ElipseAR is a set of tools for Augmented Reality and Computer Vision development. Thanks to that toolkit features like image matching and tracking, 3D animation rendering, geolocation using the camera view, face recognition, will be easy to integrate on your AR project.
All those tools are free for commercial use.
More info: www.elipsear.com
Apple® today announced that in just one day, over one million users bought and downloaded Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Available through the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99 (US), users are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s history.
“Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.”
Lion introduces more than 250 new features to the Mac, including Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.
Available in 123 countries, the Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews. The Mac App Store is built right into Lion and available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS X version 10.6.8.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
Neil Daswani, the CTO of security firm Dasient, says that they have studied around 10,000 Android apps and have found that 800 of them are leaking private user information, according to Dgitizor.com
“The Dasient researchers also found out that 11 of the apps they have examined are sending unwanted SMS messages.”
Read more: http://digitizor.com/2011/07/21/android-malware/
Packt announce jQuery Mobile First Look, a new book which aims to show the features of the jQuery Mobile framework, what they do, and how they can be used. Written by Giulio Bai,this book covers all the factors that a developer needs to know before starting mobile web application development. The book also suggests the best practices and methods to accomplish things in an alternative way. For more details, visit: www.packtpub.com/jquery-mobile-first-look/book
jQuery Mobile is a Touch-Optimized Web Framework (additionally known as a JavaScript library or a Mobile framework) currently being developed by the jQuery Project team. The development focuses on creating a framework compatible with a wide variety of Smartphones and Tablets, made necessary by the growing-but-heterogeneous tablet and smartphone market.
jQuery Mobile First Look book starts with an introduction to jQuery Mobile. The book gives an overview of the key features of the framework and how they can be used to implement a mobile web application. The topics covered include everything the jQuery Mobile developer needs to know in order to create a full-feature web application for mobile devices. The book presents information about buttons, toolbars, dialogs, forms, and list views.
Using this book, readers will discover why jQuery Mobile is highly regarded when compared to other libraries and frameworks. The jQuery users will learn to display content to suit their needs and make everything look like a full-fledged RIA even on a mobile screen. This book will show readers how to enjoy programming by letting a simple yet effective JavaScript library handle the hassles that they would encounter otherwise.
Allowing existing users to get a look at the features of jQuery mobile, this book is targeted at jQuery developers who want to enter the exciting world of mobile web development. This book is an interesting and beneficial read to jQuery users. To read more about the book, please visit: www.packtpub.com/jquery-mobile-first-look/book
Recent research by Columbia University psychologist Betsy Sparrow suggests the rise of Internet search engines like Google has changed the way our brain remembers information. The research was published July 14 in Science.
“Since the advent of search engines, we are reorganizing the way we remember things,” said Sparrow. “Our brains rely on the Internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member or co-worker. We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.”
Sparrow’s research reveals that we forget things we are confident we can find on the Internet. We are more likely to remember things we think are not available online. And we are better able to remember where to find something on the Internet than we are at remembering the information itself. This is believed to be the first research of its kind into the impact of search engines on human memory organization.
Sparrow’s paper in Science is titled, “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips.” With colleagues Jenny Liu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Daniel M. Wegner of Harvard University, Sparrow explains that the Internet has become a primary form of what psychologists call transactive memory—recollections that are external to us but that we know when and how to access.
The research was carried out in four studies.
First, participants were asked to answer a series of difficult trivia questions. Then they were immediately tested to see if they had increased difficulty with a basic color naming task, which showed participants words in either blue or red. Their reaction time to search engine-related words, like Google and Yahoo, indicated that, after the difficult trivia questions, participants were thinking of Internet search engines as the way to find information.
Second, the trivia questions were turned into statements. Participants read the statements and were tested for their recall of them when they believed the statements had been saved—meaning accessible to them later as is the case with the Internet—or erased. Participants did not learn the information as well when they believed the information would be accessible, and performed worse on the memory test than participants who believed the information was erased.
Third, the same trivia statements were used to test memory of both the information itself and where the information could be found. Participants again believed that information either would be saved in general, saved in a specific spot, or erased. They recognized the statements which were erased more than the two categories which were saved.
Fourth, participants believed all trivia statements that they typed would be saved into one of five generic folders. When asked to recall the folder names, they did so at greater rates than they recalled the trivia statements themselves. A deeper analysis revealed that people do not necessarily remember where to find certain information when they remember what it was, and that they particularly tend to remember where to find information when they can’t remember the information itself.
According to Sparrow, a greater understanding of how our memory works in a world with search engines has the potential to change teaching and learning in all fields.
“Perhaps those who teach in any context, be they college professors, doctors or business leaders, will become increasingly focused on imparting greater understanding of ideas and ways of thinking, and less focused on memorization,” said Sparrow. “And perhaps those who learn will become less occupied with facts and more engaged in larger questions of understanding.”
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Columbia’s department of psychology.
http://news.columbia.edu/
Twitter has updated its Android App, to version 2.1.0 bringing two key features to the mobile platform. Twitter’s service now offers push notifications and multiple account sign-in for Android phones. Twitter said “It includes some of the most commonly requested features from our users.”
Main features: Browse interests, Find & follow friends, Tweet, Retweet, Favorite, Direct Message privately with your followers, share photos, videos and web pages, real-time search, view maps, trends, and follow.
New features:
Push notifications.
Multiple accounts.
Updated home screen widgets.
Other improvements and bug fixes
More info: http://blog.twitter.com/2011/07/twitter-for-android-now-with-push.html
Download; https://market.android.com/details?id=com.twitter.android&feature=apps_topselling_free
Line2 app is a tri-mode VoIP/Cell calling app now available for Android phones and tablets. Toktumi, Inc., the company that developed Line2, announced today that its SMS-enabled VoIP app can now be downloaded in the Android marketplace. Line2 becomes the first VoIP app for Android to feature carrier-grade SMS texting combined with feature-rich calling functionality, allowing customers to use one number for both types of communication.
Customers use Line2 to add a second line to their smartphone or turn an iPod or tablet device into a fully-featured telephone. The app allows customers to make phone calls and send texts where they don’t have cell reception, reduce their cell bills, add a second line for business use, or get another number so they can keep their personal cell number private. Many customers take advantage of Line2’s free port-in offer, which lets them move an existing number to Line2 free of charge.
Line2 for Android includes all of the functionality and features that are currently available to Apple iOS users plus few Android-only features, such as the ability to speak their text messages and have them transcribed so they can text without typing.
Line2 is a free download that comes with a free trial. After that, service costs just $9.95/month for unlimited US/Canada calling and texting
www.line2.com
Neil McAllister writing on InfoWorld has posted an in-depth look at the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 3G.
McAllister’s verdict; “The Chromebook is lightweight and inexpensive, and it offers a full-featured Web browsing experience. But its low-end hardware, lack of versatility, and primitive support for commonplace computing tasks such as printing, file management, networking, and media playback make it a poor choice for everyday use, particularly in a business setting.
All in all, the Samsung Series 5 is an average-quality netbook with a large screen and a higher-than-average price tag, while Chrome OS itself feels more like a proof-of-concept project whose time has not yet come. As a browser terminal it functions well, but for everything else it falls short — and despite all Google’s cheerleading, for most users that simply won’t be enough.”
Read more: http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/google-chromebook-lacks-luster-purpose-796
The renowned remote desktop sharing application, Mikogo, makes the move to its third platform with the announcement of its native Linux client. This release now enables businesses to host and join free desktop sharing sessions from any three of the major platforms – Linux, Windows and Mac computers.
Mannheim, GERMANY – The free desktop sharing application, Mikogo, today releases the first open beta version of its software for Linux computers enabling users on Linux computers to start or join desktop sharing sessions. A significant milestone for Mikogo and desktop sharing as whole, this release now provides businesses with a free and easy-to-use application for online meetings, web presentations as well as remote support sessions, available on the three major operating system platforms.
For the last two weeks, the Mikogo Linux version has been in a closed beta stage, as it was thoroughly tested by a group of beta testers. Following positive feedback and a successful closed stage, Mikogo releases its new software openly making it available for any individual or business looking to start or join online meetings from a Linux computer.
“The addition of a native Linux client to Mikogo now means that businesses can both start and join online meetings from any of the three major platforms – Windows, Mac and Linux,” says Mark Zondler, the Co-Founder and Creator of Mikogo. “Many of our users requested this not only for themselves but for their clients who also use Linux, so it will broaden the use of Mikogo within companies around the world.”
Linux users can now visit the Mikogo website and download the free Linux application to their computers. Upon opening the program, they are presented with the new-look Mikogo user interface and are able to host a desktop sharing session as well as invite meeting attendees to join from either a Linux, Windows, or Mac computer. The new Linux client also enables people to join a session from a Linux computer, which was started on either one of the three available platforms for Mikogo.
By building the Linux client on the latest release of the Mikogo software, Version 4, provides the software with a wide range of features, including switch presenter, remote keyboard/mouse control, file transfer, chat, scheduler, recording, profile manager, and software customization, just to name a few.
This most recent achievement strengthens the already renowned remote desktop application, however is far from the end for Mikogo’s product developments. “We have plans to soon release mobile apps for our software along with further software developments in the pipeline,” explains Zondler.
The open beta release of the Mikogo Linux software can be downloaded for free from:
www.mikogo.com/download/new-version-4/
Google has blocked co.cc from it’s search results after a scan Google performed on the domain co.cc revealed that an extremely high percentage of their sites were infected with malware. The block removed about 11 million results from the Google search index.
Oliver Fisher of the Google Anti-Malware Team writes:
“Over the past few months, Google’s systems have detected a number of bulk subdomain providers becoming targets of abuse by malware distributors. Bulk subdomain providers register a domain name, like example.com, and then sell subdomains of this domain name, like subdomain.example.com. Subdomains are often registered by the thousands at one time and are used to distribute malware and fake anti-virus products on the web. In some cases our malware scanners have found more than 50,000 malware domains from a single bulk provider.”
More info: http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2011/06/protecting-users-from-malware-hosted-on.html
Artist Ken Murphy has used a compact camera, a Canon firmware hack, and a motorized telescope mount to create, panoramic time-lapse movies.
Murphy shot two movies, one with a Canon A590 and the other with a Canon G12—both point-and-shoot compact cameras. He installed the CHDK (Canon Hack Development Kit) software on the cameras, amd programed them to take photographs every five seconds. The cameras were mounted on a panning telescope mount ($250) which slowly rotated the camera 360 degrees. A full rotation took 60 to 90 minutes.
“The camera (a Canon A590 with CHDK installed) snapped an image every five seconds while the motorized mount slowly rotated, making a single rotation in 90 minutes. I assembled the images into this panoramic movie, in which each “pane” is actually the same movie, slightly offset in time. The panes combine to make a single 360-degree view.”
“For this I used my new Canon G12, also running CHDK. I used the camera’s built-in neutral density filter and shot 2-second exposures at roughly 5-second intervals, as I wanted people and passing cars to blur out a bit. The camera made two full rotations in two hours.”
Read more: http://www.murphlab.com/2011/07/07/panoramic-time-lapse-movies/
Murphy has also been working on his History of the Sky project, where an image of the sky is being captured every 10 seconds from a camera installed on the roof of the Exploratorium, on the edge of San Francisco Bay. More: http://www.murphlab.com/hsky/
Infosyncworld have posted an informative review of the Canon PowerShot S95, covering the four primary upgrades to the S95, from the s90 -720p HD video, RAW shooting, HDR (High Dynamic Range Shooting mode) along with a few other Scene modes, and Hybrid Image Stabilization, over the previous model s90.
Canon PowerShot S95
Read more: http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/digital-cameras/canon-powershot-s95/11424.html
Another review: http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_S95/