Oh internet, we love your animated GIFs and sad Keanu websites , but how much attention are we really giving each link? According to a recent study by URL shortener Bit.ly, a standard link is clicked for an average of three hours until traffic subsides by 50 percent, eventually fading away into oblivion. If we’re talking about a super timely news story like an earthquake hitting the east coast, well, its half-life was a paltry five minutes. When URLs are shared on social networks, they last around 3.2 hours on Facebook and 2.8 hours on Twitter, but those on YouTube persist more than twice that long. There, link half-life is 7.4 hours — probably because it’s home to phenom bomb memes like the one found after the break. Continue reading Bit.ly quantifies internet impatience, old links get no love Bit.ly quantifies internet impatience, old links get no love originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Dell is tweaking some of the options offered on its Precision M6600 and M4600 mobile workstations. You can now choose to add 512GB SATA3 SSD drives and (in the case of the M6600) a 4GB NVIDIA Quadro 5010M card. The interesting thing though, is that the 6600 has space for three drives: two full size and one mini-card slot. That means you could outfit this 17.3-inch beast with a pair of 512GB SSDs and one 128GB SSD, for a grand total of 1.1TB of solid state storage. Of course, with each half-terabyte drive adding a whopping $1,120 to the price of this professional lappy it’s not exactly for those on a budget. But, we wouldn’t be shocked to see this trickle down to high-end, portable gaming rigs (we’re looking at you Alienware) relatively soon. Dell jams a terabyte of SATA3 SSD storage into Precision M6600 laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Watch the above video closely, because you might just miss the moment: according to the latest post on MSDN’s Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft’s next-gen desktop OS will see a hugely improved boot time thanks to a clever technique. Rather than closing both the user session and the kernel session like in a traditional shutdown, Windows 8 will preserve the kernel session on the disk, thus creating a “hiberfile” that’s much smaller than that of the usual Windows hibernation — see the diagram after the break for a clearer idea. The result? An amazingly fast system bootup — even with the battery removed to begin with — that claims to be 30 to 70 percent faster than most systems tested by Microsoft. We’re itching to test this feature on an SSD ourselves, but until then, you can head over to MSDN’s blog for the full technical explanation. Continue reading Windows 8 to feature drastically reduced boot time, shown off in video Windows 8 to feature drastically reduced boot time, shown off in video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 03:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Copper wire’s relatively cheap, pliable and can conduct electricity, but it’s hardly ideal. Powering cities requires cables meters wide and the metal loses a lot of energy as heat. Fortunately, a team from Tel Aviv University thinks it’s solved the problem. Borrowing a fiber of sapphire from the Oakridge National Lab in Tennessee, it developed a superconducting wire barely thicker than a human hair that conducts 40 times the electricity of its copper brethren. Cooled with liquid nitrogen, the sapphire superconductors carry current without heating up, which is key to their efficiency. The team is now working on practical applications of the technology — because it’s so small and pliable (unlike previous superconductors) it could replace copper in domestic settings and its cold efficiency makes it perfect to transmit power long distances from green energy stations. The wire’s going on a world tour as we speak and will touch down at the ATSC conference in Baltimore in October. Anyone who makes jokes about wires and Baltimore will be asked to leave, politely. Superconducting sapphire wires are as cool as they sound originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …US Senate passes patent system reform bill, Obama expected to sign into law
September 9, 2011 No Comment
Think it’s time to change our patent system ? So does Congress. Yesterday, the Senate approved the America Invents Act by an 89-8 vote that could bring about the most drastic changes to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in five decades. Under the bill, which the House approved back in June, patents would be awarded not to the first person to invent a technology, but to the first one to actually file with the USPTO, bringing US policy in line with protocol adopted in most other countries. It also calls for a streamlined application process and would allow the USPTO to charge set fees for all apps. The revenue generated from these fees would go directly to a capped reserve fund, allowing the office to retain the lion’s share of the money, rather than funneling much of it to Congress, as had become the norm. Supporters say this extra revenue will give the USPTO more power to chip away at its backlog of some 700,000 patent applications, while a new third-party challenge system will help eliminate patents that should’ve never received approval in the first place. Opponents, meanwhile, criticized the bill for not eliminating fee diversion altogether (an amendment that would’ve placed more severe restrictions was ultimately killed, for fear that it would jeopardize the bill’s passage), with Washington Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell questioning the legislation’s impact on small businesses, calling it “a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on the rights of small inventors.” But Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who sponsored the bill, argued that yesterday’s approval marks a major and historic inflection point in US patent policy: The creativity that drives our economic engine has made America the global leader in invention and innovation. The America Invents Act will ensure that inventors large and small maintain the competitive edge that has put America at the pinnacle of global innovation. This is historic legislation. It is good policy. The America Invents Act will now make its way to President Obama’s desk, where it’s expected to receive his signature. For more background on the legislation, check out the links below. US Senate passes patent system reform bill, Obama expected to sign into law originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 03:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Google details its carbon footprint in new report, makes you think twice about Rickrolling someone
September 8, 2011 No Comment
The folks in Mountain View have always been obsessed with performance , but until now, Google had never come clean with the nitty-gritty surrounding power usage. A new report published by the company tells all, revealing that the search giant emits 1.5 million tons of carbon annually; a figure roughly on par with the UN’s operational footprint, or slightly more than the amount produced by the entire country of Laos. The docket also breaks down the carbon emissions by activity, too: individual searches yield 0.2g, ten minutes of YouTube emits 1g and the average Gmail user produces 1.2kg of CO2 over a year — which on average equates to a grand total of 1.46kg of CO2 per plebe across its properties. According to Google, that’s a figure that would have been higher had it not custom designed its data centers , achieving a fifty percent reduction in energy usage versus the industry average. Plenty of infographical delight awaits you at the source below. Google details its carbon footprint in new report, makes you think twice about Rickrolling someone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Just in time for play-by-play tweets about the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Auckand has instituted a fully-integrated WiFi network across its Link public transit system. According to officials, buses and some trains will get the free internet treatment , giving passengers up to three 30 minute sessions a day between September 1 and October 31st. Powered by Tomizone and sponsored by Localist, the network promises 2 – 6Mbps downloads and is based on point-to-point links around town using fiber assets for backhaul . If that wasn’t enough connectivity, CallPlus and Slingshot are dishing out some gratis WiFi of their own with an additional thousand hotspots sprinkled throughout the city. Hopefully, the added infrastructure will mean WiFi access par excellence year round for maximum non-Rugby related tweetage. Check out the full PR after the break. [Thanks, Scott] Continue reading Auckland amps up free WiFi for Rugby World Cup Auckland amps up free WiFi for Rugby World Cup originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s saving most of the details for the Frankfurt Motor Show next week, but GM subsidiary Opel has now offered up the first glimpse of its all-electric One Euro Car, which seems bound to turn a few heads on the show floor. The car’s name comes from the company’s promise that the it will consume just one Euro’s worth of energy (or about $1.40) for every 100 kilometers, though there’s no indication of a price for the car itself other than that it’d be “affordable” — if it ever goes into production, that is. Otherwise, the company’s only saying that it will boast a top speed of 120 kilometers (or 75 miles) per hour, room for two, and a total weight about a third that of a modern compact car. Opel shows off all-electric One Euro Car concept originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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What Dexim’s tiny AppSpeed Monster Truck lacks in actual car crushing prowess, it makes up in Apple device compatibility — and that’s gotta account for something, right? The little RC car can be controlled by users’ iPhones, iPads or iPod touches, with the help of the company’s iOS app, utilizing the devices’ built-in accelerometer for 360 degree control of the Monster Truck. The car will be available for $69. As for the app, that will be offered for free through iTunes. Video and PR after the break, break, break. Continue reading AppSpeed Monster Truck is controlled by your iPad, iPad, iPad (video) AppSpeed Monster Truck is controlled by your iPad, iPad, iPad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Long before Yelp , there was Zagat — a point-based restaurant rating guide, compiled from the best (or worst, depending) crowdsourced reviews. Today, Google has acquired the brand and plans to integrate Zagat’s now expanded shopping, eating, drinking and hotel tips into both search and maps. For gastronomes, travelers and locals, that means crowdsourced tips for superb noms and activity recommendations from around the world. Sounds great, guys, as long as your new found friendship helps us find the best bacon-flavored ice cream cone, we’re all for it. Google acquires Zagat: good news for foodies, bad news for Yelp? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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