Pinterest's APIs let developers embed pins directly on their websites (updated)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/14/pinterest-embed-pins-search-api/

A lot of people use Pinterest to keep track of stuff they'd like to buy, places they want to go and food they want to eat, but there's always been separation between Pinterest and the actual sources of those desires -- you only had the option to click a Pinterest button on a site to pin the content in question to your board of choice. No longer.

Pinterest has taken another step to strengthen its partnerships with third-party websites with the release of its APIs today. The tools allow web developers to embed recent, trending and most-clicked pins (that update regularly according to what folks are pinning), and even implement a Pinterest search surface that surfaces pins of items from your domain surface custom search results on their pages, too. Folks will also now be able to pin stuff directly from websites, so as to not interrupt the retail experience with a detour to Pinterest proper. To illustrate these newly bestowed powers, Pinterest has partnered up with a slew of well-known sites, including Zappos, Target, Walmart, BuzzFeed, and Better Homes And Garden -- and if you'd like the full list and further description of how to use the new APIs, hit the source below.

Update: Our earlier version of this story mistakenly indicated that the new APIs enabled searching Pinterest on third party sites. In fact, the APIs only allow devs to create a custom keyword search and embed those search results on a webpage.

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Source: Pinterest blog

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Wolfram working on a 'symbolic' programing language, will be its 'most important' project yet

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/14/wolfram-language/

What Wolfram has accomplished with Alpha is nothing short of stunning. Sure, it can't help you find videos of cats dressed as sharks riding Roombas, but the company's goals were always much loftier. Using the technological foundation it built with Alpha and Mathematica, it's now working on bring its natural language, knowledge-based computational prowess to programming languages. Many of the details are still quite vague but, according to founder Stephen Wolfram, it will be a general purpose programming language, like C++, except it will be largely self contained. That means no (or at least less) pointing to external libraries to accomplish complex tasks. Those other languages focus mostly on structure and leave the difficult task of graphing or processing images to extensions, while Wolfram Language will have at its heart a "giant web of algorithms" to perform many operations. As you'd expect, it integrates quite tightly with Wolfram Alpha, so stock prices, tide times or images of adorable pit bull puppies are easily pulled up in whatever app you're building.

Perhaps most importantly, though, because it uses the natural language approach pioneered with Alpha, even the least tech savvy among you should be able to start programming in no time. While we'll clearly have to reserve final judgement for when Wolfram language is available to the public, it sounds like an ideal tool for a child to learn programming on. With its forgiving syntax and deep database, students could quickly and easily whip up simple, but surprisingly functional programs while still leaning the necessary procedure and structure for more advanced languages like Python or Dart. If you're itching for more details, hit up the source for Stephen Wolfram very, very long post on its development.

Filed under: Misc

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Via: The Verge

Source: Stephen Wolfram

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The Next Big Superfruit: The Buffaloberry

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/buffaloberry-is-the-new-superfruit-2013-11

A relatively unknown fruit, called the buffaloberry, could be the world's next big superfruit, according to a new study published in the Journal of Food Science.

Researchers who collected wild buffaloberries in North and South Dakota found the tiny red, slightly sour fruits are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant that appears to lower the risk of certain types of cancers, as well as an acidic compound called methyl-lycopenoate that can be used as a natural food colorant. They are a type of pigment called carotenoids that give fruits and vegetables like tomatoes and carrots their red or orange colors.

The fruits are also a good source of other phenolic antioxidants, the compounds responsible for their tartness and generally thought to play a role in preventing cancer and slowing cellular aging.

According to the study, the lycopene content of buffaloberries tends to be "high in comparison to tomatoes and other commercially available fruit."

The shrub on which the edible berries grow is native to North America and is found growing on many Indian reservations, land that's unsuitable for most other crops. The hardy shrubs can grow pretty much anywhere, even in dry environments with poor soil quality.

These berries have traditionally been eaten by Native American people, but the new findings suggest that it could be a valuable food crop, especially for regions in need of economic development. 

Buffaloberries are high enough in sugar to taste good as a fresh or dried fruit (they have the consistency of a raisin when dried) and its acidity makes it desirable f! or wine makers.

Although commercial production of these fruits is currently very limited, researchers believe that the "potential for growing, consuming, and marketing buffaloberry fruit on and around Midwestern Native American Reservations provides both and economic and nutritional opportunity that should be exploited."

QUIZ: Which Food Has More Calories?

SEE ALSO: Man Goes On 60-Day Juice Fast To Save His Life

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Google's homegrown Dart web programming language emerges from beta

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/14/googles-dart-1-0-sdk-released-out-of-beta-to-web-programmers/

While Google giveth and taketh away end-user apps, it's generally been good to developers -- all the better to get new tools into the wild. One of those pet projects, Dart, is now out of beta and into a "production ready" version 1.0 SDK, according to Mountain View. In a nutshell, it's a programming language that aims to simplify, speed up and (it hopes) one day replace Javascript as the app of choice for web developers. Though no browser actually supports Dart natively (except its own Dartium browser), the SDK comes with a Javascript translator that Google claims produces faster and tighter code. It's also added code completion, debugging and more, while adding that Adobe and others have started supporting it. Though the idea of learning another programming language makes us tear up, if you're game, hit! the sou rce.

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Source: Google Developers Blog

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IBM preparing to launch a Watson cloud service, lease out APIs to developers

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/14/ibm-preparing-to-launch-a-watson-cloud-service-lease-out-apis-t/

Need a little help from a supercomputer? You just might get it: IBM is getting ready to release a more powerful version of its Watson supercomputer, and it'll be available for rent. According to the PC World, the company is working on a Watson-based cloud service that developers can use to build richer, more interactive applications. The project uses a smaller, more scaleable version of Watson to build cognitive supercomputers as needed -- potentially leaving a smaller footprint. IBM is already working with partners to kick the service off, specifically Fluid, who is creating a Watson-powered retail assistant that's said to actively converse with customers to help them make "more informed buying decisions."

Developers familiar with RESTful APIs shouldn't have too much trouble using Watson, IBM's Rob High told the PC World, although it won't be exactly like traditional programming. "Cognitive systems are different in that they have the ability to simulate human behavior. For the most part humans have had to adapt to the computer. As we get into cognitive systems we open up the aperture to the computer adapting to the human." IBM has yet to specifics on when the Watson-powered cloud will be available, or how much it'll cost developers to work with the Jeopardy star. Hopefully, the cognitive computer will still be able to put together a tasty pastry.

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Source: New York Times, PCWorld

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