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If you're a crafter, then it's quite likely that you spend a lot of time cutting intricate designs out of materials like paper, cloth or poster board. While it certainly adds to the artistic merit of the project if you do everything by hand, the fact is that not everyone has the necessary manual dexterity – or simply the talent. Well, before too long, such people will be able to make use of the Cricut Explore electronic cutting machine.
Every now and then we get demonstrations of really innovative new technologies and concepts that almost no one has any chance of being able to own anytime soon. The best place to undergo this particular form of torture is at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This year at CES, a really fantastic "smart mirror" concept from Toshiba fit the bill.
There was little information available on this novel idea, which brings the tech from countless late 1990s and early 2000s era science-fiction films to life. Simply called "Multi Display in Black Mirror," the concept combines the functionality of something like a tablet alongside your reflection.
The mirror was shown in two different environments: In a bathroom, where the reflective screen presents information to help you start your day such as the weather alongside data from connected devices like a personal fitness monitor; and in the kitchen, where the system can assist in finding, adjusting and preparing recipes, among many other uses.
When you ask Siri or Google's voice search a question, no matter how simple it is, they have to think about it for a second or two. As you likely know, those brief moments of tedium are spent sending your question to the mass-consciousness of supercomputers through the Internet and waiting for a reply. Depending on your cell coverage, it could actually take a while for these virtual assistants to get back to you, if they do at all. Intel decided to do something about the matter, developing a new virtual assistant capable of doing its job with or without the Internet.
Named after Tony Stark's iconic assistant, Jarvis is a virtual assistant encased in a Bluetooth earpiece. Intel first showed off a prototype of the headset at CES 2014. Jarvis is housed in a mobile processor within the headset that also boasts a speaker, a pair of microphones and a battery said to last "all day". When paired with your smartphone, Jarvis can create calendar events, set timers, play music, adjust settings and even open apps like Google Maps without the need for the Internet. To charge Jarvis at the end of the day, simply drop it in its wireless-charging bowl, as if it were your set of keys.
Computer processors are notorious for overheating: ask anyone with a laptop. Internal fans can help, but the harder they have to work, the more annoyed we get at the bloody awful noise that they make. What we really need is a better heat sink, the part of your computer that attaches to the CPU to dissipate heat. Intel and UC Berkeley have teamed up to create a heat sink made of carbon nanotubes that is much more effective than what we're using right now.
Carbon nanotubes are handy in a variety of applications. These nanoscale tubes have many uses, including making x-rays safer, creating better holograms and even fighting cancer. They have great heat conductivity as well, but until now, there have been issues with getting them to stick to hot metal surfaces, like those on a CPU. The Intel/Berkeley team, though, found a solution. They bonded the nanotubes to the chip by using a thin layer of organic compounds. The results were astonishing: their experiment resulted in the carbon nanotubes pulling heat off of the chip six times more efficiently than a standard heat sink.
more!) than 13 distinct electronics gadgets, worth more than $3,000, found in a 1991 Radio Shack ad. Buffalo writer Steve Cichon was the first to dig up the old ad and make the point about the seemingly miraculous pace of digital advance, noting that an iPhone incorporates the features of the computer, CD player, phone, “phone answerer,” and video camera, among other items in the ad, all at a lower price. The Washington Post‘s tech blog The Switch picked up the analysis, and lots of people then ran with it on Twitter. Yet the comparison was, unintentionally, a huge dis to the digital economy. It massively underestimates the true pace of innovation and, despite its humor and good intentions, actually exposes a shortcoming that plagues much economic and policy analysis.
To see why, let’s do a very rough, back-of-the-envelope estimate of what an iPhone would have cost in 1991.
IDG News Service (New York Bureau) — Intel has designed a new integrated graphics core that the company claims can improve the battery life of smartphones, tablets and laptops.
Graphics can be power hungry and the new power-efficient core, when paired with a CPU, represents a leap in bringing down overall power consumption on chips, said Intel researcher Divya Kolar, in a blog entry.
I’m Brian Krzanich, and I have been the CEO of Intel Corporation since May 2013. I'm very excited to be here chatting with you today.
Today, I’m especially looking forward to talking with engineering students. I know how tough engineering school can really be, but it’s worth it. Here at Intel, we want to help you become the best engineer you can be, and we want to make sure you graduate from your degree program. We've built this site staywithit.org to provide resources and motivation for engineering students. We need you, and we’ll do what we can to support you along the way.
I'll get started at about 9am PT (Noon ET)
in my 30 years i think i have seen the forecasted end of Moore's law at least 5 or 6 times... so i tend to be a skeptic when people say it will end.. At any one point we can typically see about 10 years out.. with pretty good clarity in the 3 to 5 years and much less clarity 5 to 10 years.. but so far in that 10 year horizon.. we don't see anything that says it will end in that time frame..
Google has unveiled a prototype smartphone with "customised hardware and software" that enables it to create 3D maps of a user's surroundings.
The device's sensors allow it make over 250,000 3D measurements every second and update its position in real-time.
Google said potential applications may include indoor mapping, helping the visually-impaired navigate unfamiliar indoor places unassisted and gaming.
It has offered 200 prototypes to developers keen to make apps for it.
Google said its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) unit developed the phone as part of a project called Project Tango with help from researchers at various institutions.
"We are physical beings that live in a 3D world. Yet, our mobile devices assume that physical world ends at the boundaries of the screen," the firm said.
"The goal of Project Tango is to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion.
"We're ready to put early prototypes into the hands of developers that can imagine the possibilities and help bring those ideas into reality," it added.
There is an increasing amount of wearable technology being used in the workplace due to the benefits it can provide and the ease with which it can be integrated into existing working practices. With this in mind, Fujitsu has announced a glove-style device for workplace use that provides touch and gesture-based functionality for site operations.
Recognizing that smartphones and tablets are not necessarily suitable for some hands-on situations, the glove has been developed to allow users to keep both hands available while avoiding the possibility of other devices getting damaged or dirty.
The device has a contact sensor on the finger, and near field communication (NFC) tag reader allows users to touch the NFC tag of an object with which they are working in order to digitally identify it, with inventory control or the display of relevant information being possible applications.
The device is able to recognize gestures thanks to a gyro sensor and an accelerometer, including up, down, left, right, rotate left and rotate right, which Fujitsu suggests could be used to control a head-mounted display. Users might, for example, be able to scroll through an instruction manual shown on a screen while keeping both hands relatively free for use elsewhere.
At this week's Mobile World Congress, we're going to see lots of new smartphones, tablets, are wearables on display for all the world to see. But none of them are likely to garner nearly as much attention as the one Samsung just announced. After months of rumors, the Korean company's 2014 flagship smartphone is now official. Meet the Samsung Galaxy S5.
The GS5 has a slightly bigger screen than its predecessor (5.1-in to the GS4's 5-in), though it's still 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution. That bigger screen leads to a slightly bigger phone, as well as an extra 15 g (0.53 oz) of weight. The GS5 continues Samsung's recent trend of launching its devices with the latest version of Android, as this puppy runs 4.4.2 KitKat. Along with a 2.5 GHz quad core processor, the 2014 Galaxy flagship also has a bigger battery: this time toting a plentiful 2,800.
Samsung also upped the ante on the phone's camera, with a 16-megapixel rear sensor. It records 4K video, and includes a feature called Selective Focus, that supposedly simulates the results of a high aperture lens by focusing on a subject and blurring its background.
Apparently those two new Galaxy Gears that Samsung announced the other day weren't the entire story. Today the company announced its first fitness tracker, a wrist-based device called the Gear Fit4
Unlike the more watch-like Galaxy Gear series (which now includes two Tizen-based watches along with 2013's Android-based original), the Gear Fit has an elongated and curved display. That Super AMOLED screen measures 1.84-in with 423 x 128 resolution. The device is very light, weight in at just 27 g (0.95 oz). It has an interchangeable strap, which will be sold in black, orange, and mocha gray colors.
Once upon a time, when you got your hands on a new gadget, you could be sure the military had a bigger, better version. It would seem that's no longer the case since BAE Systems has just announced the first Augmented Reality (AR) headset for troops in the field. With Google Glass and a veritable cornucopia of other AR headsets either in development or already available, you might have thought that the armed forces would have had its version of the tech years ago.
The headset is called Q-Warrior, and it is currently being field tested before troops get to don them. As you might expect, it focuses more on function and durability than your average headset. Q-Warrior is a single see-through display, which can be mounted securely onto existing military helmets, giving soldiers real-time data when they need it. On a basic level, Q-Warrior overlays data such as personnel tracking, hostile enemy detection and waypoint information over a soldier's field of vision like a video stream. It also includes enhanced night-vision and full-color feeds to and from other allied forces in the area, including aerial images from spy drones overhead.
