Hasta La Gadget!

Lenses are actually LCD screens that, with the assistance of a tiny camera in the bridge of the glasses, can in just 50 milliseconds find–and create dark spots around–glaring light.

Originally posted at News – Health Tech

In the mood for some homebrew iOS app-building fun? Well, Make’s got a kit just for you that bundles the Redpark Serial Cable for iOS with an RS232-to-TTL board and the 60 plus component Minitronics Survival pack for $80. Hailing it as “the first general-purpose serial cable that Apple has approved,” this limited supply pack will let you get your Arduino-tinkering hands all sorts of iPhone dirty — jailbreak not required. And if you’re the uninitiated type, the DIY magazine’s also put together a helpful, hand-holding guide to walk you through some basic first-timer projects. Hit the source to order your own Jobs-certified cable.

[Thanks, Marc]

Make’s Redpark Breakout Pack lets you build iOS apps with Arduino assistance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Redpark’s iOS cable lets you interact with Arduino hardware through iPhones, iPods and iPads. Photo courtesy of Make

With the introduction of a new cable made for Apple’s iOS devices, hardware modders are no longer beholden to the Android platform alone to fulfill their hacking desires.

Electronics accessory builders Redpark introduced a serial cable on Monday, which lets you connect your iPod, iPad or iPhone devices to physical computing peripherals. After hooking your iOS device up to hardware like Arduino — one of the more popular open-source hardware platforms with the DIY community — you can download a software developer kit that allows you to control the unit using your iPhone like a remote control.

Over the past few years, open hardware computing platforms have grown in popularity. ARM Holdings’ mbed project gives non-programmer types the ability to program small computers known as microcontrollers, while encouraging integration with unconventional objects. In May, Android introduced its accessory developer kit (ADK) based on the Arduino hardware at its annual developer conference in San Francisco. Using the ADK and Arduino’s free software tools, those familiar with coding for Android can make programs that interact with other devices, from a simple LED to a remote-controlled robot.

While the iOS platform remains far from ‘open,’ Apple gave Redpark’s cable its official stamp of approval. That means unlike previously, you won’t have to jailbreak your iPhone to connect it to an Arduino unit.

The cable costs $60 from Redpark’s site, and works with devices running iOS version 4.3 and above.

Head on over to Make magazine for a great rundown of how to hook the cable up to your iOS device and get coding right away.

[Redpark via Make]

This article was written on August 26, 2008 by CyberNet.

Back in December of 2004 on The Official Google Blog, Google Software Engineer Kevin Gibbs announced that Google was launching a new Labs project. It was called Google Suggest and provides users with search suggestions in real time while they type. Gibbs mentioned that it actually all came about during his 20% time. He said,

The project stemmed from an idea I had a few months ago, and since then I’ve been working on it in my 20% time, which is a program where Google allows their employees to devote 20% of their working hours to any project they choose. What’s really amazed me about this project is how in a matter of months, working on my own, I was able to go from a lunch table conversation to launching a new service. In my opinion, this is one of the things that really makes Google a great place; that the company’s systems, resources and, most important, people are all aligned to make it as easy as possible to take an idea and turn it into something cool.

Four years later after Gibbs started the project in his spare time, and it has publicly launched. Those of you who use Yahoo’s Search Assist will already have an understanding of what Google Suggest is all about. For those that aren’t familiar, here are some ways that Google Suggest can help improve your searches. Google Suggest:

1. Helps you form search queries
2. Helps reduce spelling errors
3. Saves keystrokes

Interestingly enough, in the announcement today, there was no mention of Kevin Gibbs who started this project originally. We don’t know if he’s moved on from Google, or if he’s just no longer heading up this particular project.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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