Archive for July, 2013
Hamburger, Hamburger, Lab-Burger?
The world’s first lab-grown hamburger will be served Monday (Aug. 5) in London in front of an invitation-only crowd, according to NBC News. No word on a special sauce, lettuce or a sesame bun. The “meat” was grown from cow stem cells in a laboratory vat, then combined with lab-grown fat to create the proper juicy bite of a hamburger. Continue reading →
Yet Another Smartwatch Joins The Fight And This One’s “Hot”
Pebble not meeting your needs? The Basis knows just a little too much about you for your comfort? Is the Metawatch too meta?
Well then meet the Hot Watch, out of Dallas. The company just launched the product on Kickstarter, and though the campaign is mostly bull shit (with arguments like: “your phone is too expensive to risk taking out of your pocket”), the product seems to be pretty fly for a new guy… in the smartwatch space. I’m funny, dammit. Laugh! Continue reading →
Conserving Life Along China’s Yangtze River (Op-Ed)
In late 2006, researchers from the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciencesin Wuhan, China returned from a six-week journey on the Yangtze River, dejected.
They had searched far and wide for signs of the baji — commonly known as the “Goddess of the Yangtze,” China’s famed river dolphin — and came up empty. Months later the freshwater species was declared functionally extinct. Continue reading →
NEC Calls It Quits, Announces That It Is Getting Out Of The Smartphone Business
Manufacturing smartphones is a competitive game. I’m talking playing StarCraft in South Korea rough. Succeeding in this market is akin to getting into an Ivy League university, then going on to join the NFL. It’s not impossible, but neither is becoming president. Continue reading →
Man Building Aston Martin via 3D Printer, Rest of Us Feeling Inadequate
There are more or less two kinds of people in the world: People whose first impulse upon buying a 3D printer is to build James Bond’s car, and everyone else. New Zealand resident and programmer Ivan Sentch? Yeah, he’s the first kind. Continue reading →
Benchmark Booster found in Samsung Galaxy S4
The battle for the best and most powerful Android smartphone in the world is sometimes heavily fought in benchmark scores. This is how the Galaxy S3 was known to be the better Android phone. Same is true with the Galaxy S4. Continue reading →
What The Inside of an NSA Data Center Looks Like
There’s been intense interest lately in the new National Security Agency data center in Bluffdale, Utah and its capabilities. The NSA isn’t likely to allow the world a look inside the new Utah data center anytime soon. But that hasn’t always been the case. Continue reading →
Facebook Enables Embedding Of Public Posts To Seduce Newsmakers, Starts Rollout With Five Websites
Let newsmakers embed your content and they’ll look to you for material, likely publish more to you, and you’ll have more content to advertise against. That’s why Facebook today begins allowing “public” posts to be embedded on third-party sites, a strategy pioneered by Twitter in 2010 and recently copied by Instagram. Embedding is slated for a full roll out, but for now you can get preview on five sites. Continue reading →
NSA Director: Don’t Worry, Trust Us
General Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, gave the keynote speech at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas today. It was more interesting than I expected. Continue reading →
Spoofed! Fake GPS signals lead yacht astray
IDG News Service – Researchers in the U.S. have managed to spoof GPS (Global Positioning System) signals to send a yacht hundreds of meters off course, while fooling the crew into thinking the yacht was remaining perfectly on course. Continue reading →
Google’s $35 Streaming Stick Takes Aim at Your TV
The living room has long been a battleground for tech giants, and Google just fired a surprisingly small shot. Announced on July 24, Chromecast is a $35 HDMI dongle that plugs into your TV and lets you beam content from your phone, tablet, or laptop. No clunky remote, no confusing menus—just tap a button and watch YouTube or Netflix on the big screen. It’s almost too simple.
But simplicity is the point. While Apple TV and Roku offer full interfaces and app stores, Chromecast relies on your existing devices as the remote. That means no learning curve and no extra hardware to keep charged. The dongle itself is powered by a USB port, so if your TV has one, it’s a zero-hassle setup. Early reviews praised the ‘cast’ button integration in apps like YouTube and Netflix, but the lack of native app support at launch left some wondering if it was more toy than tool.
Still, at $35, it’s an impulse buy that could shake up the streaming market. Google also threw in three months of Netflix for free, effectively making the device cost negative? Well, not quite, but it’s a clever loss-leader. The real story, though, is the Google Cast SDK, which lets any developer add casting to their app. If that takes off, Chromecast could become the de facto standard for flinging media from pocket to screen. Continue reading →
When Apple’s Developer Portal Went Dark: A Security Wake-Up Call
For over a week in July, Apple’s developer center was offline. At first, the company was silent, only saying the site was ‘down for maintenance.’ But as days stretched on, developers grew restless. Then came the truth: the portal had been breached. An intruder had attempted to access personal information of registered developers. Apple immediately shut the system down to investigate and overhaul security.
The outage was a nightmare for the thousands of developers who rely on the portal to manage certificates, provisioning profiles, and app submissions. Forums and Twitter buzzed with frustration as deadlines loomed. Apple extended membership expiration dates by a month and eventually brought the portal back up in stages, with new features like two-factor authentication added. But the damage was done: trust had been shaken.
The incident highlighted a broader issue: even the most secure-seeming tech giants can fall victim to attacks. Apple’s walled garden had a crack, and it took a rare public mea culpa from the company to calm the storm. Developers were reminded that their tools are only as safe as the platforms they depend on. In the end, the portal emerged stronger, but the lost week of productivity left a bitter taste. Continue reading →
Google’s Nexus 7 Gets a Sharper Screen and a Slimmer Body
Google’s original Nexus 7, released in 2012, was a game-changer: a $200 tablet that actually didn’t suck. A year later, the second-generation Nexus 7 was announced on July 24, and it addressed nearly every complaint. The new model featured a 1920x1200 display—nearly as sharp as an iPad’s Retina—a faster Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, and dual stereo speakers. It also slimmed down, dropped weight, and added a rear camera.
The original Nexus 7 had a single front-facing camera and no rear camera, which was fine for video chats but useless for snapping photos. The new model included a 5-megapixel rear shooter, making it more versatile. The back also got a soft-touch finish for better grip. At $229 for the 16GB version, it undercut the iPad mini while offering a purer Android experience—timely updates directly from Google, no bloatware.
But the tablet market was already becoming crowded. Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab series were fierce competitors. Still, the Nexus 7 remained the developer’s darling and the best choice for Android purists. With a sharper screen and better performance, it set a new benchmark for what a small tablet should be. Continue reading →
The Moto X Teasers: Customization and Touchless Control Take Center Stage
Motorola, once a giant of the mobile world, was now owned by Google, and the Moto X was its first flagship under new management. Even before the official announcement on August 1, the hype machine was in full swing. Teasers emphasized two killer features: customization and ‘touchless control.’ The phone would be assembled in the USA and could be personalized with different colors and materials through the Moto Maker website.
The touchless control feature, using an always-listening voice assistant, was a direct response to Siri and Google Now. You could say ‘OK Google Now’ even when the phone was asleep and it would wake up and respond. It was a glimpse of a future where your phone is always ready. The Moto X also promised contextual awareness, like automatically showing driving mode when in a car.
But the biggest buzz was about the ‘X8 Mobile Computing System’—a custom chip architecture that optimized battery life for these always-on features. The Moto X wasn’t about raw specs; it was about experience. In a market obsessed with quad-core processors and megapixels, Motorola was betting on software smarts and a personal touch. Would it pay off? Only time would tell. Continue reading →