Street View has been been given its biggest ever refresh, updating 250,000 miles of road and doubling the number of special collections so you can sneak inside famous locations around the world. More »
Japanese mega-operator NTT DoCoMo has just unveiled a interesting addition to its winter line-up: the Sharp Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E, which is the first production smartphone we’ve seen with an IGZO display. If you hadn’t heard, the indium gallium zinc oxide technology promises higher translucency compared to regular LCDs, which reduces the demand for backlighting and hence means less battery drain — and you can learn more from our hands-on at IFA. Fortunately, in addition to its new-fangled 4.9-inch 1,280 x 720 panel, the SH-02E boasts a healthy spec sheet in other departments too, including a 16-megapixel camera, 1.5GHz S4 Pro quad-core engine with Adreno 320 graphics, NFC and compatibility with NTT’s LTE network. The only slight downer is that it comes with Android 4.0 out of the box, but that’s hardly going to be an issue by the time a model with this type of display lands stateside — assuming it ever does.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
The first smartphone with a low-power IGZO display: the 4.9-inch Sharp Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Seriously, these days you just have to have a sidebar: Facebook has one, Spotify has one, hell, even Evernote has one. Now, Google is catching up, to make its mobile web page a little more sleek. More »
Google’s eponymous mapping system has received plenty of good press recently, but the company knows it can’t take some time out to enjoy its position. As such, Mountain View’s pushing out what it calls the biggest update to Street View it has ever undertaken, refreshing 250,000 miles of road imagery and doubling the amount of special collections. Some of the new attractions you can visit from the comfort of your home include Catherine Palace in Russia, Stanley Park in Vancouver and Singapore’s Fort Canning Park. We’re thinking we might have to use the system the next time we fancy a cultural visit — after all, we’d save a pile on airfare.
Google’s ‘biggest ever’ Street View update doubles special collections, refreshes 250,000 miles of roads originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Whether you’re currently keeping calm, or simply carrying on, we’ve got some good news for you steadfast Brits: Kickstarter makes its official launch in the UK on October 31st. Sure, its arrival was rather inevitable, but All Hallows’ Eve will mark the first time that inventors outside of the US can take part in the crowdfunding website. Kickstarter visitors will find UK projects listed alongside those in the US, and inventors who think they’ve stumbled upon the next great mousetrap may begin work on their listing today. Naturally, Insert Coin fans are bound to find some nifty projects work their way across the pond, but in the meantime, you can check out the commerce-related details at the source link below.
Filed under: Internet
Kickstarter brings crowdfunding to the UK on Halloween originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 03:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google has released a new version (3.2) of the Google+ app for Android and iOS. The primary change with the latest version of this app is support for Google+ pages. Now page owners can use their mobile devices to manage their pages, including making comments, creating posts, and interacting with other users.
In addition, the Android version of the app includes a new “Find People” tool, and an updated widget. The iPhone version of the Google+ 3.2 app includes the ability to edit posts, and support for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5. The tablet version of the app includes a new magazine-style layout.
The reception for this new version of the app is mixed. One common complaint that seems to be circulating through the early reviews of the apps is the unusual require of forcing a user to log out of their Google+ account and log back in under their Google+ page account in order to operate their page. So far, no official comments have been made on whether this is a temporary solution, or if there are any plans to better integrate pages into the app in the future.
What’s next? There’s been a lot of speculation that Google will be integrating their recently acquired Snapseed image app to the Google+ app. Snapseed is a competitor to the wildly popular Instagram photo app. You can download the latest Google+ app here from Play Store and iTunes.
[via Google+]
Google releases new Google+ app for Android and iOS is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
A recent study shows that mice have pretty sophisticated singing skills, including the ability to change tunes. While scientists have known that dolphins and various birds possess the same ability as humans to learn and change tunes. Previously, the vocal abilities in mice was believed to be innate.
Scientists believe that mice possess a rudimentary motor control center in their brain, which works in conjunction with the vocal cords to provide voluntary control over pitch and tune. Assuming this hypothesis is correct, the information could lead to more effective studies of speak disorders found in humans. Perhaps most surprising, this connection between the brain and vocal cords is not present in chimps and monkeys.
Mice have the ability to sing in different pitches. As with humans, some mice are tenors, while some have deeper basses. Using this knowledge, scientists placed mice in a cage with other mice who exhibit different pitch. After several weeks, the pitch of the mice had changed to better match the pitch of the other mice in the cage. For example, the tenors developed a deeper sound, while some of the bases had a slightly higher pitch.
Not all scientists agree with the results of the study, however. Some researchers claim that rather than learning new tunes, the observed effects were the result of pitch convergences. In order to gain a better understanding of what this study has shown, plans are under way to examine the brain connections in the mice, as well as the genes and what effects they may have on the vocalization.
Post picture from Ratatouille
[via Livescience]
Researchers discover mice have complex singing skills is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
One day after Firefox 16 was made available, Mozilla has had to pull the software over security fears. If you upgraded, you might want to roll back until it’s fixed. More »
Yep it is about time! JVC finally announced for the Japanese market its latest D-ILA 4K projector with the DLA-X95R, DLA-X75R and DLA-X55R! Introduced at CEDIA 2012 early September for the first time these projector comes with JVC e-Shift technology that upconverts and scales 2D HD content to a 4K signal (3840 x 2160) and displays it at full 4K precision. Anyway nothing new here and I will advise you to check the press release below to refresh your memory.
INDIANAPOLIS, September 6, 2012 – …
Many international universities are fostering students’ natural
curiosity and ingenuity to create new products to help their fellow
citizens. Such is the case at HCM City University of Transport where, as
the name implies, Vietnamese students focus on developing new,
efficient forms of transportation. Recently, they revealed prototypes of
the students’ solar-run scooter and a new battery-operated wheelchair
that can be produced at a much lower cost that those produced in western
countries.
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