STUFF: News, Technology, the cool and the plain weird

[MIKA27]

11 Kickass Ways Normal People Will Use Google Glass

Much of the hype around Google Glass to date has focused on skydiving, BMX biking and being a totally effective stalker. Those far-flung, limited-use applications don’t seem worth the hefty $US1500. But what about the totally practical ways that us normal people could actually use them?

It turns out, especially after Google’s quick Glass demo last night at SXSW, there are a lot. Here’s the slightly more achievable Google Glass future that has us more excited than a cheap stunt ever will.

If Google Glass is recording a concert, maybe everyone would finally put their phones down.

Running or biking? Leave your phone at home, follow a map, avoid traffic and see your real-time stats, thanks to the data on your Glass.

If you’re following a complicated recipe, you’re constantly referring to the directions on your tablet or phone. With the heads-up display, you could stop getting your garlic-covered paws all over your gadgets.

Last year we saw a paralysed man become the first person to tweet only using his eyes. He could not otherwise move or speak. Google Glasses could facilitate communication for countless people with disabilities, greatly improving the quality of their lives.

You’ll never be able to complain that you don’t have time to follow the news — a Google Glasses app from the New York Times will read you the headlines aloud.

Backing up your data won’t be something you think twice about it. Take a photo, and Google Glass will automatically load it to Evernote.

You don’t want to pop out your phone and look like a tourist — or make yourself a target for a mugging — when you’re trying to find an obscure restaurant on a random street. Just pull up Street View right in front of your nose.

That horrible feeling where you run into someone and she knows you but you cannot for the life of you remember her name? No problem. You’ve got the mother of all rolodexes on your face.

Helping your parents with tech support is the worst thing. In the future, when your mum asks you how to upload photos for the Nth time, make a video from a first-person point of view instead of trying to talk her through it. Problem (maybe) solved.

[MIKA27]

How Drunk People Will Use Google Glass (Hint: Badly)

Follow along as our hapless drunk stumbles through the St. Patrick’s Day festivities with Glass and gets himself into more and more trouble. Consider yourself warned: swearing and general gross-ness follows.

[Fuzz]

The reality of Google Glass....

[MIKA27]

The reality of Google Glass....

Hahaha.. Classic!

[MIKA27]

14 Adults Have Been ‘Cured’ Of HIV

This could really be happening. Just weeks after a baby girl was functionally cured of the HIV virus, early treatment has been found to put HIV into seemingly permanent remission in 14 adults. It’s breathtaking progress in the fight against HIV.

The 14 patients were part of a group of 70 examined at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. They all began receiving anti-retroviral (ARV) medications between 35 days and 10 weeks of contracting the virus. The patients then stayed on the drugs for an average of three years, but all eventually stopped. ARV drugs can keep HIV in check, but can’t totally remove it from your system. And typically, when you stop taking the drugs, the virus re-emerges. Except, that hasn’t happened with these 14 patients.

The early treatment is similar to the treatment of the Mississipi baby who was cured. She had ARV drugs administered just 30 hours after being born.

In both cases, the virus is still present, in a greatly reduced form. But in its current state, the body can keep it under control on its own, without the use of drugs. Doctors aren’t sure if that will be permanent, or if it will only last a certain amount of time, or while the patients are in otherwise good health. And it won’t work for every patient that catches his or her infection early: it’s estimated that between 5 and 15 per cent will be functionally cured and no longer need drug treatment. Additionally, being diagnosed with HIV as early as 10 weeks after contracting it isn’t overly common, and the early-action aspect could preclude a lot of cases from this treatment.

Still, it’s an exciting development, and one that seems like it could be replicable. The advantages of catching HIV early are that it limits how much of the virus will remain once the drugs go into effect; it stops the virus from diversifying itself, which makes it harder to target; and it prevents the immune system from being destroyed.

There will not be a silver bullet for HIV. This is what progress looks like: science fighting the virus off bit by bit. This is a pretty big win, and an even better reason to get tested regularly if you aren’t already.

[MIKA27]

High Roller Takes Melbourne Casino For $33 Million With Security Camera Hijack

Australia’s biggest casino was taken for $32 million, when its own security cameras were used against it by a high-roller who managed to hijack the surveillance systems.

The man behind the scam, who was apparently staying in an “opulent villa” reserved for VIP guests, was given access to the cameras by a staff member. Unsurprisingly, that staff member has now been fired.

But not before the guy manged to play eight hands of cards in one of the most exclusive parts of the casino, making a cool $US33 million helped along by footage from the cameras. Later that night, the gambler and his family were ejected — and banned — from the casino.

Weirdly, the casino never made a formal complaint to the police. However, according to the Herald Sun, the casino believes it is “in a good position to recover a significant portion of the amount involved in the scam”. As for the rest of us, the moral of the story is clear: if you’re going to cheat, don’t get caught

[MIKA27]

Adding Spinning Dials To A Rubik’s Cube Is Downright Evil

Unless you’re some kind of prodigy who can solve one while juggling, making pancakes and whistling Dixie, the Rubik’s cube is already difficult enough. So why on earth would someone go and add a numbered, spinning dial to each side? That’s just sadistic.

You could argue that Brando’s $US80 Roulette Wheel IQ Cube is actually a simpler version of the standard Rubik’s Cube, since it only features four segments per side. But it’s the addition of that dial that takes the difficulty level from child’s play to Mensa challenge.

However, no matter how scrambled it might become, as long as these manufacturers keep cheaping out and using decals instead of paint, it’s just a couple of hours of peeling and re-sticking to easily ‘solve’ it again.

[Deodato]

I love this thread. Thanks man!

[MIKA27]

I love this thread. Thanks man!

And I love posting this thread. Thanks for the Kudos, you're welcome.

[MIKA27]

Path Of Exile, An Action RPG Developed By Kiwis, Hits 2 Million Players

Whether Blizzard likes it or not, Diablo III fell short of satiating our hunger for action RPGs. Torchlight 2provided a hearty meal to fill the void, but the time’s now perfect for another tasty morsel to hit the plate and Path Of Exile, from Auckland-based Grinding Gear Games, looks the goods.

A piece of VentureBeat reports that since opening the doors to its open beta on January 23, PoE has clocked 2 million registered players, a staggering figure in anyone’s books and right up there with triple-A heavyweights.

GGG seems happy with the numbers as well, going by the following quote from the game’s producer Chris Wilson:

“We’re really pleased with Path of Exile’s reception. It blew our expectations out of the water and continues to grow every day … The continued feedback and support from our fans has been great. We expect to add a lot of new content and features during the Open Beta period as we approach full release later this year.”

At the moment, the game is set for a September release on PC, which, yeah, is an agonisingly long way away. But given the development time GGG has poured into the game already and the care it’s taken to get the game just right, I trust its judgement regarding the date.

[MIKA27]

Samsung Galaxy S IV Specs: A Worthy Upgrade To The Galaxy S III?

It feels like the Samsung Galaxy S III only came out yesterday, yet it has already been knocked off the top perch by the inexorable march of progress. If you’re still clutching onto your S III, here’s an overview of the main improvements ushered in by the new phone.

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy S IV has a 5-inch 1080p super AMOLED display boasting a pixel density of 441ppi (pixels per inch). Its predecessor made do with a 720p 4.8in super AMOLED display with 306ppi.

The S IV’s boost in resolution should translate to a significantly sharper viewing experience, especially when it comes to photos and small or spidery fonts. The added screen real estate will also be a plus for web browsing and video playback, but at the same time, it does make for a slightly more cumbersome smartphone.

CPU

The Samsung Galaxy S IV is powered by a 1.6GHz 8-core Exynos processor, although in some regions it will ship with a 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon CPU (at the moment there’s no word on which version Aussies will get).

The original Galaxy S III came with a 1.4Ghz Exynos 4 quad-core processor which proved perfectly zippy for most tasks. If you’re a casual smartphone user, the S IV’s additional processing power probably won’t make that much of a difference.

User interface

The Samsung Galaxy S IV runs on the latest version of Android Jelly Bean and comes with a handful of new UI tricks up its sleeve that were absent from the S III. Chief among these is ‘Air Gesture’, which allows you to explore, magnify and preview content by hovering your finger just above the screen — in a manner reminiscent of Windows 8 touch displays.

The Galaxy S IV’s touch screen has also been optimised for use with gloves, which really only affects people living in colder climates (although we suppose it could be useful if you happen to own a motorbike).

Network

The Samsung Galaxy S IV will be compatible with all Australian 4G networks. At launch, the Galaxy S III was a 3G device, although this has since been replaced by an LTE version dubbed the Galaxy S III 4G. Depending on which version of the S III you have, the S IV could be worth upgrading to.

The launch model of the S IV will be a 4G category 3 device which means it “only” supports download speeds of up to 100Mbps. It should still be plenty fast though.

Design

Today’s launch event in New York featured crumping house wives, smooching lovebirds and tap-dancing kids — but as much as Samsung tried to distract us, there was no getting past the fact that this was a very similar looking smartphone to the Galaxy S III.

At 7.9mm thick, the Galaxy S IV is slightly slimmer than its predecessor and it also comes with a bigger screen, as mentioned. Otherwise, the word ‘samey’ springs to mind. It will be available in black and white variants. (Or ‘white frost’ and ‘black mist’ to give them their obnoxious marketing names.)

Memory and storage

Samsung has doubled the amount of DDR3 RAM in the Galaxy S IV which now stands at 2GB. Again, the added grunt probably isn’t something you’ll notice during day-to-day applications.

The S IV will ship in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB configurations. Like the Galaxy S III, it also boasts a Micro SD memory card slot for additional storage.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S IV has been decked out with a 13-megapixel camera capable of shooting Full HD video. It can also take 100 photos in four seconds, although we’re not sure what the practical purposes of this would be for a mainstream user.

The most interesting thing about the new camera is its inbuilt editing software, which includes an auto-album creation tool, “talking” photos (via embedded audio files) and an ‘eraser’ function which lets you to auto-remove unwanted people and objects from your photos using the S IV’s touch screen. Bizarrely, Samsung has also built a hard copy album app into the camera which lets you order physical albums of your photos for around $30 a pop.

If you use your smartphone as your primary camera, this may be the deciding factor in making the leap to the Galaxy S IV.

Battery

The S IV will ship with a 2600mAh battery, which is slightly more powerful than the Galaxy S III. Whether this will translate to longer battery life remains to be seen however — the bigger screen, beefier specs and myriad inbuilt applications will presumably take their toll.

Conclusion

Based on today’s unveiling, we wouldn’t class the Galaxy S IV as an essential upgrade — in terms of hardware evolution, it’s roughly comparable to the leap between the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

While the myriad improvements are nice to have, the Galaxy S III does a perfectly adequate job in most of the same areas. Meanwhile, many of the all-new features, ranging from inbuilt calorie counters to temperature and humidity sensors, seem a bit niche. (Samsung might even bring some of the new software over to the S III in a future update.) For the time being, we’d stick with what you’ve got.

[MIKA27]

Blackberry Sells One Million Handsets To Unnamed ‘Partner’

Blackberry’s demise, much talked about and somewhat goaded, is on hold while the world reacts to the Blackberry 10 OS and two handsets launching on March 22. And already someone has come forward to buy a million units. So that’s… unexpected.

The purchase is the biggest single order in Blackberry history. It’s not clear who all those phones are going to, but a Blackberry spokesperson told AllThingsD that it was an anonymous “established partner”. Could be a carrier or a government organisation, or maybe it’s just the mum of every Blackberry employee.

[MIKA27]

Thieves Steal Entire Bridge, The Whole Bridge, For Scrap Metal

The days of casually crossing a creek are over if you live in the Gölçük district of Kocaeli province in western Turkey. Which maybe you don’t. But the point is that someone stole a 22-ton, 82-foot-long bridge from there. It’s just gone.

Police suspect that the bridge was cut into sections and removed on a truck for scrap metal. Its estimated value is about $US11,000.

Villagers use the bridge to access their orchards, and a resident, Mustafa Karakaş told Today’s Zaman that, “Now we have to take our socks off and cross the creek.”

The weirdest part of the theft may be that it’s not the first time a bridge has been stolen in recent memory. Way to maintain the gall, thieves of the world.

[MIKA27]

THX Is Suing Apple Over — You Guessed It — Patent Infringement

It looks like Apple will never escape the black hole that is high-profile litigation, be it self-inflicted or from external forces. Samsung is the biggest fish the company has tangled with, but a new and familiar challenger has recently appeared — THX, the audio specialist once a part of the Lucasfilm mothership.

An article on Apple Insider details the court filing, itself viewable on Scribd. Going by the document, THX’s beef with Apple is over the 2008 US patent #7,433,483, which also goes by the more descriptive title of “Narrow profile speaker configurations and systems”.

Here’s a snippet from the patent’s abstract:

A narrow profile speaker unit comprises at least one speaker outputting sound towards an internal surface and through a duct with an output terminus, such as a slot, having a narrow dimension, effectively changing the cross-section of the speaker’s audio output wave … A slotted speaker unit may include multiple speakers facing the same direction, towards a groundplane or reflecting surface, and having parallel apertures for allowing sound radiation. The speaker units may be integral with or attached to electronic appliances such as desktop computers or flatscreen devices …

THX alleges that Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iMac products infringe on the patent.

How they infringe might not be immediately apparent, thankfully, Apple Insider noted that the image on the right, taken from the patent, along with the description in the abstract, do a decent job of describing the speaker configuration on the new iMac.

The first “case management” chat isn’t until June 14, so it’s possible we won’t get any updates on the situation until then. I’m betting if THX’s claim has any weight, which it certainly appears to, we’ll be hearing things long before then.

[MIKA27]

In Australia, Not Owning A Smartphone Gets You Punched In The Face

Turns out that owning a dumbphone is more hazardous to your health than previously reported. NSW Police yesterday reported an incident in which a man was allegedly punched in the face before being kicked repeatedly by two youths who refused to steal his phone after finding out it wasn’t a smartphone.

NSW Police say that the 31-year old man was approached in the Sydney suburb of Redfern over the weekend by a youth who reportedly asked for the time before demanding the phone from the man.

The man then reportedly offered the phone to the alleged assailant but copped a fist to the face when they refused to take his dumbphone.

A man has been attacked and robbed by a group of teenagers after they attempted to steal his mobile phone in Redfern last night.

About 9:25pm, Saturday 16 March 2013, a 31-year-old man was walking through Redfern Park, near the fountain, when he was approached by a boy who asked him the time.

The boy demanded his mobile phone but when he discovered it was not a smart phone he declined taking it and punched the man in the face.

The man tried to run away but was grabbed from behind by another boy who assaulted him and removed his backpack.

He fell to the ground where the two boys continued to assault him by kicking him a number of times.

They then rummaged through his backpack and stole a sunglasses case before running off through the park towards Chalmers Street with four other males.

The injured man ran to Cleveland Street and called police who attended the scene but were unable to locate the group of boys. He was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for treatment of facial injuries.

Redfern Detectives are investigating the robbery and are looking for the six males.

Buy a smartphone for your own good.

[MIKA27]

This Gorgeous Knife Draws Inspiration From Our Ancestor’s Stone Tools

While crude by today’s standards, the stone tools used by our ancestors were obviously more than adequate for their survival. After all, were they not, Italian designer Michele Daneluzzo wouldn’t be around today to craft this beautiful homage to the flint cutting tools of the Stone Age.

The knife, appropriately dubbed the Primitive, actually has no obvious handle — it’s all blade. So to safely use it to hack and slash at meat and veggies, the top edge gradually thickens into a rounded ridge that makes it easy to grasp. The design looks like it actually might be more effective at chopping through more resilient materials since you’re able to put your weight and force directly over the blade.

The Primitive was designed while Michele was a student at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, but it’s actually been turned into a real product by Italian kitchenware maker Del Ben.

[MIKA27]

Boiling Your DSLR Lenses Can Save Them

Dropped a valuable DSLR lens in the sea? You might think that you can pretty much wave it goodbye, but it is feasible to rescue salt water damaged lenses by boiling them.

When an $1,800 Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 lens was brought into a Nikon repair centre in Taiwan, the staff apparently rescued it with a little boiling. Not just in straight water — there’s an unidentified chemical included in the process — and undoubtedly not a cheap process, but then for a costly lens, arguably worth it.

Nikon Repair Center Repairs a Salt Water-Damaged Lens by Boiling It

[MIKA27]

This Case Turns Your iPhone Into A Satellite Phone

When people call Apple’s iPhone a “global device”, it’s really something of a misnomer. Can it work on a desolate high peak? Or in the middle of the ocean? No, it’s limited to a network of ground-based antenna. This simple case frees the iPhone from those shackles, and lets it work pretty much anywhere in the whole wide world.

The SatSleeve from Thuraya is about what it sounds like. It’s a sleeve for your iPhone, that turns it into a satellite phone. Once you put your phone in the case, you’ll be able to make phone calls and send text messages using your own phone from anywhere Thuraya’s satellites can see you, which is about two-thirds of the planet (granted, you’re probably still screwed if your in the north or south pole).

The SatSleeve measures 5.4 inches x 2.7 inches x 1.2 inches, and it weighs 100g, so it will definitely add some bult to your kit, but it’s the kind of thing that could have kept Gilligan’s tour to three hours and left James Franco’s arm attached to his body.

There’s little to no setup involved either; you attach the iPhone to the case and flip a switch to activate it. Phone calls are then made/received through Thuraya’s app within the phone, but the case itself has an emergency call button, which will call a predetermined number and does not require the iPhone to be present. That’s a very nice feature. The case will also act as an external battery, giving your phone a charge when the switch is flipped.

You will be able to select a cradle that fits the iPhone 4/4S or the iPhone 5 (coming about a month later). Thuraya has stated that it is working on an Android version, but there’s no timeline on a release for that. Thuraya claims a standby time of 48 hours and a talk time of up to four hours.

The one obvious hole? No data. It will do calls and SMS, but no email, web or porn chat. An iPhone just isn’t an iPhone without that stuff. Still, it will transform it into a potential life-saving device. Without it, it’s just a glorified MP3 player in the wild. Also, there’s no such thing as free satellite calling. Thuraya’s voice plans are $US1-$US1.50 per minute for most places (which isn’t bad), but if you’re calling a remote location or another satellite network, it can skyrocket up to $US8 a minute. In some cases, that might actually be cheaper than roaming. You will be able to use your own phone number with it, which is a nice selling point.

The sleeve itself won’t come cheap either; the suggested retail price is $US500. But if you’re someone who finds yourself in the middle of nowhere with people to call, you may not find a better option.

Update: A SatSleeve with data will be coming in the third quarter of this year. That one will allow you to use all of your apps, email, all that jazz. Being able to download a map while in the wilderness (in case the one you’re using turns out to be out of date) would be a really killer feature. This is probably the model you want to wait for. The voice-only version pairs via Bluetooth, whereas the version with data will pair via Wi-Fi. The data version will likely cost a couple of hundred bucks more.

[MIKA27]

Anybody Want To Buy A Nürburgring?

The iconic racetrack could be yours for a cool $160 million, but you may have a bit of a tough time keeping it profitable.

Autoweek reports on the sale, which had originally attracted around 50 buyers, but has now dropped down to between five and ten prospective bidders. The report notes that the track is unlikely to be made entirely private, but there are issues relating to the ongoing administration costs of the venue. Speaking to Bridge To Gantry, the lead of the Save The Ring site, Mike Frison detailed the exact concerns:

The highest bidder buys the Ring and maximizes his profits to justify the investment. Grass root motorsport will disappear (it’s not earning real money) as well as local companies. Their services will be routed through the new Ring owner’s monopoly. We have seen clear tendency of that in the Richter/Lindner era over the last 2 years.

Accessibility and track time will only be a question of money, all events we know today are at risk. Especially the tourist drives, which are an old dinosaur from the past. From day one to be precise and it would be such a loss. You couldn’t blame a private host to turn away from that, but for the atmosphere and the region it would be a disaster. Things which aren’t top priority for investors.

So, if you’ve got a cool $160 million dollars you’re not doing anything with, and a passion for motorsport, you know what you should do.

[MIKA27]

Wow, This Incredible Gel Stops Bleeding Instantly

This is either some sort of magical sorcery, camera trick or freaking awesome science-fiction technology coming to real life. The Veti-Gel is a substance that can be applied to a wound and stop the bleeding immediately. It’s insane how fast it works.

Watch the video above to see Veti-Gel in action (don’t if you’re squeamish about blood). It’s shown working on a pork loin that’s being pumped with blood. You can see blood spilling out of the loin when the cut is made and then suddenly stop once the gel is applied. This is Mass Effect in real life. How does it work?

The Veti-Gel was created by New York University student Joe Landolina, who used plant polymers to instantly seal up open wounds. Basically, his synthetic creation links up with the human body, reassembling that feels and acts like skin. What’s even better is that Veti-Gel also helps the healing process too. Landolina told Humans Invent:

“It works in three ways,” says Landolina. “The first way is it works as a tissue adhesive,” he explains. “It actually holds its own pressure onto the wound so you don’t have to do it. Secondly, when it touches the blood, it does something called activating Factor 12.”

This activates fibrin, which is the polymer you need to make a blood clot, explains Landolina. “Finally, it activates platelet cells.” The gel causes these to bind to the fibrin, causing a tight seal.

The gel basically mimicking what the human body does but at a much faster rate. Landolina has been talking to the military about the Veti-Gel as they have an obvious interest. He expects clinical trials to begin within a year and a half. Read more about the fantastic healing gel here.

[MIKA27]

Say Goodbye To Needles And Get A Bluetooth Microchip That Bathes In Your Blood

We’ve got plenty of devices that track stats on the outside of our bodies and send the numbers to our phones, but how about one that goes under your skin and bathes in blood? A chip developed by a team of Swiss scientists does just that — it’s a Fitbit for under your skin. Sorta.

14mm long and fully bluetooth-capable, the chip will be able to keep track of a number of variables after implant. So far it can handle glucose and cholesterol as well as a couple of other blood ingredients that doctors like to keep an eye on. It could even potentially predict heart attacks. Using its built-in bluetooth capability, it would then beam all those numbers right to the implantee’s smartphone, which would pass it on to a doctor.

And while it’s easy to see how this could be awesome for the statistics-junkie, it’s initially intended for sufferers of chronic disease who need frequent blood tests, and even then it’s still about four years away from real human implementation. Tack it onto the list of cyborg enhancements we’re bloody excited for.

[MIKA27]

Jeff Bezos Rescues Apollo 11 Rockets From The Ocean Floor

Ever since July 16, 1969, the rockets that pushed Apollo 11 into the atmosphere mankind to the moon have lain at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. Jeff Bezos has been keen to get them back. Now, thanks to his hard work and vast fortune of book money, they’re seeing the light of day for the first time in decades.

Bezos and his team were able to locate the rockets last year but now, they’ve dragged the historic scrap to the surface. The chunks were recovered with the help of Remote Operating Vehicles, tethered to the ship and working at depths of up to 4000m. According to Bezos, the whole thing had an appropriately spacey feel too it. He says in the announcement:

We photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces. Each piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of engineers who worked together back then to do what for all time had been thought surely impossible.

…We’re bringing home enough major components to fashion displays of two flown F-1 engines. The upcoming restoration will stabilise the hardware and prevent further corrosion. We want the hardware to tell its true story, including its 5,000 mile per hour re-entry and subsequent impact with the ocean

surface. We’re excited to get this hardware on display where just maybe it will inspire something amazing.

And not only are these pieces of scrap historically significant, but they’re also quite beautiful in a rust-lust sort of way. At some point, you’re bound to be able to see these suckers on display in person, but for now we’ll have to settle for the pictures.

[MIKA27]

Science, Not Magic, Guarantees You Won’t Get Lost Wearing This Pendant

In what could be the most stylish camping accessory ever created, Meister designed this gold and titanium pendant that transforms into a functioning compass. So whether you’re deep in the woods, or strutting down a runway, you’ll theoretically never get lost with some basic survival skills.

That, and just over $US3000 for the pendant. I’ll stick with hunting for moss on a tree.

[CigarAsh]

MIKA - I love this thread. One of my go to threads a few times a week. Thanks for all the contributions.

[MIKA27]

MIKA - I love this thread. One of my go to threads a few times a week. Thanks for all the contributions.

And I'm most pleased you like it. Thank you for reading.