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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Comcast invites Skype into its cable boxes, mobile apps

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/14/comcast-invites-skype-into-its-cable-boxes-mobile-apps/

The latest announcement at the 2011 Cable Show comes from the seemingly unlikely pairing of Comcast and Skype, who have arranged to enable video calls through the cable box. All it takes is a camera, adapter and 'specially-designed remote' to turn HDMI-equipped Comcast boxes into Skype-on-TV machines when they start trials in the next few months. Senior Comcast VP Cathy Avgiris tells the Seattle Times that video will max out at 720p to start but will be ugraded to 1080p eventually. The tie-in will also means Skype features for the Comcast Xfinity apps on tablets and phones, but according to Avgiris it won't "necessarily be limited to triple-play" (TV, phone and internet) customers only. Skype has already partnered with several TV manufacturers for HD calling in the living room, but working through cable boxes means a much greater prospective installed base. Beyond the still-unanswered questions of pricing and release dates, we've already seen enough Cable Show demos that didn't amount to much (*cough* tru2way) so this will goes on the shelf with the others until it's spotted in the wild.

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Comcast invites Skype into its cable boxes, mobile apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 06:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, June 13, 2011

An Interesting Search Mystery – Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen; can anyone identify another pair? - http://bit.ly/l0dTCC

Body Control

Source: http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/06/13/body-control/

Turn your body into a motion based controller for software on your Android mobile phone with Second Nature, a concept hardware/application combination that uses motion sensors attached to the body to detect the user’s activity. The user can define gestures to perform whatever function they like, including volume control, exercise training, or any other context-specific function.

Second Nature will launch with 4 applications which cover bicycle integration, statistics and training, social media, and security. Android’s open API and app store allow developers a limitless amount of applications to utilize the system and expand outside of the original exercise context.

Designers: Marco Ghezzi, Felipe Gomez, Charles Lee-Thorp, Irwanta Salim, and Isil Uzum

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Google Adds Copy-and-Paste Picture Insertion to Gmail [In Brief]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5811392/google-adds-copy+and+paste-picture-insertion-to-gmail

Gmail added drag-and-drop image insertion last year, but they've pumped up Gmail's image-sharing features even more today by adding clipboard support. Now, if you've copied an image from somewhere, you can paste it right into Gmail's Compose window to send it. This currently only works in Google Chrome, though Google says they hope to add it to other browsers soon. [Official Gmail Blog]

Acer ships AMD-powered Revo RL100 HTPC to Americans: $499 and up

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/13/acer-ships-amd-powered-revo-rl100-htpc-to-americans-499-and-up/

Acer actually popped out its Revo RL100 media center right around six months ago, but for those unable to make the trip to Asia, today's the day for getting jovial. Said player is now shipping to the US of A, hailed as a "digital hub" and outfitted with a dual-mode wireless touchpad / keyboard as well as the company's own clear.fi streaming solution. A pair of models will be available -- one with Blu-ray and one without -- with the entire box measuring just 1- x 11.81- x 7.09-inches. As expected, an HDMI port 'round back will handle the bulk of the data transmissions, and an internal NVIDIA Ion graphics chip will be responsible for 1080p video playback. Within, you'll get a 1.3GHz AMD Athlon II K325 CPU, 750GB SATA hard drive, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, three USB 2.0 ports, a multi-card reader, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and an Ethernet socket. Windows 7 Home Premium will be the OS of choice, and it can be yours for the tidy sum of $499.99 (or $569.99 if you're looking to add BD capabilities).

Gallery: Acer Revo RL100 HTPC press gallery