Tech Today w/ Ken May

Apart from Android overtaking iOS in terms of adoption rate, we now have another piece of news that will surely raise the flame wars between both camps up by another notch – app store analytics provider Distimo’s latest published report points toward the pricing of mobile applications across a range of platforms, and in the process discovered that folks rocking to Google’s Android Market will have 134,342 free applications for download, whereas others who are sticking to the tried-and-true Apple App Store will see their iPhone be on the receiving end of 121,845 free applications.

Android beats iPhone over number of free apps, By Ubergizmo. Top Stories : Apple iPhone 5 already shipped to developers?, EVO 4G Review,

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Android beats iPhone over number of free apps

We love it when companies not particularly known for it start putting a lot of effort into materials research. The latest case of this is Lexus and the bad-ass 360-degree loom they’ve developed to weave strands of CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic) into three-dimensional shapes.

Lexus engineers saw the need for the loom after experimenting with making an aluminum-bodied car on an aluminum frame and concluding it would not be strong enough for their needs.

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Video of Lexus’ 360-Degree Carbon Fiber Loom

Come Monday, AT&T will begin restricting more than 16 million broadband users based on the amount of data they

Think the crushing weight of larger planets might be too much to prevent life? Think again! A new discovery from Japan has shown that microbes can survive 403,627 × g — yes, that's more than 400,000 times Earth's own gravity. More

If you’ve put together your own PC before, chances are you’ve had to dip into the BIOS to change a few things around, switch the boot priority, things like that. But as essential as the BIOS tools are, the UI has always been a bit daunting. Keyboard navigation of an 80s-style ASCII interface isn’t something you expect in this modern age.

So Gigabyte has gone ahead and given their BIOS a shiny new touch-compatible layer, for those of you rocking all-in-ones or touchscreen monitors. Practical? Not really. But hey, why not?

Interestingly, Gigabyte is among the few motherboard manufacturers which have not gone over to UEFI, the new mobo-level firmware interface. In fact, I have a P67-UDP4 sitting behind me that’s probably the last of the old-school BIOS breed — which was actually part of the draw for me, as the new UEFI boards are still working out the kinks, or so I hear.

As for the touchscreen thing — it could be nice for helping people troubleshoot or get more out of their PCs, but I don’t think there’s really a big market for it just yet. Observe this powerful Venn diagram:

See? The statistics show very clearly that this Touch BIOS has a hard future ahead of it.

[via HardOCP]

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Gigabyte’s Touch BIOS Makes Changing Memory Timings Fun And Easy

This is what the US economy has been reduced to: McDonalds reports that as part of its employment event to hire 50,000 minimum wage, part-time (mostly) workers, subsequently raised to 62,000 it received a whopping 1 million applications, or a Tim Geithner jealousy inducing 6.2% hit rate (h/t X. Kurt. OSis). Alas, the US economy is now so pathetic that the bulk of the population will settle for anything. Literally anything. And the saddest part: over 938,000 applicants were turned away. Here’s hoping to Burger King needs a few million janitors in the immediate future too. And yes, aside from reality, things in America are really recovering quite nicely.

From Bloomberg:

McDonald’s and its franchisees hired 62,000 people in the U.S. after receiving more than one million applications, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Previously, it said it planned to hire 50,000.

The April 19 national hiring day was the company’s first, said Danya Proud, a McDonald’s spokeswoman. She declined to disclose how many of the jobs were full- versus part-time. McDonald’s employed 400,000 workers worldwide at company-owned stores at the end of 2010, according to a company filing.

Earlier this month, McDonald’s said sales at stores open at least 13 months climbed 2.9 percent in the U.S. after it attracted more diners with items such as beverages and the Chipotle BBQ Bacon Angus burger. The fast-food chain has about 14,000 stores in the U.S. and more than 18,000 abroad. About 80 percent of all McDonald’s stores are franchised.

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McDonalds Hires 62,000, Turns Away Over 938,000 Applicants For Minimum Wage, Part-Time Jobs

For every gadget you can use on land, there has to be one you can use at sea, right? Just in time for yachting season, Amped Wireless released the weatherproof UA600EX High Power Wireless-N 600mW Pro USB Adapter, which promises to extend your notebook’s WiFi range in areas where there are no hotspots to be mooched. That sounds ideal for boating, but thanks to some flexible mounting options and one heavy-duty 26.5-foot cable, it should also come in handy everywhere from offices to RVs. The single-band UA600EX runs on the 2.4GHz spectrum, and although the company stops short of saying just how many feet of leeway you can expect, it does claim to quadruple your computer’s range — whatever that happens to be. If you have a hankering to watch Deadliest Catch on your next fishing trip, you can nab one of these bad boys at the source link for a cool $110.

Continue reading Amped Wireless’ UA600EX adapter quadruples your laptop’s WiFi range when you’re on a boat

Amped Wireless’ UA600EX adapter quadruples your laptop’s WiFi range when you’re on a boat originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“If you look at fecal matter, what is it? It’s carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and minerals -it’s a great source of stuff for doing this.” — Ian Gates, associate professor in chemical engineering at the University of Calgary. He’s working on a method to turn human poop into a source of renewable energy. (Submitterated by hughadam)

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Poop into power

As amazing as human eyes are, other species have developed ways of seeing that will astound you.

Scientists are discovering new structures and adaptations all the time. There are eyes with mirrors, eyes with optical fibres, and eyes with bifocal lenses. There are eyes that see in the dark, move around heads, or go into sleep mode. There are even eyes made of rock. This slideshow will take you on a tour of some of these recent eye-opening discoveries.

Pictured is a box jellyfish, which has 24 eyes of two different types. Link

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The Eyes Have It

Love the moviegoing experience but not the ever-increasing ticket prices? Attend movie screenings and you can watch the films in the theater for free, before they’re released to the public. Here’s how. More