Reality Bites
According to the research of one Remco Suer, mosquitoes might somehow be attracted to the bacteria in your sweat-soaked feet. That means finding a way to isolate these odors could reduce their nuisance and even slow the spread of disease. More »
Gigabyte has decided to simplify matters for those who want the power of an SSD in their desktop, but don’t want to deal with the hassle of buying and connecting one. The company’s new Z68XP-UD3-iSSD (catchy, no?) motherboard comes with a 20GB Intel SSD 311 mounted right on it. It’s not clear if you can simply dump files on it like a normal drive — what it can do, however, is use Intel’s Smart Response tech to cache frequently accessed data, like your OS, to improve performance. Essentially, it turns any hard disk you connect to the system into a hybrid drive with a much larger reserve of flash storage, which should sound somewhat familiar. The board also features the ability to switch between discrete and built-in graphics thanks to Lucid Logix’s Virtu. The rest of the features are pretty standard fare: USB 3.0, a pair of 16x PCI-E slots, and 6GB SATA connections. The latest Z68 board from Gigabyte will go on sale early in June and, while we don’t have a price, we’ve done a little (PR) embedding of our own after the break.
Continue reading Gigabyte bolts an SSD to a motherboard (so you don’t have to)
Gigabyte bolts an SSD to a motherboard (so you don’t have to) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 May 2011 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Fancy bars and experienced bartenders will tell you that in some drinks, the ice makes all the difference. Some bars even serve ice in spheres or spears to maximize cooling without diluting your drink. If you can’t afford a fancy ice-shaping machine, you can start improving your home bartending skills by just making better ice. Here’s how. More »
ASUS’ Eee Pad Transformer might still be difficult to track down, but at least all systems are go for the company’s other Honeycomb tablet, the Eee Pad Slider. The company confirmed today that the 10.1-inch tablet, originally slated for May, is “coming soon” — no word, of course, on whether it will ditch Tegra 2 for an Atom Z670 CPU, as rumored. Next up, ASUS, give us a price, capiche? Last time we checked, the company was estimating it would cost between $500 and $800, so your guess is as good as ours as to how sweet a value this will be. Hopefully, we’ll get to see this elusive tab again at Computex next week, but in the meantime, hit the source links for some tightly cropped teaser shots of it running Honeycomb.
ASUS Eee Pad Slider going on sale ‘soon,’ price is still anyone’s guess originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 21:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Liliputing | 
ASUS (Facebook), TechInStyle.tv | Email this | Comments
The Saskatchewan man who shot his daughter’s boyfriend to death should spend 11 years in prison for the crime, a prosecutor argues at Kim Walker’s sentencing hearing.
In this week’s app roundup: leafs, identified; music, voice recognized; Jackass, documented; keyboards, personalized; BBC News, Androidified; Amazon free apps, notified; food, stylized; and much, much more. More »
Facial reconstructions of the skeleton could determine once and for all who is Mona Lisa.
Rock legend Robbie Robertson and actor Michael J. Fox were among 43 people invested with the Order of Canada at a ceremony at the Governor General’s residence, Rideau Hall, in Ottawa.
Hurt Locker lawsuit targets a record-breaking 24,583 IP addresses originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google Chrome is a favorite among power users in no small part due to its innovative experimental features (many of which are eventually integrated into the stable browser). For our final installment of the best of Google Labs, we’re taking a look at the best experimental, advanced features you can add to Google Chrome. More »
The image above is the most complete map of our local universe to date. It took more that ten years to create, has 43,000 galaxies and extends out 380 million light years from the earth. The 3D coordinates of each galaxy was recorded so the raw data could potentially be used to build a realistic 3D model of the universe. Throw in some holographic technology and you have something straight from Star Trek. More »
A few years back, the Department of Transportation recommended that auto makers give car owners a heads up when they slip event data recorders — also known as “black boxes” — into new models. Now, it looks like the department is considering taking its policy a step (or several) further: a memo reveals that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to propose later this year that all new passenger vehicles have EDRs. So far, heavy-duty vehicles appear to be excluded, and either way, it’s unclear how many years auto makers might have to work black boxes into their future models. Interestingly, when we asked a DoT staffer for clarification, he reminded us that the agency hasn’t issued a press release and said he wasn’t sure where Wired and other outlets were getting their information. Indeed, the Transportation Department hasn’t proposed such a law yet, though it’s pretty safe to say it’s at least pondering it. Hit the source link to pore over the 197-page doc for yourselves (tip: we suggesting paying particular attention to page 54). [Warning: PDF source link]
Transportation Department to propose mandatory black boxes in passenger vehicles? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 14:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink The Detroit News, Wired | Department of Transportation | Email this | Comments
Microsoft has been hitting the streets hard over the past year with their new Windows Phone platform. Growth has been less than impressive, mainly due to the adoption of iOS and Android. No worries from Microsoft though as they are raking in the dough from the success of Google’s Android OS. According to Citi analyst Walter Pritchard the reason is because HTC settled a patent infringement case and agreed to pay Microsoft $5 per Android handset they sell. It’s estimated that HTC has sold 30 million Android devices (and growing) which totals a whopping $150 million.
Pritchard also notes that Microsoft has sold 2 million Windows Phone licenses with an estimated license fee of $15 each comes out to a revenue of $30 million… which means that Microsoft has made five times more income from Android than from their own Windows Phone.
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Gallery: Lenovo IdeaPad K1
Lenovo IdeaPad K1 tablet hits some online retailers, still not buy-able originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ofcom, the UK independent communications regulator, has stated that “contracts will be limited to a maximum of 24 months”… basically banning 3-year mobile phone contracts. In addition, “consumers and businesses must also be offered a choice of contract lasting no longer than 12 months”. The reason for the change is because “Shorter contracts are likely to promote competition and enable consumers to switch providers more easily to benefit from better prices and services”.
New entrants like WIND, Mobilicity and Public Mobile have all come into market offering customers no-contracts with the hopes of ridding “Canadians from the incumbent providers’ ‘death grip’”. Carriers such as Rogers, Bell and TELUS all have 3-year contracts that offer customers who sign up a significant handset price reduction. Currently there are no plans to have the long 3-year contract option removed.
The United States has a max 2-year contract term and now our friends/family in the United Kingdom followed… it’s now Canada’s turn.
Source: Ofcom
Via: IntoMobile
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Continue reading NASA asteroid mission could explain how life began (and how ours might end)
NASA asteroid mission could explain how life began (and how ours might end) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Flipping through the latest issue of Boston Home, I was struck by the beauty of this “invisible” tub. Made from a thick sheet of glass inserted between the two tile walls, it’s so simple, yet I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Previously mentioned SwiftKey got a big update today, in the form of a completely new app named SwiftKey X. The app’s goal of faster, more accurate typing through AI-driven autocorrect and text-prediction hasn’t changed, but its methods, interface, installation, and speed definitely have. Primarily, SwiftKey X users have the option to allow the keyboard to learn from their interaction on social accounts by sending typing data back to be crunched in the cloud, and returned as text-prediction patterns. More »
A jury has found 54-year-old Kim Walker of Yorkton, Sask., guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of his daughter’s boyfriend eight years ago.
