It’s rare that hot booze does anything more than get you drunk, and possibly make you sick, but according to Dr. Yoshihiko Takano, the drink you’re sucking on could facilitate the levitation of a train. After a party for a colleague, the Japanese scientist found that FeTe0.8S0.2 (composed of iron, tellurium, and tellurium sulfide), when soaked in warm booze overnight, shows signs of increased superconductivity — another in a long line of liquor-enhanced discoveries that could have far reaching effects on everything from consumer electronics to public transportation. Dr. Takano decided to test the material (known to become a superconductor after soaking in water) in the leftover alcohol from the party: beer, red wine, white wine, sake, shochu, and whiskey. As it turns out, red wine has the highest superconducting volume fraction at 62.4 percent — nearly four times higher than the ethanol-water control samples. Dr. Takano and his colleagues speculate that the ease with which wine and beer oxidize could be play a key role in the increase in superconductivity. We speculate that even a superconductor gets a little hopped up after soaking in a bottle of wine. Japanese doctor turns hot toddy into superconductor catalyst originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …DARPA’s MSEE to develop new mathematical language, race of sentient machines
January 13, 2011 No Comment
The hyper-ambitious folks at DARPA are totally over the current state of military data collection, and they’re pretty sure they know how to fix it: teach sensors how to think. Well, they’ve got an idea how to fix it, but they’ve put out a call for mathematician to do the dirty work. The Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation, and Execution (MSEE) program seeks a unified mathematical language that cane teach sensors not only to collect data, but to interpret, and act on it too. The aim is to eliminate the “data deluge” that comes from ever-increasing streams of information, like cellphone intercepts and video drone feeds, allowing analysts to focus on the important stuff. Currently the onus falls on humans to interpret the overwhelming amount of information collected by military sensors, but DARPA is confident that the right algorithm could have machines interpreting the world as early as 2014. Which gives you right around three years to fulfill every fantasy you’ve ever had. DARPA’s MSEE to develop new mathematical language, race of sentient machines originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 06:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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In yet another sign that Spotify has gone mainstream the company has just announced a partership with Shazam — the ubiquitous mobile music identification service. Under the deal, Shazamers will now be greeted with a “Play in Spotify” feature for all music discovered. The feature will be fully integrated in Shazam’s free app “soon” and is available now for the premium apps on Android and iOS wherever Spotify is available, namely, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Continue reading Shazam and Spotify team up on iOS and Android apps Shazam and Spotify team up on iOS and Android apps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Rovi sounds friendly enough, but the company used to be called Macrovision — and the infamous DRM provider just sued Amazon’s IMDb.com last week for infringement of five TV guide patents. The patents came along with Rovi’s acquisition of Gemstar, and they cover everything from interactive program guides to purchasing products on-demand to scheduling recordings from a computer — a huge range that seems to hit everything from QVC to the Xfinity TV iPad app . That probably explains why Rovi says it has deals with everyone from Apple to Yahoo — between its TV listings products, recent purchase of a sizable video library, and the current litigation with IMDb, it appears that the company is serious about leaving its DRM-centric roots behind and moving into internet content distribution. Rovi sues Amazon and IMDb for infringing TV guide patents originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We didn’t manage to check out Vivitek’s booth and its bevy of low power QR-LPD-screened devices at this year’s CES, but it doesn’t look like we missed much. The e-book fanatics over at The Digital Reader dropped by, and found Bridgestone’s QR-LPD screen technology extremely disappointing. Apparently the screens are just as dim and washed out as they were when we first glimpsed them , over two years ago. In addition, the screen refresh time is painfully slow. Unless these screens turn out to be vastly better in production and incredibly cheap, we think Mirasol and Pixel Qi don’t have anything to worry about in the next-gen screen space. There’s a video of QR-LPD after the break if you’re still interested. Continue reading Bridgestone shows off QR-LPD display, the future looks dim Bridgestone shows off QR-LPD display, the future looks dim originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Looks like Apple will be adding a new “Find My Friends” feature to its MobileMe service in the not too distant future. The settings pictured above were unearthed in the latest iOS 4.3 developer build that’s already yielding a healthy list of new devices and functionality including in-app AirPlay video support, a carrier-dependent personal WiFi hotspot, the return of the physical orientation lock switch, and a host of new multitouch gestures. Presumably Find My Friends will offer functionality akin to the free Google Latitude app doing little to justify Apple’s $99 MobileMe annual cost. ‘Find my Friends’ MobileMe feature revealed in iOS 4.3 developer build originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …HP’s Todd Bradley all but confirms webOS tablet for February 9th event, promises even more devices
January 13, 2011 No Comment
We do love to hear from loquacious execs , and HP’s Todd Bradley has been the very definition of one in an interview conducted with CNBC during CES . In a discussion revolving around webOS, Bradley was asked how HP intends to differentiate itself from the iPad and improve upon it, to which he quipped, “you and I will talk about that on the 9th .” If that’s not a confirmation that we’ll finally have our unicorn of a webOS tablet next month, we don’t know what is. Even more encouraging is the implication further on in the interview that HP could have debuted this slate at CES, but opted to do an unveiling at a separate event so as to properly highlight just how awesome it is. But wait, there’s yet more good news for webOS fans: Bradley’s crew sees its upcoming tablet as just “one piece” of the connected experience that is the company’s goal and we’re promised to be enlightened about a broad range of webOS devices at the February 9th event in San Francisco, though the lack of any Palm namedrops seems to suggest they might not bear the name of their maker. Even if they’re called iPaqs , we just want to see them already! Continue reading HP’s Todd Bradley all but confirms webOS tablet for February 9th event, promises even more devices HP’s Todd Bradley all but confirms webOS tablet for February 9th event, promises even more devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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OCZ, a company that started life a decade ago by churning out DRAM modules for enthusiasts to throw into their towering rigs, has now announced it’s abandoning that market entirely. As PC Perspective points out, it’s grown increasingly difficult for companies to differentiate their products when it comes to memory — most of it just works and most of it is pretty fast — and continually declining prices have apparently forced OCZ’s hand. The San Jose-based company’s new primary breadwinner will be solid state drives , which already account for a substantial proportion of revenues and look set to grow exponentially as their own prices dip a little further into the range of the affordable. It’s a shame we’ll no longer have that bold Z to look at when picking out memory sticks for our next self-built machine, but maybe it’s all for the best. Check out an interview with an OCZ VP at the source link below. Continue reading OCZ quits DRAM business to focus on super-speedy SSDs OCZ quits DRAM business to focus on super-speedy SSDs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 01:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …iOS 4.3 code reveals new iPhone and iPad models, rumor mill suggests a dislike of the home button
January 13, 2011 No Comment
History lesson, folks. If you dig far enough into iOS’s code, you’ll eventually come across iPhone3,1, which is the AT&T iPhone 4, and the analogous iPhone3,2 (i.e. Verizon iPhone ). It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but then along comes iOS 4.3 with a handful of new mystery identifiers to spurn speculation — namely, two new-generation iPhones (4,1 and 4,2) and three iPads (2,1; 2,2; and 2,3). Speculate all you want, but there isn’t much else at all we can say definitively here, but if we had to take a guess, it’s the GSM and CDMA variants of the next-gen models (plus a WiFi-only iPad). It is interesting to note the lack of an “iPhone4,3″ given the yet-to-be-revealed iPhone3,3 is still there — will the last member ever see the light of day? Outside of iOS 4.3 but still very much related, BGR is claiming it’s heard from sources that the next iPhone / iPad models will eschew the physical home button altogether in lieu of the new multi-finger gestures and that employees at Cupertino are already testing such devices. That seems a little more out there to us; five-finger pinch to home feels extremely clunky. The real takeaway here? We can finally have an iPhone rumor that doesn’t involve wondering if it’ll head to a new US carrier. iOS 4.3 code reveals new iPhone and iPad models, rumor mill suggests a dislike of the home button originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …New Goo.gl URL shortener API lets third party developers in on the outrageous fun that is Google URL shortening
January 13, 2011 No Comment
Just a quick note, because we know how much you love APIs: Google has opened its URL shortening service to third party developers. That’s right — not only can you use Goo.gl to generate QR codes , but now you can build it into your own software. As well as support for URL shortening and expanding, the API will also let you track your history and analytics. Says Ben D’Angelo of the URL shortening team: “You could use these features for a wide variety of applications, enabling behaviors ranging from auto-shortening within Twitter or Google Buzz clients to running regular jobs that monitor your usage statistics and traffic patterns.” The team is also working to improve spam and malicious site detection for the service. Since the government of Greenland seems to be a bit more stable than that of a certain Muammar al-Gaddafi, we’re sure that Google won’t run into the same problems that vb.ly did (although we wonder if things would change if Kuupik Kleist got his own voluptuous Ukrainian nurse). Hit the source link to get coding. New Goo.gl URL shortener API lets third party developers in on the outrageous fun that is Google URL shortening originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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