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Researchers maximize your hybrid's battery by learning your routine
Researchers have figured out a way to make your Prius even more efficient by tracking your route to work. Right now your car uses the battery until its power runs out and then starts dipping into your gasoline supply. It's a solution that works, but isn't the best use of power. Viktor Larsson from Chalmers University of Technology developed a system that analyzes that monotonous route you take to work (including that much-needed Starbucks detour), and then determines how to get the most out of your battery. For instance, your car might switch to gas on the highway where it's more efficient and save your stored power for the stop-and-go traffic in the office park.
New algorithm turns 'Lord of the Flies' into an emotional ballad
Sure, you've read Lord of the Flies, but have you ever danced to it? Well, now you can. Researchers have created a way to digitally compose songs using the text from books. To make the jams, a computer program reads the book, applying sentiment analysis (the same thing marketers use to gauge emotions in tweets) and a special algorithm to assign notes to individual emotions. All those tones are then tied together to create a track that represents the book as a whole. The project, aptly named TransProse, is the creation of Hannah Davis from New York University and Saif Mohammad at the National Research Council Canada.
Experimental navigation system swaps satellites for quantum physics
GPS can be useful when you're trying to navigate to that hot new bar -- as long as your travels don't take you somewhere its signal can't reach. A new so-called quantum positioning system could pick things up when satellites fail, and help guide your way using super-cooled atoms. Aside from better directions, the solution might even make travel safer. While existing accelerometer-based systems can track location underwater within a kilometer, quantum positioning can do it within a meter, making it 1,000 times more accurate. With submarines, that could be the difference between staying safe and drifting into hostile waters.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Are pixels doomed?
Dear Aunt TUAW, Today I've been reading rumors of new iPhones all over the interwebs. Everyone's talking about 3x resolutions and 1704 x 960 displays. Help me, Aunt TUAW -- is my Retina display doomed? Thanks, Your Nephew David X. Dear David, Your Retina iPhone is not doomed. Apple's Retina technology packs in tight pixels for resolution excellence and has been a certain winner. Uncle Rich's coverage of what Retina means is a must-read if you're interested in learning more about the subject. Today's rumor suggests that Apple might pack a new iPhone with even more pixels than ever. Auntie is not going to take a position one way or the other on whether it makes sense to introduce another resolution style. All the developers she talked with this morning reacted with horror tinged with a certain intrigue when approached on the matter. Here are some basic facts... If the iPhone 5 had used a non-retina display, its screen would have presented 181,760 pixels at a time, a quarter of the 727,040 it actually uses and a ninth of the 1,635,840 rumored pixels for the iPhone 6. But compared to a current iPad air with its 3,145,728 pixels that's just pocket change. What developers are particularly worried about is having to stuff yet another image resolution into their already bloated applications. With the baseline iPad air packing only 16 GB, and apps having to already support image assets for non-retina and retina distributions on both tablet and phone families, it's hard to think that Apple would force yet another set of images into everyone's distributions. Auntie is hoping that Apple will introduce native vector support for the "UIImage" class in iOS 8. Describing images as rescalable vectors would massively shrink those app bundles. Sure it takes a bit more processing time to scale and display vectors than to present simple images, but they'd provide a great way to design images that would automatically scale without blurriness no matter what kind of screen was thrown at them. In fact, popular developer icon resource Glyphish just announced a "Complete" bundle with full vector icon support, to scale up the art as needed. (Photographic images would still pose an issue, and they're never going to go away, unless Apple throws in some kind of magic fractal compression solution as well.) Auntie suggests you wait a few weeks and then poke a developer after WWDC. The image APIs introduced this year will probably deliver some strong hints as to whether the rumored August product launches will stretch the definition of Retina or not. Hugs, Auntie T.
Taiwan considers fines for smartphone-addicted pedestrians
Taiwan is considering ticketing people who cross the street paying more attention to their iPhone than the cars around them. No, seriously. Taiwan currently has over 14 million mobile internet users, many of whom lawmakers consider "addicted" to their phones. The hope is a fine would curb that addiction (quite literally), and cut down on pedestrian deaths. According to the government, Taiwanese drivers often don't yield to pedestrians (even when they have the right-of-way). The "chaotic traffic" is already a dicey situation for those on foot. When you add a phone into the mix, your chances of survival get even worse. Distracted walking infractions would only apply to people in roads (walking off a pier while checking Facebook is a-ok), and would cost just $10 a piece. If the chance of being flattened by a motor scooter isn't enough for you to pause Angry Birds, our guess is a small fine won't do the trick either.
Report: Apple reaches #2 online retail spot after Amazon
This morning, Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Fortune.com writes that Apple has attained the number two spot in online retail. According to sales data, Apple has now passed Staples and Walmart. This achievement is partly due to an accounting change that now includes hardware sales along with iTunes and App Store revenue. Part of Apple's 24% increase last year (to $18.3 billion) is due to an accounting change: For the first time, Apple threw online hardware sales into the mix alongside iTunes and App Store sales. Amazon's retail offerings, of course, are considerably broader than Apple's. But as Asymco's Horace Dediu pointed out in a chart posted on Twitter last week, Apple has the edge in terms of online accounts. Those could come in handy if Apple, as rumored, is working on a new, iOS-based mobile payment service. Even setting aside the new accounting change, the rise in Apple's revenues started several years ago, beginning its noticeable acceleration in 2010. You can see the respective retailer stories in the above chart sourced from the Wall Street Journal. Sales results image courtesy of the Wall Street Journal
Don't touch this toilet
If there's one thing we can all universally agree on, it's that toilets can get pretty gross. Sometimes to a point you don't want to even get near them to flush. Kohler feels your pain, and has created a solution with its new electromagnetically-activated touchless toilet. The next generation of your home's most-used chair, it allows you to hold your hand above the commode to achieve the perfect flush without you ever having to make contact with the porcelain. The sensor will come built into several of the company's new thrones, and will also be available as a $99 standalone kit you can retrofit to your current bowl. It's a cool trick that has a lot of technology behind it.
Recon Instruments' Jet sporting sunglasses get delayed (again)
When we first saw Recon Instruments' Jet at Google I/O last year, we expected to be using it to monitor our heart rate and speed on the track by fall. But alas, it wasn't to be. In November the company delayed the launch of the extreme sporting sunglasses by "a few months," and today it broke our hearts a little more -- postponing the first shipments until September 25. Adding insult to injury, if you want to snag a pair of the high-tech glasses you're also going to have to shell out a little more cash. Starting this summer the device will be priced at $699, up $100 from its original $599 price tag.
Paperfold is a foldable, transformable smartphone prototype
If Kyrocera's folding smartphone Echo didn't have enough screens for you, try this on for size. The Human Media Lab at Canada's Queen's University has created a fully functional smartphone that uses not two, but three different snap-together e-ink displays. The result is a gigantic device called PaperFold, that can do some pretty awesome stuff, especially with maps. You can display driving directions over all of the screens for easy planning, or fold the displays together to create a Google Earth globe of sorts. The phone can even be used to print a model of your office. Just connect the panels together into a building-like shape, and send the specs along to your local 3D printer. A pretty cool trick if you ask us.
Google Glass community goes on charm offensive, plans a #glassnightout
Glass has gotten a bad rep over the past few months, particularly in bars where other patrons mistakenly think Explorers are recording their every move (or they actually are). To help improve that image, Google is encouraging owners to go out on the town this Saturday night wearing their high-tech glasses. To some, a bar full of Glass wearers might sound like the Worst Saturday Night Ever, but the hope is the cyborg masses will be able to educate the public a little better than when they're flying solo. The #GlassNightOut also offers the opportunity to mix and mingle with other Explorers -- a rare experience if you're living somewhere outside of San Francisco, and probably a lot more fun than going on Field Trip by your lonesome. If you're interested in checking out one of the Meetups this weekend, hit the source link for a full list of participating cities and locations. Not a people person? Well, Google Glass might be the wingman you've been looking for. Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
How to tell how much space your trash is using in OS X
Are you a trashophobe? I am. I delay, delay, and delay some more when it comes to emptying my OS X trash because I always worry about throwing something away that I'm going to need to recover later. I've made enough mistakes in life that I'm really cautious about hitting that Empty Trash option. This morning, when I checked my system in preparation for writing up this how-to, I found endless old software betas and more screenshots than you could possibly imagine clogging my trash can. In total, I had more than 100 GB sitting in my bin. It was time for a deep cleanse. For many Mac users, it's not immediately obvious how to check how much space your OS X trash occupies. You don't get much help from the Dock's contextual pop-up menu in Mavericks. What you need to do instead is this. Open the trash to a new Finder window, and with that window frontmost select File > Get Info (Command-I) from the Finder menu. If you're like me, it may take a minute or two for Finder to finish calculating the size. Once I realized exactly how much space I was using, I knew it was time to move on. And now my Trash looks like this. It won't last like that for long, but it's nice to have the confidence to make a fresh start every now and then. Thanks, robotive
Slingshot delivers business-class iOS and PC screen sharing
Slingshot, the latest offering from the makers of Reflector and Air Parrot, introduces a paradigm for business-class screen sharing that pushes meeting software to new levels. If you're familiar with live-meeting/webcast services (like join.me, for example) you'll have encountered server-ware that enables you to share your desktop out to groups for demonstrations and presentations. The current generation provides support for phone chats, text messages, and so forth. Slingshot takes all that functionality and bumps it up. Like its competitors, this software is aimed at the business and education markets, offering both one-to-one and one-to-many sharing. It adds some really splendid features like iOS screen sharing, individual OS X app screens, and participant control. With Slingshot, you can demo your apps and present screens anywhere in the world. When testing, the TUAW team was really pleased by the quality of transmission and the ability of any participant to share materials from their system. Slingshot allows users to share individual desktop apps, their entire desktop, or to screen share from iOS via AirPlay. Each participant may opt in to use a local camera feed and microphone as well. (The service plan you select sets limits on how many cameras may participate.) Our tests made it clear, however, this was early release software. We encountered audio drop outs, software crashes, and some odd video glitches. Despite those, we were all really impressed by the feature set and overall design quality. While the service is still young, it shows great promise. Slingshot works by subscription. After a 30-day full feature trial, its plans range from 1-to-1 connections for $10/month ($110/year) to an enterprise-worthy model at $100/month ($1000/year) for up to 25 users, 5 camera feeds, and phone support. Budget-minded users might want to stick with join.me's free single-screen sharing service and Squirrel's existing Reflector app, but companies and schools with more spending flexibility will find Slingshot to offer a good feature set. We recommend you decide for yourself with the free month trial. A feature video follows below.
This is why he gets more work done at the coffee shop than you do
Venti? Grande? 27" iMac? We're surprised he didn't route an old ADB keyboard into it because that would have been badass. (And...previously on "bringing your office with you") Via @shanezilla.
Raindrops on roses, Lightning adapters, and whiskers on kittens
I own roughly a billion-and-one old-style iPhone and iPod cables, most of them not strictly "Made for iPhone" (MFi). They have seen hard use over the years, but they've been cheap and easy to replace. In February, I finally made the jump to Lightning when I purchased a refurbished pair of an iPad Air and a latest generation iPod touch. I love my new babies, with their lightness and bright screens (and, in the case of the touch, modern Wi-Fi and a 4" screen that is terrific for iOS development). However, their new cable system has been driving me nuts. That's because the ease and cheapness of my existing stock of connectors no longer works with the new Lightning-based models. Purchasing extra MFi cables starts at about $14 for an Amazon Basics 3-foot cord. I tend to use my portable battery packs with tiny 6-inch cables, which make less of a clutter in my backpack. Fortunately, a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across adapters on Amazon that convert Lightning to good old Euro-standard Micro-USB, which I normally use with my Kindle Fire. These adapters cost only about $2 each or less and slide onto the end of the Micro-USB cables, turning them into Lightning cables. I was pretty wary about these adapters since iOS has become very picky with regards to non-MFI products, and some reviews state they have pretty high fail rates. Regardless, I plopped down my $6 and ordered a set of three, hoping that at least one adapter would pan out. Instead, I was delighted to find that all three worked fine. I have tested these adapters with a variety of battery packs (from Antec, HyperJuice, and one that my husband picked up at the grocery store of all places...) and found that if the output amperage is sufficient to charge the device, the Lightning adapters work fine. I do caution you to carry a small pillbox or envelope for those times when you need to use the battery pack without the adapter, as they are quite small and easy to lose. I'm pleased that my portable Lightning needs have been met for the time being with a minimum of cash outlay and a satisfying reliability. Given how widespread complaints have been about Lightning connector failures due to wear and use, I'll be keeping an eye on these adapters over time to see how they last.
Twitter's new profile pages are now available for everyone
After a few weeks of test drives, Twitter officially rolled out its new profile pages to the masses today. Besides the sexy new look, the update includes a few tweaks like a running tally of how many times you've favorited tweets and a new page where you can see every photo and video you've ever uploaded. The month and year you joined Twitter are also now displayed right under your username -- a big plus for early adopters who want bragging rights, and a way for everyone to see how long an account has been around (and possibly determine how legit it is).
Dear Aunt TUAW: Why don't my searches work in Safari anymore?
Dear Aunt TUAW, Safari search is broken as anything. I use Safari, what, once a month, and it can't even work right? I have a page that has at least 20 times my search phrase. And it can't find it. I do CMD + F and then I type my term and then return. It's all keyboard. Help. Your nephew, M. Dear M, Take a close look at the Safari search field. Do you see the little drop-down triangle to the right of the magnifying glass. Try clicking that and changing your search from "Starts With" to "Contains". Hugs and snuggles, Auntie T.
Imogen Heap's high-tech gloves could make the rest of your band obsolete
If you thought Michael Jackson was the only musician to believe in the magical power of a glove, think again. Imogen Heap has "joined forces with the nerd underworld" to create a new high-tech glove called Mi.Mu that allows you to control sound with your hands. Using lights and motion sensors, the gloves can map a variety of hand gestures to different instruments and sounds, with each pair able to store literally thousands of combinations. It's a concept she first talked about at TED in 2011.
Glow-in-the-dark roads hit the streets in the Netherlands
One stretch of road in the Netherlands may make you feel like you're cruising through a video game. A new glow-in-the-dark pavement has replaced power-sucking streetlights for a 500m (.3mi) piece of the highway. The result is a Tron-like street that shines courtesy of solar-powered photo-luminescent powder incorporated into the road paint. This is just a proof of concept, but its creator, Studio Roosegaarde, hopes to use parks as a testing ground for new versions of the product.
Virtuix Omni treadmill will get gamers off the couch in July
If you pre-ordered the Virtuix Omni virtual-reality treadmill, it's time to start rearranging the living room furniture. Early backers will be able to strap on their Oculus Rift and start shooting in the virtual battlefield of their choice come July. If you haven't ordered the enormous $500 gaming accessory yet, you won't have to wait that much longer to start running in place – orders taken today are expected to ship in September. And with Facebook's acquisition of Oculus, maybe we'll be walking through our friends' Hawaiian vacation photos by winter.
Yes, Amazon's delivery drones are real (maybe)
If you've been dreaming of drone-delivered packages since Amazon announced Prime Air last year -- apparently your dreams are getting a little closer to reality. In its 2013 letter to shareholders published today, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos not only confirms the delivery drone's existence but also addresses its production. In what still may be the greatest retail troll of all time, Bezos says "The Prime Air team is already flight testing our 5th and 6th generation aerial vehicles, and we are in the design phase on generations 7 and 8." All we want to know is what version Amazon will have to get to before we can start placing orders.
