Reality Bites
Windows/Linux (with Chrome): By default, Google Chrome exits the entire program when you’ve closed the last tab. Chrome extension Last Tab Standing prevents this from happening by opening an empty new tab page when you close your last tab. More »
Qilroy
Qilroy (pronounced as in ‘Kilroy was here’) allows you to start and join social networking conversations anywhere in the world.
To start using Qilroy simply type in a location (or let Qilroy discover it for you). You will then be presented with a stream of Twitter and Facebook messages from your location. You can join in any of the conversations by signing in with your Twitter account, your facebook account or a Qilroy account.
As well as the real-time stream of the latest messages you can view nearby messages on a Google Map. Using the map you can zoom into a location and view the latest messages posted from people at that location.
________________
Tech news site CNET reports that Google is testing voice calling directly inside Gmail, with free calls to the U.S. and Canada and very cheap international calls. Google hasn’t confirmed anything, but CNET’s screenshots (like the one above) look pretty convincing. The article also says its unclear whether the new feature would act as an extension of Google Voice (the popular one-number-to-rule-them-all service) or as a completely separate entity. The meaty part: More »
An official announcement from Mozilla has yet to make its way to the official beta site, but we can report that Mozilla have selected the 3rd build candidate as beta 4.
There will be one final beta version in September, before Mozilla signs off on Firefox 4 which is scheduled to…
The Virtual Autopsy Table from NorrköpingsVisualiseringscenter on Vimeo.
A consortium of Swedish tech and medical interests have banded together to develop a Virtual Autopsy Table. It’s a large touch-screen table that can utilize data from CT and MRI scans to allow doctors investigate all your hidden inside nook and crannies, scalpel-free.
The multi-touch interface allows doctors or researchers to virtually peel away various layers of body tissue as they digitally spelunk into the patient’s body. Of course, “Autopsy” is just one of the potential uses of the technology which will also aid in pre-surgical planning, examination, and educational uses.
Before the end of the year, three 3DTVs from Toshiba not requiring cumbersome glasses to get the full effects are expected, after using something similar to Sharp’s parallax barrier tech, as seen in the Nintendo 3DS. More »
Recognize those bits and bobs? By now you should. It’s Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Tab and it’s on the loose right now in China with ifanr to thank for this round of pics. Better yet, in addition to images that would seem to confirm Android 2.2 and a GT-P1000 model number, the site has also passed along the tipster’s own impressions. First off, and this should be no surprise to anyone who’s ever owned a Samsung product (eh hem, Galaxy S), the Galaxy Tab is very plasticky and much lighter than the iPad. Ifanr‘s tipster also confirms a 1,024 x 600 pixel resolution packed into that 7-inch display on a device that’s much thicker than the Dell Streak. Other “confirmed” specs are a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3G network, and built-in “ebook” app that’s supposedly one of the best the tipster’s ever used on an Android device. Of course, while this aligns with specs we heard about earlier, this device looks to be very much a prototype (where’s the silver ring around the bezel) so don’t take this as the final word on the matter, ok? One more image after the break.
Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 gets wild with Android 2.2
Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 gets wild with Android 2.2 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If you’ve ever accidentally triggered a system shutdown and then suddenly changed your mind, here’s the simple trick to tell Windows to abort the shutdown and let you get back to goofing off.
Note: This isn’t a new trick to most serious geeks, but it’s something useful that quite a few people don’t know.
So there you are, minding your own business and wasting time on Facebook, when Windows pops up a message telling you that you need to reboot right now… and you accidentally choose Restart now.
While you’re learning new stuff, you should check out our article on how to Prevent Windows Update from Forcibly Rebooting Your Computer, to make sure that Windows doesn’t automatically restart on you while you’re away from your keyboard.
To prevent Windows from shutting down on you, just type in shutdown /a into the Start menu search box, and then use the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut key combination to run the command as administrator—of course, if you’ve already disabled UAC you can just hit the Enter key.
If you already have an Administrator mode command prompt window open, you can just type it into there instead, if Windows hasn’t closed it already.
There you go. You’ve learned something new—or maybe you already knew it already, in which case I’m not sure why you are reading this line.
Now that’s a handy magic trick: Observe! This lot, empty but for the world’s largest augmented reality marker. Astonish! As a towering skyscraper flickers to life in its place. Wonder! At just how big a camera they must have needed. More »
Adding science to years of anecdotal claims, scientists find that dieters who drink two cups of water before meals lose more weight.
Alex Shane lives on a sailboat. One night he noticed his faucet running. No big deal for landlubbers. But boaters have to pump in every gallon of fresh H20 themselves, so wasting water is unacceptable. More »
The classic time-travel action/adventure trilogy is headed to home theaters this fall!
Man, you just can’t hide your gadgets from curious onlookers these days. Case in point: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab was innocently doing some testing rounds through Sydney recently, only to be happened upon by the Electronista scribes, who diligently videotaped it — seemingly without the knowledge of the tablet’s possessor. The video confirms what we already know, it’s a 7-inch tablet, it’ll be driven by an Android, and it looks very much like a giant cellphone. The Samsung employee described it as “awesome” and very different from the iPad’s experience, while the UI apparently looked very responsive. Go after the break to see for yourself.
Continue reading Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab gets spied in the wild (video)
Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab gets spied in the wild (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
A new feature in Google’s Picasa image management application, which is incredibly good at identifying faces, allows you to set Google Contacts photos for every contact you have a picture of in a couple clicks. More »
While R&D money has been thrown willy-nilly towards the pursuit
of touch-screen computers and rocket ships, researchers have all but
forgotten the lowly toothbrush. All, that is, but one intrepid Canadian
researcher who has developed a toothbrush that forgoes toothpaste by
utilizing electrons to foster natural chemical reactions to clean teeth.
And it can be run on the same amount of energy as a light-powered
calculator.
The concept has been in development for over 15 years by Dr. Kunio
Komiyama, a dentistry professor emeritus at the University of
Saskatchewan. The current version, the Soladey-J3X, is manufactured by
Japan-based Shiken company and is about to undergo real world tests. It
works by directing electrons to the bristles from a small solar panel at
the brush’s base. The electrons react with acids in the mouth to kill
bacteria and breakdown plaque. No toothpaste necessary.
It’s a small innovation but, if it is proven to work, this is just
the kind of innovation that can help help cut down on the carbon
footprint of electronic toothbrushes as well as from the industrial
creation of toothpaste (a $2.2 billion dollar market in the US alone).
It’s a good thing.
Via Physorg, source (Japanese) cnbeta.com.
Technically speaking, we already know what Toshiba’s Smart Pad will look like. It was waved around in Australia briefly, and these shots seem to match it perfectly, but corroboration for their validity is otherwise light on the ground. Should you opt to trust them, after the break you’ll find visual confirmation for the HDMI and USB ports already promised by Toshiba, along with a memory card reader and a pleasingly slender profile. The four touch buttons on its right side just scream Android as the operating system, and the whole thing again reminds us of the Compal tablet we saw back at CES and subsequently accused of being a Toshiba-in-waiting. Notebook Italia expects this bad boy to step out of the shadows properly at IFA this year, and we already know Toshiba is cranking hard on bringing us a tablet of some description by the end of October. Fun times ahead, eh?
Continue reading Toshiba Smart Pad imagery emerges, claims to be the real deal
Toshiba Smart Pad imagery emerges, claims to be the real deal originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The NHL will change its regular-season tiebreaking system for the 2010-11 season, ESPN.com reported Saturday.
AV-Test.org, a group with more than 15 years of experience in the area of anti-virus research and data security, has given Microsoft Security Essentials their certificate of approval. They tested 19 anti-virus and security applications in the second quarter this year, all but four certified: Trend Micro Internet Security Pro…
Storm damage and widespread flooding will cost the Saskatchewan government an extra $162 million this year, the Finance Ministry says.
Only months after Microsoft Office 2010, also known as Office 14, was released to manufacturing and two months after it was generally available in stores, details and screenshots of Office 15, or Office 2014 have leak onto the web.
The pre-alpha builds posted by Softpedia via Wzor, a Russian…
