Hasta La Gadget!

When you throw Barnes & Noble and Microsoft in to the same room together, you end up with Nook Media LLC, a new entity. The result of a complete strategic partnership, this new subsidiary is said to assist companies in advancing world-class digital reading experiences to the masses. The partnership will require Microsoft to fork out $300 million in advance, where it will be parked under Nook Media LLC’s umbrella.

William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble, said, “As demand for digital content continues to increase, we are focused on bringing ground-breaking reading and learning content and technologies to more people in more formats than ever before, including the imminent launch of our exceptional NOOK reading application for Windows 8. We look forward to working closely with our new partner Microsoft to add value to their innovative new platform by bringing great reading experiences and one of the world’s preeminent digital bookstores to millions of Windows 8 users.”

There will not be any timetable for Barnes & Noble’s next move when it comes to the strategic options involving Nook Media LLC, but one thing is for sure – we do not know whether this might end up as a strategic separation, or might it even result as a stand-alone public company. Only time will tell. [Press Release]

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The other day we reported that according to the word on the street, Google was looking to acquire augmented reality/facial recognition company, Viewdle. Well as it turns out it’s true and Motorola has officially announced that the deal was successful and that Viewdle is now part of Google’s Motorola Unit. For those wondering how it ended up with Motorola, well it seems that Motorola was already in talks to acquire Viewdle before Google acquired them, and we guess the negotiations continued even after Google’s acquisition of Motorola. (more…)

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Throughout human history, many have tried to ‘create’ gold from other materials. We popularly know these people as alchemists, none of which succeeded of course. Thanks to the modern understanding of the chemical elements and the ability to use them effectively, gold can indeed be created (or rather extracted) in a lab from other elements. But the procedure is too expensive to be financially profitable.

Researchers at Michigan state university have now been able to use a bacteria to precisely this end. The bacteria in question, Cupriavidus metallidurans (discovered in 1976 in a metal processing factory ), turns gold chloride into pure 24-karat gold. However, the big question is how economically feasible this process is. (more…)

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The FTC today froze the assets of 14 companies involved in a long-term scam. These companies, usually based in India, cold-called up English-speaking consumers posing as a representative of a major tech company, such as Microsoft, Symantec (makers of Norton Antivirus), and Dell. Using the credibility that they stole posing as representatives of a tech company, they told the marks that their PCs (usually Windows) were infected with nasty malware. Regardless of whether the PC was actually infected or not, the scammers offered to clean the machines, but not for free. Usually the scammers asked for $50-$500 in exchange for “cleaning” the computer. (more…)

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Researchers at the University of Chicago announced today that they’ve discovered an identified a new dinosaur, Pegomastax africanus. It’s not as big as a Brachiosaurus or as ferocious as a Velociraptor, but it’s still plenty terrifying. According to 3D imaging done by researchers, the cat-sized dinosaur was covered in bizarre spines like a porcupine. Even scarier, the new species had sharp edged enlarged canines like “that of a vampire.” Also, those teeth sharpened themselves:

The tall teeth in its upper and lower jaws operated like self-sharpening scissors, with shearing wear facets that slid past one another when the jaws closed.

What’s incredibly cool is that 3D modeling techniques have progressed to the point where extremely lifelike models are easy for paleontologists to create. Aside from giving a visceral view of the dinosaur, the visual models help scientists make hypotheses about the dinosaur. For instance, it’s strange that a plant-eating dinosaur like Pegomastax would have such a developed jaw. Scientists think that perhaps the terrifying teeth were for self-defense and competitive sparring. Regardless of what Pegomastax ate, it was preserved well enough from lake sediment that it is possible to model what it would look like if it were alive: a “nimble, two-legged porcupine.” With vampire-like fangs.

The whole paper is on the free, open source journal ZooKeys here.

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