Reality Bites
Gmail’s been able to send emails from other email addresses you own for a long time, but it was never perfect. Here’s a simple step-by-step for getting rid of the all-too-annoying “on behalf of” message. More »
If you sit down and think about it, the notion of making a left turn across oncoming traffic at a stoplight is pretty absurd. All that stands between you and certain oblivion is the hope that other drivers headed your direction are obeying the speed limit and paying enough attention to notice when the light turns red.
Traffic engineers have known for years that hanging a left increases the likelihood of an accident and wastes fuel. The minds at UPS have even gone so far as to design their delivery routes with fewer left turns, and transportation departments all over the country have adopted so-called “superstreets” that force drivers to make a right and then a U-turn in order to go left or straight.
Sound absurd? Think again. According to Smithsonian Magazine, researchers at North Carolina State University have found that the superstreet design is more efficient and safer than allowing drivers to turn across traffic. After examining data from 13 superstreet intersections and comparing them to their traditional counterparts, researchers found that, on average, the superstreets delivered a 20-percent decrease in travel time and caused 46 percent fewer reported traffic collisions. More importantly, the superstreet design caused 63-percent fewer accidents that resulted in personal injury.
There’s some food for thought the next time you’re hanging a left.
[Source: Smithsonian Magazine | Image: North Carolina Department of Transportation]
Should left turns be illegal? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Here is an example of a “Superstreet”:
Google’s been teasing cloud-based music features in Android since its I/O conference last year, and the recent leak of a revamped first-party Music app suggests that the plans haven’t evaporated into thin air. Here’s the latest tidbit: GizmoFusion claims that this screen shot comes from a device running Gingerbread, clearly showing “Music” as one of the accounts configured in Android’s settings, which suggests that the system will be pretty deeply-integrated to sync your tracks just as it would your Twitter updates, your Facebook friends, or your calendar entries. Note that we don’t have any new evidence beyond this one shot — and we need to take GizmoFusion‘s word that this is a Gingerbread device — but we’re wondering if maybe this isn’t one of the new features in that Android 2.4 build we’ve been hearing a lot about lately.
[Thanks, Bryan]
Android getting Google Music sync in Gingerbread? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
For a month and a half, there’s absolutely no Sun in Greenland because of Earth’s angle in relation to our home star. People there eagerly await for January 13, when the Sun rises again, every year. Except this one. More »
RIM’s mythical BlackBerry Storm 3 is one of those products that shows up every few months with just enough new information to have you believing that it’s real and it’s eventually coming before slithering back into the night, going totally radio-silent for another month or two. We’ve no doubt that the phone is real at this point, but considering the lukewarm reception the Storm 2 got, we’re surprised RIM hasn’t pushed harder to get the updated device to market — only thing we can figure is that the carrier partners keep sending it back for tweaks. Speaking of tweaks, BGR says that we can expect a phone with a 1.2GHz processor (same as the alleged Torch 2) along with a 3.7-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, dual-band WiFi with UMA support, mobile hotspot capability, and BlackBerry OS 6.1. Word has it there will be at least two versions released around the globe — codenamed Monaca and Monza — and it’s on track for a September release. That’s all well and good, though these specs aren’t going to blow anyone away as we approach Q4 ’11.
BlackBerry Storm 3 shows up again, tracking for September launch? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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David Sicore, Mozilla’s Director of Platform Engineering, told developers via a mailing list (which you can read here) that the final version of Firefox 4 should be ready to ship by the end of February, but not before another beta and a release candidate come out first.
Sicore mentioned that at…
Last year NASA awarded contracts to three teams at Lockheed Martin, Northrop Gurmman and Boeing to create a perfect plane for 2025, silent and with low fuel consumption. Here is what they came up with, which could enter service in 2025. More »
The price of the Samsung Galaxy Tab is now coming down – Looks like Best Buy has a sale going on until January 27th that sees the cost of the Bell Tab drop $100 to $549.99. We saw it fall to this price over the holidays with a Boxing Week promo and hopefully it’ll drop […]
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Your Windows password is your first line of defense against someone getting deeper into your system. It’s not uncrackable, but you can make it tougher by adding a space—which, oddly enough, Windows is cool with. More »
U.S. retailer Target said Thursday it is buying the store leases of Canadian discount retail chain Zellers from the U.S. investor who owns the Hudson’s Bay Co. assets for $1.8 billion.
Last month, Gawker published a series of messages that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had once written to a 19-year-old girl he’d become infatuated with. Gawker called the e-mails “creepy,” “lovesick,” and “stalkery”; I’d add overwrought, self-important, and dorky. (“Our intimacy seems like the memory of a strange dream to me,” went a typical line.) Still, given all we’ve heard about Assange’s puffed-up personality, the substance of his e-mail was pretty unsurprising. What really surprised me was his typography.
[more …]
Windows: Like many programs, Flash updates itself fairly often with new security patches, but updating is kind of a pain. Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater does it all in the background, without your involvement, so Flash actually stays up to date and secure. More »
The internet is burning up with the news that the zodiac has been rearranged. There’s a 13th sign, Ophiuchus, and people who think they’re Virgos are actually Leos. What happened here? We talked to the astronomer who caused the fuss. More »
Posted by David Tattersall, Associate Product Manager
A few months ago, we asked for your help to make Tasks better by voting on your top feature requests. We were blown away by the number of responses we received, with over 17,000 people participating and an overwhelming 185,000 votes.
Now, we’re preparing to tackle some of your top requests. In no specific order, here are the top five feature requests that emerged from the Tasks product ideas page:
So thanks for all the feedback and stay tuned for changes to Tasks throughout the year. In the meantime, we wish you a productive (and Tasks-filled) 2011!
So, in February IBM’s Watson will be in an official Jeopardy tournament-style competition with titans of trivia Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. That competition will be taped starting tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll get to know if a computer really can take down the greatest Jeopardy players of all time in “real time” as the show airs. It will be a historic event on par with Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov, and we’ll absolutely be glued to our seats. Today IBM and Jeopardy offered a quick teaser of that match, with the three contestants knocking out three categories at lightning speed. Not a single question was answered wrongly, and at the end of the match Watson, who answers questions with a cold computer voice, telegraphing his certainty with simple color changes on his “avatar,” was ahead with $4,400, Ken had $3,400, and Brad had $1,200.
Alright, a “win” for silicon for now, but without any Double Jeopardy or Final Jeopardy it’s hard to tell how well Watson will do in a real match. What’s clear is that he isn’t dumb, and it seems like the best chance the humans will have will be buzzing in before Watson can run through his roughly three second decision process and activate his buzzer mechanically. An extra plus for the audience is a graphic that shows the three answers Watson has rated as most likely to be correct, and how certain he is of the answer he selects — we don’t know if that will make it into the actual TV version, but we certainly hope so. It’s always nice to know the thought processes of your destroyer. Stand by for video of the match, along with an interview with David Gondek, an engineer on the project.
Update: Video of the match is up, check it out after the break!
Update 2: And we have the interview as well, along with a bit more on how Watson actually works.
Continue reading IBM’s Watson supercomputer destroys all humans in Jeopardy practice round (video!)
IBM’s Watson supercomputer destroys all humans in Jeopardy practice round (video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Here it is — the first ever picture of Andrew Garfield in his Spider-Man costume, looking as though he's feeling the Great Responsibility. What do you think? More »
