Hasta La Gadget!

Where are the bad guys? The military has eyes and ears everywhere these days, including drones large and tiny, satellites, radar imaging, LIDAR, infrared, thermal and even the enemy’s own cellphones. The problem is how to take all that imaging and create a single picture of the environment. To that end, DARPA and George Mason University in Arlington have created the first Innovation House Project, which will put eight teams together for eight weeks in a “crucible-style” living environment to try to invent new ways of crunching the diverse sensor info. The military’s research arm wants those units to think way off-piste “without fear of failure” to dream up solutions, and will have access to specialists and mentors from the military and academia. Unlike DARPA’s usual challenges which have a grand prize, all teams accepted to the project will receive $30,000 in funding, but groups who go on to survive a four week cut will get an additional $20K. Proposals will be accepted up to July 31 (with no academic credentials needed), and the competition will begin in earnest on September 17. DARPA will get a license of any software created, allowing teams to hold the rights — and hopes to continue the concept down the road, with new themes for team-based research on a tight deadline. So, if you’re a data, imaging or “geospatial” whiz — and don’t mind being locked in a house and put under the brainstorming gun by DARPA — check the PR for all the details.

Continue reading DARPA Innovation House project wants teams to take imaging data, see the big picture

Filed under: Science, Software

DARPA Innovation House project wants teams to take imaging data, see the big picture originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Galaxy Note isn’t the only device on AT&T getting the precious upgrade to Android 4.0 today, as the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is jumping on the bandwagon. Sadly, it’s not an OTA update, which means you’ll need to get into the Kies client on your computer to get your refresh on. If you’ve never done an update this way, head to the source link for plenty of details on how to propel your device to the next level.

[Thanks, Horst]

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket gets updated to ICS originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aside from the introduction of the Nexus 7, the big reveal out of Google I/O was the announcement of Jelly Bean. The update promised to bring speed to the Android OS with Project Butter, resulting in smooth 60fps animations and transitions, as well as some smaller tweaks. Now Google has officially released the Jelly Bean source code, merging it into the current AOSP codebase.

Jean-Baptiste Queru took to Google Groups last night to make the announcement, detailing how proprietary binaries will also be available for the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus. Don’t worry too much about older devices, as Nexus S and Xoom binaries will be coming in the future. Now that Jelly Bean is being merged into the AOSP, custom ROM makers will be able to take advantage of the latest code and put out some new ROMs for a wide variety of devices.

The CyanogenMod team has already expressed their interest in getting a far-reaching Jelly Bean ROM up to speed as soon as work on CM9 (which is based off Ice Cream Sandwich) has been finalized and released. In the meantime, you can expect smaller groups and individuals to pump out some ROMs for popular devices. Keep a close eye on xda-developers.

[via PocketNow]

Jelly Bean source code added to AOSP is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The last time we heard about Next Issue, the all-you-can-read magazine store was launching on Android, with an iOS version said to be coming soon. Three months later, the startup’s made good on its promise: the storefront is now up and running on iOS, with an iPad app live in the US App Store. If you’re not familiar with the way Next Issue works, it’s angling to be the Netflix of digital magazines, with a monthly subscription getting you unfettered access to a library of 39 titles. In brief, the fees break down to $10 per month for all the monthly and bi-weekly mags, and $15 if you want all that plus access to tabloids and other weeklies. One last thing: the free app is just the magazine reader; you’ll need to download the apps through Next Issue’s browser-based store.

Now, if you’re wondering what sorts of magazines will be represented in that list of 40-some-odd titles, know that every bigwig in magazine publishing is on board: Conde Nast, Time, Hearst, Meredith and News Corp. That means the The New Yorker is included, as are Esquire, GQ, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated and Popular Mechanics. In an interview, a company rep told us that Next Issue Media hopes to double the catalog by year’s end, as well as ink deals with additional publishers. The biggest caveat, it seems, is that content providers have the prerogative to make a title available on one platform but not the other, so don’t count on the iOS and Android apps offering identical selections. Feeling a bit tentative? The company is offering new customers a 30-day free trial, and we’ve also got not one, but four (yes, four) demo videos after the break.

Continue reading Next Issue brings its all-you-can-read magazine store to the iPad, plans start at $10 a month

Filed under: Tablet PCs, Software

Next Issue brings its all-you-can-read magazine store to the iPad, plans start at $10 a month originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google has been talking up the prospects of integrating WebRTC into Chrome for the past several months. It’s now ready to put theory into practice with a fresh beta of the web browser. The upgrade uses WebRTC to let typical microphones and webcams talk to the browser without using a plugin like Flash or something otherwise so very 2011. Just to embrace this future of direct hardware support ever the more tightly, Google is also building in a gamepad programming interface that lets controllers tap into Chrome without having to rely on Native Client‘s magic. There’s more waiting at the source link, including more direct tie-ins with Cloud Print, so the more adventurous among us can get to chatting (and playing) right away.

Filed under: Peripherals, Internet, Software

New Google Chrome beta lets webcams go plugin-free, video chat gets a lot less Flashy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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