Microsoft to mimic Apple yet again, move to once-per-year Windows upgrades, source say

“Microsoft Corp. plans to overhaul how it develops the flagship Windows operating system in a strategic shift aimed at keeping pace with nimbler rivals Apple Inc. and Google Inc., people familiar with the matter said,” Dina Bass reports for Bloomberg.

“Microsoft aims to upgrade the software more frequently, about once a year, rather than every two or three years as it's done in the past, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the product plans are private,” Bass reports. “The company plans to unveil the first of these updates in 2013, one of the people said.”

Bass reports, “Microsoft hasn't yet figured out whether the upgrades will be offered for free, or for a low price to current customers, said one of the people.”

Read more in the full article here.

“The Verge has learned from several sources familiar with Microsoft's plans that the company is planning to standardize on an approach, codenamed Blue, across Windows and Windows Phone in an effort to provide more regular updates to consumers,” Tom Warren reports for The Verge. “Originally unveiled by ZDNet, the update on the Windows side, due in mid-2013, will include UI changes and alterations to the entire platform and pricing.”

MacDailyNews Take: Codenamed Blue. That’s short for...

“Sources tell us that Microsoft will likely keep the Windows 8 name for the foreseeable future, despite the Windows Blue update,” Warren reports. “A big part of Windows Blue is the push towards yearly updates for Microsoft's OS. Microsoft will kick off an annual upgrade cycle for Windows that is designed to make it more competitive against rival platforms from Apple and Google.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: So, Windows 8 is the public beta for which Microsoft nonetheless charges money? Okay got it. As if anybody needed it, yet another reason not to buy Windows 8.

Apple iPad crushing Amazon Kindle in early holiday purchases made via tablet?

“According to IBM’s Benchmark survey of Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales, Kindles accounted for only 2.4% of purchases made via tablet, fewer than those made by Barnes and Noble’s Nook (3.1%) and way fewer than the iPad (88.3%),” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.

“That jibes with a new e-commerce report published by Monetate that tracked sales at 100 retailers (but not at Amazon.com) made via tablet over the past four quarters,” P.E.D. reports. “Third quarter sales on the Kindle Fire (2.06%) were actually lower than Q2 (2.18%), as shown in the graph above created Tuesday from Monetate data by Asymco’s Horace Dediu. Kindle just doesn’t seem to be a popular platform for making online purchases.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Since the Kindle is a gateway created pretty much expressly for shopping at Amazon.com, not measuring purchases made via Amazon.com tells us virtually nothing about the success or lack thereof of Amazon’s Kindle in terms of purchases made via tablet.

It’s highly unlikely that Amazon would be continuing to make Kindles, much less expanding their model lines, if Kindles weren’t contributing, or looked likely to someday contribute, to Amazon.com sales.

That said, iPad clearly dominates online shopping from tablets in general (and, wild guess, likely at Amazon.com, too).

This Digital Tracking Rifle Scope Only Shoots When Your Target's In Your Sights

A company called TrackingPoint has developed what it calls an Intelligent Digital Tracking Scope that lets a shooter virtually mark a location so that the rifle will only fire when the intended target is in its crosshairs. Even if the trigger is squeezed, the rifle will only fire when it's on target.

Some might argue that it takes the sport and skill out of hunting, but at the same time it does appear to make the sport safer preventing misses or misfires. The only catch is that because the digital scope is so tightly integrated into the rest of the rifle, it doesn't seem like it can be retrofitted to your existing arsenal. But next year the company is planning to introduce three rifles with the scope system already built-in, so you'll be better equipped to frag yourself a deer come hunting season. [TrackingPoint via The Firearm Blog via BoingBoing]

These Super-Light Polymer Lenses May Eventually Replace Human Corneas

Michael Keller - Txchnologist

A new artificial lens that mimics the one found in human eyes is set to dramatically lower the weight of night-vision goggles, laser rangefinders and cameras aboard micro unmanned aerial vehicles that soldiers and marines must carry in the field.

Optics and materials engineers have been working for a decade on a process that places thousands of transparent polymer layers on top of each other to make what's called a gradient-index (GRIN) lens.

It's the same method that humans and some other animals have evolved to build the lens in their eyes. In the natural version, thousands of layers of clear protein layers are deposited one on top of the other to allow light through and focus images onto the retina.

"We were curious about what makes our own eyes work," says Dr. Michael Ponting, the president of PolymerPlus, a spinoff from Case Western Reserve University founded to bring the new GRIN lenses to market. "We've always been interested in how smart evolved natural systems are at getting things done. So we looked to nature to find the most efficient scientist."

Fine-Tuning Refractive Power

For the artificial version PolymerPlus is building, each polymer layer can be fine-tuned by changing its chemical composition to minutely alter how much it bends light, a phenomenon called refraction. The process then stacks 4,000 polymer layers into paper-thin films that are in turn placed on top of each other. This method allows scientists to precisely configure the refractivity of the lens. Their work was published in November in the journal Optics Express.

The amalgamated layers of these GRIN lenses are allowing the researchers to dial in the desired optical characteristics they are looking for, like focusing or defocusing light and shielding out unwanted wavelengths. "Another neat thing you can do is create flat optics that makes light bend inside of them so they work like convex or concave lenses," Ponting says.

Military Applications

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research have contributed funding and brainpower to make the new lens technology.

DARPA managers have laid out their hopes for GRIN on the technology's product page. "What if a laser range finder or night-vision goggle could be reduced to half its size and weight? Imaging systems could benefit by using fewer optical elements to achieve better control of light with equal or better performance than conventional optics. For example, this translates to high-resolution cameras for micro unmanned aerial vehicles.

"Recent advances in the design and fabrication of GRIN optics promises to make this possible, and the implications will be far-reaching."

The sandwiched layers of polymers are about half the weight of glass equivalents, and their focusing abilities mean that one polymer lens can do the work of three that are made of glass. The result, Ponting says, is night-vision goggles that are a seventh of the weight compared to those currently available.

Part of the new technique's efficiency is the way that it refracts light. Most lenses must be shaped to change the direction that light travels when it passes through because the refraction happens at the surface of the material. The composition of the polymer layers in the new GRIN lens can actually refract light internally thanks to their varying chemical composition, which is precisely engineered.

"It's everything the state of the art in optics was plus the ability to change how light travels internally in the material instead of just at the surface," Ponting says. "We take advantage of the wasted internal space to bend where the light goes. It's a design degree of freedom."

Other Uses On the Horizon

The civilians and military working on the technology are already looking at what it can be used for besides military and other surveillance applications.

"In the past century, every component of an optical system has become lighter and smaller, except the optics," says Stefanie Tompkins, DARPA's GRIN program manager. "The impact of smaller, lighter optics on anything used to focus light, from contact lenses and corneal implants to lasers and solar arrays would be enormous."

Ponting says that the lenses will one day be used to replace faulty or damaged ones in human eyes. They may also make it into orbit-their better optical characteristics mean that they could find a use in communications and earth-observing satellites.

"The lenses made from this process allow finer detail, better color resolution, higher contrast and much lower weight," Ponting says. "This can fill a gap in society that no one has hit yet."

Txchnologist is a digital magazine presented by GE that explores the wider world of science, technology and innovation.

Subscribe to Txchnologist's daily email.

Michael Keller is the Managing Editor of Txchnologist. His science, technology and international reporting work has appeared online and in newspapers, magazines and books, including the graphic novel Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Reach him at mkeller@groupsjr.com.

Top Image: Courtesy Flickr user Michele Catania.

Griffin Launching Official Lightning Connector Cables Next Week

Griffin today announced the upcoming release of Apple-certified Lightning charge and sync cables for the iPhone 5, 5th generation iPod touch, fourth generation iPad and iPad mini.


Though there have been several unofficial third party Lightning accessories, Griffin's accessories will be the first official third-party standalone Lightning connector cables on the market when they launch next week.

Griffin's new cables with Lightning Connector are affordable charging solutions that are built to resist kinks and tangles. The cables work perfectly with Griffin's family of PowerBlocks and PowerJolts as well as Apple's USB power adapters, or plug into a computer's USB to sync with iTunes.

The company is offering several different cable configurations:


- 2' straight USB-to-Lightning cable ($16.99)

- 3' straight USB-to-Lightning cable ($18.99)

- 4' coiled USB-to-Lightning cable ($24.99)

- 9.8' (3 meter) straight USB-to-Lightning cable ($29.99)

Earlier this month, Belkin introduced two official Lightning accessories, including a car charger and the Charge + Sync Dock. Scosche has also announced car and home chargers, although its products have yet to begin shipping.


Apple has been maintaining strict control over its Lightning connectors, which has made it difficult for third party manufacturers to introduce new accessories.


Vendors that launch Lightning-related accessories must produce them in Apple-approved facilities. The Lightning connector also requires controller chips to take advantage of adaptive technology, which has delayed the release of third party Lightning accessories.

Apple and Starbucks Partner for (Product) Red Gift Cards

Just in time for the holidays, Apple and Starbucks have partnered up for a (Product) Red gift card combo. When you buy the $15 iTunes + $15 Starbucks gift card both companies together will contribute 5% to the Global Fund to help fund AIDS research.

Give a gift that gives back this holiday season with Starbucks iTunes RED eGift basket. You can send loved ones a thoughtful gift of two digital eGifts-$15 eGift to Starbucks and $15 eGift to iTunes-for $30. Plus, for every gift sold, Starbucks and iTunes will together contribute 5% of the purchase price to the Global Fund to help deliver an AIDS free generation by 2015. With the convenience of a Starbucks Card, Starbucks Card eGifts can be used for purchases in-store at participating company-owned and licensed stores in the U.S. and online. This unique and meaningful eGift basket can be purchased at www.starbucks.com/REDeGift.

Apple has long been a supporter of the (Product) Red campaign, selling red iPod nano models, iPad Smart Cases and Smart Covers. Most recently, Apple released a (Product) Red bumper for the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. At an Apple town hall meeting in February, Tim Cook mentioned that Apple (Product) Red products have generated over $50 million to help fund AIDS research. The gift card combo can be purchased at this website.

Updated 500px Photo App Introduces New iPad Design and Full iPhone Support

Professional photographers absolutely love 500px. Amateur photographers do too. Flicker may have started the whole online photo phenomenon, but 500px perfected it. The iPad app, which launched earlier this year, has generated nearly one million downloads. Today the company has updated the social photography app to include the much-anticipated support for the iPhone, as well as improvements to the iPad design.

Users can now upload their avatar information from within the app when they log into their 500px account. You can also customize your visual presence right from within the app.

Improvements to the iPad app are minor, almost indistinguishable. However, the subtle changes make the app more user friendly. For example, previously, the main screen showed a grid with 12 thumbnail images. Now, not only can you see those same thumbnails, you can also see a sliver of the next 12 images so that you know how to access the rest of the photos.

500px Before The Update

500px After the Update

The real changes are with the iPhone app. iPhone users can access Flow, which is a photo stream based on activities from your 500 px friends. Controls are at the top of the screen instead of the side, the way they are on the iPad. To access different categories, for example, tap "Popular" at the top of the screen and you'll get an elegant looking dropdown menu that is superimposed on top of the current window. Most apps start on the iPhone and eventually get iPad optimized, but the developers of 500px worked backward. It is clear now, why they waited so long to bring the app to the iPhone. There are a lot of design changes that make it work elegantly with the smaller screen.

The 500px app is available for free in the App Store. You don't need an account to view the thousands of images available, but you'll get more out if the experience if you sign up. The standard account is free, but you can upgrade to a premium account, which offers unlimited uploads, optimized portfolio access, and journal capabilities.

Updated Skype App Adds Editing Features and Microsoft Account Support

I Skype with my nephew at least once per week. I also Skype with my dad, who lives in Mexico, and my crazy uncle in Hawaii. Basically, if they don't have an Apple device, I Skype them. Today, the popular communication service has updated their iOS app to include Microsoft account support, as well as message editing and the ever-popular emoticon compatibility. (My mom loves those little smiley faces!)

The addition of Microsoft support allows users to log into Skype using their Messenger, Hotmail, and Outlook accounts and access their contacts directly from within the app. All you have to do is sign into your account and merge with Skype.

Text chatting in Skype just got a whole lot more fun too. Now, users can copy, edit or delete instant messages by tapping and holding the message. Even after you've sent the message, you can change it or delete it entirely. No more drunk instant messaging Skype mistakes that you will regret later. You can also add some passion to your text by selecting from 72 different emoticons. Unfortunately for iPad mini owners, emoticons are only available on Retina display devices.

If your friend recently changed their phone number, Skype has made it easier for you to update the information by allowing you to edit saved phone numbers from the dial pad.

Skype is free and compatible with the iPad. There is also an iPhone app that was recently updated to include support for the iPhone 5.

[Via: TheNextWeb]

DARPA finds the best sentry is a man-machine hybrid

Unmanned drones are becoming more commonplace in the skies above us, and depending on their location, many of them also carry weapons. There’s a growing concern over whether one day control of firing those weapons will revert to a computer rather than a human, and with it we all take a step closer to Skynet.

But it seems we don’t need to concern ourselves too much (yet), as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has discovered combining a computer and a human makes for a much more reliable threat analysis system regardless of what kind of robot/drone weapons are attached to.

Recent tests carried out by the agency attempted to find out what the best solution for a sentry would be: a sentry being a system that monitors an area for threats. Would it be a computer controlled system, a human, or both? Take either a human or a computer in isolation and both make mistakes, but DARPA found by combining the two you get just 0.2% false positives, or a sentry that performs correctly 99.8% of the time.

The man-machine hybrid that achieved such high levels of accuracy is called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System or CT2WS. It works by sitting a trained person in front of a wide-angle camera and radar video feed while they are hooked up to an electroencephalogram device.

The person is there to view footage captured by the camera, but the footage presented is better than anything a human alone could see. That’s because the camera has an increased field of view and the radar can highlight things not normally visible to our eyes. The thing that pushes this hybrid system over the top,though, is the use of the electroencephalogram.

An electroencephalogram device, commonly referred to as EEG, is used to measure brain activity. What the system does is detect when the user’s brain unconsciously recognizes something on the display, and can therefore react to it or bring it to the attention of the person.

So what we have here is a sentry system that relies on a human being present, yet can see more and react to more potential threats than a human could ever hope to achieve alone. DARPA has effectively created a super-human sentry thanks to technology.

More at MIT Technology Review and DARPA

Petition to get GTA V released on PC reaches over 65,000 supporters

With all the crazy mods that are available for GTA IV see above), you’d think that Rockstar would know by now that PC gamers are big fans of Grand Theft Auto. Even so, the company is not planning on releasing the upcoming GTA V on PC.

As a response to Rockstar’s spurning of computer gamers there is now a petition to get GTA V released on the PC. The petition, set up by Mike Julliard, aims to get 100,000 signatures and it’s already over halfway there, with over 65,000 supporters (at the time this post went live). The main reason for the petition is to show Rockstar just how many people want to see GTA V on PC.

Rockstar hasn’t entirely ruled out GTA V getting a PC or Wii U release in the future, in fact Dan Houser, a vice president at Rockstar games, said that everything was up for consideration and a port could be on the cards. PC fans might not be happy with just a port though, as reflected in some of the comments on the petition.

Many people would agree that it doesn’t make sense for Rockstar to skip a PC release — it would make them a lot of money as well as keep fans happy. Plus everyone wants to see what the modders come up with next. Of course the company will have to balance those two factors with the additional development costs, tradeoffs (would this delay DLC on the primary releases?), the quality of the final product (presumably they would need to rush it out the door), and any concerns the might have about piracy.

There’s no official release date for GTA V on PS3/Xbox 360 yet so it’s too early to rule out a PC version, but a petition with a serious amount of backers never did any harm. Once the petition reaches 100,000 signatures it’s going to be pretty tough for Rockstar to ignore it, especially considering that those 100,000 people could be seen as the vocal minority.

Petition at Change.org, via CVG

Apple Fires Manager Responsible for Maps as Eddy Cue Turns to Outsiders for Help

As Apple continues to work toward improving the new Maps service the company rolled out in iOS 6, Bloomberg reports that Apple has fired Richard Williamson, the manager directly responsible for the project.

Richard Williamson, who oversaw the mapping team, was fired by Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information wasn't yet public. Cue, who took over last month as part of a management shakeup, is seeking advice from outside mapping-technology experts and prodding digital maps provider TomTom NV to fix landmark and navigation data it shares with Apple.

As part of a management shakeup at Apple announced last month, iOS chief Scott Forstall will be leaving the company next year and his responsibilities have been delegated to other executives. With Eddy Cue now overseeing Maps in addition to his iTunes Store, App Store, iCloud, iBookstore, iAd, and Siri responsibilities, Apple has brought on its "product resuscitator" to help fix the highly criticized service.


Cue is said to be taking a very hands-on approach with Maps, and with his firing of Williamson seems to be looking to build his own team to address the service's many issues.

Build-to-Order Pricing for New iMac Models Revealed

Following Apple's announcement today that the new iMac models will go on sale this Friday, November 30 with immediate availability of 21.5-inch models and December availability of 27-inch models, Apple reseller Expercom has posted full configuration and pricing information for each of the models. While Apple has detailed the available customization options since last month, the company had not previously listed pricing information for the various options.


- Base 21.5-inch model: Only one internal customization is available on the $1299 base model, with a $200 charge to upgrade RAM from 8 GB to 16 GB. The RAM is not officially user-upgradable, so those interested in 16 GB of RAM may be interested in considering this option.


- High-end 21.5-inch model: In addition to the same RAM upgrade option available on the low-end model, the high-end model starting at $1499 also offers options for a processor bump from 2.9 GHz Core i5 to 3.1 GHz Core i7 ($200) and to upgrade the base 1 TB hard drive to a Fusion Drive ($250) that incorporates solid-state storage for faster performance.

- Base 27-inch model: The $1799 base model includes a 2.9 GHz Core i5 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GT 660M graphics, with a number of RAM upgrade options ranging up to $600 for 32 GB of Apple-installed RAM, although Expercom offers its own RAM options for considerably lower pricing and users can upgrade the RAM on the 27-inch models at a later date. A number of storage options are also available, with the base 1 TB hard drive upgradeable to 3 TB for $150. Each of those hard drives can also be upgraded to Fusion Drives for an additional $250 premium, and Apple also offers a 768 GB all-flash drive as a $1300 upgrade.


- High-end 27-inch model: The $1999 model bumps the default processor to a 3.2 GHz Core i5 and the graphics to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX with 1 GB of GDDR5, which can be upgraded to a 3.4 GHz Core i7 ($200) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX with 2 GB of GDDR5 ($150). Storage and RAM upgrades are the same as on the base 27-inch model.

How to increase the performance of your wireless network

“Wireless networks are so ubiquitous that many of us rarely pay any attention to their setup. For a lot of us, as long as we can get on the Internet, then that's all we need,” Jordan Merrick writes for Mactuts+.

“However, it's likely that your wireless network isn't anywhere near as good as it can be,” Merrick writes. “With some simple tweaking, and some great utilities from the Mac App Store, we can make sure it's the best in the neighborhood!”

Merrick writes, “So we can make the best changes possible, let's see what we're dealing with. There are a few questions we need to answer before we start optimizing our wireless network...”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

Why Apple stock might regain $600 this week

“Shares of tech giant Apple are up over 1% in early morning trading reaching as high as $580 - helped by a bullish report from analyst Glen Yeung of Citigroup,” Richard Saintvilus writes for Forbes. “Likewise, early sales indicators from the Black Friday weekend points to another monster quarter for Apple. Many analysts point to the fact that Apple had not had to offer significant discounts of its iPad mini as a sign of strong demand.”

“Ahead of the shopping season, analysts had initially projected iPad mini sales to reach an estimated 5 million units,” Saintvilus writes. “However, with the device commanding such interest from retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Apple might exceed that total before Christmas on its way to at least 6.5 million units.”

Saintvilus writes, “From an investment perspective, it's hard not to like the stock at any price under $600. The stock has rebounded nicely after dropping as much as 30% a recent low of $505. The decline was largely due to concerns over the "fiscal cliff." However, shares seem poised to regain the $600 mark.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related article:
Citigroup initiates AAPL coverage with 'Buy' rating – November 26, 2012

Google Africa teams up with businesses accelerator 88mph to light up the South African startup scene

Back in July, we reported that Kenyan startup accelerator 88mph was hoping that a $200k cash injection would help it “accelerate” up to fifteen startups. This endeavor was no doubt boosted by its subsequent partnership with Google geared towards “filling the gaps” of the nascent startup ecosystem' on the continent.

With that in mind, Google Africa and the Umbono program have announced an initiative to roll out 88mph in Cape Town, South Africa.

Just to recap, the Umbono program is a six-month long investment and development initiative from Google, focusing on building prototypes, usability, and iteration for the first three months. During the final three months, firms craft their go-to-market strategy and attempt to lure users to their product.

While the 88mph accelerator program originally launched in Nairobi, Kenya, now that it’s available in South Africa too, startups across the Cape Town conurbation will be better placed to access funding, mentoring, and – ultimately – gain visibility. Google’s specific input will include mentoring, speaker programs and workshops.

“Our goal was always to help kick-start the South African start-up community and bring the pieces of the ecosystem together,” explains Johanna Kollar, Program Manager, Google South Africa. “We've achieved that and the start-up community (‘Silicon Cape’) has proven to be filled with talent, and more active investors are now involved.

“Our new partnership will provide even more resources to entrepreneurs in South Africa,” she continues. “Google for Entrepreneurs is supporting tech accelerators and hubs across Africa, and the new program to support 88mph in Cape Town is an exciting addition.”

The link-up with 88mph is comparable with the Internet giant’s partnerships with the likes of Eleven in Bulgaria and Le Camping in France.

“The Umbono program brought together a community of talent and angel investors, and helped seven startups get their feet off the ground,” continues Kollar. “Many of our teams have won international competitions and already received follow-on investments. We will continue to build on their great momentum to help grow the wider tech entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southern Africa.”

The official launch event took place in Cape Town last month and, in practical terms, startups are able to apply now to enter the 88mph program. The deadline for entry is December 15, 2012.

More mobility: 15.5% of European smartphone users also own a tablet, comScore says

According to a brief post on comScore’s Data Mine blog, roughly one out of six European smartphone owners also have a tablet.

The measurement and audience tracking company looked at data from the ‘EU5′, a group of five European nations with comparatively large economies, namely France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, and found that smartphone penetration is now at 53.7 percent.

15.5% of European Smartphone Owners Also Have a #Tablet cmsc.re/fzlwj #mobile #EU

— comScore Data Gems (@datagems) November 26, 2012

According to comScore, this represents nearly 130 million people who’ve used a smartphone in the three-month average ending September 2012.

Of those, 15.5 percent also own a tablet, compared to only 9.3 percent last year. Clearly, the number of people suffering from multiple mobility disorder is steadily increasing.

You can find comScore’s ‘Data Gem’ chart below.

The UK ‘leads’ with 17.7 percent of the smartphone audience also owning a tablet, with Germany ‘trailing’ at 12.8 percent.

Italy and France are on par with each other and closest to (but below) the EU5 average estimated by comScore.

Your turn, now: do you own both a smartphone and a tablet?

Image credit: David Gannon for AFP / Getty Images

Man who burgled Steve Jobs’ home could get 7 years in prison

The man who was accused of breaking into the late Steve Jobs’s house and stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise could receive a sentence of up to seven years and eight months behind bars. The crime he allegedly committed carries a maximum penalty of 16 years and four months, but the judge in the case capped it at the lower amount because the perpetrator has decided to plead “no contest.”

The man, Kariem McFarlin, broke into the house in Palo Alto, California in August. He claimed, and police appear to believe, that he did not realize it used to be Steve Jobs‘s primary residence. He just picked it as a random target, possibly because he realized that nobody seemed to be going in or out of the house.

So he was confident enough in his plan that he spent 15 hours pilfering things like iPhones, iPads, iPods, and expensive champagne, as well as around $60,000 worth of jewelry. At some point, of course, he did realize exactly whose possessions he was stealing.

He found a letter addressed to Steve Jobs, at which point he realized he hit the jackpot. He ended up finding and taking Jobs’s wallet and driver license. In a twist that might have even made Steve Jobs proud, the suspect was caught because of one of his stolen iPads. McFarlin gave one of the iPads to an acquaintance to pay off a debt, and police were able to track down that iPad and link it back to McFarlin.

It turns out he also committed several other burglaries dating back more than a year, making it more plausible that landing upon the Jobs house was just a coincidence.

Because of the no contest plea, there will not be a jury trial. McFarlin will face sentencing on January 17, 2013.

via Washington Post

Portabee is a $480 3D printer aimed at mainstream buyers

There has been a lot of discussion this year about how 3D printers are being targeted directly at individual consumers. Words like “affordable” and “inexpensive” have been tossed around a lot. The MakerBot Replicator 2, for example, is $2000 — not exactly cheap but a few years ago you’d be hard pressed to find any kind of sophisticated 3D printer for under $5000. The rhetoric may be getting a little bit ahead of itself though, because while $2000 marks a notable price reduction it’s still out of the reach of most hobbyists.

That’s where Portabee comes in. Its aim is not to be the most amazing 3D printer on the market. It might not even win any awards, but its stated case is that none of that matters if people are unable to buy it. At just $480 plus shipping, it is less expensive than many computers yet it can still perform the basic functions that a novice 3D printing enthusiast needs.

Its limitations include the ability to use only one color material at a time, and it can only print things as big as an average mug. In addition, it doesn’t have a fancy interface — it’s meant to be a basic tool that can build your creations as cost-effectively as possible.

One differentiating factor, though, is that it it completely portable. It weighs just 6.2 pounds and can be folded down to fit inside the included carrying case. It claims to be the first “portable 3D printer in the world.” It uses PLA and ABS plastic materials, which are pretty standard for 3D printing. It is compatible with SD cards for loading up print jobs. It takes about three weeks to ship and can be purchased in the link below.

More at Portabee

Holiday Price War Rages in Real Time

While shoppers jostled and shoved their way through the usual long lines for Black Friday retail deals, a new and more pitched battle was being fought online that promises to redraw how stores plan for their big door-buster specials.

The historical race between e-commerce retailers and their physical-store rivals continues. But in a new development, bricks-and-mortar retailers are turning the tables, using their websites to match rivals’ marquee discounts more aggressively than ever.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Japan's Masayoshi Son Picks a Fight With U.S. Phone Giants

In Japan, Masayoshi Son is known as the eccentric Internet billionaire who upended the country’s telecom industry. In the U.S., he is about to become the cash-strapped underdog who picked a fight with two corporate giants — AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.

“It’s like the poor kids fighting against the rich kids,” Mr. Son said recently about the coming showdown. “Sometimes, the poor kids have more guts to fight the uphill battle.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Puzzlebox Orbit is a toy helicopter you control with your brain

If you have ever taken one of those classes in college that aims to, for example, teach you “physics as related to popular movies,” then you’ve already experienced what “fun education” is supposed to be like. Now, with a Kickstarter campaign that already reached its funding goal, educational company Puzzlebox aims to give everyone the chance to own a toy helicopter you control with your brain, and learn something along the way.

Rather than teaching you how Spider-Man should actually be able to swing around New York like in that college course, Puzzlebox includes educational hardware and software guides with each helicopter. Dubbed the Puzzlebox Orbit, the goal of the toy is to not only make you feel like you have telekinetic powers, but to learn something about building and customizing your own hardware and software.

Puzzlebox aims to release lessons on how brain-controlled devices actually work, as well as how infrared signals can pilot the helicopter. With the Puzzlebox Orbit, Puzzlebox is testing their hypothesis that this kind of product can not only be a successful educational tool, but be commercially viable. Now that the project has hit its goal, Puzzlebox will freely release and distribute all of the material related to the Orbit, such as hardware schematics and source code.

The Orbit is a toy helicopter encased in a protective orb, in order to prevent the toy’s blades from bumping into objects it might fly into. Puzzlebox notes that while RC helicopters have a reputation for being fragile, their Orbit has survived multiple falls and crashes throughout the testing process.

Puzzlebox is offering two models of brain-controlled helicopter — one that can be controlled with smartphones and tablets, and one self-contained unit that comes with the pyramid stand pictured above. The units are controlled via a NeuroSky MindWave Mobile EEG headset, but simply use a different base of communications — a mobile device or the pyramid. The Orbit receives infrared signals from either communications base, but the pyramid station is capable of sending out infrared signals that can be programmed to control other IR-based toys, or even a television.

Now, your brain can’t tell the helicopter to fly in complicated aerial patterns. However, different patterns — such as hovering, or flying across a room — can be set to specific mental states that are measured by the headset. Once the specific mental state is maintained, the signal is sent off to the helicopter, and the Orbit flies in the appropriate pattern.

Though the project has already met its minimum funding goal of $10,000, there are still 16 days left to back the project, and some neat rewards for doing so. A small pledge of $10 will get your name added to a list of sponsors included on the website and within the software, whereas a pledge of $149 will net you an Orbit system along with NeuroSky headset.

If you want to back the project, or are simply interested in learning more, head on over to the Kickstarter page before the funding phase is over in a couple weeks.

Spy Through The Air With The Greatest of Ease With Your Own Autonomous UAV

Have you ever wanted to do survelience on your friends, neighbors, enemies, or that sketchy-looking house down the street? Have you ever wanted a drone of your own? Well Lehmann Aviation's LA100 might be your chance if you can spare the scratch.

Unlike other RC "drones" that require you to fly them, the LA100 is completely autonomous and carries out pre-programmed flight paths of up to five minutes, reaching heights of up to 330 feet with no need for real-time control; it's a real UAV. And when it comes to taking pictures, the LA100 goes all out with a mounted GoPro Hero 3. All you have to do is program the flight path, take it out for launch, wait for it to finish its flight, and check out the footage.

What's the catch? It's a little expensive. It comes out in December for the low, low price of $1280 ( 990). It's not cheap, but really, what more could you ask of your own personal drone? Maybe firepower, but I think I speak for all of us when I say "oh god no please god no, no no no." [Lehmann Aviation via Gizmag via Ubergizmo]

“In the Studio,” Sifteo’s David Merrill Unveils “Sifteo Cubes” To The World

Editor’s Note: Semil Shah is an EIR with Javelin Venture Partners and has been a contributor to TechCrunch since January 2011. You can follow him on Twitter at @semil.

“In the Studio” presents the first of two special holiday segments this Thanksgiving by welcoming one of the co-founders of one of my personal favorite startup companies. Almost five years ago, Sifteo’s David Merrill and his cofounder, Jeevan Kalanathi, embarked on a long journey that would take them from MIT’s Media Lab to San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, to blazing a trail for other venture-backed hardware startups during a time when traditional venture capital was more reluctant to deploy funds in this space. The result, after years and years of hard work, persistance, and learnings, is the Sifteo Cube, a set of small siftable computerized tiles with preloaded games for kids to play with and learn about math, spacial recognition, and most importantly, tactile play with real objects.

I invited Sifteo’s President, David Merrill, into the studio to talk about his long journey, the TED talk that turned his idea into a sensation, and the ups-and-downs encountered along the way, when hardware startups weren’t “cool.” In our discussion, we discuss the world of play for kids, the venture environment toward hardware today, what other resources hardware entrepreneurs can access, the trials of building a hardware startup and platform company at the same time, and a live demo of his cubes. Sifteo is unveiling these gaming cubes to the world right now, designed for folks aged 7 to adult, and inspired to make kids and others play with real tactile objects to learn. Merrill and his colleagues also have an SDK for developers out there who want to build educational games on this new platform. (There’s another Sifteo video demo below.)

Overall, when it comes to the long struggle of entrepreneurship, of creating an idea and working on it for a really long time, of building hardware, software, and a platform at the same time, a company like Sifteo, its founders, and early investors really deserve a lot of credit for their patience and vision to bring these kind of consumer electronics to market.

Turkey Day Was Instagram’s Busiest Ever, With 10 Million+ Thanksgiving Photos Shared At Up To 226 Per Second

While the day after Halloween is typically Facebook’s biggest photo sharing day, Instagram had its busiest 24 hours to date over Thanksgiving when users shared 10 million photos with holiday references, peaking at 226 per second. The surge likely inspired plenty of sign-ups too, as iPhonographers and Droidographers alike showed off their touched up snapshots to family.

Instagram said “Overall, the day broke all Instagram records as we saw the number of shared photos more than double from the day before, making it our busiest day so far.” It eclipsed the 800,000 Hurricane Sandy Instagrams to become the services most photographed event yet.

The company counted up photos with tags like #thanksgiving and #turkey and saw a sustained flow of over 200 holiday photos a second for several hours surrounding the 12:40pm PST peak at 226 per second.

It wasn’t just users getting into the spirit either. Instagram recently began giving brands tips on how to make the most of their photos, including advice to add links in the comments and description section to be able to drive traffic and return on investment from the Instagram presence. Plenty surely noted upcoming Black Friday deals or just took a moment to thank their customers and fans.

With Instagram’s new web profiles and public links, sharing a photo to the service makes it easily accessible even to friends and family that don’t have the app. Shooting an email with an Instagram link to grandparents is a lot easier than trying to walk them through the Facebook sign-up process. Over time, that could actually give Instagram a leg up over Facebook’s walled garden and make it the photo app of choice when you want to share with folks who don’t live and breathe the Internet.

[Image Credit: DylForLife]

DIY kit appears for 3D-printed quadcopter

Will there ever be a creation made on a 3D printer that isn’t super cool? Not if Adam Polak has anything to say about it. He just designed a quadcopter made out of 3D-printed parts. Obviously, there is some assembly required, and some technical know-how to get the thing to fully operate, but the entire kit is available for purchase in case any serious DIY-er wants to try it out.

As is described on Polak’s website, Polakium Engineering, a 3D printer is able to create the basic structure of the device, like the frame plates and arms. By using standard ABS plastic to make these pieces, the arms are able to bend and move yet remain steady and tough to break.

Polak provides instructions on how to assemble everything together, including the required non-printable parts like the battery and flight controller. The main point, though, is that all of the aesthetic parts of the copter can be created without any hassle.

This is an example of how 3D printing is becoming more and more of a universally accessible technology. It used to be something reserved only for major corporations or for high-end designers and engineers. Now, though, the middleman is slowly being cut out. Instead of ordering a customized action figure from a company, for example, you can just buy a 3D printer and make your own. Granted, the current market price of around $2,000 for a solid 3D printer is still steep for most consumers, but that price will come down and it is a huge leap forward from the machines that used to cost well over $10K.

The fact that Polak, a college student, can have his own 3D printer and share his creations with the world is the perfect example of not only how 3D printing will mold the future, but how it is already molding the present.

via O’Reilly Radar

3DS game Resident Evil: Revelations gets rated for Xbox 360 and PS3

Resident Evil: Revelations only came out on the 3DS at the start of this year, but it seems it could be coming to both Xbox 360 and PS3 soon, too.

The revelation (sorry) comes after the Korean Ratings Board rated the game for both Sony and Microsoft’s consoles – suggesting the game could already be ported over from the 3DS. It’s not unusual for Capcom to re-release and port games from console-to-console, but it’s quite surprising this one is happening so soon.

Revelations is much more of a classic Resident Evil game in terms of gameplay, centred around survival horror rather than the more recent RE games for PS3 and Xbox 360 . Revelations is set between the RE 4 and 5 games, with the story revolving around Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine plus two new characters, Parker and Jessica. The story switches between the different characters and the gameplay focuses on puzzle solving and exploring. As well as the main story there’s also an extra game mode called Raid Mode, which allows you and a friend to battle hoards of zombies together.

Capcom have yet to confirm Revelations is coming to consoles, but it’s more than likely true. It’s a good way for Capcom to fill the gap between the last Resident Evil and the inevitable RE 7, and it’s likely Revelations will be a PSN/Xbox Live download. However, it will need the graphics updated and some of the gameplay mechanics might have to be adjusted – such as the touch screen bits. If anything, Revelations should really be ported over to the PS Vita.

More at the Korean Ratings Board (translated), via Eurogamer

iPad Foosball Table

New Potato Technologies has created a fantastic and very unique iPad gaming case which has been designed to convert your iPad into a miniature Foosball Table. Allowing you to enjoy all the fun, but given a fraction of the space required for a full size Foosball Table.

The iPad Foosball Table is equipped with 8 two-axis control rods and can support up to 4 players, even though it might be a little cramped around the table.

Hacker convicted of stealing the personal data of 120,000 AT&T Apple iPad users

Here is the story of one hacker who got caught. On Tuesday, a Federal Court jury found 27 year old Andrew Auernheimer guilty of one count of conspiracy to access AT&T’s servers without permission, and one count of identity theft. Auernheimer and a co-defendant were accused of hacking into the carrier’s servers and stole email addresses and personal information belonging to 120,000 AT&T customers using the Apple iPad.

How Did This Tiny South Pacific Island Disappear? (Hint: It Never Really Existed)

It shows up on Google Maps, coastal databases, and marine charts, but when scientists from the University of Sydney went to visit Sandy Island, it was no where to be found. Did the island, supposedly located between Australia and New Caledonia, suddenly disappear like a confusing LOST plot twist?

Unfortunately no, that wasn't the case. Instead, the scientists had simply undiscovered the island.

They first became suspicious of its existence when they arrived at the proper coordinates only to discover a vast blue ocean and a water depth of over 4,500 feet. Had the island disappeared due to erosion, there would still have been a large chunk of land mass beneath the waves. And how exactly Sandy Island made its way onto maps and charts as far back as 2000 is currently a mystery that the team from the University of Sydney is now trying to solve.

Was it simply human error? It's certainly been known to happen. Google Maps pulls its data from a variety of public and commercial sources, and unlike its fleet of Street View vehicles, it doesn't have a flotilla of boats scouring the planet's oceans for technical accuracy. So while the island still shows up in Google's database, don't expect it to be there much longer now that it's been proven to be fake. [BBC]

What Tech Problems are You Fixing for Your Family Today?

One of the problems of heading home for Thanksgiving is that you're invariably asked to fix all kinds of technological problems. What projects are you working on today, beside chomping on turkey and swigging liquor?

Perhaps you're setting up the family home cinema system so that it actually, y'know, works. Or teaching your aunt how to use her iPad (again). Or maybe it's even something as simple as updating the browser on your parents' PC. Whichever way you slice it, you're working on your day off—so share the pain and let us know exactly what menial tasks your family has you working on.

Blizzard’s Black Friday sale: StarCraft II, Diablo III, and WoW gets discounted

Early for Black Friday (or super early for Cyber Monday, depending on how you look at it), Blizzard has brought out the big guns, and put its newest games on sale at large discounts.

Perhaps the most bang for your buck, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, is on sale at $19.99, down from its normal $59.99 price tag. Blizzard is also offering a StarCraft II bundle, which includes Wings of Liberty and a pre-purchase of the followup, Heart of the Swarm, for a total of $59.99. However, Blizzard already announced that HotS will release with a price tag of $39.99, so if you buy WoL today for $19.99, and then wait to buy the standard edition of HotS for $39.99, you actually save a penny. Of course, Wings of Liberty only seems to be discounted for the holiday sale, so the price should go back to normal after.

Along with StarCraft II, Blizzard has put their newest non-expansion release, Diablo III, up for sale at $39.99, down from its usual $59.99. If you work hard enough at it, you can use the Real Money Auction House and consider that $20 discount startup money. Unlike SCII, Diablo III only seems to be discounted for its boxed version, rather than both that and the digital download. We’re not quite sure if that’s intentional or not, as other reports of the sale don’t mention that difference.

Both the StarCraft II and Diablo III sales will last until 11:59pm on November 26th.

Blizzard has also put some retail World of Warcraft items up for sale in honor of Black Friday. The Battle Chest, which includes World of Warcraft and its first two expansions (The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King) is on sale for only $4.99. Cataclysm, the third expansion, is on sale for $9.99, while Mists of Pandaria, the fourth and newest expansion, is down to $19.99. Remember, these sales are only on retail versions of the products, which are only available at GameStop, Amazon, Target, Best Buy, Fry’s, Fred Meyer, and Hastings.

Whatever you end up buying, you can thank Blizzard for sucking away all of your holiday time with cheap, super popular games.

Xbox TV could take shape as a set-top-box, not a service

According to “multiple sources” familiar with Microsoft’s plans, the company is gearing up to release Xbox TV late next year. But while previous rumors had pegged Xbox TV as a service that might compete with traditional cable companies or streaming video services such as Hulu or Netflix, it now appears as though Microsoft is working on an actual set-top box.

The device sounds a bit like a very scaled-down Xbox 360, and it’s going to be positioned as a companion to Microsoft’s next-gen gaming console. That should mean the Xbox TV will line up alongside devices like Roku, Western Digital’s TV Live, and Google TV STBs like the Vizio CoStar. It’s a safe assumption that the box would have access to the same entertainment line-up that Xbox 360 users currently enjoy — which now includes HDTV service in some market as well as the traditional music and video offerings.

Xbox TV won’t be just about media, however. Some gaming will be supported too, which could mean access to all the awesome indie and casual games you can access via Xbox Live Arcade. And beyond just building its own STB, Microsoft has reportedly also given consideration to letting television OEMs integrate this new Xbox experience into their own products. Would a Windows OEM partner like Samsung or LG be interested? Absolutely, especially if they thinkg Xbox TV integration would give consumers added incentive to choose their HDTVs over Sony’s.

It certainly makes sense for Microsoft to make a secondary push into the living room. The Xbox and Xbox 360 have been hugely successful, and that brand strength would give a tremendous boost to an Xbox TV device. And while second-gen Google TV hardware has arrived on the scene, it’s still not generating the kind of buzz that it could have. If Microsoft can get Xbox TV to market before consumer interest picks up — and any time next year should be soon enough — it could cement the company’s position as the go-to name in home entertainment devices.

More at The Verge