Dec 12

Apple reportedly stepping up its connectivity game, wants to be the center of your wireless universe

Posted in: accessories, airplay, Apple, bluetooth, ios, ipad, iPhone, ipod, streaming, Today's Chili, wifi

Apple is purportedly readying a new certification chip for accessory makers that will allow wireless access and connectivity to that pile of iOS devices you’re hoarding. Announced during an accessory manufacturer’s conference in China, the new chip could possibly allow connections across AirPlay, Bluetooth and WiFi. The Cupertino crew hope that this will encourage even more iOS-friendly add-ons and docks to market. According to Macotakara, Apple apparently added that it’s working on support for AirPlay over Bluetooth, presumably bringing with it some improved battery longevity, and tying into the new low-powered Bluetooth 4.0 found on the iPhone 4S. Well, you know us, we always love seeing new iPad accessories.

Update: An anonymous attendee has got in touch to tell us that the authentication chip is low-cost and faster update that doesn’t bring any new features not already seen on current chips. Our mole added that Apple didn’t directly announce any plans to extend AirPlay functionality to Bluetooth.

Apple reportedly stepping up its connectivity game, wants to be the center of your wireless universe originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 12

Facebook Is Making Us Miserable

Posted in: Today's Chili, top

When Facebook was founded in 2004, it began with a seemingly innocuous mission: to connect friends. Some seven years and 800 million users later, the social network has taken over most aspects of our personal and professional lives, and is fast becoming the dominant communication platform of the future. More »

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Dec 12

Researchers build world’s smallest steam engine that could

Posted in: concept, germany, laser, research, Today's Chili
Wanna create your very own microscopic steam engine? Just take a colloid particle, put it in water, and add a laser. That’s a CliffsNotes version of what a group of German researchers recently did to create the world’s smallest steam engine. To pull it off, engineers from the University of Stuttgart and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems tweaked the traditional approach introduced by Robert Stirling nearly 200 years ago. In Stirling’s model, gas within a cylindrical tube is alternately heated and cooled, allowing it to expand and push an attached piston. Professor Clemens Bechinger and his team, however, decided to downsize this system by replacing the piston with a laser beam, and the cylinder’s working gas with a single colloid bead that floats in water and measures just three thousandths of a millimeter in size. The laser’s optical field limits the bead’s range of motion, which can be easily observed with a microscope, since the plastic particle is about 10,000 times larger than an atom. Because the beam varies in intensity, it effectively acts upon the particle in the same way that heat compresses and expands gas molecules in Stirling’s model. The bead, in turn, does work on the optical field, with its effects balanced by an outside heat source. The system’s architects admit that their engine tends to “sputter” at times, but insist that its mere development shows that “there are no thermodynamic obstacles” to production. Read more about the invention and its potential implications in the full press release, after the break.

Continue reading Researchers build world’s smallest steam engine that could

Researchers build world’s smallest steam engine that could originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 12

Multiple IM Support Coming to Google?

Posted in: Email, Features, Gmail, Google, Screenshots, Today's Chili

This article was written on October 31, 2007 by CyberNet.

Gmail Contacts Messenger One of the things people like to do with Google’s products is search through their source code looking for any possible hints of features to come. As nerds users it is our duty to do that, and the new Gmail 2.0 is no exception.

Ionut over at Google OS started digging through the source code, and saw some hints of more features that are lurking around: color-coded labels, ability to remove emails from a threaded conversation, and Jabber transports. Hmm, Jabber transports? It’s possible that you haven’t even heard of these before, and that’s understandable.

What the Jabber transports do is connect you with other instant messengers services, such as MSN and AIM, by converting received messages into the Jabber format. Google Talk is a Jabber client, and there is some early indication in Gmail’s new source code that a Jabber transport protocol is already in the works. This would give you the ability to add friends from Yahoo!, MSN, AIM, and more!

There are already tricks available for using third-party Jabber transports with Google Talk, but it requires some work. The benefits of having Google implement this is added stability, and it will be much easier to add contacts than trying to go through a third-party transport.

One other indication that Google will be offering such a service lies in the new contact manager. As seen in the screenshot above you can actually add/remove cross-network messenger ID’s for your friends. It could be just a coincidence, but hopefully this all means something!

Note: I still don’t have access to the new Gmail 2.0 features.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Dec 12

Build your own game or animation platform with MB Led

Posted in: diy, LED, network, Today's Chili

For those of you do-it-yourself types, this could be an interesting project for you to look into. Called MB Led, it’s a game and animation platform using blocks of LEDs that can interact with each other. Inspired by the GLiP project (Great LED Interactive Puzzle), it was developed by students at Telecom ParisTech as a […]

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Dec 12

The Engadget Show is live tomorrow with Boeing, the Tokyo Motor Show and the year’s best gadgets

Posted in: engadget show, EngadgetShow, Today's Chili
We’ll be dashing through the proverbial tech snow, laughing all the way at 6PM ET tomorrow. We’re gonna tour the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, take a trip to Tokyo Motor Show and check out the best gadgets of 2011.

Best of all, you can join us live! If you’re in New York City, we’ve got a few extra tickets left over. If you’d like to attend, email jon dot turi at engadget dot com including your full name and confirmation that you can show up. Everyone else can follow along from home right here.

Subscribe to the Show:

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The Engadget Show is live tomorrow with Boeing, the Tokyo Motor Show and the year’s best gadgets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 12

FCC restarts review clock for AT&T’s spectrum purchase, gives itself 180 days

Posted in: att, business, carrier, deal, government, industry, lte, mobilepostcross, money, network, qualcomm, t-mobile, Today's Chili
Back in August, the FCC decided to freeze the 180-day review clock on AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Qualcomm’s 700 MHz spectrum, citing lingering concerns over the carrier’s ongoing T-Mobile saga. Now that AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have withdrawn their merger application, however, the Commission has decided to re-open the review period for the Qualcomm acquisition, giving itself a fresh 180 days to make a decision. In a letter published Friday, Wireless Bureau chief Rick Kaplan announced that the timetable would be reset, with a retroactive start date of November 29th — the very day that the FCC granted AT&T’s pullout from the T-Mobile deal. No word yet on when we can expect a decision, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for the latest developments. Read the letter in full at the source link below.

FCC restarts review clock for AT&T’s spectrum purchase, gives itself 180 days originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 12

Get your Doodle Jump and Flight Control on as the Android Market sale continues into day 7

Posted in: android market, AndroidApps, AndroidMarket, apps, Games, Google, minipost, sale, Today's Chili
On the seventh day of the Android Market sale, your true love should give you Super KO Boxing 2. Or Flight Control, or Flick Soccer, or any of the other seven apps available today for ten cents. If you haven’t been following along the past week, Google’s been celebrating its ten billionth Android app download by offering a ten-day sale, and today’s offerings — ten in total — are rife with games and a couple returning favorites. Everything you see in the above screenshot is available for a dime, so head over to the source link if there’s something you’ve been pining for, or if you’re just trying to collect the whole set.

Get your Doodle Jump and Flight Control on as the Android Market sale continues into day 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 12

Spherical hexapod robot walks like a crab, dances like the Bogle (video)

Posted in: robot, robotics, Today's Chili, video

Kåre Halvorsen (aka Zenta) is something of a genius in the robotic arts, as testified by the latest development in his long-running MorpHex project. By adding curved polycarbonate panels to its six feet and upper half, he’s given his creation the ability to curl up into a ball when it gets tired of scuttling. Alas, he hasn’t managed to make it roll around yet, or indeed fly, but the video after the break is still pretty amazing — and almost as hypnotic as that robotic worm we caught doing the limbo.

Continue reading Spherical hexapod robot walks like a crab, dances like the Bogle (video)

Spherical hexapod robot walks like a crab, dances like the Bogle (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 12

Don’t want to shell out the cash for an iPhone 4S? Lease one on O2

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, iphone 4s, mobilepostmini, o2, smartphone, Today's Chili, uk
If you can lease a vehicle, why not a smartphone? That’s O2’s line of thinking, anyways, as the UK carrier has begun piloting a rental scheme — called O2 Lease — with the iPhone 4S in the driver’s seat. For a 12-month lease period and £55 per month, you’ll be able to rent the 16GB version and get 750 minutes, unlimited messaging, 500MB of data and insurance. Want a 32GB model? That’ll be an extra £10 per month. Since it’s a rental, you’ll be required to give the phone back after your year is up, but at that point you’re free to grab a new device — a great idea for anyone embarrassed to still be holding onto a primitive year-old phone. As O2 puts it: “this is the first tariff model available to all O2 customers that reflects the lifestyle of the smartphone industry.” If the pilot’s successful, the company will consider expanding its selection to more devices; since not everyone wishing to lease a smartphone wants an iPhone, we’d say the more handsets the merrier.

Don’t want to shell out the cash for an iPhone 4S? Lease one on O2 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Inquirer  | Email this | Comments

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