Merely a day after Verizon's version of the Galaxy Nexus was gifted with v4.0.2, Google itself is announcing Android 4.0.3, a so-called " incremental release of the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) platform." We're told that the new release includes a variety of optimizations and bug fixes for phones and tablets, as well as a small number of new APIs for developers.
For those curious, the new API level is 15, and some of those new ones include social stream API in Contacts provider, Calendar provider enhancements, newfangled camera capabilities (apps can now check and manage video stabilization and use QVGA resolution profiles where needed) and accessibility refinements (improved content access for screen readers and new status and error reporting for text-to-speech engines). Moreover, we're promised minute improvements in "graphics, database, spell-checking, Bluetooth, and more." Finally, the company makes clear that going forward, it'll be "focusing its partners on Android 4.0.3 as the base version of Ice Cream Sandwich," with rollouts expected for both phones and tablets in "the weeks ahead."
Are you a Windows user? Are you amongst the 32.8% of those using Windows XP?
52% of desktop PCs still run XP, but what about all PC users? The Next Web says that while usage of Windows 7 has risen from 28% to 46%, Windows XP usage has still stayed high, going from an even more mind boggling 45% to its current 33%. Also, LOL at nobody using Vista anymore.
The Google Translate app for Android received a pretty significant update yesterday, bringing handwriting recognition to its bullpen of functionalities. The app, which added voice recognition back in October, can now recognize handwriting in seven different languages, including English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. It's probably most important, however, for Chinese- and Japanese-speaking contingents, who can now use their handsets to translate characters that aren't typically featured on English keypads. The update to version 2.3 is available now here.
According to The Economist, we're entering a new age of digital consumption: Lean Back 2.0. They say tablets and e-readers are to thank, but is it all just hyperbole about hypertext?
In a presentation given by Andrew Rashbass, CEO of The Economist Group, he claimed that the old publishing models of web and print are "irredeemably broken." (I wasn't aware that web publishing was old yet — though admittedly for some publishers it definitely is broken.)
So what the hell does he mean by "Lean Back 2.0"? Simple, really. He points to the fact that the use of tablets and e-readers is growing — at the expense of print and web use — and simultaneously also changing our reading habits. Unlike reading on a laptop, reading on an iPad or Kindle is a leisure activity. Unlike reading a print newspaper or magazine, you can access whatever the hell you like. We're now combining the utility of modern tech with the enjoyment of reading as relaxation.
It kinda makes sense. But don't just take Rashbass's hyperbolic word for it, take some of his (not altogether convincing) figures too. In his presentation, he points out that 42 per cent of tablet users regularly read in-depth articles, and another 40 per cent read them occasionally — which suggests people read more longer items on tablets than on computers. Apparently.
Also, users' eye activity is far more focused on an iPad app than on a website, and many people also claim they find it easier to learn new things and enjoy news more when digesting it via a tablet. Apparently.
As certain as death and taxes, the speaker on media players are bad. And even if this adorable ice cream bar shaped speaker doesn't impress audio engineers, it should improve the sound coming from your portable device.
Remove the popsicle stick and you'll find a USB port for recharging its lithium polymer battery good for about two hours of use. Remove the top of the plastic iced treat and you'll find a standard stereo mini plug—that's all there is to it. For $30 you get an extra 0.8 watts of listening pleasure, and whatever joy you can derive from its novel design. Get it here.
Richard Dean Anderson is just an actor. He is not MacGyver. He cannot fix everything with a paperclip and a ballpoint pen. Yet, there's something disappointing about seeing him with the hood on his car open waiting for someone to help him. You're MACGYVER. Help yourself, man. Help yourself.
The 61-year-old actor was caught helplessly standing next to his dead Audi in Malibu yesterday, waiting for help. He just stares at it. At the car. Like he has no idea what to do with it. He's wearing cargo pants. It's really sad.
Of course, the car is an Audi Allroad, which is so mechanically screwed up even other Audi owners scoff at it for being unreliable. With its Torsen quattro four-wheel drive system and air suspension it's impossibly complex. The real MacGyver probably couldn't keep an Allroad on the road for more than six hours at a time without a Staples full of office supplies.
Instead of just clipping into the iPhone 4 and 4S' dock connector—which would have eventually guaranteed a shattered phone—this carabiner accessory comes with longer replacement screws that are promised to securely attach it to the bottom.
So while you can't just pop it on and off without the aid of a screwdriver, it does let you clip your phone to your belt or shoulder strap so it's always in reach. You can even use it as a giant keychain if you don't mind your keys banging against your face when you make calls. The metal plate sits flush enough for most dock accessories to still be used, and for $30 it's just about the easiest way to add a permanent tether to your phone.
One of the cardinal rules of Hollywood is that in order to be a very good looking actor, you also have to be very smart.
In an interview with USA Today, Jolie was asked whether the two online shop for Christmas presents—this was a hard-hitting interview, okay?
"Brad and I were on Amazon.com for the first time a week ago. But we got lost. After an hour, we just shut it off. My brain is too scattered and the wires go in different directions. I'll stick to catalogs."
Granted, Amazon's web interface is pretty lousy, but if you're used a computer within the past two decades, you should be able to navigate it without calling in a personal shopper and/or seeing eye dog.
Pancakes? No problem. Cookies? You got it! Sandwich? ...is there a Subway near by? Why robots have such a hard time slapping meat and cheese on bread is beyond us, but we're glad the crack team at the Technical University of Munich has finally figured out how to teach them. The dynamic duo of James and Rosie don't exactly blaze through their task of making a sandwich and some popcorn, but at least they're nice enough to toast the bread for your salami- and cheese-based chow. As usual, the moves here are not preprogrammed, the two bots make decisions on the fly based on a complex "reasoning" mechanism and data it can cull from a Kinect.
Add together ten million Galaxy S IIs, a dollop of Galaxy Nexii, a gargantuan gathering of Galaxy Notes and a healthy serving of Badas, and what do you get? 300 million handset sales so far in 2011, that's what. And Samsung claims that makes this the best year in its mobile-making history, surpassing 2010 by a whopping 20 million.
Of course, more sales doesn't necessarily translate into greater revenue -- Nokia is still the world's largest manufacturer by volume and is a case in point. Nevertheless, we'll know more when Samsung reveals its Q4 earnings next month.
How is the world's top search engine going to put its software in every TV on earth? Not by flying commercial, like some sort of company for poor people! Let's just buy a few spare private jets, just in case.
Most reasonable people are content with one or two private jets, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt aren't content with one plane each—The Mercury News reports the search triumvirate share eight. That's a lot of planes for three guys! Do they race? Do they pay people to fly all eight at once while they watch from the roof of a castel made of money? Is that ecologically or financially responsible? The answer to all of those things is probably no! But don't expect them to kick the habit anytime soon—they're ready to pony up $33 million in an effort to restore an old NASA hangar as their personal parking lot. See, if you had thought of Google first, you could be doing fun expensive things like this right now.
It's not the first time that RIM's security measures have caused a bit of an inferiority complex, but the Indonesian government now is threatening to ban BIS and BBM services within the nation if it doesn't get its way. Partially, it seems that Indonesian officials are upset that Research in Motion will be building its new data centers in Singapore, rather than in the homeland. Additionally, as is, the government is unable to monitor these communications, which it sees as a security risk.
As you likely know, all data is currently processed in RIM's Canadian facilities. Heru Sutadi, a member of the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Body, had the following to say: "With the condition as it is now, we warn that the country's users to be cautious about using BlackBerry because the data exchanged is not safe or cannot be guaranteed of its safety." Sounds creepy, right? We always feel safer when knowing the government is monitoring our messages, too.
If you prefer a fresh blast of lemon or lime juice on a salad instead of a heavy dressing, just jam Quirky's new Stem accessory into a citrus fruit of your choice, instantly turning it into a spray bottle.
Besides a set of serrated teeth on the bottom that let it easily pierce the skin, the mechanics of how the Stem actually works are a little vague. I mean the general idea is pretty obvious, but how it manages to avoid getting clogged with pulp and seeds is a mystery to me.
However its patent pending design works, the Stem is going into production with pricing details to be revealed when it's closer to being available. And while the first version will probably be limited to citrus fruits, I'm optimistic the technology can eventually be adapted to sticks of butter and hunks of ham to make sprayable versions of more delicious foods. Get it here.
Remember when you downloaded Firefox circa 2004 because Internet Explorer was inundating Windows XP with viruses? Those days have long since passed, and according to a Google-funded study carried out by Accuvant, Firefox is now among the least secure web browsers. Naturally, Chrome is the best.
Obviously this has to be approached with a fair amount of skepticism, Forbes points to Accuvant's industry cred for objective reports on security. his particular report calls out Firefox's inability to sandbox code in the browser, thus preventing hackers and malicious code from gaining access to the rest of someone's operating system.
Accuvant's researchers argue that Google's ability to start from scratch in creating Chrome allowed the company to incorporate new security features that were tougher to integrate into Firefox's legacy code base. "Mozilla's products were around before browser security was such a relevant issue," says Accuvant researcher Chris Valasek. "Chrome was just born at the correct time in the correct environment."
Internet Explorer, which has been bashed for years as being a security cesspool was actually found to compete quite well against Chrome as far as security goes, though it wasn't found to be better. Also curious about this report: where's Safari?
Clear skies and geographical location permitting, Saturday will be your last chance to spy a total lunar eclipse until 2014. Here's what you need to know to catch a glimpse before it's gone.
First things first: if you live in South America or some of Africa's westernmost regions, we're sorry — it looks like you're going to have to wait a few more years to witness a total lunar eclipse in person. Fortunately, you can still watch the eclipse online via a live feed over on slooh.com. Everyone else, congratulations. You win.
For the majority of the Western Hemisphere, the eclipse will be most noticeable early Saturday morning in the hours right before dawn. The Moon will enter Earth's shadow at 3:33 PST, and the total eclipse phase will begin at 6:06 PST. This means that those of us on the East coast may have a hard time spotting the eclipse, as the Moon will be setting more or less right as it's entering Earth's shadow (the more dramatic, ruddy colors typically associated with a total lunar eclipse won't likely become noticeable until around 4:45 am PST). Views will improve, however, as you move north and west; in fact, Alaska should be able to catch the eclipse in its entirety, right up until the Moon leaves the Earth's shadow around 12:30 PST.
It's been a few months coming, but today, Nokia announced that its Lumia 710 handset has finally hit store shelves in Taiwan, ahead of its broader international release. Priced at around €270 (or about $332), the Mango-laced handset will arrive in stores across Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia over the next seven days, before expanding to other global markets "over the coming weeks." The 3.7-inch device joins the Lumia 800.
Knuckle Meat Tenderizer. I don't know how it is supposed to work (do I hang up the piece of meat first?) but $13 sounds fine to release your stress and get tender steak. Get it here.
This, my friends, may be the end of the smartphone fanboy wars. I can give my two cents. The rest of the tech community can give theirs. But God Almighty himself, through his appointed papal mouthpiece, has picked a winner.
For this year's celebration of Christ's birth, Pope Benedict will remotely light a giant Christmas tree display attached to the side of a mountain, from 130 miles away.
But! Scandal! He's doing it with the Lord's fave new gadget, MSNBC reports, straight from the Vatican newswire:
Benedict XVI will activate the illumination from his apartments in the Vatican Apostolic Palace. He will touch the screen of a Sony "Tablet" with an "Android" operating system which, via the Internet, will transmit the command to switch on the electric current to the tree.
Will this alleged "Android" "Tablet" be a Sony S? It doesn't matter. The heavens have parted, and the choice is clear: The Pope Chooses Android.
The time's come, cheapasses: HP's $99 TouchPad firesale is about to make its triumphant return. Oh my god I've waited so long for this.
At 7:00 PM Eastern on December 11th, HP's eBay store is going to have the next and maybe last cache of cheap TouchPads. $99 16GB models and $150 32GB models will both be up for grabs. That's great! Here's the catch: The units are refurbished, not new—which isn't a bad thing, necessarily!—and all sales are final. But like, who's going to try to return a $99 TouchPad anyway?
Since the original cheapo stampede over the first TouchPad firesale, the Kindle Fire's shown up with its $200 pricepoint, and the PlayBook dropped to that price as well—and maybe even further soon. But the TouchPad is still the only full-sized tablet to get the here-take-it-please-oh-god prices, and webOS has gotten a few upgrades while HP shuffles its feet over what to do with the mobile OS. So basically, it's still a totally awesome deal and you should get one if you can.
No joke, it really will. All you have to do is walk into a retailer this Saturday, whip out your smartphone and use Amazon's Price Check app to collect price data on in-store items. In exchange, the company will offer you a discount of five percent (or up to $5) on "select items" in electronics, toys, music, and other product divisions, though you'll only be able to use it a maximum of three times.
The campaign represents Amazon's latest attempt to creep into the brick and mortar sector on the back of barcode scanning technology, and seems like a pretty clever way to bolster its mobile presence, while gathering intel on its competitors' prices, as well. It all kicks off at 9 PM (PST) on Friday, and will draw to a close just before midnight on Saturday.
The "What's New" feed in Windows Phone Mango's Picture Hub has done a great job offering thumbnail images for Facebook and Windows Live messages, but for some reason lovers of Twitter pictures have been shunned, with only a link to the image being provided. Not the worst thing on the planet, of course, but certainly it's been a minor thorn in the side of frequent users of the social networking service. Reports are beginning to come in, however, that this is all changing now -- it looks as though quite a few photos originating from Twitter are now showing up, which may be an indicator of some fix-it work going on behind the scenes.
Sony and Ericsson's decade-long partnership may have humbled Kim Kardashian, but dwindling market share and an over-reliance on feature phones signaled the end of the affair. Ericsson will have until "mid 2012" to clear its things from the spare room before the electronics giant begins a new solo venture. The revitalized enterprise will leverage its parent company's brand strength, R&D and content (since it owns a massive chunk of the entertainment industry) and in comments made to Times of India, company Vice President Kristian Tear said there would be a "fierce" advertising push to restore the company's reputation as a major player worldwide -- before taking a Pilates class to try and fit back into its bachelor pad.
Samsung's flexible display technology isn't slated to hit the market until 2012, but the Korean manufacturer is already giving us a glimpse of how it may transform our lives, with a freshly released concept video. Yes, it's just a concept ad, and a relatively brief one at that, but it still paints a pretty mouth-watering portrait -- one full of transparent, flexible screens, smartphone-tablet hybrids, and augmented reality.
Scientists have been trying to clone woolly mammoths for years, but now they're really close. So close that in five years you may see herds of this gigantic beast—one of the favorite extinct prehistoric animals of the all-time.
Scientists from Japan's Kinki University and the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum have discovered well preserved marrow in a thigh bone discovered in Siberia, buried under the permafrost. The marrow is in such good condition that its cells' DNA could be used to replace the nuclei of elephant egg cells. This will allow scientist to create mammoth embryos.
The team wants to plant these embryos inside the wombs of elephant mothers so they can grow until birth. Although bigger than elephants, both animals are similar enough for this to work. This is a similar technique used in current cloning processes. The key is that the DNA has to be intact in order for this process to work. This discovery is their chance to achieve their objective.
The newest member of Samsung's 6Gb/s PM830 family of SSDs is designed to sit inside the Ultrabooksof 2012, which means it's had go through some slimming down. The mSATA drive uses 20 nanometer NAND for face-melting speed, but is crammed into a 50.95 x 30 x 3.8mm package, weighing only eight grams. The drive will comfortably read 500MB/s and write 260MB/s on a clear day, six times faster than a comparable HDD.
It'll allow Windows to boot in under ten seconds and transfer "five DVD files" (roughly 45GB) in around a minute. The drives also come with 256-bit AES for those moments when your Ultrabook gets stolen, or more likely, floats away in the wind. 64GB, 128GB and 256GB variants will roll out to OEMs shortly but we expect a consumer version to be announced shortly for everyone with some courage and a screwdriver.
Flerovium and livermorium have a nice ring, yeah? Chemistry's governing body thinks so and wants to name two new elements with them. If you disagree, you've only got five months to come up with something better.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, a union of chemists that maintains the periodic table and vets potential new additions to it, has proposed naming recently-discovered elements 114 and 116 flerovium and livermorium, respectively. Now, the names undergo a five month comment period wherein any member of the public can suggest alternatives—that includes you.
These super-heavy elements are so large and so unstable that they can only be manufactured in labs and rapidly degrade into other elements. Both were actually discovered a decade ago but their existence has been undergoing independent verification since then. They were created by a collaboration of researchers from Lawrence Livermore Labs and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia.
Livermorium is named after the Livermore lab where it was created while flerovium bears the name of Georgi N. Flerov, the founder of the Dubna lab. If the names pass muster by next May, flerovium and livermorium will join three other recently-named elements—darmstadtium (Ds), roentgenium (Rg) and copernicium (Cn)—at the bottom of the elemental table.
Love 'em or hate 'em, one thing's for sure -- e-readers just keep getting cheaper. The latest to see a dip in price is the Sony Reader WiFi, which debuted at $149.99 just a couple of months back, but has now received a permanent drop to $129.99. What's more, Sony is also running a trade-in program through the end of December that will give you an additional $50 off if you turn in any old e-reader. Not quite the instant discount that an ad-supported Kindle gives you, but certainly not a bad deal if you're looking to upgrade from an older model.
For those with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, fingerprints over the screen of their tablet must be a living hell. But a team of German scientists think they can help with, of all things, a candle.
Making a surface that can repel water is easy. So why is it difficult to make one that repels oil? It's to do with oil's low surface tension: to make a surface that can repel it, you need a very particular kind of surface roughness. And while that sounds easy, nobody has yet managed to really work out how to achieve it.
But now a team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, think they've found a solution. Using, um, a combination of candle soot and silica baked at just the right temperature. Look, I didn't say it was hi-tech, right?
They've trialled the idea with glass — which is notoriously bad for showing up finger prints. First they held the glass over the candle, which caused soot to be deposited on its surface. These little spheres of soot were 30 to 40 nanometers in diameter, and stacked fairly loosely. In fact, 80 per cent of the coating was empty space, giving just the right roughness required to shed oils.
To fix the soot in place, they coated it with a silica shell 25 nanometers thick. Finally, to get rid of the black color of the soot, they baked the glass at 600C, making it transparent.
The result? Grease-proof glass! They even managed to take high-speed photos of little drops of peanut oil bouncing up and down from the surface. Fortunately, the coating also sticks to other materials like aluminum, steel, and copper, too.
Now, they just need to think of a way of industrializing the process so that it doesn't involve holding huge sheets of glass over candles.
Falling into lockstep with Google's quest to redesign everything, YouTube officially unveiled a radical new look for its twenty billion strong video site. Now sporting a more somber look, the homepage is now dominated by a center feed hosting content, which is flanked on its left by a list of channels in a quasi-navigation bar.
Besides hosting channels, that navbar also features Google+ and (opt-in) Facebook tabs, allowing you to peruse content friends are sharing and interacting with. Also tweaked are channels, which are now more easily customizable thanks to the addition of snazzy new templates.
Micro music players like the iPod shuffle are great when you're shredding the powder, but long cords can be a health hazard, even in the office -- if one wraps itself 'round your coffee mug, you risk having twelve ounces of hot liquid landing in your lap. Designers Jeremy Saxton & Jacob Hall have developed the ODDIO1, a pair of headphones that do away with all that unnecessary cabling -- holstering the shuffle on the right earpiece.
Let's be honest, this ain't exactly rocket science here, the ODDIO1 packs a pair of 30mm dynamic audio drivers, has an adjustable headband and comes in three colors -- grey / black, black / blue and black / pink (oddly, the coolest pair of the three). Because the headphone jack is still accessible, you can sync your shuffle with iTunes without having to tear it out of its holster.
Production tooling and further development of the device. The aim is that the 'phones will retail for $50 when they reach general sale, but only $35 if you pledge now (two pairs for $65 and three for $95). Throwing in $200 will get you the trifecta of regular headsets, a limited edition white version, t-shirt and iPod shuffle in the color of your choice. More here.
It likely won't win over anyone who isn't too fond of 3D to begin with, but those looking for some additional quasi-3D content beyond the standard fare now have a new option to consider in the form of Acer's 27-inch HR274H monitor. It not only includes a set of passive, polarized 3D glasses, but what Acer describes as its own "chip-based solution" that promises to convert all 2D content to 3D in real time (it can be switched on and off on the monitor itself).
Unfortunately, there's no word yet as to how well the effect works, and the monitor's specs are otherwise decidedly ordinary for the rather high $599 price tag -- you'll just get a TN panel with a standard 1920 x 1080 resolution.
Sure the free TED app has been available on the iPad since last year but—gasp!—not everybody owns an iPad. Now, those of us without tablets can enjoy brilliant conversations on the go with the new TED iPhone app.
The iPhone version has the same access to TED's library of lectures as its large-screen brethren and allows users to bookmark and download—via Wi-Fi—videos for playback. They can even be streamed to a home television using Airplay or listened to through TEDRadio, an audio-only version of the discussions. Its available free from iTunes here.
The latest report from comScore makes for eye popping reading -- Google's video sites, of which YouTube is the most important, received 20,933,113,000 views in October. To put that into some context, that's roughly three videos watched by every person alive on the planet. According to the statistics, YouTubers spent an average of seven hours watching the month's hottest videos (such as Community's Beetlejuice easter egg and Naughty Fenton). Surprisingly, Facebook came second, but viewers spent an measly average of 18 minutes watching last night's karaoke. In other news, Hulu came top for online advertising and Vevo was the most watched partner site, you guys obviously love your Lady Gaga.
Seagate was quick to jump into the hybrid HDD/SSD fray last year, with the decently priced and capableMomentus XT. Now we have a successor with identical branding, but with the HDD upped to 742GB, NAND storage slightly increased to 8GB, plus a faster SATA III 6Gb/s interface. The 'flash-assisted drive' promises to cut boot-up and lag times compared to a standard laptop hard disk, by gradually learning which of your files are popular enough to deserve a spot in that solid state VIP lounge. We're looking at a price of $189, including a five-year warranty, and availability from today.
We've been expecting Motorola's Droid 4 for a while, but now official images and specs have leaked into the wild. And it looks a lot like a bigger version of the recent RAZR.
In terms of specs, Droid Life report that we can expect: a 4-inch screen (though it's not clear if it's LCD or AMOLED), 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 5-row slide out keyboard, 4G LTE, and an 8MP camera.
It's not setting the world on fire with innovation, sure, but it sounds like a powerful device, and it could be just the phone if you want Android and a decent physical keyboard.
Droid Life also report that Verizon have been training shop staff ready for the Droid 4 launch, and even speculate that it could launch on 8 December. Let's wait and see.
Okay, so it's not exactly a Cyber Monday blowout. But Apple's dangling a small shopping incentive today, offering free shipping on any and everything you can buy online or through the Apple Store app from now until December 22nd.
Cupertino already offered complimentary shipping on bigger ticket items, so this isn't a huge deal for you MacBook and iPad buyers.
You could sit there and twiddle your thumbs while you wait for the Lumia 800 to arrive on US shores. Or you could just head over to Expansys, where you can grab an unlocked version of Nokia's new handset, for $789. The Mango-soaked device comes packed with 16GB of internal storage and is primed for use on AT&T, so if you're prepared to shell out the dough, check it here.
You might remember those pesky virtual petkeychain things, which managed to successfully spawn out of Japan to populate the world, and annoy the hell out of parents everywhere. They were launched 15 years ago, November 23rd 1996.
I have to hold my hands up and admit, I had not one, but two of these things when I was a kid. When it landed in 1997, so I hope you can forgive me, right? But a quick look on Amazon tells me you can still buy them. Why on Earth anyone would obsess over such a basic toy when you've got the likes of Nintendogs to take care of these days, is beyond me. Still, if you fancy a nostalgia trip that'll likely last for about 35 seconds before you realise once again, why you hate them — an authentic one will set you backfrom $15.
Today, you're gonna shovel one hell of a lot of turkey and pie down your throat, then collapse in a food-coma in front of the TV. But why does your huge meal make you feel like snoozing?
As you'd expect, science has some answers. It turns out that there are two big factors that make you fancy a snooze soon after the pumpkin pie is polished off.
First, when the food starts to arrive in your belly, the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system increases and the activity of the sympathetic nervous system decreases. Huh, what does that mean? Well, the sympathetic nervous system provides our fight-or-flight response. The parasympathetic system gets your organs ready for digestion. Basically, your body wants you to stay still in order to sort out the contents of your stomach. That's why you choose not to move too much after your meal.
Next, when you start digesting your food, you get a big rush of glucose into your blood stream. If you don't have diabetes, your body creates insulin to help the body's cells absorb the glucose. The insulin works by affecting the uptake of a bunch of amino acids in the body — stick with me here! — except for one called tryptophan. So the concentration of tryptophan increases relative to other amino acids. Turns out that in the brain, tryptophan is converted to serotonin, which is itself converted to melatonin — both of which result in sleepiness.
Voila! Your nervous system and your brain both want you to sleep. So I say go with it.
Incidentally, there's a myth that turkey contains a lot of tryptophan. That's kinda rubbish, though, as turkey doesn't contain any more than chicken, beef, or plenty of other meats. So don't blame the turkey too much. Blame your gluttony instead.
The one problem with gadgets is power. Even if batteries start off long-lasting, after 12 months they start to struggle. But a new material might change that.
A team of researchers from Stanford have developed a new battery electrode that can survive 40,000 charge cycles. That's about a hundred times more than a normal Lithium-Ion battery, and enough to make it usable for somewhere between 10-30 years.
So how does it work? It's down to what it's made from: copper hexacyanoferrate. The structure of the material lets charge-carrying ions move in and out of the electrode easily, and it's extremely rugged, so it degrades at a much slower rate than Li-On batteries. That all means it can charge and discharge rapidly, and lasts for ages.
USB drives may come in all shapes and sizes these days, but they all basically give you one of two choices: you can buy one big drive to store as much of your data as possible, or juggle a bunch of drives if you want to keep things separate. Designer Hyunsoo Song has proposed an alternative with this so-called Amoeba modular USB flash drive, however, which let you sort your data on individual drives that can be used both on their own or together as one large drive. The idea there being that you can keep the drives together most of the time, and just detach the appropriate section if you want to share only your photos or videos with someone. Of course, the keyword here is "concept," but it's not exactly as far beyond the realm of possibility as some others we've seen.
Eco-friendliness isn't my biggest concern when it comes to buying headphones, but I guess even Greenpeace likes listening to music, so designer Michael Young has created these recyclable over-the-ear cans as a follow-up to his cornstarch earbuds.
While you can't just chuck 'em in the recycling bin when you tire of the music scene, the headphones are made from repurposable materials like stainless steel, aluminum and cornstarch bio-plastics. Created as part of a joint effort between EOPS, Michael Young, and online store Collette, the Noisezero O+ Eco edition ear goggles are also as good for discerning ears as they are for the environment.
For $159 the headphones even feature a three button inline remote with microphone for taking calls when used with a smartphone, and are available in a gray anthracite or gold finish. I know they're not exactly at the highest end of the headphone pricing scale, but for close to $200 I'd at least expect them to have a single cord design. More here.
Seems like only a few years ago Microsoft was courting Yahoo. Yeah, that didn't work out so hot. Well, Microsoft is back to kicking Yahoo's tires. And this time Yahoo isn't telling at Redmond to get off its lawn.
The New York Times reports that Microsoft has signed an NDA that allows it to peer into Yahoo's financials. Yahoo is currently searching for a new daddy, and every company that's expressed interest has been asked to sign an agreement that lets it peek at Yahoo's books, but not talk to any of the other companies who are looking. NBD: Microsoft got around this restriction by speaking with potential partners before signing the agreement. Sneaky.
Currently, Microsoft and Yahoo have a lucrative partnership: Yahoo sells ads against Microsoft's Bing search engine results. An investment in Yahoo would not only keep that deal alive, it could also allow Microsoft to leap further into the search-engine ad space. Microsoft has had its sights on Google's ad dollars for years and a Yahoo acquisition could give Redmond another piece of ammunition to take on the Mountain View company.
Sure, audio recording via the stock mic and iOS app is pretty serviceable for most tasks, but what about capturing that next Avett Brothers gig? You need look no further than Tascam's iM2 stereo microphone for your Apple handheld or slate. Equipped with a pair of condenser microphones -- the same kit as the outfit's DR-series recorders -- the iM2 plugs right in to the dock port of your iOS device.
The duo is adjustable over 180-degrees for the perfect capture and it sports its own preamp and analog-to-digital converter to cut out unwanted coughs and increase those vicious banjo chops. Since the peripheral doesn't use the stock iPhone preamp, it is capable of capturing up to 125dB levels without distortion. And don't worry about that 4S dying mid-set, as the iM2 features a USB input that enables charging through the encore. If you're jonesin' for a closer look, grab yours for $80 here.
Pringles thinks it's so slick with its stackable chips and pop-top lids. Well, consider the playing field leveled, Lays aficionados, with this universal, resealable bag cap.
The Bag Cap by Copco uses a two-part design wherein the lower section installs around the open end of the bag and the upper cap snaps into place. The cap works with any bag (not just potato chips) and is refrigerator, freezer and dishwasher safe so you can protect your peas from freezer burn without having to hunt for rubber bands. The Bag Cap comes in both medium and large sizes—for family size feed bags—and retail for $7-12 on Amazon.
You might remember the AT&T Status, the "Facebook phone" that didn't quite live up to its name. Now, AllThingsD claims, the rumors will finally bear fruit: a Facebook Phone made by Facebook. The real deal. And it sounds pointless.
ATD says "the phone is planned to run on a modified version of Android that Facebook has tweaked heavily to deeply integrate its services." Now, if that means a Kindle Fire take on Android—basically making it unrecognizable—that could be a great thing. But if it means stuffing Android with lots of Facebook links, it could be a race car wreck.
But here's a more urgent point—do we need this? Don't we already have this? "Facebook has worked to take things a step further," AllThingsD alleges, "allowing users to upload photos directly from the picture-taking app, or to integrate Facebook contacts with the phone's address book." You mean like Windows Phone 7 does? You mean like WebOS did from day one? What hole is Zuckerberg trying to fill here?
I don't know how good or bad is the Vivitar ViviCam 790HD 3D camcorder, but it has an insanely low price: $99. If you have a 3D TV, it's going to be hard not to pick one for the holidays.
The 790HD is a 5.1-megapixel video camera with 4x optical zoom and 2.7-inch display capable of capturing in 3D. They are also releasing the ViviCam VT135, a 12.1-megapixel compact camera that takes 3D stills, it will cost $99 at Target.
In the SunSpider Javascript Benchmark (version 0.9.1) the Galaxy Nexus scored a very speedy 1879 versus the iPhone 4S's 2250. Obviously, lower is better in this test. The Nexus also outperformed the 4S in the Rightware BrowserMark test, scoring 98,272 versus the 4S's 87,841 (higher is better). The translation of this clusterflock of numbers is that page rendering on the Galaxy Nexus should be faster. The thing is the processor on the Galaxy Nexus is nothing otherworldly, which means that Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) has made some serious software enhancements. In other words, when ICS comes to a phone or tablet withbeefier specs it's going to give you whiplash.
Jealous of that root-ready Kindle Fire, but not ready to trudge through the Amazon to get it? Don't worry, you can stay huddled up with your Nook Tablet and get all the device rooting you want -- with a few caveats. Although the good folks on the XDA Forums haven't unlocked the slab's bootloader just yet, they've managed to root the tablet all the same. Jumping through a few technical hoops (or stumbling across forum user Indirect's one-click Windows utility) will score you access to the Android market and another way to sideload apps on the souped up slate. Custom ROMs? Not yet; in addition to killing the root with every device reboot, the locked bootloader is keeping the Nook's tweaked build of Android 2.3 front and center. More here.
From 'smart' pens to a smarter Siri, Apple's always attempting to find new ways to improve the iPhone, and the company's latest patent application wants to keep its crack-prone glass blemish free. Aptly named a "shock mounting cover glass in consumer electronic devices," the invention claims a tunable shock mount sandwiched between the phone's glass and other hardware.
There's also plans for a sensor that can distinguish a "drop event" from normal phone movements and an actuator to prepare the shock mount for impact. Given that it's only at the application stage, we won't be seeing bombproof iPhone displays any time soon, but here's hoping it'll become a product reality someday. Mostly so we can see just how much of a beating it can take.
