PayPal lines up 15 retailers for mobile payments, will let you buy Jamba Juice smoothies with a smartphone
Although
PayPal's mobile payment system started out small
with a Home Depot deal, that snowball is quickly rolling itself into a boulder. Starting next month, 15 extra US retailers will be happy to see you
slap down your smartphone (not literally, we hope) instead of a credit card. The selection leads us to think a lot of smartphone owners like to shop for
wearables -- Aéropostale, Foot Locker and JC Penney are in the batch, along with others -- but there's a few useful exceptions, like
Barnes & Noble, Jamba Juice and TigerDirect. At least a total of 20 merchants are expected by the end of year, and as with Home Depot, you won't need special hardware besides an Android or iOS device to spend your hard-earned cash. We'll just be thankful we won't have to buy our yogurt with actual cash,
like savages.
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PSA: Watch the SpaceX Dragon's first attempt at docking right now! (video)
SpaceX's Dragon is rapidly approaching its historic meeting with the
International Space Station. It's due to begin its first docking procedure at 7:30am ET, and NASA is streaming footage from both the ground crew, the ISS and the
private craft itself. Once within a safe range, the station will extend its robotic arm and draw the Dragon in to dock -- with the hatch being opened tomorrow. We've embedded the video after the break so you can watch along at home, popcorn in hand.
[Image credit:
SpaceX]
Continue reading PSA: Watch the SpaceX Dragon's first attempt at docking right now! (video)
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Google's Project Glass... it's spreading (sample video)
Now, we're not saying Google's elite are actually aliens managing human social affairs, but if you were our reader Ben who ran into a crew of
Project Glass-equipped Googlers breaking for drinks at a Los Gatos wine bar, it might seem like a possibility. Beyond filing
tons of
paperwork, the team is clearly expanding quickly and most recently took part in the Google+ photographer's conference to show off what POV pictures and video (even if that's
most of the functionality so far) could add to the world of photography. They wouldn't let Ben try on a pair, but
Vic Gundotra reiterated that it was positioned as not to interfere with conversations, and make images appear to be floating in front of your eye. There's video of the photography presentation after the break (jump to about 45 minutes for the first person pics), as well as a few more pictures on Google+, but we'd keep a pair of special black sunglasses and bubblegum handy just in case. In addition to these candid snaps, some sample video footage, taken with the glasses has popped up on Google+, also after the brek.
[Thanks, Ben]
Continue reading Google's Project Glass... it's spreading (sample video)
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Custom-made Aperture Science gas mask will make sure you're still alive, won't open portals
Valve's
Portal series has been used as the pretext for many achievements outside of puzzle gaming, including
getting hitched. Keeping you from shuffling off this mortal coil, however, is still new. Two Horns United has given a gas mask a decidedly nerdy visual upgrade that resembles the game's iconic Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device, right down to the light-up energy chambers. Best of all, unlike some
homebrew projects, you'll have a (probably limited) chance at buying one yourself after June. Coworkers might look at you oddly as you strap a portal gun to your face during a safety drill, but you'll have the quiet satisfaction of knowing you're
truly ready for a neurotoxin attack, not to mention taking the title of a
Jonathan Coulton song very literally.
Permalink io9 |
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MIT's needleless injections help you get drugs faster, doesn't even hurt (video)
Afraid of needles? You may not have to be if a team of MIT scientists get their way. Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering are developing a jet-injection device (similar to
this one) that allows professionals to pump you full of meds
without poking you with a needle. The key to puncture free pharmaceuticals is
pressure -- the device uses a Lorenz Force actuator to push medicine out of an opening about the diameter of a
mosquito's proboscis. The nozzle pulls liquids out just as fast and efficiently as it administers them, researchers say, and can even deliver powder-based drugs as if they were a liquid, thanks to a bit of supersonic trickery. This tech could be a boon to
healthcare workers who get pricked on the job or patients who get
daily insulin shots. Promises of painless inoculations piquing your interest? Hit the video after the break to see how its done.
Continue reading MIT's needleless injections help you get drugs faster, doesn't even hurt (video)
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Nokia Alpha, Phi, PurePhi and PureLambda pop up in tests, bring Windows Phone 8 along for the ride
Not long after the
Lumia 900 surfaced, Nokia's Windows Phone roadmap appeared to have come screeching to a halt -- official and otherwise. However, the first signs of Nokia's second wave may have just surfaced in WP Bench's testing leaderboards. The Nokia Alpha, Phi, PurePhi and PureLambda have all shown up at varying points in the chart; we've seen them for ourselves, although you'll need WP Bench on a Windows Phone to see them first-hand. Not much is visible without seeing the devices themselves, but the PureLambda appears to be running a build of OS 8.0 -- better known to most as
Apollo, or possibly Windows Phone 8. As long as these aren't elaborate pranks, they could represent entry, mid-tier and high-end phones; we're wondering if the Pure tag isn't a reference to the
PureView-equipped Lumias Nokia said were inevitable in the long run. No matter what the four phones turn out to be, any real devices will show us what Nokia can do with Microsoft's OS now that it's had time to strategize.
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Google snags the webOS Enyo team, HP says open source plans are still on schedule
At one time the
Enyo app framework was supposed to
help webOS run faster and on a wider variety of devices, but as HP
continues to struggle, reports have surfaced from
The Verge and
AllThingsD that much of the team behind it, including leader Matthew McNulty, has been hired away by Google. Numbering a half dozen or so, the immediate danger is the effect this might have on HP's efforts to open source webOS, but in a statement the company indicated it remains on track and will stick to the
roadmap it announced in January. Less clear is what these employees might end up working on for Google, although Enyo's focus on web apps and HTML5 suggests the possibility they'll end up working on ChromeOS projects.
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Sony ST26i benchmarks reveal Android 4.0, 4-inch FWVGA display and lackluster performance
Rumors of the
Sony ST26i smartphone have been swirling for a while now, but up until recently, we've had nothing to sink our teeth into. Thankfully, we've now come across an OpenGL benchmark test and system profile for the yet-to-be-announced handset, and while this one seems destined for emerging markets and budget-minded consumers, the ST26i will come with just enough niceties to hold its head high. First and foremost, the system profile reveals
Ice Cream Sandwich on the handset, and even better, it'll include a 4-inch, 854 x 480 display -- none of that
HVGA crap here. To keep costs low, sacrifices had to be made: the phone will include a Qualcomm MSM7627A SoC, which includes a pedestrian 800MHz CPU and an Adreno 200 GPU. Curiously, the ST26i was previously rumored to contain an ST-Ericsson U8500 chip with a dual-core 1GHz CPU, which leaves open the possibility that we may see different configurations based on markets. Still, if Sony is able to exercise some restraint with its custom skin, the ST26i could shape up to be a very nice handset.
Permalink Ubergizmo |
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X Prize adopts NASA guidelines for protecting lunar heritage sites, Buzz Aldrin punch averted
NASA hopes that one small step by Google's
Lunar X Prize will eventually lead to a giant leap in protecting historical sites on the
moon. The X Prize Foundation announced that it will adopt guidelines released by the space agency last year to help preserve lunar heritage sites. The move comes at a crucial time as a new
space race increases the possibility of an imminent moon landing, according to NASA. Google's Lunar X Prize alone currently has 26 contestants worldwide vying to land a robot on the lunar surface by 2015. NASA stressed that their recommendations aren't law and "do not represent mandatory U.S. or international requirements." Examples include approach and landing guidelines to minimize disturbance, contamination and degradation of Apollo mission sites. That certainly sounds more reasonable than, say, plopping some dude in a spacesuit at a
lunar outpost to shoot trespassers with a plasma shotgun while yelling, "Get off my property!" In the meantime, feel free to mosey on over to the PR after the break.
Continue reading X Prize adopts NASA guidelines for protecting lunar heritage sites, Buzz Aldrin punch averted
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Intel funnels $40 million into global network of research laboratories
Like any tech company worth its weight in silicon,
Intel puts plenty of cash into research, often partnering with outside labs and schools that are less concerned with turning every project into a multi-billion dollar product. After throwing
$30 million at Carnegie Mellon last year to open two new labs, Chipzilla is investing $40 million more in a global network of university research centers. Over the next five years that money will be rolled out to what the company is calling, Intel Collaborative Research Institutes (ICRI). The ICRI are based on the same premise as Intel's Science and Technology Centers, like those opened at Mellon, except with a global reach. Two existing labs, the Intel Visual Computing Institute at Saarland University and the Intel-NTU Connected Context Computing Center at National Taiwan University are being rolled into the program. In addition, three new centers are being opened up, including ICRIs for Sustainable Connected Cities in the United Kingdom, Secure Computing at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and Computational Intelligence at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. For more info on what sort or work they'll be doing at the various labs check out the PR after the break.
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Nissan announces e-NV200 all-electric van, production slated for 2013
So, Chrysler's
electric postal van never really took off -- perhaps a few too many mailmen refused to give up those roomy Grumman LLVs -- but now Nissan is giving the electric van concept a go. Yesterday the company announced the e-NV200 compact van (previously teased as a concept), which will go into production in 2013. The van will be Nissan's second all-electric vehicle, following the 2010
Leaf. The e-NV200's design is quite similar to that of the
NV200 van, but it swaps taxi-cab yellow for the Leaf's shade of robin's egg blue. Nissan says it's putting $126 million into producing the new model, but so far it's keeping mum on other details. Head past the break for the full press release
Continue reading Nissan announces e-NV200 all-electric van, production slated for 2013
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Samsung's GSM-only dual-SIM Galaxy Ace Duos kicks off its world tour in Russia next month
While Samsung's Galaxy Ace Duos has already
burst onto the scene in India pulling double duty on GSM and CDMA networks, the company today announced its
dual-SIM GSM-only cousin will begin shipping in June in Russia, before rolling out to Europe and other regions later. Running Android 2.3 on an 832MHz processor and flashing a 3.5-inch HVGA screen, that dual-SIM capability is the highlight, with Samsung's "Dual SIM always on" feature that forwards calls from the phone number on SIM 2, even if the user is on a call through SIM 1. Bill Bellamy and all others in need of such features can check the press release after the break for a few more details, or the gallery below to get a look from a few more angles of this son of the original
Galaxy Ace.
Continue reading Samsung's GSM-only dual-SIM Galaxy Ace Duos kicks off its world tour in Russia next month
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NVIDIA touts 30 Tegra 3 smartphones set for this year, teases next-gen Grey SoC with on-board LTE
We're nearly halfway through 2012, but for NVIDIA, it seems the best is yet to come. The company's GM, Mike Rayfield, announced today that 30 smartphones with
Tegra 3 chips are now slated for availability this year, which is double the success that the company had with its Tegra 2 platform during 2011. Perhaps more interesting, Rayfield also let it be known that the Grey platform -- not due for arrival until next year -- will be the first of NVIDIA's system-on-chip designs to include a built-in LTE radio. Specifically, we can expect it to include the Icera 500, a next-gen LTE modem that's set to supersede both the
Icera 410 and
450 designs. The Icera 500 will initially debut as a standalone unit, but will later be integrated into the Grey platform. All things considered, perhaps its 2013 that NVIDIA should be most excited about.
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ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL hits the FCC with AT&T-friendly LTE
ASUS isn't known for offering its tablets to North American carriers with 3G or 4G; an FCC filing for a cellular-capable
Transformer Pad TF300 could be a clue at a break in the WiFi-only trend. Along with the usual wireless, a TF300TL variant of the Android 4.0 slate has stopped by the agency with the 850MHz and 1,900MHz frequencies needed for HSPA 3G as well as, best of all, 700MHz and 1,700MHz support for LTE-based 4G. All four are what we'd look for in an
AT&T-oriented tablet, so don't be surprised if Ma Bell carries a 4G Transformer Pad before long. All but the 700MHz band would be handy for Canadian networks as well. There's no surefire evidence of when the tablet might make a more formal appearance, nor hints of whether or not it will keep the quad-core
Tegra 3, although the slight spin on the regular TF300 formula could keep the wait short.
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Google adds copyright takedowns to Transparency Reports, 1.2 million a month and growing
Google has been publishing what it's dubbed Transparency Reports for some time now -- detailing things like government requests to remove content from search results or requests for users' information -- and it's now added another big chunk of data to them in the interest of full disclosure. Starting today, you can see the number of removal requests it receives from companies over copyright and piracy concerns. As you can imagine, there's
a lot -- over 1.2 million in the past month alone, a number that Google notes is increasing at a substantial rate. Among those asking for takedowns, Microsoft is by far the leader, filing well over half a million requests all by itself in the past month (the film and music industries are also, of course, well represented). You can pour through all the results yourself at the source link below.
Permalink GigaOm |
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HTC One X for AT&T gets unofficial bootloader unlock
No thanks to AT&T, owners of the carrier-branded
HTC One X can now unlock their phone's bootloader on the HTCdev website. The process works by altering the handset's identifier, which causes the One X to appear as a Rogers unit on HTC's servers. While the instructions should be quite simple for those with the proper knowhow, they require knowledge and proper configuration of ADB, use of a hex editor and a
rooted handset. Many users have already reported success with this method, but keep in mind that AT&T might not smile on the trickery if you ever need to seek warranty repair. Naturally, all of this frustration could've been easily avoided had Ma Bell simply considered the needs of power users in the first place, but until the day comes when the carrier rights its ways, just know that eager hackers have a tendency to come out on top.
[Thanks, Akash]
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Samsung Galaxy S III shows in Best Buy Canada leak due June 20th, maple syrup uncorked to celebrate
Jitters have persisted that the
Canadian release of the
Galaxy S III might face the customary weeks-long delays that those north of the border are used to. If we go by what looks to be an escaped Best Buy Canada flyer graphic, Samsung's Android 4.0 beast should be going up for pre-orders soon --
MobileSyrup hears May 30th -- with launches on at least Bell, Rogers, Telus and a Bell-owned Virgin Mobile around June 20th. We know that Samsung has publicly promised a
US release in June, so there's a real chance that we could be seeing a simultaneous North American appearance that brings everyone together in TouchWiz harmony. There's still some big questions left open even if we're seeing an accurate snapshot, such as when Mobilicity, Wind and other LTE-less carriers will get their units as well as whether or not the LTE versions
use Snapdragons instead of the
Exynos 4 Quad.
[Thanks, Imdad]
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Tweetbot 2.4 brings keyword mute filters, offline favorite and read later support
Tweetbot just got the
update treatment, enabling a handful of features aimed at optimizing the way you interact with Twitter, both online and off. These added gems include an option to mute certain keywords ('cereal' may be a good start), location-based keyword searches, along with offline favorite and read later support (for booting links to apps like
Instapaper or
Pocket, for offline viewing). Most other functionality remains unchanged, as does the $2.99 price tag. You'll find the full list of updates after the break, with download links just below.
Continue reading Tweetbot 2.4 brings keyword mute filters, offline favorite and read later support
Permalink The Next Web |
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RIM patent application puts pressure on sensitive touchscreens for a possible unlock alternative
RIM's been busy on the
patent application front lately, filing off concepts for anything from smartphone docks to rotating keypads -- even flirting with potential
forays into forensics peripherals. Perhaps sensing the crushing need to differentiate its ailing BlackBerry brand, Waterloo's taken to the
USPTO with a doc submitted last November that could do just that. The pressure-sensitive input scheme and touchscreen interface described therein would respond to a user-set pattern of force by granting access to a handheld device's features and applications. Sure sounds a heckuva lot like a new password protection implementation, but that's just our humble take. What it actually is, where it goes from this legal limbo and whether or not it ever winds up in
BB 10 tech is truly up in the air. What you can count on, though, is a continued flood of in-process IP procurement from a company close to the edge.
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Slide shows Dell Latitude 10 tablet running Windows 8
Rumors of a Dell Peju tablet
shipping with Windows 8 made the rounds last year, but they died down when the mystery device turned out to be the Windows 7-powered
Latitude ST. Time to reignite the hype: NeoWin got its hands on a slide that shows a Dell Latitude 10 slate running Windows 8. The tablet is listed as having a 10.1-inch screen, which isn't to say that other form factors could be in the works. Other listed specs include a dual-core Intel Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, up to a 128GB SSD and a fingerprint reader. NeoWin has word that the Latitude 10 will get six to eight hours of battery life with the base battery and up to 12 hours with the larger one. The tablet looks quite similar to the Latitude ST, but then again we're going off of one slide here.
Permalink The Next Web |
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BBM staying exclusive to BlackBerry, says WSJ source
Been looking forward to
porting your BBM addiction to iOS or Android in hopes of finally kicking that Crackberry to the curb? Take a seat -- it looks like RIM's
private messaging service isn't going anywhere. According to a
Wall Street Journal source, the firm's new CEO has shut down rumors of a BlackBerry Messenger port. "It was not up for discussion," the WSJ was told. According to a person "familiar with the matter," CEO
Thorsten Heins decided that RIM shouldn't be pursuing
licensing deals. Heins' apparent
house cleaning might be a deal breaker for BlackBerry veterans looking to
jump ship, requiring users to stick with RIM to maintain their dwindling BBM contact lists. Bummer? Sure is, but at least your pals don't need a
security clearance to ping you.
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Microsoft pulling free development tools for Windows 8 desktop apps, only lets you ride the Metro for free (update: confirmed)
Microsoft has instituted a big change with its free
Visual Studio 11 Express suite that's leaving some current- and soon-to-be
Windows 8 developers up in arms: it's pulling support for creating anything but Metro-native apps. After 11 becomes the norm, desktop developers will need to either cling to Visual Studio 2010 for dear life or fork over the $500 for Visual Studio 11 Professional. Programmers won't have the option of backdoor coding, either, with both the compiler and toolchain being pulled from Windows' framework. The situation doesn't represent the end of the world for some developers -- more established pros don't balk at a $500 price, and third-party tools will likely live on -- but it sets a much higher price of entry for desktop apps developed through the official route, especially if you want to write games using
XNA. We've reached out to Microsoft for a response, but for now we'd suggest setting aside five Benjamins if Start screen tiles and app charms aren't your cups of tea.
Update: We've confirmed with a Microsoft spokesperson that it's true you'll need Professional if you want to write desktop apps using Visual Studio. It's equally correct, though, that third-party developer kits will keep building desktop apps as long as they have their own compilers and related tools. Students can get Professional for free if they're in the Dreamspark program.
Permalink Ars Technica |
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Broadcast TV networks, Dish Network file lawsuits over new Auto Hop ad skipping feature
Dish Network shocked us just a couple of weeks ago by upgrading its new Hopper DVRs with
"Auto Hop" ad skipping that targeted prime time programming on broadcast TV captured via its PrimeTime Anytime feature, and predictably, the networks aren't happy. After several executives took shots at the service during upfronts for the new fall programming in the past few weeks, Fox has filed suit in US District Court, while Dish Network responded with its own request for a court order specifying that it does not infringe on the TV network's copyrights. Just in the last few minutes, the
New York Times reports NBC (
Update: Add CBS to the list as well,
THR has copies of the complaints from Dish and Fox.) has filed a lawsuit against Dish Network as well, and it likely won't be the last one to do so.
ReplayTV folded under similar legal pressure, but clearly Dish Network thinks it has a workable solution and now it's going to be up to the courts to decide who wins.
Continue reading Broadcast TV networks, Dish Network file lawsuits over new Auto Hop ad skipping feature
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Facebook Camera hands-on
Facebook has kept itself rather busy in the last month or so with such tasks as
going public and purchasing popular photo-sharing app
Instagram, but that doesn't mean it stopped working on other projects in the meantime. This realization is apparent with the launch of
Facebook Camera, a photo-centric application that chooses to remain separated from the company's general mobile representation. It's still connected with the social network, of course, but it brings a fresh user interface and some light Photoshop-esque features to the table: filters, cropping, zoom, twist and so on. We had the opportunity to grab the new app and take it for a spin on an iPhone, so check out the gallery and continue below for our first impressions.
Continue reading Facebook Camera hands-on
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Intel posts x86-friendly Android 4.0 image, lets you feel the need for speed
Android developers are all too familiar with
not-so-hot emulator performance, so it's a relief that there's now an system image in a native x86 for testing. While you'll still likely want to test on ARM, the x86 image will both help ferret out bugs specific to Intel's architecture as well as provide a much faster experience debugging apps now that the ARM-to-Intel translation isn't needed on top of running a whole second operating system. It's not perfectly up to date, running on Android 4.0.3, but it's close enough that the environment will mimic much of what users see -- and a big help if you're jumping into writing specifically for Intel devices. If speed is of the essence, or you're not keen on importing a
Lava Xolo X900, you just need to update the SDK Manager to start testing with an Intel-flavored green robot.
Permalink Android Central |
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Bump app for Android and iOS adds desktop photo sharing
Bump has managed to garner quite a following among iPhone and Android users, but they've so far only been able to transfer files between two mobile devices, not between their phone and their home computer. The company's managed to find a workaround of sorts to that limitation though, and has today rolled out a new feature that will let you send photos (and only photos) from your phone to your desktop. To do so, you'll first have to update the Bump app on your phone and then head to the Bump website, at which point you can simply tap the spacebar to transfer your photos (with your phone if you want to keep the whole "bump" motif going). As you can probably surmise, that means photos are transferred to Bump's website and not directly to your computer, but that does have the added benefit of making the photos a bit easier to share on your social network of choice.
Permalink Yahoo! News / Mashabale |
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The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM ET!
It's unseasonably gray and rainy out there today in New York City -- all the more reason to come on inside and join in on the podcasting action. Find cover and follow along after the break.
Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM ET!
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Visualized: ThreadWatch tracks daily workflow on a Mac, turns the data into eye candy
Sure, time tracking comes in handy when trying to make your workflow as efficient as possible. Perhaps you're looking for a more
visual indication of how your time is spent on that
MacBook Pro. That's where ThreadWatch comes in handy. Thanks to developer Alex Milde, you can visually analyze your daily task habits on a Mac. After a rather quick and painless app download, the tech monitors software being used on the desktop, taking notes on their individual memory and CPU consumption. The collected info is placed in a text file that you'll then upload to ThreadWatch to create the graphical splendor you see above. Each color indicates a different application and you won't have to worry about having your tracked data catalogued. To take the kit for a spin, hit the source link below to start monitoring your procrastination... er, work sessions.
Permalink Information Aesthetics |
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IRL: Sparrow for iOS, Nikon D800 and the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.
One of the reasons we launched this column was to make sure our reviews and hands-on posts weren't the final say on products -- after all, you often need to live with something for more than a week to notice its WiFi signal cuts off past 15 feet, or there's a nasty bug in the settings menu. Indeed, that theme is what ties together this week's roundup of stories: Darren explains why he ditched Sparrow for iOS, Kevin laments the file size of photos he's taken with his Nikon D800 and Brian finds a flaw in his Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight.
Continue reading IRL: Sparrow for iOS, Nikon D800 and the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight
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Sharp reportedly getting cozy with Hon Hai Precision, helping to make phone and tablet LCDs in Chengdu
If we believe Japan's
Nikkei, the decision by Hon Hai Precision Industry (that is,
Foxconn's daddy) to
buy a stake in Sharp was really just the start of a long, torrid love affair in LCD production. While Hon Hai is getting the rosy side of the deal for
Sharp's TV-oriented Sakai plant, it's now thought to be paying Sharp for display technology that would go into a new factory in Chengdu for small- and medium-sized LCDs used for smartphones and tablets. If all dovetails as nicely as the two would like, the joint venture would see advanced mobile displays manufactured on the cheap -- the best of both worlds. Suffice it to say that there's a few companies that might be interested, as clients like Apple are
no strangers to Chengdu. Before you let visions of
IGZO-based LCDs on every iPad and iPhone dance through your head, though, remember that neither Hon Hai nor Sharp has confirmed anything -- and that the plant wouldn't be up and running until 2013 at the earliest, even if everything's in sync.
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Facebook for Windows Phone rolls in threaded messaging, tagging, kitchen sink
Some have called Microsoft's
Facebook app for Windows Phone a red-headed stepchild to the
Android and
iOS darlings, but it's making up for lost time in good fashion with a 2.5 update. Those who live a Metro life now get full Facebook conversation threads with group support, so they're not left out of the loop when a friend mentions the pub he wanted to visit two days ago. Along with this more conversational addition, it's now possible to tag a friend or a place in a post using plain "with" and "at" statements, and the
seemingly inescapable Like button has reached comments for Windows Phone owners. There's more control over posts and active post links in the mix as well, so you'll find a surfeit of social mingling when you update at the Windows Phone Marketplace link below.
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Playsurface touchscreen computing table hands-on (video)
Let's be honest -- the first time we saw the
Microsoft Surface in action, we all dreamt of getting our grubby fingers on our very own unit. Five years later, we're no closer to the dream of a touchscreen coffee tablet in every living room. Templeman Automation, thankfully, shares that dream. Earlier this month, we caught word of the company's
Playsurface, a Kickstarter project aimed at bringing low cost touchscreen computing to the tabletops of eager early adopters who just can't quite justify the $8,000 price tag on Microsoft's similarly named product.
We were excited at the prospect of finally getting to play with the product when TechCrunch opened up the gates to the hardware portion of its Disrupt conference. Unfortunately, as we quickly found out, things wouldn't be quite so easy -- the show was held at Pier 94, a space with overabundant natural light courtesy of rows and rows of skylights. As it turns out, the sun doesn't play too well with the infrared light that helps power Playsurface's touchscreen functionality. The table's creators were nice enough to pop by our offices to let us take the living room gadget for a test drive.
Continue reading Playsurface touchscreen computing table hands-on (video)
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Solar Impulse takes off for Morocco on first sun-powered transcontinental flight
The sun-powered Solar Impulse plane is gradually working up to a trip around the globe, with the most recent benchmark being its
first international flight in 2011. Now Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg are taking the jumbo jet-size plane on its first transcontinental journey. The Solar Impulse set off for Morocco today, and its pilots will stop in Madrid along the way. The goal is to complete the 1,554-mile trip by next week, and the big challenge will be crossing cloudy regions like the Pyrenees mountains separating France and Spain. In a 2010 test flight, the Impulse's 12,000 solar cells soaked up enough rays to keep the plane
going through the night, but in case something goes wrong this time, the pilots are prepared with parachutes. If all goes well on this trial run, Piccard and Borschberg will be just one step away from their goal of circumnavigating the world in 2014.
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