The Future of Touchscreens, RickRolling Slowed Down and Visualized
There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.
- In the future, as visualized by TATMobile, touchscreens will accompany us from the bedroom to the office, and apparently, the mouse lives on. Fortunately, this looks much like a cleaner version of the grungy, post-apocalyptic interfaces we saw in 'Children of Men.' [From: Made With Computers]
- The communication necessary for a RickRoll, or any other Youtube video, slowed down 12 times. [From: Kottke]
- If you were thrown into a design rage over iTunes 10's ridiculous vertical minimize/maximize buttons -- entirely unusable if you're running the graphite theme in OS X -- then you'll be pleased to know it can be changed back to normal. TUAW's got a handy guide to making the switch back to horizontal, and don't miss Maniacal Rage's handy overlay-based roundup that reveals the differences between previous versions of the media app. [From: TUAW and Maniacal Rage]
- The U.S. Open is tracking data from the tennis tournament on PointStream, a real-time data visualization that shows everything from player momentum to serve speed. [From: U.S. Open]
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The Future of Touchscreens, RickRolling Slowed Down and Visualized originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google Chrome Celebrates Turning Two With 6 Update
It was two years ago this week that Google unveiled its browser experiment Chrome. In the ensuing 24 months, it's matured immensely and gone gold on both OS X and Linux, to complement its official Windows version. The browser has added bookmark and password syncing, support for themes and extensions, and, most importantly, significant speed increases. According to Google, today's Chrome is a full three times faster than the original iteration when it comes to executing JavaScript (the technology behind all those Web apps you've come to know and love like Gmail).
Now, on its second birthday, Chrome is hitting version 6. (By comparison, Firefox is several years older, and still crawling towards 4.0.) And, in celebration, Chrome is receiving a few small upgrades. Most immediately apparent will be the mild redesign that reduces clutter and adds a bit of polish to its appearance. The browser has also undergone another series of speed boosts, firmly leaving most of the competition in its dust in terms of raw speed. Thanks to its included auto-update features, anyone running the stable version of Chrome should already have 6, while those who like to live life on the bleeding edge (i.e. running the developer's build) are already getting a sneak peak at version 7. Chrome has come a long way in a short period of time. What started as an experiment in pure speed has become one of the most compelling options, if not the option, in the browser market.
If you don't have it yet, download Chrome 6 here.
Google Chrome Celebrates Turning Two With 6 Update originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Farmers, Commodity Traders Find Common Soil on Twitter
A lot of people go to Facebook to harvest fake crops on fictitious farms. If you're interested in real farming, however, you're probably better off heading to Twitter, where both farmers and Wall Streeters alike are exchanging valuable, first-hand information about farming conditions across the globe. As Forbes reports, some farmers originally began using the social network as a way to advance their own political agenda. Over time, however, commodity traders began taking a greater interest in what the farming Twitter community had to say, as they soon realized that a 140-character missive could make the difference between profit and loss.
Trader Thomas Grisafi follows about 50 farmers on Twitter, along with a collection of weather forecasters, agricultural companies, and any other user who might be able to provide some insight into the crop commodity market. According to Grisafi, he's usually able to find breaking news or inside scoops on Twitter more quickly than he can on more traditional business news sites. And, more often than not, tweets straight from the farm can offer the kind of in situ insight that's hard to find elsewhere. Last week, for example, Grisafi received a flurry of tweets from European farmers, who claimed that the weather had been drier than most reports had indicated. The trader had previously assumed that the market price of wheat would fall, but, after reading the tweets, he quickly changed his position, and avoided a loss as prices rose.
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Farmers, Commodity Traders Find Common Soil on Twitter originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
‘Freeciv’: Sid Meier’s Civilization Gets a Revamp in This New School Homage
As much as we love new gaming experiences, sometimes we hanker for the classic games of our distant youth. Luckily, many of these can be revisited in browser-based iterations. This week, we'll take a look at timeless classics -- like Monday's 'Pac-Man', Tuesday's 'Lemmings' or yesterday's 'Duke Nukem' -- that are always worth wasted productivity. If you haven't played these in a few years, or if (heaven forbid) you've never undertaken them, then what are you waiting for?
Based on 'Civilization,' designer Sid Meier's classic PC strategy game of empire building, 'Freeciv.net' is a complex game with a simple goal: to conquer the world. In 'Freeciv.net,' players direct the expansion of their kingdom over a series of turns, much like an incredibly detailed game of 'Risk.' Technology can be researched, wars fought, cities founded, revolutions started, and much, much more. Most impressive about 'Freeciv.net' is its built-in online multi-player functionality. (Loners can opt to challenge AI.) While it takes a little while to get maneuvering (as the tricky controls and often overwhelming options necessitate reading the FAQ), the payoff is a deep, fun and challenging experience.
Continue reading 'Freeciv': Sid Meier's Civilization Gets a Revamp in This New School Homage
'Freeciv': Sid Meier's Civilization Gets a Revamp in This New School Homage originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Sensor-Controlled Tower ‘Breathes’ to Save Energy, Eliminate Office Tornadoes
A new skyscraper in Frankfurt, Germany has been outfitted with a "pressure ring" fa
Manor, Texas: Government Evolution or Fad Solutions in the QR Code-Connected Town
Ponder, for a moment, this photo of a field in Manor, Texas. Outside Jennie Lane SmartPark, which is also the home to the town's farmers' market, hangs a large QR code that directs both residents and curious passersby to this website, which gives a brief history of the land and its re-dedication from "park" to "SmartPark." The SmartPark now boasts free Wi-Fi and "technology training classes," all a part of Manor's government tech upgrade that began back in 2008.
With an estimated population of 5,468, Manor is still a small town. But its upgrade -- including services like a redesigned city website, a Web app for reporting street and water issues called SeeClickFix, and a crowd-sourcing website for new ideas called Manor Labs -- has made news as representing the evolution of local government into the Internet age. Manor will be hosting a two-day tech conference later this month called manor.govfresh, where city officials will meet with other municipal governments about its programs, and will even give another town -- De Leon, Texas -- a "Gov City 2.0 Makeover."
Continue reading Manor, Texas: Government Evolution or Fad Solutions in the QR Code-Connected Town
Manor, Texas: Government Evolution or Fad Solutions in the QR Code-Connected Town originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
iFixit Disembowels the Atari 2600
iFixit is popular for its teardowns of the latest gadgets, exposing their chips and circuits to the world. This week, though, the site has gone retro, ripping open the RCA Studio II and the Magnavox Odyssey 100. Yesterday, the site spread the innards of the granddaddy of gaming consoles, the Atari 2600, across a table for all to see.
iFixit Disembowels the Atari 2600 originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Double Rainbow Guy Shills for Microsoft
After Paul "Bear" Vasquez went viral with his rather enthusiastic response to seeing a "double rainbow all the way across the sky," we thought he would quietly fade back into obscurity. Even after The Gregory Brothers autotuned Bear's wonderment within an inch of its life to create one minute and 30 seconds of accidental pop brilliance, there was no reason to expect that, two months later, we'd still be talking about him. But the team at Windows Live Photo Gallery thought the former cage fighter was a perfect match for a video to promote its panorama stitch feature. Check out the video after the jump in which Bear, with significantly less enthusiasm, marvels at yet another double rainbow, then snaps three pictures of the refracted light and combines them to create a single panoramic image that captures the entire rainbow. While we might not be free of the nature lover's ramblings just yet, this video does make one thing clear: Bear won't be making the leap to acting anytime soon.
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Double Rainbow Guy Shills for Microsoft originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
College Kids in Colorado Crash NASA Satellite
As part of what must be the coolest undergraduate class ever, a group of students from the University of Colorado at Boulder recently crashed a NASA satellite into the ocean -- on purpose. As PopSci explains, undergrads and professors at UC-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) spent a full seven years monitoring NASA's Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) as it collected data on polar ice, ice sheets and sea ice dynamics, as well.
Eventually, though, the satellite ran out of fuel, and it was time to put her to bed. So, after conducting calculations and simulating re-entry scenarios for seven days, the team finally decided to crash ICESat into the Barents Sea, just north of Norway and Russia, where collateral damage would be minimized. They then set the satellite on an appropriate trajectory, and watched with glee as it re-entered the atmosphere, burned up and met its watery death.
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College Kids in Colorado Crash NASA Satellite originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
BeamAtic Headlights Remedy the Blight of Blinding High Beams
Blinding high beams, the ignorance of turn signals and creepers in the passing lane rank among -- and perhaps as -- the most annoying nuisances on the road. Enviable Japanese drivers may soon forget about one of those infuriating tendencies, though, with the arrival of new BeamAtic Premium headlights.
France's Valeo SA developed the technology, which reportedly relies on an on-board camera and image processing software to identify approaching vehicles. The system then utilizes the headlights' "moveable dousers" to shift the light away from the eyes of oncoming drivers. Blinding brights, then, (which could actually be left on all the time) no longer appear quite so blinding or bright. Ichiko Industries plans to release the luminous lifesavers in Japan next month, and hopes that the devices will soon become factory standards for various manufacturers. An array of other pavement plagues still clog the streets, but -- until that awesome laser-guided navigation system finally arrives -- this should at least help quell some of the rage.
BeamAtic Headlights Remedy the Blight of Blinding High Beams originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.