Jul 02
The Lego Discovery Center in Westchester County, New York, has unveiled a new masterpiece: a 110-pound, 4,873 brick, 12-foot-tall model of One World Trade Center. It’s spectacular.
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Jul 02
If you thought Marissa Mayer was done snatching up companies and was ready to turn her focus internally, you were wrong. Clearly the CEO sees no reason why the company can’t handle both simultaneously. So, while the forgotten brands are shuttered and the merely struggling ones given fresh coats of paint, new products are joining the Yahoo family. The latest addition is bouncing baby iOS app called Qwiki: a standout from TechCrunch Disrupt 2010, at which Mayer was a judge. The startup combines Vine-like social video sharing with Zoe-esque filters, photo transitions and soundtracks to create “stories.” After you’ve collected and edit your material, you can post your Qwiki (apparently the creators have a slightly sophomoric sense of humor) for others to see. Obviously the purchase is meant to keep Yahoo competitive with Facebook and Twitter, which have their own respective video sharing platforms. If you mosey on past the break you’ll find a pleasant little celebratory video from the latest startup to sell out.
Update: Unfortunately it appears that Qwiki’s servers are a little overwhelmed right now. We’ll add the video back when the service comes back online.
Update 2: And, the story of Qwiki and Yahoo is back online for your viewing pleasure.
Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Software, Mobile
Source: Yahoo
Jul 02
In times of great emergency, a flashlight is definitely one of the essentials to have, aside from food and water. When the electricity is out and it’s night time, you might have to stay in place and wait for the sun to rise if you don’t have a torch with you. Of course, you might have one but not the right batteries to power it up, but you have the Any Battery Light to depend on in that scenario.
But what if you don’t have any good batteries at all? What then?
15-year-old Ann Makosinski probably considered that situation well and hard, and it led her to create a flashlight that only needs some body heat to function; specifically, heat from your hands. The device was made using Peltier tiles, which can create energy when one side of it is heated while the other is kept cool.
Ann put it together with a store-bought circuit, which provided enough voltage, and voila! That’s how the Hollow Flashlight came to be.
In this case, your hand provides the heat while the air inside the flashlight acts as the cooling agent. The entire thing only cost Ann $26(USD) to make!
Because of her Hollow Flashlight design, Ann is one of the finalists for Google’s global science fair.
[via ExtremeTech via Dvice]
Jul 02
A front view of the switchable telescopic contact lens.
(Credit: Optics Express)
Many superheroes come equipped with special seeing abilities, like X-ray vision or night vision. Superman even sports telescopic vision, the ability to see over long distances. Researchers are working on a contact lens that bestows telescopic vision, though it won’t let you spy on faraway planets.
The lens experiment came about through DARPA-funded research into vision enhancement devices for soldiers. What the researchers developed could become a solution for people suffering from age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness for older adults. The goal is to improve vision with an unobtrusive device.
The contact lens can be switched between normal and telescopic vision. The researchers from the University of California San Diego, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, and the Pacific Science & Engineering Group published their work under the title Switchable telescopic contact lens in the Optics Express journal.
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Jul 02
Want some bling with your burgers? You’ll be lovin’ it more than usual on July 6th, 13th and 20th when McDonald’s Japan rolls out three very special Quarter Pounders but you’d better act fast: each “Quarter Pounder Jewelry” sandwich will be sold for one day only.
Jul 02
Jul 02
In late February the FTC and HTC came to a tentative settlement over the manufacturer’s poorly secured software, which included HTC Loggers. The commission voted three to none, with one commissioner recused, to require the company to patch the vulnerabilities and develop a security program that would undergo an independent assessment every other year for the next two decades. The American arm of HTC will also be watched closely regarding its security and consumer privacy claims. Any statements that are found to be false or misleading could lead to fines of up to $16,000 per violation. With the public comment period closed, the FTC has cleared the last hurdle to enforcing the settlement. Let’s just hope others are taking heed, last thing we need is second round of electronic privacy scandals. Oh, wait…
Jul 02
If you see a webpage with “.NYC” at the end of it in the future, you’ll know good and well that the city itself approved. That is to say that New York City will indeed, once the domain name launches, be the first geographically-based group to have their own top-level address. And it’s not just limited to government sites, mind you.
The city of New York has made clear their intent to open the address to businesses, organizations, and residents, with registration beginning in late 2013. At the moment it’s not clear what prerequisites will need to be met before a “JoeSchmo.NYC” address will be handed out, but when we know, you’ll know.
• NYC PRIDE – Proclaim to the world that you are a proud New Yorker or NYC-based business / organization.
• GET FOUND IN NYC – Finding a search result that is located in NYC can be challenging. Search engines often generate millions of results. Make your NYC business, organization or content easier for users to find.
• SHOW YOUR NYC CREATIVITY – NYC is home to some of the world’s most creative people, museums, music, dance, entertainment, media and all of the arts. Use your .nyc address to express and share your creativity.
In the end it will be registrars who continue to hold sway over the domain name, with the city making clear this week that NYC “expects multiple Registrars to participate and for pricing to be competitive with the market prices for other top-level domains.
It should also be known that Neustar, Inc. currently operates the registry for groups like the Department of Commerce with .US as well as .BIZ working under a contract with ICANN and that New York City has chosen Neustar to provide services to .NYC. This set of services will include registry services and support for the public – soon!
New York City set for first geographic domain name in the USA is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 02
Blockbuster or bust?
(Credit: Team Coco/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
The lovely thing about Google is its certainty.
At least, I think I’m sure about that.
Google’s algorithms exist to take the weight from our minds and direct us to where we should be going and what we should be doing. It’s a wonderful relief.
Recently, Google declared it could out-Kreskin the critics and the Hollywood marketing men, by predicting, with 94 percent accuracy, which movies would succeed.
It was easy, Google huffed haughtily. All it had to do was look at search patterns.
Conan O’Brien and his team are a touch skeptical of this claim. So they created what they regard as a truer picture of Google’s crystal movie ball.
“Are any stars trekked, warred, or danced with?” says a genial quasi-Googlie, attempting to explain some of the criteria the company’s algorithm uses.
More Technically Incorrect
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Jul 02
Tesla White House petition to allow direct sales passes signature threshold
Posted in: Today's ChiliTesla Motors has been in a constant battle with state governments over whether or not the car company can sell its vehicles directly to customers rather than going through a middle man (a.k.a. car dealerships). However, a White House petition recently surpassed the required 100,000 signatures, and it asks the US government to allow Tesla direct sales in all 50 US states.
Since it passed 100,000 signatures, it now moves into the hands of the Obama administration and requires a response. The petition stated that “states should not be allowed to prevent Tesla Motors from selling cars directly to customers. The state legislators are trying to unfairly protect automobile dealers in their states from competition. Tesla is providing competition, which is good for consumers.”
Several states have already issued bans on Tesla Motors from selling their cars within state borders, including Texas, Virginia, and Massachusetts, with other states trying to sneak in similar legislation – the most recent state being New York. Tesla as a company has been fighting with legislators to reserve the bills, but Tesla Motors fans have begun joining in.
The White House petition was started around a month ago, and it reached the required number of signatures today, just a couple days shy of the deadline. The best part is, all the signatures came from the community, so we’re sure that Tesla is more than grateful for the help. Frankly, we’re surprised at how quickly the petition gained the last 25,000 signatures, seeing as how the petition reached 75,000 signatures just yesterday.
The next step is to wait for an official response from the Obama administration. It’s not guaranteed that President Obama will be writing the decision himself, but as the petition website notes, we’ll most likely hear a response from other administration officials instead. Hopefully, they lean our way in their decision, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Tesla White House petition to allow direct sales passes signature threshold is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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