Doodle 4 Google 2013 challenges kids to dream big, describe their best day (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/15/doodle-4-google-2013-challenges-kids-to-describe-their-best-day/

Google loves inspiring kids to go wild with ideas in its annual Doodle 4 Google competition, and that tradition is carrying on for 2013. This year's just-started drawing exhibition asks American kids to visualize what they imagine would be their best day ever -- no mean feat, as you'll see in the video after the break. The K-12 student who wins on the national level may find all that daydreaming worth the effort, however, as the top prizes are about as grand as they were for 2012. Along with seeing their drawing become the homepage doodle for a day, the top-ranking child gets a $50,000 technology grant for their current school, a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook and a Wacom tablet to foster that now-obvious creative talent. Budding young artists need to get their entries to Google's real or virtual doorsteps by March 22nd; we have a hunch the winner's best day ever will be May 23rd, when millions of searchers will catch a glimpse of that early magnum opus.

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Filed under: Internet, Google

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Via: SlashGear

Source: Doodle 4 Google

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Quantum dots help return 'Triluminos' RGB LED lighting to Sony HDTVs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/14/sony-triluminos-quantum-dot-qdvision/

While 4K TVs are excellent, for the next couple of years most of us will still be selecting a 1080p model when we're out shopping, and now we've got a little more detail about some of the new ones Sony announced last week. After letting its "Triluminos" RGB LED lighting technology fall by the wayside after 2009 because of its high cost, Sony has brought the brand back in this year's HDTVs. Noted in the press release and highlighted today in the MIT Technology Review, this iteration uses QD Vision's quantum dot technology to enhance the red/green/blue LED backlighting the series is known for. According to the CTO of QD Vision, the TVs start with a blue backlight -- instead of the standard white LED -- which stimulates quantum dots that emit "pure green and pure red." Sony was very proud of its Triluminos tech at the show and our experience at demonstrations seemed to validate the quality of the approach. While we've been hearing about quantum dots for years, this is reportedly their first appearance in a mass produced consumer product, once it hits homes we'll be able to tell if the wait was truly worth it.

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony

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Source: MIT Technology Review

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Garmin announces new dog collars, talks up 'Bark Odometer'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/14/garmin-barklimiter/

Garmin's not content with just a spot on your dashboard -- the company's also hoping to help you out with your pet problems. The GPS-maker's got a couple of new additions to its line of dog collars, including the BarkLimiter series, which offers up an accelerometer-powered bark identification system and a Bark Odometer to help you keep track of your canine's woof mileage. The collar is lightweight and waterproof and promises to increase "stimulation" as barking continues. The collar'll run you $80 for standard and $100 for the deluxe edition. You can also get the BarkLimiter technology in the company's Delta series of collars, which let you set a virtual leash up to three-quarters of a mile. That line runs $200 without the bark limiting and $250 with.

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Filed under: Misc, GPS

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Via: Slashgear

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DCM Dealer software platform mines social media for stock sentiment, Wall Street licks its chops

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/14/dcm-dealer-software-platform-social-media-stock-investment/

In this episode of "What could possibly go wrong?!", allow us to introduce you to DCM Dealer. Billed as an "online trading platform," this here project was whipped up by the same London-based investment outfit (DCM Capital) that went belly-up after losing some $40 million in assets in just one month during the summer of 2011. Granted, that was a pretty tough time in the market, and it did manage to squeeze out a 1.9 percent gain in the period it was open, but it's still worth keeping in mind. Now, the firm is hoping to catch a second wind with a tool that mines Twitter, Facebook, and the whole of social media in order to pick up clues about the public's view on a stock. Reportedly, it'll spit out real-time ratings from 0 (negative) to 100 (positive), giving investors yet another "leading indicator" on what to invest in flip for a quick buck.

Founder Paul Hawtin confesses: "This is not some kind of holy grail of buy-sell signals that's guaranteed to make you money. This is an additional layer of market information...markets are driven by greed and fear, so if you can understand fear and quantify it in real-time, you could use that to protect yourself." We'll leave it to the 99 percent to comment on the idea below.

Filed under: Internet, Alt

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Source: CNBC, DCM

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Huawei G520 outed as an inexpensive, quad-core smartphone for China

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/15/huawei-g520-smartphone/

Huawei put its best foot forward (twice) last week at CES, but it seems that the company has yet another smartphone up its sleeve: a 4.5-inch Android device known as the G520. According to Gizchina, the phone is said to wield a quad-core 1.2GHz Mediatek MT6589, but its key selling point will be the price -- it's said to be in the neighborhood of ￥1,399 ($225). The specific resolution of the G520 is currently known, and the same is true for the version of Android it'll ship with. That said, Ice Cream Sandwich seems most plausible, as the smartphone includes just 512MB of RAM. The Huawei G520 also includes a 5-megapixel rear camera and is said to go up for sale on January 21st within China. Hopefully by then, we'll know a bit more about this one.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: Unwired View

Source: Gizchina

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