You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
@evleaks is at it again. This time the prolific leaker has blasted out two screen grabs of an app called Storyteller, which made a Live Tile-cameo in the alleged screencap of a Nokia Bandit, an oversized Windows Phone 8 device. The app appears to be a Windows 8 and WP photo album that lets users sift through images by timeline, favorites and shared, or browse them on a map. A close look at the top right of the application meant for larger devices reveals a “My tablet” menu, suggesting it boasts integration with slates. Given that @evleaks mentions Bandit, Espoo’s long-rumored Sirius pad and October 22nd event date, it’s a safe bet that we’ll see new hardware — and at least one new app — this fall.
Filed under: Software, Mobile, Nokia
Source: @evleaks
Apparently the size of the fish you fish matters if you’re fishing on a large scale. You may not have thought about this, but it makes sense given broad overfishing concerns plus our knowledge of selective breeding. As MinuteEarth explains, there are laws that establish a minimum size for catching fish so young fish have a better chance of growing up and reproducing. Which sounds like it makes sense. But an unintended consequence of these laws has been fisherpeople catching the largest fish they can, thus creating a situation where small fish reproduce disproportionately with other small fish. And the issue there is that small fish don’t produce as many eggs and don’t equip their eggs with as much built-in food for the development process. Add that to genetic predisposition to be small and you’ve got small fish producing less total offspring but more . . . small fish. You know what, it’s a whole big fish small fish thing, just watch the video.
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Ready, set, shut down! You might be surprised which one wins the race.
(Credit: Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)
Logic and Moore’s Law would seem to dictate that the newly released iPhone 5S should blow the original iPhone from seven years ago out of the water when it comes to which runs the fastest.
But as the video below illustrates with an eight-way speed test between all of the publicly released iPhone models since 2007, the truth is a little more nuanced.
Earlier-generation models, led by the iPhone 3GS and followed by the 3G, 3, and original iPhone turned out to be the quickest to shut down. As EverythingApplePro observes in the video, it seems that something in iOS 7 leads devices running it to take longer to shut down.
Related Links:
The iPhone 5S rumor roundup
Early iPhone 5S, 5C reviews arrive: Is plastic fantastic?
‘Yes to a bigger screen, but not too big’ and other great CNET comments this week
Moto X beats out iPhone 5S, 5C, and Galaxy S4 for durability
How to make your iPhone 5 more like an iPhone 5S
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That top image is pretty, but the only way to see this incredible combination of dust and gas is to take in the whole image below. Holy crap, right? This picture, which was created in 2005 using Hubble data and digitally assigned colors, shows the Eagle Nebula
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This article was written on August 31, 2007 by CyberNet.
According to a Reuters article published yesterday, Microsoft may be interested in purchasing BlackBerry maker RIM. While we know that Microsoft has an interest in the mobile market because of Windows Mobile, many people, including myself, never expected they’d immerse themselves this much into the Smartphone industry. While this rumor is purely speculative at this point, RIM shares actually went up as the rumor spread.
One analyst says that “the software giant might be interested in RIM in response to Google’s recent announcement that it is interested in making its own mobile phone operating system, which would compete with Windows Mobile.” While one of their primary reasons behind acquiring RIM may in fact be Google’s announcement, I could also see this as their response to Apple’s iPhone.
Should this rumor turn out to be true and Microsoft really ends up acquiring RIM, I’d hope that they’d be smart enough to keep Windows Mobile off of it, at least initially. BlackBerry users are pretty loyal and are used to their Smartphones as-is. If Microsoft went and abruptly placed Windows Mobile on the devices, I think we’d see a lot of BlackBerry users jump ship. It’ll definitely be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from this rumor.
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
Looking for something to put on your desk alongside your tiny Atari 2600 and NES? Why not print out a miniature Commodore 64 computer, complete with 1541 Floppy Drive so you can load some tiny programs onto it?
This miniature C64 model is yet another design from Dave Nunez – the guy behind the tiny 8-bit consoles, and I think he really nailed it yet again. This weensy version may not have every key on its keyboard, but it still captures the essential design attributes of the classic 8-bit computer. The two-inch-wide system includes joystick ports and function keys as well.
I like how he even made a tiny little box and styrofoam insert for the computer too. If you’d like to print out your own miniature Commodore 64, head on over to Thingiverse to download the model. Great job again, Dave! Now all you need to do is hook up with Ben Heck and convince him to stuff functional systems inside of your models.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research aka CERN reached the attention of the masses when they finished the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Physicists and other scientists all over the world have high hopes for the LHC, while the rest of us are thoroughly impressed with its name. Now you can be even more vaguely impressed with cutting edge technology, thanks to Google’s Street View tour of the CERN site.
The tour is the final product of a two-week shoot by Google’s crew back in 2011. They took images of 5 different areas of CERN’s facilities, including nearly 4,000ft of the LHC tunnel. Check all of them out on Google Maps. Be sure to nod approvingly as you gaze at the images. Doing that helped me resist passing out from sheer confusion.
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
For the past few years, the media has met iPhone introductions with skepticism that precedes great sales success. This has become such a cliché that the superstitious might worry what would happen should new iPhones be introduced to universal praise. But there was no cause for worry as far as the iPhone 5c and 5s were concerned. In the weekend following their initial availability, Apple reported that it sold 9 million iPhones, which set a new record for the company.
A few of the reasons behind this success likely had less to do with the strength of the product per se. The new iPhones were launched in 11 countries as opposed to nine in the previous launch. The fast-growing market of China was one of those. It was also the first launch to include Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. And back in the U.S. this marked the first time that new iPhones had been launched on all four major US carriers — a significant shift from the product’s first years as an AT&T exclusive. In fact, T-Mobile, the newest carrier to participate in an iPhone debut, has been particularly aggressive about promoting its Jump service that encourages upgrades, and its competitors have introduced their own upgrade-facilitation programs that grease the upgrade wheels for Apple and others.
Filed under: Cellphones
As a tech reporter a lot of gadgets pass through my hands, but I’m a lousy early adopter in my personal life. I think the reason is readily understandable: it’s money. I don’t like to spend a lot on gadgets when I can make smart decisions and then just enjoy what I’ve bought. And by using this approach I get an added bonus. When I do buy a new gadget it’s because my old device was really on its last legs. So I get the excitement of having the latest, newest thing, plus a legitimate quality of life improvement. On Thursday I got an iPhone 5S. Four days later I’m still blown away by it, but not because it’s good.
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