Month: March 2013

Hardware Dev

Samsung updates high-end Series 9 ultrabook, catching up as 1080p screens become the norm

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As reported on The Verge. By David Pierce Nine months ago, the 1600 x 900 display on Samsung’s Series 9 laptop was relatively impressive for its time, but it has since been bested by a number of 1080p (and occasionally even higher) ultrabook displays. Now Samsung’s playing catch-up, announcing today the latest version of its flagship laptop, which it teased at CES in January. The new Series 9 has a 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080 LED display, coupled with a “SuperBright” technology that Samsung…

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Microsoft Story Tech

Windows Blue: a video preview of what’s next for Windows 8

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As reported on The Verge. By Tom Warren Windows Blue made an early appearance on the internet over the weekend and we’ve had a chance to experience some of its new features. The upgrade to Windows 8 looks like it’s going to bring a host of improvements, fixes, and some new built-in apps too, but the biggest changes are on the UI side. Microsoft now supports smaller Live Tiles and the company is changing the way you arrange…

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Culture Education Internet

72% Of Professors Who Teach Online Courses Don’t Think Their Students Deserve Credit

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As reported on TechCrunch. by GREGORY FERENSTEIN This is not a good sign for online education: 72 percent of professors who have taught Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) don’t believe that students should get official college credit, even if they did well in the class. More importantly, these are the professors who voluntarily took time to teach online courses, which means the actual number of professors who discount the quality of MOOCs is probably much (much) higher.…

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Random

Quadrocopter fleet stuns Londoners with giant hovering Star Trek logo (video)

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As reported on Engadget. By Jamie Rigg Before quadrocopters become Skynet’s roaming recon fleet, they’ll begrudginglyentertain us, and in a recent promotional enterprise, a swarm braved the London “spring” to remind us of the imminent launch of Star Trek: Into Darkness. Over the weekend, drone masters Ars Electronica Futurelab sent a party of 30 LED-tagged AscTec Hummingbirds halfway to Hoth, and used the relative darkness ofEarth Hour to set an approximately 300-foot high Star Trek logo twinkling over Tower Bridge. A video of the event can be found below, complete…

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Application Microsoft

Internet Explorer 11 user agent makes browser look like Firefox, thumbs nose at legacy CSS hacks

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As reported on Engadget. By Sharif Sakr Subtlety can’t always avert controversy. That leaked build of Windows Blue is a case in point: it suggests a relatively incremental update to Windows 8, yet some of its revelations are already causing quite a stir. Neowin now reports that Internet Explorer 11, as contained within the leaked build, identifies itself to host websites as “Mozilla… like Gecko.” Confusing, right? Perhaps, but it’s not really as underhand as it sounds, as you can see…

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Application

Evernote 5 hits Android with revamped camera, shortcuts and tweaked UI Mobile

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As reported on Engadget. By Terrence O’Brien Evernote has finally brought its Android client up to par with its iOS counterpart, pushing it to version five. The update, which just hit the Play store, includes a mild face lift that offers more contrast between notes and other UI elements, as well as afew new icons with a bit more depth and detail. The visual tweaks aren’t particularly exciting, though. What has us rushing for the update button are all…

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Mobile Science

BlackBerry On The Defensive, Says BB10 And PlayBook Getting Approved By The DoD In April

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As reported on TechCrunch. by INGRID LUNDEN BlackBerry has now issued a statement confirming that its relationship is still on with the Department of Defense — for its sake hopefully closing the loop on the story that started withreports that the DoD would be dumping its deal with the troubled Canadian handset maker, once a mainstay of business users, who are now migrating to Apple and Android devices. BlackBerry says that its devices and services are in the…

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Google

Google’s Android unit reportedly building a smartwatch

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As reported on The Verge. By Jeff Blagdon According to a recent report from The Financial Times, Google might also be getting into the smartwatch game. And unlike Glass, which was developed in the company’s experimental X Lab, the watch (not pictured above) is said to be under development by the Android unit, possibly indicating that Google sees it as a more immediately viable product. According to FT’s source, the Google watch is separate from Samsung’s recently-announced effort.   THE NEXT…

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Article

40 years of icons: the evolution of the modern computer interface

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As reported on The Verge. By Jesse Hicks Diary of a WIMP at middle age Fifty years ago, the word “computer” had a very different meaning. Prior to World War II, the word referred not to machines, but to people (mostly women in order to save costs) hired as human calculators. During the war, military research spawned mechanical calculators, “computers” such as Colossus and ENIAC; afterward, IBM commercialized equally intimidating, multi-million dollar machines that required their…

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Google

Google Spreads Its Superspeed Internet Into New Playground

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As reported on Wired. BY KLINT FINLEY Olathe, Kansas, will be the first place outside Kansas City to receive Google’s ultra-high-speed internet service. Photo: Ichabod   Google Fiber began as a shaming exercise. The company would build an ultra-high-speed fiber internet network in one lucky city, and the rest of the country’s providers would be forced to follow suit. But it turned out that the country’s ISPs are shameless. Last month, Time Warner Cable Chief Financial Officer…

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