Hasta La Gadget!

Google announced on Friday that it will be doing some “spring cleaning” of some of its services. The list includes AdSense for Feeds, Classic Plus, Spreadsheet Gadgets, Places for Android, and +1 Reports in Webmaster Tools. The company also plans to merge its Picasa photo service with Google Drive, which means you’ll have 5GB for both Picasa photos and Drive items.

Google has a ton of services, and while most of them are decent, there are always bound to be a few that don’t quite live up to the hype of their other services. Sadly that time has come for Google to clean up some of their in-house offerings. They’ve also consolidated some of their more-popular features like Picasa and Drive, both of which will be sharing storage of 5GB total.

A lot of the services that Google is shuttering aren’t too important, and I think the company knows that. Obviously, I’m sure some users (albeit few) will be frustrated that Google is shutting down services like the Places app for Android, but if the user base isn’t there, Google is bound to make some changes.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Google has shut down some of its services. In the past, it shuttered Wave, which was more missed than anyone would have thought. The company also gave the axe to its first attempt at a social network, Buzz, as well as other services like Knol, Health, and Google Desktop.

[via Engadget]

Google shutting down more services is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s time to get your MacBook Pro action on with a modified tablet design from Modbook Pro, announced today once again in a 13.3-inch iteration for release on October 3rd. The folks at Modbook have a strange situation on their hands, one where they’re somehow or another able to side-step the lock-out that exists around Apple’s OS X and create tablet computers that are, essentially, MacBook Pro units without the keyboard and a touchscreen up front. Today’s announcement also adds an SSD to the mix for you hardcore solid-state lovers.

This device will be appearing as a 13.3-inch Mac-based pen tablet computer. You’ve got a 64GB solid-state drive inside, upgrade possible to 480GB internal SSD storage, and a ship-date for online purchases of the device for as early as mid-November. This device combines the original hardware of an Apple MacBook Pro with OS X Mountain Lion with a digitizer from Wacom for 512 levels of pen pressure sensitivity. Also in the mix is a ForceGlass pen interface and the ability to work with Microsoft Windows 7 as well.

If you purchase the base configuration of this machine, you’ll be getting Modbook Inc’s own original 64GB Nishara-class SATA 3 SSD with NAND technology – and you’ve got the option to work with a bigger more powerful beast as well, of course, with up to 480GB of storage. With NAND technology you’ll have the best speed and performance available with flash-based storage, and you’ll have no moving parts – better for the long run.

Sales of this Modbook Pro will begin on Wednesday and will have customers living in the United States – or at least whose mailing addresses are in the USA – getting shipment in starting in November. The Modbook team lets everyone know the following about each Modbook purchase, and makes it clear that this is not an original product in and of itself, but a modification of a product originally manufactured by Apple.

The Modbook Pro is an enclosure conversion kit designed to exclusively contain an original MacBook Pro base system manufactured by Apple Inc. Apple Inc.’s one-year warranty on the base system is voided by the conversion and replaced with the Modbook Pro Protection Plan, which covers the entire hardware solution, including the base system.

Let us know if you’re into the idea of the Modbook Pro, or if you think people should just stick with the iPad and leave the real power to the notebook universe!

Modbook Pro OS X Mountain Lion tablet launches with SSD is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you ever went riding on a seesaw when you were a kid, you know how unrewarding the experience could be if the kid on the other side weighed decidedly more or less than you. But thanks to the laws of physics, one designer has come up with a solution to this problem.

Industrial designer Honghai Yu’s Balance seesaw offers an adjustable seating design which fixes the balance problem by allowing the lighter of the two children to pull their seat out, and moving one child further away from the pivot point. The result – a smooth ride on the teeter-totter for all. It’s not clear, though how significantly the riders’ weights could differ for this to work before the length of the seat extension became impractical. I’m sure some of the physics geeks out there could help calculate that for us.

It’s an ingeniously simple solution to an age-old playground problem. There’s no word on if or when the Balance seesaw will show up in parks, but it did take home a 2012 iF concept design award.

The Facebook environment on iOS for iPhone has been bumped upward once again with the Messenger app grabbing an update with a whole new user interface. If you’re the type of person who loves to message back and forth with friend via Facebook and have never tried the stand-alone app for iOS, now’s a better time than ever before! You’ll be getting favorites integration, better performance than with any version that’s come before, and the whole thing just looks a bit better – as it always does each time it’s updated.

This update brings both the iPhone and the iPod touch up to a new generation while the iPad will just have to wait a bit longer. On that note, you might also want to note that this version still does not include one of the only plusses that the Android version has over iOS: in-app SMS messaging integration from the rest of your phone. You’ve got a fully updated user interface here that does bring the app up to the already lovely looking Android version of the app, but SMS integration still does not exist.

It’s odd then that recent reports have Facebook developers being forced to use Android devices until their main Android app is up to snuff – or at least up to the quality that the iPhone version is. It would appear that the Messenger app does not live in the same universe. This version of the app is optimized for iOS 6 as well, and will be making full use of your iPhone 5 screen size.

The favorites list will more than likely be your most-loved feature here, with everyone’s massive cross-section of friends, colleagues, and business contacts quite often lending itself to a less than optimal friend-finding experience. Add your buddies to a smaller list and make the whole thing streamlined! This app is available for download or update in the iTunes app store right this minute – grab it now!

Facebook Messenger updated for iPhone 5 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In many ways, graphene is one of technology’s sickest jokes. The tantalizing promise of cheap to produce, efficient to run materials, that could turn the next page in gadget history has always remained frustratingly out of reach. Now, a new process for creating semiconductors grown on graphene could see the super material commercialized in the next five years. Developed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the patented process “bombs” graphene with gallium, which forms droplets, and naturally arranges itself to match graphene’s famous hexagonal pattern. Then, arsenic is added to the mix, which enters the droplets and crystallizes at the bottom, creating a stalk. After a few minutes of this process the droplets are raised by the desired height. The new process also does away with the need for a (relatively) thick substrate to grow the nanowire on, making it cheaper, more flexible and transparent. The inventors state that this could be used in flexible and efficient solar cells and light emitting diodes. We say forward the revolution.

Continue reading New process for nanotube semiconductors could be graphene’s ticket to primetime (video)

Filed under: Science, Alt

New process for nanotube semiconductors could be graphene’s ticket to primetime (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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