Tech Today w/ Ken May

“This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System’s innermost planet.” (NASA)

Read the original:
First image from Mercury orbit

You’ve probably heard a lot about Firefox 4’s new interface, speed, and feature improvements, but many of you have already left it for Chrome. Here’s why Firefox’s newest version is worth another look, even if you’re a diehard Chrome user. More

National Geographic won a journalism graphics award for an amazing interactive map showing where fresh water comes from on Earth. This is just a taste of what you can find if you visit the map, which shows locations of glaciers, rivers, aquifers, and more. In this part of the map, you can see where groundwater is – and find out that it’s not being recharged fast enough to meet local demands. More

Last year’s problem was a complete lack of standards on active shutter 3D glasses but now we might have too many, as Panasonic and Xpand have joined forces with several other companies to push M-3DI as a single spec for TVs, computers and theaters. Initial plans for the spec cover only IR sync, with the RF Bluetooth technology included on many 2011 3DTV models (Samsung and Sony are notably missing from the list of participants) to “be considered” for the next step. We’ll wait to see some cooperation between this alignment (full list of supporters in the press release after the break) RealD and the CEA’s 3D Technologies Working Group — which, probably not coincidentally is expecting proposals by the end of this month — before believing the current 3D glasses mess will be resolved.

Continue reading Panasonic, Xpand team up on M-3DI standard for active shutter glasses at home and in theaters

Panasonic, Xpand team up on M-3DI standard for active shutter glasses at home and in theaters originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re seeing NFC chips showing up and tickling the innards of more and more mobile devices, but at this rate it’s going to be ages before we see some proper market penetration. Gemalto may have just jump-started that process with a new NFC on a SIM card design that’s certified by MasterCard PayPass. It’s similar to the company’s Zuckerberg on a SIM project we heard about last month, but this time it’s wirelessly paying for a drink and not wirelessly telling your friends how much you just had to drink. This means near-field wireless payments could be brought to nearly every GSM phone on the planet, also allowing for secure on-device transactions, like adding more minutes to a pre-paid phone. This is said to be the beginning of a “mass commercial roll out,” giving us reason to hope that soon forgetting our wallets at home will be a feature and not a bug.

Continue reading Gemalto bringing NFC payments to phones of any intelligence with MasterCard PayPass SIM

Gemalto bringing NFC payments to phones of any intelligence with MasterCard PayPass SIM originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The other day I was way from home and my house alarm went off. I couldn’t get home to check it and it was driving me nuts. Thankfully a family member was nearby and was able to go check on the house for me. But this got me thinking, if it happens again, what’s the easiest way for me to check on what’s going on without waiting for a neighbor or the alarm company to check it out. I had a couple of webcams, a computer, and my iPhone. I thought, surely I can figure out a way to use these to see whats going on at home from wherever I am. Here’s what I came up with. More

The United States Navy has been working on next-gen weaponry ever since the last-gen was present-gen, and if the next next-gen ever actually arrives, well… we don’t stand a chance at lasting very long. According to Wired, the Navy’s Office of Naval Research is expecting laser technology (as it relates to weaponry) to mature in the next score, and if all goes well, a free-electron laser could be mounted on a ship during the 2020s. As of now, FELs produce a 14-kilowatt beam, but that figure needs to hit 100+ in order to seriously defend a ship; unfortunately for those who adore peace, it seems we’re well on our way to having just that. When it’s complete, these outrageous pieces of artillery will be capable of “burning incoming missiles out of the sky [and] zapping through an enemy vessel’s hull.” Something tells us that whole “You Sunk My Battleship” meme is just years from reappearing in grand fashion.

Future Navy lasers will ‘burn incoming missiles,’ blast through ominous vessels originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We can hear the light and feel it in our hearts. It’s not just terrible poetry – it might be fact. Scientists have shown that infrared light can stimulate the muscles in your heart and inner ear. More

We can hear the light and feel it in our hearts. It’s not just terrible poetry – it might be fact. Scientists have shown that infrared light can stimulate the muscles in your heart and inner ear. More

We can hear the light and feel it in our hearts. It’s not just terrible poetry – it might be fact. Scientists have shown that infrared light can stimulate the muscles in your heart and inner ear. More