Verizon green-lights HTC Thunderbolt’s Ice Cream Sandwich update

Verizon rubber stamps HTC Thunderbolt's Ice Cream Sandwich update

Sweet relief from Gingerbread is finally here for HTC Thunderbolt owners who haven’t jumped ship or upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich without Verizon’s blessing. Big Red’s finally approved Android 4.0.4 laced with Sense 3.6 for the device and is serving it up for download. In addition to souping up the hardware with increased stability and the features you’ve come to expect with ICS, the upgrade removes the Verizon, BlockBuster, Rhapsody, and Mobile IM apps from the smartphone. Ready to welcome your lightning rod for bad luck phone to 2011? Mosey over to your handset’s system update section to check for the fresh build.

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Via: Droid-Life

Source: Verizon (1, PDF), (2, PDF)

Plants Harvested For Electricity

Plants Harvested For ElectricityHmmm, what we are doing to plants at the moment could very well be what machines do to humanity in the future – that is, just as the Matrix trilogy depicts, use us as batteries. Well, a team of scientists have done some research into how plants work apart from the usual photosynthesis process, and managed to find a method that will allow us to harvest electricity that has been generated from plant roots.

Plants, as with any other living thing, is guaranteed to generate waste, but thankfully, plants deposit their into the soil as well as surrounding water where their roots have painstakingly searched out for throughout its growth. Bacteria which feed on such waste will leave spare electrons, hydrogen ions, and carbon dioxide behind, which is why Bert Hamelers and his team from Wageningen University in the Netherlands intends to make use such ions by sending them to a cathode, while the electrons remained behind, creating an electric potential difference – or in common parlance, voltage. Basically, a test system showed that it could generate 0.44W per square meter after being fitted with such plant-based fuel cells. Perhaps there are ways to increase the production of electricity by a massive amount sometime down the road?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: DC Fast Chargers To Triple In The US, Thanks To Nissan, Ford, Nissan, And Daimler To Work Of Fuel Cell Car,

Fujifilm Delivers Bendable, Foldable, Roll-up Speakers

Fujifilm Delivers Bendable, Foldable, Roll up SpeakersWe have seen our fair share of bendable and flexible displays in the past, but here is something that you might want to consider to accompany your Samsung flexible display in the future – the bendable and foldable speakers which can roll-up from Fujifilm. Makes you wonder just what the heck is a company like Fujifilm who is more often than not associated with digital imaging products such as digital cameras.

Well, Fujifilm’s attempt in working on film which can function as the diaphragm (in other words, a vibrating plate) of a speaker, where they unveiled it at the Nano Tech 2013 trade show which will conclude today in Tokyo, Japan. The diaphragm has been dubbed as the “Beat” by Fujifilm, making it possible to churn out a speaker which can be bent and folded. At the trade show, the slim and retractable speaker was displayed, in addition to a speaker that is easily mistaken for a Japanese fan at first glance. We do wonder whether such speakers are fragile or not, and just how much will they cost when they enter production?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Plantronics Blacktop 500 Commercial Driver Headset Is Perfect For The Road, ColorSonik Computer Speakers Adds Color To Sound,

Large Study Links Erectile Dysfunction To Heart Disease And Early Death

New marker for heart diseaseFrom Australian National University comes a longitudinal study of more
than 95,000 men that links erectile dysfunction (ED) with heart
disease.  Though previous studies have demonstrated the link between ED
and cardiovascular disease (CVD), this is the first study to show how
the severity of ED can indicate the extent of the risk – and that ED is
not just a risk factor for heart disease, but a risk marker.

Steven Robbins, Indiana Murderer, Mistakenly Freed In Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) — Police were hunting for a convicted murderer on Thursday after he was mistakenly released from custody in Chicago, where he was sent to face a drug charge while serving a 60-year prison sentence in Indiana.

Indiana Department of Corrections officials said Steven L. Robbins, 44, was sent to Cook County Circuit Court on Tuesday to face a drug charge. The charge was dropped, “but for reasons yet unknown, the offender was released by Illinois authorities without being held for return,” the department said in a news release.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said it was investigating how Robbins was released. The Gary, Ind., native was serving the decades-long sentence for murder and weapons convictions out of Marion County in Indiana. He started serving the sentence in October 2004 and his earliest projected release date was more than 16 years from now on June 29, 2029.

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my Xperia service slated for initial launch this week, promises to protect your phone

Sony has confirmed my Xperia, a service that promises to help locate lost handsets and protect the files contained on them via a couple different options. The security service – which will be launched in beta – will be rolled out in phases, starting with the Nordics. In the second quarter of the year, my Xperia will then be released for Sony smartphone owners globally.

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The service will work similar to third-party phone locating/wiping services that are available for smartphone owners. Users will be able to use it by turning on the service’s app on their phone, then signing in with their Google ID to the my Xperia website. From the account, a user can then see where their smartphone is on a map, such as at the gym where it was forgotten.

If the phone has been forgotten in a location where it isn’t at risk of theft, the user can send an alert to the phone via the service that will cause its display to turn on and it to make noise regardless of its volume status. Likewise, a message can be sent remotely to the phone that has information on how to contact the owner so that it can be returned.

Of course, sometimes you haven’t lost access to your phone because it was misplaced, but rather because someone swiped it while you weren’t paying attention. In this case, my Xperia can be used to wipe both the smartphone’s internal memory and its SD card if one is present, eliminating the risk of the data – whether it is unflattering pictures or sensitive business files – getting into the wrong hands.

Not everyone will be able to take part in the initial launch; those lucky few who can will find out via a notification. The service will first be available to those using handsets running Android Ice Cream Sandwich, with the Xperia Acro S being first in line. More devices will be added “over the coming weeks.”

[via Android Community]


my Xperia service slated for initial launch this week, promises to protect your phone is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google AdWords Helped Man Get Hooked Up

Google AdWords Helped Man Get Hooked Up Most companies who want a decent shot at Internet advertising would surely have considered Google AdWords at one point or another, and but a Japanese man decided to think out of the box, and come up with an ad on Google AdWords to look for a girlfriend. I am quite sure that many other single guys out there might actually kick themselves in the rear end for not giving this a go in the first place, especially after said Japanese man managed to bring his date (out of 5 positive responses) out for a meal.

In a nutshell, this man posted the ad a couple of months after he broke up with his previous love, where he used a “job position” style in writing his ad, which goes something like, “I’m looking for a girlfriend: Age and occupation are irrelevant. Nature of job position: love. No experience necessary.” At least 5 ladies responded, and he decided to play the gentleman and run a ’first come first served’ basis, meeting up with whom he claims is a cute lady who is a wee bit older than him. No idea on whether wedding bells are in the pipeline or not, but it sure as heck seemed to be a rather good investment for his $27 Google AdWords, considering how much dating agencies charge for an ad.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Chromebooks For Education Program Now In 2,000 Schools, Mega Search Engine Blocked,

What Fuels The Love For Guns In The U.S.?

There are nearly 300 million firearms in the US – which is almost as many guns as there are people. It is, in fact, the most heavily armed country per capita in the world.

But since 20 children were shot and killed in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, the call for tougher gun control laws has been louder than it has been for decades.

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Panasonic remembers how to make money, reports $667 million profit last quarter

Panasonic remembers how to make money, thanks to weaker yen and costcutting

Just as Sharp offered a slightly more hopeful glimpse at its balance sheet this morning, so too does Panasonic have something worth celebrating: a net profit of 61.4 billion yen ($667 million) in the last three months of 2012. Much of this profit stems from a weaker yen and previous cost-cutting exercises, however, rather than any surge in demand for Panny products — in fact, underlying sales continued to slip, with cameras, TVs and Blu-ray recorders proving especially hard to shift. Nevertheless, compared to the meager $164 million Panasonic made at the start of 2012, or the ego-crushing $2.1 billion net loss it suffered in the last three months of 2011, no one in that big HQ is likely to be complaining.

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Source: Yahoo (AP), Panasonic (PDF)

‘Do No Harm’ Premiere: Jason’s Alter Ego Comes Out To Play In This Modern-Day Jekyll And Hyde (VIDEO)

NBC premiered the latest television take on the classic tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this case it’s the strange case of Dr. Jason Cole and his alter ego, Ian. Steven Pasquale takes on the dual role of a renowned neurosurgeon by day and a crazed psychopath by night.

When the series picks up, Jason had managed to keep Ian subdued by knocking himself out for twelve hours every night. His alter ego normally takes over between 8:25 p.m. and 8:25 a.m. The problem is that Ian has built up an immunity to the serum, and so he starts breaking free.

Ian and Jason have no idea what the other gets up to during their time at the helm. Ian, though, has five years of resentment and anger toward Jason. His first move is to terrify the doctor that Jason is interested in. He’s been afraid to date because he’d been knocking himself out every night at 8:25 p.m. Now, he’s just not himself after that time.

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