With just two tweets Microsoft has managed to make Google look very silly and stopped anyone feeling sorry for the search company over losing out in recent patent bidding wars. We all know that Android is doing very well on smartphones and tablets with over 550,000 devices being activated on a daily basis. This isn’t […]
Arduino, meet .NET Gadgeteer — your newest homebrew hacking rival. Born from Microsoft Research engineers’ desire to build prototypes quickly and easily, the two-and-a-half-years in the making ARM7-powered mainboard packs 4MB Flash, 16MB RAM, Ethernet, WiFi, an SD card interface and USB ports. Novice mods might wanna put the Netduino down because this homespun alternative also runs atop MS’ .NET Micro Framework, and thanks to its IntelliSense feature, makes auto-coding a breeze for first-timers. If you’re interested in what Ballmer & co. are offering, you can head to the project’s site now to pre-order its GHI-made hardware: a $250 Spider Starter Kit and the $120 Spider Mainboard. Both will be available by the end of September, but if you need a preview of what this burgeoning open source community has to offer, peep the stop-motion making mod after the break.
Microsoft Research’s .NET Gadgeteer steps out into the light, shoots daggers at Arduino (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The latest must-have piece of technology in the archaeological world? The Kinect. Students from the University of California, San Diego are taking Microsoft’s much-hacked peripheral on an archeological dig in Jordan, using the device to help create 3D scans of the site on the cheap. The hack pulls data captured by the Kinect’s camera and infrared scanner, turning the information into avatars that can be plugged into virtual worlds. The hack’s creator is hoping that it might some day be able to capture information as complex as a buildings or neighborhoods. The first, decidedly less ambitious application is being referred to as “ArKinect,” because what’s a cool hack without a cool name?
Archaeologists eschewing traditional whip / leather jacket combo for Kinect controllers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It, as they say, is on. Google’s with a post not-so-subtly-titled “When patents attack Android,” which directly addresses what he calls a “hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.” Drummond then goes on to cite a number of examples of this “organized campaign” from those trying to “strangle” Android, including Apple and Microsoft teaming up to buy Novell and Nortel’s old patents “to make sure Google didn’t get them,” Microsoft seeking $15 licensing fees for each Android device, and lawsuits against the likes of Barnes & Noble, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung.
According to Drummond, those efforts amount to a “tax” that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers and manufacturers alike, and that “instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation.” He further goes on to bemoan the “anti-competitive strategy” that’s “escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they’re really worth,” and closes things out by noting that he’s encouraged by Justice Department investigations into the aforementioned Novell and Nortel patent issues. Hit the source link to read the full post yourself.
Update: And now, shots have been fired from both sides. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel, has shot off the following tweet: “Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.” We’re guessing the truth lies somewhere in between, as it always does.
Update 2: Hoo boy! The hits just keep comin’ out of Redmond. Frank Shaw, lead corporate communications for Microsoft has just tweeted an image of an email between Brad Smith and Kent Walker (Google’s General Counsel) that appears to corroborate the claims that Microsoft wanted to team up with El Goog.
Google slams Apple and Microsoft, claims ‘hostile, organized campaign’ against Android waged through ‘bogus patents’ (update: Microsoft responds!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
This fall, smartphones are going to be better than they’ve ever been. That’s true every year, but iOS 5 and Windows Phone 7.5 are looking pretty fantastic. What about Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, though? More »
This article was written on June 06, 2007 by CyberNet.
When Google Maps launched their "Street View" last week it started a huge spectacle of people looking for odd photos. Some of the things people found were quite funny, but I’m glad that Google launched such a feature because it helps people become familiar with areas that they haven’t visited.
It’s definitely a cool feature, but let the truth be told that it doesn’t stack up to what Microsoft’s Photosynth can do. If you haven’t heard of Photosynth then I’m sure you’ll be quite impressed. It essentially "assembles" images into a 3D world that you can navigate, and it is even more amazing than it sounds.
The downside to Photosynth is that it requires a lot of processing power to assemble the images together into a structural model that can be navigated. For that reason it hasn’t been opened up to the public yet, so you can’t upload your own pictures to see what this thing can really do.
However, they have taken a big step forward in helping prepare a piece for BBC’s new series entitled "How We Built Britain." The PhotoSynth team has spent 6-months preparing image mashups for Ely Cathedral, Burghley House, the Royal Crescent, Bath, the Scottish Parliament Buildings, and Blackpool Tower Ballroom. As long as you’re running Internet Explorer or Firefox, feel free to check them out yourself (it does require that you install an add-on though).
For those of you who don’t feel like installing anything, I have put together a 4-minute video demonstration of each place they have implemented:
Pretty cool, huh? I thought it was awesome being able to fly around all of the different places, and it definitely gives future tourists an inside look at popular areas.
Whether the Photosynth team will ever be able to increase the performance of the image assembling process is still a question that I find myself asking. It took them 6-months to prepare these galleries, so making something available for consumers to use would not be an easy task. Although the video in this post by the Photosynth team implies that there are other things this technology can be used for.
If you’ve got some photos of Britain that you don’t mind including in the project, they can be submitted at BBC’s site here. Alternatively you could upload your photos to this Flickr group.
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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We’ve had a few weeks to get accustomed to iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion, but one headlining feature has been notably inaccessible since it was unveiled earlier this summer. During his WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs touted iCloud as a service that will sync many of your Apple devices, for free. Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Windows computers can synchronize documents, contacts, calendar appointments, and other data. You’ll also be able to back up your iOS devices remotely, use an Apple-hosted email account, and store your music in the cloud. Well, this week Apple finally lit up its cloud-based service for developers, letting some of us take a sneak peek at the new service.
Apple also announced pricing, confirming that you’ll be able to add annual subscriptions with 10GB ($20), 20GB ($40), or 50GB ($100) of storage ‘atop your free 5GB account. We took our five gig account for a spin, creating documents in Pages, spreadsheets in Numbers, and presentations in Keynote, then accessing them from the iCloud web interface to download Microsoft Office and PDF versions. We also tried our luck at iOS data syncing and the soon-to-be-controversial Photo Stream, so jump past the break for our full iCloud hands-on.
Gallery: Apple iCloud and iWork beta hands-on
Continue reading Apple iCloud and iWork beta for iOS hands-on
Apple iCloud and iWork beta for iOS hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What’s in a logo? These days, it’s everything — it’s one of the most recognizable symbols a company can have, and it appears Microsoft isn’t taking its emblems lightly. Over the course of the past week we’ve noticed an interesting trend: the Windows Phone branding has shed the circle-based icon in exchange for a square-shaped variant, appropriately reflecting the platform’s “tile” look and minimalist theme. We first thought this was a fluke when we peered at the new logo at Fujitsu’s IS12T event last week, as though it were a localized version made for Japan; as it turns out, however, this is indeed an official change across the board. If you need more proof than the source link below, yesterday’s press invite for Nokia’s Gamescom party features the new squared variant as well. We’re still holding out for a green robot-shaped logo, but this will have to do for now.
Windows Phone changes logo, officially hip to be square originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 02:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Between the “accidental” unveiling of the Sea Ray, the announcement of Fujitsu’s Mango device, and the less-than-stellar Q2 Nokia had, it doesn’t take a lot of crazy speculation to surmise that Stephen Elop’s quite the eager beaver in ensuring it’ll get the most out of its newfound marriage with Microsoft as soon as possible. Thus, hearing word of a special event being thrown at the beginning of Gamescom, an annual gaming conference in Germany, is definitely a good sign; according to press invites sent out today, the party — to be held on August 17th — promises “exciting actions and surprises,” and we’re pretty sure they don’t mean a free t-shirt. So join with us in determining what these surprises are, but please… don’t try that hard.
Update: Well, don’t ever say we told you to temper your excitement. We just heard from Nokia itself that this is nothing more than a “local developer event,” and to not expect any new devices that we haven’t heard of before. But hey, at least the fall edition of CTIA isn’t too far out…
Nokia and Microsoft hosting special event August 17th (update: no new hardware) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Continue reading Ford bringing SYNC systems to base trim levels, drops from $395 to $295
Ford bringing SYNC systems to base trim levels, drops from $395 to $295 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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