Hasta La Gadget!

Telepresence is a booming business these days, with high speed wireless networks enabling plenty of folks to enjoy the pleasures of working (or attending class) from the comfort of home. While some such devices leverage the power of tablets or smartphones, the visual and audio quality such systems deliver often isn’t up to corporate standards. Enter Suitable Technologies and its Beam remote presence device (RPD). As a spinoff of famed ‘bot builder Willow Garage, the folks at Suitable figured they could provide a high-fidelity telepresence experience by building an RPD from scratch, and that’s precisely what they’ve done with Beam. Its brain is a 1.3Ghz Intel Core i3 CPU and it moves around courtesy of dual brushless electric motors driven by an integrated car battery. That battery fills up in right around six hours using the Beam Dock, and the LED lamps underneath the screen shine whenever Beam is being used. Users, or “pilots” see where they’re going via two Logitech HD webcams sporting custom lenses that grant near 180-degree views and zoom capability — one’s front-facing, and one points down for easy navigation in tight spaces. Connectivity comes courtesy of four WiFi antennas (two 2.4 GHz and two 5GHz) to ensure a solid connection at all times, while the seven microphones provide top-notch voice quality and noise cancellation. Oh, and there’s a 17-inch monitor and a speaker on board to faithfully replicate what pilots look and sound like.

We got a chance to meet the Beam’s makers and take the RPD for a spin, so join us after the break to see a video of the thing in action and learn more about Beam’s development.

Continue reading Suitable Technologies introduces Beam, the remote presence device (hands-on)

Filed under: Misc

Suitable Technologies introduces Beam, the remote presence device (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops has been around for quite some time. In fact, the Windows users have been lucky enough to be able to play it ever since 2010. However, Mac users weren’t so lucky and haven’t been able to lay their hands on the game until now since a Mac version hasn’t been released yet.

The good news, though, are that there wait is finally going to be over very soon. It has been officially announced by Aspyr Media that the game will be released for Mac machines within this week, on September 27th to be precise.

Mac users will be able to get the game both through the Mac App Store as well as the Steam for Mac. The game will set you back a cool $49.99 if you are aspiring to get your hands on this soon-to-be released Mac version.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Call of Duty Black Ops 2 MQ-27 Dragonfire drone passes the FCC, Apple patent suggests that Siri for the Mac might be a possibility in the future,

By now, most of you know that the update to iOS 6 has hit, but Apple isn’t stopping there with the updates. It has also released an update to OS X 10.8.2 for Mountain Lion users, and it comes packing quite a few new and improved features. The update comes in right around 700MB, so it does have some heft to it – something to keep in mind if you’re downloading over a slow Internet connection.

One of the most exciting new features is true-to-form Facebook integration. After installing OS X 10.8.2, Mountain Lion users will be able to take advantage of single sign in for Facebook, as well the ability to share links or photos directly to Facebook. When you’re browsing your Contacts, you’ll see the profile pictures and contact information of your Facebook friends, and your Notification Center now houses your Facebook notifications as well.

Game Center has also received a few Facebook-related updates to, with users now able to share their scores to Facebook (support for sharing your scores on Twitter, Mail, and Messages is there too). Your Facebook friends will be recommended as Game Center friends after installing this update, and Apple has also included a Facebook Like button for your Game Center titles.

Of course, there’s far more beyond just Facebook integration, as Apple has added Power Nap support for late 2010 MacBook Airs. If you’re using iOS 6, iMessages sent your your iPhone will also show up in you Mac’s Messages sections, and dictation has added supported for a number of different languages, including Mandarin, Spanish, and – finally – Canadian English. Aside from all of that, there are number of new features and fixes, so take a look at the whole changelog below:

Facebook

• Single sign on for Facebook
• Adds Facebook as an option when sharing links and photos
• See Facebook friends’ contact information and profile pictures in Contacts
• Facebook notifications now appear in Notification Center

Game Center

• Share scores to Facebook, Twitter, Mail, or Messages
• Facebook friends are included in Game Center friend recommendations
• Added Facebook “Like” button for games
• Challenge friends to beat your score or achievement

Other new features

• Adds Power Nap support for MacBook Air (Late 2010)
• iMessages sent to your phone number now appear in Messages on your Mac*
• You can now add passes to Passbook (on your iPhone or iPod touch) from Safari and Mail on your Mac*
• FaceTime can now receive calls sent to your phone number*
• New shared Reminders lists
• New sort options allow you to sort notes by title, the date you edited them, and when you created them
• Dictation now supports additional languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Canadian English, Canadian French, and Italian
• Dictionary app now includes a French definition dictionary
• Sina Weibo profile photos can now be added to Contacts

* Requires iOS 6

General fixes

The OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 update also includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac, including the following fixes:

• Adds an option to discard the changes in the original document when choosing Save As
• Unsent drafts are now opened automatically when launching Mail
• Receive Twitter notifications for mentions and replies from anyone
• URLs are shortened when sending tweets from Notification Center
• Notifications are disabled when AirPlay Mirroring is being used
• Adds SSL support for Google searches from the Smart Search Field in Safari
• Adds a new preference to have Safari launch with previously open webpages
• Resolves an issue that may cause the “Enable Autodiscover” checkbox to always remain checked
• Enables access to the Mac App Store when Parental Controls are enabled
• Support for @icloud.com email addresses
• Resolves a video issue with some VGA projectors when connected to certain Mac notebooks
• Addresses an issue that may prevent Active Directory accounts from being locked out
• Resolves an issue that may cause the policy banner to re-appear prior to logging in
• Improvements to SMB
• Addresses an issue with NIS users when auto-login is enabled
• Addresses an issue in which the Keychain may not be accessible
• Ability to pre-authenticate a FileVault protected system
• Addresses an issue that may cause Xsan to not automatically start after migrating from Mac OS X Snow Leopard

So there you have it – we weren’t kidding when we said that Mountain Lion users are getting a lot with this latest update. What do you think OS X 10.8.2 for Mountain Lion?

OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion update lands alongside iOS 6 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Over the years we’ve come across a few signs that pointed to the possibility of touchscreen-enabled iMacs, but Steve Jobs had already dismissed this as a possibility for current Mac form factors. Quoting the man at the “Back to the Mac” keynote from two years ago: “It gives great demo, but after a while your arm feels like it’s going to fall off. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal.”

So perhaps our fantasy’s still stuck in the “research project” phase.

Luckily, the more adventurous touchscreen lovers can look to third-party solutions. For MacBooks you have Axiotron’s Modbook, except you lose the keyboard and you can’t perform the modification yourself. As for iMacs and Cinema Displays, we’ve been following Troll Touch for its resistive touchscreen replacement panels, but they aren’t exactly affordable and most of them have to be installed by the company. Even its user-installable SlipCover series starts from $899, anyway.

This leaves us with the Zorro Macsk, a cheekily named iMac accessory hailing from TMDtouch of Shenzhen, China. The 21.5-inch model is priced at just $199 on Amazon with no modifications required. Plus, it supports multitouch — a glaring omission from Troll Touch’s Mac lineup. So is this truly a bargain? Or is it just a case of “you get what you pay for?” Follow past the break to see how we got on with the Zorro Macsk.

Continue reading Zorro Macsk review: instantly add touchscreen functionality to your 21.5-inch iMac

Filed under: Peripherals

Zorro Macsk review: instantly add touchscreen functionality to your 21.5-inch iMac originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It is safe to assume that Siri is a feature that Apple is very proud of, although at the moment it appears to be limited to just Apple’s iOS mobile devices. However given its ability to execute commands, take dictations, perform searches and whatnot, would it be a stretch of the imagination to think that maybe one day, Apple could bring Siri onto their Mac computers? (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple patent hints at touchscreen iMac, Apple patent reveals Kinect-like input for controlling computers,