Monday, May 06, 2013

Amazon Leaks the World's First Small-Screen Windows 8 Tablet

Source: http://gizmodo.com/amazon-leaks-the-worlds-first-small-screen-windows-8-t-493096100

Rumors have swirled recently suggesting that a new breed of small Windows 8 tablets would soon appear in the wild. Now, Amazon has managed to accidentally leak the first tablet of its kind.

The Acer Iconia W3, previously rumored to be the first small-screen Windows 8 tablet, made a brief appearance on the website of Bezos and co. With a 1280 x 800 resolution 8.1-inch screen and Intel dual-core Atom processor, PC World claims that its list price was $380. Otherwise, details are scant.

Obviously the tablet was listed as Out of Stock, and there was no release date published, but it should be enough to convince people that little Windows tablets are indeed on the way. [PC World]

Read More...

HP redesigns its ProBook laptops for small businesses, prices start at $499

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/06/hp-redesigns-its-probook-laptops-for-small-businesses-prices-st/

HP redesigns its ProBook laptops for small businesses, prices start at $499

Last fall, HP took a small step toward refreshing its ProBook business notebooks when it started offering some of them with AMD Trinity chips. Eight months later, it's time for a real makeover: the company just announced a handful of new models with a thinner, lighter design and a fresh look. The ProBook 430, 440, 455 and 470 range in size from 13.3 inches to 17.3, and are made of aluminum, with spill-resistant keyboards and a soft-touch paint job. With the exception of the 430, which ships in July with Haswell, they'll arrive this month with a mix of Ivy Bridge CPUs and AMD Richland chips. (Specifically, only the 14- and 15-inch models will be offered with AMD.)

Other particulars: they all have 1,366 x 768 matte displays (non-touch), with the 17-inch model stepping up to 1,600 x 900. All but the 430 can be had with an optional optical drive; if you skip it, there's a weighted placeholder sitting where the DVD burner would be. Additionally, the 440, 450 and 470 can be used with a six- or nine-cell user-replaceable battery. Everything comes standard with a hybrid hard drive, but the 430 also has an SSD option. Again, all but the 13-incher will be available this month, for $499 and up. So, you can bide your time until then, or you can tide yourself over with that handful of photos below.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Read More...

Sunday, May 05, 2013

Physics teacher adopts Google Glass, gives students a glance at CERN (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/03/physics-teacher-adopts-google-glass/

Physics teacher adopts Google Glass, gives students a firsthand look at CERN video

When Google asked what we'd do if we had Glass, it was no doubt hoping we'd produce some world-changing ideas. We now know at least a few exist, courtesy of physics teacher Andrew Vanden Heuvel. He's long been hoping to use the wearable tech for remote teaching and one-on-one sessions, and the Glass Explorer program has given him the chance to do just that. His first stop? None other than CERN. Courtesy of a trip for Google's new Explorer Story video series, Vanden Heuvel is the first person to teach a science course while inside the Large Hadron Collider tunnel, streaming his perspective to students thousands of miles away. While we don't know if other Explorer Stories will be quite as inspiring, we'll admit to being slightly jealous -- where was Glass when we were kids?

[Thanks, Peter]

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: AGL Initiatives

Read More...

Eyes-on: University of Pennsylvania's TitanArm exoskeleton (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/04/eyes-on-university-of-pennsylvanias-titanarm-exoskeleton/

Eyes-on: University of Pennsylvania's TitanArm exoskeleton (video)

TitanArm already took home silver in a competition for senior projects at the University of Pennsylvania, and now the team behind it is visiting Orlando to compete in the Intel-sponsored Cornell Cup for embedded design. We stopped by the showroom and snagged a few minutes with the crew to take a look at their creation: an 18-pound, untethered, self-powered exoskeleton arm constructed for less than $2,000.

To wield the contraption, users attach the cable-driven mechanical appendage to themselves with straps from a military-grade hiking backpack, and guide it with a thumbstick on a nunchuck-like controller. If a load needs to be held in place, the wearer can jab a button on the hand-held control to apply a brake. A Beagle Bone drives the logic for the setup, and it can stream data such as range of motion wirelessly to a computer. As for battery-life, they group says the upper-body suit has previously squeezed out over 24 hours of use without having to recharge.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Read More...

Google+ widget lets you embed Photo Spheres on any website

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/04/google-widget-photo-sphere/

Google widget lets web devs embed photo spheres on any website

One of the biggest highlights of Android's jump to 4.2 was the addition of Photo Sphere, a 360-degree panoramic shooting mode that pans vertically as well as horizontally. It's a neat trick, but the only way to share it was on Google+ or on a device running Android 4.2 or higher. Now, thanks to a new widget that utilizes the Google+ Platform API, you can embed an interactive 360-degree slideshow on any website you choose -- so long as your photos are stored on G+ and PicasaWeb. If you're willing to play around with a bit of code, have a peek at the source to get started.

[Image credit: Colby Brown]

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: Colby Brown Photography, Google+

Source: Google Developers

Read More...