Hasta La Gadget!

Justine Bateman on her first day of college at UCLA.

(Credit: Justine Bateman)

Lots of college freshman have started their university careers with the goal of learning coding and one day entering into the exciting world of technology. However, most of them aren’t 47-year-old actresses who starred on “Family Ties.”

Justine Bateman is a freshman at UCLA. She’s entered into a world of calculus, coding marathons, and late-night sessions all in the name of trying to advance Hollywood’s acceptance of new technologies.

Crave got in touch with Bateman, who is too busy with finals to answer questions about her college career at the moment. She’s logging some serious study time right now, but did mention referencing CNET in a team research paper on cyberwars for her engineering ethics class.

Documenting the college life Fortunately, Bateman has already given us a wealth of information on her College Life Tumblr. One of her most recent entries will sound familiar to anyone who has been through the college grind: “I’m fried. My brain has reached a burn-out stage. I better get a second wind so I can kick it on the finals. Crap.”

Justine Bateman's Battleship game code. (Click to enlarge.)

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Do you enjoy being able to open up your computer and other devices in order to get a peek around? Former Windows boss Steven Sinofsky thinks that you’re most likely one of the few, as he says that in order for computers to “reach the next billion” people, you “have to seal things up more,” referring to form factors of today’s devices.

Sinofksy talked a lot about how computers and devices are evolving, saying that the “tremendous amount of change” going on in the industry “is exciting and it means a lot of opportunity.” He notes that “the nature of the computer is undergoing a transformation,” mentioning that form factor is changing, as well as how computers connect.

Sinofsky also says that “computers are evolving to be a sealed-case kind of design,” compared to “something that people tinker with and expand over time.” A good example of this happening is how Apple seals up their iOS devices, prohibiting users from accessing the battery quickly, as opposed to most Android devices today.

Of course, some Android devices are moving in that direction as well, including a handful of HTC devices (like the new HTC One). OEM computers are also moving toward that direction as well. Apple has somewhat been locking up their desktops and laptops for a while, and just recently closed off access to the RAM slots in the new iMac. And as the transition toward tablets from PC becomes more imminent, most computers are going to be sealed off.

However, Sinofsky says that “it will take a long time for things to play out,” so there’s no need to pout right away. Desktop computers will most likely still be easily accessible by users, but many people have to wonder how long desktop computers will last in an age where tablets and laptops are quickly taking over.

SOURCE: AllThingsD

Former Windows head suggests users want “sealed case” computers is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Next month Google will be releasing two new “Google Edition” smartphones that carry their original brand names, the HTC One and the Samsung GALAXY S 4. As the draw to these devices here in 2013 is based at least in part to the hardware manufacturers’ own software editions and modifications, Google’s releases come with both positive and negative values to them compared to their carrier or “Developer” editions. As the HTC One with “Nexus user experience” is introduced this week, we’ve taken a look at what users will gain – and what they’ll lose.

Sense

The original HTC One works with HTC’s newest “Sense” user interface – this comes with features like BlinkFeed, a full-page news reader experience. The original HTC Sense camera user interface was (and is) also a large selling point for the HTC One, this including features like HTC Zoe, Highlights, and the “living gallery”. That includes the Sense picture gallery interface too, mind you.

Everything on a visual level added by HTC for the HTC One with Sense does not appear on the HTC One Google Edition. That’s not to say the device couldn’t be hacked and these things added back in, but that’d defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?

Camera

While you’ll not be getting the HTC Sense camera software experience here with the HTC One Google Edition, you’ll still be working with “UltraPixels”. As the “UltraPixel Sensor” is a hardware component, it’ll still be present here in the Google Edition of the device. You’ll still be picking up “UltraPixels” that are 2.0 micrometers large.

The Google Edition also includes the HTC ImageChip, the f/2.0 Aperture, and the same lens, as well as the Optical Image Stabilizer. The question remains whether the resulting photos – same size, though they may be – will be as high quality as the standard HTC One. Testing this will also be difficult due to the fact that there won’t be a control situation – adding the HTC Sense camera software to the Google Edition would simply turn it back into the standard edition of the phone.

HDR Video will not be included on the Google Edition, as that is another HTC Sense software element. At the moment it would seem that 1080p video support remains good to go.

Beats Audio and Boomsound

The hardware remains the same – you’ll still have two forward-facing speakers that’ll be just as loud as they were on any other edition of the device. The difference is in the software. HTC has confirmed that this effectively means that there wont be any Beats Audio indicator in your status bar, but that you’ll still be getting the benefits of Beats Audio on the hardware end.

IR-Blaster for Remote Control

While the built-in “TV” app will no longer be there as it is in the standard edition of the HTC One, the infrared hardware will still be built-in. This is a transmitter (and receiver) appearing under the power button of the HTC One. If you’ve got the right app, you can control your television, stereo, or whatever other odd devices you’ve got around that still work with infrared control technology.

The big difference here is that because Android has no native apps that utilize IR-Blasters, you’ll have to head to Google Play to download one. And there are plenty of them out there, that’s for certain.

UPDATE: We’re now hearing conflicting reports on how the IR-Blaster will be (or wont be) in play. As Android doesn’t have native apps – and no native support of – infrared technology, it would seem that users will have to retro-fit HTC’s drivers to make it all function – or whip up some of their own. That is, unless Android 4.3 adds this functionality, of course.

Hardware Buttons

The HTC One with Nexus experience will function the same as the original with its two button set-up below its display. This means that a short press of the Home button will bring a user Home, a long press will bring up Google Now, and a double-tap will show Recent Apps. The Back button still just goes back.

As a side note: as it is with all Android devices that continue to be released with hardware buttons, apps that have not updated to Google’s design specifications will continue to show the black bar. This is the same button bar that appears on devices like the Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus due to their lack of hardware buttons up front.

HTC One Google Edition: what you gain and what you lose is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The key to road safety may lie in self-driving cars. That’s the general conclusion of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recently released policy report which urges states to draw up legislation that encourages testing of automated autos. Currently, only three states (i.e., California, Nevada and Florida) have enacted laws that permit companies like Google to operate these vehicles on public roadways. But the NHTSA hopes that with more state-backed adoption, advances in vehicle-to-vehicle communication and automatic braking can more quickly be refined, thus paving the way for industry standards and eventual commercial deployment.

The agency, an arm of the US Department of Transportation, is also conducting its own research into V2V systems and driver guidelines for self-driving cars; the first phase of which is set to play out over a four-year period. For now, though, it still has a few additional hurdles to overcome, namely consumer perception (the NHTSA estimates self-driving cars could reduce crashes by 80 percent) and possible WiFi interference from the whitespace spectrum freed up by the FCC. Though the NHTSA’s sights are clearly set on an automated vehicle future, it’s yet to determine whether or not inclusion and use of that tech will be mandated.

Filed under: Transportation, Google

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Via: Bloomberg

Source: NHTSA

A recent Apple patent application hints at the possibility of Smart Stay like feature in future iOS devices.

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