Engadget http://www.engadget.com Engadget http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif Engadget http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Biegert & Funk bring the literal time to your wristwatch with QLOCKTWO W]]>http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/12/biegert-and-funk-qlocktwo-w-wristwatch/http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/12/biegert-and-funk-qlocktwo-w-wristwatch/http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/12/biegert-and-funk-qlocktwo-w-wristwatch/#comments Biergert & Funk bring the literal time to your wristwatch with QLOCKTWO WIt's a common desire among everyday folk: we often say we'd like to read more, if only we had the time. While it's unlikely to fill your noggin with the prose of Hemingway or the poetry of Whitman, a new wristwatch from Biegert & Funk promises to quench your thirst for words and literally provide you with the time. Known as the QLOCKTWO W, the timepiece is a portable revision of the company's original wall clock, both of which display the current time in everyday language. Priced at €550, the watch is scheduled for arrival this autumn and will be available in black or stainless steel variations, with either rubber or leather bands. As another option, those who find English far too mundane may spring for the Deutsch version. Curious shoppers will find the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Biegert & Funk bring the literal time to your wristwatch with QLOCKTWO W

Biegert & Funk bring the literal time to your wristwatch with QLOCKTWO W originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>biegert and funkBiegertAndFunkclockclocksgermanyhandmadeqlocktwoqlocktwo wQlocktwoWtimetimepiecewatchword clockWordClockwordswristwatchThu, 12 Apr 2012 01:24:00 EST<![CDATA['Retweet,' 'sexting' added to Oxford English Dictionary, alongside words that are actually words]]>http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/19/retweet-sexting-added-to-oxford-english-dictionary-alongsi/http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/19/retweet-sexting-added-to-oxford-english-dictionary-alongsi/http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/19/retweet-sexting-added-to-oxford-english-dictionary-alongsi/#comments Every so often, Chuzzlewitt, Figglesworth and the rest of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary's Council of Elders gather around a stone in Puddingshire, where they come up with ways to modernize the English language. New words are added, archaic ones are cut, goats are sacrificed. It's all very messy -- especially when internet lingo gets involved, as is so often the case. It's no different this year, with the latest class of inductees including words like "retweet," "sexting," and "cyberbullying." Also making the cut is "woot" (which is apparently spelled without zeroes) and "surveil," which was added primarily as a reflection of today's privacy-conscious society. In fact, the dictionary's purveyors say they make their decisions based not on intuition or cage match results, but on cultural ubiquity, which they gauge using a database of more than two billion words culled from contemporary sites. So if you're wondering why words like "jeggings" and "mankini" are now part of the English tome, you have only the internet to blame.

'Retweet,' 'sexting' added to Oxford English Dictionary, alongside words that are actually words originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Concise Oxford English DictionaryConciseOxfordEnglishDictionaryCyberBullyingenglishenglish languageEnglishLanguagelanguageoxfordoxford english dictionaryOxfordEnglishDictionaryretweetsextingsocial mediasocial networkingSocialMediaSocialNetworkingsurveiltwitterwebwootwordwordsFri, 19 Aug 2011 11:31:00 EST<![CDATA[OMG, FYI, and LOL enter Oxford English Dictionary, foreshadow the apocalypse]]>http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/24/omg-fyi-and-lol-enter-oxford-english-dictionary-foreshadow-th/http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/24/omg-fyi-and-lol-enter-oxford-english-dictionary-foreshadow-th/http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/24/omg-fyi-and-lol-enter-oxford-english-dictionary-foreshadow-th/#comments In an acknowledgement of the internet's overwhelming influence on the triviality we sometimes refer to as "real life," the Oxford English Dictionary doyens have decided to add a few of the web's favorite pronouncements to their lexicon. Among them are the standouts OMG, LOL and FYI, joining their compatriots IMHO and BFF among the proud number of officially sanctioned initialisms (abbreviations contracted to the initials of their words) used in the English language. Shockingly enough, the expression OMG has had its history tracked all the way back to 1917, while LOL used to mean "little old lady" back in the '60s, and FYI first showed up in corporate lingo in 1941. Not only that, but the heart symbol -- not the <3 emoticon, the actual ♥ graphic -- has also made it in. Just so long as Beliebers and fanpires are kept out, there's still hope for the future. A tiny, twinkling ember of a hope.

OMG, FYI, and LOL enter Oxford English Dictionary, foreshadow the apocalypse originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is exactly what we need: a clock that politely dispenses with the math (no matter how simple) in favor of words. Biegert & Funk handmake this one, called the QLOCKTWO, with both German and English language faces -- and there lots of color options. The price is a stunningly uncheap €1099 (about $1600), so get to saving your dollars and cents. There's a video showing off the QLOCKTWO after the break, but you'd better speak German -- or do what we did, and mute it and listen to AC / DC while you watch it.

Continue reading Biegert & Funk QLOCKTWO gets an English version, our sincerest admiration

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Biegert & Funk QLOCKTWO gets an English version, our sincerest admiration originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>biegert and funkBiegertAndFunkclockclocksgermanyhandmadeqlocktwoword clockWordClockwordsThu, 20 Aug 2009 12:12:00 EST<![CDATA[DARPA working on "Silent Talk" telepathic communication for soldiers]]>http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/14/darpa-working-on-silent-talk-telepathic-communication-for-sold/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/14/darpa-working-on-silent-talk-telepathic-communication-for-sold/http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/14/darpa-working-on-silent-talk-telepathic-communication-for-sold/#comments
We're no strangers to crazy DARPA projects around here, but this one especially strikes our fantastic fancy. The agency's researchers are currently undertaking a project -- called Silent Talk -- to "allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals." That's right: they're talking about telepathy. Using an EEG to read brain waves, DARPA is going to attempt to analyze "pre-speech" thoughts, then transmit them to another person. They first plan to map people's EEG patterns to his / her individual words, then see if those patterns are common to all people. If they are, then the team will move on to developing a way to transmitting those patterns to another person. Dream big, that's what we always say!

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DARPA working on "Silent Talk" telepathic communication for soldiers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 May 2009 17:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>darpadefenseeegmilitarynonverbal communicationNonverbalCommunicationsciencesilent talkSilentTalkspeechtelepathyunited states militaryUnitedStatesMilitarywordsThu, 14 May 2009 17:41:00 EST<![CDATA[Plain English Campaign wants to bring down walls of technobabble, rule the world]]>http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/28/plain-english-campaign-wants-to-bring-down-walls-of-technobabble/http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/28/plain-english-campaign-wants-to-bring-down-walls-of-technobabble/http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/28/plain-english-campaign-wants-to-bring-down-walls-of-technobabble/#comments
So look, we fully understand that not everyone "gets" technology-related lingo -- we've had to walk our mums and dads through setting up a WLAN router with a WPA2 password and 1337 encryption many, many times. But this... this is just comical. Peter Griffiths, who we can only imagine looks and speaks exactly like Peter Griffin (pictured), is hoping that his Plain English Campaign can knock down the "walls of techobabble" by "pulling our heads out of the digital clouds and using plain English." Ironic, really, given that most of the technologically illiterate wouldn't know that a digital cloud actually refers to an off-site storage hub where information is exchanged. At any rate, it seems the campaign is pushing to have flummoxing terms such as digital TV, phone jack, desktop and dongle (yes, seriously) changed, or at worse, have them defined clearly in a dictionary that precisely no one would ever read.

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Plain English Campaign wants to bring down walls of technobabble, rule the world originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bbcbritainBritishcomedyculturedemographicsfunnyGadget HelplineGadgetHelplinejargonstudysurveytechtechnobabbletechnologyukunderstandingwordsTue, 28 Apr 2009 10:55:00 EST<![CDATA[IBM ThamesBlue supercomputer uncovers antediluvian English words]]>http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/01/ibm-thamesblue-supercomputer-uncovers-antediluvian-english-words/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/01/ibm-thamesblue-supercomputer-uncovers-antediluvian-english-words/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/01/ibm-thamesblue-supercomputer-uncovers-antediluvian-english-words/#comments
Granted, we could personally think of much more amazing ways to put supercomputers to work, but maybe there is some sort of benefit to humanity by knowing precisely what our ancestors' first words were. All that aside, the IBM ThamesBlue supercomputer has been tapped by language masters at the University of Reading in order to find that 'I,' 'we,' 'who' and the numbers '1,' '2' and '3' are amongst the most ancient across all Indo-European languages. Comically enough, it was also found that words like 'squeeze,' 'guts,' 'stick,' 'throw' and 'dirty' were also markedly archaic, which sure says a lot about how men in particular, um, don't evolve. At any rate, these new computational powers have reportedly opened up another 25,000 years or so of language study, so we suspect the folks on this project will be occupied for some time to come.

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IBM ThamesBlue supercomputer uncovers antediluvian English words originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blueenglishIBMlanguageresearchsciencesupercomputerthamesblueuniversitywordsSun, 01 Mar 2009 10:27:00 EST<![CDATA[Brain implant, software enables patients to think out loud]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/15/brain-implant-software-enables-patients-to-think-out-loud/http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/15/brain-implant-software-enables-patients-to-think-out-loud/http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/15/brain-implant-software-enables-patients-to-think-out-loud/#commentsTruth be told, we've already seen instances where technology has enabled individuals to speak without speaking, but a brain implant placed into Eric Ramsey's head could certainly raise the bar in this field. The wireless electrode, which resides just six-millimeters below the surface of his brain, records pulses from 41 surrounding neurons involved in speech generation, and thanks to software developed by the associated team, those thoughts will hopefully be translated into words in the not-too-distant future. Currently, the group feels that they can accurately identify the word Ramsey is thinking up 80-percent of the time, and in the coming weeks, a computer will begin giving the patient real-time feedback so he can perfect the art of thinking out loud. 'Course, the team responsible isn't likely to be satisfied until an unadulterated conversation can take place, but it seems we're well on our way to seeing that come to fruition.

[Via BBC]

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Brain implant, software enables patients to think out loud originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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