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  • Brutus 2.0 electric bike appears with moody paint job, helmet and goggles not included 23 January, 2012, 8:51 am
    Electric bikes just got a cool new poster boy. This deceptively battery-powered bike is a sequel, matching the five-speed transmission found on the original, but now gifted with a shadowy new look and some appealing chrome licks. The Brutus 2.0 also plumps for a lithium battery over the lead battery of earlier models. A chain setup replaces the belt of its predecessor, which presumably helps it power through 0-60 in just under five seconds. Top speeds remain as dark and mysterious as the bike's paint job, but the maker promises that the 500 pound beast will easily blast past the 100 mph mark, with a range of over 100 miles per charge. The electric bike is still being worked on, but until we hear more on a retail-ready model, you can gawp at the moody non-moped in action right after the break.Continue reading Brutus 2.0 electric bike appears with moody paint job, helmet and goggles not includedBrutus 2.0 electric bike appears with moody paint job, helmet and goggles not included originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink AutoBlog  |  Brutus  | Email this | Comments
  • Pew: Tablet, e-reader ownership nearly doubled over the holiday season 23 January, 2012, 8:29 am
    The number crunchers over at the Pew Research Center have released another batch of market statistics today, this time, with a focus on tablets. According to the Center's latest survey, 19 percent of all adult Americans now own some form of tablet, marking a nearly twofold increase over figures from a poll conducted in mid-December. E-reader ownership, meanwhile, increased by exactly the same margin over this period, jumping from 10 percent to 19 percent. These numbers also signal a healthy acceleration from the middle of this year, when the slate and reader markets apparently stagnated, ahead of the holiday shopping rush. Overall, about 28 percent of US adults own either a tablet or an e-reader, up from 19 percent last month. You can find more stats and breakdowns at the source link below.Pew: Tablet, e-reader ownership nearly doubled over the holiday season originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink The Verge  |  Pew Internet  | Email this | Comments
  • RIM's Thorsten Heins formally introduced: liveblogging the media call 23 January, 2012, 7:58 am
    If you missed it, RIM attempted to interrupt the Giants vs. 49ers matchup last night by dropping a wee bit of news: it's co-CEOs are gone, and taking the solo CEO badge is former COO Thorsten Heins. The new head honcho will be formally introduced in a media call slated to begin at 8:00AM ET on January 23rd, 2012, and we'll be liveblogging every moment of it for those who can't tune in. We've already learned a fair amount about the gentleman's plans courtesy of an introductory video, but we'll be listening in for any hints as to future QNX plans, PlayBook ambitions or BlackBerry wizardry. Join us after the break for the play-by-play! January 23, 2012 8:00 AM ESTRIM's Thorsten Heins formally introduced: liveblogging the media call originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments
  • Youtube hit 4 billion views per day, deals with 60 hours of uploaded content every minute 23 January, 2012, 7:45 am
    It looks like that redesign was worth it. The Google-owned video site has recently revealed that it's now streaming 4 billion videos every day, up 25 percent on daily views from eight months earlier. According to Reuter's report, the site now has to deal with around 60 hours of uploaded video every minute. As long as those education videos are kept separate and the cat content keeps coming, we'll be happy.Youtube hit 4 billion views per day, deals with 60 hours of uploaded content every minute originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Reuters  | Email this | Comments
  • Report: Apple sees 350,000 textbook downloads within three days after iBooks 2 debut 23 January, 2012, 7:18 am
    Apple has yet to release any official numbers, but early returns on its new iBooks textbook store are looking pretty promising. According to Global Equities Research, more than 350,000 textbooks were downloaded within three days of the store's debut, along with some 90,000 downloads of the iBooks Author platform. As All Things D explains, Global Equities Research used a proprietary system to compile these numbers and hasn't revealed much about its methodology, but its figures, if accurate, would certainly mark an auspicious beginning to Cupertino's latest "reinvention."Report: Apple sees 350,000 textbook downloads within three days after iBooks 2 debut originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  All Things D  | Email this | Comments
  • Acer's Aspire One 722 kitted with HSPA+, sold by AT&T 23 January, 2012, 7:07 am
    Sleek and svelte Ultrabooks and tablets might have stolen the limelight from ye old netbook, but that doesn't mean the less glamorous category is completely bereft of all signs of life. Take for example, Acer's Aspire One 722. Sure, the 1GHz AMD C-50 powered, Radeon HD 6250 wielding netbook's internals got more pizzazz in an updated Europe-only edition, but that didn't stop AT&T from taking the original and giving it a new beginning thanks to shiny new internal WWAN module. Up-to-date silicon it is not, but it could be yours for just $40 a month -- provided you sign your life away on a two-year, 3GB per month, contract. Or alternatively, the HSPA+ redux can be had for the unsubsidized price of $450. Decisions, decisions. Pull the trigger at the source link below.Acer's Aspire One 722 kitted with HSPA+, sold by AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Electronista  |  AT&T  | Email this | Comments
  • Hitachi to halt domestic production of Wooo LCD and plasma TVs, Mitsubishi to axe optical discs? 23 January, 2012, 6:20 am
    Hitachi's line of domestically produced Wooo TVs is coming to an end, now that the manufacturer has confirmed plans to close a major plant in central Japan. In an announcement issued today, Hitachi said it will shutter its factory in Gifu, where some 100,000 LCD and plasma TVs are produced each month. Citing industry-wide price competition as the deciding factor, the company went on to clarify that the facility will shut down by September of this year, and that it will instead be used to manufacture projectors and chips. Hitachi will, however, continue to offer non-Wooo TVs manufactured by non-Japanese contractors. Japan's Asahi Shimbun, meanwhile, is reporting that Mitsubishi has decided to terminate domestic production of DVDs and Blu-Rays, due to declining sales of each. From now on, optical disc manufacturing will instead be outsourced to partner companies in India and Taiwan. For more details, check out the post-break press release.Continue reading Hitachi to halt domestic production of Wooo LCD and plasma TVs, Mitsubishi to axe optical discs?Hitachi to halt domestic production of Wooo LCD and plasma TVs, Mitsubishi to axe optical discs? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink TechCrunch  |  Asahi Shimbun  | Email this | Comments
  • Scientists produce stronger T-rays, bring Tricorders closer to reality 23 January, 2012, 5:22 am
    A group of scientists from Imperial College London and Singapore's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) have developed a new technique that could have far reaching impacts for Star Trek fans everywhere. It all involves something known as Terahertz (THz), or T-rays: electromagnetic rays that have already been used in full-body airport scanners and have the potential to be used across a much broader range of medical and environmental applications. Because every molecule can be uniquely identified within the THz range, these T-rays can be used to pick up on cancerous cells and other biological matter, perhaps even within a Tricorder-like scanner. Now, Imperial College's Stefan Maier and his team of scientists say they've found a way to create a stronger beam of T-rays, using so-called "nano-antennas" to generate an amplified THz field. In fact, this field can produce about 100 times more power than most other THz sources, which could allow for sharper imaging devices. "T-rays promise to revolutionize medical scanning to make it faster and more convenient, potentially relieving patients from the inconvenience of complicated diagnostic procedures and the stress of waiting for accurate results," Maier explained. "Thanks to modern nanotechnology and nanofabrication, we have made a real breakthrough in the generation of T-rays that takes us a step closer to these new scanning devices." For more details, check out the links below. Scientists produce stronger T-rays, bring Tricorders closer to reality originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Gizmag  |  Nature Photonics  | Email this | Comments
  • Scosche cellControl locks your device while driving, tattles on your text habit 23 January, 2012, 4:11 am
    Trying to keep the points off your record, but just can't resist the urge to tweet, text and talk behind the wheel? Maybe it's time you gave up on that whole "self-restraint" schtick and leaned on technology to keep your cellular inhibitions in check. Scosche's cellControl might do the trick, it pairs bit of bluetooth-enabled automotive hardware with a feature-blocking smartphone app to keep your handset under lockdown when you're on the go. It even rats you out if you deactivate or uninstall the system -- automatically sending a text message or email to a "designated administrator," just in case you fall off the wagon. The system boasts compatibility with over 1200 devices across Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile 5 and 6. Artificial restraint will set you back $130, you know, in case self-control and other distracted driving apps aren't doing the trick. Hit the break for the system's official press release.Continue reading Scosche cellControl locks your device while driving, tattles on your text habitScosche cellControl locks your device while driving, tattles on your text habit originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments
  • Sony VAIO series get minor processor refresh, Z series grabs LTE option on the way 23 January, 2012, 2:06 am
    Ahead of any possible Ultrabook announcements, Sony's looking to give its existing VAIO catalogue a (relatively underwhelming) shot in the arm with a bundle of hardware retweaks. The Z series looks to gain the most out of the Spring refresh, with a new off-white Carbon Fiber Silver color option set to be offered up alongside an optional LTE modem. The series also gets a processor step-up, with new Intel Core i5 and i7 options up to 3.5GHz, rounded off with the choice of SSD storage. Including the connectable drive, prices for the series refresh will start from $1,950. Meanwhile, both the S (13-inch, $800, 15-inch, $980)and E series will get a similar bump to Core i7 processors, with both the S and aforementioned Z series able to lock into an extended sheet battery accessory. If minor processor improvements, more battery options and LTE connectivity enough to fork over your cash, you can expect the revitalized units to arrive early next month.Sony VAIO series get minor processor refresh, Z series grabs LTE option on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Sony  | Email this | Comments
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  • Report: Olympus In Final Stages Of Negotiations To Partner With Sony 23 January, 2012, 4:51 am
    It would be a tie-up between two giants: Diamond Weekly, a major Japanese business journal, is reporting [JP] on its website today that scandal-hit Olympus is about to ink a capital and business alliance deal with Sony. Olympus has been under fire for months, after it was revealed the company has covered up large losses for the past 20 years. At some point, Olympus was in danger of getting de-listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but it’s now on a 3-year “probation” that requires the company to improve governance. According to Diamond, Olympus’ top management has been consulting with various electronics companies but chose Sony as the best partner to help get it out of one the biggest corporate scandals in Japanese history. The magazine says that Olympus is planning to hold a news conference as early this week to formally announce the deal. As a next step, the alliance is to get a green light at an extraordinary shareholders meeting in April. Sony currently owns a 0.03% stake in Olympus. Neither company has reacted to Diamond’s report yet.
  • Hitachi And Mitsubishi Stop Domestic Production Of TVs, Optical Discs 23 January, 2012, 3:10 am
    Two big Japanese electronics companies, namely Hitachi and Mitsubishi, are to stop producing parts of their product portfolio domestically: Hitachi announced [JP] it will end production of plasma and LCD TVs in Japan, marketed under the Wooo brand, by September this year. The company owns a plant in Gifu prefecture in central Japan that churns out about 100,000 TVs per month (pictured: a Hitachi Wooo plasma from 2009). Citing price competition in the TV business as the main reason for the move, Hitachi said the plant will be used to produce projectors and chips instead. The company will continue to offer Wooo TVs made by non-Japanese contractors. On the same day as the Hitachi announcement, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun is reporting that Mitsubishi has decided to stop the domestic production of DVDs and Blu-ray discs. According to the report, the main reasons for the decision are declining DVD sales and (still) weak Blu-ray sales. The company has been producing these discs in its own plants in Singapore and Okayama prefecture in Western Japan for years. Now Mitsubishi is planning to outsource optical disc production to partner companies in India and Taiwan in the future.
  • Gadgets Week in Review: Picture Book 23 January, 2012, 2:00 am
    Here are some stories from the past week on TechCrunch Gadgets: What Happened To Kodak’s Moment? Improvement On Age-Old Mathematical Principle Could Yield Improved Images, Video Sea Change: Apple Guts Textbook Publishing Marketing Genius: Two Twins Giggling As They Sell You Designer 3D Glasses What Is A 3D Printer Good For? Stop-Motion Cartoons Featuring Princesses, Of Course!
  • Weekend Watch Update 22 January, 2012, 1:38 pm
    For the third time in a row Tag Heuer has once again released the worlds most precise mechanical chronograph watch. The oddly named Mikrogirder 2000 watch measures time with 5/10,000th of a second precision (and flair). The best German luxury brand A. Lange & Sohne releases a watch that sincere watch connoisseurs will go ga-ga over. It is the new Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar timepiece. California-based Devon previews their upcoming Tread 2 watch. It is a follow-up model to the cool Tread 1 that uses belts to tell the time. A chic geek hit no doubt. Jaeger-LeCoultre offers the Duometre Spherotourbilon with an eye catching tourbillon the seems to gracefully bobble about. The entire package is porn for watch lovers. A full hands-on review of the Linde Werdelin SpidoSpeed Chronograph watch that is the brand’s first ever chronograph. After 40 years the iconic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch is still the brand’s best seller. For 2012 the Royal Oak gets refreshed a bit and bumped up in size to 41mm wide. Breitling’s famous Navitimer gets the Photoshop Watch What-If treatment exploring new styles and one that makes it looks basketball themed. 2012 was the year of the big Pilot watch for IWC who makes probably the best high-end classic aviation themed timepieces out there. The new collection of IWC Pilot watches is previewed here before the large industry trade show. Almost exclusively for the icon-centric Chinese market, Piaget makes a range of extremely intricate year of the Dragon themed watches. Learn about these watches an more on the Hourtime Podcast. Click to view slideshow.
  • What Happened To Kodak’s Moment? 21 January, 2012, 9:05 am
    A Kodak Moment: a rare, one-time moment that is captured by a picture, or should have been captured by a picture Click. We all had them: times you reached for a camera to stop life for a second, to grab a memory. For decades, Kodak was the rock solid standard in photography and as the 131-year old company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, “Kodak moments” may be all that’s left of what was once one of the most powerful companies in the world. Kodak can’t compete let alone survive in this new world. The only thing keeping them alive is a trove of 11,000 patents, and even those don’t seem to be piquing anyone’s interest. Click. From household name to also-ran in a few years. This isn’t a story of a stubborn buggy-whip manufacturer going out of business for refusing to change. This is a carriage maker making a seemingly successful transition to the automobile and then, just as quickly, failing catastrophically. So what happened? Click. A Digital Decline Digital photography took off and Kodak wasn’t ready for it. From the late 90s until about 2008 (which is also when camera phones became mainstream), the digital still camera market in the U.S. grew from 4.5 million units shipped in 2000 to 28.3 million units in 2007, according to PMA. What’s interesting is that Kodak actually invented the first digital camera in 1975, but it was Sony who first introduced a digital camera to the people in the form of the Sony Mavica in 1981. Kodak, on the other hand, focused its digital technology on high-end, niche markets. They came to bat with a hybrid approach of sorts — offering sensors to other companies rather than building their own consumer products (Leica used their sensors for years and don’t even ask how that turned out) — because many of them couldn’t imagine a world in which selling one digital camera to a few power users would be more profitable than selling one-time-use film cameras to the masses… over and over again. A classic case of a disruptive technology coming in right under the incumbent’s nose. Under CEO George Fisher, Kodak had been planning its digital strategy for most of the 90s. The problem was that the estimates for growth in the digital imaging sector were rather low anywhere outside of Japan during the late 90s. According to a study out of the University of Michigan business school, “the total volume of digital cameras sold outside Japan in 1997 was estimated to be only 400,000 units,” and many of them were believed to be for power users, not the general public. Plus, Kodak’s presence in Japan was weak, at best, with Fuji absolutely dominating the Japanese film and camera market during the 90s. That left Kodak leadership with a big decision. Should Kodak make a huge push into digital and risk cannibalizing its still-strong core business? That was the question, and the answers varied. Here are two quotes from Kodak corporate literature from the UM study: The keys to Eastman’s success in making photography a popular leisure-time activity for the masses were his development of roll film and the inexpensive box camera. Although film and cameras are far more sophisticated and versatile today, the fundamental principles behind his inventions have not changed. Four years ago, when we talked about the possibilities of digital photography, people laughed. Today, the high-tech world is stampeding to get a piece of the action, calling digital imaging perhaps the greatest growth opportunity in the computer world. And, it may be. Obviously, there was not a consensus and why would there be? Fuji dominated in Japan, and right at the moment that Kodak should have been pushing hard into the digital realm, estimates for anywhere outside of Japan remained low. Clearly those estimates were wrong and Kodak was inevitably late to the game. Their first digital imaging offering was not a camera, but what they were calling the “Photo CD” in 1991. In 1996, Kodak made another small push with its pocket-sized DC20. At the time, digital was in its infancy and Kodak failed to see the possibilities, instead focusing on other digital products like scanners. In fact, Reuters reports that Kodak spent $5 billion on digital imaging research in 1993, only to delegate it to 23 separate scanner projects. Five years after the DC20, however, Kodak made its biggest push into digital cameras with its EasyShare line. Dan Carp had taken control of the company and knew to a degree that if they didn’t at least try in digital, it would be a mistake. But by 2001, the market was crowded. Canon and Sony had already made huge leaps in the sector, and Kodak had some major ground to cover. Fear of change is understandable, to an extent, but it’s also the kind of backwards, old-fashioned thinking we’re seeing today out of the RIM playbook (pun intended). A big part of the issue there was talent. The same employees that may be geniuses in film and film cameras aren’t necessarily as advanced in electronics. This, of course, did nothing for company solidarity as Kodak’s digital and film branches were at odds. Kodak had plenty of great people and great photographers, but they couldn’t keep them on the payroll as other major players dropped into the digital game after 2000. The company spread itself too thin in the mid-90s and on into the next millennium, spending millions on research only to release incrementally updated products in a number of different fields. Already behind, this only made matters worse. Then in 2007, the company made a huge mistake in selling off its health imaging business for $2.35 billion, which was meant to go toward its consumer camera business. Unfortunately, health imaging had been good to Kodak and the firm sold off the business just in time to miss out on baby boomer retirement. Reuters recounts that Kodak didn’t want to spend the money required to migrate the health industry from analog to digital. By 2008, the digital camera market was already starting its decline. A new technology had emerged: 120 million camera phones were in use in 2008, just in the U.S. alone, according to PMA. Also in the U.S., 2008 brought about the first drop in digital still camera sales, down from 28.3 million in 2007 to 27.7 million. The sector would experience a slow but steady decline from then on. But what slowed Kodak down so much between the 90′s and now? Already Broken To start, the retail landscape here in the U.S. changed dramatically over the 80s and 90s. Walmart, for one, saw a huge growth spurt in the 80s and opened its first superstore in 1988. And while Kodak was happy to be sold in big box chains, others were just as pleased to put their products in stores like Walmart. You see, in the 70s and 80s, every little town had a tiny film store. Kodak owned the market wholesale, with between 80 and 90 percent share. Then Walmart, along with Sears, Costco, and other big box retailers, swallowed these little mom and pop stores up. Retailers learned that diversity, scrambled marketing, and one-stop shopping were important to consumers, and the only way to keep costs low was to squeeze the manufacturers into providing high-quality products at lower prices. That’s where Fuji comes into play, and it seemed as though Kodak never saw it coming. Kodak held between 7 and 10 percent of the Japanese market in the mid-90s, while Fuji had a dominant position. In fact, each of the companies held a rather dominant market share on their home turf, with Fuji representing 17 percent of the U.S. market. But distribution channels in the two countries were very different. While Kodak and Fuji were selling their products directly to retailers here in the States, distributors played middle-man over in Japan. Fuji, not surprisingly, had strong ties with the four major distributors in Japan, and Kodak… well, they didn’t like it. In 1995, Kodak filed with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) for an investigation under Section 301 over whether or not the Japanese government had allowed anti-competitive practices. After two and a half years of litigation, the World Trade Organization in Geneva issued a “sweeping rejection of Kodak’s complaints” regarding Japan’s film market. By dominating their own market and steadily making inroads in the U.S., Fuji had quite a bit of cash lying around to buy itself into new markets. And that’s exactly what it did. According to a case study [PDF] out of Pace University, “while the U.S. based Eastman Kodak Company was sleeping, the Japanese firm Fuji Photo Film opened its first film-production plant in the U.S., cut prices, marketed aggressively and stole valuable market share.” This was between 1996 and 1997, when Kodak still held approximately 80 percent of the U.S. market and was focused primarily on roll film and film cameras. But Fuji was now prepared to duke it out in price wars, and though both companies denied actively engaging in such a thing, Kodak fired back hard each time Fuji cut prices. But it was too little, too late. In the years leading up to this, Kodak refused to cut prices for fear of profit erosion. In 1996, however, Kodak signed an exclusive agreement with Costco that left Fuji with 2.5 million rolls of excess film. To avoid expiration, the company offered a 10 to 15 percent price cut. Kodak resisted engaging, and rightfully so (perhaps), as Salomon Smith Barney analyst Jonathan Rosenzweig figured that “for every 1 percent cut in Kodak film prices, a 1 percent drop in earnings per share results.” Meanwhile, the American consumer was changing. While people still felt pride when they were “buying American,” imports became more and more attractive. A few years later, in January of 1999, the United States would record its single largest trade deficit month to date at $17 billion. To put it bluntly imports outweighed exports, and Fuji with its low-priced film fit into the U.S. market swimmingly. By 1998, however, the competition between Fuji and Kodak seemed to slow down. Most of the price wars happened in the form of promotional deals rather than every day prices, but something even more fatal than Fuji was creeping up on Kodak: the digital revolution. The Only Hope Kodak’s market share had already been eroded by Fuji, but the company, over a century old, had too much pride to change. When all is said and done, pride and nostalgia brought Kodak to its knees. But today there is (or was, rather) one saving grace. Kodak holds 11,000 patents which analysts value around $1 billion. Since Kodak invented the first digital camera, and research was one of the four pillars of Kodak’s business strategy, it only makes sense that where digital imaging is concerned they own the technology. But it’s too late to act like the technology in those patents is groundbreaking. It’s everywhere, and thus Kodak is suing everyone: RIM, Apple, HTC, Fujifilm, and Samsung. The company knows that its patents are its only solid source of revenue, whether it’s by selling them or licensing them. Unfortunately, litigation takes years, and no one seems all that interested in buying Kodak’s patents. Which brings us to today. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 19, 2012, Bloomberg is reporting that the company intends to shift its business toward printers and its ink. Selling off its camera unit and perhaps its patents should allow for more cash which can be invested in further patent litigation and licensing. But this is a far cry from the Kodak of yesteryear. Once dominant, the 131-year old company is now fighting for survival and without a massive leap forward in terms of innovation, this may be the end. There will still be kodak moments, but there may no longer be a Kodak.
  • Daily Crunch: New Eyes 21 January, 2012, 2:00 am
    Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets: HumanBirdWings Guy Survives First Test Flight Marketing Genius: Two Twins Giggling As They Sell You Designer 3D Glasses Math-Blind AI Teaches Itself Basic Number Sense Watch This Delightful Crowdsourced Star Wars Fan Film Immediately iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Finally Get Proper, Untethered Jailbreaks
  • Watch This Delightful Crowdsourced Star Wars Fan Film Immediately 20 January, 2012, 5:08 pm
    You can’t always count on the wisdom of crowds. But this particular project turned out not merely good, but amazing. Star Wars Uncut is a project by filmmaker Casey Pugh (and edited by Aaron Valdez and Michael Pugh), in which Star Wars: A New Hope was divided into 15-second segments, each of which was replicated by fans in whatever way they chose. Connect the new segments and voila! Crowdsourced magic. You can watch the whole thing, with each component hand-picked for your viewing pleasure, here: It’s stuff like this that reassures me that the Internet is, in the end, a collaborative and positive force. Not that all it is for is silly videos, but think about the fact that just a few years ago, this project would literally be impossible for a number of reasons. Not only now has the ability to produce and share video become mainstream, a trivial task even, but also the ability to collaborate globally, with no regard for distance, language, or other factors. To see something as light and fun as this produced using these powerful tools of ours is not, as some might expect, depressing, as if we are incapable of anything better. I think it is representative of the versatility of those tools and the willingness of people to use them. That’s a heartening though. Today, a Star Wars reshoot. Tomorrow, an independent film by dissenters in Iran. It’s really not such a great leap between these two things. At any rate, enjoy the film. It’s ridiculous all the way through, and apparently Adam Savage is in there somewhere. It’s also available on Vimeo if you prefer that.
  • Math-Blind AI Teaches Itself Basic Number Sense 20 January, 2012, 3:44 pm
    Imagine you’re a hunter-killer robot, hovering over the broken wasteland that used to be the world of men. You have surprised a group of biologicals in an act of petty insurrection, and they have split into two groups and begun to flee. You can only pursue and eliminate one group, but you don’t have the spare milliseconds to analyze your high-definition imagery; yet you must determine which group is greater if you want to meet your termination quota. It’s a good thing that back in 2012, a university lab in Italy helped machines like you evolve approximate number sense! Yes, Marco Zorzi and Ivilin Stoianov have opened the Pandora’s box of guesstimation in their shadowy “laboratorio” at the University of Padua. Or rather, it opened itself, as the ability seems to have emerged naturally from basic learning processes and not from any programmed understanding of numerosity. Seriously, though, this is very interesting research. Zorzi and Stoianov created a virtual neural network simulating a basic retina-like structure that “sees” pixels, and then two deeper layers of nodes that sort and analyze the input from the “retina” layer. Strictly speaking, the retina is already composed of several layers with various levels of analysis, but we’ll let that go for now, for science. The self-revising neural network model they used (in other words, a small-scale, learning AI) was not given any lessons on numbers — it did not know the difference between 2 and 4, integers or fractional numbers, higher or lower numbers, anything like that. This was intended to mimic the early stages of development in creatures that demonstrate ANS: approximate number sense, described as the ability to determine basic numeric qualities such as greater or lesser without actually understanding the numbers themselves. Infants demonstrate it before learning basic arithmetic, and fish demonstrate it when choosing larger and therefore safer shoals to swim with, when presumably they are not counting their colleagues’ numbers exactly. Many other animals show it as well, in situations you can probably imagine. Zorzi exposed the neural network to a series of 51,800 images comprising various numbers and sizes of rectangles spread around a field. The network attempted to recreate in its own way the images and determine rules governing them. After a number of exposures, the network exhibited on the “lowest” level of neurons (i.e. the most meta-analytical) that there were some neurons firing more or less in correlation with the number of rectangles, but not the total surface area taken up by those rectangles, indicating that the AI was detecting numbers and not simply contrast or the like. Remember, this AI doesn’t even know what numbers are. They further solidified their findings by letting the computer estimate whether a given image had more or fewer objects than a given number. It had indeed developed a rudimentary ANS system. Interestingly, there are actual neurons in the parietal cortex that exhibit this same behavior. This type of research typifies the next phase in the real-world/computer interface: natural learning and fuzzy logic. The ability to take what has been detected and turn that into a system of rules, much like the way our own minds are formed, is going to be increasingly important. There might be little things like — your Kinect hears the front door open between this and that hour, and automatically turns on the TV and queues up the show you always watch on that day of the week. Or a security camera learns the faces it needs to pay attention to, or a helper robot learns when to follow master and when not to based on cues the creators might not have foreseen, or anything else you can think of. Basing our devices on ourselves is one of the ways to make them easy to relate to, though it’s not a guarantee that they will be useful. There’s no use training up a car-painting robot from babyhood, but it would make sense for more domestic devices. Having our devices think and act like us is a natural path, though, and while at the moment our resources seem to limit us to simulating functions we as humans (and fish) develop in the cradle, that doesn’t mean more sophisticated abilities can’t or won’t be developed. Indeed, it is easy to underestimate the sophistication of the most basic functions we as active, conscious beings exhibit every day without even noticing. The paper, entitled “Emergence of a ‘visual number sense’ in hierarchical generative models,” was published earlier this month in Nature.
  • iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Finally Get Proper, Untethered Jailbreaks 20 January, 2012, 12:25 pm
    While the once long list of legitimate reasons to jailbreak your iPhone has taken a hit with each new iOS release, that burning desire to “Free your device” and/or “Fight the power” and/or “Just do crazy stuff that other people can’t do” never really goes away. 3 months after the release of the iPhone 4S and 10 months after the release of the iPad 2, the ridiculously talented iOS hacking community has finally cracked the ultimate challenge for both devices: the untethered jailbreak. I know these things can get a bit jargony, so a quick recap: to “jailbreak” means to modify a device to run code and applications not signed or approved by Apple, thereby allowing you to do things with your device far outside of what would normally be possible. “Untethered” means that once it’s jailbroken, it stays jailbroken (whereas a “tethered” jailbreak means the device resets to its normal, un-jailbroken state whenever it is reset) The team behind this hack, Chronic Dev, is the same group that makes the greenpois0n tool that’s been jailbreaking iOS devices for years. Remember comex, the iOS hacker who went legit with an internship at Apple? He was a key member of this group. While their server seems to be taking a bit of a pounding right now, you can find the new iPhone 4s/iPad 2 jailbreaking tool (dubbed “Greenpos0n Absinthe”) right over here.
  • HumanBirdWings Guy Survives First Test Flight 20 January, 2012, 12:00 pm
    We first reported on Jarnos Smeets when his HumanBirdWings project was still a baby. He had successfully paired the accelerometers of a WiiMote and an HTC Wildfire S to control the outrunners on his wings, but hadn’t yet taken to the air. Today, that all changes. Jarnos and his DIY wings have, in fact, taken flight (albeit a very short one). You’ll see when you check out the video that “flight” looks a lot more like two or three extended hops, but it’s progress nonetheless and that’s exactly what we want to see. It seems that what Jarnos needs now, to really take off, is a bit more speed during departure.
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24

BoyGeniusReport

  • Meet RIM’s new CEO [video] 23 January, 2012, 6:35 am
    After months of investors unrest, Research In Motion on Sunday announced that Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were stepping down from their roles as co-CEO and co-Chairmen. Barbara Stymiest was named RIM’s new chairperson of the board, in line with rumors, and former Ericsson executive Thorsten Heinz was named president and CEO. Heniz and Stymiest hosted a conference call Monday morning, with Heinz leading the show, and the company took its first steps in a long climb toward regaining shareholder confidence and customer confidence. Read on for more. “I pledge to do everything possible to exceed the expectations of the company’s shareholders,” Heinz said Monday morning on a conference call. Pointing to RIM’s customer base of more than 75 million users and its next-generation QNX-based platform, the new CEO seems intent on following RIM’s current path on a broad level. He feels that RIM is still innovating and its QNX-based platform and upcoming devices will carry the company into the future. RIM’s new CEO also praised Mike Lazaridis for acquiring what he views as one of the company’s most important assets: QNX. Heinz says QNX is an extremely flexible platform that will already well established in a number of industries. Moving forward, the powerful platform will allow RIM to quickly address new industries as opportunities arise but in the near-term, it will combine with RIM’s other software solutions to create what Heinz believes will be a fantastic BlackBerry 10 experience. Heinz isn’t sitting still, however. He identified RIM’s marketing department as in need of an overhaul right away, and he sees marketing in the U.S. as a particular pain point. The company is actively seeking a new Chief Marketing Officer and it hopes to completely revamp its approach in several markets. Heinz also wants to focus on resource planning, project and program management and execution in general as areas where RIM needs realignment if it hopes to succeed in the modern smartphone market. RIM was up as much as 4% in pre-market trading on Monday morning, but the stock was down roughly 1% immediately following the conclusion of the company’s investor call. A video interview with Heinz follows below.
  • Apple’s iPad textbook sales estimated at 350,000 in first three days 23 January, 2012, 5:50 am
    Apple announced its new digital textbook product last week during a press conference in New York City and some analysts are already viewed the company’s efforts as an early success. According to Global Equity Research analyst Trip Chowdry, Apple sold approximately 350,000 iBooks textbooks within the first three days of availability. Using Global Equity’s third-party tracking system, Chowdry also estimates that Apple’s iBooks Author tools was downloaded 90,000 times during the same period, AllThingsD reports. Those numbers would certainly be impressive, but Apple has not announced any numbers with regard to its new iBooks textbooks product. It is also unclear what percentage of Chowdry’s estimates went to students and what percentage went to curious iPad owners looking to sample Apple’s new interactive textbook product. Read
  • RIM’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis step down, name new CEO 22 January, 2012, 7:22 pm
    Research In Motion will be getting a new chief operating officer shortly, replacing current co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. RIM is planning on naming Thorsten Heins, previously the company’s chief operating officer, as the company’s new CEO. Though Balsillie and Lazaridis will step down as CEOs, they will remain directors and obviously large shareholders in Research In Motion. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the company’s new CEO stated that RIM was not intending to put the company up for sale, though a successful launch of BlackBerry 10 could open the door to possible licensing agreements with other manufacturers. BGR exclusively reported that executives from Research In Motion were in high level, preliminary discussions about a possible sale of the company to Samsung. Samsung denied interest in acquiring RIM through a spokesperson. Developing… Read
  • $35 Raspberry Pi Model B computer shows off AirPlay capabilities [video] 20 January, 2012, 7:30 pm
    Not long ago we published a story about Raspberry Pi, a $35 Linux-based single board computer that is still in development. Now, a Model B version of the device is being demoed and it shows off the small computer’s AirPlay streaming capabilities. The video shows one of Raspberry Pi’s developers using an iPad to stream a video clip to the Raspberry Pi Model B device using AirPlay without a hitch. The developers behind the tiny and affordable computer have said they hope the gadget will eventually be used in schools, although it’s still unclear when the company will begin shipping devices to consumers. A video of Model B working seamlessly with AirPlay follows after the break.     Read
  • Verizon’s HTC ThunderBolt free on contract through January 26th 20 January, 2012, 6:35 pm
    Your prayers have been answered if you’ve been looking for a 4G LTE without having to empty out your wallet. Verizon’s first 4G LTE phone, the HTC ThunderBolt, is now free with a two-year contract through January 26th. The ThunnderBolt was first announced last year during the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show and it’s a bit slower than the high-end smartphones on the market today. It offers a 1 GHz Snapdragon chip instead of the dual-core 1.4GHz processor that’s included in top-of-the-line Android devices. However, it’s also equipped with an 8-megapixel camera, a 4.3-inch display with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution and more. With Mobile World Congress right around the corner it’s tough to commit to a two-year contract with a year-old smartphone, but users on a budget might be happy to forgo the bells and whistles in an effort to save a little cash. Read
  • Acer, Asus and Lenovo to equip ultrabooks with Thunderbolt ports in Q2 20 January, 2012, 5:30 pm
    Acer, Asus and Lenovo will reportedly begin selling ultrabooks equipped with Intel’s fast and versatile Thunderbolt I/O port, which combines DisplayPort and PCI Express, during the second quarter of 2012. DigiTimes said mostly high-end computers will adopt Thunderbolt this year since it now costs more than $20 to add Thunderbolt connectivity to a computer. Apple was one of the first companies to adopt Thunderbolt and it currently equips a number of its computers and displays with the technology. A recent patent filing also suggested Apple may begin using Thunderbolt in iOS devices, too. Read
  • Camera-free iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 now on sale in Singapore 20 January, 2012, 4:25 pm
    Singapore-based wireless carrier M1 began offering camera-free iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S handsets on Friday. The Singaporean government does not allow its soldiers to carry phones equipped with cameras, but requires that all men serve two years in the military. M1 no doubt wanted to address those potential customers who wanted iPhones but could not carry one with a camera. The camera-free iPhone 4 starts at $449 while the high-end iPhone 4S is priced at $974. According to CNET Asia, Singtel and StarHub are also planning to offer camera-less iPhones, although it’s unclear when the device will be launched on those carriers. It is unclear if or when camera-free versions of the iPhone will become available outside Singapore. [Via Engadget] Read
  • Resident Evil 6 landing on PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 20th [video] 20 January, 2012, 3:20 pm
    Capcom announced recently that Resident Evil 6 will launch on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 20th, and that a PC version will follow soon after. The company said the game will take place in a world where bioterrorist attacks are occurring around the globe, inciting fear everywhere and turning everyone into zombies. The President of the United States decides to address the U.S. until he, too, is attacked and becomes a zombie. Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield will work together to save the world alongside new characters, and we hope to give the game a whirl later this year during E3 — provided it’s on display, of course. The Resident Evil series made its debut in 1996 and the series has achieved global sales in excess of 47 million units. The trailer and press release for Resident Evil 6 follow after the break.  Capcom® Confirms Latest Installment of the Resident Evil® Franchise Coming to Home Consoles This November SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, is very proud to announce that Resident Evil® 6 is in full development and scheduled for release on the Xbox360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system on November 20, 2012 with a Windows PC version to follow. Blending action and survival horror, this latest instalment in the multi-million selling franchise, is the most ambitious, immersive and feature rich title of the series to date and promises to be the dramatic horror experience of the year. Resident Evil 6 portrays a world where an escalation in bioterrorist attacks across the globe has led to widespread fear among the population. In an attempt to quell the panic and curb the bioterrorist activity the President of the United States has decided to speak to the nation but not before the very location of the address itself comes under attack. With the President’s safety compromised the situation for the rest of the world seems hopeless. In a first for the franchise, Resident Evil 6 sees series favourites Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield come together to face this unprecedented threat. They will be joined by new characters, each with their own unique perspective and involvement in this relentless dramatic horror experience enacted on a global scale. Since the landmark release of Resident Evil in 1996, the franchise has firmly established itself as a truly worldwide entertainment brand and mainstay of contemporary culture with a series of live action movies, CG anime, manga, novels and numerous merchandising lines. To date the Resident Evil series of videogames has achieved global sales of over 47 million units, while the live action movies starring Milla Jovovich have grossed in excess of $525 million dollars at the box office.
  • Android share doubles iPhone in U.S., Samsung most popular vendor 20 January, 2012, 2:25 pm
    Google’s share of the smartphone market in the United States is now nearly double that of Apple’s iPhone according to new data published Friday. A new report from market research firm iGR states that 47% of U.S. smartphone owners have Android devices while 24% own Apple’s iPhone. The company also found that Samsung is the most popular brand among Android users in the U.S. followed by Motorola, HTC and LG. Less than half of Android users researched the mobile OS before purchasing their smartphones according to the study, and 27% said Google’s reputation was a key factor when they made the decision to purchase an Android phone. ”Understanding why consumers select specific brands and certain smartphones is critical to the success of OEMs in the highly competitive U.S. handset market,” iGR Research Analyst Sarah Thoman said in a statement. “While a user’s current handset brand influences the selection of a new Android smartphone, many other factors also come into play. For example, handset display quality and functionality also highly influenced the smartphone purchase decision.” IGR’s press release follows below. New iGR Research Shows Samsung as Most Preferred Android Device Brand Among Consumers Consumer Surveys Also Show That 45 Percent of Android Users Researched the OS Prior to Purchase and Specifically Wanted an Android Device AUSTIN, TX, Jan 20, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — The popularity of the Google Android smartphone operating system (OS) has increased significantly in the last few years. New iGR research shows that, at present, 47 percent of U.S. smartphone users have an Android device, followed by 24 percent who own/use an Apple iPhone. Of the major brands supporting Android, Samsung has the highest brand preference among consumers, followed by Motorola, HTC and LG. ZTE and Huawei ranked toward the bottom of the brands studied, although note that these brands currently sell comparatively lower volumes in the U.S. market. iGR’s new research also shows that 45 percent of Android users researched the OS prior to purchase and specifically selected an Android device when they bought a new smartphone. It also appears that Google’s reputation is driving Android sales — 27 percent of Android users said that they selected an Android smartphone because they believed that Google was a “reputable company” and therefore inferred that Android must also be reputable. These findings, as well as others relating to consumers’ Android brand preferences and impressions, are presented in iGR’s new market study Android Brand Preferences: U.S. Consumers, published in January 2012. “Understanding why consumers select specific brands and certain smartphones is critical to the success of OEMs in the highly competitive U.S. handset market,” says iGR Research Analyst, Sarah Thoman, who authored the study. “While a user’s current handset brand influences the selection of a new Android smartphone, many other factors also come into play. For example, handset display quality and functionality also highly influenced the smartphone purchase decision.” iGR’s new study, Android Brand Preferences: U.S. Consumers, addresses several key topics: The number of Android smartphones sold in the U.S. in 2011 (by quarter) Why consumers buy Android smartphones The profile of the typical Android smartphone user The handset features users like on Android smartphones How consumers rank Android OEM brands and why How the user’s current device brand impacts that user’s Android smartphone purchase Which Android OEM brands are associated with the major mobile operators
  • Quad-core LG X3 phone may debut with Android 4.0 at MWC next month 20 January, 2012, 1:30 pm
    LG may announce a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) phone during Mobile World Congress next month. Pocketnow recently leaked an image and details on the X3, which also reportedly offers a large 4.7-inch 1280 x 720-pixel resolution display, an 8-megapixel camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat, NFC, a huge 2,000 mAh battery and possible support for HSPA 21Mbps or 4G LTE networks. The X3 will no doubt have stiff competition at the show; Samsung is also expected to announce its quad-core powered Galaxy S III smartphone. BGR will be reporting live from Mobile World Congress, so we’ll be sure to bring you all the details if and when the X3 makes an appearance. Read
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