Gallery: Microscopic Art Hides Inside Computer Chips 4th Apr 2011
Considering the expense, precision and difficulty of manufacturing computer chips, you would think the engineers designing them are pretty serious people.
But it’s not all business inside a chip fab, as these microscope photos reveal. In fact, the designers of microchips frequently hide tiny cartoons, drawings and even messages alongside the super-tiny circuits and semiconductors they create.
Chipworks, a company that analyzes microchips by peeling them apart and looking at them under microscopes, has discovered many examples of silicon art. We’ve selected a few highlights here from the firm’s extensive , but check the Chipworks website for more.
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Microsoft’s first series of Windows Phone software “updates” have been a mess, to say the least.
Some Windows Phone 7 customers can upgrade the software now. Some can get it later. And weeks ago, a few unlucky owners of a Windows Phone 7-powered Samsung phone bricked their handsets when they downloaded an update.
What the hell’s going on?
It turns out that delivering one substantial software update on multiple phones made by different manufacturers, on different carriers, isn’t a simple task at all, and Microsoft is still figuring out a solid process.
Continue...One Month Later, Android Tablet Platform Has 50 Apps 29th Mar 2011
Motorola’s Xoom tablet is the first promising alternative to Apple’s iPad, but the sickly condition of Android’s tablet app ecosystem may end up stalling the platform’s progress.
One month after its launch, the Xoom currently has about 50 native apps available for Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Google’s version of Android optimized for tablets.
That’s pitiful compared with the iPad, which was released last year with approximately 1,000 native apps on launch day.
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Google wants to do away with your wallet.
The Mountain View, California, company is working on a partnership with credit industry giants MasterCard and Citigroup that would allow you to make real-world purchases at stores using your smartphone, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
If the partnership materializes, buying groceries may require little more than a wave of your smartphone across an installed card reader at the checkout counter.
Continue...Loca Brews Pod Coffee in a Stovetop Moka 22nd Mar 2011
Luca Veneri’s “Loca” takes the simple, effective and well loved moka coffee pot and modifies to use expensive, wasteful and environmentally questionable coffee pods.
The moka is a classic, and can be found in almost every kitchen across western Europe. I have used one daily for most of my adult life.
Continue...Amazon Android App Store Set to Launch Tuesday 17th Mar 2011
Retail giant Amazon is preparing to launch its own app store on the Android platform on Tuesday, March 22, a trusted source told Wired.com.
First leaked in September, Amazon’s Android app store will be a curated market, meaning Amazon reviewers will determine which apps are allowed inside, similar to Apple’s iTunes App Store.
Continue...The Blackburn Flea, a Very Smart Bike Light 16th Mar 2011
Blackburn Designs’ Flea bike lights look to be some of the most cleverly designed lamps around — and not just because they look like a Transformer’s head.
The Fleas do much that most other removable lights do: They fix onto the bike with velcro straps, they offer a choice of flashing or steady beams, and they use bright LEDs for lots of light without using too much power.
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Yves Behar-Designed Cellphone Gets Its Design Inspiration From European Watches
If you want to trade in your touchscreen-centric smartphone for a dumphone that’s not short on looks, you can’t go wrong with Yves Behar’s +YvesBehar phone. Swiss and French watchmakers developed the watch band-inspired metalwork, which is available in either stainless steel or gold.
Hydra Two-Headed Book Lamp May Save Your Eyesight 8th Mar 2011
The Hydra Book Light is a double-headed lamp that can cast its LED illumination onto two pages at once. It’s five-inch necks let it crane its gaze over even the largest of pages, and a clever spine-gripping foot keeps it nicely centered.
I will never buy one. First, the only paper books I read these days are books I already own — cookbooks and old, cherished novels, mostly. Seeing as my Kindle has one screen, and my iPad has its own light, the Hydra would be a waste. Second, I almost never switch on a light to read. I have lost count of the concerned busybodies who tell me I will “strain” my eyes by reading by in the shadows.
Continue...NEC Phone Camera, Now with Fruit Recognition 7th Mar 2011
Yes, fruit recognition. Show the camera a melon, a zucchini or any other fruit or vegetable, and it will recognize it. And no, it won’t just tell you “this is a melon.” Instead, it will tell you which exact melon it is, where it came from and when it was grown.
This isn’t magic. The camera relies on a photograph having already been taken. Then, when it sees a fruit later, it uses a combination of face recognition and fingerprint recognition technologies to ID the fruit, matching it up with anything it has seen before. It turns out that the colors and wrinkles of fruit and veg are individual enough to make the system accurate to one in a million.
But why? Tracking.
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