Jul 27
The opening ceremony of the Olympics is happening right now, kicked off by a giant, colored-smoke flyover by the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows squadron. Pretty cool! Your pounds at work! But does it beat… The Super Bowl? More »
Jul 27
The U.S. Army is partnering with the Georgia Tech Research Institute to develop a fully functional sensor suite that could save the lives of soldiers in battle. It’s called the Soldier Body Unit, a two-pound pack outfitted with four blast sensors that will communicate with each other to capture and measure blasts on a soldier’s body. The U.S. Army is rushing the development of the prototype due to its plan to send the first units of the suite to the soldiers in Afghanistan in order to collect data on concussions and traumatic brain injuries before the soldiers leave in 2014.
The data will then be sent to the Joint Trauma Analysis and Prevention of Injury in Combat (JTAPIC) Program, where medical professionals will study and analyze them. The researchers said that the Soldier Body Unit will not only collect data for future research, but will also save soldiers from themselves. “Too many fellow soldiers pretend they didn’t sustain concussions in the fight, only to sustain more serious brain injuries in the future. With these, they can’t hide,” Army Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Marion said.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: DARPA developing smart suits that will improve the endurance and balance of soldiers, Female body armor for the army, Samus grins,
Jul 27
Facebook may have delivered a decent quarterly financial report yesterday, but that apparently did little to quell investor concerns about the company, which only went public earlier this year. Facebook’s stock took another tumble today, falling $3.03 to $23.81. That 11.3% decrease in stock price led to Facebook’s stock hitting a new all-time low, and it doesn’t seem like the stock is going to recover anytime soon.
Despite the fact that Facebook did post a profit and did report a growth in the number of users for Q2, that apparently wasn’t enough for Facebook’s investors. Revenue did grow in Q2, but not as much as it did in Q1, which gave investors some cause for concern. That isn’t the major problem Facebook’s investors have with the company’s direction, however, as it seems that many of them are concerned about Facebook’s mobile ad growth. As far as they’re concerned, Facebook isn’t making nearly enough money from mobile advertisements, while more and more Facebook users are accessing their profiles from mobile devices.
The result is a stock price that now sits at nearly 40% below the price it started at when Facebook initially went public. Any way you slice it, that isn’t good for the company or current investors – though it may be good news for those waiting to jump in when the price is low. Indeed, CNET is reporting that this week has taken quite the toll on Mark Zuckerberg’s pocketbook, with the Facebook founder losing a mind-numbing $3 billion since Wednesday. It’s going to be a long and bumpy ride for Facebook in the coming weeks and months, but at the very least, it should be pretty interesting for outside observers.
[via USA Today]
Facebook stock hits new low as Zuckerberg loses billions is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 27
As gorgeous as huge, expensive monitors are, most situations just don’t call for the inches or wallet-dents associated with today’s luxury screens. With this in mind, and barely a breath after outing its $299, 27-inch LED offering, ViewSonic is back with two budget displays from the VA12 series. First up is the VA2212m-LED, which rocks a 1080p widescreen, 21.5-inch panel, 10,000,000:1 contrast Ratio, DVI and VGA inputs, as well as a pair of 2W integrated speakers. Its little brother the VA1912m-LED shares most of the same genes, but with an 18.5-inch, 1,366 x 768 resolution screen. Running with ViewSonic’s eco-friendly theme, both mercury-free LED monitors also boast the eco-mode feature for low power consumption and a longer life. If either of the new displays are grabbing your attention, you’ll be able to pick up the $149 VA2212m-LED imminently, with the $125 VA1912m-LED hitting North American retailers in mid-August.
Continue reading ViewSonic announces a duo of budget-friendly LED monitors
Filed under: Displays
ViewSonic announces a duo of budget-friendly LED monitors originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Jul 27
Another day, another patent dispute – at least that’s what the current state of the tech world is. It looks like there’s now another war over patents between Apple and Google. According to reports online, both Apple and Google have been named as potential customers of Kodak’s upcoming patent sell-off that will take place sometime next month. According to a tweet from WSJ’s Dennis K. Berman, the two companies are the front-runners in the patent bidding war.
The details about the patent bidding war are pretty scarce at the moment but you can be pretty sure that the winner will be walking away with a lot of technology concerning photography. For those of you in the dark, Kodak is looking to sell off part of its patent collection as part of terms attached to a granted load for keeping the company afloat during its corporate restructuring. This could turn out to be an interesting battle. Stay tuned for more information.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Kodak granted approval to auction its patent portfolio, Google files complaint against Microsoft and Nokia over “mobile patent abuse” in the EU,
Jul 27
Earlier this week we reported HTC officially announced that the Desire HD won’t be receiving the Ice Cream Sandwich – despite the phone packing hardware similar to its newer phones that run on ICS. In an attempt to appease customers, HTC stated that the way that the Desire HD’s internal storage is partitioned, it would require users to wipe their device before they could perform an upgrade. In addition to the partition issues, performance was said to be compromised even if they updated the phone and they’d rather not have that.
However, the HTC Thunderbolt which features similar specs to the Desire HD is still a possibility, which makes it a pretty strange decision. Anyway, I guess HTC Desire HD owners won’t have a new upgrade to look forward to unless they decide to flash a custom ROM on their phone. How many Desire HD owners out there are upset by the news?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HTC Desire HD will not receive Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system update, Ice Cream Sandwich update for the HTC Desire HD cancelled?,
Jul 27
Camo Bolt-Action Pen Review: Now That’s A Pocket Protector [Lightning Review]
Posted in: Today's Chili
The web is full of secret online weapons stores and places you can legally load up on ammo. But the pen is mightier than the AR-15. Especially this bolt-action bullet pen. More »
Jul 27
HP has acknowledged that it’s been working on a Windows 8 tablet; it just hasn’t mentioned whether or not the rumored Slate 8 is part of its plans. Imagine our surprise, then, when we’re told that HP’s 60-second “Make It Matter” commercial ends with an unannounced yet familiar-looking tablet right at the 56-second mark. There’s only a fleeting glimpse, but it shows a metallic-looking body with a large black antenna window — the combination of which would fit in with the Slate 8’s purported aesthetics. We’ve asked HP whether or not this is a clever teaser for a real product or just as conceptual as the rest of the ad, and we’ll let you know if we hear back on the subject. In the meantime, you can inspect the video evidence for yourself after the break.
[Thanks, Brian]
Continue reading Is HP showing the Slate 8 in its latest commercial? (video)
Filed under: Tablet PCs
Is HP showing the Slate 8 in its latest commercial? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Jul 27
Virgin Mobile had originally promised the UK version of the ZTE Grand X for early August. The carrier just can’t contain its enthusiasm: it’s letting retail partner Phones4U sell the budget smartphone as of today. While you’re busy skipping the start of the Olympics, the store will give you a Grand X for free if you’re willing to spend at least £20.50 ($32) per month on a tariff instead of opting for the £190 ($299) pay-as-you-go hardware price. As we saw in China, the appeal of the Grand X is in those numbers — it’s more the temptation of stock Android 4.0 in a low-priced (if capable) suit than the hardware. Phones4U does hope to sweeten the pot through a contest. We hope you like the musical styles of Professor Green, as the British retailer is giving early Grand X adopters a chance to win both a custom Professor Green case as well as tickets to a private concert.
Filed under: Cellphones
ZTE Grand X reaches UK shops a tad early through Phones4U originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Jul 27
I really like my DSLR camera as far as the photo quality goes, but I hate lugging that heavy beast around. I’ve had an eye out for a new more compact digital camera that can offer similar image quality and many people are doing the same thing. Samsung has announced that it is now shipping its NX1000 SMART camera system promising professional image quality and more in a compact package.
The mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera comes with an all-purpose 20 to 50 mm lens and an external flash. The rear LCD is a three-inch, VGA resolution screen. The large APS-C image sensor has 20.3-megapixel resolution and the shutter is very fast at up to 1/4000 of a second. That means you can actually get shots of your kids rather than just an ear or an elbow. In addition to hi-res stills, the camera can record 1080p (30fps) HD video
One of the coolest things about the NX1000 for me is that it has integrated Wi-Fi which allows you to instantly share photos on your favorite social networks or save them to a computer to free up more space on your memory card. The camera has a dedicated Smart Link Hot Key on the top for shooting photos to another device via Wi-Fi. The camera comes in black or white bodies (and is coming soon in pink) and is available right now for $649.99(USD) over on Amazon.
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