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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder—68 different beholders in the case of Tommer Leyvand’s new “beautification engine.” The software, featured in a story in the New York Times, takes preferences from a poll of 68 men and women from Israel and Germany who looked at pictures and chose the most beautiful subjects. Measuring…
Google just rolled out a new set of ads, making the total number of ad-based revenue streams roughly equal to the number of petabytes they search daily. This one appears at the bottom of the map when you search for a fairly generic topic. After I saw it written up on CNet, I gave it…
One of our favorite apps for the iPhone is the iTunes remote, so we’re thrilled to see one for Android. Jeff Sharkey says that he reverse engineered the remote protocol from the iPhone and touch and used it to create an iTunes remote for Android (a process he details here). As you can see in…
Yes, my friends, it looks like the death spasms are might be kicking in for Circuit City—it’s definitely twitching in any case. Fresh off losing $239 million and watching its stock plunge below 50 cents a share, a firm that advises on manufacturers on whether or not to ship their wares to retailers has just…
Given the recent rumors about a “revolutionary” new manufacturing process from Apple involving water jet-cut aluminum for new MacBooks, it seemed appropriate to discuss a new product coming out of the 2008 Fabtech International & AWS Welding show. The FLOW is a 6-axis system that perform full 3D water cutting without a bulky gantry holding…
According to a leaked memo obtained by Mobile Tech Addicts, UK based cellphone carrier Orange have pulled the BlackBerry Bold off of their shelves temporarily citing quality issues with the device. What specific issues they are referring to are unknown, but Orange claims they are awaiting solutions from RIM and plan to have the device…
Next month will apparently be a busy one for RIM. Besides launching its first ever touchscreen phone, the Storm, they’ll be pushing out their all-new Curve 8900 on T-Mobile Germany, says the carrier’s site. Formerly known by the codename Javelin, it brings the Bold’s design and updated, slicker OS down to a smaller form factor.…
Given the focus on “greenness” and energy efficiency these days, you have probably been bombarded with messages about tossing out your old incandescent bulbs for CFLs. It is definitely an easy way to save a few bucks on your electric bill, but in many cases there can be a trade-off in light quality. This has…
The term “word’s first” gets thrown around a lot with gadget releases, but with kooky creative phone maker KDDI behind the project, I’m a lot less skeptical about the claim that they have developed the first 3D cellphone screen. You can’t get the full effect from the images here, but it appears that this prototype…
I was hoping that American Airlines would stand up against religious groups’ stupid demands, keeping their in-flight online service completely un-filtered. After all, they had great arguments: filtering porn sites will jeopardize the access to legitimate web sites, hindering the usability of their airplane wireless network. Not to mention the fact that people wanting to…
Starting today, Verizon will join a growing list of companies including Best Buy and AT&T that offer a service dedicated to in-home customer support. Verizon’s ‘Expert Care’ will offer a ‘protection pak’ that provides home repair and replacement coverage for your computers, televisions, and telephones as well as monitors, modems, keyboards, mice, OEM remote controls…
Out of respect for the great performer Steve Jobs, I prefer to save all surprises for the keynote. But those smarty pantses over at bbGadgets may have unlocked the secret behind Apple’s Oct 14th MacBook event teaser. Assuming that the Apple logo is a 1.5″ standard, they measured the laptop to have a 13.3″ diagonal…
Remember that $104 million payday EchoStar was ordered to pay to TiVo? TiVo couldn’t resist making a statement about it. We are pleased to have received $104,600,472 from EchoStar on October 8, 2008… I bet you are, TiVo. I bet you are. But I bet you’re even more pleased because there’s still pending judicial action,…
We are only talking about a sink here, but I must admit that I am a sucker for a captivating design. That having been said, the Elettronico Faucet by Carlo Frattini definitely caught my eye. The allure of the system centers around an LCD display that can be used to turn the faucet on and…
For this week’s Photoshop Contest, I want to get a little political. I’m not endorsing any particular candidate, mind you, but I think we can add our own spin to the presidential race that’s been dominating the headlines. In particular, I want you to insert technology into the race to help out any of the…
You’re more likely than ever to buy a smartphone, not just because they do so much more than dumb feature phones, with real email, decent web browsing and downloadable applications, but because they’re cheaper than ever. With the exception of some expensive ass unlocked-but-unsubsidized European models, you generally don’t have to pay more than $300…
Earlier this week, a Qantas A330 inexplicably climbed 300 feet and then suddenly nose-dived back down. In the cabin, 71 people were injured. Interestingly, the ATSB is now looking at in-cabin interference from personal electronics as a possible cause of the “irregularity with the aircraft’s elevator control system.” Wait, what? Really? This wouldn’t be the…
One of the computer accessories we’re always looking for is a good screen cleaner, which is why Moshi’s Neato is pretty great. It’s a two-part microfiber screen cleaner, with one part wiping dust and one part wiping grease and fingerprints. The back of the cleaner is a material they call “GeckoPad”, which is based on…
Microsoft has just unveiled three new Xbox 360 bundles, each featuring Netflix advertising on the front and a free game or two inside. The Pro and Elite bundles are basically the same, each coming with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda. The Arcade version comes with, uh, Sega Superstar Tennis. And no hard drive,…
Onkyo is poised to pack yet another wireless gadget on the 2.4 GHz band with their new MHP-UW2 headphones. However, the uncompressed connection should result in some decent CD-quality audio. (But what is the deal with that receiver? It almost doubles the footprint of the iPod Touch). At any rate, the MHP-UW2s are compatible with…