Source: http://gizmodo.com/lumens-and-lux-light-words-explained-in-a-single-image-933223282
If you've ever tried to compare flashlights or lighting of any kind, you've probably been confronted with a bunch of confusing terms like lumen and lux that are supposed to describe how powerful a light is.We think? Well here they are explained in a single image.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/27/samsung-develops-worlds-fastest-embedded-memory-first-with-e/
The evolution of mobile memory chips keeps moving faster, if Samsung's progress is any indication. Not eight months since churning out those speedy eMMC 4.5 chips, and the company's next version of NAND is already here. Indeed, the South Korean company says it's now in mass production of what it deems as the world's fastest embedded memory. The new eMMC PRO chip is based on 64GB 10nm class NAND flash technology and would be the first to support the eMMC 5.0 standard. The chips will be available in the usual 16, 32 and 64GB iterations and feature an interface speed of 400MB/s. The 32 and 64GB densities in particular boast random read and write speeds of 7,000 IOPS (inputs/outputs per second) and sequential read and write speeds of 250MB/s and 90MB/s respectively. What do all of those numbers mean? Well, they should translate to much better performance when it comes to multitasking, browsing, file transfers, HD video capture, gaming and just general computing. Combined with the firm's upcoming Exynos 5 Octa 5420 SoC, and we're champing at the bit to see them implemented in Samsung's next generation of mobile devices.
Filed under: Samsung
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/27/mediatek-octa-core/
Earlier this month there was a whisp of octa-core colored smoke coming from MediaTek. Today it's more of a roaring camp fire, with the chip-maker going official -- fully announcing its new octa-core processor ambitions. The firm stops short of giving us the actual nitty-gritty specifications that many of you will be waiting for, instead taking the chance to remind us that Arm-based chips will be true eight-cores-at-once processing, and none of this big.LITTLE dallying. The word is these will float around the 2GHz mark on arrival, which last we heard was pegged for November. We're not suggesting the timing of this announcement was planned, but it looks, for now, like 8 is the current lucky number.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile
Via: Phone Arena
Source: MediaTek
Source: http://gizmodo.com/lgs-new-portable-projector-is-a-retro-rhombus-covered-926652650
Despite the strong feelings Don Draper harbors for them, projectors have never been particularly moving pieces of technology. LG's new portable projector, though, has charisma. This elegant little device looks more like a 1950s camera than a gadget from 2013.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/heres-every-emoji-being-used-on-twitter-in-real-time-925078340
Gosh! I wonder which emoji is trending on Twitter right now! I wish there was some sort of online tool that tracked such a thing! Oh, there is! Praise jeebus for emojitracker.com!
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/e-skin-tokyo-university/
Remember the names Martin Kaltenbrunner and Takao Someya -- that way, you'll have someone to blame when kids start pointing and laughing at gadgets we consider high-tech today. Leading a team of University of Tokyo researchers, they have recently developed a flexible, skin-like material that can detect pressure while also being virtually indestructible. Think of the possibilities: with a thickness of one nanometer, this could be used to create a second skin that can monitor your vital signs or medical implants that you can barely feel, if at all. Also, temperature sensors could be added to make life-like skin for prosthetics... or even robots! Like other similar studies, however, the researchers have a long journey ahead before we see this super-thin material in medicine. Since it could lead to bendy gadgets and wearable electronics first, don't be surprised if your children call iPhones "so 2013" in the not-too-distant future.
Via: iO9, ABC Science, New Scientist
Source: Nature
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/blackmagics-production-camera-4k-delay-pocket-cinema-ship-soon/
If you've pre-ordered one of the two Blackmagic cinema cams announced at NAB this year, there's good, not-so-good and bad news coming out of a Blackmagic event yesterday. First the good: Blackmagic's Pocket Cinema model, which stunned observers with its 1080P RAW specs and sub-$1,000 price tag, should start shipping in a few days. That's close to the July 25th date promised for both cameras, although there could be a not-so-good caveat. John Brawley (who showed off the Pocket Cinema's first pristine images) told forum users that it would likely only have ProRes 422 support, and not RAW, at first -- though Blackmagic told us they "couldn't confirm" that. As for the bad part, those who laid down the most cash ($4,000 or so) will have to wait for the Production Camera 4K. The company told event-goers it wouldn't arrive until early September now, but when we reached out for clarification, it gave the following statement:
With regards to the Production Camera 4K there is still several weeks of work to do before this enters full production manufacturing, however we expect to ship the first quantities of this model before the end of August.
Still, given the company's track record of delays with the original Cinema Camera, you may want to avoid relying on that info for any time-specific projects.
Filed under: Cameras
Via: NoFilmSchool
Source: Ogy Stoilov (Twitter), dvinfo.net forums
Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-hidden-android-4-3-permissions-manager-lets-you-set-r-920127169
When you install an app on Android, you're asked to agree to a host or permissions which the software requires—but there's no option to tweak them. Now, Android Police has discovered a new feature in Android 4.3 which lets you do just that.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/25/google-project-loon-launch-stream/
Fancy yourself a balloon maven? Well, tomorrow, Maker Camp's Field Trip Friday event is going to Google X for a Project Loon launch. Don't worry, you're invited too. Starting at 2PM ET, Make is interviewing those who've made stratospheric internet-distribution possible, via a Hangout on the magazine's Google+ page and its YouTube channel. What's more, the girl who floated Hello Kitty into space, Lauren Rojas, joins Maker Camp's festivities on Friday. To kill time between now and then, we suggest contemplating the whole "cloud in actual clouds" thing, it's kept us busy for a while.
Filed under: Networking, Internet, Google
Source: Maker Camp (Google+)
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/amazon-earnings-report/
The retail game is all about scraping a living out of tiny margins, and nowhere is that more evident than in Amazon's latest financial report. The company managed to grow revenue by 22 percent year-over-year between April and June, to $15.7 billion, and yet it confounded analysts' predictions by making a loss of $7 million, versus a $7 million profit in the same quarter last year. Then again, this knock has been attributed to the fact that Amazon is pushing to expand beyond the retail game, by investing heavily in its Kindle business, digital downloads and streaming products, as well as in building a bigger presence in China. This has been the strategy for a while, of course, and it's not the first time the company has been pushed into the red as a result. But Jeff Bezos says that Amazon's top ten bestselling products last quarter were all either Kindles, accessories for Kindles, or digital content for Kindles, which suggests the transformation is steadily having an impact, even if it's proving expensive.
Filed under: Misc, Tablets, Internet, Amazon
Source: BBC News
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/new-nexus-7-on-sale-early/
A tipster has told us that the latest Nexus 7 from Asus and Google will hit Best Buy stores today, and a pre-order we placed earlier for the device seems to confirm that. We put our money down for one when the order page first went up, and while the confirmation originally said it would arrive on the original July 30th launch date, it's now telling us that we can expect our tablet later today. That jibes with info we were given by a source claiming to be the manager of a Best Buy store. He said that while pre-orders started yesterday, "there were few (of them) in my region," meaning that "if you are present at a (Best Buy) location today at opening, you have a good chance of buying the tablet." He added that some stores don't have stock yet due to agreements with Google, but pre-orders are still possible at those locations. Until we receive confirmation, however, you may not want to make a long journey to one of the outlets. Meanwhile, we've reached out to both Google and Best Buy.
[Thanks, Anonymous]
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/12k-gaming-amd-7970-sharp-pnk321/
Think your gaming rig's impressive because it can run Metro: Last Light with maxed out settings at 60FPS? Well, Microsoft rounded up a trio of Sharp PN-K321 32-inch 4K monitors and wired them to a Windows 8 PC stuffed with three ASUS 7970 GPUs. The $17,000 experiment proved two things: Such tech is outside our price-range, and it takes a huge amount of support to get it working. For instance, before AMD wrote custom drivers to make Eyefinity and multi-stream transport play nicely together, the framerate was a meager 8FPS. It's worth noting that even after all that, demos only lasted a few minutes before the computer's power supply would conk out -- but maybe the kinks will be fixed in time for us to play Battlefield Bad Company 5 on it.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft, AMD
Via: Gavin Gear (Twitter)
Source: Extreme Windows Blog (Microsoft)
Source: http://gizmodo.com/dealzmodo-sanyo-eneloop-xx-asus-monitor-vornado-fan-912558549
Eneloops are by far the best rechargeable batteries on the market, and they've become somewhat of a running joke around here because they never stay on sale long enough for the post to go up. Well, today is the day. Needless to say, I'd get them in your cart and checkout quickly if you're interested. [Amazon]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/scientists-just-discovered-a-new-force-thats-stronger-909286447
Scientists have long known that blackbodies produce radiation and that radiation creates a repulsive effect. However, according to a new study there's another force at play, one that acts a bit like gravity and attracts objects to the blackbody. They're calling it "blackbody force."
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-increase-site-traffic-according-to-policymic-2013-7
In 2011, Chris Altchek left his job at Goldman Sachs. He created PolicyMic, a site that used Bleacher Report's model of hiring mostly-free contributors to produce content and applied it to politics.
Since then, Altchek and his co-founder Jake Horowitz have raised a small family-and-friends round followed by $1.5 million from investors such as politician Condoleezza Rice and Silicon Valley big-wig Mary Meeker.
The team recently grew to 16 people but Altchek says his team reached 6 million monthly uniques with just 12 people prior to the mini hiring spree. Part of the traffic growth came from obvious tweaks, like adding more apparent share tools to the site and expanding into other verticals, such as news and entertainment. There's also an obvious traffic spike in March 2013, when PolicyMic closed its financing round. Other less obvious factors contributed to the company's growth as well.
We asked Altchek which moves he's made over the past few years that helped his site grow the most.
"PolicyMic focused on a very specific demographic – millennials – and a specific type of content – high-quality analysis," Altchek says. "We've been able to grow traffic to over 6 million monthly uniques, which is now 1/3 social, 1/3 search, and 1/3 direct, by doing three things really well."
Here are those three things, according to Altchek:
Future improvements Altchek is planning to make include a site redesign, and the expansion into even more verticals this fall.
To see how he got started, here's a Q&A with Altcheck shortly after he left Goldman Sachs.
Join the conversation about this story »
Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-north-pole-is-now-a-lake-907239981
If you think these images from the North Pole look more like a lake than the snow-covered expanse you'd expect, that because it is is—the North Pole has melted.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/refreshed-nexus-10-said-to-arrive-in-the-near-future-907554798
While speaking with journalists after last night’s three-pronged Google Android 4.3/Nexus 7/Chromecast spectacular, the company’s Sundar Pichai reportedly told people that Samsung’s preparing an updated Nexus 10 to sit alongside the new Asus-made Nexus 7.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/10-beautifully-creepy-photos-that-turn-centrifugal-forc-841150758
According to physics professors, "centrifugal force" isn't actually a unique force at all — it's just a different form of momentum. But centrifugal, uh, effect can lead to some pretty awesome visuals, as shown by photographer Peter Schafrick.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-chromecast-annoys-tv-executives-2013-7
The Chromecast is a little "dongle" that plugs into the back of your TV's HDMI port, giving users the ability to wirelessly stream content from their computers and devices to their TV.
While its primary use will likely be with apps integrated with a Chromecast "cast" button, Google also announced that users can mirror anything playing in its Chrome browser too.
This opens up the floodgates, allowing anything viewable on the web to be ported over to a user's television set.
And TV executives, who are notorious for drawing a line in the sand dividing web content and television content, can't be happy the Chromecast blends the two mediums together.
Peter Kafka of AllThingsD gives Hulu Plus as a prime example.
Right now, Hulu differentiates between its web streaming service and its TV streaming service. While you can watch plenty of Hulu's content for free online, the ability to watch Hulu content on a TV requires a Hulu Plus subscription.
Hulu says they are developing an app for the Chromecast, but it's a practically useless endeavor.
The Chromecast merges the two media, sidestepping the need for standalone apps, and this could quickly cause content providers and the TV executives they work with to become angry.
And if they get mad enough, Kafka writes that content providers could bar their websites from working with the Chrome browser.
Highly unlikely, but possible.
If enough fuss is made over the device, the Chromecast could potentially hamper Google's relationshi! p with T V executives, a risky move if Google wants to compete with Apple's rumored television set.
Time will tell if the Chromecast truly has the power to affect change in the streaming industry, but it certainly has the potential.
Join the conversation about this story »
Source: http://lifehacker.com/perform-key-financial-calculations-with-wolfram-alpha-886304451
Every data geek's favorite search engine, Wolfram Alpha, offers a ton of practical uses. Add to that list gleaning information for your personal finance decisions.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-new-nexus-7-more-power-pure-google-884758863
Google formally unveiled the newest iteration of its Nexus 7 tablet at today's press conference in San Francisco. Turns out, this past week's leaked spec
Source: http://lifehacker.com/chrome-unveils-the-chromecast-an-hdmi-stick-for-stream-897062318
Google took the wraps off of the Chromecast today, a tiny thumb drive-sized stick with an HDMI port on one end that's Wi-Fi enabled. It's designed to make it simple to push video from your home network, smartphone, or the web right to your TV screen.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/24/aerosee-mountain-rescue/
The woods may be lovely, dark and deep, but they're also dangerously unpredictable. That's why the University of Central Lancashire is looking to improve search and rescue technology with AeroSee, a project that incorporates drones to locate missing hikers. The lightweight aircraft, provided by E-Migs, are equipped with cameras that transmit video to nearby ground stations. Analysis is then crowd-sourced by search agents, who scour the images for missing persons, like a high-stakes Where's Waldo. And that's where you come in. Tomorrow, July 25th at 12:30PM GMT (7:30AM ET), UCLan will launch a simulated mission where you can log in to its site to scour images for a survivor. The fastest virtual savior will top the leader board and take home a sweet prize. Want to sign up for the search? Head on over to the source link below.
Source: AeroSee
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/24/mercedes-vision-golf-cart/
Today's golf carts certainly serve a purpose, but despite opulent add-ons like plastic rain shields and windshield wipers, the electric buggies littering the world's fairways and outdoor venues can hardly be considered luxurious. Now, with Mercedes-Benz considering a compact vehicle of its own, the cookie-cutter people mover could be a thing of the past. The German automaker recently debuted its Vision Golf Cart concept, a solar-powered two-seat carriage that includes such amenities as heated and cooled seats and cup holders, air vents, speakers, a joystick control, iPhone dock, heads-up display and LED headlights. Sounds pretty posh.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Daimler
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/24/disney-research-aireal-hands-on/
If you're hoping to get some more tactile feedback out of augmented reality environments, the folks at Disney Research have devised the AIREAL system that could end up doing just that. The team is showing off the project at SIGGRAPH's Emerging Technologies space, so we made sure to stop by for a look and feel. As quick refresher, the technology reacts to the user's gestures by churning out a vortex of air to provide tactile feedback in real space -- thanks to an almost entirely 3D printed enclosure and a smattering of actuators and depth senors. In the demo we saw, hovering our hand just over a display summoned a butterfly.
Once it landed, that small bit of air offered up the physical sensation that it was actually touching us. As we moved closer to a virtual open window, wings went a flutter and the whole sensation increased a bit. Sure, what we saw was a fairly simple use scenario, but there are aspirations for this to enhance gaming experiences and other augmented environments (likely within the confines of a Disney park, of course) with the addition of haptic feedback. Looking for a bit more info? Consult the video after the break for just that.
Filed under: Misc
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