Opera 15 Browser Launched For Mac And PC


The Telescopic Contact Lens That Lets You See Like The Terminator
Posted: 04 Jul 2013 07:00 AM PDT
Have you ever wished you had vision that could zoom in and out, like the Terminator? Well maybe soon you can.
A team is working on a new telescopic contact lens that is just over a millimeter thick. The lens is surrounded by a ring of movable components that magnify view by 2.8 times. As of yet, it is not able to compute the facial structure of what is being looked at but liquid crystal shutters allow the wearer to switch between normal and magnified vision.
Contact Lens
The contact lens was developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland and at the University of California, San Diego by Eric Tremblay and his colleagues. The research and developement for the project has been funded by DARPA.
So far the team has integrated the LCD shutter mechanism into a pair of modified Samsung 3D TV glasses. The lens has been tested on an optomechanical model of the human eye and it is hoped that it won’t be too long before the LCD technology can be embedded directly into the lens itself, doing away with the 3D glasses.
According to New Scientist, the researches have said "Although the magnified images were clearly visible in our tests, acuity fell short of the design specification.” The team believe that if they can improve the refractive optics, then any diffraction related problems will be solved.
So while we await this interesting piece of techology, we will just have to make do with normal specs and cheesy Arnie impressions!
Opera 15 Browser Launched For Mac And PC
Posted: 04 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT
Opera 15 Chromium is officially launched as of 2nd July.  While the non-final build of Opera’s new browser for PC and Mac was simply called “Next,” the company have now chosen the more fitting title of “Opera 15″ for its official release.
There aren’t any features of note that we hadn’t seen in the desktop preview of the WebKit-based software, but, for information purposes we note that it sports a Discover feature for catching up on the latest news with a fresh design, and a tweaked Speed Dial menu for quick access to your favourite websites on the internet.
opera_browser-660x350
Also, the web-clipping Stash feature, predictive address/search bar, a new download manager and “Off-Road mode” for extra compression with bad connections, are all now included in the finalised version.  However, we need to point out a few clear and evident flaws with this new offering.  The Opera Link synchronisation support has not been included yet and the Opera Mail client is not an installed feature any longer and must be downloaded separately.  The browser now is not very customisable at all, e.g. there is no personalisation of the toolbar buttons?  You are not able to widen the bar to show page thumbnails and you are not able to move the tab strip.
The browser has been tested by SunSpider benchmark on the Mac build of Opera 15 Chromium, in which it scored 167ms, in comparison with Google Chrome which came in with 171ms. If you are not happy with your current choice of web browser, whether it be Internet explorer, Safari, Google Chrome or some other browser, then why not give Opera 15 a try and see if it’s ok to roll with for a while?
More Details on Foxconn iPhone-Compatible Smart watch
Posted: 04 Jul 2013 05:00 AM PDT
With news about Apple applying for the iWatch trademark in Japan spreading like wildfire, supporters of the company and its products are certainly trying not to get overly excited about the possibility of a smartwatch in the future. Of course, we all know that a whole lot can happen in between applying for the trademark (and only in certain countries) and a product actually getting to market.
foxconn
Now that we’re back on earth, what do you think about an iPhone-compatible smartwatch from no other than Foxconn? You know, that Chinese company that has received a lot of attention, no small thanks to its links with Apple…
Foxconn is the name known the world over, but it is officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, and it has jumped the gun in releasing an iPhone-compatible smartwatch. It sure is not the first one to do so, but it might very well be one of the closest companies to Apple to do so.
iPhone-compatible smartwatch Foxconn
We know that Foxconn has not been without struggles in the past months, and releasing its own iPhone-compatible smartwatch might be a way to keep its head above the water.
What can this gizmo do?
Obviously, it can be hooked up to your iPhone and it can give you information such as:
  • Vital signs – respiration and heartbeat
  • Check phone calls
  • Check Facebook posts (and other social media content presumably)
  • Check messages
With only this information on hand, I am not sure as to the edge the Foxconn smartwatch has over other wearable devices out there such as Pebble and COOKOO (which I am still debating on whether to use or not, by the way).  However, chairman Terry Gou promises that they are working on other features such as fingerprint identification. I might be acting dense here, but does that really add anything to a smartwatch?
What do you think about Foxconn’s wearable gadget?
Precursor Games Founder Faces Child Porn Charges
Posted: 04 Jul 2013 04:00 AM PDT
Things are pretty rough for Canadian game developers Precursor Games. After two failed crowdfunding campaigns for what is intended to be their first big game, the company has suffered quite an image blow after one of its founding members was arrested.
Precursor Games founder Kenneth McCulloch was taken into custody last week on child pornography charges and is pending bail. The gaming company immediately moved to sever ties with McCulloch, announcing that he was no longer affiliated with Precursor Games in any way.
Precursor Games Founder Faces Child Porn Charges
McCulloch, 42, was arrested by the Niagara police on June 27 after detectives searched his residence at St. Catharines, Ontario. During the search, detectives seized what was described as a significant number of computers and peripheral devices.
A Niagara police release said McCulloch was charged with possession of, making available and accessing child pornography. The Precursor Games employee had been under investigation since April, and the inquiry is ongoing, police said. No other details have been released about the case at this point.
Precursor Games reacted to the news by immediately pulling down McCulloch's profile from their website. The company's CEO Paul Caporicci also said on the Precursor Games forums that the developer was no longer affiliated with the company, given the serious nature of the disturbing charges against him.
Besides being founder of Precursor Games, McCulloch was a veteran Silicon Knights employee, having worked with the gameing company for 20 years before leaving with most of his colleagues to set up Precursor.
The small studio is currently working on developing a "spiritual successor" to Silicon Knights' successful game Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. The fate of the sequel, called Shadow of the Eternals, is currently unclear, given that the company failed in securing the necessary funds to move forward with it.
Precursor Games launched two crowdfunding campaigns to raise the $1.5 million needed to create the first episode of the game, but both campaigns were put on hold in June. The company promised to relaunch its effort later, saying that the reason for the break was to obtain enough time to integrate some exciting opportunities" in the game's development.
It's unclear when and if the crowdfunding campaigns will be resumed, and now, with McCulloch's arrest, it's even less likely that the company will manage to hit its funding goal.
Galaxy Note 3 Rumors
Posted: 04 Jul 2013 03:00 AM PDT
For those of you who love all things Samsung; get ready, there may be a new Galaxy Note 3 just around the corner. A new rumour has surfaced claiming that the latest phablet device could be arriving in September.
The Korean tech giant has certainly hyped up the new Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone but many think it’s time that the Galaxy Note is also ready for an overhaul. According to sources close to the technology blog Android Geeks, a Note 3 model is in the pipeline.
Galaxt Note
Will the new Galaxy Note have a bigger screen than its previous model?
The original Galaxy Note created waves in the mobile device market when it was first released back in 2012, thanks to its huge 5.3-inch screen and S Pen stylus. Then when Samsung revealed the Note 2, they had added quad-core processing and a bigger screen.
So it could be possible that the Note 3 carries on the tradition of ever increasing size, maybe offering a 5.7,5.8 or even 6-inch display. It is also likely that the camera will be upgraded from an 8-megapixel to a much better 13-megapixel, like the Galaxy S4.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on whether you think a possible 6-inch screen is just too big. When does a phablet cross over into the realm of tablet?
X-Ray Vision On Your Smartphone: It May Be Possible
Posted: 04 Jul 2013 02:00 AM PDT
X-ray Vision: The Future Of Smartphones?
Dina Katabi, a professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and graduate student Fadel Adib, used low-power Wi-Fi signals to track human movement behind walls. These researchers have created a new system that could be used in future electronic devices to potentially give people X-ray vision.
x-ray-iphone
The system is radically different from previous efforts, which have used expensive radar technology. Dina Katabi's system, known as Wi-Vi,(Wi-Fi and Vision) transmits a low-power Wi-Fi signal that reflects off of people and can therefore be used to locate and track them. Katabi said in a press release; "We wanted to create a device that is low-power, portable and simple enough for anyone to use, to give people the ability to see through walls and closed doors…We had to come up with a technology that could cancel out all these other reflections, and keep only those from the moving human body."  The newly designed system uses two antennas to transmit the signal and a single receiver to read the waves that return. The signal from the second antenna is the inverse signal of the first one, allowing the two signals to interfere with each other and cancel out. This allows only reflections that change between the two signals, such as reflections from moving objects, to reach the receiver.  "So, if the person moves behind a wall, all reflections from static objects are cancelled out, and the only thing registered by the device is the moving human," Adib explained.  The researchers strongly believe that this new technology, the Wi-Vi system, can be utilized to aid search-and-rescue teams in finding trapped survivors during natural disasters. It could also be used to help police officers locate criminals hiding in buildings and also help them avoid walking into an ambush.
Opera 15 Browser Launched For Mac And PC Opera 15 Browser Launched For Mac And PC Reviewed by User MLM on 7/05/2013 09:21:00 AM Rating: 5

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