Source: http://gizmodo.com/crowsflight-for-ios-enjoy-wandering-without-ever-getti-805863347
Asking for directions is a sign of weakness. Everyone knows that. Still, that's not necessarily to say that you should solely rely on the sun and your wildly unfounded gut instincts. Crowsflight for iOS gives you a middle ground.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/all-it-took-to-hijack-google-glass-was-a-dumb-qr-code-812240007
The scariest Google Glass hack just got fixed before anyone evil could actually use it, but the details are a little unsettling. Using nothing more than Glass's camera and a malicious QR code, hackers would have been able to steal total control of the device if you so much as looked at the wrong thing.
Magic Lantern's brought some miraculous features to Canon EOS DSLRs lately, including RAW video recording on the 5D Mark III, and video recording, period, to the 50D. Its latest feat is no less amazing, even for jaded DSLR shooters. By exploiting unused dual ISO amplifiers on a sensor chip in the Canon 5D Mark III and 7D, new firmware allows you to record lighter parts of a scene at ISO 100 and darker portions at ISO 1600. It works with RAW video and stills on the 5D III and RAW stills only on the 7D, with both requiring post-processing after capture. That bit of creative coding increases the dynamic range of both cameras to around 14, though not without some drawbacks. Namely, the 7D implementation is buggy for now, you'll lose some resolution while gaining aliasing in shadows and highlights, and won't be able to check critical focus by zooming in. Still, the organization has a track record of quickly improving new features -- so, if you've got the guts to risk voiding your warranty, hit the source.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/17/acer-z3-605-us/
Want a straightforward Windows 8 all-in-one that won't cost a pretty penny? Acer has you covered with the launch of its Z3-605 Series in the US. The 23-inch desktop isn't a performance champ when it carries up to a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive and a DVD burner. Don't dismiss it out of hand, however -- the 1080p IPS-based LCD should deliver a good-looking picture, and a touchscreen variant supports air gestures. If there's enough here to leave you intrigued, you can pick up the Z3-605 today for a modest $700 in base trim, or with touch for $800.
Source: Acer
Source: http://gizmodo.com/researchers-use-circuit-printer-to-make-functional-hear-789602979
Growing replacement organs in a lab
Growing heart tissue in the lab presents an enormous challenge. If the muscle cells aren't precisely arranged to pull along the same axis, the tissue can't do its pumping job. For the 3D cell guidance they needed, researchers at MIT's Draper Lab created thin, micro-perforated sheets of biorubber. They stacked these sheets with a programmable machine from the integrated circuit industry, positioning the pores to create interwoven muscle bundles when seeded with mouse muscle cells and rat neonatal heart cells. By controlling the alignment of the resulting fibers, the researchers can produce tissue that precisely mimics the natural heart.
While several challenges currently prohibit mass-scale production of viable cardiac tissue, the researchers say this unprecedented level of cell growth control opens "a whole new design space." Next, they plan to test the tissue in rats that have suffered heart attacks. And there's a chance that someday, in the not too distant future, nobody will have to die of a broken heart. [MIT Technology Review via KurzweilAI]
Posts
