Android Application

Evernote for Android graced with refined note editing, external keyboard support

As reported on Engadget. BY ALEXIS SANTOS  Sure, the year might be winding down, but the folks at Evernote have still managed to sneak in another update for their Android app. By wielding the upgraded application, users can edit notes without fear of losing text styling they’ve applied in the program on other platforms, and view attachments in-line with their digital scrawlings. External keyboard support has been baked in as well, alongside recognition for key shortcuts for creating notes, bullets, numbered lists…

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Tech Trends

Meta Pro promises Tony Stark-style computing with a $3,000 pair of sunglasses

As reported on Engadget. BY MICHAEL GORMAN As opposed to the rudimentary capabilities of the current king of wearables, Google Glass, a company called Meta is building a full-fledged augmented reality computing platform into a pair of aviator shades and a pocket computer. The platform aims to provide the kind of user experience heretofore seen only in Hollywood films — think Tony Stark using J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man. It’s been about four months since we last touched base…

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Application Automotive

The Beautiful UI Design Behind Automatic, a Driving App That Saves You Gas

As reported on Wired. BY JOSEPH FLAHERTY Automatic has developed a new quantified-self gizmo that promises to save drivers thousands of dollars per year and stall the greenhouse effect by reeducating drivers in real-time. Photo: Automatic   Do you know how much money it costs you to slam on your brakes? Or the annual cost you incur by speeding? Probably not, and even though the average American drives 13,476 miles per year, aside from a brief driver’s ed…

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Culture Education Film

The science of ‘Her’: we’re going to start falling in love with our computers

As reported on The Verge. By Ben Popper Why do humans become emotionally intimate with AI? In the new Spike Jonze film, Her, a man falls in love with his operating system. In some ways it’s a commentary on modern society and our increasingly intimate relationship to technology; it’s about the smartphones we bring to bed and the computers we wear to work. But there is also a lot of truth to the idea that people might fall…

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Science

Earth Wind Map turns raw weather data into neon art

As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick The US National Weather Service’s Global Forecast System keeps track of the world’s weather. It’s an incredibly valuable repository of information, but its data, shown in DayGlo charts peppered with numbers, isn’t the easiest to visualize without a degree in meteorology. That’s where the Earth Wind Map can come in handy. It takes the the Global Forecast System’s data — updated every three hours — and applies it to a zoomable map.…

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Article

My Long Road To Self-Publishing

As reported on TechCrunch. by John Biggs After blindly supporting it for a number of years, I’ve decided to crowdfund my own project, a novel that I wrote for my son, and thenwrite about the experience for you guys. Today I’d like to talk about my own experiences in publishing and why I think crowdfunding is, at the very least, a viable alternative to the traditional models. Be warned: this is a little introspective and I’m…

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Business

WSJ: Facebook’s autoplaying video ads launch this week

As reported on Engadget. BY RICHARD LAWLER  After months of rumors, the Wall Street Journal claims Facebook will finally include video ads in user’s feeds on the web and mobile devices later this week — a move we figured would happen soon now that it’s splashed other autoplaying videos all over the place. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the Journal claims Facebook will announce the change later today, with the first ads rolling out on Thursday. Previous rumors have put the run…

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IT

The IT Department Is Dead. Long Live the IT Department

As reported on Wired. BY MARCUS WOHLSEN Photo: Archive Holdings, Inc.   Evernote CEO Phil Libin sounds like a lot of tech executives when he advocates for treating employees well. It’s not just a nice thing to do, he says, it’s an important business strategy. “You can’t beat more productivity out of knowledge workers,” he says. “The only way you can get people to do more is to make them relatively happy.” That’s the kind of…

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Entertainment News

‘Lawrence of Arabia’ star Peter O’Toole is dead at 81

As reported on The Verge. By Kwame Opam Peter O’Toole, best known for his legendary role in the classic 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, died this weekend at a hospital in London. He was 81. O’Toole announced his retirement from his 50-year acting career last year, something he later attributed to his failing health. “I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell,” he said at the time. The actor had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor…

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Google Microsoft

Microsoft loses top engineer to Google

As reported on The Verge. By Tom Warren Microsoft distinguished engineer Blaise Agüera y Arcas is joining Google. Agüera y Arcas originally joined Microsoft in 2006 after the software giant acquired his Seadragon startup. He was a key software architect that helped develop and build Microsoft’s Bing Maps service and its image-stitching Photosynth software. The New York Times reports that Agüera y Arcas will work on machine learning at Google, something Microsoft’s research teams have been focusing on heavily recently. Agüera…

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