This ancient bridge is engineered from living trees [Video]

In Meghalaya, India, locals have to deal with heavy rainfall and frequent flash floods along the many streams that supply water to the area. And yet this forbidding environment has given rise to an architectural practice that sounds like something out of environmental science fiction: for at least a thousand years, the people of this area have been building bridges using the root systems of rubber trees.

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Windows 8 ditches ’80s BIOS boot for streamline UEFI

Every time we reboot our computers, that scrolling code takes us right back to the days of War Games and Tab. Bringing us into the 21st century, Microsoft has decided to ditch the old boot by beautifying the whole experience with a graphical menu. Windows 8 will shift from the standard fugly BIOS system to a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) — giving users a high resolution logo and a graphical menu to gaze upon while powering up their PC. Besides just looking better, the menu lets you boot to a different disc, OS or USB drive using pretty pictures and words as prompts. If you’re into a little self-inflicted eye torture, you can always pull up the command prompt menu from nightmares past. Check out the throwback video tribute to the computers of yesteryear after the break.

Update: Just to clarify, Microsoft isn’t actually building flashing mobos, but it’s pushing towards UEFI to achieve “significantly richer capabilities” while booting.

Update: Microsoft isn’t actually building flashing mobos, but it’s using its considerable industry weight to push manufacturers towards UEFI to achieve “significantly richer capabilities” while booting.

Continue reading Windows 8 ditches ’80s BIOS boot for streamline UEFI

Windows 8 ditches ’80s BIOS boot for streamline UEFI originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android Movies now available in Canada! (Rent HD movies on your Android)


Canadians usually have to wait a while when it comes to new services – but this turnaround is impressive. Google announced “Movies on Android Market” in May at the Google IO conference, this gave Android users the ability to rent HD movies, but unfortunately it wasn’t available to Canadians. Today, Google has opened the door and directly taking on companies like Netflix. Canadians can now choose from a decent and solid selection of flicks, most range from $3.99 to $4.99 and there’s even a Canadian titles available under each category, examples are Action & Adventure, Animation & Cartoons, Comedy drama etc… Once you make a purchase Google gives you a 30-day “Rental Grant Period” and once you press play on the movie you have 48 hours to finish watching. Android devices that run OS 2.2 or higher is needed.

Check it out here from the Android Market

Related posts:

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  3. Gartner: Android and iOS “have the usability that consumers enjoy”, takes 62% of smartphone market

Eee Pad Slider shipping now, Archos 80 G9 hits pre-order status

Archos 80 G9

It’s practically raining tablets these days, and two more just hit the market. Of course, the Asus Eee Pad Slider and Archos 80 G9 were announced some time ago, but now you can finally handover your hard-earned paper for one of these Android 3.2-sporting devices. The Slider is already available from a variety of outlets, including New Egg and Amazon, starting at $479, while the G9 is up for pre-order direct from Archos starting at just $299. If you need a reminder of what to expect from the latest Honeycomb slates you should check out our hands-on coverage before hitting those source links and loading up your shopping cart.

[Thanks, BH]

Update: Well, looks like a few of those Archos 80 G9s are shipping earlier than expected. A reader wrote in to let us know he “pre-ordered” a trio of them yesterday and they actually arrived today. He sent in the receipt (which we won’t be sharing) along with a pile of photos and even a video as evidence. Check it out below.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Continue reading Eee Pad Slider shipping now, Archos 80 G9 hits pre-order status

Eee Pad Slider shipping now, Archos 80 G9 hits pre-order status originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe’s launching Flash Player 11, Air 3 bringing HD video and 3D gaming to all

While we’ve had access to Adobe’s Flash Player 11 in beta form for months, the company announced it will finally get official, along with Air 3, next month. Among the many new features included are support for accelerated 2D and 3D graphics with a claimed 1,000 times faster performance than Flash Player 10 and Air 2. That’s enough to enable “console-quality” gaming on both computers and connected TVs and on mobile devices (Android, iOS, Playbook) with a pre-release version of Flash 11 (a production release you can take on the go is expected in “the near future”). Other new options include allowing developers to package Air 3 along with their apps in a single install, HD video quality on multiple platforms including iOS, DRM for video rentals, 64-bit support and more. Check out Adobe’s pitch to developers with a press release and demo videos after the break, including a look at the hit iPad game Machinarium which was built with its tools.

Continue reading Adobe’s launching Flash Player 11, Air 3 bringing HD video and 3D gaming to all

Adobe’s launching Flash Player 11, Air 3 bringing HD video and 3D gaming to all originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Voice enters internal testing across Europe, international launch on the horizon?

Lather up your vocal cords, Europe, because it looks like Google Voice is on its way over. That’s according to the company’s European Director of Business Development, Jens Redmer, who told The Next Web yesterday that Google is taking “concrete action” to expand the service to the Old World. Redmer later confirmed that he’s currently conducting internal tests with Voice, adding that its voicemail transcription feature has performed particularly well within Europe. He stopped short, however, of offering a precise launch date, saying only that the service’s release would hinge upon legal and regulatory issues, rather than any technical obstacles. Now that the train has rolled into the testing phase, though, it may only be a matter of time before it arrives at the station.

Google Voice enters internal testing across Europe, international launch on the horizon? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By the end of this year 2 million Canadian households will have replaced their landline for a cellphone, report says

The pay phone used to be on every block temping you to drop in a quarter, or at last gasp requesting you to slide in a prepaid card. Now, this once common way of communicating is almost history and it seems the home phone will eventually follow a similar path.

A recent poll by StatsCan reported that 13% of households have ditched their home phone to exclusively use a cellphone, this number is up from 8% in 2008. In a report today by The Convergence Group they not only forecast the new entrants to capture 4 million subs by the end of 2014, but it’s also their belief that more Canadians will forgo a home phone and simply use a cellphone. The main reason is due to the continued decrease in monthly voice plans. It’s estimated that by the end of this year two million Canadian households will have replaced their landline for a cellphone. “Lower wireless voice prices are spurring wireless substitution, which we forecast will grow to 26% year- end 2014, from 15% year-end 2011″

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Source: Convergence Group
Via: CBC

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  1. Stats Can says the number of Canadian households relying on cellphones as their only telephone service stands at 6.4 per cent – up from 5.1 per cent last year. The agency says 72 per cent of households have at least one cellphone, up 5% in the past year.
  2. StatsCan: 78% of Canadian households have a cellphone
  3. Report: “New Entrants’ will have 4 million or 12% of Canadian wireless subs by year-end 2014″

Windows 8’s Metro UI Isn’t Very Good Without Touch, But That Doesn’t Really Matter [Opinion]

Windows 8’s new Metro UI is designed for tablets, but you’ll get it on every Windows 8 PC. Five days into using Windows 8 nonstop, I’ve made up my mind: despite Microsoft’s efforts, Metro really isn’t that enjoyable to use with a mouse and a keyboard. Luckily, that’s not going to stop Windows 8 from kicking butt, whether or not it’s finger-friendly. Here’s why. More »







comScore: iPhone 4 most popular smartphone in Canada, Android now has 19% market share


The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) had their “Technology Showcase” in Ottawa today, I attended and there was some good info. A great deal of the focus was around mobile payments and healthcare. Something that’s always been missing for those interested in the Canadian mobile scene are Canadian-only stats. A small glimmer of hope came a few months ago when marketing research firm comScore released March statistics. RIM was the runaway leader with 42% of the smartphone OS market share in Canada.

Today, Bryan Segal, VP of Sales at comScore, hammered the lunchtime crowd with some very welcomed stats. His presentation was titled “The Canadian Mobile State of the Nation” and it’s based July 2011 data, representing 20,111,000 subscribers. Here’s some takeaways:

Operator Share:
Rogers: 27%
Bell: 25%
TELUS: 25%
Koodo Mobile: 4%
Virgin Mobile: 4%
Fido: 4%
Other: 11%

Apple iPhone dominates in Canada – at least in the top 10 handsets. Installed base and basically every age group. comScore states that the top handset is the iPhone 4 16GB version with 763,320 of them active, followed by RIM’s BlackBerry Bold 9700 with 420,558. In 3rd place is the talk and text LG Rumour 2 with 373,606. Breaking it down, Apple has four of the top 10 and makes up 1,776,697 of installed top 10 devices, while RIM has 1,564,868. As for age group, the iPhone is number 1 in every group.

Probably the most exciting slide is the smartphone OS, which is very telling from their March 2011 stats. Six months later comScore is reporting that Canadians are shifting towards Android… RIM falls 4% to 38% market share, Apple stays the same at 31% but Google’s Android picked up and gained more adopters and now has 19% market share in Canada (up from 12%). What’s even more surprising the leader of Android in Canada – by a huge margin – is HTC with a massive install base of 78%, followed by Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung and LG – personally I thought Samsung would be first, or at least second as they had great success with the Galaxy lineup.




Related posts:

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  2. Report: Android to capture almost 50% market share by the end of 2012
  3. ABI Research: Android captured 46.4% of the Q2 smartphone market share