Touchscreen prototype brings fake insects to life with tactile sensations (video)
May 10, 2011 No Comment
The laboratory that taught us all to love again via kissing machine is back, and this time, thankfully, it’s got its mind on other things. Kajimoto Labs at Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communications showed off a prototype for a touchscreen capable of transferring tactile information like the location of onscreen icons to the user’s palm, while a layer of gel positioned behind screen helps it conform to the shape of the sensation-receiving hand. What use could such a technology serve? Well, there’s surely a lot of potential here — take, for example, visually impaired users, who don’t otherwise get a lot of information from touchscreens. A less noble example was offered up by a representative from the lab in the form of game where the user can feel ants crawling on his or her hand. Terrifying, and hopefully not compatible with the lab’s previous invention. Video of the touchscreen after the break. Continue reading Touchscreen prototype brings fake insects to life with tactile sensations (video) Touchscreen prototype brings fake insects to life with tactile sensations (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 15:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Put Your Best Face Forward: Facebook Deemed an Accurate Personality Test for Employers
May 10, 2011 No Comment
Want to analyze your employees’ personalities? Skip the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and head straight to Facebook. A new study conducted at the University of Maryland found that Facebook profiles can reveal almost everything an employer might want to know about an applicant’s personality within 10% accuracy of a standard personality test. The researchers surveyed about
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Want more Android in your house? How about Android in your house . Google wants to think of “every appliance in your home” as a potential accessory for your phone. The opportunities are seemingly endless, the sort of thing we’ve seen in the Zigbee and Z-wave areas, but sadly this implementation doesn’t actually seem to be using any of those standards. The team teased ideas like lights turning on and off based on calendar events, applications talking to washing machines, games automatically adjusting for mood lighting, and basically little green dudes taking care of all the menial duties in your house. One amazing demo was a concept, Android-powered device hub called Tungsten. Using RFID embedded into CD cases the device was able to detect the CD and add it to your library. Another touch and it started automatically. Yeah, the use of CDs is a little quaint, but the potential is there for amazing things in the future. We’re not sure exactly when these accessories will be launching, but the first are expected before the end of the year. Gallery: Android at Home Google announces Android @ Home framework for home automation originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Hey, who said we’d only get software news at Google I/O ? The Android maker just reminded us that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet (the thin version) will be launching in a month’s time , and to whet appetites, a white-backed version of the device was shown off on stage. It’s described as a limited edition, potentially because it looks to be running stock Android without the TouchWiz UI layer on top, and will be given away to the gathered crowd of 5,000 conference attendees. They’ll get it with Honeycomb 3.0 on board, but an update to 3.1 will be forthcoming over the next couple of weeks as well. Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition Google gives away 5,000 Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets to devs at I/O originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Android Market launches movie rentals, thousands of titles available from $1.99
May 10, 2011 No Comment
Google just announced movie rentals in the Android Market at its I/O conference. Chris from the Android services team just hit the stage at Moscone and demonstrated renting movies on the Android Market from your phone, tablet or PC with a single click. “Pinning” mirrors the experience with apps and books, you can select it on your PC and download to the device in the background. …developing Android Market launches movie rentals, thousands of titles available from $1.99 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 12:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Lian Li PC-U6 Cowry case: an aluminum seashell to keep your PC looking stylish
May 10, 2011 No Comment
It takes quite a bit to get us excited about desktop case designs these days, but Lian Li ‘s voluptuous new PC-U6 Cowry would seem to qualify pretty easily. It’s fashioned after a seashell, giving it an appearance that’s remarkably fresh and novel for such a well developed market, but it’s also functionally useful — the deepest part of the case is exactly where graphics cards would be expected to reside, permitting it to accommodate a video card as long as 310mm. There are also two 120mm side-mounted fans, a red LED kit, room for a full-sized power supply, and tool-free mounts for three 3.5-inch and two 2.5-inch storage drives plus an external 5.25-inch ODD. All that goodness is encased in an aluminum body and coming at you later this month for $349. How could you possibly resist? Video of the Cowry follows after the break. Gallery: Lian Li PC-U6 Cowry case: an aluminum seashell to keep your PC looking stylish Continue reading Lian Li PC-U6 Cowry case: an aluminum seashell to keep your PC looking stylish Lian Li PC-U6 Cowry case: an aluminum seashell to keep your PC looking stylish originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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You might want to put on a pot of coffee for this one, but the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on mobile privacy and locating tracking is now underway, and you can watch it live at your choice of the links below. The hearing is broadly titled “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy” and, as the early going has already shown, it will be covering issues far beyond the recent privacy issues surrounding Apple and Google, although executives from both companies will be on hand to answer the Senators’ questions. Senate committee hearing on mobile privacy now underway, watch live originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It was pretty much known about since last night, but Microsoft and Skype have now obliterated any lingering doubt in the matter: the Redmond-based software giant will acquire the internet telephony company for a cool $8.5 billion in cash. Xbox and Kinect support are explicitly mentioned in the announcement of this definitive agreement, as is Windows Phone integration — both the gaming and mobile aspects being presumably key incentives for Microsoft to acquire Skype. Importantly, this purchase shouldn’t affect Skypers outside of the Microsoft ecosystem, as Steve Ballmer’s team promises to continue “to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.” Skype was first sold for a relative bargain at $2.5b to eBay in 2005, who in turn sold most of it off to Silver Lake in 2009 at an overall valuation of $2.75b, and now Redmond is concluding proceedings by tripling those earlier prices and offering Skype a permanent home. A new Microsoft Skype Division will now be opened up to accommodate the newcomers, with current Skype CEO Tony Bates becoming president of that operation and reporting directly to Ballmer. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year and you can read Microskype’s full announcement after the break. Continue reading Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion becomes official Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion becomes official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Panasonic launches semi-rugged Toughbook CF-53, with optional LTE and CircuLumin touchscreen (video)
May 10, 2011 No Comment
Panasonic’s been slimming down the ToughBook lineup as of late, but today it goes state-of-the-art — today, the company’s finely replacing the venerable Toughbook 52 with a 14-inch machine sporting Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors, a larger touchpad, and a USB 3.0 port. The Toughbook 53 is also smaller, lighter at 5.6 pounds, and doesn’t sacrifice the company’s reputation for taking a licking and ticking right through — it passes eight MIL-STD-810G tests for durability, comes with the same shock-resistant removable hard drive cartridge and spill-resistant keyboard, and is priced at a (relatively) reasonable $1,599 for the Core i3 model with 2GB of RAM and a battery rated for six hours. You’ll see that one appear in August of this year. It’s the optional extras that really make this new Toughbook, though, as the $1,899 version will include a 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M processor, 4GB of RAM, 7200RPM hard drive and a 10-hour Li-ion cell when it arrives in June, and in July your $2449 can add a backlit keyboard and a Panasonic CircuLumin polarized anti-glare touchscreen which can vary the brightness up to 800 nits for outdoor use. We didn’t ask how much the optional car dock costs, but there’s one of those too, and Panasonic will also be offering LTE modems for both Verizon and AT&T later this summer for on-the-go communication. You won’t be chaining this one to a snowmobile , but the rig sounds pretty versatile — all it’d need is a discrete GPU and a high-res screen to lure us away from our consumer-grade clamshells. Find a video walkthrough and PR after the break. Continue reading Panasonic launches semi-rugged Toughbook CF-53, with optional LTE and CircuLumin touchscreen (video) Panasonic launches semi-rugged Toughbook CF-53, with optional LTE and CircuLumin touchscreen (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We knew that well-trained bees were capable of sniffing out dynamite and other explosives, but researchers at MIT have now come up with a slightly less militant way to use our winged friends as bomb detectors. A team of chemical engineers at the school recently developed a new, ultra-sensitive sensor that’s sharp enough to detect even one molecule of TNT. Their special ingredient? Bee venom. Turns out, a bee’s poison contains protein fragments called bombolitins, that react to explosive compounds. To create the detector, researchers applied these bombolitins to naturally fluorescent carbon nanotubes . Whenever an explosive molecule binds with the protein fragments, the interaction will alter the wavelength of the carbon cylinder’s fluorescent light. The shift is too small for the naked eye to pick up on, but can be detected using specially designed microscopes. If it’s ever developed for commercial use, the sensor could provide a more acute alternative to the spectrometry-based detectors used at most airport security checkpoints. At the moment, however, the technology isn’t quite ready to be deployed on a widespread basis, so feel free to keep on living in fear. Full PR after the break. Continue reading Bee venom used to create ultra-sensitive explosives sensor Bee venom used to create ultra-sensitive explosives sensor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 07:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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