Aug 10
The Lenovo X1 Carbon arrived at our office a few days ago, and while the full review will be up early next week, we wanted to give you our first impressions of Lenovo’s ruggedized ultrabook. So far: Really good. More »
Aug 10
Dutch multinational electronics company, Philips, has partnered with the Kenyan Urban Roads Authority to install solar-powered LED street lighting in Nairobi. Philips says that, if implemented on a wide scale across the country, the project has the potential to generate up to 100 per cent energy savings. The main goal of the project will be to highlight the benefits of sustainable energy sources and alternatives to expensive, less efficient traditional lighting.
The key to what Philips calls as “the most reliable, efficient and cost effective solar powered road lighting solution” lies in combining high brightness LEDs with patented optics and an intelligent controller. Philips said that this will ensure that the maximum amount of power is transferred from the solar panels to the batteries. High energy efficiency also means that the cost and size of the batteries can be reduced by as much as 50 percent compared to other standard solutions being offered in the market today. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Philips launches FWP3200D DJ-like iOS speaker dock, LED lighting system changes color based on your mental state,
Aug 10
Rovio has introduced a new character for Angry Birds Seasons, a pink-feathered fowl who apparently likes to blow bubbles. This new bird, named simply “Pink Bird,” will be debuting in a new update for the immensely popular game. Alas, we don’t know when the update is scheduled to land, but with Rovio giving the update the title of “Back to School,” it seems it should be arriving before long.
Judging from Rovio’s new animated short below, Pink Bird appears to be a bit more light and dainty than the other birds we’ve used to take down the pigs. She’s shown using bubbles as a weapon, distracting the pigs in the video with with an egg-shaped one, but how these will be used in the game is still unclear. Despite not knowing the Pink Bird’s actual use in the game, we’re sure many fans are simply excited by the prospect of having a new bird in their arsenal.
Angry Birds Seasons: Back to School will be the 13th update for the game, with the first update, Trick or Treat launching way back in October 2010. It’s been an incredibly successful ride for Angry Birds Seasons and the larger Angry Birds franchise, and lately we’ve been seeing Rovio begin to branch out with new games like Amazing Alex. Angry Birds will likely remain Rovio’s main focus for quite some time though, as Angry Birds Space – the latest installment in the series – proved that fans will still eat up anything related to the franchise.
Just like all of the other Angry Birds Seasons updates, we’re expecting that this one will be free when it launches. Aside from the Pink Bird, Back to School will add a variety of new levels, though just how many the update will add is unknown at the moment. Keep an ear to SlashGear, as we’ll be sure to let you know once Rovio spills more details on Angry Birds Seasons: Back to School.
Angry Birds Seasons getting a new pink-feathered character is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Aug 10
Once a tool used exclusively by mountaineers to secure themselves against deadly falls, the carabiner has been adopted for hundreds of more mundane uses—like carrying housekeys, or strapping a water bottle to your gear with this simple but useful replacement carabiner cap. More »
Aug 10
So far, Digiboo’s movie kiosks have been severely limited by a couple of factors, before you even get to the fact that their content is SD only. Firstly, they’ve required users to carry a USB stick on their person, and secondly they’ve only been able to transfer rentals to a Windows device. Today, however, the company has cleared a major hurdle on its passage to relevance, by allowing wireless transfers to any “Windows-enabled PC, laptop or tablet.” This should make Digiboo’s next step — Android support, which is promised to come this month — a whole lot easier.
Continue reading Digiboo movie kiosks now do wireless, still insist on Windows
Filed under: Transportation
Digiboo movie kiosks now do wireless, still insist on Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Aug 10
German sports clothing manufacturer Adidas is infusing technology into its 60-year old sagacity by introducing a shoe that can receive tweets. Just in time for the London Olympics, Adidas decided to revamp the adiPower Barricade shoe by turning it into a Social Media Shoe. Adidas has outfitted the 2012 Adidas Barricade tennis sneaker with an Arduino unit, an external LCD to display information to user, and a customized software that polls the Twitter APIs to share specific data on the shoe screen.
The Social Media Shoe also features an LED lighting embedded into its three stripes, with its colors controllable by a remote control. Adidas said that the “teched-out” shoe is now displayed at the Adidas media lounge. Man, you can even send your tweets to @adidasbarricade and see if it tweets back. Adidas is planning to mass produce the shoe sometime in 2016. “You’ve got fans tweeting athletes, athletes tweeting fans, and to top that, you have an Adidas sneaker that lets you tweet an athlete while they’re on the court. In 2016, every athlete might have a shoe like this,” Adidas said. Check out the video after the break.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Adidas Tennis Performance Bra comes with miCoach heart sensor, adidas miCoach Speed_Cell announced,
Aug 10
I would suppose that most kids and teens do not mind owning a PS Vita or a Nintendo 3DS, but if you are a parent who wants to take into account every single penny that you have spent in good stead, getting a dedicated portable gaming console for your little one might not be the best choice, but rather, you would want to look from the edutainment (entertainment and education, get it?) angle – and the LeapsterGS from LeapFrog might just do the trick as this particular device sports a built-in camera and video recording capability, a motion sensor as well as the most important ingredient of them all – a decent library of software and apps to get you started on the right footing. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: LeapFrog LeapPad 2 and Leapster GS get hardware refresh, LeapFrog LeapPad pre-sale units sold out in two weeks,
Aug 10
Future NFC Chips Could Be Printed Like Newspapers For Cheaper Gadgets [Guts]
Posted in: Today's Chili
Small, cheap smart-tag devices that are printed as digital circuits in rolls like newspapers could help kickstart the wireless payment industry. The devices, known as rectennas, combine a rectifier – which converts current from AC to DC – with an antenna, and can harness power directly from radio waves given off by a mobile phone. More »
Aug 10
Yes, there does seem to be a trend that moves towards a zombie apocalypse in the movies and TV shows these days, don’t you think so? For those of you who think that zombies will never exist in our lifetime, here is a game that is based on The Walking Dead series, where it has spawned an iOS game in the process, and now we have a somewhat similar The Walking Dead game on social network giant Facebook itself.
AMC and social game developers RockYou and Eyes Wide Games have come together to join forces in the creation of The Walking Dead Social Game for Facebook. According to Eyes Wide Games CEO, Stephen Griffin, said “You start the game in a prequel state. So it actually all starts before Rick wakes up from his coma. And you’re with Shane and Lori en route to Atlanta. The game is divided into chapters so the first chapter is this prequel state. And then every few months we’re going to release a new chapter.”
Each new chapter will play a role in representing a series of the AMC TV series, and gamers will be given a chance to interact with characters from the TV show – now how about that for an added bonus for fans of the show?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook testing new feature that will let you send photos as real postcards, Facebook announces dedicated email address to report phishing scams,
Aug 10
This week the FTC has settled its privacy complaint with Facebook with an agreement that the social network will obtain “express consent” before they share any information of said users outside its pre-written privacy settings. The agreement makes it so that Facebook must provide users with “clear and prominent notice” any time user information is shared. It also makes Facebook keep a “comprehensive privacy program” maintained and subject to biennial privacy audits.
This settlement is the end of a process which started in November of 2011, today’s date being the final announcement and cut-off time for Facebook to comply with said orders. Each violation of these orders will result in a penalty from the FTC for up to $16,000 apiece. The investigation itself began back in 2009 when initial complains from privacy watchdogs suggested private information was being shared by Facebook from users who had opted out of such activities.
This settlement comes just one day after the FTC’s settlement with Google which resulted in a $22.5 million dollar fine. That fine was the largest ever levied by the company for a violation of their orders. The agency’s commissioners issued a joint statement today which read in part as follows.
“We intend to monitor closely Facebook’s compliance with the order, and will not hesitate to seek civil penalties for any violations.
… A statement from Facebook about an app’s conduct may well amount to a promise that Facebook is taking steps to assure the level of privacy or security that the app provides for consumers’ information.” – FTC
Have a peek at the timeline below to see other FTC activities as of late to see how they’re taking care of business across the web in the USA here in the summer of 2012.
FTC Facebook verdict: “express consent” required is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.