. Plan ahead this season with Dots Gloves. Tiny little metal dots stud the fingertips of each digit, allowing finger-less contact for touchscreen devices.
It’s simple. It’s smart, and they promise it won’t scratch up your iPod or iPhone. You might want to wear these in any season, if just to keep fingerprints off your stuff.
Dots Gloves via Wired
The energy debate isn’t going away anytime soon… if ever. Two of the big topics are of course, foreign oil and global warming. We want it here, we want it cheap and we want it clean. The Air Force (as a large fuel consumer) is trying to paint coal as a solution.
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This week Google announced Mobile Search with My Location, for devices running on Windows Mobile. By either using GPS or cell-ID, Google can tap into your location and deliver location-specific information.
Previously, the system returned results based on the last location entered. The new Search with My Location feature will be able to give much more precise results.
You have to specifically opt in to use the service and you can always change that setting. Google assures users that personally identifiable information is never associated with you location. At least we know they have privacy issues on the brain.
Yesterday, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled the state’s anti-spam law unconstitutional. Good news to the ears of Jeremy Jaynes who gets a free pass. The spammer was previously convicted as the first felony spammer in the country in a 2004 trial. He had been sentenced to nine years.
Ugh. It’s still morning here on the West Coast.
It’s no secret that Yahoo has been struggling. It seemed they went one way and the rest of the web went another. Well, fine. They’re big enough to take to take a few wrong turns. Now however, they want to get on the same path that others like Facebook and MySpace have been following. To do this they need to attract developers – developers that have been flocking to other sites such as Google or Facebook. But to do that, they need to make things easier for developers in the first place.
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Whoa! That looks like a monster. It seriously seems as if that iPhone has its own Marshall half-stack. Neither the press release or the sell-sheet say how powerful those speakers are, but, hey, there are four of ‘em - so it’s gotta be loud, right?
Ok, ok, so they are only 2” speakers, but you probably weren’t looking for something to blow down your neighbor’s wall anyways. You might just be more interested in the fact that it works for both versions of the iPhone, along with any iPod that docks. Or perhaps it would be nice to know that the music automatically pauses when an incoming call is detected. Maybe it’s the auxiliary input or the FM receiver you’re looking for.
If you were looking for something to blow down your neighbor’s wall, you won’t find any help here. But you will find details from Altec Lansing about this docking system after the jump.
If you’re on a budget or just want to kick out in a different direction from ordinary docks and speakers, you might wanna take a look at the Orbit. To me it looks like a mashup of a tuna can, an old-timey microphone element and an ashtray, but your experience may vary. I better just let Altec Lansing describe it for you. Press release after the jump.
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Maybe because its been a long week, or maybe because this really is cool, but either way the Moondance GLOW sounds awesome. The iPod docking station for the bedroom not only does all your standard alarm-clocking, iPod-playing and remote controller-ing, it also
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Huh? 2.2? Yup. Each of those ominous-looking speakers has a 4” subwoofer pointing straight down. Standing at 10” high, the Altec Lansing Expressionist BASS (FX3022) system is designed to be used on a tabletop, which would then radiate sound. The inclusion of the subwoofer into the normal form factor eliminates the need for a third bass-amplifying component.
Each speaker also houses a 1.5” inch full-range speaker with a total continuous power of 25 Watts RMS. Power and volume controls are integrated and an AUX in jack is incorporated for hooking in your mp3 player.
These beauties are gonna cost you $129.95 for the pair. Look for them to be available in October.
…OK. Not the greatest sounding speaker of course, but you can use it outside. Or rather, you can keep it outside. It’s being marketed as a Bluetooth sports speaker, and with a compact water resistant form factor, I won’t argue. Besides look at it, all aerodynamic and shiny. I bet this thing can bike faster than I can.
Comes is two versions, $179 for Cy-fi for Bluetooth and $199 for Cy-fi for iPod. Both should be available October 1st. We first bought this to you, here. A couplea more photos after the jump, including the iPod version.
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Still in need of a device charger for your car? For $24.95 you can get The Flashlighter. It plugs into the standard cigarette lighter socket and when removed, serves as a 3 LED flashlight.
The small device comes in two flavors, the USB Pass-through Flashlight-er and the USB Flashlight-er. The Pass-through is slightly larger, as hidden behind the removable USB charger is another socket, allowing for the flashlight to charge while simultaneously charging another device. (Pass-through, get it?)
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Today RIM announced the Slacker application available for BlackBerry. It was demoed at CTIA and I got a chance to play around with it a little bit.
The relationship brings Slacker Personal Radio to BlackBerry devices. The biggest benefit is the ability to cache thousands of songs. Every time you hit a hotspot the device will sync and update the station. Plenty of music is available from Fergie to Bad Company. If you don’t like something, you can ban the song or artist. Conversely, if you do like something you hear, you can rate the artist or get more info. I didn’t see a “buy now” link, but I’ll bet donuts to dollars somebody is working on that.
Read the rest and see some pics over at MobileCrunch.
Today at CTIA Yahoo announced oneConnect for the Apple iPhone. The stand-alone app aims to aggregate all your social networks into one place. Naturally, all your favorites are included: Facebook, YouTube, Dopplr, Twitter, Flickr, even Friendster. Of course Yahoo being Yahoo, others are included too.
Read the rest over on MobileCrunch.
Ice, In Case of Emergency is a simple idea that has some far reaching consequences. Conceived by British paramedic Bob Brotchie several years ago, the ICE initiative is simply a contact programmed into your cell phone. When first responders get to an emergency, they simply look in your cell phone for your ICE contact. Simple, easy and effective.
The website 911ICE.org not only alerts your one ICE contact, but will also alert doctors and other registered contacts as well. Obviously, in emergency situations, getting the right info to the right people can mean the difference between life and death.
Bob was on hand at TC50 to help show off the new website. Not content to stop as a simple notifier, 911ICE.org also integrates what they are calling a Virtual Waiting Room, where family and friends can interact in times of need. Also of no small importance, this portal acts as a secure link to the patient’s Emergency Medical Profile stored either at 911ICE.org or other popular sites, such as Microsoft HealthVault or Google Health.
