Hasta La Gadget!

Anyone who often relies on taxi service to get around, as good as it can be, has likely had a driver who was less than courteous — and in the worst cases, outright scary. Samsung wants to keep passengers safe, and drivers honest, through a just-published patent application for an end-to-end taxi service. On a basic level, it’s a taxi finder with a rating system: the mobile app in the patent can hail a nearby cab based on the driver’s “kindness” rating and verify that it’s the right vehicle with a short-range wireless link, not unlike an even more genteel version of Uber. It’s when passengers hop inside that Samsung’s implementation takes on a more distinct shape. If the driver puts customers or the whole cab in danger, a passenger-activated SOS mode flags the car’s location to get the police on the scene before it’s too late. We don’t know how likely Samsung is to implement such a system, although it has been actively developing more advanced backseat technology and filed the US patent in February, a year after its Korean equivalent. We do know this is one of the few patents we’d rather not completely experience first-hand — the only crazy taxis we’re comfortable with sit inside game consoles.

Filed under: Transportation

Samsung files for patent on safe taxi service, we hope we never fully test it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kno’s tablet textbooks have only ever been available to the college crowd; the younger among us have typically had to get a comprehensive digital education from either the tablet maker’s own solution, like Apple’s iBooks 2, or less-than-integrated options. A new deal for K-12 books is giving the students, if not necessarily the teachers, a fresh alternative. Parents can now rent books for home studying at prices under $10 per title. They’re not state-specific books, but their Common Core roots will keep learners on the same (virtual) page as classmates while adding Kno’s usual 3D, links, notes and videos. Just to sweeten the pot further, Kno says its current catalog centers around a pact with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — a publisher that hasn’t offered K-12 books on any tablet platform until now, according to Kno. The initial focus is on iPad, web and Windows 7 readers, although Android-loving parents looking for that at-home edge will have to wait until sometime “soon” to leap in.

Continue reading Kno starts offering K-12 textbooks on tablets, scores industry-first deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Filed under: Tablet PCs, Software

Kno starts offering K-12 textbooks on tablets, scores industry-first deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As much as the US Census Bureau has worked to embrace the digital space, its sea of data has been largely locked away from developers not keen on doing much of the heavy lifting. As of late last week, however, there’s now a public app programming interface (API) for quickly putting all of that knowledge to work. Both mobile and web apps can hook into either the complete 2010 census or the 2006-2010 American Community Survey, bringing in basic demographics as well as more complicated subjects such as commuting habits and education. The Bureau sees the API leading to not just a more informed public, but to smarter government as well — imagine a state government that knows the income levels by county through a custom smartphone app. Budding statistics hounds can request a key for API use right away, but if you’d rather just see what public access will mean in practice, you can check out an app gallery at the second source link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software

US Census Bureau posts its first API, allows smartphone apps for the stat-obsessed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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