Unless you've been living under a proverbial rock, you've at least a passing familiarity with Twitter's #Music service, and today the platform given us another reason to check it out, thanks to the addition of genre charts. When #Music launched a month ago, it provided the means to discover and hear tunes from popular, emerging and suggested artists along with those you and your friends follow. Now those discovery pages have been expanded to include ten musical genre charts (country, hip-hop, rock, etc.), plus five additional charts titled Superstars, Popular, Emerging, Unearthed and Hunted.

The Superstar and Popular charts display the most popular songs and new music that's trending, while Emerging and Unearthed are two avenues for finding lesser-known songs and artists. Finally, the Hunted chart displays music that's currently popular in the blogosphere. So, people of Twitter, go forth, use these new charts and find your musical bliss, but only on the web, 'cause the iOS app is without them... for now.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Twitter #Music

We first saw a prototype of Scout, the tricorder and companion app built by Scanadu for the Tricorder X-prize competition late last year. Today, the company is unveiling Scout's final version and launching an Indiegogo campaign to let folks order Scout and sign up to participate in a usability study -- which will provide Scanadu the user feedback needed to help its tricorder get certified by the FDA. In the six months since Scout was first revealed, the design has changed somewhat, and we checked in with company CEO Walter De Brouwer to get the lowdown on the new version.

Like the prototype, the new model tracks your temperature, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure and stress level. Scout now pulls your vitals in ten seconds using just optical sensors, which enables it to read the vital signs of others -- as opposed to the prototype which utilized an EEG sensor and could only record the info of the person holding it. Plus, thanks to some newly developed algorithms, it can now take both systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings with 95 percent accuracy. Running the algorithms to translate the optical sensor info takes a good bit of computing power, however. So, Scout got upgraded from an 8-bit processor to a 32-bit unit based on Micrium, the operation system being used by NASA's Curiosity Rover for sample analysis on Mars. If you're into supporting real world space technology being used to make science fiction a reality, the crowdfunding project of your dreams has arrived.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Indiegogo

The Xbox One has finally arrived to serve up all of your living room entertainment in one place. But before you ready to open your wallet for Microsoft's next-gen console, you'd probably like to how the new Xbox stacks up against the old, and how its hardware compares to the next-gen competition from Sony, right? Well, a chart with comparable specs aplenty awaits you after the break.

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The Xbox One is a big deal for consoles, but Microsoft just made a massive content announcement at today's reveal event -- a live-action Halo TV series. As if the existence of such a television show weren't enough, it turns out that 343 Industries is teaming up with renowned moviemaker Steven Spielberg to bring the world of Master Chief to life in serial form. Spielberg will be the executive producer and the show will provide "exclusive interactive Xbox One content," whatever that means. Unfortunately, neither Microsoft nor Mr. Spielberg are telling when the show will actually be available for your eyeballs to view, but it is, most assuredly an actual thing. And just knowing that the follow-up to Halo: Forward Unto Dawn is coming is enough, right?

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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The patent wars have grown long and tiresome for many, but Twitter's among the first to take meaningful action to stop them with its Innovator's Patent Agreement. Today, the company launched version 1.0 of the IPA and is using it for the first time. Patent number 8,448,084, which claims a method for refreshing a scrollable list of content (aka pull-to-refresh) is the first to get the IPA treatment, which means that Twitter has pledged to use this patent for defensive purposes only.

What's that mean? Well, under this version of the IPA, Twitter can assert claims against anyone who has filed, threatened or participated in a patent infringement suit against Twitter or any of its users, affiliates, customers, suppliers or distributors. It can also assert the patent to "deter a patent litigation threat" against Twitter and its peoples. If you're thinking that such a broad definition of "defensive purposes" means Twitter can pretty much use its IPA'd patents how it chooses, you're pretty much right. Still, we applaud Twitter's effort to pre-empt future patent litigation, but we'll have to wait and see if it accomplishes its goal of having companies spending their money on innovation instead of litigation.

Filed under: Software

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Source: Official Twitter blog

Analog may be king for audiophiles, but digital is the future, friends, and Sennheiser knows it. That's why it built the HDVD 800 digital headphone amplifier to improve the sound of your digital tunes, and now stateside listeners can finally get their mitts on the thing. That's right, folks, a year after it was revealed across the pond alongside its analog brother, Senn's digital offering's finally available in the US for just a nickel less than two grand. Folks looking to part with the necessary cash to improve their listening pleasure can do so at the company's online storefront linked below.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Sennheiser

Flickr's one of the elder statesmen of the online photo sharing world, but in recent years its UI has grown a bit long in the tooth when compared to the eye candy provided by other kids on the social sharing block. That's all changed as of today, as Marissa Mayer's team has overhauled Flickr's look on the web and in its Android app. Out goes the old layout, where text and white space commanded almost as much real estate as your photos, and in comes a tiled layout that's nothing but images.

Gallery: Flickr web redesign screenshots

Gallery: Flickr for Android version 2.0 screenshots

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile

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Defense Distributed's plan is to put the power of guns in the hands of every person with access to the internet and a 3D printer. Until now, however, we'd only seen the Liberator pistol built using an expensive industrial-grade printer -- despite the fact that the blueprints for gun have been downloaded by thousands of people who don't have access to such a high-end machine. One of those folks decided to put the Liberator in the hands of the printing proletariat by making it with a consumer-level Lulzbot A0-101 3D printer, a nail and some common screws.

This new version, called the Lulz Liberator, differs from the original in that it's got a rifled barrel and uses metal hardware to hold it together (as opposed to printed plastic pins). Printing it took around two days and used about $25 worth of generic ABS material, and the pistol produced was fired successfully nine times, but its creator claims it could've shot more. It's still a far cry from a Glock or Beretta, of course, as the gun misfired several times, and removing spent shell casings required the use of a hammer. So, it's not quite ready for prime time, but it's one more bit of proof that the age of printed pistols is officially upon us.

[Image Credit: Michael Guslick]

Filed under: Misc, Alt

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Source: Forbes

A stock GS4 may look virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor, but it looks like Samsung's got a new variant of its flagship phone that'll bring it some much-needed visual flair. The folks at GSM Arena unearthed photos of a GT-I9295 model (allegedly called the GS4 Active) sporting a bright red shell with black inserts at the top and bottom and a trio of physical buttons on its chin. If the results returned by the AnTuTu benchmark are to be believed, the phone's equipped with standard GS4 fixins: a quad-core CPU clocked at 1.9Ghz and an Adreno 320 GPU (aka, a Snapdragon 600 SoC) and a 1920 x 1080 display. Naturally, there's no word on pricing, carrier support or an arrival date, but there are a couple more photos of the handset at the source.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: GSM Arena

The quantified self movement's gaining steam, with companies creating all sorts of gadgets to track our activity levels, sleeping habits and even what's going on inside our heads. Melon's an EEG headband that taps into your brain's inner workings to show you how well you maintain mental focus. We actually saw Melon's prototype predecessor last year when it was called Axio, and while this new band packs largely the same components, the design's been refined to a much thinner profile. As before, its got a trio of electrodes for sensing brainwaves, a NeuroSky chip for filtering out extraneous electrical noise and Bluetooth 4.0 for offloading data wirelessly. It sends data to iPhones (Android's in development) running the Melon app, which translates that info into a focus graph -- generally speaking, the higher the neural activity in your pre-frontal cortex, the higher your level of focus. Users then input contextual data tags like time of day, type of activity and the surrounding environmental conditions to allow them to track variables that may affect their focus.

Filed under: Wearables

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Source: Kickstarter

During BlackBerry Live this week we got to speak with Vivek Bhardwaj, BlackBerry's Head of Software, about the future of BB10. In light of the the platform's first major software update rolling out to its devices, we asked about the plans for future releases. Bhardwaj told us that the plan is for them to come at a regular cadence of one major code update per year, with other, incremental updates for specific devices sprinkled in as needed. A particular focus is to do so while delivering devs fully realized hardware and to avoid fragmentation in the code base -- making it easier to create BB10 apps.

While he wouldn't dish details about features coming to BB10 in those updates, Bhardwaj did explain that he's working on making BB10 a platform particularly suited for use not only in cars, but also in the healthcare and financial services industries. That focus is a part of the mobile computing ethos espoused by CEO Thorsten Heins meant to have BB10 devices be users' personal, portable computing terminal that is simply plugged into a screen -- whether it's a desktop monitor, a car or somewhere else -- that delivers a uniform experience. When asked whether those screens would include TVs, Bhardwaj didn't rule it out, but he did say that home experiences weren't a priority because it's a crowded space and BB10 "is all about getting things done." As a result, the number one focus is building out a compelling automotive platform, with healthcare and financial services coming in a close second. So, folks thinking BB10 was BlackBerry betting on consumers instead of the enterprise, think again. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same -- at least when the folks in Waterloo are involved.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

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Today at Google I/O 2013, Big G revealed a big redesign for Google+. Starting later today, users will see their content in a multi-column setup fit for any size screen. The home page for G+ now has up to three columns populated with individual cards for posts and pictures, and the social network can intelligently learn the content of those posts and automatically add related hashtags for you. Columns appear or disappear depending upon the size of your screen, and cards can be flipped to reveal editing options, or moved to suit users' aesthetic tastes. Should you have the requisite screen real estate, pictures and videos expand to the width of multiple columns to further provide a more visually pleasing social experience. In order to eliminate clutter, Google + has adopted a familiar looking left-side menu layout that disappears until a hovering cursor (or presumably a swiping finger) reveals it.

Update: You can see the new layout and auto hashtagging in action in the video after the break.

Filed under: Mobile, Google

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Source: Google+

Maps is one of the most useful features in Android, and today at Google I/O 2013, Mountain View announced a trio of new location services APIs to help devs to better leverage that strength. Fused Location Provider is the first, and it brings faster, more accurate location signals and delivers a low-power location mode that sips less than 1 percent of your battery while in use. Next is Geofencing, which will allow devs to set up to 100 location-based triggers for app events. The third API is called Activity Recognition, which uses accelerometer data and machine learning to figure out when you're walking, cycling or driving.

Filed under: Mobile, Google

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BlackBerry Live 2013 isn't just about new phones and OS versions. CEO Thorsten Heins just announced BBM channels, a way for people, companies and brands to provide streams of content in BBM. The new service allows users to search for and subscribe to preferred channels, comment and share posts with friends and also have one-to-one chats with channel administrators. Users can create and curate their own channels as well, with metrics to track the amount of traffic they're receiving. So, it's essentially Twitter, only with a decidedly BlackBerry flavor.

Following the initial announcement, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton appeared onstage to chat a bit more about the new platform and explained that the service will provide his F1 team the ability to communicate more directly and easily with fans. Excited to join Mr. Hamilton on the BBM channel bandwagon? Well, the beta's available for download now for BlackBerry devices running BB 5 and up, and the full release is slated to arrive later this summer.

Gallery: BBM Channels

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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BlackBerry Live 2013 has begun, and Thorsten Heins just revealed the first bit of good news for BlackBerry users. The latest version of BlackBerry's OS, BB 10.1 will be rolling out to the Z10 on US carriers beginning later this month. While the new software is mostly about tweaks to the OS for folks with a Q10 in their pocket, Z10 users will get an HDR camera mode, support for contact suggestions, PIN-to-PIN messaging and email with attached messages when they get the update. Additionally, notifications are improved with per-account message notifications and users will finally be able to paste phone numbers into the dialers as well. We still don't have an exact delivery date, as it'll vary by carrier, but at least you know you'll get the new software goodies in the next couple weeks.

BlackBerry's Enterprise Service is also getting bumped to version 10.1 and is available as a free download right now. Most users won't care much about the mobile-management platform, but IT pros will definitely appreciate the simplified deployment tools that can manage not just BB10 devices, but also Android and iOS handsets. There's also a shiny new dashboard that offers all sorts of data and statistics. And, really, who doesn't love piles of data?

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Blackberry

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Facebook Home and the First phone to ship with it on board were revealed just over a month ago, and in the time since, the Home team has been hard at work improving the platform. Today at Facebook HQ we got to check in with Cory Ondrejka, Director of Mobile Engineering and Adam Mosseri, Director of Product to see how Home has been doing since its debut, and to hear what's in store for Home moving forward.

Thus far, Home's been installed on almost a million phones, which has given Facebook some clear insight about the ways it needs to be improved. Most complaints thus far have centered on Home's failings as an app launcher -- when you install Home on any phone, it rearranges your apps because there's no folder support and no app dock. Well, Mosseri and Ondrejka feel your pain and assured us that those two features will be rolling out in the coming months, and they plan to continue to iterate to make Home a robust launcher. Facebook also has plans to roll out a new buddy list feature that'll show up as an overlay on top of Cover Feed with a simple swipe. This lets users start conversations directly from Cover Feed instead of having to open up the messenger app to start chatting. That's not all Facebook has in store, however, so join us after the break for more.

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Facebook

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While Facebook Home may not be for everyone, it gained some serious traction since its introduction. Today at Facebook HQ, Cory Ondrejka, Director of Mobile Engineering let loose that, in the month since Facebook Home was first released, it's been downloaded over almost 1 million times. And, the addition of the launcher to those phones is turning out as Facebook had hoped, as the company has seen it drive 25 percent greater engagement (time spent using Home and numbers of comments and likes) with the social network once Home is installed. Naturally, most of those million are early adopters, but Director of Product Adam Mosseri stated that they are seeing the user base shift to "more normal users" with each passing week.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

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Google Drive may be playing catch-up to its competitors in some ways, but the cloud storage team in Mountain View is forging ahead in others. Today, Big G announced a 'Save to Drive' button that allow users to save content directly from websites to Google-fied cloud lockers. Adding the button's easy, as it only requires a few lines of HTML, and a JavaScript API allows web admins to control their behavior. Folks looking to take advantage of the new button can learn more about it on the Google Developers portal, and as for the rest of us, we'll just enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Google

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Source: Google Developers blog

Epson's 3D display glasses, the Moverio BT-100 have been floating around as a development platform for a couple years, and APX Labs is the latest to hack the headset. APX Labs is a software firm best known for creating Terminator Vision augmented reality tech for the US military, and it decided to use the BT-100 as a vehicle to develop and showcase a smart glasses platform it's built to work for both business and consumer applications. In order to get the functionality it needed, APX grafted a 5 megapixel camera, mic and a full suite of motion sensors to provide nine-axis head tracking onto a Moverio headset.

Gallery: Epson Moverio BT-100 APX Labs smart glasses mod

All that gear is shoved into a 3D-printed module and attached to the BT-100 to turn it into a pair of smart glasses. In addition to the cameras and sensors, APX also hacked an Epson daughter board onto the Moverio's controller to allow an HDMI video feed from a smartphone to be shown on the displays. This result? A system that understands where you are, what you're seeing and hearing and a UI that allows users to glean information from the world around them using voice commands and head gestures. That should sound familiar to fans of Google Glass, but by using Epson's binocular displays, these smart glasses can convey depth in a way Mountain View's monocle cannot. (Not to mention that Glass doesn't even do AR apps... yet). The hardware we got to see was a crude prototype built for demo purposes only, but the software platform shows promise and Epson's got a version two Moverio headset in the works -- so perhaps you can see a bit of the future of smart glasses in the video after the break.

Filed under: Displays, Wearables

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Google Translate's truly a wonder of modern technology, with the ability to translate 64 70 languages, whether they are written, spoken or even photographed. Today Google's made it easier than ever to remain mono-lingual when traveling abroad by updating the Translate app for Android with Phrasebook syncing. This new feature lets users save translations of often used phrases and have access to them on any and all of their devices. Additionally, support for 16 new languages for its camera translation feature comes with the new code as well. This means that tourists traveling to Barcelona, Croatia, Slovenia and thirteen other places in Scandinavia and eastern Europe need not pester the locals for help reading street signs to get around. They can be good guests and offer to buy them a beer in their native tongue instead.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Google

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Source: Google Translate blog

Despite a bit of bad press for its Model S and a less-than-ideal close to the 2012 financial year, things have been looking up for Tesla. Sales are on an upward climb, company CEO Elon Musk has sworn to deliver more superchargers, better service for customers and continues to tout his EV's high resale value. After promising in Q4 of 2012 that Tesla would turn a profit the next quarter, the EV manufacturer has done so -- generating $15 million in net income and $562 million in revenue in Q1 2013.

During the first quarter the company built 5,000 Model S cars, and is scheduled to build the same number in Q2 to keep pace with the 20,000 orders expected this year. To better service all those vehicles, Tesla opened 12 new service locations in Q1, with 18 more to come online by the end of 2013. Additionally, the company plans to start deliveries of Teslas in Europe in Q3. An investor call with Mr. Musk will be starting shortly, and we'll update things here should he have any other news to share.

Update: During the call, Musk said that the company plans to build upon its newfound financial success by continuing to focus on increasing production efficiency for the Model S -- which is why the Model X has been delayed until late 2014. He also made mention of the fact that roughly half the folks buying the 60 kWh Model S are upgrading to supercharging hardware at purchase (85kWh cars have it standard), and he expects that number to grow as the Supercharger network grows in 2013.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Tesla [PDF]

Foursquare's been rather attentive to most mobile plaforms this year, releasing updates for Android, BlackBerry and iOS in 2013. The time has finally come for Microsoft users as well, as a fresh WP8-compatible version has just hit the Windows Phone app store. Version 3.0 lets users pin people and places to Start screens, provides lock screen notifications and lets folks check-in and share via NFC. Oh, and should you grow weary of using swipes and taps, the addition of speech controls allows you to search and check-in using only your voice. Should you be among the socially-inclined Microsofties, you know what to do.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Microsoft

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Via: The Verge

Source: Windows Phone Blog, Windows Phone App Store

Facebook's been giving its Messenger app quite a few facelifts lately, with the arrival of Chat Heads and VoIP calling among the highlights. Today, an app update was released for iOS that lets users add stylized critter stickers to messages, freeing them from the crippling visual limitations of emoticons in textual communications -- largely identical to the recent Android update. The upgrade also enables a swipe to delete feature to remove conversations from inboxes for good, saving users precious fingertips from an extra tap or two in the process. If your iPhone hasn't already told you about version 2.4, you'll find the fresh download at the source below.

Filed under: Software, Facebook

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Via: The Next Web

Source: App Store

ARM's long been the dominant form of silicon in mobile devices, but Intel aims to change that with its next-generation Atom chip design codenamed Silvermont. According to Intel, the new architecture will enable CPUs that operate at up to three times the speed of existing models, while (in some cases) also offering chips that sip just one-fifth the amount of electricity to get computational jobs done. The keys to those improvements are Intel's 22nm process and Tri-Gate transistors tuned for SoCs. While Silvermont was designed with mobile in mind, the architecture supports up to eight cores and will find its way into data centers and Ultrabooks in addition to phones and tablets. When? Intel's not telling yet, but rest assured when Silvermont shows up in an actual product, we'll be there to put it through its paces.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Intel

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Via: ZDNet

Source: Intel

Ahhh, the venerable Atari 2600. The godfather of console gaming has, in recent years, seen a resurgence as a hacker's muse -- mods to its innards and controllers are legion on the web. Recently, a new mod emerged: a controller that combines the capabilities of the Atari's joystick, paddle and keyboard controllers. It's crafted from a small wooden box, a cannibalized joystick, an Ethernet cable, some switches and a smattering of other electronic bits, and there's a full how-to on making one of your own on Instructables, courtesy of user x2Jiggy. If the mere mention of such an all-in-one has those DIY juices flowing, head on past the break for a construction video and see how it's done. It's high time you dust off your stock 2600 and break out Pitfall, Adventure or, well, Breakout.

Filed under: Gaming

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Via: Hack a day

Source: Instructables