Reality Bites
Google today launched a new Gmail Labs feature called Apps Search that, when enabled, lets you search both your inbox and Google Docs straight from Gmail. More »
We can’t say Digitimes is overflowing with details on Toshiba’s long rumored Android tablet, but it looks like we should be marking our planners for a September or October release. As we’ve heard before the 10-inch tablet will run some version of Android and will be powered by a NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. The early fall timing surely does make sense to us considering we just heard from NVIDIA this week that many of its partners are planning to release Tegra 2 devices in that time frame. Again, no real details on what Toshiba’s planning here in terms of pricing and specs, but here’s hoping it’s significantly less expensive than that new, fancy dualscreen Libretto W100.
Note: That’s not the actual Toshiba Android tablet up there — it’s just a poor Photoshop of the Toshiba JournE with a Android screen.
Toshiba’s Android tablet said to be coming in September or October originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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High school boys, rejoice! Perhaps it was Clinton’s infamous sex-ed lesson that oral sex isn’t technically sex, but whatever the reason, a new study says oral sex is occurring a lot more often.
After months of preparation in buying and investing in online video game companies, Google will be launching its very own games platform for its Chrome Internet browser.
It’s shocking how many students put up with crappy, school-provided email and webmail clients. Break free of whichever software had the lowest campus-wide price and use whatever desktop or web-based client you’d like to check your .edu mail. More »
Microsoft’s Arc Touch Mouse revealed? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ll be honest: we thought SSDs would suck down most of platter-based storage’s milkshake by now — that magnetic disks would follow tapes into obscurity. Alas, SSDs are still niche items, and Toshiba is doing all it can to keep them that way, demonstrating a successful prototype of a new storage technique called bit-pattern recording that currently generates a storage density of 2.5Tb per square inch. That’s about five times more dense than the company’s current offerings, achieved by placing individual bits onto lithographed “islands” of magnetic material. This protects the charge of the individual bits and allows those sectors to be much smaller. Toshiba suggests we won’t see these until 2013, but now we’re left wondering what’s next… can engineers stuff even more bits onto these things?
Toshiba demonstrates successful BPR HDD, is 2.5Tb per inch a platter’s last stand? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by Jonathan Sposato, Product Management
Today, we released the latest version of Picasa with lots of cool new features but there’s one item that we’re particularly excited about.
Face movies create a movie based around one person both figuratively and literally. Instead of the usual transition from one photo to the next, the images align themselves to the face in the photo. This creates an extremely smooth viewing experience which allows the person in the photos to remain the focus rather than the transition effects themselves.
Words cannot adequately describe this feature, it’s better to see it for yourself:
Some more items in this release:
Picnik integration
A few weeks ago we announced the integration of Picnik, the powerful online photo editor, into Picasa Web Albums. We’re now excited to bring this same functionality to Picasa. You can now use Picnik’s rich editing tools and effects from right inside of Picasa and see where your creativity takes you.
Batch upload from Picasa to Picasa Web Albums
With this new version of Picasa we’re also fulfilling a popular request: batch upload from Picasa right to your Picasa Web Albums account. In addition to uploading multiple photos, you can now upload entire albums, all at the same time, plus remove albums from your Picasa Web account, change the upload size, visibility and sync state of photos that are already online.
Metadata updates
For those of us who enjoy the technical side of photography, we have some nice metadata (information stored inside of your image file) updates too, including support of Color Management. Picasa will now read the metadata from your photo and present the photo in the correct color space, thus improving the way your photo displays on your monitor or TV screen.
Picasa also has expanded support of XMP, which will be presented in an easy and accessible way alongside your image in the Properties panel. You can find people, places and tags in this space as well.
We’re also adding a few other under-the-hood updates such as improved support of external drives, increased efficiency of CPU usage, and improved settings when sharing with your Gmail contact groups.
This latest release is in English only for now, but we plan to roll out additional languages soon. Download Picasa today and, as always, feedback and questions are welcome in our forums.
Earlier today you may have heard about Windows Live Essentials beta 2 being released. With this update, Windows Live Messenger received a new feature which people have been craving for a while: the ability to chat with Facebook friends. This has been expected as in the previous beta there was…
Quebec’s highest court has acquitted former NHL hockey star Guy Lafleur, earlier convicted of giving contradictory testimony at his son’s sexual assault and forcible confinement trial.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Tuesday rejected a hostile takeover bid from the world’s largest mining company as “grossly inadequate.”
Microsoft has just released the next major version of the Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta suite. The package comes with a number of improvements, bug fixes and added features.
Microsoft originally released a Windows Live Essentials beta on June 24. Essentials includes the popular programs Windows Live Movie Maker, Mail, Writer,…
We’ve known that proper Xbox Live gaming (powered by XNA) was coming to Windows Phone 7 devices, but we’d yet to see any of that thumb-spraining goodness in action besides a brief demo and a few developer videos. Well, Microsoft has finally come clean with details about its launch strategy for the platform, and from where we sit, it’s definitely looking pretty promising. First off, the company has announced a full list of launch titles for WP7 handsets, including some familiar names and franchises like Castlevania, Halo: Waypoint, Star Wars, Crackdown, and Guitar Hero, alongside a handful of newer properties like the ultra-cute ilomilo, produced in-house by Microsoft Game Studios. In total, the company will launch with over 60 game titles, with new offerings appearing every week in the Xbox Live Marketplace, just like its big brother console version. We’ve got all the details, a full list of the launch titles, and our hands-on preview after the break — so read on to get the scoop!
Xbox Live launch titles for Windows Phone 7 finally revealed, we’ve got the full preview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Parents in the town of Barrie, Ontario, Canada, want their school district to disable its Wi-Fi network because, they claim, it’s making their kids sick. According to a report by The Canadian Press, parents say that, after the district went wireless, kids from 14 different schools …
Continue reading Ontario Parents Say School Wi-Fi Networks Make Kids Sick
Filed under: Web, Back to School
Ontario Parents Say School Wi-Fi Networks Make Kids Sick originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A school board in central Ontario is defending its decision to keep wireless internet access in classrooms despite fears from some parents that radiation from Wi-Fi transmissions is making kids sick.
Terrific news, laptop shoppers. Toshiba’s concept-turned-commercial Libretto W100 is now on sale in the US of A, but there’s no telling how long it’ll remain in stock. We heard from the get-go that this dual-screen wonder would only be a limited run, and just a week after going on sale in Japan, the W105-L251 is getting prepped right now for a shipping label with your address on it. $1,099.99 buys you a Pentium U5400 processor, Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit), integrated Intel HD graphics, a memory card reader, 2GB of DDR3 memory, a 62GB solid state drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, an inbuilt webcam and an 8-cell battery. Oh, and twin 7-inch WSVGA LCD panels. Toshiba reckons that you’ll get yours in “2 to 3 weeks” if you order direct, though Amazon has a pre-sale of its own going for those who like to press their luck.
Gallery: Toshiba Libretto W100 press photos
Continue reading Toshiba’s dual-screen Libretto W100 laptop on sale in America for $1,100
Toshiba’s dual-screen Libretto W100 laptop on sale in America for $1,100 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Can technology make wrong calls a thing of the past? The NFL is hoping so.
A football field is 100 yards long, but games often come down to small battles over inches of gridiron real estate. The outcomes of these small battles often hinge on observations which, as all fans eventually learn, are prone to mistakes. Reuters is reporting that the NFL is investigating at least one technology that would remove some elements of human judgment from the game. According to the report, the league is in discussions with German location-mapping firm Cairos Technologies to implement their “chip-in-ball” technology to take the guesswork out of accurate ball placement.
Cairos has been pushing for the go-ahead to use their Goal Line Technology (GLT) in professional soccer (“fútbol” in European-speak) matches. The technology has been in development for over a decade and been utilized in several test runs. Around the soccer blogosphere, GLT has been the subject of vigorous debate among technophile soccer hooligans, but still has not given the official go-ahead from the soccer higher-ups. Now Cairos is setting their sites on other sporty avenues.
If the NFL deal works out, Cairos’ reported next deal is with Professional Figure Skating to develop a technology that will use digital cameras that have the ability to measure both sparkle and spunk (that last part’s not true!)
After the jump, find a video describing the tech.
We don’t know about you guys, but here at Switched, we get a boatload of e-mails and that’s not going to change any time soon. We send almost as many as we receive, too. Truth be told, it can be a little overwhelming sometimes, so we’re a little intrigued by Boomerang for Gmail, which promises to …
Continue reading Boomerang Gmail Plugin Lets You Send and Receive Whenever You Want
Boomerang Gmail Plugin Lets You Send and Receive Whenever You Want originally appeared on Switched on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The first prototype of a Nao robot that can develop emotions as it interacts with a human caregiver has been completed. A team across Europe was led by Dr. Lola Cañamero of the University of Herefordshire in the UK to develop the bot, which differs in several significant ways from those that came before it. These robots develop over time in much the way that a child does, learning to interact with and respond to the human beings around them. Modeled after human and chimpanzee childhood development paths, they are programmed to be highly adaptable to the people around them, and to become attached to whatever person is most suited to its needs and ‘personality’ profile. Over time, the more they interact, the more they learn and bond to the human being. These little ones, moreover, are capable of expressing a wide range of emotions, including anger, frustration, fear and happiness. The next steps are to research the bots’ emotional and non-linguistic behavior, and to move toward combining linguistic and non-linguistic communication to become further attached and adapted to them. Yes, we want one.
Prototype of robot that develops emotions on interacting with humans officially complete originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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