The Hilarious Difference Between Google and Bing in One Picture

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-hilarious-difference-between-google-and-bing-in-one-514496087

You use Google. Or maybe, just maybe you use Bing. Sometimes one is better. Sometimes the other is prettier. Sometimes it's the other way around. Whatever. The most hilarious, ridiculous difference between the two though? How they auto-complete the Xbox One. Google Instant finds words like terrible, ugly, a joke and so forth. Bing? Just one. Amazing.

Now I wonder what Bing and Google think of Google Glass. [@evlbzltyr via The Atlantic]

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Awful JPEG Compression Turns Romeo & Juliet to LB"8DJ IHR:?S

Source: http://gizmodo.com/awful-jpeg-compression-turns-romeo-juliet-to-lb-8dj-i-514512379

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo. Even if you failed English class, you'd recognize that phrase anywhere. It's from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. But would you recognize this phrase: O Romep+ Rpldo wiepffnre arr!riov Romep@. That's Shakespeare too. If Shakespeare was compressed over and over again by JPEG.

Tom Scott created a little experiment to poke fun of the lossy nature of JPEG. Every time you edit and save a picture in JPEG, you're going to lose something from the original. Even if you don't see it (and most of us don't see it), it's gone forever. Scott thought it would be fun to see what we would lose in JPEG if we saw converted it in text and boy it garbled up Shakespeare real good.

Scott basically loaded Shakespeare text as RAW in Photoshop and outputted the text to JPEG at different quality levels. As you can imagine, Photoshop's minimum level destroys Shakespeare while the maximum level still changed things up. Scott says:

Even on ‘maximum’ quality, almost all the characters are replaced by their neighbors in the alphabet. On an image, that would be a minuscule change in color, undetectable to the eye: but rearranged into a different form, even ‘maximum’ quality is enough to render the text a significant challenge to decipher.

This doesn't exactly mean never ever use JPEG ever again (since images are much different than text) but it goes to show how things can degrade over time, even digitally. You can see more of Scott's fantastically fun work here. [Tom Scott via Laughing Squid]

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Samsung reportedly shipping 55-inch OLED TV to South Korea next week

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/samsung-reportedly-shipping-55-inch-oled-tv-to-korea-next-week/

Samsung told us to expect its 55-inch OLED TV sometime in July, but there's now a chance that South Koreans will get an early look. Yonhap News Agency hears through tipsters that the premium set could ship to Samsung's homeland next week, with a price somewhere north of 10 million won ($8,840). It might not be alone, either -- those same sources also claim that the company's curved OLED TV may arrive at the same time. Samsung hasn't confirmed anything, but such moves would line up with the firm's tendency to debut products in its home country. Besides, Samsung rarely lets any of LG's salvos go unanswered.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung

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Source: Yonhap News Agency

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Dolphin browser for Android adds redesigned UI, new store for web apps

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/dolphin-browser-android-update/

Dolphin has done a pretty fine job when it comes to keeping its browser loaded with plenty of handy features, both on Android and iOS. Now, the Dolphin's hit version 10 for Android, bringing along an array of things including a revamped user interface, drag-and-drop support for speed dials on the home screen, additional swipe-based gestures and a new store for web-based applications. In addition to all that, Dolphin brought back support for Adobe Flash, while also taking to this release to improve the built-in search options and allow users to dig through sites like Amazon, Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube right from within the app. The overhauled Dolphin browser is now available on Google Play, so give the source below a quick click if you're eager to check out these changes.

Filed under: Internet, Software

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Via: Droid Life

Source: Google Play

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My Summer Project: Install a Budget Makeshift Home Surveillance System

Source: http://hackerspace.lifehacker.com/my-summer-project-install-a-budget-makeshift-home-surv-514126455

Ever wanted to be just as cool as the government? Ever wanted to spy on your own house or watch the newspaper guy throw the paper onto your lawn? Or maybe there's a small chance that you actually have a legitimate need for video surveillance on your property but, like me, are too poor to buy top-of-the-line hardware and software for it. If this sounds like you, then read on!

I, too, had the interest of using a surveillance camera in my house. I accomplished this by re-purposing an old webcam I had sitting around, so it would finally get some use. Now, I use that webcam as my HamCam, to spy on my hamster.

What I did was, I plugged my webcam in to my desktop and installed a program called iSpy. This allowed me to use my webcam as a motion-sensing surveillance camera. Once I installed that, I went through the settings and made a few tweaks to settings. Specifically, I now have it record video upon detecting motion. I also have it run on a schedule, so it turns off around when I go to bed, and turns on again in the morning when there is light enough to see again.

But what about syncing to the cloud, you ask? Fret not; that base is covered too! What I did to achieve this was change the directory my HamCam videos are saved in, so that it's in my Dropbox folder. Now, I can view it on my Dropbox from anywhere I am. Each time motion is detected, I also have it store a snapshot of the photo in my Dropbox for my viewing pleasure.

I wasn't finished just yet, though. The finishing touch to this was having the photos and videos auto-import into my phone's gallery for ease of access. I accomplished this by using an app called DropSync, which auto-downloads or uploads photos to/from your Dropbox. The Pro key costs $4.99, but it's worth it to me. I had them save to a folder in my SD card under DCIM called HamCam. Because they're in my DCIM folder, they can also be auto-backed up to my Google+, and I can spam my friends with them! ...but I don't, because I don't have friends. I have a hamster.

I should mention that this was done on a Windows PC, and my phone is an Android phone. If there is anyone who's had similar experiences on Linux or OSX, with an iPhone or other type of phone, they might post about it below and what they use (hint hint, guys!).

Look at my little Hamlet unknowingly being watched at all times. The NSA would be proud.

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