How would you change the iPhone 5?
The iPhone 5 was thinner, lighter and came with a bigger display than its predecessor. There’s plenty to like about this handset, even if the Lightning connector broke compatibility with 100 million iDevice accessories. But what we want to know is this: if you had disguised yourself as Jonathan Ive and snuck into Infinite Loop’s development labs, what would you have done differently? For instance, your humble narrator would have sacrificed a few more millimeters of thinness in exchange for a bigger battery. After all, those few MMs are a walk in the park compared to hauling a battery sleeve around with you all day. But what about you? Head on over to the forum thread and share your wisdom.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
Super Bowl 2014 ad roundup: ’80s stars raid a RadioShack, Bears dance with Ellen and more
If you were one of those 110 million who tuned into this year’s Super Bowl, you probably have some thoughts on those ads — ads that cost a whole load of cash. This year, we had the predictable heart-tug from a soda brand, a shirtless Brooklyn Nine-Nine star singing along with the Muppets and a reunion with the boys of Full House over a cup of greek yogurt. But since this is Engadget, let’s start with what we know best: tech.
T-Mobile – #nocontract with Tim Tebow
The former Jets quarterback doesn’t have a deal with another NFL team and T-Mobile customers don’t need contracts either.
Beats Music – Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen, bears, dancing. Beats Music.
RadioShack – #InWithTheNew
Erik Estrada, Chuckie and Alf love RadioShack. Who knew?
GoDaddy – Bodybuilder
If you were expecting to see a supermodel kissing a chubby teenager like last year, we’re sorry.
GoPro – Red Bull Stratos
Another reminder of why Felix Baumgartner’s space jump was epic.
Sonos – Face Off
Intuit TurboTax – Love Hurts
Microsoft – Empowering
Fox’s 24 – Live Another Day
The Amazing Spiderman 2
Transformers 4
Windows 8.1’s first major update leaks online: improved Store app integration, time-saving tweaks
Microsoft’s incoming Windows 8.1 update might not make any grandiose changes, but it looks as if it will offer some appreciated navigation and start-up improvements. A new build has leaked online offering risky types the chance to try it several weeks before the official release. As teased last month, the update will let you pin your Windows Store apps alongside other programs on your desktop start bar. It sounds like a timesaving improvement, as before you’d have to labor through the Start screen to launch those aforementioned apps.
Windows 8-styled apps also pick up a new bar with close, minimize and snap options available to click on, forgoing those keyboard shortcuts or touch swipes. Live Tiles now have contextual menus available with a right click, making them easier to resize, move (or remove). A new shutdown button, as leaked just last week, also throws up a new drop-down menu for restarting, shutting down and sleep mode. This experimental build is apparently three weeks old already — the real deal is expected to arrive next month.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software, Microsoft
Source: The Verge
Self-powered cyborg cockroaches are coming
Soon you might start wishing there were more cockroaches in your neighborhood. Osaka University and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have co-developed a fuel cell that could be used to create a wireless sensor network comprised of a league of self-powered, high-tech insects.
Researchers have already been successful in controlling battery-operated roaches and using them as sensors. With the new fuel cell, sensors are instead powered by the insect’s body fluid (trehalose) through a small needle inserted in its torso. The technology, which has been in the works for a while, lets the battery-free bugs work without needing anything but a nibble of leftover pizza. A 3D-printed prototype of the cell produced 50.2 microwatts of power from a single cockroach, an impressive feat for a bug most of us would squash on sight.
Filed under: Wireless, Science, Alt
Via: Geek.com
Source: Tech-On
Sound system simulates a rocket blast, would kill you just as dead
Sure, your stereo may go up to 11 and beyond, but you probably couldn’t murder your listeners with it. The European Space Agency has a bigger budget, however, and its Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) has a 36-foot wide by 54-foot high wall of sound designed to simulate the level of noise during a rocket launch. To be exact, it can produce more than 154 decibels by shooting nitrogen into the horns, which the agency says is the same as standing right next to multiple jets taking off at the same time. It added that “no human being could survive hearing it at maximum output” (presumably because of the overall power), so the walls are epoxy-coated, reinforced concrete. The giant system is designed to stress-test pricey satellites before attaching them to actual rockets, and hopefully avoiding some of the many, many things that can go wrong.
Filed under: Science
Via: io9
Source: ESA
Microsoft squashes rumors of a cheaper, all-digital Xbox One
Microsoft has no plans to build an Xbox One sans Blu-ray disc for $100 less than the current model, according to a tweet by Xbox chief Aaron Greenberg. Rumors about a cheaper, all-digital version with a 1TB drive floated up recently from the NeoGAF forums, with speculation that it might hit retail by October of this year. When asked to confirm over Twitter, Greenberg replied “No, you cannot believe everything you read on the internet.” We’re not sure if he’s shooting down the entire idea of the model or just the time frame, but sources suggest that Redmond was at least testing such a version. Considering how excited folks were about a possible retail version of the white, employee-only Xbox One, we’re not expecting the rumors to die down anytime soon.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Via: The Escapist
Source: Twitter
UK retailer Ebuyer contemplates move from virtual to physical
After the collapses of Comet, Game, HMV and Blockbuster, the UK’s high street has proven to be the elephant’s graveyard of tech retailers. However, following Samsung’s announcement that it’ll open statement stores in the country, another business is considering doing the same. British online-only outfit Ebuyer has hinted that it could open a UK retail chain to compete with last man standing Dixons. Who knows? Perhaps those long-empty Comet stores might get another chance to serve their intended purpose.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Pocket-lint
Source: PCR
Kentucky law could let kids swap foreign language classes for coding lessons
Concerned that not enough is being done to help kids with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects? Kentucky’s Senate has just passed a bill that would count computer-programming classes as foreign language credits. That way, if students wanted to learn to code in favor of, say, French or Spanish, they’d be able to count that study toward their high school graduation. Senate Bill 16 will now pass to the Kentucky State House, but it seems like the sort of sensible policy that we’d expect from the home of Bourbon.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Loop
Source: Courier-journal
Apple says Happy Birthday Mac with a video shot solely on iPhones
Apple isn’t done celebrating the Macintosh’s 30th birthday just yet. To further mark the occasion, the folks in Cupertino dispatched 15 film crews to locales around the globe, armed with 100 iPhones to document just how far Apple has come in 30 years. The end result is 70 hours of footage culled into a minute and a half of gorgeous vistas and enough Apple gadgets to make you (or your wallet) groan.
Source: Apple
Battlefield 4 gets even prettier with new AMD drivers
If you caught our recent coverage of the huge Star Swarm demo, you’ll know that AMD’s Mantle programming tool has already proven itself capable of radically transforming a real-time strategy game. But the console-inspired API has been claimed to deliver performance benefits in FPS games too, starting with Battlefield 4, and the first independent evidence of this is now starting to trickle out. AnandTech and HotHardware have used almost-final Mantle drivers to achieve frame-rate gains of at least 7-10 percent in BF4, rising to 30 percent with some configurations, by doing away with the need for Microsoft’s relatively inefficient DirectX drivers.
In general, it looks like systems with weaker CPUs stand to benefit the most, because Mantle uses the graphics processor in such a way as to reduce CPU bottlenecks. We’ll get a better idea of the size of the improvement once Mantle is released to the public and tested on a wider variety of systems, including laptops and desktops with low-end or integrated AMD GPUs, but nevertheless, these early results bode well for those who are trying to eke better frame rates out of older, cheaper or smaller gaming rigs.
Source: AnandTech, HotHardware
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