Month: October 2013

Apple Tablet

Apple’s new iPad Air: hands-on with the light, thin, ultra-powerful tablet

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As reported on The Verge. By David Pierce Apple’s just announced the $499 iPad Air at its event today in San Francisco, and we’ve gotten a chance to spend a few minutes with the new device. Long story short: it looks and feels like a larger (but not that much larger) iPad mini, and that’s mostly a really good thing. It’s really beautiful, with cleaner bezels, a much thinner profile, and sharper, boxier edges. The 9.7-inch, one-pound, 7.5mm-thick…

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Culture

Post-traumatic mess? Why crisis counselors still don’t know if they’re helping or hurting

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As reported on The Verge. By Rebecca Ruiz It’s the go-to method for trauma relief — but nobody knows if psychological first aid actually works Last month, floodwaters dark with silt and mud devastated a 1,500-square-mile area surrounding Denver. Nine people lost their lives. Some survivors lost their homes, and others couldn’t return because of the damage. Since those catastrophic days, Janine D’Anniballe has tried to help as many as she can. But unlike other responders,…

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Science Space

NASA shoots lasers at the moon, sets new data transmission record

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As reported on Engadget. By Melissa Grey Lasers are indisputably awesome, and NASA just made them a little more so by zapping a record-breaking 622 Mb of data per second between the moon and earth as a part of its Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD). Pulsed laser beams were shot from ground control at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico to the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) satellite orbiting the moon, and the results could herald…

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Business Microsoft Tablet

Microsoft cuts Surface Pro prices by a further $100, now starting at $699

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As reported on Engadget. By Matt Brian With the next-generation Surface now on sale in 21 countries, Microsoft probably needs to clear out whatever Surface Pros are still lingering in warehouses. As such, the company has taken $100 off both its 64GB and 128GB Pro slates, bringing their base prices to $699 and $799, respectively. According to the fine print, the discount is only available to customers in the US and Canada and will stay in place…

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Tech

Watch: Disney’s Experimental Touchscreens Let You ‘Feel’ Digital Objects

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As reported on Wired. BY KYLE VANHEMERT The latest project out of Disney Research’s lab is a rig that lets you feel objects on a touchscreen, using nothing more than some cleverly programmed vibrations. Image: Disney Research By modulating the voltage of the vibrations supplied to the screen, the team’s algorithm can simulate bumps, edges, textures and protrusions. Image: Disney Research In some cases, that can be predefined geometric information. Here, a Kinect-like depth-sensing camera pulls out some…

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Article

Vaccine deniers: inside the dumb, dangerous new fad

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As reported on The Verge. By Lessley Anderson Why a San Francisco community is disregarding mainstream medicine and putting its children at risk In San Francisco’s upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood, some 200 students from kindergarten to the eighth grade attend classes at the private San Francisco Waldorf School. On any given afternoon outside of the cheerful, modern white building, parents congregate to wait for their kids. Chit-chat includes the typical fodder like play dates and birthdays,…

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Random

Dick Cheney had the wireless disabled on his pacemaker to avoid risk of terrorist tampering

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As reported on The Verge. By Carl Franzen Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has for years warned that America needs to be on guard against terrorist threats. As it turns out, he took that warning to heart quite literally. In a recent interview with medical journalist Sanjay Gupta on CBS News’s 60 Minutes, Cheney and one of his doctor’s revealed for the first time that the Vice President’s pacemaker had its wireless feature disabled in 2007,…

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Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook Joins Board of China’s Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Catherine Shu Apple CEO Tim Cook has joined the advisory board of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management (SEM), according to its Web site. Located in Beijing, Tsinghua is one of China’s most prestigious universities. The advisory board meets annually “to offer advice on the development of Tsinghua SEM,” according to its site. Other notable American members include Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and former…

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Entertainment

‘Army of Darkness 2’ rises from the grave with Bruce Campbell as Ash

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As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick Bruce Campbell has confirmed the existence of an upcoming sequel to 1992 schlock-horror, Army of Darkness. Campbell — the star of the Evil Dead trilogy that includesArmy of Darkness — also confirmed that he would be reprising the role of chainsaw-handed protagonist Ash at Wizard World Nashville Comic Con. Campbell’s confirmation came in response to fan questions, and follows remarks made earlier this year by Sam Raimi. Raimi, the director of the original Army of Darkness, ‘threatened’ Campbell “every…

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Tablet

Tablets To Grow 42.7% This Year, Says Gartner, As The Traditional PC declines 11.2%

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Natasha Lomas   The tablet category is continuing to eat the PC’s lunch, albeit it’s a large lunch so the feast is taking a while. Analyst Gartner expects worldwide tablet shipments to grow 42.7% this year, with shipments reaching 184 million units. And while traditional PCs are still shipping a lot more units (303,100 forecast for this year), those shipments are continuing to decline — predicted to be down 11.2% on 2012 shipments.…

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