Thursday, December 27, 2012

One in four Americans now owns a tablet, according to Pew Research

iPad mini vs. Nexus 7

The Pew Research Center just released some data on the growing adoption of ebooks, but buried amongst its survey data was a more interesting tidbit — the group's latest survey shows that a full 25 percent of Americans own some type of tablet. That's not including those who may own a more traditional E Ink reader — though it's a self-reported survey, so there's always the potential for confusion amongst the 2,252 respondents. That's up significantly from the ten percent of respondents who said they owned a tablet as of December of 2011 and marks a pretty significant rise for a product category that essentially did not exist three years ago. Tablet ownership has even surpassed that of e-reader ownership, despite the higher cost of...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3809238/one-in-four-americans-now-owns-a-tablet

Adafruit web series uses puppets to teach kids about engineering

adafruit puppets

Adafruit wants to inspire the engineers of tomorrow, and it's enlisting a group of puppets to help out. Early next year, the electronics kit retailer will debut an online series called Circuit Playground , which stars characters like Cappy the Capacitor, Hans the 555 Timer Chip, and a host of other tech-savvy, kid-friendly puppets. Each show will be hosted by Adafruit Industries founder Limor Fried, who says the series drew inspiration from the likes of Jim Henson and Fred Rogers.


Each episode will have "a story, a song and something to do," Fried told Wired. "We’ll have live feeds in our factory on how things are made. It’s a little Elmo for engineering, a little Mr. Rogers for resistors and a little Sesame Street for Circuits." The...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808848/adafruit-circuit-playground-teaches-kids-electronics-puppets

'Dead Space 3' will recognize your profanity-filled screams

dead space 3 screen 725x454

The Dead Space series is fundamentally about jump scares: the monster that bursts out of the wall or impales your favorite character, the hallucination that disappears when you turn your head. So it's supremely fitting that Dead Space 3's Kinect controls will respond to your reflexive swearing. In an interview with CVG , executive producer Steve Papoutsis says that certain voice commands will take advantage of the common reactions to horror games. "There are commands where you might be in a certain situation," he says, "and you might yell a specific expletive and it might behave in a way that you want it to." People will "need to figure out" those commands, though if they're intended to stay hidden, they probably won't do so for long.


B...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3809042/dead-space-3-kinect-profanity-powered-voice-commands

'American Experience' documentary to tell the tale of Silicon Valley's origins

PBS AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Fairchild Semiconductor

Silicon Valley may make you think of a sea of startups trying to make it big in the shadows of companies like Google, Apple, Oracle, and HP, but a new documentary in PBS' excellent American Experience series is winding back the clock to the origins of the tech hub in Northern California. "Silicon Valley" tells the tale through the story of Robert Noyce, who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and later co-invented the integrated circuit before founding Intel with his colleague, Gordon Moore. It may not have the drama of Bravo's poorly-received reality TV show chronicling the exploits of a few 20-somethings or of a Mike Judge HBO comedy series based in the Valley, but if past American Experience documentaries are anything to go by,...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808922/silicon-valley-pbs-american-experience-documentary-airs-february-19th

Crime-fighting drones to be marketed by Japanese security firm starting in 2014

secom drone

Today aerial drones are most often employed by governments and police, but before long you'll be able to rent them from private security firms. One such company out of Japan, Secom, says it will begin leasing surveillance drones to local clients in 2014. These drones will be dispatched immediately when break-ins or other crimes are detected. The airborne security measure offers a greater field of view compared to traditional cameras that often have blind spots or other vulnerabilities.


Of course, drones themselves aren't exactly known for durability — the expensive devices can often be brought down with concentrated effort. As such, the Secom-leased drones are programmed to maintain a safe distance from suspects, though that also...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808920/private-security-drones-coming-to-japan-2014

The Vergecast is live Friday at 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 6PM GMT!

vergecast big

The holidays are done — for the most part at least. It's time to sit back, relax, get a few days of rest in before New Year's Eve festivities... and while you're at it, perhaps enjoy The Vergecast in your downtime. We'll be back tomorrow to catch up on the last two weeks of the world at large (and maybe even talk a bit about the world ahead). There will be fun all around, so stay tuned!


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3809000/the-vergecast-is-live-friday-at-10am-pt-1pm-et-6pm-gmt

BACK TO BUSINESS

After a few days spent with family and friends for the holidays, the first-place Griffins face yet another busy home weekend, hosting Toronto on Friday and Saturday and Rockford on Monday. Find out everything you need to know about this week's games right here.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://www.griffinshockey.com/news/releases/?article_id=2328

HTC HD2 proves itself a hacker's delight once again by running Windows RT

HD2 WinRT

It initially appeared that the HTC HD2 would have a short life — after all, the phone launched in March of 2010 with Windows Mobile 6.5 and was denied an official upgrade to Windows Phone 7 when the OS launched some six months later. However, the venerable device has gone on to receive an almost unprecedented amount of hacker support, as the device has been cracked to run Windows Phone 7 and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, among other more peculiar options like Windows XP. Now, a hacker known as @CotullaCode on Twitter has managed to shoehorn Windows RT onto the device, bringing Microsoft's new tablet OS to a nearly three-year-old phone.



...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808858/htc-hd2-running-windows-RT

Geneticists attempt to find answers to shooting in Adam Lanza's DNA

via farm9.staticflickr.com

In the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, media, citizens, and police alike have searched for an answer to perpetrator Adam Lanza's violence. Now, ABC reports that Connecticut Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver has asked geneticists from the University of Connecticut to look at Lanza's DNA, likely for abnormalities that could provide a clue to his behavior. In some ways, it's a continuation of studies on psychopathy and the genetic components to mental illness. In others, it's a perhaps futile search for answers when other avenues have failed to produce results.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808782/adam-lanza-dna-tests-planned

Libraries adapt to a changing world by emulating bookstores

Programming bookshelf (1020)

As libraries move into the digital age, they're also expanding into territory long occupied by bookstores. The New York Times profiles libraries that have responded to customer demand for bestsellers, friendlier reading spaces, and other changes that make libraries less "intimidating." The need to cull physical books (especially transiently popular titles like Fifty Shades of Grey) to expand computer and reading space also means the expansion of library book sales. "A library has limited shelf space," says Arlington Heights library director Jason Kuhl, "so you almost have to think of it as a store, and stock it with the things that people want."


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808602/libraries-redesigned-to-emulate-bookstores

Derek Holzer's optical hurdy gurdy hand-cranks light into sound

Tonewheels Hurdy Gurdy, by Derek Holzer

As if the hand-cranked hurdy gurdy wasn't a strange and wondrous instrument already, Berlin-based sound artist Derek Holzer has built one that eats light and spits out glorious waves of distortion and noise. The instrument was built in October for the Acces(s) Festival in France as an adaption of his previous project, Tonewheels , which uses spinning optical discs imprinted with waveform patterns to generate sound. As with all Holzer's projects, there's no computer anywhere in the mix: just the spinning optical wheel, light and pressure sensors connected to custom-built circuitry, and a row of knobs controlling filter sweeps and distortion.


It's a throwback to vintage optical instruments, a decidedly fringe strain of music-making...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808222/derek-holzer-optical-hurdy-gurdy-hand-cranks-light-into-sound

THREE REASSIGNED TO TOLEDO

The Red Wings on Thursday reassigned forwards Andrej Nestrasil and Brent Raedeke and defenseman Max Nicastro from the Griffins to the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://www.griffinshockey.com/news/releases/?article_id=2327

Ouya developer kits begin shipping ahead of schedule, will start arriving tomorrow

Ouya Prototype

The first developer kits for the highly-anticipated Ouya gaming console are shipping out earlier than expected. As pointed out by SlashGear , one customer has posted the text of their shipping notification in a thread over at the Ouya forums, with several individuals on Twitter also remarking that their devices are on the way. Ouya had originally announced that the first batch of developer kits would be shipping out tomorrow, December 28th — but an Ouya spokesperson has informed us that deliveries will actual begin tomorrow, no doubt making a few early backers very happy. The software development kit for the gaming console will be available as a standalone download for those that don't want to purchase a hardware kit as well; it is...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808506/ouya-developer-kits-shipping-ahead-of-schedule-start-arriving-tomorrow

NASA and Foursquare offering Curiosity badge for checking in at science centers

NASA Foursquare Badge

It's no secret that NASA has seen great success with social media and the Curiosity rover. Now, it's trying to turn some of that interest into real science education. In a partnership with Foursquare, it's offering a Curiosity rover badge to users who follow NASA and check into a NASA visitor center, science museum, or planetarium. They'll also be greeted with the following message:



Get out your rock-vaporizing laser! You've explored your scientific curiosities just like NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. Stay curious and keep exploring. You never know what you'll find.



The Curiosity rover itself is on Foursquare — it made the first check-in from another planet on Mars in October. In 2010, an astronaut also became the first person...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808350/nasa-foursquare-curiosity-badge-launched

Windows Phone Marketplace more than doubles in 2012 with 75,000 new apps

metrotube / windows phone stock

2012 saw Microsoft launch major updates to both its desktop and mobile operating systems, and the company just released some end-of-the-year stats on how its mobile marketplace advanced over the last twelve months. Microsoft is claiming that the company published over 75,000 new apps and games, enough to more than double its overall mobile app catalog. The company said it had over 120,000 apps available as of its big Windows Phone 8 event back in October — but since Microsoft didn't announce any update to that total count, we're guessing the needle hasn't significantly moved over the last two months. It goes without saying that Microsoft's store still significantly trails the iTunes App Store and Google Play, both of which are home to...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808298/windows-phone-marketplace-75000-new-apps-in-2012

Verge Favorites: Sam Byford

byford lead

The Verge staffers aren't just people who love technology. They're people who love stuff. We spend as much time talking and thinking about our favorite books, music, and movies as we do debating the best smartphone to buy or what point-and-shoot has the tightest macro. We thought it would make sense to share our latest obsessions with Verge readers, and we hope you're encouraged to share your favorites with us. Thus a long, healthy debate will ensue where we all end up with new things to read, listen to, or try on.










Salty Watermelon Pepsi












Every summer in Japan, Pepsi releases a ridiculous brew that no sane person in any other country would drink, much less pay money for. Japan isn't any other country, though, and...



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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3622626/verge-favorites-sam-byford

Amazon reveals holiday performance, says Cyber Monday was biggest Kindle sales day ever

Amazon box (STOCK)

The 2012 holiday shopping season was Amazon's most successful yet, the company announced today. As you might expect from the internet's leading retailer, Cyber Monday was the big standout; over 26.5 million items were purchased on that day alone, amounting to 306 items per second. That massive growth nearly doubles 2010's record, when 13.7 million items were ordered on November 29th.


Consumer demand for Kindle hardware appears to be holding strong, with the Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle dominating the company's best seller charts since their launch. Cyber Monday was the biggest day ever for worldwide Kindle sales, though — as always — Amazon refrains from providing specific figures that would lend...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3808182/amazon-reveals-holiday-2012-sales-figures

EA removes links to gun sellers on 'Medal of Honor' page

Medal of Honor Partners

The web page for self-styled "realistic" shooter series Medal of Honor no longer links to sites selling real weapons. As part of the promotion for Medal of Honor: Warfighter earlier this year, EA Games partnered with companies like Magpul, McMillan, and other makers and sellers of guns, knives, or tactical gear, putting links to their stores on the game's page. Though the list of partners is still available, the links have now been removed. An EA spokesperson told the BBC and others that "We felt it was inappropriate and took the links down" in the wake of a school shooting at Newtown, Connecticut.


The Medal of Honor partner page was discussed somewhat uneasily by gaming press in August, with The Gameological Society calling the move...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3807900/ea-removes-links-to-gun-sellers-on-medal-of-honor-page

Hyundai Connectivity Concept ditches car keys in favor of your NFC-equipped smartphone

Hyundai NFC

Toyota may have been the first automaker to roll out Qi wireless charging in a car, but Hyundai's NFC plans for the next few years appear even more ambitious. With its new Connectivity Concept — scheduled to reach production in 2015 — the company wants drivers to forget all about the metal set of keys they've been lugging around for years; in the future you'll need only an NFC-enabled smartphone to control your car. Hyundai sampled the technology earlier this week on its New Generation i30, though it wouldn't offer up pricing details or confirm which vehicle models will ultimately be receiving the package.


Hyundai's wireless technology isn't unlike existing, installable wireless systems that let you unlock a car's doors from a...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3807742/hyundai-connectivity-concept-trades-car-keys-for-nfc-coming-2015

Marvell hit with $1.17 billion damages verdict in patent infringement case

marvell

A jury in Pittsburgh has found chip manufacturer Marvell guilty of infringing on several hard drive patents owned by Carnegie Mellon University. As a result, the company is facing a fine of $1.17 billion awarded by the jury, who believed that Marvell not only infringed the patents, but did so knowingly. The remarkably high figure would make it one of the largest patent verdicts in history, and the willful infringement means that the judge could choose to further increase the damages.


It’s a sum that’s even higher than the $1.049 billion awarded in the famous Apple v. Samsung case, but it may not be the final figure. Two cases with even larger damages Microsoft v. Lucent Technologies at $1.52 billion and Abbot Laboratories v....


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3807538/marvell-fined-1-17-billion-in-patent-infringement-case

Toshiba to take on Lytro with refocusing smartphone camera

toshiba lytro sensor

Toshiba is working on an image sensor that will let smartphone or tablet users refocus photos that have already been shot, according to the Asahi Shimbun . The effect sounds very similar to the Lytro light field camera that was released earlier this year, but that device was over four inches long.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3807418/toshiba-develops-lytro-style-smartphone-camera-sensor

Foxconn's Apple factories start to show signs of improved working conditions

foxconn apple logo overlay

Close to a year after publishing an explosive report alleging dangerous and unfair labor conditions at Foxconn plants in China, the New York Times has followed up — and sees some evidence that things are getting better. According to the new report, a meeting between a "high-ranking" Apple official and Foxconn's "top executives" has resulted in the Taiwanese manufacturer pledging to increase wages and reduce working hours in reforms set to go into effect next year.


Other changes include improvements to the safety and comfort of Foxconn's factories, including better chairs for workers and automatic shut-off functions for machinery. Foxconn makes products for virtually all major electronics companies, but after drawing criticism in the...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3807398/improved-conditions-at-apple-factories-in-china

Sonos Playbar outed in new FCC filing

Sonos Playbar FCC label

Sonos will be soon be extending its range of wireless speakers with a new model called the Playbar, according to a new FCC filing. Like all other Sonos devices, the new Playbar is likely to use a proprietary wireless system this time based on dual-band 802.11n but otherwise the filing doesn’t hint at where this new speaker will fall in the company’s lineup. Sonos could, however, be positioning the speaker as a soundbar for the home theater market. It’s a gap that the company has yet to fill, and a matchup with the Sonos Sub would almost certainly be a boon for home cinema enthusiasts looking to declutter their setup. For now, though, the world will simply have to wait until Sonos is ready to launch whatever it has in mind.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/27/3807388/sonos-playbar-fcc-certification

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Mac mini said to be first US-built computer in Apple's domestic production push

mac mini 1020 hero

Apple and Foxconn are moving Mac mini production to the US, says DigiTimes , contradicting earlier rumors that a redesigned Mac Pro would be the first to land in the country. Earlier this month, CEO Tim Cook told Brian Williams that Apple was planning to invest $100 million to bring Mac production home, and a spokesman for Foxconn has recently confirmed rumors that it would be expanding its operations in North America. According to DigiTimes, the company will run Apple’s new US-based production lines.


Components like Apple's Samsung-built SoCs are already manufactured in the US, and some of its computers, like custom-built iMacs, are already assembled in the country. But rather than just put more computers together in the US, Cook...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3806894/mac-mini-production-coming-to-us-says-digitimes

How Telltale Games created Clementine, the secret weapon of 'The Walking Dead'

The Walking Dead Clementine screencap

There's quite a lot to like about Telltale Games' The Walking Dead , but perhaps the most compelling aspect is how emotionally involved you can get while playing the game. To a large part that's thanks to Clementine, the 8-year-old girl that joins the story's protagonist in the first episode. Game Informer takes an in-depth look at the creation of Clementine, from the choices made when designing her wardrobe, to the nuances behind the writing of her dialogue. If you're a fan of The Walking Dead — or storytelling in general — it's well worth the read.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3806436/how-telltale-games-created-clementine-the-secret-weapon-of-the

Careless health care cybersecurity puts patient info at risk, says Washington Post

wps_key

A new report from The Washington Post says that while the US health care industry might have some of the country’s most sensitive personal information, failure to use rudimentary safeguards like disk encryption and password protection means it has some of the worst information security — “about like retail,” according to a government IT security specialist. “It is an industry with the least regard, understanding and respect for IT security of any I’ve seen,” said Johns Hopkins researcher Avi Rubin.


"It was possible to hack a secure drug-dispensing cabinet from a web browser."


While hospitals might not provide the same juicy target for hackers as financial institutions, the array of personal information in patients’...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3806300/us-health-care-it-has-widespread-security-issues

Smart TV owners stream video, but shun other apps

Gallery Photo: Philips spring 2012 smart TV range

It's no secret that Smart TVs aren't the internet-connected living room computers that they've been made out to be — earlier this year, an NPD study revealed that less than half of Smart TV owners even have them hooked up to the internet. A new study from the NPD shows that little has changed, and connected TV owners still aren't using the devices to their full potential. Of those who have connected their sets to the web, nearly 60 percent use them for over-the-top streaming video services, and about 15 percent of users access streaming music services like Pandora. Roughly ten percent of users use their televisions for web browsing, and few access social networks, play games or shop online. Even though the data clearly shows consumers...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805668/smart-tv-owners-stream-video-shun-other-apps

This is what computer-synthesized speech sounded like in 1963

Bell Labs illustration

While the latest from Apple and Google may be shaping modern expectations for what talking computers should sound like, people have been working on the technology for decades. Taking a look into the past, the 365 Days Project has a recording of several tests done by Bell Telephone Laboratories back in 1963. While the technology we use today is undoubtedly improved, it's intriguing to hear how some of the fundamental problems with computer-generated speech still haven't been resolved almost 50 years later. You can listen to the full audio here — and don't forget to hear the rendition of "Daisy," a test that is said to have inspired HAL's dying singsong in 2001.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805784/this-is-what-computer-synthesized-speech-sounded-like-in-1963

Landsat 5, the oldest satellite watching Earth, is shutting down after almost 30 years

Landsat 7

The US Geological Survey will soon shut down Landsat 5, an observational satellite that has been running since 1984. Landsat 5 was designed for a three-year run, but it's now orbited the Earth over 150,000 times and transmitted 2.5 million images in nearly three decades, making it the longest-running Earth-observing satellite, though not the oldest satellite still in orbit. "Any major event since 1984 that left a mark on this Earth larger than a football field was likely recorded by Landsat 5, whether it was a hurricane, a tsunami, a wildfire, deforestation, or an oil spill," says USGS Director Marcia McNutt.


It's also malfunctioned several times in the past, sometimes temporarily going out of commission while being stabilized. On...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805538/landsat-5-longest-running-usgs-observational-satellite-shutting-down

Gracenote bringing personalized TV ads to your living room in 2013

super hi-vision 1020 stock

We've grown used to targeted ads across the internet, but personalized marketing has yet to reach its full potential on the TV screen. Gracenote is hoping it can buck that trend with a new ad replacement platform that's set to debut at CES in January. Recent acquisitions have helped Gracenote, best known for its music-related endeavors, make big strides with a system that promises to replace ads run by broadcasters with those picked by Smart TV and set-top box makers. More importantly, it will tailor the advertisements you see based on factors like gender, age, personal income, and credit history. Further, it could provide sponsors with more accurate data about who's actually watching their ads as opposed to immediately skipping over...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805466/gracenote-bringing-personalized-tv-ads-to-your-living-room-in-2013

Roboy, a childlike robot with artificial tendons, being built over nine months

Roboy Child Robot

When it comes to building a robot, humanoid designs aren't always the best solution — specialized, nonhuman shapes often make it more effective, and the robot may fall into the frightening, quasi-human "uncanny valley" if it resembles a person. But Roboy, a project from the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich, isn't just meant to move like a human — it's being built in the nine months a child would take to gestate. The project started in June 2012; if all goes right, Roboy will be shown off during March's Robots on Tour exhibition in Zurich. The designers are also attempting to crowdfund development, selling space for logos or names on Roboy's body and other rewards for between 25 and 50,000 Swiss francs...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805124/roboy-humanoid-robot-to-be-built-over-nine-months

World's longest high-speed rail line begins service in China

China high-speed rail

At 9AM local time Wednesday, China officially launched service on the world's largest high-speed rail line, which covers a distance of approximately 1,428 miles between Beijing and Guangzhou. Older rail lines required more than 20 hours to make that trek, but high-speed cars travel at a consistent speed of 186 miles per hour, reaching China's southern economic hub in only eight hours. As the New York Times reports, China has invested heavily in its high-speed railway infrastructure (now spanning 5,800 miles) in recent years, with the project often helping to prop up the country's economy. Each line demands significant human resources, with up to 100,000 workers brought on to help operations.


Yet as US cities continue to plot out...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805070/worlds-longest-high-speed-rail-line-begins-service-in-china

Sound recording from the ISS shows just how noisy it is up there

International Space Station

Chris Hadfield, the astronaut aboard the International Space Station that recorded the first song in space, has released a recording of the ambient noise that is ever present on the orbiting station. If you had the impression that being on the space station would be a quiet, peaceful endeavor, you'd be wrong, as the recording goes to demonstrate just how much noise is going on in the background. Much of the noise comes from the fans and air pumps necessary to keep the astronauts breathing, so we don't think many of the passengers on the ISS complain about it. It does go to show just how hard it might be to cleanly record a musical number while on the station, as Hadfield likened it to "playing in the back of a bus." You can hear the...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805084/sound-recording-from-the-iss-shows-how-noisy-it-is

Netflix confirms new social sharing coming to US users in 2013

Netflix iPhone 5

Netflix has announced that it will be introducing new social sharing features for its US customers in 2013, days after a bill passed the Senate allowing just that. According to Talking Points Memo , the company will be rolling out the feature next year after the bill is signed into law by President Barack Obama. For quite some time now, Netflix has allowed customers in Canada and Latin America to post what shows they're watching via Facebook's "frictionless sharing," the same way they can share the music they're listening to or articles they're reading. The same had been illegal for video in the US thanks to provisions in the Video Privacy Protection Act.


The new bill — first passed by the House of Representatives before being quickly...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805132/netflix-confirms-new-social-sharing-coming-to-us-users-in-2013

World of 'Tweeria': like it or not, your Twitter feed is a massive role-playing game

Tweeria

Twitter is a battlefield. That retweet may look innocent now, but for at least one site, it's a swinging broadsword. This is Tweeria, the self-proclaimed Lazy Twitter RPG. If you've got a Twitter account, you're already playing it, whether you know it or not.


The result is a deranged mirror of Twitter, placing you in endless war with everyone you follow


Everything that happens on Tweeria starts with something that happened on Twitter — a retweet, for instance, or an @-reply back-and-forth — but in Tweeria, it gets translated to a battleaxe or a fireball. The program pulls data direct from Twitter’s API, creating a character for every account, and assigning health and strength stats based on number of tweets and follower count. If...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3804756/world-of-tweeria-like-it-or-not-your-twitter-feed-is-a-massive-role

Good deal: 'Walking Dead: The Game' episode 1 free on Xbox Live

walking dead good deal

The first episode of Telltale's Walking Dead game may still be free on iOS, but if you'd rather play it on a full-sized console, here's your chance. For what Telltale calls a "limited time," you can get the first episode free through the Xbox Live Marketplace; the other four episodes will still cost 400 Microsoft Points ($5) apiece. We've consistently extolled the adventure game's virtues in our Gift Guide and elsewhere, and it's an excellent pick whether you love the Walking Dead show and comic or have never heard of them. Just be sure you're prepared to make some tough decisions about the value of human life and whether you'll really be able to stop after one installment.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3805058/good-deal-walking-dead-game-episode-1-free-xbox-live

Google once again extends free Gmail domestic voice calls in the US and Canada

Gmail calling

If you were worried that the free domestic voice calls Google has offered through Gmail in the US and Canada were going to go away when 2012 ends, fear not — the company has just announced that its free calling offer will be extended through the end of 2013. Google started offering this feature back in August of 2010, and quickly extended it through 2011 and then again for 2012. We can't say we're surprised that Google is keeping this deal going, but we're happy about it nonetheless — it's one of the more underrated and underexposed features that Gmail offers. For those that want to make international calls, Google says it is continuing to offer "insanely low rates" for reaching out to those abroad.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3804978/google-extends-free-voice-calls-in-US-and-canada

Central West Antarctica found to be one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth

Antarctica

As world-wide climate change has been an increasing focus for scientists, the frozen continent of Antarctica has been of particular concern — and now new research shows that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is contributing to rising sea levels due to some unexpectedly high temperature increases in the region. This report, just published in Nature Geoscience, shows that Central West Antarctica is one of the fastest-warming regions in the world, with a temperature increase of 2.4°C (about 4.3° F) occurring between 1958 and 2010. In particular, the scientists found "statistically significant warming" during Antarctica's summer season, especially during the peak melting season of December and January.


The concern is that these rapidly...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3804622/central-west-antarctica-one-of-the-fastest-warming-regions

Why we love to hate Myspace

myspace is 4 losers mulia photography

Myspace is gradually inviting users to "new Myspace," the first big refresh in the post-News Corp era, and already the claws have come out. We took a tour of the new site and found that its most remarkable quality seems to be how eager people are to bash it.


As with AOL, Internet Explorer, Yahoo, and other web properties perceived as dinosaurs, many users seem strangely eager to tear Myspace down over its struggles to remain relevant, as if the mere fact of its continued presence at myspace.com is offensive. The site’s death has been pronounced repeatedly. "MySpace was about to die a slow, painful, deserving death," blogger Giancarlo King wrote in a memorium earlier this year. "Browsing old abandoned profiles is like walking through a...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3793050/why-we-love-to-hate-myspace

'Did all the packets arrive in good condition?'

ARPAnet IMP Flickr

Artificial intelligence researcher Peter E. Hart remembers a time when computer networking was an arcane subject that non-users were still trying to wrap their minds around. In an anecdote sent to The New York Times , he recounts being subjected to an audit of his ARPAnet-linked AI center's incoming bits — including questions about whether any of the 2.5 billion packets arrived with "corrosion or tarnish." It's a tiny, but excellent, piece of early internet history.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3804590/an-early-bit-audit-on-arpanet

Nugent-Hopkins dominates in Canada's 9-3 rout of Germany

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins wore a cape to his post-game interviews, which was fitting, because he was Canada's Superman during its tournament-opening win Wednesday. Nugent-Hopkins made the most of his World Junior Championship debut, scoring a goal an...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://redwings.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=648299&cmpid=rss-news

Designing race cars of the future in ‘Distance’

Distance

In 2011 a group of students at the DigiPen Institute of Technology released an experimental racing game called Nitronic Rush , which went on to win a number of awards. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the team at Refract Studios — made up of a number of students from the original project — are now hard at work on the spiritual successor, Distance . It will feature many of the same elements that made Nitronic Rush so popular, including fast paced arcade-style racing and a neon-lit sci-fi world to explore. But it also includes a much darker tone and vehicles that are more grounded in reality, despite their futuristic appearances. “We wanted the vehicles in Distance to seem quite a bit more realistic, like something you could...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/26/3767552/distance-sci-fi-race-car-design

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Stuxnet strikes again, Iranian official says

hormozgan iran

Is Stuxnet back? A provincial defense official in southern Iran is claiming that one of the largest power plants in the country and other industrial sites were again targeted by the notorious virus reported to be the creation of the Israeli and American governments. In 2010, Tehran accused Israel and the US of targeting its nuclear facilities with cyberattacks.


This recent Stuxnet attack was successfully defeated, according to local Iranian civil defense chief Ali Akbar Akhavan. "We were able to prevent its expansion owing to our timely measures and the cooperation of skilled hackers," Akhavan said. Iran has repeatedly claimed to be the victim of cyber attacks from foreign states, and repeatedly claimed success in defeating them, the B...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3803216/stuxnet-strikes-again-iranian-official-says

You'll shoot your eye out: on Christmas, Americans flaunt their new firearms online

gunface

While the debate over gun control and gun culture has gripped the nation following a series of high-profile shootings this year, leading some groups to momentarily step out of the spotlight, excited firearm owners have taken to Twitter and Instagram on Christmas day to show off their new lethal hardware.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3803144/a-gun-filled-christmas-on-twitter-and-instagram

Crew members celebrate Christmas in simulated Mars colony

mars desert project

Astronomer and science fiction writer Diane Turnshek is spending Christmas with a crew simulating a Martian environment in the desert north of Hanksville, Utah, as part of a Mars Society project. The crew members have been blogging about gathering rock specimens, monitoring the sky, and living in isolation. Today, Turnshek offers a Christmas dispatch via a friend, writer John Scalzi. "We’ll celebrate good tidings with beef stew, homemade bread, potato pancakes and a brownie dessert," she writes. "And the day after, back to the grind of pedestrian [extra-vehicular explorations] on Mars."


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3803078/crew-members-celebrate-christmas-in-simulated-mars-colony

Museum of London publishes a family's Christmas Day home recordings from 1902

Wall family portrait (museum of london)

Last week, the Museum of London announced that it discovered "the earliest known home recording to have been made on Christmas Day." The phonograph recordings, from a middle-class family in North London, date back to 1902 and were found in wax cylinders belonging to their descendants. As museum Curator of Social and Working History Julia Hoffbrand notes, "it is extremely unusual for wax phonograph cylinders, containing retrievable recordings of this age, to survive." The museum received the cylinders in 2008 as a donation, and recently digitized them. The recordings are said to be the oldest ever found of Christmas celebrations, and the museum has provided them for public listening on its website.


The recordings include hymns, popular...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3803024/christmas-day-celebration-from-1902-on-tape

New York newspaper posts map with names and addresses of handgun permit owners

journal news gun map

"Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood?" That's the question posed by The Journal News , a New York newspaper that published a Google map on Sunday that shows the names and addresses of pistol or revolver permits in Westchester and Rockland counties.


The timing of the Journal News report is especially sensitive because of the gun control debate sparked by the fatal mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.


The information was gathered through requests filed under Freedom of Information laws, but the Journal didn't get everything it wanted. The paper also requested the number and types of guns owned by permit holders, which the state's public information officer denied. The map omits owners of rifles...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3802960/new-york-newspaper-posts-map-with-names-addresses-of-gun-owners

Anonymous whistleblower fights to reveal the true cause of Israeli military deaths

israeli soldiers

An anonymous blogger and whistleblower who is reportedly under investigation in Israel for publishing classified military information has volunteered to turn himself in if the Israeli Defense Forces will publish information it has withheld about the deaths of 126 soldiers.


The blogger is "Eishton," an activist citizen journalist who made the news earlier this year when he challenged the official account regarding the soldiers' deaths, claiming that suicide was the leading cause. Eishton relied on public documents as well as leaked documents from inside the army. A journalist for English news site Haaretz defended Eishton's work as "serious and professional" although he is an amateur.


Two weeks ago, Eishton announced via his Facebook...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3802808/anonymous-whistleblower-fights-to-reveal-true-cause-of-israeli-military-deaths

Uber losing its edge in taxi app wars as competitor Hailo reportedly raises big bucks

hailo cab

San Francisco startup Uber has had two advantages in the great battle of the taxi apps: money and notoriety. That may be about to change. Rival startup Hailo has raised $30 million from high profile investors, reports All Things D , which would bring its total funding up to $50 million, narrowly surpassing Uber's reported $49.5 million.


The new money sets the stage for a high stakes showdown. Riders in Boston and Chicago, where both Uber and Hailo already operate, are likely to see huge discounts and heavy marketing (ice cream, anyone?). But the battle will be fiercest in New York City, where regulators just cleared the way for e-hailing apps to start booking rides in mid-February. Several apps are likely to hit the market at that time,...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3802672/uber-losing-edge-to-hailo-in-taxi-app-wars

Astronaut Chris Hadfield records first song in space, shares holiday tweets aboard the ISS

chris hadfield ISS guitar

In a Reddit "ask me anything" session earlier this month, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield opened up about life in space, and said he plans to "deliberately mentally get away" from his normal duties by playing guitar and spending "some time to truly appreciate what is actually happening — to me, and in history." He also promised to record a song aboard the International Space Station, and he's done just that; yesterday, Hadfield uploaded "Jewel in the Night," an original recording, to Soundcloud and YouTube. The guitar has been aboard the ISS since 2001, and multiple astronauts have used it aboard the space station. At this moment, Hadfield is floating somewhere over the Mediterranean, playing Christmas carols.


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3802714/astronaut-chris-hadfield-records-song-from-space

The best apps for your new Android phone or tablet

best apps 2012

Android phones used to be for the hyper-nerds, who happily sacrificed simplicity for customization, ease of use for sheer horsepower. But now you don't have to trade – whether you just got a Nexus 4, a Galaxy S III, a One X+, or something else entirely, you're using a phone that does everything you want and does it in style. But what to do with it? First you'll download Facebook and Instagram, and get your Google setup nailed. Then go get Angry Birds Star Wars and Temple Run , sure. But what about when you want to get stuff done? Or when you find out you hate the default Android keyboard and browser? Or you run out of pigs to kill? Here's where to go next.





Mint


Mint aggregates all of your bank account, credit card, debt, and...




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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3793456/best-apps-new-android-phone-tablet

The best apps for your new Windows Phone device

best apps 2012

If you're looking for Windows Phone 8 apps, you're probably the proud new owner of a Nokia Lumia 920, or an HTC Windows Phone 8X. Maybe a Lumia 822 on Verizon? Whatever you've just activated, you now need some apps. You've already got Bing Maps, a great calendar, and some nifty Nokia apps if you have a phone from the Finnish company, but now you need a way to get stuff done, a half-decent Twitter app, and some games for when you don't feel like being so staggeringly productive. The Windows Phone ecosystem can be tough, because third-party apps are often much better than their first-party alternative — here are some of the first apps you should download between now and your next holiday-induced food coma.





Rowi


Rowi is...




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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3793462/best-apps-new-windows-phone

The best books for your new Kindle

best apps 2012

So someone sweet bought you a Kindle, huh? Well aren't you well-loved? But now comes the hard question, which is... what are you going to read? There isn't a one-size fits all answer to this question, of course, but we're going to do our best to recommend some of the best books we can think of to get you started. Happy reading!





Dune by Frank Herbert - (1965)


The 1965 sci-fi classic is likely to be The Verge’s January Book Club pick, but it’s a must-read page turner regardless.







Canada by Richard Ford - (2012)


Ford is one of America’s treasures, and Canada is him at his best, in a harrowing coming of age story.







Ubik by Philip K. Dick - (1969)


This novel was the first Verge Book Club...




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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/25/3793464/best-books-new-kindle