Reality Bites
It turns out that Internet Explorer 9, in its 64-bit version, apparently has a different, slower JavaScript engine than its 32-bit counterpart. We didn’t know that when starting our browser tests, but we’ve now updated our tests with IE 9 32-bit results, at least in the JavaScript and CSS categories. Doing so gave IE 9 32-bit an edge in at least one category. Thanks to the eagle-eyed commenters and Twitter correspondents who pointed this out. More »
Previously the American Academy of Pediatrics said children more than one year old could switch to forward-facing seats.
Today we’re releasing a bunch of new features in Google Drawings, designed to make editing easier and more collaborative.
Presence + Revision history
Google Docs has always been designed to make it easy to work on documents together. We’re making that easier in drawings by introducing two new features. First, we’ve added presence highlights around shapes. The color that you see beside a person’s name in the sidebar is now used to highlight the shapes which that person has selected. In the example below, mfrederick is editing the triangle at the edge of the drawing.
When you’re working on drawings together it’s really helpful to see who made which change and to be able to go back to previous versions. That’s just what we’ve added. We took the new revisions interface from documents and spreadsheets and brought it to the drawings editor. Now it’s easy to see all the edits that went into your drawing. You’ll also see the full revision history for any drawings that you’ve already created.
Colors are a special type of formatting because in drawings you can choose any color value you want. This feature is nice because it lets you make your drawings just so, but it can be frustrating because you need to remember any custom color codes in order to make sure that different shapes had the same colors. You can now solve that problem with the format painter, but we’ve also made matching colors even easier by adding a recent color palette. The palette shows you up to eight custom colors that you’ve used in your drawings.
Posted by: Misha Leder, Software Engineer
You wake. You eat. You work. You read a few articles on Engadget. You sleep. You attempt to repeat. Life’s not always quite so simple, but the mesmerizing image shown above does a great job of showcasing the patterns that seem to keep us all on track. This particular piece is entitled Sleep Patterns, crafted by one Laurie Frick, and was created by converting EEG traces into watercolor. There’s plenty more where this came from in the source link below, but we’d caution you not to fall into some sort of eternal loop of checking back daily — unless, of course, you’re looking to disrupt your own patterns for the sake of art.
Visualized: life’s most basic patterns displayed as color-coded charts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
New Scientist | 
Edward Cella | Email this | Comments
In an ideal world, your Android’s apps, their settings, and your system settings would automatically back up to the cloud so that if you lost your phone, bought a new one, or installed a new custom ROM, setting up a fresh device with everything in place would be a piece of cake. The good news: This utopian Android backup actually is possible. Here’s how to set it up. More »
Chrome 11 goes beta with speech-to-text capabilities originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink TechCrunch | Google Chrome Blog, Chrome Beta (download) | Email this | Comments
On Monday, Google expressed its belief that its email users in China were experiencing “a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail.” Now, as is par for this thorny course, the Chinese state has come out with a terse rebuttal, saying simply that “this is an unacceptable accusation.” The retort was, says the BBC, part of a regular news conference on Tuesday and it doesn’t appear that any more time was spent on the subject. Which is odd since most people would tend to act to prevent something they see as unacceptable — but then we suppose China already has a pretty long list of folks it’d like to shut up, Google’s just gonna have to get in line and wait its turn. There’s a good citizen.
China, predictably, denies Google’s accusations of Gmail tampering originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | BBC | Email this | Comments
We noted Firefox 3’s spectacular eight million downloads in a day when discussing the recent launch of IE9, and that mark shall live on as a record for another day. Firefox 4 looks to have a had a thoroughly successful debut, going past the five million milestone within the first 24 hours of its release, but it hasn’t quite been able to overshadow its predecessor. And before you go comparing its numbers to the latest Internet Explorer, do be cognizant that FF4 released on a wider set of platforms, rendering direct stat comparisons a little dicey. That’s not stopping StatCounter, however, who notes that the latest Firefox already has a 1.95 percent share of the browser market, almost exactly double what IE9 can claim so far. Better get working on that XP compatibility, eh Microsoft?
Update: Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs has the final stats for the first 24 hours and it’s actually even higher than we thought: 7.1 million downloads around the globe. That’s in addition to three million users already running the release candidate for Firefox 4, which turned into the final release. Good work!
Firefox 4 clocks up 7.1 million downloads within first 24 hours, fails to beat Firefox 3 record (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Mozilla | Email this | Comments
What happens in this picture is absolutely beyond me. All I know is that it was taken in Italy, and the goats in case (Alpine Ibex) are climbing the walls of the dam to lick the salt off the construction. Click on the picture to make it larger.
Picture source
The keyword here is obviously “considers,” but it looks like Japan’s space agency, JAXA, is indeed seriously thinking about using artificial intelligence to improve their rocket launches. As JAXA scientist Yasuhiro Morita explains, as opposed to simply being “automatic” as rockets are today, an “artificially intelligent” rocket would be able to keep watch on its condition, determine the cause of any malfunction, and potentially even fix it itself. According to JAXA, that would not only make rocket launches more efficient, but more cost-effective as well given the reduced manpower needs. That’s not the only new measure being explored to cut costs, though — as Space.com reports, JAXA’s new Epsilon launch vehicle is also being built using fewer, but more advanced components, which promises to let it be moved to the launch pad nearly fully assembled. It’s currently set to launch sometime in 2013, although it’s not yet clear how much it will actually be relying on AI if such a system is put in place.
Japan’s space agency considers using rockets with artificial intelligence originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Space.com | Email this | Comments
Now that it’s received its big US debut courtesy of Sprint and under the name EVO View 4G, HTC’s Flyer tablet is free to, um, fly under the radar with a WiFi version this spring, exclusively through Best Buy. Specs on the Flyer are somewhat atypical for the current crop of Android tablets, as it opts for Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb and a 1.5GHz Qualcomm chip intead of the popular Tegra 2 dual-core solution. That, and it’s a 7-inch tablet with a capacitive stylus and an aluminum unibody shell. Notably, this WiFi-centric variant looks set to beat the WiMAX-capable EVO View (which Sprint expects in the summer) to market, so we’ll be keeping a very curious eye on pricing as and when it is announced. For now, we have a retailer and a rapidly dwindling release window. Oh, and a press release, which you’ll find just past the break, augmented with a neat little promo video.
[Thanks, Michael]
Continue reading HTC’s WiFi-only Flyer launching exclusively with Best Buy ‘this spring’
HTC’s WiFi-only Flyer launching exclusively with Best Buy ‘this spring’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Boeing took a huge — both literally and figuratively — step in the development of the largest commercial jet in its history when the 747-8 took to the skies for the first time. Granted, the airframe’s cargo version has already logged over 1,600 hours up in the air, but putting the 250-foot passenger plane with a 224-foot wingspan — 19 feet longer and 13 feet wider than the gargantuan 747-400 — through its first few paces without incident is no small feat. The 747-8 borrows some of the 787 Dreamliner’s weight-trimming tech for better fuel efficiency and lower operational costs than older 747s and jumbo jet competition from Airbus. We just hope it didn’t inherit the 787’s penchant for delays as well. If all goes according to plan, the new jetliner should complete the 600 test flight hours needed for FAA certification in time to deliver the first 747-8s to customers by the end of the year. We doubt airlines will use the plane’s extra space to give us shlubs riding coach any more legroom, but at least its improved all-around efficiency should make flying a little cheaper. PR’s after the break.
Boeing’s biggest jet takes flight, promises lowest ‘seat mile’ cost of any commercial airliner originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Wired | | Email this | Comments
Google scores a patent for its ‘Doodles’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Slashdot | USPTO | Email this | Comments
It’s been in limited beta since July and hit the App World a few weeks ago but if you didn’t grab it then, go download BlackBerry Protect for your Blackberry now. You can locate your BB on a map, set a password, wipe it, make it ring loud or display a message and even wirelessly backup your phone’s contents. All for free! [BlackBerry App World] More »
We were pretty sure Acer’s Iconia Tab would be riding Big Red — you know, given the LTE modem and Verizon apps on board — but it looks like the company will also support America's GSM juggernaut with a "4G" radio of some sort. AT&T just announced that the Acer Iconia Tab A501 will bring the 10.1-inch Honeycomb form factor and dual-core 1GHz Tegra 250 processor to its network sometime in Q2, giving the carrier a Android rival to Sprint's HTC EVO View 4G, T-Mobile’s LG G-Slate, and of course Verizon’s Motorola Xoom. How many Benjamins will it take to bring one home? Now that, my friends, is the question. You can join us in failing to find the answer in a press release below.
Continue reading AT&T nabs Acer Iconia Tab A501, expect it in the summer months
AT&T nabs Acer Iconia Tab A501, expect it in the summer months originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
This is a bit of good news: The Tokyo Electric Power Company has managed to connect power lines to all the reactors at their Fukushima nuclear power plant. This doesn’t mean that power has been reestablished in its entirety, however. More »
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen a new DisplayLink-equipped secondary monitor, but it looks as if the drought is ending today. Toshiba has quietly pushed out a new 14-inch mobile USB display, weighing just 2.8 pounds and retailing for a freakishly affordable $199.99. That sum gets you 1366 x 768 pixels, 220 nits of brightness — if you plug in an optional AC adapter — a 400:1 contrast ratio, 16 millisecond response time and native support for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. As these things go, a simple USB connection is all that’s required to provide basic power to the unit and send the signal, and it seems to be shipping now for those who’ve outgrown their 7-inch Mimo.
Toshiba outs 14-inch, DisplayLink-powered USB mobile monitor for $200 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Toshiba | Email this | Comments
The recent exoplanet spotting by NASA’s Kepler probe revealed there might be more than a million Earth-like planets in our galaxy. Now a new estimate says as many as 1 out of every 37 sun-like stars has an Earth-like world. More »
It’s been quite a month for browsers, with Internet Explorer and Firefox both dropping big new versions, and Chrome and Opera continuing their regular improvements. We tested all these browsers’ startup and tab-loading times, JavaScript powers, and memory use for your fast-minded enjoyment. Update: With 32-versus-64-bit IE 9 results. More »
“My dear, you dont seem to realize that all there is in life is love. That’s all there is….
