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Launch desktop apps from inside Google Drive

When you’re viewing a list of files on a Mac or PC, right clicking on an item (or group of items) gives you the “Open with” option. Well friends, that same handy shortcut now resides in Google Drive , too. Thanks to a handy Chrome extension , you can fire up Photoshop from Google’s cloud-based repository inside the browser — no need to head elsewhere to get the work session started. Of course, you’ll need to have Chrome installed in order to leverage the add-on. And in case you forgot, you don’t even have to launch Microsoft Office to edit Drive-stored documents and spreadsheets either. Filed under: Internet , Software , Google Comments Source: Google Drive Blog

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Launch desktop apps from inside Google Drive

Tesla delays Model X again, aims for Q3 2015

Tucked into Tesla Motor’s Q3 2014 earnings letter to its shareholders, the automaker announced that its Model X SUV had been delayed once again. First slated to hit the road in 2013, and then pushed to 2014 before another bump to early 2015 , the company’s electric SUV won’t roll off of the assembly line until the second half of next year. Thanks to the new Dual Motor drive on the Model S, the powertrain for the X is said to be nearly done; however, more testing is needed elsewhere. In the letter, CEO Elon Musk admitted that criticism in regards to the varying timelines is valid, but that Tesla won’t trot out the vehicle until it’s ready to properly “delight customers.” “Doing so negatively affects the short term, but positively affects the long term, ” he continued. According to Musk, working out the kinks now will also ensure that the outfit can crank out the Model X quicker than it did the Model S back in 2012. Of course, folks who’ve already shelled out the reservation fee won’t be too happy, I’d imagine. Filed under: Transportation Comments Source: Tesla Motors (PDF)

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Tesla delays Model X again, aims for Q3 2015

Government Data Requests To Facebook Up By 24%

davidshenba writes: Facebook has revealed that government requests for user data has increased by 24% to nearly 35, 000 during the first six months of the year. Also content restrictions due to local laws increased by 19% in the same period. According to Facebook, they scrutinize every government request for legal sufficiency and “push back hard when we find deficiencies or are served with overly broad requests.” Already Facebook is fighting its largest ever legal battle against a U.S. court order to handover 400 users’ data. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Government Data Requests To Facebook Up By 24%

Study Shows Direct Brain Interface Between Humans

vinces99 writes University of Washington researchers have successfully replicated a direct brain-to-brain connection between pairs of people as part of a scientific study following the team’s initial demonstration a year ago. In the newly published study, which involved six people, researchers were able to transmit the signals from one person’s brain over the Internet and use these signals to control the hand motions of another person within a split second of sending that signal. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Study Shows Direct Brain Interface Between Humans

LibraryBox is an Open Source Server That Runs on Low-Cost Hardware (Video)

The world is full of wireless servers — or at least some of it is. There are still many places, including parts of the United States, where you can have all the laptops, smart phones, and other wireless-capable devices you want, but there’s no server that caters to them. Enter LibraryBox. It’s open source and it runs on a variety of low-cost, low-power hardware. The project’s website calls it “portable private digital distribution.” A lot of people obviously like this project and wish it well. LibraryBox ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, hoping for $3000, and raised $33, 119. But today’s interviewee, Jason Griffey, can explain his project better than we can, so please watch the video (or read the transcript) if you want to learn more about LibraryBox — including the story behind the project’s name. (Alternate Video Link) Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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LibraryBox is an Open Source Server That Runs on Low-Cost Hardware (Video)

Why the Time Is Always Set To 9:41 In Apple Ads

jones_supa writes If you have looked carefully, the clock has traditionally been always set to 9:42 in Apple advertisements. You could see it across various commercials, print ads, and even on Apple’s website. The explanation is simple: That’s the time in the morning that Steve Jobs announced the very first iPhone in 2007. Around 42 minutes into his keynote address he said “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” The picture of the phone was carefully scheduled to pop up at that moment. “We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation”, Apple’s Scott Forstall confirms. The time was even slightly tweaked in 2010, when the very first iPad was released, so that when it was revealed, it displayed a different time: 9:41. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Why the Time Is Always Set To 9:41 In Apple Ads

New Particle Collider Is One Foot Long

Jason Koebler writes The CERN particle collider is 17 miles long. China just announced a supercollider that is supposed to be roughly 49 miles long. The United States’ new particle collider is just under 12 inches long. What the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s new collider lacks in size, it makes up for by using plasma to accelerate particles more than 500 times faster than traditional methods. In a recent test published in Nature, Michael Litos and his team were able to accelerate bunches of electrons to near the speed of light within the tiny chamber.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Android 5.0 Makes SD Cards Great Again

An anonymous reader writes: Over the past couple of years, Google has implemented some changes to how Android handles SD cards that aren’t very beneficial to users or developers. After listening to many rounds of complaints, this seems to have changed in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Google’s Jeff Sharkey wrote, “[I]n Lollipop we added the new ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE intent. Apps can launch this intent to pick and return a directory from any supported DocumentProvider, including any of the shared storage supported by the device. Apps can then create, update, and delete files and directories anywhere under the picked tree without any additional user interaction. Just like the other document intents, apps can persist this access across reboots.” Android Police adds, “All put together, this should be enough to alleviate most of the stress related to SD cards after the release of KitKat. Power users will no longer have to deal with crippled file managers, media apps will have convenient access to everything they should regardless of storage location, and developers won’t have to rely on messy hacks to work around the restrictions.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For its next stab at original programming, Netflix is venturing into kid-land with a series based on

For its next stab at original programming, Netflix is venturing into kid-land with a series based on Daniel Handler’s Lemony Snicket books . The series is a partnership with Paramount, which produced the 2004 Jim Carrey film. How great would it be if Carrey starred in the series, too? [ Variety ] Read more…

GM’s next-gen infotainment system to run Android—not Android Auto—in 2016

The 2015 Cadillac ATS coupe with integrated LTE. It’s basically a big red smartphone. Ron Amadeo Harman International, the car infotainment manufacturer, recently spilled the beans on a “next-gen” infotainment system it is building for General Motors. Automotive News has quotes from the company’s CEO, Dinesh Paliwal, who describes an Android-based system with an app store and “instant” boot up. The report says that Harman is “working closely” with Google to make the system a reality. This system isn’t Android Auto. Unlike regular Android, Android Wear, and Android TV, Android Auto isn’t an operating system. It doesn’t live on the car’s computer, it doesn’t control peripherals, and it doesn’t have an app store. Like Apple’s CarPlay, Android Auto is just a “casted” interface. Your plugged-in smartphone sends a custom interface to the car’s screen and receives touch events, but the car still has to run some other operating system. Harman won a $900 million contract from GM to build the system, and judging by the Harman CEO’s description, this is an actual embedded Android system that will power the entire infotainment setup. That typically includes the audio system, air conditioning, navigation, voice recognition, phone calls, reverse cameras, and Internet access. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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GM’s next-gen infotainment system to run Android—not Android Auto—in 2016

Ken May

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