Apple’s voice assistant Siri will remain exclusive to the iPhone 4S, Apple has confirmed. ~ Dean kosage
In an answer to an inquiry from developer Michael Steeber, asking about a possible special Siri-enabled iOS build for iPod touch and iPhone 4 owners, Apple responded with a resounding “no.”
“Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices,” Apple said.
Siri is one of the most recognizable features of the iPhone 4S, and although it could work on the iPhone 4, Apple probably wants to give iPhone 4S buyers a little extra something for their money.
Of course, Apple can change its mind in the future, but for now it seems that only iPhone 4S owners will enjoy the benefits of chatting with their phone.
Honda has upgraded its bipedal ASIMO robot with several advancements, including improved AI and a bigger degree of autonomous behavior, the company announced. ~ Dean Kosage
The new ASIMO features strengthened legs, an expanded range of leg movement and stability control technology that allows it to walk, run, run backward and generally be much more agile than before.
It now has a multi-fingered hand with a tactile and force (we wouldn’t want it to apply too much force on its human overlords) sensor, which makes it capable of performing delicate tasks, such as pouring coffee into a mug.
Perhaps even more importantly, Honda’s little droid has been upgraded in the AI department as well, enabling it to (autonomously) respond to movement and surrounding situations. It can recognize a face or a voice — even when multiple people are speaking simultaneously — and react to the intention of the other party. It can also predict the direction a person will walk within a few seconds, and take an alternate path to avoid collision.
As one example of ASIMO’s possible usefulness in real world situations, Honda mentions the recent disaster in the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. “Not only is it possible to get inside the nuclear plant, but our robot could also get into other sites where humans don’t have access to,” said Honda’s CEO Takanobu Ito at ASIMO’s presentation.
Soon you can get a real postcard from the edge.In this era of Facebook, email, Twitter and other social media, getting a postcard from someone’s travels has a certain appeal.China’s mail service looks to be taking that tourist postcard to a whole new level. Amazing! ~ Dean Kosage
To celebrate Thursday’s docking of the Shenzhou-8 unmanned spacecraft with space lab module Tiangong-1, China’s post authority has opened a new branch office outside the country and out of this world — 343 kilometers above the Earth, to be exact.
Opening for business on the same day, the China Post Space Office has two venues — one on-the-ground base inside the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center (BACCC) and one “virtual office” aboard the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft.
There is also a new designated post code — 901001.
China Post Group’s general manager Li Guohua told China Daily the post office will be able to deliver mail from the public to astronauts in future.
The office will also issue postal souvenirs, such as stamps and envelopes that depict China’s major space program events.
We weren’t exactly sure what a virtual space post office was or how it all worked, so we made some calls. We left the ‘why send mail to space when you can email or Skype chat’ question for another day.
According to staff at the BACCC post office (which houses the worldly version of the space post office) the new branch handles normal postal as well as courier services.
All mail going through the BACCC office will be chopped with a special postmark showing the date in numerals, and “Beijing” and “Space” in simplified Chinese.
Philatelic fans can also send a letter to themselves to obtain the postmark by providing an extra envelope with sufficient return stamps (RMB 0.8 from Beijing, RMB 1.2 from other Chinese cities) and an address.
Beijing News reported Shenzhou-8 had in its payload three postcards to space this trip.
According to the report, it is possible the Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft, expected to launch in 2012, will take stamps and letters from the public into the final frontier.
And what sort of mail might be carried?
“For example, [people] can send us their wedding photos or vows to travel to space with the spacecraft. After [the spacecraft] brings them back, the space post office will mail them back to the owners on the agreed date,” an anonymous manager at Beijing Haidian post office told Beijing News.
The authority is yet to announce the price for mailing to space.
China Post Space Office is affiliated to China Post Group,the country’s first space-traveling astronaut.
Want to mail China’s space office? This is what to put on your envelope:
China Post Space Office
Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center
Haidian District, 901001
Beijing, China
To obtain a space postmark in person for your mail, head to this address: Courtyard 1, Yongfeng Xiangxin Dian, Daidian District, Beijing 北京海淀区永丰乡辛店1号院, +86 10 6874 6825, 9:30 a.m.- 12 p.m., 2 p.m.- 4 p.m.
China Post Space Office charges RMB 1 on top of postage for issuing one space postmark.
The record-breaking simulated mission to Mars has ended with smiling faces after 17 months. Mars500’s six brave volunteers stepped out of their ‘spacecraft’ today to be welcomed by the waiting scientists – happy that the venture had worked even better than expected. ~ Dean Kosage
Welcome back and thank you, Mars500
The video shows the 520 days of the astronauts’ life during the mission compressed into 15 minutes.
Oh, Mars. As the possible next step in human space exploration, the Red Planet is bound to be visited by us bipeds someday. So what’s the best way to make sure something doesn’t go wrong? Make a simulated, 520 day-long mission with real astronauts and see how things turn out.
Mars500, the European Space Agency’s mission held in a Moscow institute, started 520 days ago on June 3, 2010, with six astronauts enduring the hardships they would probably encounter on a real flight to Mars: The flight there, insertion into orbit, landing, exploration of the planet, and finally the long flight back and landing on Earth.
The mission cost $15 million and, although it could not replicate every aspect of a real flight to Mars (such as constant low gravity conditions), it had the crew perform more than 100 experiments with limited consumables and communications with Earth being artificially delayed and, at times, disrupted.
According to ESA, the team of six international male astronauts has performed “exceptionally well” during the simulated flight. They will go through a series of tests, debriefings and evaluations until early December, when the mission officially ends!
Anonymous, a group of hacker activists, have made a mysterious career out of big game hunting. The group, or hackers purporting to be part of Anonymous, have previously attacked targets such as Bank of America, Sony and even government sites. Now, the group may be targeting Facebook on Nov. 5 ~ Dean Kosage
The bad news is Anonymous is probably good enough to take down the social network, if only for a brief while, if they felt like it. The good news — for Facebook fans — is that the group frequently uses threats and warnings as a way to get people thinking about their targets without actually diving in. Facebook is now a target for abusing user privacy.
There was a mild buzz around the Internet about Nov. 5 as a potential Facebook attack date. Nov. 5 corresponds to Guy Fawkes Day, a UK holiday celebrating the failed plot by a crew of conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, to blow up British Parliament in 1605 and kill King James I. The holiday is supposed to celebrate the saving of the King’s life, but in recent years, it seems the revelry now favors Guy Fawkes and the idea of speaking truth (or gunpowder) to power. Fawkes was later popularized in the graphic novel-turned-movie V for Vendetta, which introduced a highly stylized Fawkes mask worn by rebels and revelers.
Anonymous seems to have dropped the Facebook attack, nicknamed “OP_FB.” There is little recent action on their Twitter account and there have been no new or significant statements specifically targeting Facebook. Instead, Anonymous is turning its attention to more public-friendly targets such as disrupting child pornography sites and threatening to attack the Zeta Mexican drug cartel (Anonymous has since backed down from the latter).
As of Nov. 3, PiratePad.net — a kind of Anonymous open forum — included a post saying:
Ideas for OP_FB:
Post ideas here guise. We are more powerful than DDoS attacks, and facebook isn’t going to keel over from something so small. We have more power than this and we should utilize it.
However, this seems more like brainstorming than a concerted attack. Even if Anonymous doesn’t decide to attack the world’s most popular social network, the threat itself certainly makes you think about just how much information Facebook owns and what its doing with our personal privacy.
While Nokia teased us this week with a slightly flexible prototype device, Samsung steps up with an even more flexible screen the company says will grace the front of a smartphone or tablet by 2012. We saw one of these flexible AMOLED screens from Samsung at CES 2011, but the big news is this has gone beyond the prototype stage, where we’ll allegedly be bending screens every which way by next year. We’ll believe it when we see it.
While I’m not a fan of the design of those hump-backed smartphones by HTC, this Motorola Atrix 2 is the most impressive Android phone I’ve seen yet. Its super-sharp 4.3-inch screen is noticeably bigger than its predecessor, and I especially like its pebble-grained back, giving extra confidence against droppage. Now if I could just get used to its Android 2.3 operating system — which is an acquired taste. But it’s so customizable I’m bound to find a commodious configuration. I’m using it all the time (and liking it a lot) until they make me send it back in a week or two.
Mint, Intuit’s online financial software that I think is second to none, has finally released a Mint iPad app, and it turns out it was worth the wait. It’s one of the best iPad apps ever created, better than all of Mint’s software for iPhone, Android and web put together. Gorgeous graphs, drill-down capabilities through many levels, and a remarkably intuitive interface make this free app the smooth operator of the year.
Halloween creativity reaches new heights this year with this working DSLR costume by Michigan photographer Tyler Card. It doesn’t just look like a DSLR, it is one, with a built-in LCD display, built-in “flash” and a working shutter release button. If there’s a more clever Halloween costume this season, I haven’t seen it yet.
Who says the BlackBerry is dead? If you can afford to shell out $2,000, you can get one that’s designed by Porsche, complete with typefaces and icons that make the phone look like it could accelerate from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds. If you have the bucks, this stainless steel and leather masterpiece will be available before the end of this year.
We hear a lot of guff about wireless speakers, but this iHome iW1 doesn’t even need a power cable to rock your Casbah. A stellar example of clean and simple design, this $299.99 beauty connects to iOS devices via Wi-Fi using AirPlay, or you can plug in your device via USB. And when you want to take it from room to room, there’s a handle on the back that makes it easy to carry.
At first I thought this was some sort of futuristic aircraft, but this speedy Air Propulsion Yacht flies on the water in grand style. This luxury watercraft is a concept created by Aquila Design, and it’s built for both comfort and speed with a multi-level interior that transforms into various configurations depending on what you have planned for the day.
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? If it’s anything like these Westone 4R Quad Driver Earphones, the answer is four, because that’s how many speakers are shoehorned into these tiny cans. As with most high-end headphones costing around $450, every detail has been attended to, including what the company calls a “tight tolerance of ± 2 decibels between earpieces.” Audiophiles are going to love this.
Google says it has learned from its mistakes with the first outing of Google TV, and now it’s replacing that confusing interface with Android 3.1 (Honeycomb). Will it be any better? I’m thinking that depends on the relationships Google forges with content creators such as TV networks and film studios. It’s all working toward an admirable goal: to be able to find and display what’s worth watching on TV (and the web) using Google’s search prowess. Can Android accomplish this feat on the Google TV-packing Logitech Revue, Sony TVs and other forthcoming set tops and devices? We’ll get our hands on the upgrade soon after it’s released early next week and let you know.
If you travel a lot, you’ve undoubtedly run into the dreaded outlet shortage problem. That issue is solved nicely by the Energizer iSurge, giving you a trio of surge-protected outlets, a USB port on the side (with enough power to charge an iPad) and a dock for your iOS device. I tested this unit, and I like those features and another nice touch, a little night light bar across the bottom that you can turn off if you want to sleep in total darkness. If it were a slightly more compact, it would be the perfect charging station for those who live on the road.
One of the best things about Halloween is that it’s a perfect opportunity to grab some friends and settle in for a good old fashioned scare in front of the TV, or increasingly, the computer monitor.
Although we still think the cineplex is the best way to get your big-league scare-on, the Internet is a full-on treasure-trove of excellent scary content. While it’s true you can buy and download movies online, more and more often, streaming services are offering ways for film fans to tune in to great content for free.Some of these services might only work in the US but if you know of any great content accessible to international fans, please let us know in the comments (legal content, only, please!).
Here are eight of our favorite horror movies to watch for free online this Halloween. ~ Dean Kosage
1. Dawn of the Dead (2004 version)
Although most horror remakes pale in comparison to the original, Zack Snyder’s remake of the George Romero classic actually works pretty well. The film offers good scares and great effects and while it doesn’t totally capture Romero’s awesomeness (and, really, what would?), it’s a very solid horror flick.
George Romero’s groundbreaking 1968 black and white horror film, “Night of the Living Dead” revolutionized the horror industry and started the whole wave of splatter films that would come to define horror in the 1970s. It’s a classic that still holds up today (even if we are now accustomed to bigger scares) and features Romero’s trademark humor and wit.
The film is in the public domain, thanks to the original distributor’s failure to include copyright marks on the film prints. As such, you can download and watch the film for free at the Internet Archive.
Check out the trailer:
3. The Blob
If you like campy, gory, B-movie horror, you need to check out Chuck Russell’s 1988 remake of “The Blob.” With a tagline like “Terror Has No Shape” you know you are in for some good, cheesy, horror fun.
OK, so “Ghostbusters” really isn’t what you would call a horror film, but it has ghosts and ooze and Bill Murray. Plus, they always played the theme song during the Halloween Parade at my elementary school. While it may not technically be horror, it is a Halloween tradition.
B-movie horror legend Vincent Price stars in the 1959 classic, “The House on Haunted Hill.” It’s about an eccentric millionaire who invites five people to his haunted house party. If they can stay the night, they get $10,000.00. Of course, as the night progresses, people get trapped and die. Pure B-movie gold.
You can watch the film on YouTube and check out the trailer here:
6. The Last Man on Earth
Another Vincent Price film, “The Last Man on Earth” is about a man who is the sole survivor of a deadly plague. However, he’s not as alone as he thinks — at night the bodies of the dead rise up, thirsty for his blood! The film was remade as “The Omega Man” starring Charlton Heston, but the original Vincent Price version is better.
Before Coppola’s “Dracula” adaptation — heck, before any adaptation — was the 1922 silent film “Nosferatu.” It’s a cinematic classic and still very eerie, despite being such an early film. It’s a must-watch for any fan of horror, or film in general.
Alfred Hitchcock is the quintessential master of suspense and his films like “Psycho” and “The Birds” continue to offer scares and thrills today. However, because he is so renown, most of his content is only available for purchase. However, you can still watch installments of his excellent TV show “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” on Hulu.
You know there’s something significant going on when Google creates one of its whimsical “doodles” and Halloween is no exception. Watch what happens. Very cool. Happy Halloween! ~ Dean Kosage
In case you can’t see it where you are, this year (in some countries), there’s a time-lapse video showing some of the most gigantic pumpkins in the world, going through a metamorphosis from blobs of orange to art as night falls.
Here’s how the Googlers describe the making of this kooky video on the Official Google Blog:
To celebrate Halloween this year, the doodle team wanted to capture that fascinating transformation that takes place when carving a pumpkin. Instead of picking up a few pumpkins from the grocery store, however, we decided to work on six giant pumpkins, specially delivered from nearby Half Moon Bay (some weighing well over 1,000 pounds). What you see is a timelapse video of the approximately eight hours we spent carving in the middle of our Mountain View, Calif. campus.
Watch the video of this Google’s “making of” video of this year’s doodle:
Memes are huge this year. So are video game birds, superheros and working iPhone bodysuits. Incredible Halloween Costumes! cool..! ~ Dean Kosage
That’s right, nowadays white sheets and bloody fangs are out — unless you’re desperately hanging on to theTwilight trend, which is only borderline acceptable in my book. This Halloween you’ll be encountering “aha” moments around every corner. Mermaid with thick-rimmed glasses = Hipster Ariel. Aviator-rimmed older man carrying a stuffed badger = Ojai taxidermist Chuck Testa.
The Clock Bloggers had earned such praise for their Angry Birds costumes that they blogged an instructional post for other bird-crazy fans sure to take advantage this Halloween.
“It was a cross between the “Party Rock Anthem” video from LMFAO and a Kia Hamster commercial,” explains Quang Mac, the costume maker. “Halfway into making the head, I saw ‘Sexy and I Know It.’ My initial thought was, ‘CRAP! Now I have to buy a Speedo.’ I am very mild mannered and it is out of character for me to do anything crazy.
“That is what led to the video seen on YouTube. It was an attempt to outdo my last costume. I think I made a valiant effort. Now I have to figure out how to outdo this one for next year.”
Photographer Tommy Kearns captured a series of popular meme costumes for Nerve.com.
When asked what he thought of today’s Internet, Kearns replied, “Web culture is the product of the unwashed masses, previously left to passively consume, rising up to create content that refuses to take itself seriously.”Reference the original Hipster Ariel meme.
Tyler Card built a working Nikon camera costume, featuring LCD display, built-in flash, and shutter-release button.
“As of last Sunday I had no idea what to be for Halloween, and with only about a week to decide before the first costume party I planned to attend, I started getting desperate,” says Card. “I didn’t plan on the costume being so functional and detailed, but as I built it, the ideas started coming, and when I get involved with something, I tend to go over the top.
“The most difficult part of making the costume was actually just cutting a circular piece of plexi-glass for the lens without the proper tools. And getting the damn thing on and off requires a little help [laughs].”
“My boyfriend and I wanted to have costumes that went together but wasn’t necessarily a “couples costume,’” says Ms. Pac-Man, aka Megan Messenger.
“The idea of Pac-Man and Ghosty seemed like the perfect idea, especially since Pac-Man is one of the few video games I can actually play. Everyone got a real kick out of our costumes, especially when Ghosty chased Pac-Man down the street — ‘Wakka wakka wakka.’”
John Savio has made three of these iPhone costumes, one of which he sold for $5,200!
The costume is primarily made of wood, fiberglass and the latest LED flatscreen, which is what makes it so expensive, Savio says. “It’s basically an ice cream sandwich, and I am the ice cream.”
The screen connects to a real iPhone and displays the phone’s capabilities, but doesn’t feature touchscreen technology, unfortunately.
When asked what inspired him to make such a rad iPhone costume, the former Apple employee replied, “It’s a love for Apple products.”
Blogger Sobrina Tung constructed her cloud costume last minute from white felt, hot glue and a little pillow filler.
She explains that the costume is meant to be interpreted as “I’m in the cloud.” Super nerdy — and we love it!
“Since I’d already dressed up as Twitter and a slice of pizza in prior years, I really had to rack my brain for something special,” says Tung. “The company I was working for at the time was in the middle of a Salesforce implementation, and the cloud was all anyone could talk about. I thought dressing up to be ‘in the cloud’ would be a funny way to add a visual to the conversation.”
Look what Nokia has done with this mobile gadget — Nokia calls it a “kinetic device,” a prototype with a flexible display. We’ve heard of displays that might be capable of folding like a newspaper and rolled up like a tube. Wow Awesome! ~ Dean Kosage
Instead of the pinch-to-zoom capabilities copied throughout the smartphone industry, Nokia has come up with a novel way to accomplish the same thing: When you bend and twist this handset, the image on its screen does your bidding in a highly intuitive way.
One of the advantages Nokia touts for such a device is the ability to use it without looking at it — for instance, twisting it in your pocket to dismiss a call or change song on a music player.
How does it work? According to CNET, a Nokia demonstrator said the company was experimenting with bundles of carbon nanotubes whose electrical properties change when they’re stretched. Those nanotubes are embedded in a flexible substance that allows the device to control the screen when twisted and bent. An additional advantage: The device is much tougher — and is water resistant, too.
Imagine the possibilities: Perhaps it could be used by blind people, where the bending properties of the device would not require vision to intuitively control a smartphone. We’ve heard of displays that might be capable of folding like a newspaper and rolled up like a tube, but the idea of controlling by bending is different.
When will we see such a thing in the real world? Nokia’s not saying precisely when its kinetic device will be released, but one rep tells IntoMobile in the video embedded below, “hopefully soon.”
