Samsung Drops Prices for Google Chromebooks

Chromebooks went for sale in June and in this short period of time, Samsung has already dropped the price of their Google Chrome OS laptops by as much as 10%.

The Wi-Fi only Series 5 Chromebook is now selling for $399.99, down from $429.99, while the 3G + Wi-Fi Chromebook is available for $449.99, down 10% from the original $499.99. The prices for Acer Chromebooks are however unchanged.

While a price drop is always welcome, I am still not convinced why would anyone prefer a stripped-down Chrome OS based laptop over these netbooks that are much more versatile.

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Generate Strong Passwords with Wolfram

Wolfram Alpha – an online engine that in some respects is more powerful than Google – can also be used for generating strong and unique passwords for your various online accounts.

To get started, go to the wolframalpha.com website and type a natural-language query like password of n characters to create your unique password (n is the length of the password).

Unlike other password generators, Wolfram Alpha offers a phonetic form for every password to make it a bit easier for you to memorize that complex string. It also shows the time it would take for a computer to break that particular password.

While the default settings in Wolfram are good enough to create strong passwords, you may also provide specific password rules like whether the password should have special characters, should every character be different, are number allowed and so on. Useful!

Also see: Keep Your Passwords Safe on a Piece of Paper

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A Better Way to Translate Office Documents

There are several easy ways by which you can translate your Microsoft Office documents or PDF files from one language to another.

For instance, you may upload documents to the Google Translation website, select the language translation pair and hit the Translate button. Then there’s the Translator Toolkit, also from the Google stable, where you may not only translate documents but also edit the translated material. Microsoft also offers a free utility that brings translation capabilities right into all your existing Office programs (including Outlook emails).

There’s however a limitation you should be aware of. While the Google Translate website makes it a one-click affair to translate lengthy documents, it doesn’t preserve the formatting of your documents /presentations and turns them into almost plain-text after the translation.

If you want your translated documents to look just like the original as far as formatting is concerned, give DocTranslator a try. The user interface is horrible but the tool is pretty useful. You upload a document, select a target language and within a minute or so, it will translate all the text of that document in the required language while preserving the document formatting.

To give an example, here’s the original document in English and the translated document in Hindi. If you compare the two, only the text has changed while all the styles are preserved. DocTranslater internally uses Google Translate itself and hence supports all language-pairs that are supported by Google Translate.

You may use the tool to translate PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, video sub-titles, OpenOffice documents and plain text files. Here’s a video demo of the translation tool in action.

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HTTPS and VPN Explained in Simple English

You know that HTTPS (Secure HTTP) and VPN (Virtual Private Network) are a more secure way to browse the web but what exactly happens behind the scenes when you use either of these options? Why do you need to use a VPN when you have already turned on HTTPS?

The Privacy Team at Google has recently added a couple of short and useful videos to YouTube that try to explain technical jargon like HTTPS, VPN, WPA (for secure Wi-Fi) in simple English and why these are important. Take a look.

HTTPS in Simple English

VPN in Simple English

The basic idea is that you encrypt traffic between your computer and the web server so that eavesdroppers cannot see any of that information. HTTPS will only encrypt traffic between your browser and a particular website while VPN will encrypt all traffic between your computer and the Internet.

Related: How to Create a Virtual Private Network for Free

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Enhance your Website Images with Rich Tooltips

Web designers have long used image maps in HTML to link different areas of an image to different web pages. For instance, what you see above is a single image of some well-known people and if you click on any of the faces, you’ll be transported to their respective sites.

Larry’s image links to his Wikipedia entry, Sergey’s face will take you to one of his video lectures on YouTube while Eric’s image is linked to his Twitter account. One image but with multiple links and all pointing in different directions. The previous chart, illustrating the most disliked videos on YouTube, also uses an Image Map.

Image Maps are useful and easy to implement but have certain drawbacks.

You don’t get any clues about the page that an image area is linking to until you actually click the link. The other downside is that you need to hover your mouse over the full image in order to to identify which parts of that image are clickable.

Now let’s try something different. I have embedded the same collage below but instead of using HTML based Image Maps, it uses Thinglink, an online tool  that makes your static web images interactive with rich tooltips. Hover your mouse for a quick demo:

Like an Image Map, you define an area on the image that you would like to link to the other site. In Thinglink’s jargon, these are known as hotspots. When users hover on any of these hotspots, they can see the linked content, or portions of it, in the tool tip itself.

If you are linking an hotspot to a YouTube video or an MP3 song, visitors can enjoy the media on the image itself without leaving your page. If the link is pointing to a Wikipedia page, they get to read an excerpt of the page inside the tooltip. If it’s a book on Amazon, the thumbnail and price would display in the preview.

There are other interesting uses as well. For instance, you can create an annotated illustration /diagram and users can learn in detail about the different parts of the image by simply hovering the mouse. If you are sharing a route map, you can use these interactive hotspots to explain the route in detail with text and rich-media tooltips.

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A Trillion Pageviews for Facebook

Google today released an updated list of the most-visited sites on the web and it should not come as any surprise that Facebook takes the top spot with 870 million uniques. YouTube and Yahoo are next with 790 M and 590 M uniques respectively.

Google, maybe for competitive reasons, doesn’t share traffic data of its own site, or that of Gmail, in the Ad Planner report. Google+ is growing but the user base is still relatively small for the site to become part of this report.

A Trillion Page Views

Facebook hit a new milestone in June this year - the site touched a trillion page views from the 870 million* people who visited Facebook that month. Check this infographic to get an idea of how big a trillion – or a million million – is.

[*] Officially, Facebook has 750+ million users but the number of unique visitors who flock Facebook every month is much higher because certain section of the site – Facebook Pages and Profiles for example – are open to non-users as well.

Facebook says that people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on the site and now we also know that, on an average, one user visits 1150 pages on Facebook in a month. That’s impressive considering that YouTube, with all the entertaining and viral content, manages only 126 views per unique visitor per month.

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How to Prevents Kids from Purchasing Apps?

The one-click purchase option available in your iPad or iPhone makes it convenient for you to buy new apps from the iTunes App Store with a single tap but at the same time, if you have kids at home, the one-click option can spike your iTunes bill as well.

To give you an example, if you have just bought an app – say a car racing game - from the iTunes Store at the request of your child, she can easily buy any other game /app from the App store in the next 5-10 minutes without even knowing your Apple ID or password.

There are however certain easy options which you may implement to restrict kids from buying paid apps /games on your iPhone /iPad without your approval.

Option A: Hide the App Store Icon

This is the most common approach to prevent children from making unintended purchases.

Go to your iOS device Settings –> General –> Restrictions and tap Enable Restrictions. Enter a four-digit passcode and then turn on restrictions for “Installing Apps” and “In-App purchases”  (the slider should say OFF).

This will remove the App Store icon from your iOS home screen and thus kids won’t be able to buy anything from the store. If you have to buy an app later, you need to go back to the Setting page and disable restrictions for “Installing Apps.”

Option B: Open another iTunes account for Kids

The above option will keep your credit card safe but its like going too far to fix a simple problem. The App store has tons of great apps - some of them are available are free - but if you enable restrictions, the kids will miss an opportunity to explore them as well.

Here’s another approach that you may try and it should also keep the kids happy – create a second iTunes account but this time, do not associate any credit card with this account. Share the credentials of this account with your kids and let them use it to download any free app, or game, from the iTunes store on their own.

If ever they want to download a paid app from the App Store, you can log in to the iTunes App store with your own Apple ID and send the app as a “gift” to your kid’s Apple ID. Simple

If you have a common iPhone /iPad that you share with kids and everyone else in the family, you can still associate the same device with multiple Apple IDs - the main ID that you use for regular iTunes purchases and other one that you created for kids. You can then go to device Settings –> Store -> Apple ID to switch to a different one.

Related reading:

  1. How to create an Apple ID with a Credit Card
2. How to Get Refunds for your iTunes Store Purchases
3. How to Install Apps from Another Country's iTunes Store

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File a DMCA Complaint with the help of Google Docs

The moment you publish a new article on your website or blog, the “web scraping” bots around the world will spring into action. They’ll copy your articles to publish them on other websites and the fact that you syndicate content through RSS feeds makes their “copy-paste” job even simpler.

These bots are often lazy – they would rarely modify your articles before republishing them – and thus it becomes very easy for you as well to identify the sites that are using your content without permission. For instance, I add a line “This story was originally published at Digital Inspiration” to the feed and thus a quick Google search can reveal the names of sites that are possibly copying my stories.

The easiest way to deal with online plagiarism is that you send a DMCA notice to search engines, the web hosting provider and the advertising partners (like AdSense) of the offending site. Google Search requires you to fax the DMCA notices, AdSense offers an online form while most web hosts accept DMCA over e-mail.

Find Copies of your Work with Google Docs

It is pretty easy to write a DMCA complaint but there’s one section in the form that may involve a little effort – you need to provide a list of URLs of pages that “allegedly contain infringing material” and also the corresponding URLs that contain the original work.

If you have been looking for a tool that can automatically generate this list for you, take a peek at this Google Docs Sheet. Make sure you are signed in with your Google Account and the use File -> Make a copy to create your own working copy of the Google Sheet. Then put in your site’s RSS feed URL in the Cell B3 and the URL of offending site in Cell B4 and the sheet will create the data you need for the DMCA.

What happens behind the scenes

Here’s how the above Google Docs sheet work - it take your RSS feed and determines the title and the URL of your 10 recently published stories using the ImportFeed function.

The sheet then runs a separate Google Search for each of the 10 stories to determine if a story with the same title exists on the offending site. If a copy is found, the URL of that page is extracted from Google Search using XPath and ImportXML as shown below.

=ImportXML(CONCATENATE("http://www.google.com/search?q=intitle:%22", A6, "%22 site:", $B$4), "//a[@class='l']/@href")

If you are getting an N/A for some fields, it either indicates that the particular story was not found on the offending site or it could be temporary problem with Google search as well.

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The Highest Paying Keywords in Online Advertising

Do you know what kind of money advertisers are willing to spend on Google AdWords to reach out to potential customers? Well you may be a bit surprised to learn that CPC rates, or the amount that an advertiser pays to Google if a search user clicks on an ad once, can as high as $55 in certain categories.

WordStream, an online marketing company, analyzed the most expensive keyword categories for online advertising and found that keywords related to Insurance, Loans, Mortgage, Attorneys and Credit were the most expensive with advertising costs ranging between $55-$45 per click.

In the tech domain, the high-paying keywords are around web hosting, conference call services, CRM / help-desk software and data recovery software.

The advertising rates for such niches are so high for two reasons – there’s plenty of competition among advertisers so they have to bid higher to outbid the other and second, the return after winning a customer is extremely high.

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Drive a Car Anywhere in the World on Google Maps

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to drive a car on the congested streets of lower Manhattan in Now York or the scenic Transfagara?an road in Romania?

Meet Mini Maps, a Google Maps based Flash mashup that lets you drive a car virtually anywhere in the world using the controls on the keyboard. Simply select a location on Google Maps – you can either type the address or choose a point on the map visually – and hit the car accelerator (the up arrow key) to start moving.

Unlike the other Google Maps based car-driving games, Mini Maps is smart enough to recognize the terrain and the roads in your driving area and adds virtual boundaries on either sides of the road as you drive. If the area you’ve selected for driving is too dark, the car headlights will turn on automatically or your can press the “N” key to turn-off the night mode.

There’s more. You can create your own track on Google Maps by clicking at different points on the map or you can invite your other Facebook friends to Mini Map for a quick game of car racing. The stuff is very nicely done and can be addictive!

See the other Google Games.

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How to Add Speech Recognition to your Website

Your website pages probably contain a few text fields that require user input. For instance, your site may have a search box where people type in search queries, a comment form (commonly found in blogs) while some sites have a contact form that visitors can use to quickly send a message to the author /webmaster.

The visitors to your website currently need to use the keyboard to enter text in the various input fields but wouldn’t it be nice if you could also offer them an alternate form of input where they can just speak instead of typing?

Well all you need to do is add an extra word – highlighted in red - to your existing search code and your site will able to accept voice based input.

Try a live demo - click the microphone icon, speak and hit enter:

You may also find a live speech-enabled search box on the site’s homepage. When you are done speaking, the audio is sent to Google servers where it gets transcribed and delivered as plain text.

Currently, only Google Chrome supports the HTML speech input API and thus, the microphone icon will only be visible to users who are accessing your site through Chrome. If they are using a different browser, they’ll see the standard search box.

The speech input attribute that does all the magic - x-webkit-speech - works with fields only but there’s an easy workaround that will help you enable voice support for any other text field the tag.</P><STRONG>Speech input for textarea - click the microphone icon and talk: </STRONG> The code looks something like this:<script type="text/javascript"> function transcribe(words) { document.getElementById("speech").value = words; document.getElementById("mic").value = ""; document.getElementById("speech").focus(); }</script><textarea cols="50" id="speech" >

Internally, when you click the microphone icon and speak, the transcribed text still goes into the field but with the help of a JavaScript function, a copy of that text is instantly sent to the textarea as well.

The above trick will come handy in case you wish to voice-enable the comment form or the email form of your website that accept long-form text.

Also see: Added Google Instant Pages to your Website

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Yahoo! Brings Full-Length Bollywood Movies to your Computer Screen

A few months ago, YouTube India launched a new box office channel where one can watch popular movies from the Indian cinema every month. YouTube already had a huge library of Hindi and regional films online but the box office channel is more about showcasing the blockbuster hits.

Now Yahoo! is also getting into the online movie business in India.

They have introduced a new service called MoviePlex where you can enjoy full-length Bollywood movies on your computer screen anytime, anywhere. The movie collection at this is limited but does include some popular titles.

Unlike YouTube which streams movies in both standard and HD resolutions, the movies on Yahoo! are currently available only in SD. Also, Yahoo! uses Flash Video and thus you cannot watch the movies on iPad or other devices that do not support the Flash Player.

The movies on Yahoo! India are currently available for free and there are no in-stream ads to interrupt your experiences. I however doubt if people outside India can watch these movies.

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Deadline for PayPal Users in India to Update their Accounts

Ever since the Indian Government /RBI restricted the operations of PayPal in India, it became mandatory for PayPal users in India to provide bank account details and their income tax number (PAN) before they could receive payments or withdraw money from PayPal.

If you are using PayPal in India and haven’t provided these required account details to PayPal yet, you should do so now because today – August 22 – is the last date.

Your account will continue to remain active but you will neither be able to receive payments into your PayPal account nor can you withdraw money from PayPal to your local bank in India if the Purpose Code, PAN and bank account details aren’t available with PayPal.

One more thing. The RBI rules require that PayPal users do not maintain any balance in their online account and that all money received into PayPal must be transferred to an Indian bank within 7 days.

To comply with this rule, PayPal had added an ‘auto-withdrawal’ feature that you can enable and the money will automatically get transferred from your PayPal account into your bank account in India. You can access the setting under My Account –> Profile –> Bank Account.

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How to Remove Passwords from your PDF Files

You have a bunch of PDF files on your computer that are protected by a long and complex password. You know the passwords but it still feels inconvenient and boring typing them each time you have to open a PDF file.

Is there a tool available that can remove password protection from PDF files? Someone asked me this question on Twitter the other day and the answer is obviously yes.

There’s a free Windows utility called BeCyPDFMetaEdit that can help you remove passwords from PDF files* but without make any other change to the document. (I am not sure why the developers picked such a complex name for this useful utility).

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Launch the program and it will ask your for the location of the PDF file.

2. Before you select and open the PDF, change the mode to “Complete Rewrite.”

3. Switch to the Security tab and set the “Security System” to “No encryption.” Click the Save button and your PDF will no longer require a password to open.

[*] If you would like to test this tool but do not have a password-protected file, use this sample PDF (the password is labnol).

For more tips, check this detailed guide on PDF tools.

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The Best Tools for Taking Wikipedia Offline

Would you like to download the entire Wikipedia on your computer or mobile phone for offline reading? Well, here are some good options to consider.

Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia, offers downloadable copies (or database dumps) of all its wikis that one can download and thus access the entire Wikipedia content on computers that are not connected to the Internet.

The database dumps are frequently updated and include every single article that’s available on the main Wikipedia website. The dumps are available as .xml.bz2 files that you can easily open on your computer using the free and portable WikiTaxi software.

WikiTaxi ships with an importer that will first uncompress the Wikipedia database files (.bz2) and then converts them into a .taxi file format. Now you open these .taxi files inside WikiTaxi just like the way you open .doc files inside Microsoft Word and, if you are running low on space, the original Wikipedia dumps may be safely discarded.

A good alternative to WikiTaxi is Kiwix – this is also free software and available for Mac, Windows and Linux systems. You first install the Kiwix software on your computer and then download one of the Wikipedia editions – the articles are packaged as .zim files that’ll open directly inside Kiwix without requiring any conversion.

Kiwix is definitely easier to use than WikiTaxi and that packaged .zim files can read across all popular platforms but the downside is that, unlike the database dumps used by WikiTaxi, the .zim files aren’t very frequently updated. Also, the zim package for English Wikipedia doesn’t include every article though the packages for other languages are complete.

If you have an iOS device – like the iPhone, iPad or iPad Touch – you may grab the excellent Wiki Offline app and carry all the Wikipedia articles in your pocket. The app renders Wikipedia articles in a beautiful interface and supports tabbed browsing so you can open multiple articles side by side. Wiki Offline is also available in the Mac App Store for your Mac OS X.

The other option for using Wikipedia offline is WikiReader – this is a 3.5” monochrome device with a capacitive touch screen and contains over 3 million Wikipedia articles. The  updates to Wikipedia articles are released every quarter – you can update the device by connecting it to your computer – or you opt to receive updates on SD cards.

The WikiReader device costs  $99 and though I haven’t tried it myself, it did get a huge thumbs-up from Ars Technica. You definitely don’t need this if you carry a smart phone that is always connected to the Internet but could be a good reference tool for the rest of us with an impressive battery life – much like the Kindle.

Finally, if all you want to do is download a handful of Wikipedia articles for offline reading, use the built-in book creator that turns multiple pages from Wikipedia into a PDF book.

Also see: Wikipedia Tools & Resources

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Keep your Mobile Phone Safe at a Public Charging Station

This is not an uncommon problem. Your cell-phone is running out of battery, you need to make an urgent call but left the charger at home. What do you do next?

If you are at an airport or a shopping mall, it is not that big a problem because these places often have charging stations installed that can be used to charge the battery of almost any mobile phone. It doesn’t matter whether your phone requires a Micro-USB connector, a Mini-USB or a 2mm charger, the kiosk will have a suitable charging port for you.

Mobile charging stations are convenient but at the same time, there’s a level of security risk associate with them.

Security researchers have warned that public charging stations may be configured to upload malware on your phone and, at the same time, data can also be downloaded from the mobile phone while the battery is getting charged.

There are basically two ways to charge a mobile phone’s battery. You can either use a power cord that plugs directly into an electric outlet or you can use a USB based charger that draws power from a computer’s USB port. If a charging station internally uses the latter option, it may put your phone data at risk.

It is however relatively simple to keep your phone secure even while charging it at a public kiosk. Just remember to power off your phone completely before connecting it to the charging station and you should be safe.

The mobile charging stations installed at airports can be considered safe but the same may not always be true for other public kiosks that are operated by unknown people. If you have no option but to use such kiosks, do turn off the phone first.

Also see: Visual Guide to Computer Cables

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Measure All Sorts Of Things With Smart String Tape Measure

What happens when a pocket calculator and a tae measure have a baby? Why, a Smart String Tape Measure. By the way, that’s the name of the product: Smart String. It’s basically a tape measure for passionate handymen who need precise figures in their work. Powered by a couple of lithium batteries, the Smart String is a compact tool that also bothers with calculating measurements.

Other than that, its 50 feet of string can handle 20 pounds of weight. It’s also ideal for construction and other labor intensive activities where precision is the crucial factor that determines the success of the work done. That, and utility.

It’s also fantastic for people who want to dispose of those age old yellow tape measures and go high tech. The Smart String looks perfect for measuring your waist, especially during those times when your pants are getting tighter and there’s the dread prospect of having to go on a diet. Who likes dieting? Actually dieting is good for you. Go diet.

An excellent gadget for grocers, carpenters, people who work with their hands in general, and the weight conscious, the Smart String isn’t the bleeding edge of innovation but it’s really useful.

It’s currently selling for $11.99.

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Believe It Or Not, Eraser Pencil Revolutionizes Pencils

The problem is it’s still a concept and as concepts go, chance of success via ultimate production are slim. The person behind this ever so simple re-imagining of the humble pencil is Deuk Young Lee. The whole point is to completely remove the cedar covering part of the average pencil and replace it with the same material as an eraser instead. The result is a high-performance writing tool that maximizes the capacity for correction and improvement.

While pencils are still in vogue for standardized tests and a lot of other academic nonsense, the old-school yellow-painted variety did have a few timeless merits. Its covering, for example, protected the brittle graphite core from stress. If this Eraser Pencil is not hard enough, the very material itself could damage the pencil from within. Sharpening this type of pencil could also prove difficult.

Of course, if this ever enters mass production we doubt it will keep the proles from familiar bad habits. Life is full of unpleasantness and there’s no end to people sticking a pencil inside their noses, ears, or nibbling at it. At least this fresh concept makes sure it packs serious erasing power.

Source Oh Gizmo

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Thrustmaster Launches TH8 RS Shifter for T500 RS Racing Wheel

Last December Thrustmaster launched one of the coolest racing wheels in its line up for the PS3 called the T500 RS racing wheel. The one major thing that wheel lacked when it launched was a gear shifter, which the high-end Logitech wheels offer. Thrustmaster has now launched a shifter just for that racing wheel.

The shifter is called the TH8 RS and it has two modes it will operate in. It can be put into a sequential mode where the user can push up and down to shift. It also has a gated shift mode with seven gears and reverse that the driver can use.

The shifter has a clamp on the bottom that will hold it to a desk or table from 1 to 55mm thick. It also has screw-in threads for mounting to racing cockpits. The shifter will be available in October and only works with the PS3 and compatible games.

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Parasound Zphono USB Preamplifier Helps Turn Old Vinyl and More into Digital Tracks

If you have a big collection of music on vinyl records, cassette tapes, or CDs that you want to get onto your digital audio player easily, but with great quality the Zphono USB is the product. This thing is a preamplifier that has been designed to connect to your PC via USB and allow for analog to digital music conversion. The device has an A-D converter and will work with Mac and PC computers.

It works with your recording software and has RIAA equalization for sound quality and special noise reducing circuits. It has a USB gain and a clipping indicator to help set levels for the best signal to noise ratio. The back of the device has a bunch of inputs for various phono cartridges.

The device also has dual stereo line level inputs and supports MM-47 k, MC-47 k or MC-100 cartridges. The device also has dual power and analog power transformers to reduce hum. There is a headphone output on the rear as well. Shipping will start the first week of September for $350.

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Microsoft Unveils Un-Photogenic Patty Stress Test Robot

In what would amount as a historic occasion over at Microsoft Surface HQ, a team member officially blogged about Patty. There’s even a video of it in action. Wait, who’s Patty? Patty is a wonderful robot that conducts stress tests on the screens of Microsoft Surface units. See, with lots of touching and pressure involved when using a platform like the Surface, it’s important that the exterior can withstand the wear and tear.

Unfortunately due to repeated technical errors, a full embed is not possible at this time. For best results, open the source link down south for the good stuff.

Okay, all it shows is Patty going about her work. Not exactly a Michael Bay epic in the vein of those awful Transformers sequels, but certainly a rare glimpse into a real live machine. This reminds us of a recent development over at Foxconn, the Chinese company that’s the world’s leading maker of electronic gadgets: apparently a large percentage of the workforce will be replaced by robots. That would be interesting to see.

In the accompanying brief blog post, the author hinted at the Squiddy, which is another testing device kept under wraps at the moment. Though watching a robot at work is fascinating, we do lament the fact that robots are still pure function these days. When will form be as important? In other words, when can robots start getting sexy? After all, they’ll be part of our everyday lives in a matter of years.

Source Microsoft Square blog

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Smiley Face Ring Is A Not-So-Subtle Fashion Cue

Created by Chao & Eero Jewel, the smiley face ring is what would be deemed a neutral fashion accessory. It caters to neither sexes but fits both male and female wearers. As seen in the picture below, the ring forms a smiley face on the finger it’s worn on. Not sure if it’ll also leave a smiley face on the person you decide to punch.

Apparently, as most pieces of jewelry or nice accessories that aspire to some artistic merit go, the smiley face ring is meant to express the spirit of our times. Really? Not actually sure, but smileys are ubiquitous enough for people to get it when they see you wearing the ring.

We do foresse, in the event that this ring is worn a lot, that the two ‘eyes’ and the curved metal forming the spine (it’s made of silver, by the way) will create callouses on the other fingers it rubs against. We’re not complaining, as callouses are manly. Then again, who would wear a ring night and day? Dracula?

Available in three sizes and selling for 126 euros, these smiley face rings fits any conceivable style. Just don’t go all Victorian with a top hat included. That wouldn’t work. Or would it?

Source Gajitz

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Hacker Build Hand-Mounted Tacit Sonar Device (Video)

So this real clever guy named Steve is being credited for making the Haptic. It’s quite an impressive gadget that’s actually a portable sonar device for the blind. The technology, however, isn’t new. What Steve really accomplished was make it more compact for wearing on the wrist. As the accompanying blog post put it, “It’s like strapping a bat on your wrist.” Couldn’t have been any blunter.

For your perusal, a video:

The Haptic’s ultimate purpose is to allow the blind to ‘feel’ the terrain they are walking on. The fact that it uses a cloth cover/case indicates its inventor has a flare for sensible design. We have no idea how rugged this is, however. Apparently, the Haptic isn’t the first of its kind as similar sensors have been commercially available for a while.

What makes it different is the gadget is custom-built for a different part of the body–the wrist. Thus when worn, the Haptic intends to replace the blind person’s cane or at least broaden their aural perception.

Sonar really is impressive and to get it to the size of a hand-mounted device is something to be proud of. Hope Steve never stops building things. Who knows what he might come up with next?

Source Hackaday

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How People In Science Graphic Is Incredibly Revealing

The graphic is titled ‘How people in science see each other’ and its goal is to humorously depict perception within the confines of academe. We never realized professor’s thought undergrounds were Megan Fox-sexy. Then again, we might be missing the point. The self-image of technicians are golden though. Hint: a timeless action hero sums up the glory of being an indestructible lab wizard.

The confessed creator of this graphic wanted to refreshingly convey the rigid hierarchy that dominates most institutions of higher learning. The result is amusing, to say the least. Chuck Norris is just too much of a mega-meme to get tired of.

Here’s a compelling question for the readers. No prizes except bragging rights. The question is: In what country and what city did PhDs originate?

Source Biomatushiq

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Lego Comes To Life Through This 3D Milling Machine (Video)

Ah, Lego. A cultural icon, the building blocks of dreams, scattered inspiration awaiting the creative process. Lest we get too poetic, below is a mere glimpse of rare and excellent footage we unearthed from somewhere showing a 3D milling machine in action. The really impressive part, of course, is it’s made of Lego. The part that would make you slap your forehead is when the machine sculpts a face from a block of floral foam. Impressive!

Here’s the precious video:

A certain Arthur Sacek is the genius responsible for this incredible build. Without using much else aside from Lego parts and a drill, he successfully assembled a worthy 3D milling machine. The next challenge, of course, is building a bigger more complex beast to create even more awesome stuff.

The pinnacle of Lego, of course, if large industrial machines creating real products are ever built to service small-time manufacturers. That would just rule the world and bring technology to a new level. The beauty of Lego is it’s no longer confined to age groups and a growing percentage of Lego users who simply ‘played’ with it as children find more uses for it during their adulthood. We hope Lego never goes away.

Source Brothers Brick

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Check Out This Creepy Han Solo Carbonite Case

In the vast universe of Star Wars merchandise, there exists a sizable subgenre called Han Solo Carbonite. Another variation is Han Solo Encased in Carbonite. The point is there’s an endless line of both official and fan-made merch depicting dear old Han in his carbonite prison. In our opinion, it’s one of the worst pieces of movie memorabilia, an awful sculpture whose details have gone awry. But it’s hyper-popular in many places.

The product itself isn’t very exciting. Basically a metallic case with a Han Solo Carbonite print on its surface together with the Star Wars logo. Functionality is straightforward, features are zip.

Comes as no surprise then that in Japan, an online retailer is selling a Han Solo Carbonite business card case. Pricing is so far unavailable and there are no other sellers other than Japan. This might hit U.S. or U.K stores soon though. But we’re not sure. It just ‘might.’

Source Japan Star Wars

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Not So Flashy Wrist Gadget Keeps Tab On Your Eating

It’s unattractive, dull, and strikes one as a late 80s digital wristwatch. Indeed, it’s apparent very little effort went to making this latest wrist contraption sexy. But maybe that’s the point. See, what it does is keep tab of circular wrist motions similar to what’s done when eating.

Even the name hardly inspires enthusiasm: bite counter. Well, that’s what it does, counting the bites in every meal. Does it make a difference. The people over at Clemson University kind of think so. The whole point of the bite counter is to induce some sort of safeguard to pigging out.

Unfortunately, would someone enjoying their meal want to have their mouthfuls recorded? This seems to be an accessory perfect for health buffs and the fanatical set who are fighting a constant struggle against the bulge. The bite counter might also be problematic in unlikely situations. Like eating fruit (which definitely would be a good cheat as well as being healthy in itself). 

The real problem is at $800 a lot of people might be put off by its supposed benefits.

Source Gajitz

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Sony Announces PS3 Price Drop To $249

During its GamesCom presentation in Cologne, Germany today Sony announced it would be dropping the price of both its PS3 console models across all territories.

Now the Sony 160GB PS3 system will priced at $249 in the US, €250 in Europe, with immediate effect. The PS3 price will also drop to 24,980 yen in Japan but on August 18th. The 300GB PS3 model will be priced at $300 in the US, €300 in Europe, and 29,980 yen in Japan.

“Since its release in 2006, PS3 has gained tremendous support from fans around the world and its cumulative worldwide sales reached a milestone of 50 million units as of March 29, 2011,”

If you are not a already a PS3 owner are the new PS3 prices making you consider a purchase?

Source: CNN

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HP Introduces 64GB TouchPad

HP has today introduced a new 64GB version of its TouchPad tablet via its French website. The image below has been added to the front page of the HP France website and introduces the arrival of the 64GB TouchPad, which is now available to purchase from the site for €599.

It also indicates that the new TouchPad with increased storage will also be available in “White lacquered finish”, i.e. a white case with a black glass front. Together with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor 1.5 GHz dual-core APQ8060.

“This week, we have started introducing Pre3 in EMEA, and will also be debuting our 64GB TouchPad in the region. With more memory, a faster processor and available in gloss white, HP is excited to add this product to our TouchPad line and will announce regions and pricing closer to availability.”

The new HP 64GB TouchPad has finally arrived but only currently in Europe, as more information is released about a US launch we will keep you updated.

Source: PreCentral : HP (details) : HP (front)

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MSN And Hulu Caught Tracking Online Visitors With Supercookies

It has been discovered that both Hulu.com and MSN.com have been using powerful supercookies to track online visitors user data. The supercookies are almost impossible to detect and can recreate user profiles even after a normal cookie has been deleted and are capable of stealing a users complete browser history in some cases.The data can then be used to see a visitors financial and health status and provide advertisers with considerably more detailed information than a standard cookie would divulge.

The websites use of the new supercookies was discovered by researchers at Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley. The supercookies are sometimes distributed through Flash content as cookies for this type of content are stored in a separate folder away from normal cookies, and are not removed when a user clears their normal cookies folder.

Once contacted about the new Supercookies Microsoft removed the code and explained,  “when it was brought to our attention, we were alarmed. It was inconsistent with our intent and our policy.” said Mike Hintze, associate general counsel at MSN parent company Microsoft Corp. Hulu has said that are currently investigating the discovery.

If you are worried about supercookies on your systems there are a number of ways to clean them off. Mac Users can use the Flush.app software, while Windows users can use CCleaner to remove most of the harmful cookies making the rounds. There is also a plugin for Firefox called BetterPrivacy which will help keep cookies out of your system.

Source: WSJ : Gizmodo

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Brain Eating Amoeba Fears Grow In The U.S. After Deaths

And the flames are being fanned by news of a second victim this month. The ‘outbreak’ of the amoeba, which grows in stagnant water passages, is so far confined to Virginia. The parasite is believed to have killed three dozen people in the past ten years and affects its victims by causing meningitis. So far it’s reported that only children are most the vulnerable and the spread of the amoeba might be a seasonal thing.

Of course, the concern from parents will likely dissuade swimming in open pools of untreated water. The amoeba, known as Naegleria fowleri, usually enters the body through the nose then proceeds to trigger symptoms like headaches, nausea, and fever. Unfortunately, it cannot be treated with medicine.

Update: Less than a day after the initial reports about a second victim, a third has now been confirmed dead from the nefarious amoeba. A 16 year old girl from Florida was the latest casualty. Uh oh, it’s spreading.

There’s a chance the recent chain of events involving Naegleria fowleri might break into mainstream news and become a hot story for the next few weeks. While the news barrage might be tiresome, it’s probably best (if you’re in the United States in general, Virginia in particular) to confine swimming activity to a couple of showers a day. That sounds horrible! Hey, at least you can use soap a lot.

Source Yahoo News

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14 Year Old Gets A Bionic Arm After Writing Letter

In a rare chain of events that would make a decent Hollywood tear-jerker, a 14 year old lad from Berkshire got a new arm from a Scottish robotics company courtesy of Mercedes. That’s a lot of parties involved if you ask us, but the backstory is rather complicated.

See, dear Matthew is missing a limb. It wasn’t cut off in a lightsaber duel or the tragic result of an accident. For Matthew it was congenital. He’s been making do with a prosthetic hand for ages until he wrote a cheeky letter to the Mercedes F1 team GP Petronas.

What happened next was Mercedes reached out to the needy teenager and commissioned Scottish based robotics geniuses Touch Bionics to create the iLimb Pulse. Now fitted to Matthew’s arm, the iLimb is a very impressive piece of articulated hardware; the moving fingers plus Bluetooth capability puts it in a league of its own. There’s no human-tissue-over-a-metallic-exoskeleton claptrap though, unlike a T800, Matthew’s new hand is silicone and plastic.

Since his arm got attached, Matthew has been looking forward to school–he attends Reading–and other activities. These include karate, sports, and a burning desire to become an engineer for F1. Oh yes, during a rare factory visit just for Matthew, Mercedes claimed they weren’t paying for the arm and would fork the bill to sponsors. Oh cripes man, that’s just too suspicious for comfort. Why is a photogenic picture-perfect teenage lad with a sob story in cahoots with a major automaker? Anyone want to cry out ‘PR stunt’! Anyway, good luck to Matthew and his newfound hand.

Source Telegraph

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StumbleUpon Introduces New Explore Box Feature (video)

StumbleUpon has today introduced a new feature called the “Explore box” which allows users to search recommendations on more specific level. The new beta “Explore box” feature enables you to stumble hundreds of thousands on specific topics rather than just being restricted to set up specifically defined categories.

Check out the video after the jump to see the new StumbleUpon “Explore box” feature in action.

StumbleUpon explains:

“We’ve had a prototype of this for a while, but earlier on we felt like we weren’t getting enough results. We couldn’t really do it at the beginning because we needed a bigger index. In the earlier days, if you had typed in a specific term, you may have gotten just five results. Now, we have millions of pages of content, and it will just get better over time.”

You can check out the new StumbleUpon ”Explore box” over on the  StumbleUpon website,  but don’t forget it is still under the beta development label at the moment. StumbleUpon is hoping to roll out their new ”Explore box” feature to mobile device application in the near future.

Source: GigaOm

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T-Mobile G-Slate 3.1 Android Update Disables Bootloader

You you are the proud owner of a T-Mobile Android LG G-Slate a new Android 3.1 update has rolled out from LG that provides some great new features but also brings with it a possible problems for some users, as it locks down the bootloader on the device.

The 3.1 Android updated for the T-Mobile LG G-Slate introduces Google videos, USB accessory support and homescreen resizable widgets to name a few new items. But the locking of the bootloader function will now restrict many users that are used to personalising their T-Mobile G-Slate devices.

Once the bootloader is locked you will be unable  to root and flash custom roms, kernels and you will need to now hack and unlock the LG G-Slate to preform these functions. First impressions of the new update seem to indicate that the locking of the bootloader is not a glitch but a roll out by LG.

Source: Android Community

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Santa Monica Glass-Roofed Apple Store Receives The Green Light

Yesterday we featured the application for a new glass-roofed store in Santa Monica, which even though was applied for by a “Howard Robinson” and the property owner as ASB/Blatteis Promenade Holdings, LLC. The Architect drawings gave the store away as an Apple establishment.

Well last night the new store was approved and given the green light to progress by the Santa Monica’s Planning Commission. The new building will now replace the existing three storey building that used to be a Borders Bookstore.

There has been some surprise just how quickly the plans have been approved and on the Santa Monica Dispatch website, Peggy Clifford writes:

“The surprise was that the staff put the project on the Consent Calendar. I cannot remember any large, complex commercial project ever going on the Consent Calendar. Apple was the only item on last night’s Calendar. And, under the rules, the Consent Calendar is approved as a whole – unless someone wishes to pull at item for discussion.”

Source: Apple Insider : Santa Monica Dispatch

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Sony Panel: Single Player Games Extinct In Three Years

We’re not entirely sure what makes otherwise discerning professionals go in for these fanciful predictions. We just hope video game consultant Mark Cerny provided more than the one example Eurogamer wrote about, although it’s not like anyone actually takes starry-eyed industry futurists to task unless they’re named Peter Molyneux.

“We’re already seeing the wall starting to crumble a bit,” he said. “Demon’s Souls, even though on one level it’s a single-player game, as you’re walking through the world you’re seeing the ghosts of everybody who died in that world via the internet. You can leave messages for them. They can leave messages for you. There’s actually a boss you fight in that game which is controlled by another player.

“We’re talking five, 10 years out. I believe three years from now, if you aren’t doing that, you are being criticised in your reviews for your lack of innovation.” Ah yes, even today games are getting mercilessly picked on by critics for having compelling gameplay, sumptuous visuals, original writing, but no Deathmatch option. And that’s been around for ages.

Source Eurogamer

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Synology DS411 Quad Drive DiskStation NAS Media Streaming Storage Solution

Synology has this week introduced a new NAS solution to their range in the form of the new Synology DS411. Capable of holding four drives the new Synology DS411 has been designed for small businesses and home users in need of a fast high capacity storage, backup and media streaming solution.

Synology DS411 is capable of accepting four drives up to a total of 12 TB in storage (3TB each) and will provide an average 105.3 MB/sec reading speed under RAID 5 configuration in a Windows environment, together with a 47.8 MB/sec writing speed.

As a backup solution the Synology DS411 provides you with access to a web-based backup wizard for backing up data to another Synology DiskStationor any rsync server via an encrypted protocol, or to an external hard drive via USB connection.

On the back of the NAS Synology DS411 there is a single gigabit ethernet port, along with 2 x USB 2.0 ports and 1 x eSATA for additional external drives or sharing a printer across your local network.

More information about the new Synology DS411 can be found over on the Synology website. Its also now available to purchase with pricing stated by Synology as under $500.

Source: Slashgear : Synology

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New-Look Wii Unveiled, Arriving In The UK For Christmas

A new redesigned Wii console has been unveiled, that will be shipping to UK stores in the next couple of months in preparation for the upcoming holiday season, according to the The Official Nintendo Magazine website.

As you can see from the new packaging photo below the new Wii has been designed to lay flat on a surface rather than stand upright. The new design may be in preparation for the release of new Wii U console which also sits flat on surfaces. Bringing the two consoles designs inline with each other.

The new Wii will be arriving in the UK in time for the holiday season, but no information has been released on worldwide availability as yet. Or whether the new design will be a different price to the existing upright model currently in stores.

The packaging reveals the new design Wii system will come with Wii Remote Plus, a Nunchuk and, copies of Wii Sports and Wii Party. As always when more information come to light we will keep you updated.

Source: The Official Nintendo Magazine

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OpenDNS Now Supports 30 Million Customers Worldwide

OpenDNS the Domain Name System resolution service has announced that it now supports more than 30 million customers worldwide. OpenDNS was launched back in 2006 by David Ulevitch and in just five years has grown into a professional DNS resolution service for consumers and businesses worldwide as an alternative to using their own Internet service provider’s DNS servers.

As well as their Domain Name System resolution service OpenDNS also provide extra services to users including phishing filters, domain blocking and typo correction and blocks malicious sites when users try to access them through the OpenDNS service. They are also closely involved with helping some ISPs hijacking users keyword searches and redirecting them to affiliate links.

In just 5 years the company has grown from a startup to 30 Million users and OpenDNS are now looking to grow over the next five years, retaining the speed and reliability they are well known for.

Source: Tech Crunch : OpenDNS

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Razer Tiamat, The Worlds First True 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset

Razer has unveiled a new leap forward in the creation of gaming headsets in the form of the Razer Tiamat 7.1 surround sound gaming headset, which Razer claims is the worlds first true 7.1 headset gaming headset to be available.

Rather than using virtual surround sound to create the illusion of 7.1 surround sound, the Razer Tiamat 7.1 is equipped with a 10 discrete drivers. Creating the perfect and true to life 7.1 surround sound experience for gamers.

Razer explains:

“The Razer Tiamat headset range is the pride of our audio engineering, the world’s first 10 driver headset, built to deliver the most powerful, clear and accurately produced positional audio gamers will ever need for the competitive edge,”

The Razer Tiamat 7.1 packs a total of 10 discrete drivers, 5 in each circumaural ear cup to give you true pinpoint positional surround sound with 3D clairty. The 10 drivers represent the 7 surround sound channels plus subwoofer; 2 for center, 1 each for the left and right, surround sound left and right, surround back left and right, and 2 for the subwoofer as indicated in the diagram below.

The Razer Tiamat 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming headset will be arriving in the Autumn and will be priced around $180.

Source: Razer

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Cobra Tag Makes Sure You Never Lose Your Keys Again

If you are like me and misplace your car keys form time to time, a new device and application called Cobra Tag  has been developed to help you find them without a fuss.

Cobra Tag uses Bluetooth, GPS and a smartphone app to create the secure system. Simply attach the Tag part of the system to your car keys or anything else you would like to not lose and install the free Cobra Tag application on your smartphone.

Cobra Tag can be set to work in a number of different ways either using it as a proximity sensor that communicates with the phone’s app and will remind you if you are going to leave your phone or valuables behind. Or you can locate your Tagged item by using the smartphone application, to make the Cobra Tag ring.

The Cobra Tag device can even be set to automatically lock your smartphone if it should get left behind. Tags are now available to purchase direct from Cobra for $60 each and the applications are available to download for free.

Source: DVICE : Cobra

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Borderlands 2 Teaser Trailer (video)

Earlier this month game developers 2K Games and Gearbox announced that a sequel to the popular game Borderlands was currently being developed with an expected launch date somewhere between April 2012 and spring 2013. Following up on that announcement the team has now released a quick teaser video confirming their intentions. Watch the Borderlands 2 teaser video after jump.

2K Games divulge a little of what we can expect from the Borderlands 2 game:

“Combining invention and evolution, Borderlands 2 features all-new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story. Players will reveal secrets, and escalate mysteries of the Borderlands universe as they adventure across the unexplored new areas of Pandora,”

Even though 2K Games and Gearbox had hinted at Spring 2013 launch date the trailer finishes showing 2012, fingers crossed. When Borderlands 2 does eventually arrive it will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC platforms

Source: Lazygamer

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Crytek Releases Its Game Designing Suite, CryEngine 3 SDK, To All For Free

Crytek the German video game company best known for developing the Far Cry and Crysis series of games, using their CryEngine software. Have today announced they are releasing their award winning CryEngine 3 SDK, game development environment free of charge to all for non-commercial use.

The CryEngine 3 SDK provides developers with the complete gaming engine to create top quality next generation games for PC, and includes the CryEngine 3 Sandbox level editor. Together with their 3rd generation “What you see is what you play” (WYSIWYP) tool, designed by and for professional gaming developers.

“With the release of our SDK we encourage creators to try out CryENGINE 3 and hope it will lead to new companies being formed and using our engine. More importantly we expect to increase the talent pool for CryENGINE developers, as well as boosting our online community of users. This SDK contains more toys than we’ve ever released before – it empowers people to create whole new games from scratch, not just mod Crytek’s own games, so we encourage all aspiring and indie developers to try it out.” 

For those developers that are looking to make the step in to commercial gaming, Crytek offer a royalty-only license model for any games created with their SDK. Where Crytek will only ask for 20% of the revenues from the commercial launch of the developers game.

For more information jump over to the Crytek Developers website.

Source: Joystiq

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Google Search iOS App Receives Instant Pages Update

Following on from the addition of the new Instant Pages in Google’s Chrome browser earlier this month. Google has now rolled out a new update for its iOS Search application which also now includes the new Instant Pages feature.

Instant Pages has been designed by Google to bring extra speed to your search by preloading your first search results, when Google is confident they have matched your search request accurately. When you then select the first result it will load instantly. Watch a video after the jump to see just how quick the new Instant Pages feature is when used with Google’s Chrome desktop browser.

Other new additions in the latest iOS App update also include a new way to switch between Web, Images, Places and more - Improved help screen - Removed Calendar alerts, together with minor bug fixes.

Source: Google Search App

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Recycled Bike Fork Bottle Openers

In this day an age its great to see unwanted and older items reused and modified to create useful gadgets and bring them back into use. Just like these recycled bike fork bottle openers that have been created by Etsy maker EH48.

Everyone of the bottle openers is unique and made from the bottom part of one side of a pair of bike forks. With the section that would normally grip the wheel hub, modified to create the working end of the bottle opener.

All the bottle openers are available to purchase for $30 but have already sold out. But if you must get your hand on one and cant find a bike to hack up yourself you can still place a pre-order. But don’t forget each is one-of-a-kind.

Source: Gadget Lab : Etsy

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Holds Up Fastfood Joint

Not Pizza Hut though as a lot of people are speculating. In these trying times, all sorts of nefarious deeds are being perpetrated by unlikely characters be they ninjas attacking an Apple store or this latest travesty.

The scene of the crime was a Wendy’s branch in Rib Mountain, Wisconsin where a large man in a mask help up the cashier at gunpoint. Don’t know why people bother robbing fast food joints as food there is so cheap the suspect could have bought a lot of burgers if he just pawned his gun instead and used the money.

Oh wait, this just in (after a cursory reading of the available reports): Turns out there were two men involved in the heist. One was wearing a Ninja Turtle mask while another concealed his identity in a different fashion. The pair left Wendy’s with a significant amount of cash and are still at large. We’re a little befuddled why they didn’t help themselves to some fries or a sundae. Wendy’s got the best of both!

Hopefully, these thieving criminals are apprehended soon. Nice Raphael mask by the way, fitting as he was the most hardass turtle among them.

Source WSAW

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Logitech Launches Solar K750 Keyboard For Mac Users

Logitech first announced their new K750 solar powered keyboard for PC users back in November 2010 and have wasted no time rushing the Mac version out 9 months later.

The K750 solar is a full-size keyboard complete with number pad and solar panel stretching along the top from left to right. Logitech explains that the new K750 keyboard can be charged from standard indoor lighting, and once fully charged can work in complete darkness for up to three months if needed. Its also equipped with a 2.4GHz module providing trouble free wireless connectivity.

The new Mac compatible keyboard is now available in a range of  5 colours, with four exclusively for Mac users.The new K750Mac Keyboard will ship to the US and Europe later this month for $60. With its PVC-free construction and fully recyclable box, Logitech has designed the keyboard to help minimize its environmental footprint.

Source: Mac World

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