Reality Bites
I want to ride the Mars Rover Curiosity. Sure, at a maximum of 90 meters (300 feet) per hour it would be a glacial ride, but the bloody thing is going to Mars. Where have I been lately? To the dog park two blocks from my house, that’s where. Plus, there’s no dog poop on Mars. More »
Dell’s Windows 7 Rosemount tablet may not make it to the beach with you this summer, but that doesn’t mean the company won’t have an Android alternative when it’s time to start applying sunblock. According to Forbes, the 10-inch Android-powered slate we got an oh-so-quick glimpse of at CES should be ready to hit the market somewhere around mid-June, just a little bit later than we’d previously heard. The publication also hints that the tablet heretofore referred to as the Streak 10 may not retain that moniker when it’s time to launch, but it will most definitely be running Honeycomb, though we’re not sure if it’ll keep the Stage UI. Either way, summer 2011 is shaping up to be the season of Honeycomb, and we’re excited to see just what each manufacturer will do to differentiate themselves in the increasingly-crowded space.
Dell Streak 10 to launch mid-June with Honeycomb, possible name change in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve already seen it turn up on a few retail sites, but Samsung has now finally officially confirmed the launch details for its WiFi-only Galaxy Tab. It will be available online and at retail stores across the US on April 10th for $349.99. Specs otherwise remain the same as the 3G version, including a 7-inch 1024 x 600 display, 32GB of internal storage (with a microSD card slot for up to an additional 32GB), rear and front-facing cameras, and Android 2.2 with support for Flash 10.1 — from the looks of things, it’s also only available with a white back. Full press release is after the break.
Continue reading Samsung confirms WiFi-only Galaxy Tab availability: April 10th, $350
Samsung confirms WiFi-only Galaxy Tab availability: April 10th, $350 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Meal Snap is a neat app that photographs your food, uploads the picture, and then replies with a calorie count in just a few seconds. And it works surprisingly well. More »
A 75-year old lady from Georgia (the country, not the state) has perpetrated an impressive feat of international sabotage in what seems to have been an accident of extremely bad luck. While foraging for copper wire near her home in the village of Ksani, the unnamed septuagenarian managed to come across a critical fiber optic cable, one responsible for serving internet connectivity to “90 percent of private and corporate internet users in Armenia” and some in her own country as well. Her swift strike at the heart of said bit-transferring pipeline resulted in all those folks being thrown offline for a solid 12 hours, while the Georgian Railway Telecom worked to find and correct the fault. In spite of her relatively benign motivations, the lady now faces three years in prison for the damage she caused. We’d say all’s well that ends well, but this doesn’t actually seem like a very happy ending at all.
Elderly Georgian lady disconnects Armenian internet for half a day… by accident originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
After unveiling his ‘Necker Nymph‘ submersible last year, Richard Branson is taking his underwater adventures to the next level, with ‘Virgin Oceanic‘ — an initiative to explore the deepest parts of the world’s oceans.
Over the next two years, Branson hopes to penetrate the deepest points of the world’s five oceans with a fleet of high-tech toys, including a one-manned submarine and a 125-foot catamaran, which will serve as the sub’s mothership. Chris Welsh will pilot the first dive into the Mariana Trench, later this year, with Branson slated to take the helm during the sub’s second mission, to the Puerto Rico Trench.
If all goes to plan, the team should break some world records, and do some scientific research along the way.
Richard Branson to Penetrate Ocean’s Depths With ‘Virgin Oceanic’ Mission originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Royal Canadian Mint unveils its latest collector coins commemorating the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
If you’re a heavy user of Google Docs but don’t like constantly checking the site or email for new docs that are shared with you, Google Docs Notifier puts that recent activity handily in your Windows system tray. More »
Sneaky leaked screengrabs of BBM 6.0 have arisen, showing a questionable user’s photo and “personal message,” but more importantly what we can expect in the next OS 6.1 update. More »
With all the different devices out there running different versions of Android, the rooting process can be a little different for every phone. Here’s a one-stop guide that should get you up and running with root access, no matter what device you have. More »
Cameras that look back at us are becoming commonplace—and that's a good thing! FaceTime is a lot of fun! Except if it's glitchily taking secret pictures of us without us knowing, as some iPhone users are claiming. More »
Although some people have blue eyes, and many babies are born with particularly deep blue irises, no one actually has blue pigment in their irises. They’re just a trick of the light. More »
Windows only: If you’ve managed to delete important photos, crush a partition, or otherwise go wiping out data where you weren’t supposed to, add MiniTool’s free data recovery app to your list of last resorts. It’s a powerful tool for finding data on Windows systems, working or otherwise. More »
We know how Mozilla must feel. It spends every waking hour tweaking and perfecting Firefox to eke out as much performance as possible, only to see it all ruined by lousy add-ons that weigh the browser down like a block of cement. It’s apparently now had enough, however, and has gone as far as to publish a list that exposes the worst offenders. As of this writing, the two biggest drags on the browser by far are the FoxLingo translator / dictionary and Firebug developer tool add-on which, according to Mozilla, each make the browser 74 percent slower to start up. That list is just part of a broader crackdown on poor performing add-ons. Mozilla says it’s also instituting automated performance testing of the top 100 add-ons in its gallery, and that it will begin reaching out to developers directly to get them to improve performance (and even provide them with some new tools to help out). Hit up the link below to see how some of your favorite add-ons stack up.
Mozilla shames developers with list of slow performing Firefox add-ons originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tim Hortons says it will raise the prices of some items on its menu next Monday.
Ever wonder how we’re going to create humans who can breathe underwater? Of course you do. Now a study published this week about how algae insinuate themselves into salamander embryos (and DNA) could provide the beginnings of an answer. More »
Fring’s testing out a mobile video party line, connecting four people at once, on video, for free. Free! The app will eventually be available on Android and (pending approval) iOS soon for everyone, but for now you can sign up to be a beta tester here. Presumably the only requirements are a smartphone and at least three friends. [Fring] More »
SpaceX promised something big, and it’s now delivered. The company today revealed its plans for the Falcon Heavy, which promises to be the “world’s most powerful rocket.” Just how powerful is that? SpaceX says the 22-story rocket will be able to carry satellites or spacecraft weighing over 53 metric tons (or 117,000 pounds) into low earth orbit, which is nearly twice what the Space Shuttle is able to carry. What’s more, this isn’t just a far off promise. SpaceX says the rocket will be “ready” sometime next year, and the first test flight is planned for 2013. The rocket’s sheer size isn’t it’s only selling point, though — it also promises to drastically reduce the cost of sending things into space, with each launch expected to cost “only” $100 million. Head on past the break for a taste of what’s in store.
Continue reading SpaceX reveals plans for world’s most powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy
SpaceX reveals plans for world’s most powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Interesting:
From Wikipedia:
Robert Plutchik also created a wheel of emotions. This wheel is used to illustrate different emotions compelling and nuanced. Plutchik first proposed his cone-shaped model (3D) or the wheel model (2D) in 1980 to describe how emotions were related.
He suggested 8 primary bipolar emotions: joy versus sadness; anger versus fear; trust versus disgust; and surprise versus anticipation. Additionally, his circumplex model makes connections between the idea of an emotion circle and a color wheel. Like colors, primary emotions can be expressed at different intensities and can mix with one another to form different emotions.
As we all know, the beauty of Android stems from the fact that you get a wide variety of choices when it comes to devices and interface, though the latter can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Luckily, users who are fed up with their bloated Android UI but don’t want to (or can’t) mess around with ROMs now have another easy solution. Joining the handful of Android launchers is SPB’s Shell 3D app, which installs as a replacement (but removable) home screen that comes with some nifty widgets (radio switches, backlight dimmer, weather forecast with a 3D chart, clock with over 60 skins, world time with a 3D globe, etc.) and resizeable folders.
As you can see above, the highlight of the show here is a cool-looking 3D carousel for switching between up to 16 panels, and you can trigger it by either tapping or horizontally dragging the bottom-center button. Whilst in carousel mode, you can also rearrange the panels, change their colors, or flick away excess panels. All of this required no manual reading on our end, so it’s safe to say that this is a pretty intuitive app. Read on to see what the performance is like.
Gallery: App review: SPB Shell 3D for Android
Continue reading App review: SPB Shell 3D for Android
App review: SPB Shell 3D for Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.