Category: Tech

Tech Travel

New FAA Guidelines Permit More Device Use, All The Way From Take-Off To Landing

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As reported on TechCrunch.  by Darrell Etherington For years now, most of us have been quietly not turning off our phones and devices at landing and take off, and merely putting the screens to sleep and stuffing them in seat pockets instead. Now, we’ll be able to do that officially and more, according to the FAA. The American government organization overseeing air travel today announced that travelers won’t face regulations that are quite as strict when it comes…

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History Tech

Time Machines – Wireless wonder

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As reported on Engadget. By Jon Turi Welcome to Time Machines, where we offer up a selection of mechanical oddities, milestone gadgets, and unique inventions to test out your tech-history skills. This device famously exhibited the potential of tuned radio waves and their ability to wirelessly convey a signal. In 1899, it transmitted a message successfully from Britain, across the English Channel’s 32-mile expanse, to a receiver in France. Its business-minded inventor went on to pioneer an industry…

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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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History Tech

Time Machines: A PC pioneer

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As reported on Engadget. By Jon Turi Welcome to Time Machines, where we offer up a selection of mechanical oddities, milestone gadgets, and unique inventions to test out your tech-history skills. This digital device was released in 1971, just prior to the announcement of the first commercially available microprocessor. It offered a personal computing experience at a relatively affordable price and, in 1986, it was selected as the winner in the Computer Museum’s “Earliest PC Contest.” Head past…

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Engineering Space Tech

NASA’s tiny glowing plane shows the future of flight in fluorescent oil

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As reported on The Verge. By Rich McCormick NASA built a toy-sized model of a hybrid wing plane, coated it in fluorescent oil, and put it in an ultra-fast wind tunnel. Why? Because it’s a federally funded center housing some of the world’s brightest minds, and that’s the kind of thing it gets to do. This image shows a 5.8 percent scale model of one of NASA’s plane prototypes coated with a glow-in-the-dark liquid before being blasted…

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Tablet Tech Trends

Surface blades: Microsoft bets on accessories as the future of tablets

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As reported on The Verge. By Tom Warren Microsoft’s biggest announcement this week wasn’t its Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2tablets, or even what was inside them. It was a surprising Music Cover and the thinner, more impressive second-generation Touch Cover. Instead of rethinking the core concepts behind the Surface itself, Microsoft is getting adventurous with the accessories. For the Music Cover, the company worked with Joe Hahn of Linkin Park to launch a product designed specifically to allow…

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Military Tech

New camouflage coating uses squid protein to become invisible to infrared, night vision

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As reported on The Verge. By Nathan Olivarez-Giles Researchers at UC Irvine have created a new camouflage coating inspired by the pencil squid that is invisible to infrared cameras. The university developed the coating with military applications in mind — a tool to hide from enemies. Alon Gorodetsky, an assistant professor at Irvine who led the effort to project, says in a statement that since what his team has made is a film, it can easily…

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Hardware Dev Tech Trends

Sony’s SmartWatch 2 Versus Samsung’s Galaxy Gear: Two Very Different Smartwatches Face Off

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As reported on TechCrunch. by DARRELL ETHERINGTON Sony’s new smartwatch, which is actually named the SmartWatch 2, has been a known quantity since its official announcement in June at the Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai, and now theSamsung Galaxy Gear has been itemized by its creators in Berlin at IFA. Meaning it’s time for the two to square off in our blogger arena of champions for a spec and feature showdown. SONY SMARTWATCH SPECS 1.6-inch, 220×176…

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Art Culture Tech Trends

The Data Visualization Technology That Makes The America’s Cup Accessible To The Rest Of Us

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As reported on TechCrunch. by COLLEEN TAYLOR The experience of watching televised sporting events has evolved dramatically in recent years, with data visualization technology making it much easier for spectators at home to understand what’s really going on. Innovations such as the yellow “first down” line in televised football, the pitch and strike zone visualizations in televised baseball, and NASCAR’s racecar tracker have changed the way we all watch sports — and it turns out that…

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Culture Design Tech

Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch hands-on.

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As reported on Engadget. By Zach Honig Wrist watches, smart or otherwise, are simply not for everyone — there are more smartphone users in the world, many times over, than there will ever be smartwatch owners. Despite the limited market for such a device, however, Samsung’s decided it’s time to join in on the fun. The Galaxy Gear, as we’ve known it to be called for a few weeks now, was hardly guarded with a level of secrecy that’s…

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