Category: General Tech

Rube Goldberg Competition for Teens

⌘ Permalink

Ars Techinca’s Chris Foresman:

In recent years the US has begun to lag in education for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and a number of efforts are underway to address this issue. We know that giving kids hands-on experience is one of the best ways to spark and keep their interest in STEM-related fields, and to this end, high schoolers all over the country are getting an opportunity to learn and apply STEM knowledge by participating in the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.

Continue reading ⇢

#0044CC Worth $80 Million?

⌘ Permalink

Sharon Chan of the Seattle Times:

Paul Rey, user experience manager for Bing, said his team intensively researched what kind of blue to use for search results. They sent various users flights of blue shades, including different hues and different saturations.

The blue color used for links in Bing’s predecessor, Live Search, was more pale. “Live Search was a faint blue that was like, ‘Hey … here are your results,’ ” Rey said. “It lacked confidence.”

Continue reading ⇢

Why I Switched to Android

⌘ Permalink

Background

I am no stranger to the iPhone. I was working as a Mac Genius In-Training when the original iPhone was released. I got my first iPhone 6 weeks after they were released. A year later, I upgraded to the 3G when it was released, and then again to the 3GS last summer. I’ve spent more money than I care to think about in third-party apps. So why did I give it up? Well…

Continue reading ⇢

Socialized

⌘ Permalink

Robert Scoble, on what he wants to see in future editions of Windows:

I want everything I touch to be socialized. Why doesn’t Outlook know anything about Facebook? Why don’t my photos automatically get pushed to Flickr? Why don’t I have a news app on my desktop that brings in Tweets from Twitter? Why aren’t notifications built into the system at a deep level?

[…]

Why can’t my Xbox be a Windows 7 PC and vice versa? Does the world really need separate devices for all these features?

Continue reading ⇢

iSlate

⌘ Permalink

Mac Rumors:

With rumors of the Apple tablet reaching new highs, MacRumors has found evidence that Apple acquired the domain name iSlate.com presumably in preparation for the new device.

It’s not a great name, but it sure sounds like something the company that named a notebook computer the “MacBook Pro” would use.

Continue reading ⇢

Broadband in the U.S.

⌘ Permalink

GigaOM:

It’s easy to forget that it was the magical beauty of Napster, the then-illegal music-sharing service, that spurred many of us to sign up for DSL and cable broadband connections. Napster’s popularity made it clear for the first time that broadband was a platform, no different than, say, Windows or the PlayStation. That’s because it allowed for new applications to be developed and run on top of it, applications that consumed bandwidth — and in turn, driving demand for even more of it.

Continue reading ⇢

Firewire or USB?

⌘ Permalink

PC World:

From our speed tests, it’s safe to say that Apple made the right choice switching to FireWire 800 from FireWire 400 on many Mac models. Although FireWire 400 is faster at most tasks than USB 2.0 (even though FireWire 400’s theoretical bandwidth is lower than USB 2.0’s) it isn’t always, or by much. If you’re looking for speed, FireWire 800 crushes USB on both systems in all four tests we ran. FireWire 400 is a pretty good choice too in most cases, but it’s modest speed advantage might not be enough to warrant paying extra for.

Continue reading ⇢

7-inch Tablet Coming?

⌘ Permalink

Boy Genius Report:

We’re really going out on a limb here, but one of our very connected sources let us know that they’ve heard very solid information about Apple’s upcoming tablet. It has been widely reported recently that the size of the tablet is 10″, but there was also talk about a 7″ model. Our connect said there is 100% a 7″ Apple tablet, to be announced in January, and whether this is in addition to a 10″ model, they don’t know. Would we bet the farm on this? No, but they’ve been amazingly accurate for us in the past and as usual, Apple rumors seem to get more interesting…

Continue reading ⇢