Take two video games and call me in the morning
Parents often complain that their children are spending increasing amounts of time playing computer-based video games. Kids get together and just sit in front of a computer or a television with a gaming console, and they do not talk to each. They just watch the screen, which is probably damaging to their eye sight. They don’t get out enough and do not get enough exercise. Etc.
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Google develops a landmark recognition engine
While it's possible to search the Web for images, there's still no way of searching the images themselves. Google is hoping to change this through a research project that can match digital photos of certain famous landmarks with text descriptions of those landmarks (including their namesname and where they're located) without the need for a conventional search engine. [More]
Palm's Pre smartphone lands June 6--Will anyone be waiting at the gate?
Embattled smartphone maker Palm, Inc. has a date with destiny. On June 6, Sprint will start selling the Palm Pre smartphone, an overdue rival to Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion's BlackBerry Curve, and HTC Corp.'s G1 Android. [More]
Police can use GPS to catch crooks with court okay
Can cops attach a global positioning system (GPS) device to your car and use the information they gather to charge you with a crime? As long as they get a warrant first, courts across the country are ruling in their favor. [More]
Vivid: New e-paper aims to be as sharp as the printed page
Demand for electronic book readers such as Amazon.com's Kindle and Sony's Digital Reader may be on the upswing, but the technology still has some hurdles to leap before it banishes print media to the recycling bin. The current generation of e-readers doesn't make good use of ambient light (making them less energy efficient and more difficult to read in sunlight), and few can reproduce full-color copy. This could be changing now that a team of engineers has developed a new prototype electronic paper that can rapidly reveal or hide enough pigments to form 1,000 different colors, paving the way for, among other things, more vivid e-book readers that will also be able to play video. [More]
Apple stirs up outrage, pulls "Baby Shaker" iPhone software
A message on Sikalosoft.com today reads, "Okay, so maybe the Baby Shaker iPhone app was a bad idea." The makers of this Apple iPhone software program--sold briefly through Apple's App Store Web site beginning Monday, before the company yanked it on Wednesday--have a way with understatement. [More]
Wireless Bluetooth moves into the fast lane with latest version
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)--comprised of companies including IBM and Nokia that sell technology that uses or relies on Bluetooth short-range radio frequency (RF) for sending and receiving wireless info--today in Tokyo put its stamp of approval on a new, more versatile version of the wireless standard that will give Bluetooth-enabled mobile gadgets the oomph needed to for the first time be able to transfer digital picture, video and other large files between cell phones, laptops and other devices. [More]
Hacker targets Twitter to teach the company a lesson in security
When computer programmers find security flaws in the programs they use (particularly software running on the Web), they have a choice: report the glitch to the software maker (which may ignore the warning) or find some way of publicly (and often illegally) exploiting it to make clear to the company how vulnerable its software is. A 17-year-old hacker claiming to be from Brooklyn, N.Y., this past weekend chose the latter path, unleashing at least two worms after discovering a weak spot in the social network site Twitter; the worms wended their way into a reported 190 user accounts and infected about 10,000 tweets (messages sent via the Twitter network), the company said yesterday. [More]
FCC to TV stations ready to make the digital switch: Not so fast
Some 500 television stations across the country have alerted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that they plan to switch from analog to digital signals next week, four months shy of the official new deadline. But the FCC has nixed the requests of 123 broadcasters pending proof that viewers won't be left in the dark – specifically that they will still be able to tune into local news and public affairs programming and to receive info in the case of an emergency. [More]
Smart Phones: Touch Screens Redefine the Market
In 2007, when Apple released the iPhone, its big touch screen made it an instant hit. The phone operated exclusively on AT&T’s wireless network in the U.S., and other network providers implored their phone makers to quickly devise competitors. The scramble was on, and the touch-screen alternatives blossomed during the 2008 holiday season. Suddenly available were Research in Motion’s Blackberry Storm, which operates over Verizon’s network, HTC’s G1 (T-Mobile), the Samsung Instinct (Sprint), and others--most retailing for about $200.
Each of these offerings can be called a smart phone, which generally means the technology is robust enough to provide a range of services beyond cell phone calls and text messaging and often means the operating system is open to third-party software developers seeking to create more novel features. The smart phones increasingly communicate over so-called 3G cellular networks that allow faster Web browsing and sending and receiving of e-mail. But the touch screens are the primary consumer draw. “Every provider now has a showcase phone that it is promoting heavily, to try to compete with the iPhone,” says Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD Group, a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y.
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Digital TV delay bill on its way to the White House
Just two weeks before a switch to all-digital TV was set to take effect, the House today voted 264 to 158 to delay the move until June 12. This was the second attempt by the Democratic-controlled House to push through the measure, which the Senate easily passed last week (twice) and President Obama has said he will sign into law. Obama and congressional Democrats backed the delay to give some 2.6 million people who still do not have digital TVs time to get $40 vouchers from the feds to subsidize the $50 to $70 cost of converters that will enable them to watch digital programs. [More]
Looking for top-secret military info? Try pawn shops
Seems that undeleted information stored on discarded computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices has a habit of re-surfacing and biting its previous owner in the backside, especially if that owner is the U.S. military. The U.S. Defense Department now has to figure out how a an MP3 player containing 60 Army files that included the names and details of American soldiers found its way to an Oklahoma pawn shop, New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ reported this week. [More]
House shoots down digital TV delay
In a surprising defeat, House Republicans today beat back legislation pushed by President Barack Obama that would have delayed the transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months. [More]
Senate okays digital TV delay, House votes today
Despite a year of warnings that television was going digital, consumers are not ready to make the transition, according to President Barack Obama and telecom officials. So the Democratic-controlled Senate unanimously passed a measure yesterday that would push back the switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts to June 12, giving the 6.5 million U.S. households (according to The Nielsen Company) unable to receive digital TV programming a chance to buy converter boxes. The House is set to approve the legislation today. [More]
Digital TV At Last?
Editor's Note: We are posting this feature from our February 2007 issue because the transition to DTV has been back in the news.
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Dirty Google searches: Researcher hits search engine for CO2 emissions
Companies marketing their products and services are going green, whether they're selling cars, computers or televisions. One need look no farther than last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where new products carted out invariably had a smaller carbon footprint than anything introduced a year ago. Meanwhile, products and services that aren't using enough recycled components or that hog too much energy are taking a lot of criticism. [More]
The Multipath to Clarity
Editor's note: We are posting this story from our June 2005 issue because of the upcoming February 17, 2009 deadline for switching to digital TV, which may be hitting some snags. [More]
The day Microsoft's Zunes stood still
It wasn't exactly the day the Earth stood still, but for some Microsoft Zune users, it might as well have been when their mp3 players (specifically, the 30 gigabyte models) all crashed at the same time earlier today, rendering them useless. You see, once the Zune freezes, it can't be reset. [More]
One World, Many Minds: Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom
We were talking about politics. My housemate, an English professor, opined that certain politicians were thinking with their reptilian brains when they threatened military action against Iran. Many people believe that a component of the human brain inherited from reptilian ancestors is responsible for our species’ aggression, ritual behaviors and territoriality.
One of the most common misconceptions about brain evolution is that it represents a linear process culminating in the amazing cognitive powers of humans, with the brains of other modern species representing previous stages. Such ideas have even influenced the thinking of neuroscientists and psychologists who compare the brains of different species used in biomedical research. Over the past 30 years, however, research in comparative neuroanatomy clearly has shown that complex brains--and sophisticated cognition--have evolved from simpler brains multiple times independently in separate lineages, or evolutionarily related groups: in mollusks such as octopuses, squid and cuttlefish; in bony fishes such as goldfish and, separately again, in cartilaginous fishes such as sharks and manta rays; and in reptiles and birds. Nonmammals have demonstrated advanced abilities such as learning by copying the behavior of others, finding their way in complicated spatial environments, manufacturing and using tools, and even conducting mental time travel (remembering specific past episodes or anticipating unique future events). Collectively, these findings are helping scientists to understand how intelligence can arise--and to appreciate the many forms it can take.
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How GPS Units Work
This holiday season all kinds of products are coming equipped with GPS receivers to tell consumers exactly where on earth they are. The choices include dashboard navigators for cars, pocket navigators for humans, “golf buddies” that reveal the distance between a golfer and greens and sand traps, and, most prominently, cell phones. GPS transponders also now track paroled criminals, errant pets, migrating elephants and retreating glaciers.
Positioning satellites have been beaming signals for decades, but three converging factors are broadening the marketplace, according to Per K. Enge, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. The size of the circuitry needed inside a receiver has shrunk. Circuit makers are selling that hardware to consumer electronics manufacturers for less than $5 a unit. “And Apple provided visibility,” Enge says, “by putting GPS into the iPhone.” Buyers loved it, proving there was a desire.
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