Month: January 2014

Entertainment

Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt on bringing 4K into your home

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As reported on The Verge. By Bryan Bishop Netflix has been busy here at CES. Over the past few days multiple TV manufacturers have announced partnerships with the company around its latest initiative: 4K streaming. With Ultra HD televisions one of the dominant stories of last year’s show, the fact that Netflix will be providing 4K content in the second quarter of this year has the potential to truly change the landscape. We sat down with…

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Games Tech

AirDroids Wants To Democratize The Skies With Its Pint-Sized Pocket Drone

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Chris Velazco The buzz around drones is undeniable these days — as it turns out, even Martha Stewart uses one to survey her farm — but there still hasn’t been a runaway drone hit that has captured that imaginations of the masses. That’s exactly what a hardware startup calledAirDroids is trying to accomplish with the Pocket Drone, a (relatively) inexpensive flying machine that’s meant to give people of all stripes a different…

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Photography Space

Gemini Planet Imager photographs alien worlds in just a minute

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As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS Although it has been possible to take direct photos of exoplanets for a few years, the technology involved has been low-resolution and slow — it can take up to an hour to get a crude shot of a dimly-lit world. It’s much easier with the recently launched Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), though. Scientists have released early images from the Chile-based instrument that took a mere minute to capture, and reveal more detail than…

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Hardware Dev

Airtame wireless dongle mirrors your computer onto any HDMI display

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As reported on Engadget. BY RICHARD LAI Here’s yet another option for wirelessly mirroring your computer screen to another display, but don’t worry, this one rather impressive. Airtame, the creation of a group of Danish folks, is an HDMI dongle that links your PC — be it running on Windows, OS X or Linux — to whatever display it’s plugged into over WiFi. Installation is a breeze: all you need on the PC side is just…

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Art

Panoramic Wall Photos Examine the World’s Most Volatile Borders

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As reported on Wired. BY REBECCA HORNE Construction of the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico between Naco and Douglas, Arizona. April 2008. Photo: From Confrontier by Kai Wiedenhöfer published by Steidl. A section of the biggest peace line of West Belfast in Waterville Street, which was reinforced with concrete and extended with a fence on the top in 2008. Belfast, Northern Ireland, September 2008. Photo: From Confrontier by Kai Wiedenhöfer published by Steidl. A section of the biggest peace line…

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Google

Google is now ferrying its workers around San Francisco in a private catamaran

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As reported on The Verge. By Carl Franzen As criticism of Google’s private shuttle bus service for employees living in San Francisco has reached new heights, the company quietly turned its eyes to the sea. CBS is reporting that Google has contracted a private catamaran called “The Triumphant” that ferries workers from San Francisco bay to Redwood City, California, about halfway to the company’s global headquarters in Mountain View, California. Presumably, then Google employees hop out and take a bus…

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Business Culture

Blaze Seeks To Save Cyclist Lives With A Laser Projection Bike Light

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Ryan Lawler More and more urban commuters are embracing cycling as a way to get to and from work and around the city, and more and more cities are embracing cyclists by adding bike lanes and making commutes safer and more fun. But bicycle safety is still a huge issue in even the most bike-friendly cities. A new startup called Blaze hopes to improve rider safety by reimagining the classic bike light. Blaze’s…

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Security

Simplicam watches your house while you’re away, uses facial recognition to tell you who’s home

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As reported on Engadget. BY SEAN BUCKLEY WiFi cameras are a handy tool to keep tabs on your home, but they’re really only useful if you’re looking at them. Checking up on your family means pulling up an app, logging in and manually scanning your living room for occupants. ArcSoft says it has an easier way: facial recognition. By equipping its Simplicam WiFi camera with motion, sound and facial detection software, the firm says it can notify you when your…

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Application iPhone

This case turns your iPhone into a night vision camera

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As reported on Engadget. BY DANIEL COOPER Thermal cameras are expensive, which is why they’re mostly used by firefighters, contractors and psychotic aliens. Fortunately, that’s all about to change thanks to theFLIR One, which is an iPhone case with a tiny thermal camera stuck on the back. All you have to do is strap your iPhone 5 or 5s into the dock and, once you’ve downloaded the app, you’re ready to go. Using multi-spectral dynamic imaging, it can…

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Government Security

The NSA Is Building a Quantum Computer? We Already Knew That

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As reported on Wired. BY ROBERT MCMILLAN NSA Director Keith Alexander speaking at the 2009 Cyberspace Symposium. Photo DoD/Dan Rohan   The internet is abuzz over revelations that the NSA is building its own quantum computer, a machine that could crack the computer encryption codes exponentially faster than any machine available today. But this should come as no surprise. “It’s an interesting topic,” says Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist at MIT who has followed quantum computing efforts…

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