Tag: gesturestart

Volvo plans self-driving cars in 2014, envisions accident-free fleet by 2020.

Long hailed as one of the safest car producers in the world, Volvo hopes to retain that reputation by introducing vehicles that can avoid passenger injuries on their own by the year 2020. Its plans hinge on eliminating the largest cause of road accidents — the drivers themselves. The head of development for the program is convinced that driver-less cars are the future and that Volvo will be the first one there. The main technology underpinning Volvo’s autonomous automobiles is wireless internet, which would enable each car to be assigned a certain point on the road and give different vehicles the ability to interact with each other. The company is preparing to release an initial batch of autonomous vehicles, capable of speeds of up to 31 miles per hour, in 2014. We know from the SARTRE project that the automaker has been able to achieve autonomous speeds of 53 miles per hour in traffic for long distances, though they aren’t disclosing when those higher-speed prototypes would be publicly available. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Autopia (Wired) Source: Driver’s Seat (WSJ)

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Volvo plans self-driving cars in 2014, envisions accident-free fleet by 2020.

Microsoft Office 2013 now available to businesses, wide release still set for Q1 2013

Right on time , businesses with the inside track to Microsoft’s account team and partner program can now snag the latest version of Redmond’s content production software suite, Office 2013 . What’s that? You’ve got the hook up, but you were also hoping for Exchange Server 2013, Lync Server 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, Project 2013, and Vision 2013? You’ll be happy to hear that those are also available today — the already announced “first quarter 2013” release window for Office 2013 stands, when it’ll become widely available both digitally and at direct retailers. The big update to Office this time around comes in the form of Windows 8-style visuals and cloud-based saves using Microsoft’s SkyDrive service. We’ve got a full hands-on right here if you’d like to learn more ahead of next year’s big launch. Filed under: Desktops , Internet , Software , Microsoft Comments Via: WinSupersite Source: Microsoft

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Microsoft Office 2013 now available to businesses, wide release still set for Q1 2013

Hacker group rewriting Tumblr pages into a racist, anti-gay screed (update: Tumblr says it’s fixed)

Some Tumblr users are seeing their pages replaced with several dozen duplicate posts from a known hacker group, warning that deleting said message will delete the Tumblr page in question (it’s unclear if this is actually true, but seems to be false in our testing). Tumblr confirmed the ongoing issue to us this morning, and warned users who’ve seen the message to “please log out of all browsers that may be using Tumblr,” as that’s one way the “viral post” is being spread. The message from the group is aimed at the wide world of “bloggers,” and insists Tumblr users should take their own lives. Tumblr says its team is “working to resolve the issue as swiftly as possible,” though there is no timeline for when it’ll be fixed. In the meantime, we suggest changing your Tumblr password (though there’s no indication that passwords were necessarily taken, or any other personal information) and staying away from the site until the all clear is given. Thus far, it doesn’t seem that any previously written posts have been deleted, but simply pushed dramatically far down the timeline by a deluge of duplicate posts. We’ll update this post as we learn more. Update: A Tumblr rep tells us, “Tumblr engineers have resolved the issue of the viral post attack that affected a few thousand Tumblr blogs earlier today.” The sites we were seeing affected earlier seem to have returned to normal. Filed under: Networking , Internet , Software , Mobile Comments Source: GNAA.eu

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Hacker group rewriting Tumblr pages into a racist, anti-gay screed (update: Tumblr says it’s fixed)

Microsoft confirms Surface with Windows 8 Pro pricing: starting at $899 for 64GB version, shipping in January

Details on the Pro variety of Microsoft’s Surface tablet have been hard to come by since the company first announced it back in June , but it’s filled in some big ones today. It’s confirmed in a blog post that the device will start at $899 for the 64GB model, with the 128GB version setting you back $999. Both of those are what’s Microsoft’s dubbing the “standalone” model, which means you’ll get a Surface pen/stylus, but have to shell out extra for a Touch or Type Cover (each over $100). Both will be available in January, although there’s no specific date or word on pre-orders yet. As you can see, the device looks similar to the Surface RT , including the same “VaporMg” casing and built-in kickstand, and it also boasts a 10.6-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio. A key difference with that latter bit, though, is that the screen packs a full 1920 x 1080 resolution as opposed to the 1366 x 768 found on the RT model. You’ll also get a third-gen Core i5 processor with Intel HD Graphics 4000 (no more specifics on that just yet), 4GB of RAM, a Mini DisplayPort that can output a 2560 x 1440 resolution, a full-size USB 3.0 port and, of course, Windows 8 Pro with support for all your traditional desktop applications. All that expectedly makes the tablet itself a bit heftier than its RT-based counterpart — it’s just over half-an-inch thick and weighs in at two pounds on the nose. Update: The spec list confirmed that the Surface Pro will have a 42 W-h battery, but Microsoft has now also expanded on that in a tweet , saying that the device is expected to “have approximately half the battery life of Surface with Windows RT.” Based on our testing of the RT version, that should translate to just over four-and-a-half hours. Filed under: Tablets , Microsoft Comments Source: Official Microsoft Blog , Microsoft

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Microsoft confirms Surface with Windows 8 Pro pricing: starting at $899 for 64GB version, shipping in January

Japan unveils prototype of new maglev train, promises speeds of up to 311 mph

More than a year after the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tokai) received construction approval to get going on its maglev railways, it has finally unveiled a Series L0 prototype that would put its current bullet train system to shame. Designed to travel at 311 mph, a single one of these high-speed marvels is designed to carry about 16 carriages, which translates to about 1,000 commuters. While Japanese travelers already enjoy a speedy 90-minute trip from Tokyo to Nagoya, this new maglev system promises to cut that journey to just 40 minutes. Announced nearly five years ago , the project has since been extended to include an Osaka-Tokyo leg and will cost around nine trillion yen (approximately $112 billion) when all is said and done. Don’t pack your bags just yet though; the maglev’s Nagoya rail isn’t scheduled to go live until 2027, and the boarding call for Osaka isn’t until 2045. Of course, if you need to ride electromagnetic rails now , there’s always China’s Shanghai Transrapid, which has been ferrying passengers to and fro the Pudong airport since 2004 — it once reached speeds of 501km/h (311mph). China’s even planning a whopping 1,000 km/h vacuum-tube maglev train in just a year or so. Of course, those of us on the other end of the Pacific are still waiting for that long-delayed California-Nevada maglev project to work out. Sigh. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Inhabitat Source: Phys.org

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Japan unveils prototype of new maglev train, promises speeds of up to 311 mph

MediaPortal posts 2.0 alpha media hub and new remote apps, teases 1.3 beta with Titan

Home theater PC owners only just recovering from their turkey or tofu comas will have some updating to do — MediaPortal has been busy. The experimenters among us will most likely want to jump straight into the promised MediaPortal 2.0 Alpha Autumn , which carries new visual layouts and video backgrounds, a news plug-in and a party-friendly music player. New versions of remote tools like aMPdroid, MPExtended, WebMediaPortal and WifiRemote bring their own slew of upgrades, such as HTTP Live Streaming in MPExtended or a “what’s new” interface in aMPdroid. We’ll readily admit that our eye is most drawn to the yet-to-be-launched MediaPortal 1.3 beta’s addition of the Titan skin you see up above: going beyond what we saw in October, the extra-polished look goes a long way towards accommodating newcomers and the style-conscious. We’re still waiting on publicly accessible 1.3 beta code, but everything else is waiting for open-source media hubs at the included links. Filed under: Cellphones , Home Entertainment , Software , HD Comments Via: Missing Remote Source: MediaPortal (1) , (2) , (3)

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MediaPortal posts 2.0 alpha media hub and new remote apps, teases 1.3 beta with Titan

Hybrid 3D printer could fast-track cartilage implants

Most of the attention surrounding 3D printers in medicine has focused on patching up our outsides, whether it’s making skin to heal wounds or restoring the use of limbs . The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine has just detailed a technique that could go considerably deeper. By mixing natural gel put through an inkjet printer with thin and porous polymer threads coming from an electrospinner, researchers have generated constructs that could be ideal for cartilage implants: they encourage cell growth in and around an implant while remaining durable enough to survive real-world abuse. Early tests have been confined to the lab, but the institute pictures a day when doctors can scan a body part to produce an implant that’s a good match. If the method is ultimately refined for hospital use, patients could recover from joint injuries faster or more completely — and 3D printers could become that much more integral to health care. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: Gizmag Source: Institute of Physics

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Hybrid 3D printer could fast-track cartilage implants

Google Now awarded Popular Science’s Innovation of the Year

Popular Science has given Google Now its “Innovation of the Year” award, putting it alongside past winners like the Large Hadron Collider , the Toyota Prius and the Mars Curiosity Rover . It’s august company to be sure, and the reasoning behind the decision is that it’s “the first virtual assistant that truly anticipates your needs.” The service has grown quite a bit since its initial launch — from personalized recommendations to public safety alerts and the addition of a pedometer , it seems that these are early days yet for the context- and location-aware app. Hit the Android G+ source link to read a Q&A between PopSci and part of the Google Now team to get some behind-the-scenes insight of the award-winning service. Filed under: Cellphones , Internet , Google Comments Source: Android (Google+) , Popular Science

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Google Now awarded Popular Science’s Innovation of the Year

Researchers stumble onto ‘lava’ generated quantum dots, could power future peripherals

Have you ever been playing around with molten metal salt, when you accidentally created hollow, soft-shelled particles that could one day increase hard disk storage or power future QLED displays ? Us neither, but that’s exactly what happened to scientists at Rice University when they were researching “tetrapods” to make solar panels more efficient. Through an apparently wacky coincidence, they removed a single ingredient from the tetrapod stew, which left behind tiny droplets of cadmium nitrate. Selenium then melted around those drops, which completely dissolved away, leaving a melted selenium ball with a hole in the middle. It turns out that those selenium “doughnuts” can be packed tightly onto a metal surface without touching, thanks to their soft shells, which could allow more bits to be packed onto a hard drive, or be used in quantum computers and next-gen displays. Since the dots are smaller than a living cell, it took the researchers an entire year to figure out what they’d made and how they did it — luckily they didn’t just bin the whole thing and start over. Filed under: Displays , Storage , Science , Alt Comments Via: Extreme Tech Source: IOP Science

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Researchers stumble onto ‘lava’ generated quantum dots, could power future peripherals

Recon updates its HUD tech, adds new view modes to MOD Live

Heads-up MOD Live lovers: Recon’s ready to update that ski slope tech with a fresher look. Available now on the company’s dedicated Engage site, is a software package that enhances the goggle’s current feature set with the addition of three view modes. Leveraging the unit’s inbuilt GPS, the new Radar setting allows users to gain more accurate positioning info, keep close tabs on fellow skiers, as well as access interactive resort maps. Users keen on a more up-close look at the surrounding slopes can shift into Perspective mode, which handily tracks head orientation. And lastly, for a pared-down experience, there’s a compass overlay that provides users with a more “traditional” means of navigation. If you haven’t already jump started your HUD-infused mask with this latest OS, you can head to the source below to get started. Continue reading Recon updates its HUD tech, adds new view modes to MOD Live Filed under: Wearables , Software Comments

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Recon updates its HUD tech, adds new view modes to MOD Live