Hasta La Gadget!

The BeagleBone might be just the piece of kit for the DIY set itching to boot Linux in 10 seconds, but the freshly unveiled BeagleBone Black packs an even greater punch — and the same speedy start times — at just half the price of its predecessor. The $45 credit card-sized package totes a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 3D graphics accelerator, a pair of PRU 32-bit RISC CPUs, 2GB of built-in storage, a microSD slot and 512MB of RAM. Connectivity-wise, the canine-themed board carries support for USB, Ethernet, micro-HDMI and two 46 pin headers. Those pining for hardware flexibility can make use of the platform’s existing “cape” hardware add-ons. Though it ships from Texas Instruments with Angstrom Linux on board, it’s also tuned to support Android and Ubuntu, and arrives pre-loaded with the Cloud9 IDE. BeagleBone Black is already up for grabs in limited quantities, but it’s expected to ship en masse by the end of May. Hit the second source link to start ordering, or head past the break for a video tour of the pint-sized computer.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: BeagleBoard, Texas Instruments

Fresh off of a trip to North Korea, Google’s executive chairman has found himself on stage here in New York City. Eric Schmidt is kicking off the second day of D: Dive Into Mobile 2013 here in the Big Apple, and we’re just a few feet away — you know, so we can liveblog every last word of it. And, to ogle his fashionable sneakers. For those looking for a glimpse into yesteryear, you can relive our liveblog from Schmidt’s D9 keynote in 2011 right here. Head on past the break for today’s interview!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google

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You could call WebKit the glue that binds the modern web: the rendering engine powers Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, and many mobile browsers past and present. Things are about to unstick a little. Google believes that Chromium’s multi-process approach has added too much complexity for both the browser and WebKit itself, so it’s creating a separate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be much the same as WebKit at the start, it’s expected to differ over time as Google strips out unnecessary code and tweaks the underlying platform. We’d also expect it to spread, as the company has confirmed to us that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future. We’re safely distant from the Bad Old Days of wildly incompatible web engines, but the shift may prove a mixed blessing — it could lead to more advancements on the web, but it also gives developers that much more code to support.

Update: The Next Web has confirmed that Opera, which recently ditched its Presto engine for Webkit, will indeed be using Blink as it’s already hitching its proverbial wagon to Chromium.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Google

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Source: Chromium Blog

Google has always been pretty firm in its stance that “open systems win.” Now its going so far as to publicly pledge that it will “not sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first attacked.” The Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge, as the company is calling it, is the latest effort to back open-source software which Mountain View contends is one of the driving sources of innovation in cloud-computing and the internet. The first set of patents that are part of the initiative are related to MapReduce, which is used to process large data sets, though the company will eventually expand it to cover other technologies. The pledge is similar to Twitter’s Innovators Patent Agreement which it announced in April of last year. There wont be any immediate benefit to end users, but anything that encourages innovation and minimizes litigation seems like a net positive in our book. For more details hit up the source link.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Google 1, 2

For the sheer variety of virtual reality headsets available, there’s been few resources available for those who want to craft their own devices. USC wants to save us the effort of searching around. Its MxR Lab has just launched a showcase of creations and modifications that DIY enthusiasts can build, including open source code for both the devices and integrating full-body motion control through Kinect for Windows or OpenNI. The most ambitious is Socket HMD, a complete 1,280 x 800 headset that involves a 3D-printed shell and custom-assembled electronics. If your own ambitions don’t stretch that far, you can still build the VR2GO viewer, which uses iPhones and iPod touch players as the eyepieces, as well as mods for the Oculus Rift developer kit that add stereo cameras or increase the field of view. Yes, you’ll need a 3D printer and a knack for programming to get most of these projects going, but you won’t have to wait for someone to make them for you — a big help when many ready-made VR displays are either in development or priced out of reach for the average person.

Filed under: Displays, Wearables

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Via: Road to VR

Source: USC