Homeland is coming back this Sunday! After an uneven second season, what’s the third season going to be like? Should we hope for something as brilliant as the first even though it might be unrealistic or should we just root for Homeland… The Musical to happen on Broadway. After watching the hilarious video above, I think we should hope that The Musical version will happen.
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Particle accelerators range in size from massive to compact, but researchers from Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created one that’s downright miniscule. What you see above is a specially patterned glass chip that’s smaller than a grain of rice, but unlike a broken Coke bottle, it’s capable of accelerating electrons at a rate that’s roughly 10 times greater than the SLAC linear accelerator. Taken to its full potential, researchers envision the ability to match the accelerating power of the 2-mile long SLAC linear accelerator with a system that spans just 100 feet.
For a rough understanding of how this chip works, imagine electrons that are brought up to near-light speed and then concentrated into a tiny channel within the glass chip that measures just a half-micron tall. From there, infrared laser light interacts with patterned, nanoscale ridges within the channel to create an electrical field that boosts the energy of the electrons.
In the initial demonstration, researchers were able to create an energy increase of 300 million electronvolts per meter, but their ultimate goal is to more than triple that. Curiously enough, these numbers aren’t even that crazy. For example, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin were able to accelerate electrons to 2 billion electronvolts over an inch with a technique known as laser-plasma acceleration, which involves firing a laser into a puff of gas. Even if Stanford’s chip-based approach doesn’t carry the same shock and awe, it seems the researchers are banking on its ability to scale over greater distances. Now if we can just talk them into strapping those lasers onto a few sharks, we’ll really be in business.
Filed under: Science
It’s not often that events of a patent tiff transcend the humdrum noise we’re all too used to, but the most recent judgement of a Munich court has declared an Apple patent invalid based on prior art from, well, Apple. As Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents explains, Cupertino has racked up a couple of decisions going against both Samsung and Motorola based on a patent for “portable electronic device[s] for photo management,” which describes a bounce-back aka rubber-banding effect specifically within the iOS photo gallery app. Now, Apple’s lawmen successfully argued the UI feature was different from previous concepts presented by AOL and Microsoft (which could benefit Cook & Co greatly in other cases, Mueller says). However, there was one piece of prior art they couldn’t dispute: the feature in question being shown off by Steve Jobs at the OG iPhone keynote back in January 2007. (We’ve embedded video of the keynote below, but you’ll need to jump to 32:40 to catch the gallery bounce-back bit.)
You see, even though the rubber-banding feature was demonstrated by Apple, on an Apple device, it still counts as prior art that invalidates its own patent — in Europe at least. That’s because documents describing the feature weren’t filed until June 2007, almost six months after Jobs took to the stage. A similar, first-to-file situation is now part of the US system, of course, ever since the America Invents Act was signed into law in 2011. As the first-generation iPhone keynote came years before that, however, it’s unlikely to hold any weight in future US court decisions. Well, you can’t win ’em all Apple, especially when you’re up against yourself.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Apple, Samsung, Google
Source: FOSS Patents
“When I started, a demo video was a screencap vid,” Adam Lisagor begins, “usually a developer or an engineer, badly miced, going [he grabs the lavaliere mic from his shirt and speaks directly into it, for maximum distortion] ‘I’d like to show you my new CMS financial manager.’ You watch his mouse go around the screen, and it’s super boring. It takes up eight minutes of your time, instead of 30 seconds.” A cursory peek at Sandwich Video offers some insight into precisely how far we’ve come on that front, a parade of short videos produced for companies like eBay, Rdio, Flipboard and Jawbone that bring professional-level production and a dash of humor to the proceedings.
Though, as Lisagor explains, it’s about a lot more than just creating something that looks nice. While his company has evolved a fair deal since the days of the earnest video caps, the spots still need to actually, you know, show people what the products do. “When I first started doing them, they were meant to be a demonstration,” explains Lisagor. “They were meant to show the user experience, while adding a lot more pizzazz and sparkle. We don’t take the route of focusing on shock / entertainment value. We take the opposite approach, where it’s all about the product and being engaging enough to want to share.”
And besides, production isn’t everything. After all, that fancy new video for your crowdfunding campaign might actually hurt your efforts in the end. “If you’re putting yourself on Kickstarter, but it looks like your video cost $100,000,” adds Lisagor, “there’s a certain portion of the population that’s going to take that as a sign not to donate to your campaign, because it doesn’t look like you need the money.”
If you’re anything like me, you spend way too much of your day seated, at your desk, hunched in front of your computer. During busy days — especially once firmly planted “the zone” — it’s easy for a few hours to fly by without leaving a sedentary position. For this reason, I’m probably not the only one who could use a gentle reminder, just a little, “Hey Rip, you’ve been sitting for two hours, how about standing up, ya lazy bum?”
Well, my friends, your Fitbit can remind you that you’re behind on your steps, but what if your desk could remind you to stand up, or take a break? Thanks to Stir, a Los Angeles-born startup founded by former Apple, Disney and IDEO employees, now you can buy a smart desk that will do just that.
The Stir Kinetic Desk, the startup’s first product, which launches today, combines the health-tracking software of popular wearables like FitBit and Up with connected-hardware and machine learning to create a work experience that actually promotes movement — and, in so doing, your health.
Stir Founder and CEO JP Labrosse was one of the first 35 employees to join Apple’s iPod Division, where he led engineering development teams on two early iPod projects. It not surprising, then, that the Kinetic Desk borrows a bit from familiar Apple designs and interfaces, including built-in touch screen, which has a very iPod-type size, shape and look to it. It’s this touch interface that acts as the desk’s main “control panel,” allowing users to change the configuration and height of their desk, or to go from sitting to standing (and back) just by double tapping.
Not only that, but the screen displays graphs and visual representations of a user’s movement, so they can quickly see how long they’ve been sitting and what their work habits and usage looks like. The desk contains a thermal presence sensor and computer outfitted with its health-tracking software, allowing it to track your movement and display that data through its touch screen.
While it may sound almost uncanny, not to worry, the desk isn’t yet outfitted with Siri’s voice or any sort of personal assistant. While Labrosse was willing to admit that the Stir Kinetic Desk could incorporate some Watson or HAL 9000-like features down the road, for now, the desk is meant to work in concert with the Internet of Things, not to try to commandeer it and dominate your office.
In fact, the desk tracks and adapts to your personal routine in such a way that’s meant to optimize health and productivity. The desk will display how many calories you’ve burned, time spent standing versus sitting — and your answer to “who is the most beautiful desk of them all?” of course.
Labrasse, echoing Harvard Business Review’s recent study, called sitting “the smoking of our generation,” which is probably a little overdramatic, but it’s true that in our overworked, over-connected modern work environment, we do spend more time in chairs than on our feet. While your Kinetic Desk won’t remind you to eat, shower, finish coding and go outside or be a better friend, it will help keep you upright and mindful of the healthier routine that’s right around the corner.
The desk also contains a setting called “active mode,” which you can activate by hitting a button on the front of the desk, which will put it into “Whisperbreath” mode — meaning that the desk prompts you to move after you’ve been sitting for too long with a gentle, one-inch rising and falling motion. You can then double tap to change positions.
Stir’s new smart desk also comes with built-in AC and USB ports (eight and four, respectively), connected to a single power cord you plug into the wall, and comes with Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, which the CEO hopes will eventually allow the desk to integrate with third-party fitness and wellness devices. To think: Your desk could be come your fitness and wellness graph itself. Imagine that. The team will also eventually release a web-based dashboard to allow you to view your work and health data on the go.
The Stir Kinetic Desk has a hardwood surface, comes in white, espresso and four underside colors, and will retail at an expected $3,890. It’s not cheap, but, hey, you can’t put a price on good health, people, especially when it’s your office furniture that’s keeping you healthy.
Labrasse and the Stir team were kind enough to let us take their new health-conscious desk for a spin, and you’ll find our video below. Find the Stir Kinetic Desk at home here.
If Apple were to build a desk, it would look like this. Much like Nest, maker of the world’s sexiest thermostat, Stir is a company founded by someone who worked on the first iPods, and, it too is trying to make a mundane household item fashionable. In this case, of course, the product in question isn’t a thermostat or even a home appliance, but a standing desk. The Kinetic Desk, which will ship in the first half of 2014, has a thermal sensor that can tell when you’ve arrived, and over time, it learns how long you prefer to be on your feet before taking a break. To lower the desk over its 26-inch range, just double-tap the built-in touchscreen, located on the left end. From there, you can can set goals, like standing for 25 percent of the day, as well as see how many extra calories you’ve burned, or monitor how much time you’ve spent sitting. CEO and founder JP Labrosse tells us that the desk might eventually integrate with fitness-tracking services like Fitbit, though it won’t at launch. Still, the desk has WiFi and Bluetooth radios baked in, so if Stir ever did want to share data with third-party services, the hardware would at least be able to support it.
Like an iPod, the Kinetic Desk has just one button. Press it and you’ll be telling the desk to enter “active mode,” which will remind you to take periodic breaks by rising up and down ever so gently when it’s time for you to stop what you’re doing and walk around. (It’s less distracting then it sounds; in fact, Stir is using the name “WhisperBreath” to describe it.) Also like an Apple product, the desk has a stark design: it’s powered by a single cable, with eight AC ports and four USB sockets tucked into two hidden panels at the top of the desk. That makes for a minimalist look, of course, but it also means you don’t have to worry about dragging cables (and knocking things over) when you adjust the height of the desk. Once this starts shipping, you’ll have two color options for the lacquered wood surface, and four choices of accent colors for the underside and in the two charging drawers. As for the starting price, you’re looking at $3,890 and up — suffice to say, you’d better already be a standing desk convert before taking the plunge.%Gallery-slideshow98401%%Gallery-slideshow90897%
Source: Stir
So first we had Teddy Ruxpin, a delightful animatronic pal for little kids. Then we had Ted, the CGI-based, foul-mouthed, binge-drinking pal once those kids grew up. And now there’s apparently a gun-toting, Sock Monkey-slaying, cyborg-bear vigilante roaming the streets. Stephen Colbert was right, these things are terrifying.
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At Sony’s IFA press event, reps handed out samples of the company’s $250 lens cameras to everyone in the room. We really enjoyed our time with the Cyber-shot QX10, but that model’s more powerful sibling, the QX100, promised even better performance, albeit in a substantially larger package. Unfortunately, it’s been a bit difficult to come by, and our loaner missed the deadline for a review. We’ll examine it here instead.
At $500, the QX100 is an incredibly pricey smartphone accessory, but when you consider that the cam features the same optics as Sony’s $750 RX100 Mark II, that ambitious sticker price is a bit easier to swallow. Still, for the QX’s target demographic — smartphone users looking to boost the quality of Twitpics and Instagram photos — bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
Both the QX10 and QX100 function in much the same way, but internally, they’re entirely unique. The base model includes a 1/2.3-inch sensor and a 10x optical zoom lens, while the more expensive version, available for twice the price, features a much larger 1-inch sensor and a higher-quality 3.6x Carl Zeiss lens. It’s essentially an RX100 Mark II without the LCD, and with limited advanced control. Instead, like with the QX10, you use a connected smartphone as your viewfinder. Unlike with that flavor, however, you now have the ability to tweak the aperture (down to f/1.8). On paper, it’s a much better fit for advanced photographers, and the image quality is good indeed, but ultimately this is an accessory for your smartphone. Keeping that in mind, let’s see how it performs.%Gallery-slideshow98477%
The key to Open Source and Royalty-Free and Public Domain media is collaboration, and the furtherance of humankind by using what our predecessors have made and building up and outward. YouTube has taken to this call to action with great enthusiasm this week with the YouTube Audio Library, supporting the likes of burgeoning artists and […]
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