Technology that could see an end to the bane of many commuters – people talking loudly on their mobile phones – has been shown off by researchers.
The prototype device could allow people to conduct silent phone conversations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8549454.stm
Tag: technology
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Lip reading mobile promises end to noisy phone calls
NASA has explored silent communication systems. -
Ooh, ahh: Weather Underground goes full-screen
Story:
Weather service Weather Underground has a new trick up its sleeve: it can now show you the weather on a full-screen Google Map. The company is aptly calling it Fullscreenweather.com.Fullscreenweather works just like Google Maps, meaning you can use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out, as well as use it to drag around the surface. It also includes quick toggles to change the terrain type, as well as what weather layer you’re looking at–like temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover.
The company says it’s been designed especially for touch-screen devices, including the Apple’s upcoming iPad.
One of my favorite features is that the service creates a shortened URL for each location, so that you can share the map with someone else with all the same settings you’ve enabled. It’s a nice touch, especially compared to Google’s own map links, which are well over 200 characters long.
The service is completely free–and ad-free–although clicking on things like detailed weather reports will take you to WeatherUnderground.com, where there are ads.
Of course, Weatherunderground is not the first company to combine big, mouse-friendly maps with weather reports. We’ve also seen some impressive efforts from the Weather Channel (which also used Microsoft’s maps at one point), Accuweather, and Google itself.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10453128-248.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
The above link is for the story.
Follow the link below to go and check weather of your place/anywhere. -
Police-make-arrest-using-unmanned-drone.
Story:
t has been nicknamed the flying saucepan and looks an unlikely weapon in the war against crime.But yesterday it emerged that a suspected car thief had become the first person to be arrested in Britain thanks to the help of this miniature remote-controlled helicopter.
The Air Robot or drone was deployed by Merseyside police after officers lost the alleged offender who had escaped on foot in thick fog.
Using the device’s on-board camera and thermal-imaging technology, the operator was able to pick up the suspect through his body heat and direct foot patrols to his location.It led officers to a 16-year-old youth, who was hiding in bushes alongside the Leeds-Liverpool canal, in Litherland, Merseyside.
The drone, which measures 3ft between the tips of its four carbon fibre rotor blades, uses unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology originally designed for military reconnaissance.
The battery-powered device can have a range of cameras attached to its main body, including CCTV surveillance or thermal imaging cameras.
It is designed to hover almost silently above crime scenes and send live footage to officers on the ground, but the unit can also ‘perch and stare’ from a solid platform, allowing the operator to capture hours of footage from a hidden vantage point.
Merseyside Police is one of a handful of forces trying out the devices which, at £40,000 each, are far cheaper to use for small-scale operations than a conventional helicopter.
They have been using the drones for two years, mainly to help in search and rescue operations, to execute drug warrants and to crack down on anti-social behaviour.
http://digg.com/d31IYJO -
Does Apple Have an iDud on Its Hands? Updated.
(Jan. 29) — Normally, when Steve Jobs appears on stage, techies swoon. And there was certainly some of that when Jobs unveiled the iPad on Wednesday.
“I’m positively giddy,” says Slate writer Farhad Manjoo. And Gizmodo tech editor Joel Johnson enthused that “Only way to interpret the launch of the iPad? Apple has declared the PC dead.”
But something unusual has emerged in what has been called the Jobs Reality Distortion Field. Tech writers are starting to rebel against the iPad — a sign that one of the most-loved consumer technology brands may have a significant iDud on its hands.
As New York magazine notes in its roundup of coverage: “the iPad backlash is in full swing,” and “it seems everyone’s eager to toss a little haterade Apple’s way.”
From Engadget: Apple iPad: The Definitive GuideFrankly, it does seem unclear just how many people really want (let alone need) a phone-laptop hybrid without the advantages of either.
Start with its size. It’s 9.7 inches diagonally and weighs 1.5 pounds. That’s light by laptop standards, but much more cumbersome than a mobile phone. But it’s not a phone; you can’t make calls on it unless you use an Internet service such as Skype. And you can’t stick it in your pocket or take it jogging. So, like a laptop or e-reader device like the Kindle, it’ll require a case. But since there’s no conventional keyboard attached — what you get is a larger version of the iPhone’s onscreen interface — it’s unlikely anyone will type reports or anything of length on the device.
Then there’s the lack of what have become widely accepted features.
There’s no multitasking. “Are you saying I can’t listen to Pandora while writing a document? I can’t have my Twitter app open at the same time as my browser? I can’t have AIM open at the same time as my email? Are you kidding me? This alone guarantees that I will not buy this product,” Gizmodo’s Adam Frucci writes.
There’s also no Adobe Flash support, so the only way to watch streaming movies is on YouTube, not on Hulu or Netflix. And there are no ports to hook up other devices.
There’s no camera. No GPS on the base model. It’s not compatible with wide-screen movies. It only runs optimally using AT&T.
“With only one connector port and a headphone jack, the iPad is a connectivity nightmare, since you’ll have to buy adapters for everything from USB to SD cards. Not to mention that you’re restricted to a wireless-only connection without an Ethernet port,” Geeksugar complains.
All in all, that’s a lot of deficiencies for a toy that costs at least $499 and as much as $829, not including a data plan that can run an additional $360 per year.
Which may explain why estimates for first-year sales of the iPad range widely, from 1 million to 5 million — in other words, anything from a bust to a great success.
Of course, there are no shortage of Apple defenders. “[R]emember how silly you all looked when you all predicted the iPhone’s demise in that period before it went on sale,” The New York Times’ David Pogue writes. “Like the iPhone, the iPad is really a vessel, a tool, a 1.5-pound sack of potential. It may become many things.”
As Slate’s media critic Jack Shafer points out, Apple has had its share of flops in the past. “If the press corps possessed any institutional memory, it would recall the introduction of the Apple III+, the Lisa, the Macintosh Portable, the Mac TV, the Newton, the Apple G4 Cube, and eWorld. All were greeted with great press fanfare before falling off the edge of the world.”
Shafer is right, except for the fact that few companies have had as long a winning streak as Apple has in recent years, which would make the iPad a bigger problem for Apple should it flop.
Of course, the jury is out on that until April, then the iPad actually hits the stores. At which point Jobs had better hope consumers haven’t fallen out of love with Apple, too.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/with-ipad-does-apple-have-an-idud-on-its-hands/19337415?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fwith-ipad-does-apple-have-an-idud-on-its-hands%2F19337415
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