Manipulating images for your website is such a tedious chore. You need to open Photoshop, click your mouse about ten thousand times, then save the file and upload it. Then next month you redesign your site and suddenly need to re-size all your image elements again! Startup Cloudinary has a good alternative for you: use custom URLs to transform your images in the cloud! I was a bit skeptical when I first read about Cloudinary, but after five minutes of goofing around with it I’m sold.
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Monthly Archives: May 2012
Goodbye Photoshop, Hello Cloudinary
New Android OS version hinted by Pandora developers
Pandora Internet Radio’s Android application has just been update this week with several fixes for bugs, user interface upgrades, and a hint that they know something we don’t about the future of Android. In what’s essentially a hint that we’re sure thousands of users passed over without a thought, Pandora’s developers may have accidentally spilled
Google picks up domain names galore
This week Google is working with ICANN to expand the diversity of the web, applying for more than 50 domain names in all including but not limited to “.google”, “.youtube”, and “.lol”. Google has let it be known that because half the world’s websites are in the .com TLD, they’re seeking to expand. Google was
Judge clears Google of Java copyright infringement
A U.S. judge has ruled that the Java application programming interfaces used in Android are not protected by copyright, marking a defeat for Oracle in its high-stakes lawsuit against Google.
Computerworld News
Timing Is Everything: Indie Movie Discovery Platform Prescreen To Close Its Doors
It was just last September that we covered the launch of Prescreen, the startup founded by former Groupon and Zoosk execs that aimed to help independent films find the publicity they nearly always lack. To do so, they built a curated, on-demand video platform that would give filmmakers and distributors an alternative to traditional ad and distribution channels, while giving users an easy way to discover low-budget films they wouldn’t otherwise.
But, as it goes in Startup Land, sometimes even veteran advisors, seed capital, and a good idea aren’t enough to keep a business afloat. Yesterday, Prescreen notified its users that it will be suspending its beta until further notice. While this doesn’t exactly mean that the startup has hit the deadpool, for all intents and purposes for its users, Prescreen is no longer operational.
TechCrunch
There Is No Digital Divide
A concept that animates hundreds of millions in Federal spending needs to be retired.
We all know poor people are on the wrong side of an uncrossable technological chasm known as the “digital divide.” Their lack of iPads and data plans and broadband is just one more way they’re doomed to stay poor right up until they become the shock troops of the zombie apocalypse, am I right?
Intel Ivy Bridge Processor Hits 7GHz Overclock Record
MojoKid writes “Renowned Overclocker HiCookie used a Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H motherboard to achieve a fully validated 7.03GHz clock speed on an Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge processor. As it stands, that’s the highest clockspeed for an Ivy Bridge CPU, and it required a steady dose of liquid nitrogen to get there. HiCookie also broke a record for the highest memory speed on an Ivy Bridge platform, pushing his G.Skill Trident X DDR3-2800 memory kit populated in four DIMM slots to 3,280MHz. Not for the faint of heart, the record breaking CPU overclock required that HiCookie pump 1.956V to the processor, according to his CPU-Z screenshot. The CPU multiplier was set at x63.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft unveils free preview version of Windows 8 OS
Ten thousand year old tartar holds clues to ancient human diet
Google Calls Its Smart Ad Relevance System “Smart Ass” (Yes, Seriously)
What’s the best thing that I (and others) learned at D10 this year? (Other than the fact that Steve Jobs used to own a peacock, of course.)
Onstage at D1o, Google SVP of Advertising Susan Wojicicki revealed, in answering Walt Mossberg’s question about the sad state of ad relevancy, that Google calls its machine learning smart ad targeting technology “Smart Ass” internally. Aside from those self-driving cars, this is probably the coolest thing happening at Google at the moment.
Wojicicki then told Mossberg that a “huge amount” of Google engineers were working on improving “Smart Ass,” “There are all kinds of amazing things on the Web. Advertising is not one of them,” she said. “Display ads are very crude, there is a really high CPM price for the value being extracted.
Paralyzed Rats Walk Again
Spinal stimulation combined with assisted walking therapy generates new neural circuits and restores voluntary leg movement.
Rats paralyzed by spinal-cord injury can learn to control their hind limbs again if they are trained to walk in a rehabilitative device while their lower spine is electrically and chemically stimulated. A clinical trial using a similar system built for humans could begin in the next few years.
Microsoft AutoUpdate update required for future updates
Future updates will require this AutoUpdate patch to be installed.
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CNET News
Could the next Apple iPad be made in the USA?
Orange San Diego available in UK, June 6
Equipped with an Intel Atom processor, the Orange San Diego is slated for an early June release in the UK.
[Read more]
CNET News
Banjo For iOS Becomes More Photo-Friendly Thanks To Update
Banjo, the slightly creepy social discovery app that shows you who’s doing what nearby, has been updated today with a handful of new tweaks for its iOS version. Sorry Android folks — you’ll have to sit this one out for the time being.
Here’s a quick recap if you’ve never messed with Banjo before. Banjo pulls in geo-tagged pictures and updates from all of the major social platforms (think Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare and the like), and splays them all onto a map (or into a list) so users can see what’s going on around them.
TechCrunch
20 must-have apps for your Android phone
Cricket to sell pre-paid, no-contract iPhone starting June 22
Cricket Communications will offer the first pre-paid iPhone in the U.S. starting June 22, the company announced Thursday.
Computerworld News
Leap Wireless to sell prepaid iPhone
Facebook launches Mideast office in Dubai
SpaceX cargo ship returns to Earth after historic mission
Closing out a historic test flight, a privately developed cargo ship plunged back to Earth Thursday, completing an on-target splashdown to close out the first commercial visit to the International Space Station.
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CNET News
IEEE Spectrum Digs Into the Future of Money
First time accepted submitter ArmageddonLord writes ” Small, out-of-pocket cash exchanges are still the stuff of everyday life. In 2010, cash transactions in the United States totaled US $ 1.2 trillion (not including extralegal ones, of course). There will come a day, however, when you’ll be able to transfer funds just by holding your cellphone next to someone else’s and hitting a few keys — and this is just one of the ways we’ll wean ourselves off cash. In ‘The Last Days of Cash’, a special report on the future of money, we describe the various ways that technology is transforming how we pay for stuff; how it’s boosting security by linking our biometric selves with our accounts; and how it’s helping us achieve, at least in theory, an ancient ideal — money that cannot be counterfeited.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Engadget Giveaway: win one of four Beats Audio bundles, courtesy of Daybreak!
We must be smack-dab in the middle of audio week, because even GSM giant AT&T is bestowing the fantastic phonic prizes for your possible procurement, with four Beats Bundles up for grabs. What is this bundle of Beats? It’s a set of wireless over-ear headphones (on the right) alongside your very own Beatbox portable audio player (left). Of course, AT&T is putting this all together to celebrate the launch of its five-episode web miniseries, “Daybreak,” which debuts tonight immediately following the finale of “Touch” on Fox and runs for five weeks. So make sure you hook us up with a comment below and check out the show tonight. Good luck!
Continue reading Engadget Giveaway: win one of four Beats Audio bundles, courtesy of Daybreak!
Engadget Giveaway: win one of four Beats Audio bundles, courtesy of Daybreak! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 May 2012 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Simple.TV launches Kickstarter campaign for support from viewers like you
Winning a Best of CES award is all well and good, sure, but it’s not enough to bring your device to market. That, friends, is what Kickstarter is for. Simple.TV is ready to bring its mobile TV / DVR device to market, but it needs the help of some enthusiastic supporters with a little pocket money to spare. The company’s been working to make the device a reality and is “close enough that we need to start ordering parts and getting the production pipeline turned on,” which, naturally, in where people like you come in. To help achieve its $ 125k goal, Simple.TV is offering up a unit for a $ 125 pledge (down from its “already super low price of $ 149″). Higher pledges will get you fun things like a Roku XD. More info can be had in the video after the break.
Continue reading Simple.TV launches Kickstarter campaign for support from viewers like you
Simple.TV launches Kickstarter campaign for support from viewers like you originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 May 2012 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Turtle Beach partners with MLG, will unveil tournament-focused Ear Force Seven Series programmable headsets, TM1 audio mixer at E3
If you’re familiar with Major League Gaming tournaments, you’re likely aware that Astro Gaming’s Mixamp Pro has been the staple device for providing multi-platform surround sound and team chat to the headset-wearing pros. Things are set to change this fall, however, as Turtle Beach has announced a partnership with MLG that’ll usher in the release of its first ever tournament-focused gaming headsets and a long-overdue competitor to the Mixamp.
To start, the TM1 tournament will be the exclusive sound hookup for MLG events when it hits the streets, effectively ending the reign of the Mixamp at events once it’s out. Like the Mixamp, the unit will provide virtual surround sound and chat functionality to any headset with a 3.5mm jack, albeit with a number of improvements. One TM1 can provide six players with individual sound whether they are on the same team or playing 3 vs. 3, and multiple devices can be daisy chained to provide a whopping 12 channels of separate audio. Notably, the TM1 also allows the broadcast audio to be fed into your mix so that you can keep up with the crowd around you.
On the headset front, TB is blending its programmable audio know-how and recent foray into lifestyle headsets into what’s dubbed as the Seven Series. Details are slim, but the first two models set to up the ante on the likes of Astro’s A40 and the Sennheiser PC360 will be the Ear Force XP7 and Z7. Each headset features a portable design, detachable microphone and an optional inline remote / mic, so you won’t be you stuck to only using ‘em in your living room — unlike pretty much of all the company’s past headgear. You’ll naturally be able to download your preferred audio settings using TB’s Preset Community Portal, which will also include “presets customized for specific [MLG] tournament games.”
There’s sadly nothing in the way of pictures at the moment, but we’ll be getting some hands-on time with prototypes of all the goods at E3 next week. Hit up the press release past the break for further details in the meantime.
Turtle Beach partners with MLG, will unveil tournament-focused Ear Force Seven Series programmable headsets, TM1 audio mixer at E3 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 May 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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SpaceX Dragon detached from ISS to return home
The SpaceX Dragon capsule has only one more task to complete before its historic mission to the International Space Station is complete and a resounding success. The Dragon capsule has been disconnected from the ISS in preparation to return to earth. ISS astronauts disconnected the Dragon capsule from the station early this morning. The Dragon
U.K.'s Logica goes to CGI for $2.6 billion
CGI Group, a Canadian IT services and business process services company, has agreed to acquire its larger European competitor Logica for APS1.7 billion (US$ 2.65 billion) in cash, in a bid to expand its European presence, the companies said Thursday.
Computerworld News
Google Voice now lets you screen specific types of calls
The latest update to Google Voice can help you distinguish people in your address book from anonymous callers.
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CNET News
More Cloud Investment: Sonian Picks Up $13.6M For Cloud Archiving And Search
As more businesses and consumers sign up to services that operate in the cloud, so more companies working in this space continue to get attention from investors. The latest is Sonian, a specialist in cloud-based archiving and search services, which has picked up a C-round of $ 13.6 million.
With the funding, OpenView Venture Partners becomes a strategic partner of Sonian. OpenView — you may recall — in March announced a new $ 200 million fund specifically for cloud and big data investments. Existing investors Summerhill Venture Prtners and Prism VentureWorks also participated, and this brings the total invested in Sonian to-date is now at $ 27 million. Worth pointing out, too, that one of Sonian’s other key investors is Amazon, which participated in the company’s last round where it raised $ 9 million.
Amazon Patents Electronic Gifting
theodp writes “Simply giving your mother an e-book for her birthday could constitute patent infringement now that the USPTO’s gone and awarded Amazon.com a patent on the ‘Electronic Gifting’ of items such as music, movies, television programs, games, or books. BusinessInsider speculates that the patent may be of concern to Facebook, which just dropped a reported $ 80 million on social gift-giving app maker Karma Science.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple iPhone enters prepaid world with Cricket
Want a prepaid version of the iPhone? It’ll cost you.
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CNET News
Microsoft to ship Windows 8 Release Preview today
Microsoft will ship Windows 8 Release Preview today, several days earlier than expected, according to a blog briefly posted by the company.
Computerworld News
White House Announces Initiative To Fight Botnets
benfrog writes “ISPs and financial-services companies would share data about computers made into botnets under a pilot program announced today by the Obama administration. From the article: ‘The voluntary principles announced today include coordinating across sectors and confronting the problem globally. They were developed by the Industry Botnet Group, comprising trade groups including the Business Software Alliance and TechAmerica.’ The White House is also backing a bill proposed by Joe Lieberman that would put the Department of Homeland Security in charge of cybersecurity of vital systems such as power grids and transportation networks.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
IT Desktop Support To Be Wiped Out Thanks To Cloud Computing
An anonymous reader writes “Tech industry experts are saying that desktop support jobs will be declining sharply thanks to cloud computing. Why is this happening? A large majority of companies and government agencies will rely on the cloud for more than half of their IT services by 2020, according to Gartner’s 2011 CIO Agenda Survey.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Bio-chemical circuits may make you a man of a machine
You’d be more than forgiven for not knowing who Klas Tybrandt is. The doctoral student at Linköping University is hardly a household name, but his latest creation may garner him some serious attention. The Swedish scientist has combined special transistors he developed into an integrated circuit capable of transmitting positive and negative ions as well as biomolecules. The advantage here is that, instead of simply controlling electronics, the circuits carry chemicals which can have a variety of functions, such as acetylcholine which the human body uses to transmit signals between cells. Implantable circuits that traffic in neurotransmitters instead of electrical voltages could be a key step in taking making our cyborg dreams a reality. We’re already counting down the days till we’re more machine than man.
Bio-chemical circuits may make you a man of a machine originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 May 2012 06:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Orange San Diego Hands-On
Orange and Intel unveiled the Orange San Diego here in London today, and we had a chance to go hands-on with the freshly announced device. Not much has changed about the handset since the last time we saw it, except for the new moniker and the inclusion of Orange’s modifications to Android. If you’ve handled
IT Services Consolidation: CGI To Buy Logica For $2.6B (And Crashes Logica’s Site In Process)
Some enterprise IT consolidation afoot, and a sign of the business crunch that the enterprise market has witnessed in the last year. CGI Corporation, an IT services firm based in Canada, has made an all-cash offer of $ 2.6 billion (£1.7 billion) to buy UK rival Logica, a deal that would create one more IT services powerhouse to rival the likes of IBM, Accenture and KPMG.
The offer represents a premium of 60 percent on Logica’s closing share price yesterday. Logica, one of Europe’s biggest IT services firms, has hit the rocks in the last year, with profit shrinking to £32.7 million ($ 50.6m) from £192.9 million ($ 299m) the year before on the back of IT cuts in the public sector, a key vertical for the company. It also laid off some 1,300 people in 2011. And margins for IT services — a challenge for all IT services companies — shrank to 2.2 percent from over eight percent in Logica’s main UK business.
Fantastico! Superbe! Fabuloso! Exclusively for CNET members: Awesome savings on Rosetta Stone
You’ve seen them at the mall, you’ve seen them at the airport, and you’ve seen them online — but I bet you’ve never seen them at this excellent price.
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CNET News
Ore-Sniffing Dogs Rediscovered By Mining Industry
An anonymous reader writes “In the 60s and 70s Sweden, Russia and Finland were the foremost players in the game of ore dogs, using dogs to sniff out ore deposits for mining. The technique was forgotten in the last century, but this article shows they’re now being used again to discover ore deposits. From the article: ‘The keen noses of sniffer dogs are proving so successful at locating ore that even the mining giants are sitting up and taking notice. Berenice Baker talks to Peter Bergman, geologist and CEO of the Swedish company OreDog, about his plans to turn the canine skills into a multi-million dollar global industry providing exploration services for the mining industry while offering a Google-like working environment for staff.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule prepares to return to Earth after space station visit
First VLBI SETI Search Finds No Radio Transmissions From Gliese 581
Astronomers have completed the first search for extraterrestrial intelligence on nearby exoplanets using very long baseline interferometry
A telescope’s angular resolution is its ability to distinguish small details of a distant object. The Hubble Space telescope, for example, has an angular resolution of about 100 milliarcseconds.
New wave of ultrabooks to include 30 touchscreen models, Intel says
A fresh crop of ultrabooks sporting Intel's latest "Ivy Bridge" Core processors will start to go on sale next month, including 30 models with touchscreens, Intel said Thursday.
Computerworld News
Gigabyte makes 975g X11 official, claims ‘world’s lightest’ 11.6-inch notebook
Well hello there again, Gigabyte X11. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s leak, Gigabyte’s just made its 11.6-inch X11 laptop (or is that an Ultrabook?) official. At 975g (34.4oz) it claims the title of “lightest notebook on earth” — and weighs even less on Mars. Design-wise, you’re looking at a 16.5mm (0.65-inch) to 3mm (0.19-inch) thin Macbook Air-like body made of real carbon fiber (!) with an aluminum hinge. Under the hood you’ll find unspecified third generation Intel Core processors (read Ivy Bridge), 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Mobile Intel HM77 Express chipset with Intel HD Graphics 4000, a 128GB SSD, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth v4.0.
Ports include power, USB 2.0 and mini DisplayPort on the left side plus microSD, combo audio and USB 3.0 on the right. While the specs also mention gigabit Ethernet, there’s no sign of it anywhere in the press shots. The display is a 1366×768-pixil LED-backlit affair dotted with a 1.3 megapixel webcam. A chicklet keyboard, buttonless trackpad and 4730mAh 7.4V Li-ion polymer battery (likely sealed) complete the package. There’s no information on availability, but prices will range from $ 999 to $ 1299 with Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional in tow. Expect more information when we get our hands on this sexy beast at Computex next week.
Gallery: Gigabyte X11 PR shots and specs
In addition, Gigabyte’s announcing two 14-inch laptops — the U2442 and U2440 — which feature third generation Intel Core processors and NVIDIA GeForce graphics. Unfortunately, we’re still busy drooling all over the X11 gallery, so we’ll direct you to the full PR after the break for more information.
Continue reading Gigabyte makes 975g X11 official, claims ‘world’s lightest’ 11.6-inch notebook
Gigabyte makes 975g X11 official, claims ‘world’s lightest’ 11.6-inch notebook originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 May 2012 03:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Australia Drops Second Google Investigation
joshgnosis writes “The Australian Privacy Commissioner has decided against investigating Google a second time over the collection of Wi-Fi payload data in Google’s Street View cars. Despite a damning FCC report released last month claiming that senior manager within Google were aware that a ‘rogue’ engineer was working on the project on the side, he said a second investigation wouldn’t yield any new results. ‘I have decided not to open another investigation into Google Street View,’ he said in a statement. ‘In reaching this decision, I have considered the FCC’s report and don’t consider that a new investigation would reveal any information that would change our original finding.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Lenovo ThinkPad X230 Review
The ThinkPad family of laptops has had a reputation for reliability since long before Lenovo started making them, and the fervency of their fans is perhaps the only thing that reaches the same level as Apple hardware these days. The X series, Lenovo’s road warrior class of thin and light laptops, remains among the most
Open-Source Mini Sub Can Be Made On the Cheap
An anonymous reader writes “Eric Stackpole is a NASA engineer and avid outdoorsman. He is the chief designer of a cheap, portable underwater ROV that could change the way we explore our oceans. And he wants to make it so cheap and easy to build that anyone can do it. The device in question is the OpenROV, a small, lasercut contraption powered by several C-cells, a small, cheap computer and a webcam. Right now the price per vehicle is around $ 500-$ 600, As with all open source hardware projects, further development will likely drastically reduce the price. Or you can buy a kit for $ 750 and support the project, once the Kickstarter gets going.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Is This the Key to Vastly Better Batteries?
One company thinks it’s solved a key problem that’s been holding back new energy technology.
Researchers are experimenting with a handful of ideas that could make batteries vastly better than they are today, which could lead to more affordable electric cars and cheaper ways to store solar power to use at night. But many of these approaches have one thing in common: they aren’t practical because of the shortcomings of existing battery electrolytes.
Foxconn working conditions slammed by workers rights group
Hardware giant still forcing its factory workers to toil under difficult conditions, according to a new report.
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CNET News
‘Apple devices are ‘beautiful crystal prisons,’ privacy experts warn
Tim Armstrong On The Future Of Aol — And TechCrunch Too [TCTV]
Aol’s chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong was in the house last week at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NYC conference, and while he got a good grilling on stage by my colleague Josh Constine, we still took advantage of the chance to pull him aside for a follow-up chat backstage for TechCrunch TV to ask a few more questions.
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