ADAM
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Notion Ink's Adam gets a name, June 2010 release
Well, the first bit of news here is immediately apparent -- the heretofore untitled tablet device coming out of India has now been given the name of Adam. After ruffling a few feathers a week ago with its extremely ambitious battery life projections and admittedly mouthwatering Tegra plus Pixel Qi combo, Notion Ink is back with more details on the project. We understand the company is now discussing 3G testing with Indian and US operators (its 3G bands are compatible with AT&T's networks), and there's also a planned landing date in June. Can't say we're too excited about a launch six months from now -- other Pixel Qi devices may well beat the Adam to market -- but there's also the pleasantly small matter of the price, which in this case is projected to be an aggressively low 15,000 rupees (about $321). CrunchPad part deux? Only time will tell. [Thanks, bala]
BioShock cosplay recreates Rapture at the Aquarium
Sometimes an idea is just so good, you can hardly believe you came up with it. That must be how Harrison Krix felt after creating the elaborate and awesome Big Daddy costume you see above -- not since BioShock released have we been so eager to heap praise on something. Well, Mr. Krix, we hope you suffocate on our affection, because taking your costume to the Georgia Aquarium for some underwater snapshots has to be the best idea ever. If you're scratching your head, wondering just where you've seen these two before, let us help you: right here on our website. Krix's girlfriend (holding another of his creations in the pic above, the ADAM syringe) is quite the cosplayer, which initially got Krix into the game of making things from games. Take notes, gents! That's how you woo the ladies. [Via Geekologie]
Artificial Intelligence solves boring science experiments, makes interns obsolete
Researchers at Aberystwyth University in Wales have developed a robot that is being heralded as the first machine to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of a human operator. Named Adam, the device has already identified the role of several genes in yeast cells, and has the ability to plan further experiments to test its own hypotheses. Ross King, from the university's computer science department, remarked that the robot is meant to take care of the tedious aspects of the scientific method, freeing up human scientists for "more advanced experiments." Across the pond at Cornell, researchers have developed a computer that can find established laws in the natural world -- without any prior scientific knowledge. According to PhysOrg, they've tested the AI on "simple mechanical systems" and plan on applying it to more complex problems in areas such as biology to cosmology where there are mountains of data to be poured through. It sure is nice to hear about robots doing something helpful for a change.[Thanks, bo3of]Read: Robo-scientist's first findingsRead: Being Isaac Newton: Computer derives natural laws from raw data
One Shots: Take me to the river
Today's One Shots is another mystery shot we got from a reader. We know it's from Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online, and we know it's a lovely scenery shot, but beyond that we can't tell you where in the game it came from. Since we know we've got oodles of One Shots readers who love LotRO, maybe you all can help us out! What area do you think this screenshot was taken in? (Or perhaps Adam who was nice enough to send this in will let us know in comments?)Do you have a screenshot of a lovely location? How about an absolutely horrifyingly scary one? Whatever your flavor of screenshot, we'd love to see it. Just toss it into an email to oneshots AT massively DOT com!%Gallery-9798%
My Dream App Round 3 voting ends tonight
With only twelve concepts still in the running to be turned into someone's dream Mac OS X application, the My Dream App competition ends its third round of public voting tonight at midnight. As a reward for your input, everyone who votes will recieve a free copy of Musicast which allows anyone to stream music from their iTunes library over the web. And just incase you can't decide which of the ideas you like best, a panel of guest judges including Adam Betts and David Lanham share their opinions on each app up for votes.
Betts mods your Mac
Everyone's favorite duck-icon sporting graphic designer is more than a pretty icon of a face, he helps make the rest of your programs look good too. Adam Betts regularly posts modifications or add-ons to various pieces of Mac software to his blog, and although each one is cool enough to warrant a post of its own, I thought I'd be nice to you all and compile some of my favorites into one mega-post. First off we have a simple interface tweak that goes a long way to unifying the look of your system. Adam's new QuickTime Plugin Controller replaces the old icky Aqua bubble quicktime plugin interface with a sleek platinum/unified/post-brushed metal look.Next are two replacement icons; one for a certain flammable fox, the other for a Preview alternative. The Firefox icon touchup fixes dock weight issues (how close it is to the other icons) as well as making the whole package a bit smoother. The Xee replacement set actually contains replacements for both the actual application icon as well as the status bar. Xee is a replacement for Preview and available for free download.Finally, we have the 9.3% complete interface-lift for Google Earth. This package will replace the application icon as well as modify certain UI elements such as toolbar icons and the sidebar to make them more Mac-like.
