Odds are good that if you live in the area, you’ve walked by the the closed Williamsburg Savings Bank and wondered what’s inside. Located just over the Williamsburg Bridge, at 175 Broadway, in Brooklyn, New York, the domed building hails from a time when banks were grand, church-like spaces. And now, after years of deterioration, the space is finally being restored—as a social hub intended for the burgeoning community that is Williamsburg.
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Every week, a new and interesting human being tackles our decidedly geeky take on the Proustian Q&A. This is the Engadget Questionnaire.
In this week’s installment of our regular smattering of questions, tech writer Seth Porges chats up the strut-inducing Walkman and how Kickstarter is ripe for industry idea-picking. As always, the full gamut of answers lies just past the break.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Distro Issue 109
Valve revealed Steam Controller today, a controller for its living room PC-based game console initiative. It’s the third announcement this week from Valve, following reveals of SteamOS and Steam Machines on Monday and Wednesday (respectively). The controller is shaped like a standard game console controller, but in place of thumbsticks there are two clickable trackpads. Valve’s saying that the dual trackpads provide resolution that “approaches that of a desktop mouse,” making previously PC-only games playable on a couch.
In the middle of the controller is a “high-resolution” touch screen (also clickable) that enables both control and navigation. “Players can swipe through pages of actions in games where that’s appropriate. When programmed by game developers using our API, the touch screen can work as a scrolling menu, a radial dial, provide secondary info like a map or use other custom input modes we haven’t thought of yet,” the controller’s announcement page says. There are also haptic sensors all over the controller, which offer “super-precise” haptic feedback to players — they’re in both trackpads on the front, as well as in the shoulder buttons and around the rear grips. Valve says that these sensors not only relay physical information to players, but also “play audio waveforms and function as speakers.”
Like any gamepad, the Steam Controller has a handful of buttons as well: 16 in total, according to Valve. Two are around back, while the majority are found out front — one sits in each corner of the middle touchscreen, and three sit below that screen. Game devs should have no issue getting their games working with the controller, according to Valve, as the API will become available for free for devs at the same time that the Steam Machines beta goes live “later this year.” Additionally, gamers interested in beta testing Valve’s controller can sign up the same way you signed up for the console beta: a quest is now available in your Steam account.%Gallery-slideshow99391%
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, HD
Source: Valve
Particle accelerators range in size from massive to compact, but researchers from Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created one that’s downright miniscule. What you see above is a specially patterned glass chip that’s smaller than a grain of rice, but unlike a broken Coke bottle, it’s capable of accelerating electrons at a rate that’s roughly 10 times greater than the SLAC linear accelerator. Taken to its full potential, researchers envision the ability to match the accelerating power of the 2-mile long SLAC linear accelerator with a system that spans just 100 feet.
For a rough understanding of how this chip works, imagine electrons that are brought up to near-light speed and then concentrated into a tiny channel within the glass chip that measures just a half-micron tall. From there, infrared laser light interacts with patterned, nanoscale ridges within the channel to create an electrical field that boosts the energy of the electrons.
In the initial demonstration, researchers were able to create an energy increase of 300 million electronvolts per meter, but their ultimate goal is to more than triple that. Curiously enough, these numbers aren’t even that crazy. For example, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin were able to accelerate electrons to 2 billion electronvolts over an inch with a technique known as laser-plasma acceleration, which involves firing a laser into a puff of gas. Even if Stanford’s chip-based approach doesn’t carry the same shock and awe, it seems the researchers are banking on its ability to scale over greater distances. Now if we can just talk them into strapping those lasers onto a few sharks, we’ll really be in business.
Filed under: Science
Microsoft recently had an internal employee only meeting and a lot of interesting information has already trickled out. It is said that Microsoft has developed a new Office Reader app that has support for various file formats. The app was reportedly demoed at the internal meeting, it is said to be a Windows 8 style app that has support for Office documents, web pages, ebooks, textbooks and PDFs.
Office Reader is said to do more than just open various file formats, it will reportedly let users interact with files as well. Apparently during the demo, it was shown that a Surface Pro stylus can be used with a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet to mark selections and even make notes in the Office Reader app. Notes are said to appear in a sidebar. Bing integration has been rumored as well, selecting text within a document will apparently invoke a Bing search, the results will then be displayed in a sidebar. Interaction with different parts of a textbook such as content or tables is also said to be possible. Office Reader app is said to be a part of the “Gemini” wave of Microsoft Office improvements which are expected to be released next year and beyond.
‘Office Reader’ App Reportedly Demoed By Microsoft original content from Ubergizmo. 
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With the likes of Google’s Chromecast selling of shelves for lack of a reason not to drop a few bucks on the concept, iterations of the idea like Mozilla’s upcoming second-screen support for Firefox are popping up left and right. What we’re seeing here is a very small and early version of what may be […]
Earlier today BlackBerry announced an operating loss of nearly $1 billion and revealed that it only managed to sell 3.7 million devices during the second fiscal quarter. Majority of those devices were ones running legacy OS, not BlackBerry 10, which was released earlier this year and was supposed to save the company. Its no secret that there aren’t a lot of quality apps for BB10, apps like you would find on iOS or Android. However, despite all the negative press BlackBerry has been pulling in recently, app developers are reportedly not going to jump ship any time soon.
Digitimes reports that majority of the app developers that participated in BlackBerry Jam Asia 2013 indicate that they won’t be giving up on the platform. The primary reason for this is the fact that Apple places strict restrictions on developers while Google Play Store is riddled with low quality apps. Given the relatively less number of apps on BlackBerry, developers might find it easy to break through as compared to the App Store. Nevertheless, there will be a need for BlackBerry devices on which these apps can run. The company has already said that it will tone down its product roadmap from six to four devices, and recently it has been rumored that its manufacturing partner might cut it loose.
App Developers Reportedly Not Jumping BlackBerry 10 Ship original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Microsoft is offering "at least $200" in gift card money for your gently used iPhone 4S or 5. The offer starts today and runs until November 3rd, and mirrors a similar iPad offer that began earlier this month. [Microsoft Store via Verge]
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Despite the fact that Verizon is the only major carrier in the U.S. which is offering HTC One with Android 4.2 update pre-installed, that fact won’t mean much to customers who’re keen on running a custom ROM on their device. The reason why users decide to opt for a custom ROM is that they get to use a lot of features that are otherwise not present on a developer modified Android OS, they also get various improvements and enhancements. Verizon HTC One owners can rejoice now as the CyanogenMod 10.2 nightly builds are now rolling out for their device.
The folks over at Cyanogen are behind some of the world’s most widely used custom ROMs for Android devices. Their ROMs offer a ton of features which aren’t found on devices running developer firmware, or even stock Android OS. It goes without saying that nightly builds are not going to be good daily drivers. Expect to find bugs and problems. Those who want none of that should wait until a stable release is rolled out for the Verizon HTC One. To install a custom ROM, the device’s bootloader must be unlocked, which will void the warranty. Installing custom ROMs might be tricky for novice users, so be sure that you know what you’re doing before tinkering around at that level.
CyanogenMod 10.2 Verizon HTC One Nightly Builds Available Now original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Consider this the somewhat end of China’s 13-year old (loosely enforced) “ban” on videogames. A new policy issued by the country’s State Council amends the language of a prior bill from 2000 which “strictly limited” the manufacture and import of game consoles. Now, foreign companies that register within Shanghai’s free trade zone, the country’s first such pilot program designed to spur private investment, competition and economic growth, are free to sell gaming consoles and arcade machines throughout China. Restrictions on “unhealthy” content still remain, however, with only games whitelisted by the Ministry of Culture allowed for sale. But despite this official reversal, Chinese gamers have long enjoyed access to popular videogames and consoles, anyway. Systems from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, as well as knock-offs, have all been easily accessible on the black market. That’s not to mention Nintendo’s China-only iQue — a “safe” mini-N64 created with the country’s cultural guidelines in mind — which has been on sale through official market channels for some time.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Chinese Government (Translated)
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