Archive for October, 2011

Go easy on the gas, Speed Racer, because Cordon is on its way. Developed by Simicon, this new speed sensor promises to take highway surveillance to new heights of precision. Unlike most photo radar systems, which track only one violator at a time, Simicon’s device can simultaneously identify and follow up to 32 vehicles across four lanes.

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Cordon multi-target photo-radar system leaves no car untagged (video)

Motorola Mobility has issued a regulatory filing outlining the loss of 800 jobs. The cut will cost the handset manufacturer $31 million — that number includes $27 million in severance and $4 million to close locations. The reason for the cuts? Bloomberg suggests that it’s part of an attempt to lower costs, as the company readies itself to join the Google family — a decision Motorola’s board will vote on in the middle of next month.

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Motorola Mobility to drop 800 jobs

Microsoft’s Windows 8 developer preview greeted us with an interface steeped in Redmond’s new Metro style — its tile-centric start screen is sleek, fresh, and downright pretty . Imagine our surprise then, when the preview’s desktop default view punted us straight back to the contemporary “Aero” dressing of Windows 7. It’s not an ugly interface by any means, but shiny, translucent window frames are so last generation. Where’s the style? In the big M’s latest Building Windows 8 preview, of course

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Windows 8 desktop interface swaps classic theme for Metro, gets with the times

Meet Krishna Naishadham and Xiaojuan (Judy) Song. They’re researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and those little devices they’re holding may one day save you from an explosive device. This petite prototype is actually a paper-like wireless sensor that was printed using basic inkjet technology, developed by professor Manos Tentzeris . Its integrated lightweight antenna allows the sensor to link up with communication devices, while its functionalized carbon nanotubes enable it to pick up on even the slightest traces of ammonia — an ingredient common to most IEDs. According to Tentzeris, the trick to such inkjet printing lies in the development of “inks” that can be deposited at relatively low temperatures

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Researchers use inkjet acumen to create wireless explosive sensor from paper

Taste tests are fun — unless you’re in Italy, in which case they’re drawn-out and rancorous. That’s why scientists in Milan are trying to remove humans from the equation, by using nuclear magnetic resonance ( NMR ) spectroscopy to reveal objective “metabolomic fingerprints” for different foodstuffs instead. In their latest experiment, NMR succeeded in predicting how human testers would judge 18 different canned tomato products, including sensory descriptors such as bitterness, saltiness, “redness” and density. Like Caesar always said, technology that knows a good ragu is technology we can trust . Artificial tongue distinguishes 18 different types of canned tomato originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:58:00 EDT

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Artificial tongue distinguishes 18 different types of canned tomato

Ready for Kinect -like depth sensing magic in your pocket? It might be on the way, according to Eric Fossum, the man behind the CMOS sensor. During an Engineering lecture at Yale, Fossum let it slip that he was working on a new time-of-flight range sensor with Samsung, and said “we’re trying to catch up to a lot of people.” Pulling up a slide, Fossom described a 2-megapixel color sensor with a time-of-flight sensor inserted inside. “This doesn’t even get announced until February,” he said. Mentioning Sammy’s place in the 3D TV game , Fossum said that there wasn’t enough 3D content available to make 3D sets viable, “We have to enable people to be able to make 3D content before we can sell a lot of 3D TVs.” Between his lecture slides and befuddling words, Fossum suggested that cell phones equipped with 3D color image sensors could fill this content gap, calling it a “vision.” Hold tight to that word, though — Fossum wasn’t exactly crystal clear on what Sammy’s going to do with this technology, or what it’s going to announce in February

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Eric Fossum lectures Yale students on next-gen range sensors, 3D content shortages

It’s safe to say that Q3 2011 probably won’t be remembered as Cablevision ‘s finest. According to the provider’s latest earnings report, profits declined by a full 65 percent over the year, with net income plunging to $39.3 million this quarter, compared with the $112.1 million it raked in during the third quarter of 2010. The company also reported a loss of 19,000 video subscribers during Q3, though it added 17,000 broadband customers and 38,000 telephone subscribers. Total customers, however, declined by 15,000 over the past three months

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Cablevision reports Q3 earnings, sees profit fall by 65 percent, drop in video subscribers

It’s not enough for AT&T to simply sell cellphones, its emerging devices unit also traffics in everything from GPS dog collars to connected pill bottles . Now the company wants in on the fitness tracking craze. Forbes is reporting that Ma Bell will start offering apparel that could track GPS routes, heart rate and other vital stats — similar to the E39 shirt above from Zephyr and Under Armour. The clothing isn’t just for athletes though, the military, first responders and seniors could also benefit from the technology.

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AT&T plans to sell exercise apparel that tracks your vitals, performance

Techtree.com French Android users express over 85% satisfaction rate Telecompaper (subscription) This compares to a 92.1 percent satisfaction rage for iOS, 82.6 percent for Windows , 70 percent for Blackberry, 54.2 percent for Symbian and 52.8 percent for bada. The top reasons for liking Android are integration with Google services (65%), … A Chinese Windows 8 Smartphone Next Year? Techtree.com all 18 news articles »

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French Android users express over 85% satisfaction rate – Telecompaper (subscription)

Windows 8 : The InfoWorld Deep Dive report InfoWorld By InfoWorld staff | InfoWorld It’s not the Windows you know and love. Microsoft has revealed a “reimagined” Windows — code-named Windows 8 — that boasts a very different, tile-centric user interface called Metro taken from Windows Phone that is … You tell us: why do IT shops block employee Macs more than PCs? Ars Technica all 11 news articles »

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Windows 8: The InfoWorld Deep Dive report – InfoWorld

ITProPortal Windows 8 Built-in Phone Features Hinted ITProPortal As we previously discussed, Microsoft is trying to unite the tablet, phone and computer in one, using its latest OS: Windows 8 . More proof has surfaced, coming to back up our rumours. It seems that during the BUILD 2011 conference, the place where …

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Windows 8 Built-in Phone Features Hinted – ITProPortal

Hon Hai Precision Holdings has just released its Q3 earnings report, and it probably did so with a whimper. That’s because net profits fell to NT$19.2 billion (about $614 million) this quarter, marking an 8.6 percent decline from Q3 2010, when Hon Hai (aka Foxconn ) reported a net income of NT$21 billion (around $702 million). The company blamed the decline on a slow economic recovery and its ongoing expansion in China, where new factories are being constructed across inland areas like Chengdu, Wuhan and Zhengzhou.

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Hon Hai sees profit fall nine percent in Q3, pins hopes on new Chinese factories

It’s been another stellar quarter for the folks over at HTC . According to the company’s Q3 earnings report, released today, net income rose to NT$18.68 billion (about $624.6 million) this quarter — a 68 percent increase over Q3 2010 and a seven percent bump over last quarter, when HTC reported record profits . Revenue, meanwhile, rose by 79 percent on the year to NT$135.8 billion (around $4.54 billion), which the manufacturer attributed to “strong brand recognition, leading product portfolio and expanded distribution channels.” On a regional level, HTC saw the strongest growth in China, where sales increased by a factor of nine over the past year. This undoubtedly helped the company boost handset shipments, which increased by a whopping 93 percent over the year, to 13.2 million units

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HTC releases Q3 earnings report: profit up 68 percent, shipments soar 93 percent

Panasonic just launched a whole new series of Micro Four Thirds lenses a couple of months ago, and it looks like it might soon also have a new Micro Four Thirds camera to take advantage of them. That photo you see above recently turned up on the Mobile01 forums with a bundle of others, showing a hereto unannounced Panasonic Lumix GX1 MFT camera, which looks like it could be a true successor to the GF1 (as opposed to the GF2 and GF3 that moved in a less pro-minded direction). Rumored specs remain a bit light, but the camera apparently has a touchscreen display ’round back, which will likely see a fair bit of use unless you opt for an external EVF. It’s also suggested that the camera will be launching soon — on November 8th — although that’s obviously yet to be confirmed. [Thanks, Amin] Panasonic Lumix GX1 Micro Four Thirds camera surfaces in leaked photos originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:13:00 EDT.

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Panasonic Lumix GX1 Micro Four Thirds camera surfaces in leaked photos

Dropbox is an indispensable part of many a computer users’ arsenal, including several here at Engadget. But, the company hasn’t had a viable option for businesses who would have an obvious use for a tool that allows you to easily sync files between PCs, share them amongst users and always have backups in the cloud. The boys and girls at the Y Combinator startup know that there’s lots of money to be made in the enterprise space and that’s why they’ve unveiled Dropbox for Teams.

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Dropbox for Teams offers businesses copious amounts of sharable storage

• Introducing The First TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing Hackathon Winners http://t.co/LLzLab1A #
• Facebook Adds Subscribe Button to Comments Box Plugin to Increase Civility, Subscribers (Josh Constine/Inside Facebook) http://t.co/R7qBJm9B #
• Fish Evolve Immunity To Toxic Sludge http://t.co/PM7JF3be #
• Did the Nokia Lumia 710 pass through the FCC? (http://t.co/bBtrjrLi) #
• Nokia May Produce Windows 8 Tablets – Tom's Hardware Guide (http://t.co/uN6koDZN) #
• Growing up Geek: Dave Altavilla (http://t.co/A3erwhgF) #
• Samsung surges past Apple in smartphones – Reuters (http://t.co/qioFQUsD) #
• In NYC, Occupy Wall Street isn't very brown (yet) (http://t.co/0aPElJPC) #
• ARMv8 detailed: 64-bit architecture, AppliedMicro first in line (http://t.co/p5KHWnTr) #
• LightSquared partners with PCTEL on antenna 'fix' for GPS interference issue (http://t.co/HUVcBAkA) #
• Saif Gaddafi's paintings (http://t.co/Pq6QWWhP) #
• Occupy Emerald City: The Wizard of #OWS (http://t.co/PTw7sdLB) #
• BYD's e6 goes on sale in China, still mulling trek across Pacific (http://t.co/dP9XLt1J) #
• Student loans in America: The next big credit bubb http://t.co/q4KqkY0x #
• Siri hacked to fully run on the iPhone 4 and iPod touch, iPhone 4S vs iPhone 4 Siri showdown video (interview) (… http://t.co/wmCni0JC #
• We Came, We Saw, We Hacked #TCDisruptBJ http://t.co/DYknqeeH #
• Weekly Updates for 2011-10-30 (http://t.co/b7dSVSco) #
• Rep. Blackburn, Co-Sponsor Of E-PARASITE, Explains Why Regulating The Internet Is Terrible (Mike Masnick/Techdirt) http://t.co/0l0mIMR5 #
• Occupy Wall Street roundup for Friday, Oct. 28 (http://t.co/nkTgDvlY) #
• Mike Godwin's first-person account: "What Happened at Occupy Oakland" (http://t.co/XrTIk9jy) #
• Watch Live: Michael Moore at Occupy Oakland (http://t.co/lxPYRjNb) #
• Nintendo's eShop plans: premium DLC, game demos, smartphone shopping, relevancy (http://t.co/oHKWKKLE) #
• The White House supports leaks (http://t.co/cZ5qMPXn) #
• What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really? (http://t.co/4m2WgUER) #
• Herman Cain warns against "big potato moths" (http://t.co/Z1FlzPKD) #
• HP 'officially' out of TouchPads, Best Buy can still help you out (http://t.co/51ytDe2w) #
• IDC: Samsung, ZTE see jump in mobile shipments, Apple slides to fifth place (http://t.co/5MKTL2K0) #
• Daily Update for 2011-10-30 (http://t.co/WMFNN3jD) #
• More than just sexy phones: how Nokia will help sell Windows Phone 7 (Peter Bright/Ars Technica) http://t.co/RlWRp9yD #
• Daily Update for 2011-10-30 http://t.co/Y6pMBl99 #
• Weekly Updates for 2011-10-30 http://t.co/GiDjBcW1 #
• (Founder Stories) Drew Houston: “Dropbox Users Save A Billion Files Every Three Days” http://t.co/6lySkDI3 #
• Criminal Crowdsourcing Confounds Constabulary http://t.co/NU7GjWo9 #
• Luck Is Just the Spark for Business Giants (New York Times) http://t.co/YNeD7g2L #
• Freshmeat Renamed to Freecode http://t.co/k42PCQYc #
• Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career http://t.co/FFX18Xl7 #
• Facebook's Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston (Leena Rao/TechCrunch) http://t.co/mIBKRdXe #
• Isaacson: Jobs was ingenious, but not necessarily smart http://t.co/0qvJUIFm #
• New high-precision eye surgery robot helps doctors stay sharp (http://t.co/WCjNgp49) #
• The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our… transistors (http://t.co/MCBMxbEF) #
• Microsoft buys Skype, attacks reverse engineer with bogus takedown notices and florid language (http://t.co/aQUv3Myn) #
• Europeans: EU to vote on ACTA, get informed and involved! (http://t.co/RRUsrOMA) #
• Olly: the web-connected robot that converts pings to odors (http://t.co/8N4aoIMh) #
• Jolicloud heads to the actual cloud, Joli OS gets open-sourced (http://t.co/thrKa93a) #
• HP Windows 8 Tablets Plans for 2012 Could Give Rivals a Run for their Money – DeviceMAG (http://t.co/wKardRJo) #
• Justin Bieber: senator who sponsored anti-streaming bill should be "locked up — put away in cuffs" (http://t.co/HoLrLOaa) #
• Zombie Apocalypse: tonight on SyFy (http://t.co/nEWC8zdX) #
• Competing Against The Big Guys http://t.co/sXFe0YSN #
• According to his sister, who was present, Steve Jobs' last words were, \"Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow\" as he stared p… http://t.co/HiJTarVj #
• The Last Sikh (not 'Sith') Warrior http://t.co/YTxFMYaJ #
• Steve Jobs' Final Words http://t.co/tAcqns8H #
• Another step towards Graphene semiconductors http://t.co/SvTNAyg8 #
• Cause of Redbox Price Increase? – Congress http://t.co/r4Wivwce #
• Jobs' sister eulogizes her brother as 'idealistic' http://t.co/EthisfSY #
• Not a joke: Each book downloaded to ereaders incre http://t.co/tOaWuAGX #
• The Genius of Jobs (Walter Isaacson/New York Times) http://t.co/mQu1Nezm #
• HP Developing Windows 8 Tablets and Ultrabooks – Tom's Hardware Guide (http://t.co/r03UKp3k) #
• Mobile Miscellany: week of October 24, 2011 (http://t.co/hieXdnn3) #
• SOPA in depth: the worst-ever copyright proposal in US legislative history? (http://t.co/NM8MsKYo) #
• Traders talk back to Occupy Chicago (http://t.co/098EGTCt) #
• Top US foreclosure law firm threw Halloween party where staff dressed as homeless, foreclosed-upon Americans (http://t.co/QvdsNoSz) #
• Linux Foundation memo: how to make a computer that doesn't lock out GNU/Linux (http://t.co/hhMWFkm9) #
• Insert Coin: Ray solar charger adheres to your window, basks in the sunlight (http://t.co/AyPsZZ9M) #
• Firefox with built-in PDF support (http://t.co/QnBKiIkL) #
• Flaming rocket-ship sparkplug ad (http://t.co/tgbjOLkx) #
• Poll: What's broken (or working) for you in iOS 5? (http://t.co/dytu0DWW) #
• UK Police by covert cellphone surveillance system http://t.co/a6NKSapl #
• Live from Beijing – Watch TechCrunch Disrupt! http://t.co/LKzdFBvd #
• "Game Changing" Furnace Improves Solar PV Producti http://t.co/DBG1gE2L #
• Android App Fragmentation Revisited http://t.co/yzoO5wnt #
• Cable Is Holding Web TV at Bay, Earnings Show (Brian Stelter/New York Times) http://t.co/vCf4C5P9 #
• Analysis: Shakeout expected among online advertising companies (Jennifer Saba/Reuters) http://t.co/81UfK3dg #
• Apple prepping Air-like 15-inch MacBook, report says http://t.co/8DqrgWXf #
• New MobiUs Browser For iPhone Makes Mobile Web Apps Act More Like Native Apps http://t.co/1vaOhgXN #
• With Angry Birds Merchandise, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka Plans To Pirate The Pirates http://t.co/S5tQUlPB #
• Kai-Fu Lee On Why China Isn’t Ready For The Next Mark Zuckerberg http://t.co/ql8DqWqn #
• Why More of Your Facebook Fans are Seeing Fewer of Your Messages (Jack Neff/AdAge) http://t.co/UUiqI95S #
• Who 'Owns' The Google Driverless Car IP? http://t.co/7IsMippr #
• The Entire $1.65B Acquisition Of YouTube Took A Week, Was Negotiated At Denny’s http://t.co/bbBDVEp2 #

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Remember the Acer W4 ? After seeing it at IFA 2011 , it seems that it’s finally ready to make some first impressions, and its blind date is with France. Known officially as the Allegro, Acer’s inaugural Windows Phone isn’t going over the top in the spec department: it has a 3.6-inch WVGA (800 x 480) display, 1GHz single-core Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU, 8GB internal storage, 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 1,300mAh battery.

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Acer’s first venture into Windows Phone arrives in France as the Allegro

ZDNet UEFI and Windows 8 : is this bad news for GNU/Linux? Free Software Magazine After all, secure booting won’t allow even Windows users to load Windows 7 either. So, anyone who doesn’t want/like Windows 8 won’t have the option, unlike predecessors, to revert to an earlier release as people did with Vista and XP. … The right to dual-boot: Linux groups plead case prior to Windows 8 launch Ars Technica Linux Foundation: Secure Boot Need Not Be a Problem PCWorld Open-sourcers suggest Linux secure boot block workarounds Register Network World  - ITProPortal  - ZDNet (blog) all 17 news articles »

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UEFI and Windows 8: is this bad news for GNU/Linux? – Free Software Magazine

There’s no QNX (or BBX , we should say) here, but the Bold 9930 is still taking baby steps towards the future with BlackBerry OS 7. Now that you’ve had a few months to tinker with your latest and greatest, we’re interested to hear how you’d tweak things if given the keys to Waterloo. Would you make it look a bit more like this ?

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How would you change RIM’s BlackBerry Bold 9930?

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On , a column about consumer technology. In 2009, Switched On discussed the potential of Android on netbooks, finding an uneasy match between what was then high-flying hardware and still nascent software. More than two years later, though, the tables have turned in terms of momentum. As netbooks have settled into a relatively small part of the overall PC market, Android is leaping beyond the smartphone.

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Switched On: The clamshell mystique

The London Metropolitan Police Force uses a tracking appliance that can force mobile devices to cough up their unique IDs (IMEIs and IMSIs) and give the Met realtime views into who is where and who they’re with. The devices can also intercept SMSes and effect denial of service attacks on handsets. The surveillance system has

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London cops recording movements & association with mobile tracking device: "blanket & indiscriminate"

The world of green tech presented us with some neat tricks and eco-treats this week from this plan to 3D print new shells for homeless hermit crabs to this handy LeafSnap app that helps you identify all different kinds of fall foliage to an energy-efficient UFO hotel room , which recently “landed” in the forests of Sweden. Speaking of spaceships, we also spotted this Star Trek Enterprise feeding system for babies (you’re never too young to live long and prosper) as well as plans for a massive nuclear-powered airport/airplane that could fly as many as 3,000 passengers through the sky, and Philips showed off its eerie and futuristic bacteria-powered lamps . In honor of All Hallow’s Eve, we rounded up the top six creepiest buildings of all time as well as six spooky churches made of bones . And just in case you missed the craziest Halloween story of the week, check these photos of a trio of ghastly zombies bursting out of the world’s largest pumpkin’s hell, er, shell . On the green transportation front, we took the Honda CR-V hybrid for a spin and came across news that Tesla will reintroduce its sexy roadster in 2014

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Inhabitat’s Week in Green: CR-V hybrid, Facebook’s server farm and robot costumes

Don’t think Roku is sitting back on its laurels after rolling out a slew of new hardware including the Roku 2 family and the new, low end Roku LT . As promised, it has issued a firmware update enabling new gaming options including Pac Man:CE , Galaga, and Angry Birds Seasons . Even if you’re committed to Roku’s hockey pucks as purely video streamers, there’s a new firmware update to correct, among other things, issues that caused a darker than normal image on some displays, WiFi performance, boot performance, readiness for HBO Go, and subtitles on Netflix. Check out Roku’s blog for the full list of fixes or just hit the software update section in your settings menu to make sure you have the latest software.

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Roku adds more games, cleans up the PQ on its latest streamers

Your all-electric motorcycle options are getting more and more plentiful these days, and it looks like you’ll soon have yet another option consider. Volta Motorbikes officially announced its new Volta BCN motorcycle this week, with a complete unveiling set for the EICMA Motorshow in Milan next month. It will be available in three different models — the BCN Sport, BCN City, and BCN My Volta — each of which pack the same 35 horsepower and 70 kilometer range, but have various other tweaks to suit different tastes (with the My Volta being customizable through an online ordering tool). Details remain a bit light otherwise, but pricing is expected to come in around the €7,000 mark (or just under $10,000), with the first units set to roll out in the second quarter of 2012 — a reservation list will also be opened up at the start of the year for those interested

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Volta BCN electric motorcycle announced, set to go on sale in Q2 2012

Get ready science nerds, you’re about to get a lifetime’s worth of reading material for free. The venerable Royal Society, the over 350-year-old British scientific organization, has just opened up its archives to the web-dwelling public. That’s over 60,000 scientific papers dating back to the first ever peer-reviewed research publication in 1665. Other highlights include Isaac Newton’s first ever published paper, research from Charles Darwin, and Ben Franklin’s famous kite experiment

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Royal Society opens its archives to the web, is less elitist than the name suggests