Hasta La Gadget!

Babies. What’s not to love? They coo, they cry, and while they might throw the occasional tantrum or pee all over you without warning, the smile that they’ll give you at the end of the day makes everything worth it.

Babies are a lot of work, and I’m not talking about the part where you make them. So when they’re resting, it’s understandable that this is when the parents come out to play – only not in the way you’d think they would.

You might have different ideas when I say play, but when it comes to photographer and artist Adele Enersen, ‘play’ means having fun with her kid Vincent by doodling all over his photos. Now it’s time for mom to have some fun at her son’s expense, and the results couldn’t be cuter.

Isn’t this one of the best parent projects you’ve seen or what?

[via Incredible Things]

Manual locks and dumb thermostats are old technology in our internet-connected world. With a Wi-Fi connection and an hour of free time, you can put home security and climate controls online—and give your home a brain. More »

With the Leveson Inquiry into the ethics of the British media set to release its report this Thursday, all eyes are on what the report will say and how the government of David Cameron will respond.

The inquiry, which was set up in the wake of the phone hacking crisis, has been holding hearings and investigating the press since November of 2011. With his report, Leveson will insert his voice into an ongoing, heated debate over the future of the British media.

The main argument concerns whether or not to introduce some kind of legislation regulating the body that oversees the press. The current Press Complaints Commission, which newspapers join voluntarily, has been widely judged a failure after its slow response to the phone hacking crisis. Some, such as the group Hacked Off and the opposition Labour party, have called for new laws to back a new press body. Proponents of a statutory response say it is the only way to ensure that all publications comply with tougher rules, and dismiss concerns that any government involvement could chill free speech.

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WASHINGTON — Following a decade of war in Afghanistan, the United States is negotiating a deal with the government of that country to maintain a 10,000-troop presence following the formal end of combat in 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. While the purpose of the lingering footprint is to protect security gains and continue the training of Afghan forces, the long-term agreement also marks a moment for reflection on what America has actually accomplished in its longest military campaign.

In answering that question, ABC’s Jake Tapper has written a new book, which uses the story of Combat Outpost Keating to illuminate the ambitions, failures and, perhaps, underlying futility of the Afghan enterprise.

The Outpost is a heartbreaking chronicle of the rotation of soldiers asked to oversee an underfunded, often thankless mission. The goal was to expand the U.S. Army’s reach into the remote northeastern Nuristan Province, where insurgents were streaming in from the Pakistan border. But even at the onset, it was clear to those involved that the outpost was one step short of a death trap, situated at the bottom of a valley with difficult access by air and road.

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More on Afghanistan

For all of Ford’s emphasis on Sync, it’s hard to deny that Fiesta drivers usually sit on the bottom rung of the automaker’s technology ladder when they’re denied MyFord Touch and the related perks of larger vehicles. Pick up the keys to a higher-spec 2014 Fiesta, however, and you’ll be in for a treat. The compact will stuff a 6.5-inch touchscreen and MyFord Touch into the center stack, with a few software upgrades over what we’ve already seen in cars like the Focus and Fusion. The highlight is undoubtedly the more direct voice command system — the Nuance-driven recognition no longer demands that we specify music categories or radio formats to start playing tunes. Bluetooth smartphone pairing and navigation by address should be streamlined at the same time. Motorists will have to wait until 2013 to reap the rewards, but it could be worth the wait to drive away with Ford’s better electronics in an affordable ride.

Continue reading 2014 Ford Fiesta gets MyFord Touch, smarter Sync voice commands

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Source: TechCrunch