Four Out of Five of Toddlers Use the Internet [Factoid]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5781878/four-out-of-five-of-toddlers-use-the-internet

Apparently 80% of children age five and under are active internet users, according to a recent study. So that's where all those illiterate YouTube comments come from! Snark aside, there's nothing inherently wrong with kids that young being online, so long as what they're watching is heavily supervised. And given the motor abilities of your basic pre-schooler, I'm guessing they're not typing in too many URLs on their own. [Mashable]

Read More...

Summary only...

Google VP lays down mobile stats, boasts 150 million Maps users

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/google-vp-lays-down-mobile-stats-boasts-150-million-maps-users/

Care for a cup of Google data, anyone? At SXSW, the vice president of location services, Marissa Mayer, stated some interesting facts about the state of all things mobile at the Goog. Most notably, the company provides its map service to 150 million users. Just to give you an idea of how many peeps that is -- it's about half the number of individuals in America. Crazy, we know. What's more, Mayer claimed that Google Maps guided users 12 billion miles per year and that its latest build of the app saves people an average of two days worth of travel time each year. Another bit worth noting is how the company feels about Google Maps for iPhone. "We like being the default provider, but we'd like to get some of these updates out to a broader audience. That's still a debate / question we're considering." Updates? An actual Google Maps application that works as a GPS on an iPhone? Wake us up when iOS 5 is previewed, or we can just keep dreaming.

Google VP lays down mobile stats, boasts 150 million Maps users originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  BGR  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/berkeley-lab-scientists-create-nanocrystal-hydrogen-storage-matr/

If you could run your celly on hydrogen you'd have power for days and days -- but, you'd also need to lug around a high-pressure tank to store the stuff. That's no fun, and that's why we're still using Li-ion batteries and the like. But, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory look to have found a way to possibly ditch the tank, creating a gas-barrier polymer matrix out of polymethyl methacrylate, allowing the H2 gas in but keeping oxygen and everything else out. That matrix contains magnesium nanocrystals that react with the hydrogen to form MgH2, enabling safe, (relatively) low-pressure storage. The H2 can then be released again and the magnesium nanocrystals are freed to bond with another batch of H2 when refilled. It sounds a little like the Cella Energy hydrogen storage solution, but a bit more promising if we're honest. Now for the long, painful wait for this to come to production.

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhysOrg  |  Nature Materials  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

MIT's Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/mits-junkyard-jumbotron-turns-your-motley-collection-of-devices/

Got a handful of mobile devices layin' 'round when what you actually need is one large display? The kids at the MIT Center for Future Civic Media got you covered! The Junkyard Jumbotron, designed by Rick Borovoy, Ph.D. and Brian Knep, is an ingenious project that makes stretching an image across damn near any collection of displays with web browsers. When you assemble the displays (such as in the picture above), the Junkyard Jumbotron website will ask you to point them all to the same URL. This will cause each device to load the same QR code, which -- once you snap a digital pic and email it to the project -- will allow it to calibrate and stretch a JPEG across your assemblage. It certainly does look like something scrounged up at a junkyard, doesn't it? Well, sometimes that's part of the fun. Hit the source link to try it for yourself. Video after the break.

Continue reading MIT's Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video)

MIT's Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  ! |  Junkyard Jumbotron  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer passes through the FCC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/asus-eee-pad-transformer-passes-through-the-fcc/

Well, it hasn't reached Eee PC levels of confusion just yet, but it looks like ASUS's Eee Pad line is well on its way to filling store shelves with numerous different models. One of those has now hit the FCC under the guise of the Eee Pad TF101, although it's also referred to as the EP101 in some of the documents. Assuming nothing has changed with ASUS' naming scheme (always a possibility), that would peg it as the Transformer -- a tablet / keyboard dock combo that we first got our hands on back at CES (and later at CeBIT). Unfortunately, ASUS wasn't able to give us a release date then, and that still hasn't changed, although the FCC certification does certainly suggest that it could be coming sooner rather than later.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer passes through the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Wireless Goodness, FCC  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...