Hasta La Gadget!

The company formerly known as RIM is currently rolling out two devices running the new BlackBerry 10 OS, and apparently that’s not all it’s got in store for 2013. Know Your Mobile India reportedly heard from the Head of Developer Relations for Asia Pacific at BlackBerry, during the recent Z10 launch in India, that a “BB10 tablet is definitely coming later this year.” We already knew that BB10 was to be shoehorned onto the PlayBook, and the same exec confirmed that it’s still in the works, so your old slate won’t be left with outdated software when this new hardware arrives. We’ve reached out to BlackBerry for confirmation or comment, and will update you when we hear back.

Update: Well, that was quick! The exec mentioned above has told us he was misquoted, and that BlackBerry has no immediate plans for a new tablet, instead focusing fully on the Z10 and Q10 for now. Sorry, folks — no PlayBook 2 for you.

Filed under: Tablets, Blackberry

Comments

Via: Unwired View

Source: Know Your Mobile India

Ever wondered how it feels like to wear a robotic suit on your daily walkabout? Japan, a country where robots rule (all right, I am saying that with extreme liberty. Robots do not “rule” there per se, but rather, the proliferation of robots in everyday life as well as culture is extremely well known), might soon help fuel an explosion of “robo mania” of sorts, by approving a new robot exoskeleton suit for a global rollout sometime down the road.

What you see above is a robot suit that is known as the “Hybrid Assistive Limb”, or rather, HAL for short, which has been specially developed to help and assist both the elderly and disabled to get around, and the mission to spread the wonders of HAL around the world has been aided by the receipt of its global safety certificate in Japan yesterday, which means a worldwide rollout is on the cards.

The Hybrid Assistive Limb comes across as a power-assisted pair of legs that were developed by Japanese robot manufacturer Cyberdyne (good thing it is not a company known as Skynet!), and Cyberdyne has quite a proven track record for robotic assistance tools, where they have come up with somewhat similar robot arms in the past, too.

A quality assurance body in Japan issued the certificate that was based on a draft version of an international safety standard where personal robots are concerned, and a full certificate for the finished product is tipped to be approved later The HAL holds the honor of being the first nursing-care robot that was certified under the draft standard, according to a ministry official. HAL is powered by batteries, where it is capable of detecting muscle impulses in order to anticipate and support the user’s body movements.

You cannot buy one off the shelf just yet though, as it remains on lease (some 330 of them) across 150 hospitals, welfare and other facilities in Japan since 2010, where it costs $1,950 thereabouts to rent a suit for the entire year.

Source
[ Japan approves worldwide sale of robot exoskeletons copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Whether it was inspired by the recent Instagram craze or not, Vimeo’s new “Looks” have a pretty good chance of being welcomed with open arms (and eyes) by the video creators on its well-known platform. In partnership with Vivoom, the company announced today that it’s bringing over 500 visual effects to the service as part of its Enhancer toolbox, giving folks the ability to easily add some flavor to their own video productions straight from a web browser. Furthermore, Vimeo’s made it possible to preview these filters in real-time, as well as letting them be somewhat customizable by implementing various editing options, such as trimming and adjusting the intensity of each one. Vimeo also says the novel feature will be able to make recommendations based on “technical analysis of the user’s video and social data,” — in other words, the more you use it, the more likely it is to learn your very own visual preferences.

Thanks to Vivoom’s 16-year experience in the video effects field, Vimeo tells us it only expects the current Looks selection to grow and deliver more of the “highest quality effects,” adding that the main goal is for each and every user to “find what’s best for their personal needs.” Speaking of which, all Vimeo account holders can play with the new Looks at no cost for the next 90 days, although the company wasn’t quite clear as to what we can expect after that period comes to an end.

Update: Vimeo has reached out to let us know that following the 90-day trial, the Looks will cost 99 cents each.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Comments

Source: Vimeo

Apple’s iTunes U has seen over one billion downloads of free educational content, the company has announced today, with some schools seeing courses with quarter-million registrations and 60m individual downloads. Revealed a little over a year ago, iTunes U offers free educational material and related content from universities, colleges, schools, K-12 districts, and private courses to the iPad.

According to Apple, more than 1,200 universities and colleges are involved, along with 1,200 K-12 schools and districts, and over 2,500 public and private courses are sharing materials through iTunes U. Some of the courses have been incredibly popular: an Ohio State University general chemistry course saw over 100,000 enrolments, for instance, though the system has also allowed more esoteric courses to flourish.

More than 60-percent of the iTunes U app downloads are happening outside of the US, it’s revealed, and there are now over 75,000 educational apps in the App Store, and more than 10,000 Multi-Touch books created with iBooks Author. That free tool, revealed alongside iTunes U last year, allows for the simple creation of interactive textbooks and other content, though they can only be shared in their complete form through Apple’s own stores.

The push to provide more iTunes U content hasn’t been an entirely altruistic one for Apple, which has seen renewed interest in schools and colleges providing iPads for their students. Mansfield Independent School District in Texas, for instance, bought over 10,000 of the tablets, for high school students and faculty.

There’s more on iTunes U in our hands-on, and you can find a preview of the iPad content available here.

Apple’s iTunes U smashes one billion downloads milestone is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Robots aren’t only taking over our duties as factory workers and amusement park guides. They’re also slowly taking over our cool jobs too, like on the International Space Station, where Kibo will serve to entertain Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata with inspirational tweets from earth—and also look adorable floating around in zero gravity. More »