Month: May 2014

Google

Screenshots suggest Google is testing a completely redesigned Gmail interface

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As reported on The Verge. By Dante D’Orazio Gmail may soon look nothing like the Gmail we all know so well. Google has invited a select group of users to test a completely new interface for the webmail client, according to Geek.com, which appears to be part of the trial. The test version of Gmail — which may never see an official release — dispenses with design elements that have been present from the very early days of…

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Application

SketchVid Turns Your Doodles Into Eye-Catching Animations For Instagram

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Catherine Shu SketchVid is a cool new iOS app that lets even the most ham-handed doodler make striking animations for Instagram. The app lets you trace over or draw on a photo, or sketch freehand. It records your strokes as you are drawing and then automatically turns them into a 15-second video. I have a Jot stylus, but I’m still pretty bad at writing on my iPhone’s touchscreen, let alone drawing. Thanks to SketchVid’s…

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Google

Google sells Glass at a golf tournament, turns players into Explorers

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As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON Google Glass may not be permanently available for sale to the general public, but Mountain View recently promised to find new ways to expand the Explorer program. The pricey gadget’s first stop? The Player’s Championship in Florida, a golf tournament where many participants can easily afford the device’s $1,500 price tag. Despite the prime location, Google still bundled the eyewear with a free mini-camera that clamps onto a golf club to sweeten the…

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Entertainment Games

Watch what happens when you pair an Oculus Rift rollercoaster with the real thing

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As reported on Engadget. BY TIMOTHY J. SEPPALA It’s hard to imagine getting bored on a roller coaster, but a pair of English gents figured out a way to make riding the rails even more thrilling: adding VR to the mix. The duo took a publicly available model of an undisclosed UK theme park’s coaster, and imported it into the Unity game development suite. From there, the two smuggled a laptop, mouse, power supply, camera and an Oculus RIft past…

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Film Military

Air Force discusses how it would respond to Godzilla

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As reported on The Verge. By Jacob Kastrenakes As various films have shown, Godzilla is a devastating opponent in a fight. With a new movie coming out just a week from now, Smithsonian’s Air & Space decided to sit down with two in the US Air Force’s 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base in Japan to see how they would deal with the giant monster should it show up. “I think Godzilla would be expecting an aerial attack, so to catch him…

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Photography Tech

The beautiful blueprints for Fujifilm’s camera of the future

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As reported on The Verge. By Sam Byford The inside story of how the excellent X-T1 came to be “If I want to play my favorite song, I want to choose my favorite guitar,” says Fujifilm designer Masazumi Imai. “It’s the same with cameras. If I want to take a photograph of something important to me, I want to choose a special product.” Photography has been around for close to 200 years and, despite the best…

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Application

8tracks Launches New iPhone App To Take On Pandora

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Romain Dillet Music startup 8tracks just released a major new version of its iPhone app. The 3.0 version comes with a completely redesigned interface, a simpler user experience and a new advertising strategy. At its core, it remains a laid-back radio service like Pandora or Songza, but with human-generated playlists. After launching the app, the music experience is slightly different. You are presented with a horizontal timeline of human-curated playlists. If you swipe…

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Space

The 13 billion-year evolution of the universe, crammed into a four-minute video

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As reported on Engadget. BY MAT SMITH Now you’ve got the basics of the universe down, try a dreamy tour through 13 billion years of stars and the space between them all. That’s what Nature’s offering, courtesy of MIT and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Prior attempts to scale and visualizeeverything ever were apparently hampered by a lack of computing processing power and the outright trickiness of the physics involved. The Illustris Project eventually took five years to craft and is…

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Business Cloud Entertainment

Netflix begins raising prices, but current users get a two-year freeze (update)

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As reported on Engadget. BY MATT BRIAN Remember that Netflix price hike we were warned about? Well, it’s finally happening, and it’s affecting potential streamers across Europe. We say potential because although the cost is rising by £1 and €1 in the UK and across Europe, to £6.99 and €8.99 respectively, it’ll only affect those signing up for the first time. The good news is that if you’re already a Netflix subscriber, you’ll pay the same amount you…

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Application

Detect edited photos with image analyzer Izitru

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As reported on The Verge. By Jacob Kastrenakes Thanks to editing tools like Photoshop, it can be hard to tell what’s real on the web. There have been a number of forensic tools available to those wishing to investigate suspect images, but likely none so easy to use as Izitru, the service introduced on Monday by Dartmouth professor Hany Farid. Izitru, pronounced a bit like “is it true,” lets you upload a photo and automatically get a computer’s analysis of whether…

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