Hasta La Gadget!

The Raspberry Pi microcomputer prides itself on being affordable, with its tiny $35 price-tag for the original Model B Pi. But now its lowest cost board — the $25 Model A — has gone on sale in the U.S. The Raspberry Pi Foundation confirmed to TechCrunch that Model A can now be purchased in the U.S. via reseller Allied Electronics (which currently appears to have 70 units in stock).

What does $25 buy you? Enough processing power to use it to run a home media centre if you so desire, according to the Foundation. But the Model A was conceived with lower power consumption projects in mind, perhaps battery or solar powered, as Model A consumes around a third less power than Model B. It also has half the RAM of the second revision Model B, plus only one USB port and no Ethernet connection — to keep costs down.

Model A sales kicked off in Europe in early February, with Asia coming on stream last week. Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi founder, said today that sales of the Model A Pi have been amounting to “a few thousand a week” thus far.

“We burned through the first 20,000 units quite quickly, and are building a few thousand a week at the moment, but we don’t have good visibility of sell through yet,” he told TechCrunch when asked about early sales data, adding: “I’d expect us to dip in and out of availability for the next month or so until we reach a steady state.”

The Foundation passed  one million Model B sales in January, less than a year after it launched the Pi in March 2012. The microcomputer was conceived as a tool to get kids learning to code – but has also proved popular with the maker community to power all manner of DIY gizmos and gadgets.

Wondering who has won a Google Glass? Stanford PhD student Andrej Karpathy has used Twitter’s API to compile a partial list of the so far close to 4,000 winners of Google’s Glass Explorers first adopter competition who applied to buy the high tech specs via Twitter. Google still hasn’t confirmed that the last Glass winners have been named yet so there may yet be a few more invites to go out. Update: Karpathy’s list has now been updated to 4238 people, so Glass invites are still going out today.

Big G has been busy this past week sending out notifications to winners of its #ifihadglass purchase campaign (and even rescinding a few that failed to live up to its T&Cs). Winners don’t actually win a free pair of Glass. Rather they get a VIP pass to spend $1,500 to be among the first group of folks to own a pair of the Glass Explorer Edition of Google’s high tech specs. So it’s a high stakes, high visibility marketing competition as Google seeks to both evangelise, humanise and normalise a technology that’s new, different and impossible to ignore — being as it sits right on the face.

Successful applicants on the Twitter list (whose Twitter descriptions are shown above in Word Cloud form) include famous names such as former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who pledged “#ifihadglass i would take it on tours of zoos and museums to share the animals and fossils”, and — at the polar opposite end of the celebrity spectrum — electronica singer songwriter Imogen Heap who wants to ”hook them up w/my gloves to help me navigate music making in 3D”.

As you’d expect, the list of winners is heavy on performers and extroverts promising to livestream their gig/music/show/art/sports activity/skydive. There are also a fair few marketing types — pledging to do stuff like “learn & write how it will change marketing & brands”. But — more interesting than either of these categories — are the developers with app ideas for Glass. Earlier this month Google demoed some of its own Glass apps such as Gmail, and also showed a few third party apps from the likes of the New York Times, Evernote and Path. But Glass will fly or die based on cool new apps that likely don’t exist on other platforms yet.

I’ve collated a list (see below) of some of the app ideas that Glass winners are pledging to create — and, beyond the obvious use-cases of recording and streaming a first person perspective, themes for potential Glass apps are already emerging. Education, healthcare, accessibility and safety application ideas are plentiful among this wave of Glass early adopters (albeit, these developers likely haven’t had a chance to properly live with Glass yet).

It looks likely that Glass will be the tech arena where augmented reality can seriously take off — thanks to both the natural visual overlay and the hands-free nature of the device. On smartphones and tablets AR remains something of a gimmick, since the user has to hold the device up to create a field-of-vision overlay — limiting how they can interact with it and how long they can use it for. Neither are problems for Glass.

I would create information retrieval apps that work with the Glass #ifihadglass – like repair information, etc. [link]

we build an entirely new shopping app leveraging the power of glass+android. [link]

I’d make a http://t.co/WWcsHNbZcD app so that little “icons of trust” hover over user heads. I’d know who to trust, instantly/ [link]

I’d build an application for travelers to keep in touch with their loved ones. Show beauty is in the eye of the Glass holder. [link]

I’d develop a micro-expression detector that would enable appropriate responses to the sometimes subtle reactions in others.  [link]

I would develop innovative apps for publications [link]

I’d create an app that had real-time information about cabs when you looked at their taxi number using AR #ifihadglass [link]

Being partially blind, #ifihadglass I’d use it to augment my lack of peripheral vision, use presence apps to avoid bumping into others, etc.[link]

I’d help develop new applications for its use in health & medicine & inspire others to as well http://t.co/JKNXWI4Dyk [link]

I’d write apps for smartwatches that display tokens for the Glass to pick up and display expanded information @projectglass [link]

I’d make mashups with @LeapMotionDev for augmented reality apps like these http://t.co/JZlTdeD0rc and evangelize to devs [link]

I would develop a driving safety app to help decrease driver distraction, detect drowsiness, and display upcoming road concerns [link]

I’d create a ski app to show you speed, distance, calories. Take action pics in series. Add sensors to jacket for more safety. [link]

i’d create a skill/barter app where people could indicate skills/goods they have/need for trade. Haves/needs appear overhead.[link]

I’d create the ultimate nerd app — crosshairs. [link]

I create an app to show people how much carbon energy they were using. [link]

develop apps that can be useful for parents and children like medical [link]

I’d make an app that converts the sheet music you see into a MIDI file. =D [link]

I’d explore applications for education [link]

I would build apps for people who shop. [link]

I would create an input and recall application for just.me – an app that enables us to capture, share and remember our life. [link]

I would build an app to display key running and heart rate data to me while I run and bike/ [link]

I’d create an app called momento that allowed me to remember where things are by using playback. [link]

I would build applications for dentists, doctors, and manufacturers to empower the industrial AR dream. [link]

I would build a dating app (that would inevitably be deemed creepy). [link]

i’d create an app to help ppl with their dieting/eating habits by showing you nutrition info for things you eat. (hook me up) [link]

I will create a face recognition app to remind me the name of the people I meet and count how much time I spend with them. [link]

I would explore and write about the possible retail applications… i.e., shop my glass off [link]

I would develop a location and image recognition based augmented reality app for blind or visually impaired people. [link]

I would build a persistent knowledge AI: build an application to automatically bring search results apropos of conversation [link]

I would develop some kind of app to help children develop art skills. [link]

I would immediately start on my commute/family trip tracking assistance app, and wear glass daily on… http://t.co/T7dneqFsfN [link]

To prevent and reduce obesity, with an app that records physical activity and food intake to provide nutritional guide #ifihadglass [link]

Check out Tour, a concept guided tour app for Google Glass #ifihadglass . Making the invisible visible http://t.co/GZsFZrvVi1 [link]

I would write an app to identify lawmakers on the fly. A covert visual shazam. [link]

I’d write an app to make it easier to read nutrition facts on processed food [link]

We would use our AR to make the best ever #travel app with information about monument/landscape and boards translation overlay #ifihadglass[link]

I want to make an app that helps deaf people “see” what others are talking about. [link]

I would build a speedometer app to track my top and average speeds while luging, http://t.co/RnDFKyFw5w [link]

build an app that suggests people to meet based on who is nearby. [link]

I would write a running app that would show the @strava route names and course records of whatever streets I was running on[link]

I would use the heads-up/subject-overlay attributes to make better apps for healthcare professionals, researchers and students [link]

I would work to find applications for its use in hospitals and other healthcare settings. [link]

I would create GhostRunner. An application that enables me to run against my own best time. Visually. http://t.co/wF2loUrOqz [link]

I would create an app that uses facial recognition to reunite lost pets with their parents #ifihadglass http://t.co/zVaD80lWwv [link]

I would build an app capable of taking billboards, and replacing them with things you are trying to remember (or cat pictures).[link]

I would create an app to have the “Yellow Line” at football games in real life. http://t.co/REmY5GrX [link]

I would create a Marine Navigation application for both the casual cruiser and racing sailor #WindSpeed #BuoyLocations [link]

Customer service application that utilizes live video from callers to walk them through solutions #ifihadglass [link]

I’d build an app to identify fashion on the street and find a place to purchase it. #iloveyourdress #wheredidyougetit [link]

I’d write an app that records a minute buffer of video that will save to Google Drive on command. Document amazing things. [link]

I would make a doorbell app, so I could see who’s knocking and easily let them in. http://t.co/fL4gJ3w1DF [link]

#ifihadglass remind people of their appointments, would use Google maps to figure out when to send reminder, ie farther away, earlier ping [link]

Innovate: App 2 reduce gun violence! http://t.co/zCzxF5ESfv [link]

Hands-free teaching! No longer tethered to a laptop or Elmo, limitless creative & practical classrm applications! [link]

Hate it when your Dr. always looks down during your appointment? I’m going to change that with Glass. http://t.co/LnW8po2FfV #ifihadglass [link]

I would create an app to let general aviation pilots prep and fly their airplanes via checklists they can see in the glass. [link]

I’d build in voice-control for all of our features in our products so that customers could use our apps while on the treadmill. [link]

I will test my AR android app for climbing, suggesting improvements, and sharing this experience with the climbing community[link]

I would create an app that would make people, especially young women like myself, feel safe in their current surroundings. [link]

I will develop a driver-training app to detect improper driving behaviors and provide training feedback. [link]

I would develop an application to enable the communication with deaf people by showing a live transcription in Google Glass 1/2 [link]

develop an application for musicians, by entering into a database that would help tablature to play the instrument [link]

I would develop an app that could suggest desired recipes by simply looking into my fridge and scanning its food items [link]

i’d develop an app to help waiters keep track of tables, orders and customer preferences [link]

i would create an app measuring stress levels by the size of your pupils. Data could show stress visualised across the world [link]

I would create a gps app that gave historical information. [link]

I’d develop an app that would alert parents when their teenager isn’t paying attention to the road while driving. [link]

4 Architecture app Glasses could be conected with SketchUp so the clients could se the building proposals directlly on site. [link]

Develop app integrating BIM – construction workers build with greater speed and accuracy – designers visualize concepts in situ [link]

I’d create apps for retailers to survey merchandise, check stock and order replenishments automatically – by looking at shelves [link]

I’d build an app to help first responders get the information they need while keeping their eyes on the subject. [link]

Make an app or hardware mod that understands mood to change UX (based on pupil dilation) #ifihadglass [link]

I would construct a real-time medical history taking app that would record & upload doctor/patient interactions into an EMR! [link]

I’d make apps to control all my Internet of Things with #Android@Home.[link]

I would develop an application that makes home improvement projects easier by replacing measuring tapes and standard box levels [link]

I would develop location aware applications, like auto translate of detected text, information on objects seen etc. [link]

Program smart subtitles to reality. Hyperlink objects. Design apps for self-directed learning #edtech http://t.co/QGE49Q82uC [link]

I would design an app to notify the deaf when a loud noise identifies a hazard outside of their field of view [link]

Use it to create an app the rewards users when they throw their trash away, would take pics to validate it [link]

I would make an application that enables users to crowdsource live coverage of public events. #youtube2 [link]

Think about applications for use with kids and learning disabilities. [link]

I would make them Wi-Fi intuitive with app support so that you can use them to adjust settings on your DSLR or GoPro. [link]

I’d build tools to make quantifying the self across multiple domains easier, more transparent, and more effective than ever. [link]

I’d build info sharing tools for enriching IRL conversations. If I search for something, the friends with me should see result. [link]

When constructing computer circuits, most folks start with silicon and metal, but not the researchers at Stanford. The boffins in Palo Alto want to build computers out of living tissue, and to that end they’ve created a biological transistor, called the transcriptor. Transcriptors substitute DNA for semiconductors and RNA for the electrons in traditional transistors — essentially, the transcriptor controls the flow of a specific RNA protein along a DNA strand using tailored combinations of enzymes. Using these transcriptors, researchers built logic gates to derive true/false answers to biochemical questions posed within living cells. Using these bio-transistors, researchers gain access to data not previously available (like whether an individual cell has been exposed to certain external stimuli), in addition to allowing them to control basic functions like cellular reproduction.

This new breakthrough — when combined with the DNA-based data storage and a method to transmit DNA between cells the school’s already working on — means that Stanford has created all the necessary components of a biologic computer. Such computers would allow man to actually reprogram how living systems operate. Of course, they haven’t built a living genetic PC just yet, but to speed up its development, the team has contributed all the transcriptor-based logic gates to the public domain. Looking to build your own biologic computer? A full explanation of the transcriptor awaits below.

Filed under: Science

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Via: The Verge

Source: Stanford University, Science Magazine

You’d be forgiven if you weren’t entirely on the same page with Panasonic regarding its micro color splitter sensor: it’s a big break from the traditional Bayer filter approach on digital cameras, and the deluge of text doesn’t do much to simplify the concept. Much to our relief, DigInfo TV has grilled Panasonic in a video that provides a more easily digestible (if still deep) interpretation. As the technology’s creator says, it’s all about the math. To let in so much light through the splitters requires processing the light in four mixed colors, and that processing requires studying the light’s behavior in 3D. Panasonic’s new method (Babinet-BPM) makes that feasible by finishing tasks 325 times faster than usual, all while chewing up just a 16th of the memory. The company isn’t much closer to having production examples, but it’s clarifying that future development will be specialized — it wants to fine-tune the splitter behavior for everything from smartphone cameras through to security systems. Catch the full outline after the break.

Filed under: Cameras

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Via: GSM Arena

Source: DigInfo TV

Tom Izzo pitted against Mike Krzyzewski was sensational in the Sweet 16, but coach Rick Pitino’s Louisville program may be the most relevant in the country right now, after narrowly losing the national title last year.

Pitino has made six trips to the Final Four and a seventh would tie him for fourth all-time with North Carolina’s Roy Williams. Krzyzewski though, is gunning for his 12th, which would tie him with John Wooden for most all time. Don’t forget that the last time the two met one another, this happened.

In our other tilt, the combination of speed and athleticism between Florida and Michigan should be incredible. Both teams love to get up and down, and both teams also feature premier head coaches. It will be interesting to see how the Wolverines — fresh off a highly emotional come-from-behind victory over Kansas, will respond less than 48 hours after the fact.

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