.::REALITYRECALL::.

We’re almost there, almost to the release of the Native Client we first got wind of last May. It is, basically, a way to run native code within a browser — low-end stuff capable of delivering performance good enough for 3D games and the like. Christian Stefansen, a Google Product Manager, said that the stuff is getting closer to delivery, that the team behind it has reached an “important milestone,” that code will be “as portable and secure as JavaScript.” It was of course security, or the lack thereof, that derailed Microsoft‘s plans for this sort of functionality in Internet Explorer via ActiveX, a stigma that technology has still yet to escape from. Will Native Client do better? Will Crysis ever be available in the Chrome Web Store? Could a Cr-48 run it anyway? Questions questions…

Google’s Native Client almost ‘ready for takeoff,’ ready to make ActiveX look visionary originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 10:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cellphone cameras are everywhere. Kids, adults—all armed to the teeth with capable cameras. With so many in so many hands, it's no surprise that a kayaker just captured the best photo ever of an infamous English sea monster using—you see where I'm going with this, yes?—his cellphone. More »

Philiana Ng
Things could be a lot worse.
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Full story at The Live Feed

Google’s been talking up its Social Search function for sometime, but up until now your friends’ tweets probably haven’t made it to the top of your search results — unless of course you’re besties with TMZ, and you’ve been searching the Miley Cyrus bong salvia rip again. Thankfully, it looks as if that could change with El Goog’s latest update to the socially minded search function, which now mixes updates from your contacts’ various online accounts, like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, in with the standard search fare — pulling them up from their previous position at the bottom of your results. Google’s also included a photo and annotation to show the origins of relevant links, and given you the ability to manage how you connect your accounts — either publicly through your profile or privately through your account. The new functions started rolling out yesterday, which means you could be seeing a whole lot more from those contacts you regretted friending in the first place. Isn’t social media a wonderful / disastrous thing?

Google Social Search update makes your friends more relevant, difficult to ignore originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember this? Still pretty crazy! But maybe a little less so after taking a look at David Goldman’s theory of how exactly this contraption was put together: More »

Put this awesome new Fringe wallpaper on your desktop, and remind yourself to watch the best science fiction show on television tonight. The show needs all the help it can get. Download the wallpaper here. More »

Cross posted on the Official Gmail blog

The Google Docs Viewer is used by millions of people every day to quickly view PDFs, Microsoft Word documents and PowerPoint presentations online. Not only is viewing files in your browser far more secure than downloading and opening them locally, but it also saves time and doesn’t clutter up your hard-drive with unwanted files.

Today we’re excited to launch support for 12 new file types:

• Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 / 2010 (.PPTX)
• Apple Pages (.PAGES)
• Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
• Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)
• Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
• Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
• PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
• TrueType (.TTF)
• XML Paper Specification (.XPS)

Not only does this round out support for the major Microsoft Office file types (we now support DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS and XLSX), but it also adds quick viewing capabilities for many of the most popular and highly-requested document and image types.

In Gmail, these types of attachments will now show a “View” link, and clicking on this link will bring up the Google Docs Viewer.

You can also upload and share these files in Google Docs, so that anyone can view the content using their browser.

And as always, the Google Docs Viewer is available for use on any website, with both a full Chrome and embedded option. More information can be found here.

Posted by: Anil Sabharwal, Product Manager

The YouTube video of 10-year-old Winnipegger Maria Aragon singing a cover of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way has gone viral – from 3,100 to more than 2 million views in less than 24 hours.

Stop looking at me, you custom fabricated human animatronic eye mechanism without a socket you! STOP LOOKING AT ME, GODDAMMIT! More »

Lenovo’s ready to get specific with dates now that Google’s got itself an honest to goodness tablet OS. A company spokesman said that its LePad tablet — first announced by that name back in June 2010 but previewed at CES all the way back in January 2010 — will ship in its home country of China in March before making its way to the global stage in June. Unfortunately, Lenovo isn’t saying anything about final specs or which countries are first on its list — we already knew it was coming to the US in 2011. The company’s also not talking price. Last time we saw LePad in January it was sporting Android 2.2 with a custom “LeOS” skin riding a 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor and 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 pixel display with a price just north of $500. Question is: will Lenny set it free with vanilla Honeycomb or will it feel compelled to apply the LeOS skin in order to avoid becoming just another Android tablet?

Lenovo LePad set for a global June LeLaunch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 02:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was the biggest video game of 2009. It sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide, was identified by Metacritic as the most critically acclaimed game of the year, racked up more than 50 Game of the Year awards and set a new bar for artistry and storytelling in a video game. I spent more Saturday nights than I care to admit playing this game, so I was pretty excited when I found out that Robh Ruppel, Art Director at Naughty Dog Studios, used Google SketchUp to help design the game’s look and feel.

We sat down with Robh to hear how he used SketchUp to visualize Uncharted 2’s environments.

To hear more of our conversation with Robh and see some of his work, check out the Google SketchUp blog.

Posted by Gopal Shah, SketchUp Marketing team

Google Chrome added its own built-in PDF reader awhile back, and Gmail’s now using this plugin to view PDFs instead of the somewhat slower Google Docs. You can enable the PDF viewer from about:plugins in Chrome. [Google Operating System] More »

via

Charlie Sheen’s time off for rehabilitation is coming to an end. “Two and A Half Men” will resume production on February 28, EW has learned.

If you think of baldness as a disease then you’ll want to pay close attention to some research that’s being conducted in collaboration with teams from UCLA, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and the Oregon Health and Sciences University. The group seems to have accidentally stumbled on the cure for baldness while researching the relationship between stress and the gastrointestinal tract. The teams were testing the effects of a peptide called “astressin-B” on mice genetically engineered to be hyper-stressed (and bald as a result). Miraculously, the bald mice regrew the lost hair and the respect of women who drive Minis. They even maintained the re-hair for up to four months after receiving just one dose a day for five consecutive days — that’s 20 percent of a mouse’s two-year lifespan. Oh sure, the regrowth was on their backs but we’re sure they’ll sort out your preference for location by the time this begins human trials.

Baldness cure is no reason to quit a’stressin originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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