We already know that Siri can send texts, check the weather or find you a restaurant, but did you know she can also fetch you a beer. Well, sort of… with a little hacking. The folks at Redpepper dreamed up Beeri, an RC truck that cracks open a can of brew whenever it receives a tweet instructing it to “pour.” Since you can text updates to Twitter (40404) and Siri can text, that means it’s perfectly simple to tell Beeri it’s Miller time. Whenever the Arduino embedded in the truck detects a mention with the word “pour,” it drives forward, slamming a beer can into a puncture wall that drips into a funnel, filling a cup beneath the table top. It’s a pretty ingenious system, and you can see it in action after the break. We just hope Beeri has a day job — looking at all that head, it’s clear she wouldn’t last a day as a bartender.
This article was written on December 17, 2005 by CyberNet.
Microsoft Windows Vista 5270, which is going to be the December CTP, is expected to be released on Monday or Tuesday. Unfortunately, this is not going to be the Beta 2 that was expected to be released. I guess we will have to settle with what we can get. Check back soon for news on the December CTP release.
Styli and Android haven’t exactly been strangers as of late — with devices like the HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Note offering pen-based input — but it looks like that option will soon be even easier to implement with Ice Cream Sandwich. As noted on Reddit, Google’s recent overview of some Android 4.0 platform highlights includes a small tidbit towards the end that details the “full support for stylus input events” in the OS — including features like pressure sensitivity and the ability to distinguish motion events from different sources (i.e. a pen and your finger). Of course, it still requires some hardware-level assistance from tablet and smartphone makers, but native support in the OS could well open up some interesting possibilities, especially when it comes to third-party apps.
This article was written on September 02, 2007 by CyberNet.
There is no doubt in my mind that Switcher is the best Exposé clone ever made for Windows, and only Vista users get to bask in the features that this free program has to offer. Switcher 2 Beta has just raised the bar several notches by adding features Apple’s own Exposé doesn’t even have!
Among many other things the new Switcher has tremendously improved the smoothness of its animation. You’ll see this in the video demonstration below, but first lets take a look at some of the great new features.
–Custom Window Labels and Backgrounds–
You can now have labels on windows as well as customized backgrounds and borders. You would probably think that the labels only tell you what the title of the app is, but you can put multiple things in the label. My personal favorite is having it show the number of megabytes the particular program is using, but you can also have it display the program’s icon, the filename of the application, or the process name.
–More Productive–
Now the first 9 windows in Switcher are assigned numbers. This makes it a lot easier to move between windows without having to shuffle through them one-by-one.
One of my favorite features in Switcher has always been the customizable shortcut keys though. That’s also been taken up a notch by adding several new commands that can be assigned shortcuts, including "Begin and Select Next." That command behaves similarly to the standard Windows Alt-Tab where upon activation the last-accessed window is selected. I love this option so much that I’ve gone ahead and assigned it to be the default action. A more Alt-Tab like appearance can also be seen by using the new Grid View, which aligns all of the windows to a grid in number order. I’m sure the Alt-Tab fans out there will choose this to be their default preference.
Another shortcut action that was added was the ability to close a window straight from Switcher. I set it up so that anytime I right-click on one of the thumbnails in Switcher it closes that particular window.
–Live Filtering–
The live filtering gives you the capabilities to only show certain sets of windows at any given time. For example, you can have all minimized windows be hidden or you can only show windows from a certain program (like Windows Explorer). Here are the various options for filtering along with their default shortcut keys:
Search by window title (default shortcut Ctrl+F, or simply type to automatically display the search box). You can search using regular expressions (an obscure feature that I keep forgetting about).
Exclude minimized windows (default shortcut Ctrl+M).
Hide a particular window (default shortcut Ctrl+H).
Show only the windows belonging to a certain program (default shortcut Ctrl+W).
The default shortcut to remove all filters is Ctrl+R.
After trying out the search feature I couldn’t stop myself from creating a video to show off this cool feature:
–Overview–
I honestly can’t believe how much Switcher has evolved since I first started using it, and it’s quickly become something that I recommend to anyone using Vista. Of course, if you’ve never used Alt-Tab before then you’ll probably never think to use this, but I’ve quickly found this to be a valuable tool in my daily work.
There are countless satellites, long deactivated, orbiting the Earth in what amounts to a giant cemetery in the sky. DARPA’s Phoenix program sees these piles of junk not as refuse, but as a resource just waiting to be harvested. The plan is to re-engineer existing technology, like robots used in remote surgery and advanced imaging systems found in off-shore drilling platforms, for the harsh environment of space. The resulting orbiter would operate on the deceased (with the owners approval, of course), salvaging what it could and stitching them together to create new functional satellites. (Try storming those gates angry mob!) DARPA is also looking into building tiny “satlets” which could simply be clipped to the antennas of deactivated satellites, breathing new life into them and saving a significant chunk of cash. Head on after the break for a video of what the orbiting, robotic Dr. Frankenstein might look like as well as some PR.
There are countless satellites, long deactivated, orbiting the Earth in what amounts to a giant cemetery in the sky. DARPA’s Phoenix program sees these piles of junk not as refuse, but as a resource just waiting to be harvested. The plan is to re-engineer existing technology, like robots used in remote surgery and advanced imaging systems found in off-shore drilling platforms, for the harsh environment of space. The resulting orbiter would operate on the deceased (with the owners approval, of course), salvaging what it could and stitching them together to create new functional satellites. (Try storming those gates angry mob!) DARPA is also looking into building tiny “satlets” which could simply be clipped to the antennas of deactivated satellites, breathing new life into them and saving a significant chunk of cash. Head on after the break for a video of what the orbiting, robotic Dr. Frankenstein might look like as well as some PR.
Nearly a month after its initial announcement, Samsung’s ready to deliver the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus to the good ol’ US of A just in time for the winter gift-giving season. The WiFi-only device, which packs a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU with 1GB of RAM, Android 3.2, 3MP camera with 720p HD video capture and a 7-inch LCD with 1024 x 600 resolution, will be begging for your credit card as of November 13th at Best Buy, Amazon and other retailers. Are you an early adopter? No prob — you’ll have the opportunity to pre-order yours at “select retailers” this coming Sunday, though no specific outlets were called out by name. The 16GB is the only version arriving so far, but Sammy told us to expect the 32GB flavor later this year or early 2012 (likely for $499, if yesterday’s brief appearance on Amazon is any indicator). No word on partnerships with carriers yet, but we’ll keep you posted on any updates. View the press release in all its glory below.
Ever go to a LAN party and find it’s taking too long to get your gear set up the way you like? Probably not, especially if you own a Razer or other gaming mouse that stores your preferences on its internal memory. Still, it would be far easier if your tweaks were stored in the cloud and available everywhere — which is the thinking behind Synapse 2.0. All of your button, axis and sensitivity adjustments will be available for you to pull down and use with the company’s range of peripherals if you’re at home, the LAN center or at work (after hours, of course.) The service is currently in internal beta but 500 lucky Razer Naga owners will get access to the second beta if they sign up at the source link below. There’s also a press release — scroll down at 5600dpi and click “Read More.”
A thoroughly scientific study by sociological journal Cosmopolitan says 20 percent of women prefer Facebook over penis-in-vagina activity. This number sounds low to me. In our era, Facebook’s made almost everything enjoyable and worthwhile about sex obsolete. Let’s get poking. More »
The Overdrive 4G hotspot is just one device affected by the new Sprint data-capping policies. Photo: Dylan Tweney/Wired.com
In more bad news for bandwidth hogs, Sprint — the last bastion of unlimited data plans among U.S. carriers — will soon retire its unlimited 4G data plans for all non-smartphone devices.
Effective this November, Sprint customers will have to pay for 3G and 4G data use combined, a departure from the company’s previous policy of allowing unlimited 4G data while asking customers to pay only for 3G. Even worse, existing unlimited 4G hotspot data customers won’t be grandfathered in. That’s right: Now everyone has to pay up.
With the rise of 4G networks and devices in the U.S. over the past two years, carriers have grown stingier with data plan offerings. AT&T was the first to kill its unlimited data plan in 2010, paving the way for Verizon to follow suit in 2011. T-Mobile boasts an “unlimited” plan, though the company throttles download speeds after users pass the 2GB mark.
Sprints new plans will cost $45 for 3GB, $60 for 5GB, and $90 for 10GB of 3G/4G data. Every megabyte used after your limit will cost a nickel.
Fortunately, the policy strictly applies to non-smartphone devices like hotspots and tablets; Sprint remains the sole major U.S. carrier to offer an unlimited data plan for its smartphone customers.
Nonetheless, Sprint’s latest move may be an omen of things to come, especially as the company begins to carry the iPhone 4S on its network for the first time. AT&T killed unlimited data after gaining a notorious reputation for terrible iPhone coverage, and Verizon put down its unlimited plan only months after it started carrying Apple’s handset. Could Sprint be setting consumers up for the same thing?
A Sprint spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment from Wired.com. We’ll have to wait and see how Sprint’s network handles the influx of new customers.
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Now the first 9 windows in Switcher are assigned numbers. This makes it a lot easier to move between windows without having to shuffle through them one-by-one.
