Picturescue is a tiny app that quickly finds any and all images stored in old iTunes backup files, which are made whenever an iPhone or other iOS device is synced with with its “home” computer. The full version of the app is available for $4.99 and allows the user to export some or all of the photos found, while a trial version allows viewing of the images but not export. More
After a bunch of user feedback, smartphone maker HTC has announced that they will be unlocking the bootloader on their Android phones, meaning they'll be much easier to root. Lately, most manufacturers—including HTC and Motorola—have been locking down their devices, making them more and more difficult to get root access and load custom ROMs or extra apps. This is a pretty big step for Android phones, so it’s pretty exciting news for users that want extra functionality out of their phone. With any luck, other manufacturers will start to follow suit. [via HTC on Facebook] More
In Gweek 002, Rob, Joel, and I talked about digital musical instruments and some of the music making apps available on the iPad. I complained bitterly about the crappy output of the headphone jack, and Joel rightly upbraided me for even trying to use it. I just found out about this $200 iPad dock from Alesis that allows you to connect all kinds of audio gear to it.
The iO Dock provides microphone and instrument users with two combination XLR and 1/4-inch inputs, each with its own gain control and switchable phantom power for condenser microphones. Guitarists and bassists will appreciate the iO Dock’s guitar-direct switch, enabling them to play, perform and record right into amplifier- and effects-modeling apps. Bands can connect outputs from their mixer and easily record their performances and rehearsals or use the iO Dock as a metronome or loop-playback device. Producers can use the iO Dock’s MIDI jacks to sequence external keyboards, samplers, drum machines and synthesizers, or perform using the iO Dock as the sound module and their favorite MIDI-compliant keyboard, drum pad or other controller. An assignable 1/4-inch footswitch input enables remote control of any app-defined function such as stop/start or record. Users can also connect the iO Dock to their Mac or PC using the USB port to send MIDI back and forth for creative, new applications of the iPad and computer used in tandem.
Users can connect the iO Dock’s stereo pair of 1/4-inch main outputs to studio monitors for critical listening, or to PA systems for use in performance settings. They can monitor on headphones, and independently control the levels of the two outputs, each on its own knob. Recording musicians will appreciate the iO Dock’s direct-monitor switch, which enables them to toggle between the incoming and playback signal on their headphones. Rounding out the iO Dock’s output section is a composite video connector, enabling users to employ the iO Dock as a source for video projection behind bands on stage, or for connection to most televisions and computer monitors.
Continued here:
Music gear I/O dock for iPad
Professor Frank Drake proposed an equation that could be used to estimate the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The equation was deemed important for his work at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia (which I’ve driven by many times — their huge telescope is quite a sight!). In essence, Drake decided to define a series of limiting factors, so that we could take the total number of observable stars, then scope way down to get to some estimate for how many might have civilizations that we could contact. The resulting Drake Equation is one of the most exciting bits of math I’ve ever seen. Wikipedia explains it like so:
The Drake equation states that:
where:
- N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;
and
- R* = the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
- fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
- ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
- fℓ = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
- fi = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
- fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
- L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
If that’s too mathy for you, just watch Carl Sagan explain it in this eight-minute video:
Where it really gets interesting (and frustrating) is when you start to figure how many of these detectable civilizations are actually currently broadcasting during a time period when we might actually contact them or receive their broadcast (adjusted, of course, for the massive lag time to get the broadcast from point A to point B). Sagan touches on part of this problem in his discussion, but doesn’t get into the details. Read more about all this at Wikipedia.
Read More:
Carl Sagan on the Drake Equation
The virtual goods economy of massively multiplayer online games may be thriving, but it’s also stimulating an undesirable side-effect: exploitation. A former detainee at a prison in Heilongjiang province, China, has told the Guardian about how he was habitually forced into playing MMOs like World of Warcraft for the collection of loot, which the prison guards would then resell online for as much as ¥6,000 ($924) per day. Such totals would be the product of up to 300 inmates working 12-hour daily shifts, though predictably they saw none of the profits themselves. The unnamed source was at a “re-education through labor” camp where the usual toil would involve actual, rather than virtual, mining. The profitability of the online market has seemingly inspired prison bosses to move with the times, however, with business being so brisk that the computers “were never turned off.” A Chinese government edict from 2009 is supposed to have introduced a requirement that online currencies only be traded by licensed entities, but it's believed that the practice of using prisoners in this fashion continues unabated.
Chinese prisoners forced to produce virtual gold, real profits for their guards originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 May 2011 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
12.5 million. It's a staggering number to just get a ridiculous $100. Unfortunately, it's worth for the spammers—billions of mails are sent every day by zombie computers all around the world. Fortunately, there may be a simple solution. More
Th $107 billion prepaid credit-card business has attracted money-launderers, according to US customs officers; what’s more, the anonymous cards are exempt from border regulations that require you to disclose when you bring $10,000 in or out of the country:
Visually, the cards are barely distinguishable from credit or debit cards and the most versatile let users reload them remotely without having to reveal their identity, using cash, moneygrams, PayPal and other online payment services.Some cards can process tens of thousands of dollars a month. Just load them up in Connecticut or Texas with, say, the proceeds of cocaine sales and collect the cash in local currency from an ATM in Medellin, Colombia or elsewhere in Latin America.
“I’m not so sure we have a sophisticated understanding of how to deal with this,” said Richard Stana, who oversaw a report on prepaid access for the General Accounting Office, the U.S. Congress’ research arm. “It’s just a whole new way of doing business.”
Prepaid cards attract money launderers
(via Consumerist)
Visit link:
Anonymous pre-paid credit-cards and money-laundering
The tornado that deleted Joplin, MO left thousands homeless and without access to basic necessities like potable water. The PureSafe First Response Water Systems is a full water purification plant on wheels that could provide water for the entire town. More
Windows only: Your Outlook data holds valuable clues about the way you work and what’s stopping you from being productive. Business of Your Brain helps visualize that data, analyzing the types of emails you receive, when your email tends to overflow, and more. More
We’re here at Google’s massive HQ in New York City (they own an entire block) for what Google was calling a “partner event” but everyone knew was really an “NFC event”. Sure enough, Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s VP of Commerce, has taken the stage to announce Google Wallet and Google Offers.
Right off the bat, Tilenius wanted to make it clear that this would be an open platform. She invited “payment networks, carriers, banks, join us in creating tomorrow’s shopping experience”. And some of those partners are already on board. Citi, Mastercard, FirstData, and Sprint are the initial partners.
See the original article here:
Google Unveils Wallet And Offers: An Open Platform For Mobile Payments
