Garmin's $130 smartphone HUD limits distractions with line-of-sight directions

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/08/garmin-head-up-display/

We've become so dependent on GPS that a three-minute drive often means frequent glances at an in-car navigation companion. But taking your eyes off the road can be very dangerous, even if it's only for a moment. If you're fortunate enough to have one, a head-up display will let you get to your destination efficiently and safely, and Garmin's got a new aftermarket solution to keep you cruising on the cheap. The company's new HUD projects bright directions onto a transparent film mounted on your windshield, serving up guidance within your regular line of sight. The simple interface displays your current speed and the speed limit, turn arrows, the distance until your next turn and an ETA. The Garmin HUD is compatible with Bluetooth-equipped smartphones running Garmin StreetPilot and Navigon apps. It's expected in stores this summer with a MSRP of $129.99.

Filed under: Displays, GPS

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China Beaches Are Green With Smelly 'Sea Lettuce' Algae Due To Record-Breaking Bloom [PHOTOS]

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-algae-beach-pollution-2013-photos-2013-7

Massive, recording-breaking blooms of the algae Enteromorpha prolifera have been washing up on China's beaches in Shandong province, near Qingdao.

The bloom is the size of Connecticut and officials have already removed 19,800 tons of algae from beaches. This is the largest bloom since 2008, which covered 5,000 square miles. That year, the algae cost $30 million to clean up and according to a 2011 report, cost about $100 million in damages to fisheries in the area, since the algae soaks up oxygen in the water, choking off other marine organisms.

The blooms first started in 2007, and researchers aren't sure if they are cause by pollution or by changes to seaweed farming practices to the south of Qingdao.

The algae beach is located in Qingdao, in Shandong province in Eastern China.

The city has a population of more than 8 million, and tourists flock to the coasts during the summer months.

That's also when blooms of the algae Enteromorpha prolifera, peak.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Your Next Smartphone Screen Will Be Able to Disinfect Itself

Source: http://gizmodo.com/your-next-smartphone-screen-will-be-able-to-disinfect-i-677470656

Your phone is filthy. Anything that's getting rubbed by your grimy little fingers on a ridiculously regular basis is going to be far from pristine. But Corning can help. Its newest revision of Gorilla Glass is not only ridiculously resilient, it also kills pesky germs all by itself.

Corning discussed its upcoming display tech at the MIT Mobile Technology Summit, and it sounds incredible. The anti-microbial coating being used on the new glass—a first for the display industry—can kill virtually all nasty microbes on the screen's surface over a course of two hours. It's not instantaneous, but it's way better than having a pocket petri dish.

And that's not all, either. Corning is also whipping up a new transparency treatment that will make the next revision of Gorilla Glass tens of times more transparent than purified water. What's that really mean? Seeing your phone in broad daylight is about to get way easier. Here's what that improvement looks like, the circle in the center is the new stuff:

And of course, that's all on top of the ridiculous strength we've come to expect from Gorilla Glass. Unfortunately, there's no word on exactly when these sort of features will be rolling out to new devices; Corning has simply said some time in the next two years. Until then, licking your phone screen is probably a good habit to stay out of. [Technology Review via Phone Arena via Talk Android]

Image by Michelangelus/Shutterstock

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Photographs From Hurricane Sandy, Visualized

Source: http://gizmodo.com/photographs-from-hurricane-sandy-visualized-655520772

This might look like your car's speedometer, but it is in fact a clever visualization of photographs taken during Hurricane Sandy last year.

Part of a Digital Humanities project called Phototrails, the radial plot shows 23,581 photos uploaded to Instagram in Brooklyn area during Hurricane Sandy between November 29th and 30th of last year. The team behind the images explains:

Photo’s distance from the center (radius) corresponds to its mean hue; photo’s angle (i.e. the position along the perimeter) corresponds to its time stamp. Note the demarcation line that reveals the moment of a power outage in the area and indicates the intensity of the shared experience (dramatic decrease in the number of photos, and their darker colors to the right of the line).

That's a pretty neat artefact, even if it is one from a horrible and awful time. There's plenty more where that came from, though: the team has a variety of visualization methods which use radial, grid-like and even graphing techniques to tease out interesting trends form the images. Go check them out on the Phototrails site. [Phototrails via Information Aesthetics]

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Sharp intros 32-inch IGZO monitor with 4K resolution and pen support

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/02/sharp-pn-k322b-4k-monitor/

The majority of the world is still patiently waiting for 4K technology to become more widely adopted, and companies are certainly doing all they can to assist in speeding up that process. Following in the footsteps of ASUS, Sharp's now introducing an Ultra HD, IGZO panel of its own, the PN-K322B. Aside from boasting a 3,840 x 2,160 screen resolution, this 32-inch multi-touch monitor also features the ability to support digital writing (or drawing) by way of a "dedicated touch pen with a pen-tip width of just 2mm." Ports-wise, the LED-backlit PN-K322B houses two HDMI inputs, a DisplayPort and a 3.5mm stereo jack to help get some external audio going. Mum's the word on how much it'll cost when it arrives in Japan on July 30th, but if other similar options are any indication, we'd say upwards of $3,500 is a safe bet.

Filed under: Displays, Misc

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Via: SlashGear

Source: Sharp

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