Monday, June 17, 2013

Raytheon's updated JTACs situational awareness system eyes-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/raytheons-updated-jtacs-situational-awareness-system-eyes-on/

Raytheon's updated JTACs system lets soldiers call in airstrike targets by looking at them

Though you may think drones do all the fighting these days, actual soldiers on the ground are still used to call in airstrikes. Sometimes it's still necessary to visually confirm targets before the flyboys create a smoking crater. Though the army has toyed with smartphones and other means to connect soldiers, Raytheon has created a new JTACs (Joint Tactical Air Controller system) prototype for ground forces to let them separate friendlies from enemies and relay the information to strike forces. The system consists of a chest-worn computer, heads-up monocle viewer and wrist-worn display, which together let the solider select a target merely by looking at it and pressing a button. They can also tag friendly forces the same way or send update situational data to the rest of the team, whether they're on the ground or flying a fighter overhead. That assistance from the ground will make it easier for those at the yoke to differentiate between friendlies and targets.

We tried the prototype ourselves in a limited, 2D environment here at the 2013 Paris Air Show and, without any help getting set up, were able to tag targets as red diamonds and friendly forces as amber squares. Everything we did was also displayed on second screen, simulating the ability to send live updates to other soldiers or the base. Impressive as it was, the whole thing is merely a prototype for now, though, that could eventually change. The military AR system is part of a larger platform called AWARE, which Raytheon hopes to eventually deploy. For a detailed explanation about how it works, check out the video after the break.

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GEAK Ring puts NFC on your finger, unlocks phones and shares your contact card

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/geak-ring-nfc-finger/

GEAK Ring is the one ring to

Some say NFC is dead, but GEAK from Shanghai wants to prove them wrong. Announced alongside the GEAK Watch earlier today was this GEAK Ring, a tiny NFC-enabled wearable device that stores your identity. The ring's pitched as an intuitive way to unlock your phone -- just hold it with the hand that's wearing the ring, and it'll unlock without having to type in the password; plus it'll stay awake as long as it's held in the same hand. Another feature is that since the ring has your contact details stored (presumably rewritable), you can also use it to share your contact card with other NFC-enabled devices. But of course, given the risk of NFC cloning, you should treat GEAK's solution as a convenience rather than a more secure method.

At launch, this ring will only be compatible with the GEAK Eye and GEAK Mars quad-core phones that were also announced today, but it'll support other devices from the likes of Samsung, Xiaomi and Oppo starting in November. GEAK will be taking pre-orders from August 8th, and it'll cost Chinese buyers ¥199 or about $30 each. It'll sure go nicely alongside that Google ring.

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Via: Engadget Chinese

Source: GEAK (Chinese)

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What A Map Of Kickstarter Usage Tells Us About America

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/map-of-the-day-what-kickstarter-tells-us-about-invention-in-the-united-states-2013-6

There's an outstanding new paper out on NBER today by Ajay Agrawal, Christian Catalini and Avi Goldfarb that looks at the simple economics of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, where people post project ideas that they hope to get funded from the masses.. 

While the whole paper is absolutely worth a read, one map at the end gave us a fascinating look at who is getting all that Kickstarter money and for what. 

Check it out:

kickstarter map

 

Some of the more interesting findings:

  • California and New York dominate when it comes to funding, especially in both the arts and technology. Minnesota is also a hub of tech funding, and Texas has kickstarted games. 
  • Massachusetts is evidently a hub of fashion
  • Tennessee has a lot of musicians looking for startup funding. 
  • People are really into the food from North Carolina.

See the whole paper here >

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Skype video messaging officially launches on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android -- but not Windows Phone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/skype-video-messaging-launches-free-unlimited/

Sky video messaging officially launches for free on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android

Out of beta and free, Skype today launches its video messaging service across all its major platforms. Previously, video missives were limited to 20 free attempts during early testing, but free on premium subscriptions. You can now send unlimited video messages to your Skype contacts on Windows 8, Windows desktop or Mac, while mobile options encompass iOS, Android and BlackBerry. A Windows Phone version is, however, conspicuously MIA. To remind yourself how it all works, check out our early hands-on here.

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Source: Skype

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Digg's Google Reader replacement beta opens on June 26th, friends and family get access on the 19th

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/digg-rss-reader-june-26/

Digg's Google Reader replacement beta access opens on June 25th, friends and family on the 19th

Digg -- yes, that Digg -- has a replacement in the works for Google Reader, and it looks like it'll arrive just ahead of the final days of Google's RSS aggregation service. The service, which uses the same API as Reader, is planning a public beta starting on June 26th; a "friends and family" beta will open this Wednesday, the 19th, with limited access.

During beta, the Digg RSS reader is free. In a survey Digg published last month on its blog, however, the company found that over 40 percent of respondents are "willing to pay for a Google Reader replacement." The company noted alongside the finding that, "Free products on the Internet don't have a great track record. They tend to disappear, leaving users in a lurch. We need to build a product that people can rely on and trust will always be there for them. We're not sure how pricing might work, but we do know that we'd like our users to be our customers, not our product."

That said, Digg's latest blog post seemingly assuages our worry. "We mentioned in a prior post that Digg Reader will ultimately be a 'freemium' product," the post reads. "But we're not going to bait-and-switch. All of the features introduced next week, as well as many others yet to come, will be part of the free experience." Those features include the standard RSS reader experience, "easy migration and onboarding from Google Reader," "useful mobile apps that sync with the web experience" (there's an iOS one pictured, and Android is promised in the 60 days post-launch) and "support for ... subscribing, sharing, saving and organizing."

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Source: Digg Blog

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