You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Filed under: Misc
Steve Ballmer’s announcement that he would retire from Microsoft came as something of a surprise, and left many wondering whether his eventual exit is voluntary. Thanks to an interview with the outgoing CEO at the Wall Street Journal, we now know that it is — although it’s coming after intense pressure. Ballmer explains that the company board of directors has been pushing him to speed up Microsoft’s transformation into a devices and services company ever since January. By May, he decided that his own way of thinking was slowing down the transition; he was the “pattern” that had to break. New leadership might reshape the company at a faster pace, Ballmer says. While the success of his strategy will depend heavily on just who takes the reins next year, it’s clear that the chief executive is willing to sacrifice a lot to keep Microsoft healthy… including himself.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Software, Microsoft
Via: Business Insider
Source: Wall Street Journal
Since Nest’s hardware and app go together like birds of a feather, new mobile software was inevitable after it launched the Nest Protect smoke detector. However, the startup darling has also taken the opportunity to completely revamp its app, mostly to make it easier to see all the important goings-on in your house. At a glance, you’ll now get the temperature you’ve set on your Nest Thermostat, whether it’s heating or cooling, the outside temperature and weather, and a big button to switch between home and away mode — in lieu of the former, slightly lame method of tilting your phone to landscape.
You’ll also see an icon for the new Nest Protect smoke alarm, which displays a green ring if everything’s a-okay, and yellow or red one for a heads-up or emergency, respectively. Selecting that icon will bring up the full app, showing all the detectors by room name, a green, yellow or red status for both smoke and carbon monoxide and the status of each alarm’s batteries and sensor. In addition, it’ll show the last WiFi update and time of your last manual test. Finally, the new app will bring a firmware update for the Nest Thermostat itself, with new features like “Quiet Time,” to prevent potentially noisy humidifier equipment from waking up kids, for instance, along with tweaks that make the system more efficient. Hang tight if you’re anxious to get them, because Nest said the new app and thermostat update will happen in a few days and install automatically.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals
Source: Nest
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
What Wolfram has accomplished with Alpha is nothing short of stunning. Sure, it can’t help you find videos of cats dressed as sharks riding Roombas, but the company’s goals were always much loftier. Using the technological foundation it built with Alpha and Mathematica, it’s now working on bring its natural language, knowledge-based computational prowess to programming languages. Many of the details are still quite vague but, according to founder Stephen Wolfram, it will be a general purpose programming language, like C++, except it will be largely self contained. That means no (or at least less) pointing to external libraries to accomplish complex tasks. Those other languages focus mostly on structure and leave the difficult task of graphing or processing images to extensions, while Wolfram Language will have at its heart a “giant web of algorithms” to perform many operations. As you’d expect, it integrates quite tightly with Wolfram Alpha, so stock prices, tide times or images of adorable pit bull puppies are easily pulled up in whatever app you’re building.
Perhaps most importantly, though, because it uses the natural language approach pioneered with Alpha, even the least tech savvy among you should be able to start programming in no time. While we’ll clearly have to reserve final judgement for when Wolfram language is available to the public, it sounds like an ideal tool for a child to learn programming on. With its forgiving syntax and deep database, students could quickly and easily whip up simple, but surprisingly functional programs while still leaning the necessary procedure and structure for more advanced languages like Python or Dart. If you’re itching for more details, hit up the source for Stephen Wolfram very, very long post on its development.
Filed under: Misc
Via: The Verge
Source: Stephen Wolfram
The bossy utensil that got the mainstream media all worked up at CES will be available for purchase for $99 starting October 18th at the premiere purveyor of all things you didn’t know you needed: Brookstone. HAPIfork, a Bluetooth-enabled fork that vibrates when you shovel food into your mouth at a pace that exceeds pre-programmed intervals, is already shipping to Kickstarter backers. Pre-orders start today, with direct purchases available exclusively from Brookstone online and in-store starting the 18th. If you’re having trouble measuring your mastication, check out the press release after the break.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Brookstone
Better yet, because it’s a local network drive, there’s no need to format it for Mac or Windows, making it compatible with both from the get-go and leaving out the need for any unwanted software. To manage things like users, storage space and advanced settings, Western Digital has introduced the companion My Cloud Dashboard, which can be accessed via a desktop application. On the mobile side, there are apps for iOS and Android that allow users to upload photos, videos, documents and other type of files, as well as integrate with cloud services including Google Drive, SkyDrive and Dropbox. The WD My Cloud is now available starting at $150 for the 2TB model, while the beefier 3TB and 4TB variants are priced at $180 and $250, respectively.%Gallery-slideshow99587%
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Wireless, HD
Source: WD
Google and the European Commission have been doing their seemingly interminable antitrust dance for three years now, but today’s development might signal a shift in the tides. In July, the EU’s Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, had deemed Google’s previous concession offer unworthy and informed Eric Schmidt that the company had to “present better proposals.” According to The New York Times, Google has evidently heeded his words and ponied up a new offer that’s evidently enough to please the antitrust chief, although specific terms have yet to be disclosed.
At the heart of the problem is Google’s tendency to squeeze its rivals (including, but not limited to, Microsoft, Foundem and Hotmaps) out of search results, making it difficult for users to find them. The new offer allegedly addresses those concerns, and while it’s unlikely that a decision will be made earlier than next spring, the EU’s tentative approval of Google’s efforts could mean that case is inching its way to a settlement. Almunia has said that he intends to present the proposal to the complainants in the case, who seem less than enthused. David Wood, the legal counsel for the Microsoft-backed Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace (ICOMP) told the Times, “It is far from clear from Commissioner Almunia’s description of the revised package of proposed commitments that they go nearly far enough.”
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Google
Source: The New York Times, Reuters
It’s not news every time a Kickstarter product starts shipping to backers, but in the case of 3Doodler, it’s worth a mention. At last count, the startup had raised $2.3 million to fund its 3D printing pen, and with a cost of $99 per device, well, you do the math: that’s a lot of people waiting for their new toy to arrive. And we mean it when we say “toy” — while you won’t be creating anything useful like a gun or a Van Gogh knockoff, there’s really nothing more addictive than “drawing” in the air with melted plastic, and watching it solidify. For those of you who ordered early, you already know what you’re in for. As for the rest of you, your next chance to get one will be in early 2014, though you can place a pre-order today if you like. Really, though, we suggest you revisit our hands-on video, embedded below; we’re descriptive writers, but nothing we say can do justice to a pen with molten plastic flowing out of it.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals
There may be a few less places to find an Amazon delivery locker after Staples and Radio Shack announced they were removing them from their stores, but Google’s competing offering is now getting a boost with its biggest expansion to date. The company announced today that it’s bringing its BufferBox lockers to San Francisco, marking the first expansion of the delivery service into the US since Google acquired the Canadian company late last year. Much like Amazon’s lockers, the BufferBox service simply lets you direct deliveries to a locker instead of your own address if you don’t expect to be at home — a service that remains completely free for the time being. This latest expansion also brings integration with Google’s recently announced Shopping Express service and mobile apps, which can now be used to direct same-day deliveries to a BufferBox locker. Those in SF can find a full list of locker locations at the source link below.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Google Commerce, BufferBox
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