Month: August 2013

Space

10 Years of Mesmerizing Photos From NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope

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As reported on Wired. BY NADIA DRAKE For 10 years, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has been helping scientists on Earth learn more about the mysterious objects hiding in our star-studded skies. On August 25, 2003, the telescope — carrying a relatively small, 0.85-meter beryllium mirror — launched from Cape Canaveral, FL. Since then, it’s been trailing the Earth on its orbit around the sun, like NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. Spitzer stares at the heavens in infrared wavelengths, revealing the cold, distant,…

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Social Networking

Facebook Announces Shared Photo Albums To Boost Group Engagement

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As reported on TechCrunch. by BILLY GALLAGHER Facebook is rolling out shared photo albums, as first reported by Mashable. Users can share access to an album with up to 50 contributors, who can each add up to 200 photos. For those of you who aren’t math whizzes, that means shared albums can be as large as 10,000 photos. Previously, albums were limited to 1,000 total photos and users could only add pictures to their own albums. This…

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Mobile

Samsung Exec Confirms Galaxy Gear Smartwatch Aimed At Younger, Hip Buyers Coming Sept. 4

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As reported on TechCrunch. by DARRELL ETHERINGTON Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch is poised to be the next big news in wearable tech, and it’s also rapidly becoming one of the worst kept secrets of the tech world. Today, Samsung Executive Vice President of Mobile Lee Young-hee told The Korea Times that the Galaxy Gear would indeed be unveiled in Berlin on Sept. 4 two days ahead of the IFA conference opening, and that the new smartwatch would be…

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Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note III camera rumored to pack 4K video capture, high-quality audio playback

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As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith What are you going to add to a smartphone series that’s already gone big-screen,already has a stylus and already offers up a decent battery life? According to theKorea Economic Daily, Samsung believes adding a heavy-duty camera upgrade to 4K should do the trick. The news site’s source (identified as an “industry official” rather than a Samsung employee), says the Galaxy Note III, which is likely to make its debut at IFA 2013, will be…

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Mobile

Samsung exec confirms Galaxy Gear and Note III announcement on September 4th as images start to leak (updated)

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As reported on Engadget. By Daniel Cooper The cat’s out of the bag, and a rogue Samsung executive is the one who’s been untying the strings. During a chat with the Korea Times, Samsung’s Lee Young-hee blabbed that we’d see both the Galaxy Gear and the Galaxy Note III being announced at IFA on September 4th. The mobile VP added that the oft-rumored “wearable concept device” wouldn’t come with a flexible display and will be a companion gadget for your smartphone…

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Military

Launch This New 9-Hour Solar-Powered Drone from Your Shoulder

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As reported on Wired. BY ALLEN MCDUFFEE Photo: Courtesy AeroVironment Inc.   A new small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) boasts something no other has been able to do thus far: continuous flight for 9 hours and all on the clean energy of solar power. AeroVironment‘s 13-pound Puma AE can be assembled and hand-launched in minutes and requires no infrastructure for launch or landing, making them attractive for frontline use where time and space can be too…

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Environmental

Dogtown: Detroit’s latest challenge is thousands of stray dogs

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As reported on The Verge. By Russell Brandom Detroit’s recent bankruptcy has exacerbated an old problem: stray dogs. A new Bloomberg report estimates there could be as many as 50,000 stray dogs roaming the streets of Detroit, roughly one for every 14 citizens. The problem is particularly severe because of the city’s large number of abandoned homes, which the head of animal control says is “as if you designed a situation that causes dog problems.” Detroit currently houses only…

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Microsoft

Microsoft’s Next Era

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As reported on TechCrunch. by AARON LEVIE Editor’s note: Aaron Levie is CEO and co-founder of Box. Follow him on Twitter @levie. Moments like this happen only once a generation in the technology industry. The announcement of Steve Ballmer’s retirement from his post as CEO of Microsoft puts an end to one of the most powerful and interesting “regimes” in technology history. Symbolically, this is likely the closing chapter of an era that was led by Bill Gates, then collectively…

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Apple

When Apple Did Color Because It Was Delicious, Exciting, And Human

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As reported on TechCrunch. by ELIZA BROOKE You know what they say about trends: wait five years and they’ll swing back around again. With confirmation that a a gold iPhone 5s will indeed break onto the scene in September to throw a crimp into Apple’s monochromatic streak (madness! Gold rush jokes!), let’s take a look back at all those times that the company did color and did it well. While Apple is known for a clean, pared-down aesthetic…

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Microsoft

Switched On: Windows ReTried

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As reported on Engadget. By Ross Rubin  Last week’s Switched On discussed the initial confusion and rough ride for Windows RT, which became a dealbreaker for inventive PC designs that used the operating system. Despite ASUS dropping out of making Windows RT devices and joining such abstainers as HP, Acer and Toshiba, the operating system is due to be updated to include improvements in Windows 8.1, creating what will apparently be Windows RT 8.1. While Windows RT…

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