Chris Barylick
Articles by Chris Barylick
MakerBot releases free-to-download Playsets, will have you printing a Captain Kirk Chair in no time
So, you've always wanted to build a dollhouse out of ABS plastic? Well here's your chance. MakerBot has announced the release of its "MakerBot Playsets," a collection of free-to-download schematics used to create objects such as dolls, dollhouses and furnishings with the company's 3D printer. The files are available in .stl and .dxf formats for use with CAD programs, and take away the guesswork involved in coming up with a uniform design for larger projects. Take a look at the current collection -- including such objects as a Telescope, Moon Rover, Captain Kirk Chair, Treasure Chest and Suit of Armor -- and see what you think. You'll find the entire collection at the Thingiverse link just below.
Verizon to sell $200 Droid RAZR, 16GB microSD card not included this time
The question of the day: is a 16GB microSD card worth $100? Verizon Wireless said it will sell the Droid RAZR for $200 with a two-year contract -- a $100 discount off the original price, but one that forces you to give up that complimentary 16GB microSD card. Otherwise, you'll find the same 'ol spes, including a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 CPU, 16GB of internal storage, a 4.3-inch AMOLED display and LTE connectivity. The microSD slot itself will be perfectly operational and accept up to 32GB in storage, provided you bring your own card. Expect this price to go into effect next week on January 23rd. Or, you know, spend $300 after all, but on that other RAZR with 32GB of storage and 21 hours of talk time.
Russian space probe crashes in Pacific Ocean, fish reportedly startled
On the plus side, the fish needed additional space probe parts. On Sunday night, fragments of Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe landed in the Pacific Ocean 1,250 kilometers to the west of Wellington Island in southern Chile around 17:45 GMT. The probe, which experienced a failure with its launch rocket machinery on November 8, had become marooned in Earth's orbit, destined to crash back home. The cause of the incident remains unknown and stands as the latest in a series of gaffes by the Russian space program, including an impact in Siberia by a supply ship bound for the International Space Station and the loss of three navigation satellites in the past year. It's unknown whether the probe was carrying any radioactive alien materials, but stay tuned to Engadget for your up-to-the-second guide on how to fight the Cloverfield monster in the year to come.
Lovefilm, Disney UK deal brings ABC content across the pond
If you're living across the pond and hankering for ABC's content, it's en route. In what could be considered a response to Netflix's expansion to the UK market, Lovefilm has joined forces with Disney UK to offer members on-demand streaming access to ABC Studios' content. Available titles include Castle, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Happy Endings, Grey's Anatomy and the Ghost Whisperer, with all episodes available after their first run in the UK market. Compatible streamers include the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iPad, smart TV's and Blu-ray players and the service itself starts at £4.99 ($7.65) per month. Still no news as to when the Camo Snuggie will make its European debut.
Grad students forge digital light projector into medical imaging device, can't find dates
If it's a geek badge of honor to find an entirely new use for something, then the grad students at UC Irvine have earned theirs. Over at the university, a group of grad students have hacked an off-the-shelf digital light projector to create a spatial frequency domain imaging system. Once complete, the budding mad scientists were able to image their thesis adviser's bicycling injuries and have used it to measure the oxygenation of skin flaps during reconstructive breast surgery. Click past the break for a video of the device in action, and remember this: helping your professor with their sports injuries and reconstructed bosoms may not equal Dean's List, but it sure can't hurt.
Grand Theft Auto III review (iOS)
Be honest: who doesn't get nostalgic for games from the early 2000s? With that in mind, Rockstar Games has released a 10-year anniversary edition of Grand Theft Auto III for iOS and Android ($4.99), meaning all the crime, violence and betrayal you so loved in 2001 has made its way to an iDevice near you. The guns have been collected, pedestrians have been run over, crime bosses have been obeyed and betrayed and prostitutes have been visited to help restore health points. So is the game as good as you remember? Head past the break to find out.
CloudOn offers Microsoft Office functionality for iPad, your parents will love it
If you got your parents an iPad for Christmas, you were probably thanked with this: "Can it run Office?" CloudOn may be the answer, the cloud-based service letting you log in to create and edit Office documents on the aforesaid slate. Similar to a lot of remote services, CloudOn runs Office on its own end and allows you to pull in documents from Dropbox for editing and post them back when you're done. Strangely, CloudOn launched on the App Store as a freebie but was pulled due to heavy demand. The company has asked users to sign up to be notified when the app goes back in the App Store. In other news, Las Vegas oddsmakers are now taking bets as to which will occur first; the release of an iOS-native version of Microsoft Office or the Robot Apocalypse.
Silk ported from Kindle Fire to rooted Android devices, other web browsers now jealous
Give it time and eventually someone will port your favorite browser to everything, even your toaster, if you're lucky. A group of developers on the XDA-forums has begun sharing how to port the Silk web browser found on the Amazon Kindle Fire to various Android devices. To accomplish this, you'll need a rooted Android device, whereupon you can download a package file and install it to the /system/lib directory with permissions set to the same as the other files in that folder. Users can choose to install any of the .apks that they want to side load, but will need to ensure that they also move the Silk apk from /data/app to /system/app. After a reboot, the Silk browser should be good to go, complete with access to Amazon's cloud-based services through your favorite device. That's just our quaint little summary, though: for the full instructions, you'll most definitely want to hit up the source link.
Sanwa pico projector also charges your iPhone
Apple's been making inroads with enterprise users for some time, and now Sanwa's giving the iPhone some serious presentation chops with its new pico projector. The 400-PRJ011 is compatible with both the iPhone 4 and the 4S, powered by its own 2,100mAh battery and also charges your iPhone's battery whenever you turn the projector function off. It's got a five hour charge time, can provide 2.5 hours of steady projection and throws images on the wall up to 65-inches in size at 640 × 360 resolution and a 1,000:1 contrast ratio. A global release date has yet to be announced, but our Japanese friends can pick one up for ¥19,800 ($260).
Kyobo eReader receives initial review, comes up short despite Mirasol display
If one of your e-reader's components is great but the rest of the device is lacking, where does that leave you? The first review of the Kyobo eReader has arrived and while its Qualcomm-provided Mirasol screen is lauded, that's about it for the good news. Despite the snazzy 5.7-inch touchscreen combined with 1Ghz SnapDragon CPU, WiFi and Android 2.3.5, the package falls apart due to its inability to load apps, subpar battery life and long load times. The reading app crashed frequently during testing, the device was unable to load DRM-protected ebooks even after authorizing with Adobe DE, the reader displays EPUB formats incorrectly, PDF view controls proved poor and YouTube video playback proved slow and stilted. Still, the page turn speed proved slightly faster than that of the Kindle Touch, so why harp on the negatives?
Nintendo plans improved app store for Wii U, looks to serve Apple and Google in dance-off
Unless you go through the '80s-style "becoming super cool" montage, the other app stores won't respect you. Nintendo seems to be in this mindset, as a source has stated that it's creating an app store for its upcoming Wii U controller that goes "far beyond" the online stores the company currently provides for its DSi and Wii consoles. According to The Daily, the new gaming system, which is set to launch in the second half of 2012, will be able to use apps that operate on the controller itself, much like iOS and Android-based tablets. In other news, Nintendo has also vowed to buy each of its employees a cheetah with the Wii U app store profits.
cTrix forges Atari 2600 and guitar together, mesmerizes nerds (video)
If you're going to rock out, you might as well do so with a video game console from the '70s as the core of your guitar. In fact, this is precisely what modder cTrix has done with his gATARI2600. In his configuration, he's able to write and play new music through an Atari 2600 by using an EPROM programmer (a software application he wrote) and daughterboards to feed the new music back through the instrument. The gATARI also features equalizer and flange pedals, a track selector, and whammy bars that allow the player to switch tracks and make changes on the fly. No details have been posted as to how to make your own just yet, but click past the break to watch cTrix jam both thoroughly and effectively at Blip Fest 2011 in Japan.
Apple applies for facial recognition patent, wants to let iDevices get to know you better
Your momma always said your handsome mug would take you places. Now it might allow you to access your iPad. An Apple patent application released today describes a facial recognition system that requires minimal computing power, and works whether you're indoors or out -- we don't use our tablets and phones in a photo booth, after all. The technology works by comparing a current image of your mug to a reference model user profile made using "high information" portions of the human face, like eyes and mouths. Translation: it'll take a picture, compare it against the pictures associated with various user accounts on the device and decide if the two images are similar enough to grant you access. Because this is just an application, it's safe to say we won't be seeing this kind of facial recognition in iOS anytime soon, but let's hope it works better than the ICS version if it does. Update: An important thing to note is that Apple applied for this patent long before Android's Face Unlock debuted a few months back. The paperwork was first submitted on June 29th, 2010 -- it's just now being disclosed to the public.
Slime molds could hold key to new kinds of intelligence, help Statue of Liberty walk
See that yellow amoeboid slime mold? It's up to something. A team of Japanese scientists at Future University Hakodate led by professor Toshiyuki Nakagaki has found evidence that physarum polycephalum -- or grape-cluster slime -- are capable of navigating mazes and can organize their cells to find the most direct route. Nakagaki and others believe this could be the key to designing bio-computers capable of solving complex problems. According to Nakagaki, the slime's cells appear to have a kind of information-processing ability that allows them to "optimize" the route along which the mold grows to reach food while avoiding stresses -- like light -- that may damage them. Over at Kyushu University, researcher Atsushi Tero told the AFP news agency: "Computers are not so good at analysing the best routes that connect many base points because the volume of calculations becomes too large for them. But slime molds, without calculating all the possible options, can flow over areas in an impromptu manner and gradually find the best routes." Tero and other researchers have expressed hope that slime mold networks could be used in future designs of new transportation systems, electric transmission lines and understanding the human nervous system. Just remember, if you're going to coat the interior of the Statue of Liberty with some pink slime you found in the sewer, make sure you play some upbeat music to go along with it. It's just a good idea in the long run.
Researcher finds vulnerability in WPS protocol, looks for manufacturers to offer fix
On the plus side, your router's mostly secure. Security researcher Stefan Viehbock has just discovered a major security hole which allowed him to use a brute force technique to access a WPS PIN-protected network in about two hours. According to Viehbock, a design flaw allows the WPS protocol's 8-digit PIN security to fall dramatically as additional attempts are made. With each attempt, the router will send a message stating whether the first four digits are correct while the last digit of the key is used as a checksum and then given out by the router in negotiation. As a result, the 100,000,000 possibilities that the WPS should represent becomes roughly to 11,000. The US-CERT has picked up on this and advised users to disable WPS on their routers. Viehbock, in turn, claims to have attempted to discuss the vulnerability with hardware vendors such as Buffalo, D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear, but says he has been roundly ignored and that no public acknowledgement of the issue has been released. As a possible final step, Viehbock has promised to release a brute force tool soon, thereby pushing the manufacturers to work to resolve the issue. In other news, that evil supercomputer from the movie War Games just got a few more digits of the nuclear launch codes -- maybe one of Stefan's pals can look into that one.
China launches high-speed test train capable of 310 mph, shaped like an ancient sword
According to an old "Simpsons" quote, there's nary a thing that can outrun a greased Scotsman. That's no longer the case, as Chinese train manufacturer CSR Corp Ltd. unveiled a 500 km/h (310 mph) high-speed test train over the weekend. The train, which consists of six cars, is shaped to look like an ancient sword, reinforced with carbon fiber, and has a maximum tractive power of 22,800 kilowatts. Similar (if not identical in terms of proposed speeds) projects currently under construction include the 310 mph maglev train planned by Southwest Jiaotong University, the Tokyo to Osaka bullet train planned for 2045 and the proposed 269 mph maglev train from Anaheim to Las Vegas. The test unit is part of China's trillion dollar effort effort to build 13,000 km (8,078 miles) of high-speed rail network by 2012, and about 20,000 km (12,427 miles) by 2020. This new launch comes after a series of high-speed train-related troubles throughout 2011 in which the former Railways Ministry chief, Liu Zhijun, was accused of pocketing $122 million and subsequently terminated from his position; this was followed by a July collision between two high-speed trains in Wenzhou, which killed at least 40 people and injured another 210. Still, the new test train tops out at 310 miles per hour and is shaped like an ancient sword, so past snafus can probably be forgiven.
JXD releases S7100 Android-based gaming tablet, manages to steal from everyone
If you're going to steal, steal from the best. JXD has just released its S7100, a fairly conspicuous 7-inch Android-powered gaming tablet marketed towards playing old-school arcade games. The device features a D-pad, face buttons, an 800 x 480 capacitive touchsceen, ARM Cortex A9 CPU, Mali 400 GPU, 512MB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 0.3 megapixel front camera, 2.0 megapixel rear camera and HDMI-out. A video trailer shows the unit playing a variety of touchscreen games and classic ROMs including Metal Slug, Mario Kart 64, Angry Birds, Plants Vs. Zombies and Fruit Ninja HD. Not to be undone, the device also features the actual PlayStation button icons on its own buttons (sound familiar?), while the marketing website for the device sports icons from Apple, Google, Microsoft and others. If you're thus far undeterred, there's a must-watch promotional vid hosted just after the break -- nothing justifies a $140 price tag like Bieber, right?
T-Platforms to build ten petaflop supercomputer for Moscow State University
In post-Soviet Russia, massive supercomputer programs you. (Sorry, we had to.) Recently, Russia's Moscow State University contracted with high-performance computing company T-Platforms to create a ten petaflop cluster that'll be operational in 2013. The computer would fall just short of the fastest supercomputer on Earth (the Japanese K Computer, which is rated at 10.51 petaflops) and will incorporate a mixture of different node types to achieve the ten petaflops. T-Platforms will reportedly build the nodes from Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge Xeon processors and NVIDIA's next-generation Kepler GPU coprocessors, and Intel's Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture could also be included if it's available during construction. The reason for the project? Unknown officially, but we're guessing it's just another reason for Putin to rip his shirt off and celebrate.
FCC approves mysterious Archos DECT device, may or may not be secret death ray
It's amazing, it's mysterious and it's hard to say exactly what it does. On Friday, the FCC passed a device described as "a handset of internet tablet with DECT," suggesting that the mystery gadget may be some sort of bizarre marriage between a DECT cordless phone and a tablet. Given the "Smart Home Phone" name on the back of the product, the tablet functionality could be used to view contacts and caller data. We'll report additional details as they become available, but until then, the person with the best guess as to what this thing actually does gets the peace of mind of a job well done.
Western Digital releases Android app to control set-top boxes remotely
This week, you'll be able to control your Western Digital set-top box with a free Android app. And you'll love it. Only days after releasing an equivalent app for iOS, Western Digital has just released WD TV Remote, a free Android app that connects to your Western Digital set-top box over a WiFi connection and allows you to control it from any Android-based device. The app includes one-touch access to every online service available, keyboard entry using Android's on-screen keyboard, a gesture pad for quick navigation and the ability to connect multiple Android devices at once. WD TV Remote requires Android 2.1 or later to install, as well as a WiFi network and third-generation WD TV Live Hub or TV Live system to run. In other news, development on an Android app to paint your house via gesture controls is proceeding quite nicely.