Google’s flight search can now send you on random journeys
Google Flight Search is fine if you already have a destination in mind, but what if you simply want to sate your wanderlust? That’s where a new “I’m Feeling Lucky” button comes into play. Hit that and the search tool will suggest a random place to go; if you’re not feeling quite that spontaneous, you can set budget and time limits. Google has also added some tools for those willing to do some legwork, including a full-screen exploration mode and a region browser that suggests trips within the boundaries you’ve chosen. All the new features should go live today, so you now have plenty of opportunities for spur-of-the-moment expeditions.
Filed under: Transportation, Internet, Google
Source: Google Travel Blog
iPhone Photography Awards Showcase Best iOS Photos of 2014 [iOS Blog]
Photos from the winners of the seventh annual iPhone Photography Awards have been posted on the IPPA website, offering a look at some of the best pictures taken with the iPhone over the course of the past year.
Like last year, the photos include a range of subjects, from landscapes and animals to people and macro shots. The winning photo, featuring a hiker on a snowy mountain comes from photographer Julio Lucas. The second and third place photos feature a shadowed man and a spotted dog on a matching background.
Along with three top winners, the IPPA also has awards for several different categories, including animals, architecture, children, flowers, food, landscape, nature, and more. A closeup snapshot of a fox won in the animal category and a fantastic shot of an incoming storm won in the panorama category.
According to the rules of the contest, all of the photos were taken with an iPhone. While photo editing apps like Instagram, VSCO, and Snapseed were permitted, no external manipulation was allowed.
Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s continue to be, by far, the most popular cameras on photo sharing site Flickr and Apple has remained committed to improving the iPhone’s camera with each new iteration. Several camera improvements were introduced with the iPhone 5s, including a True-Tone flash and an improved sensor, and even more camera improvements are expected with the upcoming iPhone 6.
Photos from all of the winners of the iPhone Photography Awards can be found on the IPPA website.
GE’s metallic ink can put tiny sensors inside jet engines
Embedded tech can fit into some incredible spaces, but it can’t yet fit everywhere; there are places that are simply too harsh or small for modern technology. If GE gets its way, though, just about any surface will be fair game. Its Direct Write technology uses ink made from either metals or metal oxides to print tiny, flexible sensors that both fit into tight spots and survive conditions that typically fry electronics. You could see sensors inside the hot environment of a jet engine, or put both pressure and temperature sensors into areas that normally don’t have room for anything.
GE is already testing Direct Write sensors with some of its partners, and it notes that the technique could apply sensors to devices well after they’ve left the factory. However, the technology isn’t flawless; while the ink may survive hostile environments, wireless signals typically don’t. It may be a long while before you can fit sensors in places where even wires are too risky.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Wall Street Journal
Source: GE Reports
Engadget Daily: an interview with Phil Spencer, Nintendo’s new ‘Zelda’ game and more!
Today, we interview Xbox head Phil Spencer, get a quick preview of Nintendo’s new open-world Zelda game, watch Honeywell take on Nest with its new Lyric thermostat and drop our jaws at a $1.6 million, 370-inch TV. Read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Xbox at E3 2014: an interview with the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer
Yesterday’s Xbox press conference was 90 minutes of games and more games, but that’s not to say Microsoft doesn’t have other irons in the fire. Watch our interview with Xbox head Phil Spencer as we discuss VR, Xbox 360 gaming on the One and more.
Open-world ‘Zelda’ game heading to Wii U in 2015
Today at E3, Eiji Aonuma announced that Nintendo’s reviving the exploratory essence of the original Legend of Zelda with a new, open-world title. This time, Link has new duds, better weapons and can go wherever he pleases.
Honeywell’s Lyric thermostat has the looks and smarts to take on Nest
Honeywell, the original thermostat manufacturer, announced today that it’s taking on Nest with a brand new model called Lyric. The cylindrical device packs a proximity sensor and full connectivity via its own Android and iOS apps. What’s more, it will be available at the start of August for $279.
370-inch TV costs more than the mansion you’d need to house it
What you’re looking at is a 370-inch (yes, three-hundred and seventy) 4K TV from Titan, and it costs $1.6 million. Even better, this whopper of a set is called the Zeus — because really, what else are you gonna name it?
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Filed under: Misc
What’s on your HDTV this week: ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale
This week the NBA Finals and NHL Finals could both come to an end, but the finale we think most of you will be watching is Game of Thrones. Episode #40 is titled “The Children” and is the longest one HBO has aired yet. The showrunners promise this is one of the best episodes yet, and that it will break the show’s pattern of a big bang in the penultimate episode followed by a relatively quiet finale. Beyond that, there aren’t many videogame releases this week while everyone’s eyes are on E3 2014, but Blu-ray include the first season of the new Cosmos, True Detective, and Tim’s Vermeer. Check after the break for a list of what’s new this week plus a few trailers, and drop a note in the comments if you see any highlights we’ve missed.
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Blu-ray, Streaming movies & Games
- Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (S1)
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
- True Detective (S1)
- Non-Stop
- Tim’s Vermeer
- The Who – Quadrophenia: Live in London
- Ray Donavan (S1)
- Devil’s Knot
- How To Train Your Dragon 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)
- Enemy Front (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Tuesday
- America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8PM
- Pretty Little Liars (season premiere), ABC Family, 8PM
- Riot, Fox, 8PM
- Inside: US Soccer’s March to Brazil, ESPN, 8:30PM
- NBA Finals Spurs vs. Heat Game 3, ABC, 9PM
- Chasing Life (series premiere), ABC Family, 9PM
- Royal Pains (season premiere), USA, 9PM
- I Wanna Marry “Harry”, Fox, 9PM
- Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
- Top Gear (US), History, 9PM
- Heroes of Cosplay, Syfy, 9PM
- Growing Up Fisher, NBC, 9:30PM
- The Wil Wheaton Project, Syfy, 10PM
- Fargo, FX, 10PM
- Awkward, MTV, 10PM
- The Listener, ION, 11 & 11:59PM
- The Night Shift, NBC, 10PM
- Freakshow, AMC, 10:30PM
- Inside Amy Schumer, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
- Faking It (season finale), MTV, 10:30PM
- Small Town Security, AMC, 11PM
Wednesday
- NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 4, NBC, 8PM
- Rogue, DirecTV 101, 8PM
- Growing Up Fisher, NBC, 8 & 8:30PM
- Melissa & Joey, ABC Family, 8PM
- So You Think You Can Dance, Fox, 8PM
- Baby Daddy, ABC Family, 8:30PM
- Suits (season premiere), USA, 9PM
- Spike Guys Choice Awards 2014, Spike TV, 9PM
- Rake, DirecTV 101, 9PM
- The People vs. O.J. Simpson: What the Jury Never Heard, NBC, 9PM
- 60 Minutes Sports, Showtime, 9PM
- Dual Survival, Discovery, 9PM
- The 100 (season finale), CW, 9PM
- Inside: US Soccer’s March to Brazil, ESPN2, 9:30PM
- Graceland (season premiere), USA, 10PM
- Motive, ABC, 10PM
- Catfish, MTV, 10PM
- The Ultimate Fighter, Fox Sports 1, 10PM
Thursday
- NBA Finals Game 4: Spurs vs. Heat, ABC, 9PM
- Hollywood Game Night, NBC, 8PM
- The Sixties, CNN, 9PM
- Undateable, NBC, 9 & 9:30PM
- Gang Related, Fox, 9PM
- Anger Management, FX, 9:30PM
- Last Comic Standing, NBC, 10PM
- Maron, IFC, 10PM
- Comedy Bang! Bang!, IFC, 10:30PM
Friday
- NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 5 (if necessary), NBC, 8PM
- WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
- David Beckham Into the Unknown, Showtime, 9PM
- Crossbones, NBC, 10PM
- Continuum, Syfy, 10PM
- Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO, 10PM
- Vice (season finale), HBO, 11PM
- The Half Hour: Tommy Johnagin, Comedy Central, 12AM
- The Half Hour: Adam Newman, Comedy Central, 12:30AM
Saturday
- The Mentor, Lifetime, 8PM
- Sinbad: Make Me Wanna Holla, Comedy Central, 9PM
- Power, Starz, 9PM
- Orphan Black, BBC America, 9PM
- Sing Your Face Off (season finale), ABC, 9PM
- In the Flesh (season finale), BBC America, 10PM
Sunday
- Enlisted, Fox, 7PM
- NBA Finals Game 5: Heat vs. Spurs, ABC, 8PM
- Angels/Braves, ESPN, 8PM
- Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, CNN, 9PM
- True Blood: Farewell Show, HBO, 8:30PM
- The Escape Artist (Part 1 of 2), PBS, 9PM
- Game of Thrones (season finale), HBO, 9PM
- Catching Hell, Weather Channel, 9PM
- Nurse Jackie, Showtime, 9PM
- Californication, Showtime, 9:30PM
- The Hunt, History, 10PM
- Halt and Catch Fire, AMC, 10PM
- Crisis, NBC, 10PM
- Penny Dreadful, Showtime, 10PM
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11:30PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Progress on Apple Campus 2 Continues as Walls Go Up
Construction at Apple’s Spaceship campus continues, with the circular building beginning to take shape according to an image posted to Twitter by KCBS news and traffic reporter Ron Cervi (via 9to5Mac).
In the most recent shot, a wall has been built around the perimeter of the building, outlining where the foundation will be poured. A different tweet by @DawnMortensen notes that Pruneridge Avenue, a road that runs through the campus itself, has been permanently closed.
Street-level photographs back in December revealed several buildings still standing, but another aerial photo from February suggested a large portion of the demolition work had been completed. During construction, Apple has closed off sidewalks and built a large green privacy fence to keep the area hidden.
Progress on #ApplesNewHQ, a small wall around the foundation of the spaceship has sprouted. #sky1hightechtour pic.twitter.com/iM3JrIQUBH
— Ron (@Sky1Ron) June 10, 2014
Cervi has been posting a number of images of the campus over the past few months, tracking the progress of construction. Campus 2 is expected to open in 2016.
Theater chain bans Google Glass in a bid to cut down on piracy
If you’re one of the few people in the country with a prescription Google Glass headset, you might want to keep extra glasses handy for when you go to the movies. First, some guy got booted from an AMC theater on the suspicion he was recording the film (he wasn’t), and now a different theater chain has outright banned the headset. That theater company is Alamo Drafthouse, which operates in five (soon to be six) states and like AMC, it’s trying to cut down on piracy. Indeed, the company’s CEO Tim League said in a tweet that Glass specifically won’t be allowed in auditoriums once the lights dim for previews. Fortunately, at least, you can continue to wear your headset while the house lights are up, or when you leave the screening room for a popcorn run. Once the movie starts, though, you’d better be wearing proper glasses, lest you get pegged as a movie bootlegger.
.@macjaeh @gay4soccer policy only about piracy concerns. But on a personal level, I advocate turning off distractions during a movie.
– Tim League (@timalamo) June 9, 2014
Via: CNET
Source: Tim League (Twitter)
Apple turns up its advertising push with plans for 1,000-person internal agency
Few companies have had advertising campaigns as iconic as Apple’s — from the infamous 1984 ad to the more recent PC vs. Mac commercials — but there’s a general perception that the outfit’s latest efforts haven’t been quite as impactful. Even Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Global Marketing, admitted in a private email (revealed as part of a recent patent lawsuit) that Samsung has been beating it in the marketing game. However, it appears that the folks over at Cupertino are attempting to recapture some of that marketing mojo by building out its own in-house agency. In fact, according to Ad Age, it’s already staffed the internal group with big names from some of the top advertising companies in the country and hopes to eventually fill out the department with as many as 1,000 people.
That doesn’t mean it’s cutting out outside agencies altogether, however. Indeed, it’s still collaborating with long-time cohort TBWA/Media Arts Labs — the firm behind most of those iconic ads — on its advertising projects. But instead of just letting them handle all the creative decisions, Apple is actively pitting TBWA/MAL against this internal agency in order to get the best ideas, which is a relatively controversial method in advertising circles. It’s even invited other advertising firms to join in on the pitching process to make it even more competitive. According to Ad Age‘s sources, this competition has existed for awhile, but has grown even fiercer in recent months as the in-house agency seems to be winning more often than not. It remains to be seen if Apple can ever regain the glory of its past campaigns with this recent push, but as the competition heats up, it probably behooves the fruit company to think differently.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Source: Ad Age
Commercial drone allowed limited access to fly over US land
A hand-launched UAV called Puma just made history — it’s now known as the first drone to get the Federal Aviation Administration’s seal of approval to do commercial flights over land. Puma, which was originally designed for military use by California company AeroVironment, has been doing surveillance work at the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska since June 8th. In particular, it’s using its onboard sensors to make 3D models of BP Exploration Inc.’s pipelines, roads and equipment for industrial applications. This isn’t the first time Puma got the FAA’s permission to fly commercially, though — last year, the four-and-a-half-foot long drone with a nine-foot wingspan monitored drilling platforms and migrating whales over the Arctic Ocean.
Despite granting these companies permission to do commercial flights over land, the FAA’s still far from coming up with the final set of rules and regulations for drone flights in US skies. Thus far, the agency has started doing test flights over North Dakota lands in April, but it still has to do the same in five more test sites across the country. Don’t be surprised if more FAA-approved drones pop up in the near future, though — the agency plans to allow films, farms and other low-risk industries to fly UAVs legally as soon as November.
Filed under: Misc
Make It Rain: Love of Money [App of the Day]
In the world of ever growing addictive games there comes Make it Rain. One of the more absurd games out there the entire game is making it rain by swiping cash. Whats the objective you say? To make it rain money. Just keep swiping and swiping and swiping and swiping some more. The more money you let fly the more you can buy. What can you buy? The ability to let more money fly. Whats the point? To get more money.
This is highly addictive game because you always want that next upgrade. There are some negatives in the game like the FBI. Every time you get investigated you are found guilty which results in a net loss of money and a percentage taken away every second. The upgrades allow you to have more money per second while playing and higher money per swipe. There are also upgrades to collect money while your not using the app. Be warned this is addictive you will always want the next level. There is only one glitch in the game you can hold your finger on the top of the screen and tap to swipe at a higher rate that physically swiping the cash. Make It Rain: Love of Money looks absurd at first glance but once you start its hard to put down.
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