Monday, May 19, 2014

drag2share: Facebook may launch 'Slingshot' Snapchat competitor this month

source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/18/facebook-slingshot/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Facebook could be gearing up to introduce a Snapchat-like video message tool later this month, according to a Financial Times report. The app, known to staffers as 'Slingshot,' would enable users to send short video messages, and it would likely not be integrated with the social site's other applications, such as Facebook Messenger. Based on the timing of Slingshot's potential release, it's possible that a team within the company began working on the app shortly after negotiations to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion failed late last year, leaving Facebook to build its own competitor from the ground up. Still, while the new app appears to be nearly ready for primetime, the launch apparently has yet to be approved -- it's possible that Slingshot may never see the light of day.

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Posted by Augustine at 7:07 AM

drag2share: Olympus Stylus TG-3: a ruggedized camera that doesn't suck

source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/18/olympus-tg-3/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

In the past, opting for a ruggedized camera has required some serious sacrifices. Whether that's meant comically large housings or mediocre performance, you couldn't get a fantastic point-and-shoot camera that you could also safely take on the slopes, the back of a motorcycle or on SCUBA dives. This year's Olympus Stylus Tough is the first such model I've seen that's worthy of your 350 bucks. A fast lens, speedy focusing and solid image quality make the TG-3 a great option even if you only plan to document your backyard rose garden or a child's first steps, but it'll also handle much more sophisticated shooting situations with ease.

The TG-3 packs the standard suite of high-end point-and-shoot features, including a 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, a fast 25-100mm, f/2-4.9 aperture 4x internal zoom lens, integrated WiFi and the same processor Olympus uses in its flagship OM-D E-M1 mirrorless camera. On the sensor front, it can calculate altitude or water depth and air or water pressure, all of which can be displayed on the camera. There's also integrated GPS, which can find your position in 10 seconds or less, attaching location info to individual images. My favorite feature, however, is the optional ($40) LED Light Guide, which redirects light from the camera to a ring around the lens, letting you capture macro shots like a pro.

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Posted by Augustine at 7:07 AM

drag2share: AT&T relaunches Cricket prepaid brand with nationwide 4G coverage

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/18/cricket-relaunch/

It's a brand new day for Cricket, AT&T's budget wireless arm. Last year, the mobile giant announced plans to acquire Leap Wireless, Cricket's parent company, and has since launched a major refresh, formally introducing the new service today. After purchasing new devices, Cricket customers will be able to access AT&T's nationwide 4G network, including LTE. All plans include unlimited domestic calling, messaging and international texting to 35 countries, and come in at $35, $45 and $55 monthly (after a $5 auto pay credit), with 500MB, 2.5GB and 5GB of data, respectively. You won't be charged for data overages -- instead, Cricket will cap your speed at 128 Kbps for the rest of the billing period.

There's also an unlimited talk and text plan for feature phones that'll run you just $25 per month, excluding data and MMS. Cricket is offering group discounts as well, taking $10 off a second line, $20 off a third line, and $30 off your fourth and fifth device added to each account. Finally, with the announced improvements, AT&T will also be retiring the Aio brand, perhaps best known for being the target of a T-Mobile lawsuit over the subsidiary's use of the color magenta. New Cricket customers will get a $50 mail-in-rebate when purchasing a device, so you can pick up a ZTE Prelude for free or a Moto G for $100 after cashing in.

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Source: Cricket Plans

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Posted by Augustine at 7:07 AM

drag2share: FAA seeks to unleash small 'low-risk' drones for films and farms by November

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/18/faa-drone-farming-filmmaking-permit/

Since the FAA has only just begun flying drones at test sites, it'll take quite some time before it can draw up rules and regulations for commercial use of UAVs. But if you start seeing small flying contraptions frequently, it's because the agency is considering approving drone use for farming, filmmaking and other industries it deems "low risk" a lot earlier than planned. The overlord of all things that fly even wants to dole out permits quickly and aims to greenlight commercial flights (of machines that pose no security risk and weigh less than 55 pounds) as soon as November. According to Bloomberg, the agency has already started taking requests from various companies, though the FAA's unmanned aerial vehicle crew are still discussing how they can expedite approval requests. Oh yeah, the FAA might have yet to officially authorize commercial drone flights, but some companies have been flying UAVs illegally for films and other industries for a while. Clearly, there's a demand for these flying machines, so it's no surprise that the agency wants to speed things up.

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Via: Ars Technica

Source: Bloomberg

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Posted by Augustine at 7:06 AM

drag2share: Glasses-free 3D projector offers a cheap alternative to holograms

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/19/mit-glasses-free-3d-projector/

MIT glasses-free compressed light field 3D projector

Holograms are undoubtedly spiffy-looking, but they're not exactly cheap; even a basic holographic projector made from off-the-shelf parts can cost thousands of dollars. MIT researchers may have a budget-friendly alternative in the future, though. They've built a glasses-free 3D projector that uses two liquid crystal modulators to angle outgoing light and present different images (eight in the prototype) depending on your point of view. And unlike some 3D systems, the picture should remain relatively vivid -- the technology uses a graphics card's computational power to preserve as much of an image's original information (and therefore its brightness) as possible.

It's not a flawless system, at least not right now. While the modulators work at a speedy 240Hz, the resulting output is just 40Hz. That's fast enough for movies and TV shows, but a far cry from the 60Hz-plus that many regular TV sets can manage. To get wider viewing angles, MIT has also built a special screen using lenticular lenses like those you find in toys and children's books. However, perfection isn't really the point here. So long as the technology keeps advancing, it could lead to projectors with a "good enough" holographic effect that tides people over until real holography is within reach.

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Via: Phys.org

Source: MIT News, MIT Media Lab

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Posted by Augustine at 7:00 AM

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