Hasta La Gadget!

Twitter has acquired yet another company, this time buying out Clutch.io. The deal was announced today, with the Clutch.io team saying that they will be joining Twitter’s Growth and International team. They also say that they’re starting work at Twitter immediately, so it seems that Twitter is wasting no time in taking advantage of the Clutch.io team’s talents.

Clutch.io offered A/B testing to iOS and Android developers, and also offered Clutch Framework, which helps developers build apps. “Offered” is the operative word there, as Clutch.io won’t be supporting these apps much longer – Twitter is shutting down the company’s A/B testing and Framework app. Clutch.io says in a blog post that it will continue supporting these services until November 1, and in the coming weeks, the company will be providing resources that will allow developers to run these programs on their own servers.

So, Clutch’s current services won’t be going away entirely, they just won’t be supported or hosted on Clutch.io servers anymore. In anticipation of this “shut down” of sorts, Clutch.io has stopped accepting new customers, so if you were ready to jump in and see what Clutch.io had to offer, we’re sorry to say you’re out of luck.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and we’re not sure what exactly the Clutch.io team will be doing at Twitter. This has to be a pretty exciting time for Clutch.io however, as it’s still a very young company, so to have its worth recognized so quickly is undoubtedly leaving a smile on a few faces today. Be sure to check out our story timeline below for more posts on Twitter’s recent happenings!

Clutch.io joins Twitter’s Growth and International team is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

NASA captured the world’s imagination with the successful deployment of the Curiosity lander on Mars, and now the President of the United States, Barack Obama, will call the space agency to congratulate the members of mission control. According to Space.com, the President will call the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California at 11am EST. Numerous scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and built the Curiosity, striving to keep it active for its two-year mission on the surface of Mars.

The President seems to have taken great interest in the mission in general, issuing the following statement shortly after the successful landing of Curiosity on August 5th: “The successful landing of Curiosity – the most sophisticated roving laboratory ever to land on another planet – marks an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future. It proves that even the longest of odds are no match for our unique blend of ingenuity and determination.”

Shortly after the rover successfully landed on August 5th, it began beaming back images of the surface of Mars to scientists at NASA. Curiosity has several cameras onboard, with images taking 14 minutes to make their way back to Earth, but they should provide invaluable insight into the planet’s surface and geographical makeup. Video can also be recorded on the rover in 720p, but at a reduced rate of 10 frames per second.

NASA has released numerous photos from Curiosity’s exploration so far including a 360 degree panoramic view from the rover’s highest resolution camera. More images will continue to flood in from Curiosity as it begins to explore additional terrain, but in the meantime the full landing video is online should you want to relive the magic again.

President Obama set to congratulate Curiosity team is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

uTorrent is one of the world’s most popular BitTorrent clients, with most users preferring it over other solutions due to its lightweight operation and low memory footprint. BitTorrent Inc has slowly been adding new features into the client, upsetting some users in the process, but the latest change will no doubt be controversial. TorrentFreak reports that adverts will soon be integrated into the client that will should generate significant amounts of additional revenue for the company.

BitTorrent Inc took to the uTorrent forums yesterday to make the quiet announcement, indicating that adverts will be added to the client in a coming update within the next few weeks. Specifically, the company will offer featured torrents at the top of the torrent list, allowing artists and studios to promote their content to a huge number of users: around 125 million, according to TorrentFreak

The adverts will have several tiers. The first will promote any new features or services from BitTorrent Inc. The second will come from “offer partners,” which might include security products or privacy services, while the third will advertise independent artists. Anyone using the updated version of uTorrent won’t be able to turn offers off, however, instead only being able to skip any unwanted ads.

BitTorrent Inc says that the change won’t affect users privacy, but offers will be targeting based on IP address locations. As always, the company is trying to find a balance between offering free software and generating a healthy income, although TorrentFreak has been informed by a source that current revenue falls between $15 and $20 million, with the company “backed by millions in venture capital.”

Upcoming uTorrent update will feature adverts is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Leap motion controller is one of the most hyped gadgets unveiled this year, and it really is promising. But if you can’t wait until next year to have a 3D tracking interface, MAKE knows a way to make one using readily available tools.

The project is based on the RC time constant, which in simple terms is the time it takes to charge a capacitor. It has three cardboard plates covered with aluminum foil and connected to an Arduino Uno. When your hand (or any part of your body) approaches the plates, the capacitance of the plates change. A complementary program then interprets the changes to determine your hands’ position.

Head to MAKE for the full instructions for making the sensor. Obviously it’s not as accurate as the Leap or the Kinect, but at the very least you’ll have built something that show how capacitive sensors work. I’m sure more advanced tinkerers will find ways to make it more functional.

[via The Viral Trend]

The Curiosity rover was sent to Mars to document a lot of different things, but one of the things it will be examining on are the weather patterns on the surface of Mars. Today NASA tells USA Today that it’s expecting mostly clear – if not a bit chilly – conditions on the red planet, with NASA scientist Manuel de la Torre saying that Curiosity can expect “balmy, minus-20-degree temperatures” during the day. At night, that already low temperature will plummet, eventually ending up around “minus-200 degrees Fahrenheit.”

If Curiosity only had the cold to deal with, it would be something of a pleasant getaway. These calm conditions aren’t expected to last much longer, however, as dust devils will begin to wreak havoc on the planet’s surface as the seasons change from winter to spring and then eventually summer. The dust devils aren’t even the worst of it either, as they can grow into massive dust storms that swallow the entire planet.

It’s those dust storm that de la Torre is interested in, and the Curiosity is well-equipped to study them. It comes loaded with tools that can measure wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, ground temperature, and air pressure. This weather data that’s collected on the surface will help NASA scientists determine if Mars is suitable for life, or if it ever was at some point in the past.

Ever since the Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars at the beginning of the week, we’ve been treated to one exciting news piece after another. True, talking about the weather on Mars may not be as exciting as seeing images of the surface, but this research is going to do a lot in helping us understand the red planet, and that is definitely something to look forward to. Be sure to check out our story timeline below for more posts on the Curiosity rover!

NASA’s Curiosity expecting dust storms on surface of Mars soon is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.