Archive for October, 2011
Microsoft: Android ‘standing on our shoulders’
One of Microsoft‘s most senior lawyers has accused Google’s Android software of “standing on the shoulders” of companies such as his own in the smartphone wars, and that the flurry of patent lawsuits going on between companies involved in the field is only natural in a rapidly developing field. In an interview with the San [...]
Read moreMark Zuckerberg: if I set up Facebook now I wouldn’t choose Silicon Valley
Mark Zuckerberg knows that this time next year Facebook will be a public company, or preparing itself for a blockbuster public offering. In a rare interview this weekend, the 27-year-old founder of the social networking site spoke candidly about culture, commitment and clingers-on at Silicon Valley’s hottest ticket. Most interestingly, Zuckerberg said he would have [...]
Read moreHow Android swallowed the UK smartphone market in just 18 months
In just 18 months, Android has come from nowhere to become the mobile OS powering just under half of every smartphone sold in the UK – and the half the people owning a mobile phone in the UK have a smartphone. In the process it has bested Nokia‘s Symbian (since declared dead, though still stumbling [...]
Read moreEric Fossum lectures Yale students on next-gen range sensors, 3D content shortages
Ready for Kinect-like depth sensing magic in your pocket? It might be on the way, according to Eric Fossum, the man behind the CMOS sensor. During an Engineering lecture at Yale, Fossum let it slip that he was working on a new time-of-flight range sensor with Samsung, and said “we’re trying to catch up to [...]
Read moreResearchers use inkjet acumen to create wireless explosive sensor from paper
Low-cost paper-based wireless sensor could help detect explosive devices Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a prototype wireless sensor capable of detecting trace amounts of a key ingredient found in many explosives. The device, which employs carbon nanotubes and is printed on paper or paper-like material using standard inkjet technology, could be [...]
Read moreSamsung gets appeal against Apple’s tablet ban
Samsung has won Australian court approval to fast-track its appeal against a ban on the sale there of its new Galaxy tablet, part of an ongoing global legal battle with the iPad maker, Apple. Apple was granted an injunction against Samsung in Australia this month, temporarily preventing the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 – [...]
Read moreGoogle+ lets millions of corporate Google Apps users join in
Google has launched its answer to Twitter’s trending topics, called What’s Hot, for Google+. As described the video above, What’s Hot collects the most popular publicly shared items from across Google+. The feature sits on the left-hand side of users’ Google+ streams. Google also launched a very cool infographic for each public post, called Ripples, [...]
Read moreUntangling the web: how the internet has changed the way we treat death
It is a most basic fact of life: we will all die. There are no creams, no pills, no incantations that can change this. However, more and more of us have the opportunity to perpetuate ourselves by the grace of overenthusiastic automated Facebook reminders and the digital archives of identity that we upload with pieces [...]
Read moreVolta BCN electric motorcycle announced, set to go on sale in Q2 2012
Volta Motorbikes unveils his first electric motorbike, the Volta BCN, in the coming EICMA 2011 The pre-reservation list will be opening at the start of 2012, and the first units will be sold during the second quarter of the year Between 8th and 13th November, amid the backdrop of the Milan Fair (69th International Motorcycle [...]
Read moreInhabitat’s Week in Green: CR-V hybrid, Facebook’s server farm and robot costumes
The world of green tech presented us with some neat tricks and eco-treats this week from this plan to 3D print new shells for homeless hermit crabs to this handy LeafSnap app that helps you identify all different kinds of fall foliage to an energy-efficient UFO hotel room, which recently “landed” in the forests of [...]
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