Wireless Power Consortium launches Qi certification lab, cuts power cords for approved devices
August 1, 2011 No Comment
The power of Qi has grown and grown since the wireless charging standard was finalized . With cord cutting becoming more desirable — and dare we say, de rigeur , for many mobile devices — the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has launched an independent lab to certify gadgets wanting on its induction charging bandwagon. T
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See that kid above? That’s Nicholas Allegra. He’s the hackdom Harry Potter to Apple’s Ye-Who-Shall-Not- Jailbreak -Our-Wares , and Forbes managed to sniff him out for a little bold-faced expos
Continue reading …Carnegie Mellon researchers use photo-tagging to violate privacy, prove nothing social is sacred
August 1, 2011 No Comment
Some people never forget a face and the same, it seems, can be said for the internet. With some off-the-shelf facial recognition software , a connection to the cloud and access to social networking data, Carnegie Mellon University researchers have proved tagging can be the everyman’s gateway to privacy violation. Using a specially-designed, AR-capable mobile app, Prof. Alessandro Acquisti and his team conducted three real-world trials of the personal info mining tech, successfully identifying pseudonymed online daters and campus strolling college students via Facebook. In some cases, the application was even able to dredge up the students’ social security digits and personal interests — from their MySpace pages, we assume. Sure, the study’s findings could have you running for the off-the-grid hills (not to mention the plastic surgeon), but it’s probably best you just pay careful attention to that digital second life. Full PR after the break. Continue reading Carnegie Mellon researchers use photo-tagging to violate privacy, prove nothing social is sacred Carnegie Mellon researchers use photo-tagging to violate privacy, prove nothing social is sacred originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Carnegie Mellon researchers use photo-tagging to violate privacy, prove nothing social is sacred
August 1, 2011 No Comment
Some people never forget a face and the same, it seems, can be said for the internet. With some off-the-shelf facial recognition software , a connection to the cloud and access to social networking data, Carnegie Mellon University researchers have proved tagging can be the everyman’s gateway to privacy violation. Using a specially-designed, AR-capable mobile app, Prof. Alessandro Acquisti and his team conducted three real-world trials of the personal info mining tech, successfully identifying pseudonymed online daters and campus strolling college students via Facebook. In some cases, the application was even able to dredge up the students’ social security digits and personal interests — from their MySpace pages, we assume. Sure, the study’s findings could have you running for the off-the-grid hills (not to mention the plastic surgeon), but it’s probably best you just pay careful attention to that digital second life. Full PR after the break. Continue reading Carnegie Mellon researchers use photo-tagging to violate privacy, prove nothing social is sacred Carnegie Mellon researchers use photo-tagging to violate privacy, prove nothing social is sacred originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s not every day that scientists get to say they’ve found something in space for the first time ever, but astronomers working with the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory announced just such a discovery today, and it’s a big one. They’ve made the first confirmed finding of oxygen molecules in space (found hiding in the Orion nebula), and suggest that the oxygen is likely released when the water ice surrounding dust grains is melted by the heat from nearby stars forming. Of course, one discovery only leads to more questions, and the scientists note that they still haven’t found large amounts of oxygen, and “still don’t understand what is so special about the spots where we find it.” Herschel telescope finds first evidence of oxygen molecules in space originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Last year, Chinese scientists showed off some new old-school tech, transmitting data with blue LEDs that flicker faster than the human eye can perceive. This throwback back to the good ol’ days of IR receivers was able to hit speeds of 2Mbps , but leave it to the fine folks at the Heinrich Hertz Institute to push the light bulb networking tech to the extremes. Earlier this year researchers hit 500Mbps with white LEDs now, using a combination of white, green, blue, and red, the team ramped that up to 800Mbps, officially putting Ethernet on notice. The line-of-site networking wont actually replace your standard Cat 5 line or WiFi router, but it could find a home in places like hospitals where radio-based wireless technology can cause problems for sensitive equipment. With any luck, we’ll soon be bathing our homes in HD-streaming illumination. German geniuses hit 800Mbps with light bulb WLAN originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Tokyo Institute of Technology’s SOINN robot teaches itself to serve humans (video)
August 1, 2011 No Comment
Robots have been replacing more and more human workers for quite some time now, but in most instances they’re still just being programmed to perform specific tasks. As evidenced by this bot developed by the Hasegawa Group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, however, there’s also a growing number capable of teaching themselves some new tricks, and they’re getting smarter every day. This particular one employs what’s called a self-organizing incremental neural network (or SOINN), which lets it build up a base of knowledge that it can apply to new tasks and make educated guesses about how to proceed with them — in this case, pouring a glass of water and then dropping an ice cube in it (or what’s supposed to be water and an ice cube, at least). Head on past the break for a video. Continue reading Tokyo Institute of Technology’s SOINN robot teaches itself to serve humans (video) Tokyo Institute of Technology’s SOINN robot teaches itself to serve humans (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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When we first laid eyes and hands on Motorola’s first Android offering for Virgin Mobile, we were pleasantly surprised. The Triumph proved to be one of the better looking and performing pre-paid handsets we’d had the pleasure of holding in our sweaty mitts, but we had one major hangup: the name. Call us old fashioned, but we’re of the mind that it’s unsportsmanlike to claim victory before the race has even begun. After all, we aren’t looking at an iPhone killer here. To the contrary, the Triumph is a decently outfitted, Motoblur-free Froyo phone, with a suitable 4.1-inch WVGA screen, a workable 2GB of storage, and a fairly attractive (and contract-free) $300 price tag. So, after a week in our palms and pockets, did the Triumph really affirm its arrogant appellative or did it fail to live up to its name? The answers to this and other, less alliterative, questions await you after the break. Gallery: Motorola Triumph review Continue reading Motorola Triumph review Motorola Triumph review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …When we first laid eyes and hands on Motorola’s first Android offering for Virgin Mobile, we were pleasantly surprised. The Triumph proved to be one of the better looking and performing pre-paid handsets we’d had the pleasure of holding in our sweaty mitts, but we had one major hangup: the name. Call us old fashioned, but we’re of the mind that it’s unsportsmanlike to claim victory before the race has even begun. After all, we aren’t looking at an iPhone killer here. To the contrary, the Triumph is a decently outfitted, Motoblur-free Froyo phone, with a suitable 4.1-inch WVGA screen, a workable 2GB of storage, and a fairly attractive (and contract-free) $300 price tag. So, after a week in our palms and pockets, did the Triumph really affirm its arrogant appellative or did it fail to live up to its name? The answers to this and other, less alliterative, questions await you after the break. Gallery: Motorola Triumph review Continue reading Motorola Triumph review Motorola Triumph review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Even as plenty have declared HTML5 adoption the beginning of the end for Adobe’s once ubiquitous Flash platform, the company has embraced the web standard, through properties like its Creative Suite and Wallaby . Adobe will be taking things a step further with Edge, an HTML5 design tool that promises to let “web designers to bring animation, similar to that created in Flash Professional, to websites.” The software is currently in public preview mode, available a free download for web designers, in hopes of getting some feedback that will help shape its final release. Continue reading Adobe’s Edge tool promises Flash-like animation through HTML5 Adobe’s Edge tool promises Flash-like animation through HTML5 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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