The Big Picture: A Robot writing the Torah in longhand
A robot arm in the Berlin Jewish Museum is hard at work, carefully inking thousands of Hebrew letters on an 80-meter (260-foot) scroll. In about three months, it will have transcribed the entire Torah “by hand,” a process that normally takes Jewish scribes about a year. The robot’s penmanship is delicate and exact, but its work is merely an exhibit: the completed work won’t be considered holy. “In order for the Torah to be holy, it has to be written with a goose feather on parchment,” explains Rabbi Reuven Yaacobov. “The process has to be filled with meaning, and I’m saying prayers while I’m writing it.” Yaacobov and the Robot are part of “The Creation of the World,” a new exhibit at the museum that highlights the significance of Hebrew handwriting. Yaacobov is on hand to show patrons how the Torah is written traditionally, and to explain the religious significance of the process. The human element will only be on site until August 3rd, but his robotic companion will be writing Hebrew scriptures until January of next year.
[Image credit: Adam Berry, Getty Images]
Filed under: Robots
Source: News Daily, ABC
Engadget Daily: 3D motion capture, the tough reality of sapphire displays and more!
Today, we take a look at the history behind 3D motion capture animations, scratch-test a nearly indestructible sapphire display, watch iOS users join the AR war of Ingress and learn about a $20 chip that detects diabetes. Read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours.
What you need to know about 3D motion capture
The virtual simians in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes are impressively lifelike, but 3D motion capture animations haven’t always been so awe-inspiring. Read on as Steve Dent explains the history behind this century-old technique.
Sapphire phone displays are tough, but the realities are even tougher
What do 45th wedding anniversaries and next gen smartphones have in common? Sapphire, that’s what. This nearly indestructible gemstone makes the toughest displays on earth, but not without a hefty cost.
Google’s augmented reality turf war, ‘Ingress,’ arrives on iOS
Apple device users, listen up. As of today, Google’s augmented reality sci-fi game called Ingress is available on iOS. Now you too can join the invisible war alongside your Android-using compadres.
MakerBot 3D printers now available in a dozen Home Depot stores
Want to get your hands on a 3D printer? You could buy one online, but folks in 12 select areas can now purchase models from MakerBot’s Replicator line at their local Home Depot.
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[DEALS & STEALS] Get a refurbished Nexus 7 (2013) 32GB on eBay for $160 (54& off)
Nexus 7 (2013) is definitely not the newest tablet, a year has passed since Google announced it. Not only that but we’ve been seeing a lot of rumors on its successor, we might even see it announced rather soon. All this aside, Nexus 7 (2013) is still a great device and it will serve you like a champ.
If you’re not waiting to see what will Google bring with its refresh, you can get this device rather cheap on eBay. Refurbished 32GB model is on sale now for $160 (54% off) with free shipping for U.S., although it is available all around. If you’re interested in getting one of these you might want to hurry, we don’t know how long will this last. You can pick one up by following the source link below.
Source: eBay
The post [DEALS & STEALS] Get a refurbished Nexus 7 (2013) 32GB on eBay for $160 (54& off) appeared first on AndroidGuys.
US government says online storage isn’t protected by the Fourth Amendment
A couple months ago, a New York judge ruled that US search warrants applied to digital information even if they were stored overseas. The decision came about as part of an effort to dig up a Microsoft user’s account information stored on a server in Dublin, Ireland. Microsoft responded to the ruling and challenged it, stating that the government’s longstanding views of digital content on foreign servers is wrong, and that the protections applied to physical materials should be extended to digital content. In briefs filed last week, however, the US government countered. It states that according to the Stored Communications Act (SCA), content stored online simply do not have the same Fourth Amendment protections as physical data:
Overseas records must be disclosed domestically when a valid subpoena, order, or warrant compels their production. The disclosure of records under such circumstances has never been considered tantamount to a physical search under Fourth Amendment principles, and Microsoft is mistaken to argue that the SCA provides for an overseas search here. As there is no overseas search or seizure, Microsoft’s reliance on principles of extra-territoriality and comity falls wide of the mark.
From the Justice Department’s point of view, this law is necessary in an age where “fraudsters” and “hackers” use electronic communications in not just the U.S. but abroad as well. Indeed, the Microsoft account in this case is in relation to a drug-trafficking investigation. However, Microsoft believes there are wide-ranging implications for such a statement, and it’s not the only company that thinks so. Verizon also responded, stating that this would create “dramatic conflict with foreign data protection laws” and Apple and Cisco joined in by saying this could potentially damage international relations. In the meantime, a senior counsel for the Irish Supreme Court offered that a “Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty” be pursued so that the US government can get at the email account in question.
[Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under: Misc
Source: Ars Technica
What’s on your HDTV: ’24’ finale, MLB All-Star Game, ‘Orphan Black’ & ‘Black Dynamite’ on Blu-ray
Orphan Black may have been snubbed by the Emmys, but fans can grab season two for themselves this week as it arrives on Blu-ray. Another disc release we’re looking forward to is season on of Adult Swim’s Black Dynamite animated series that’s arriving ahead of its return to television with season two, due in October. While everyone tries to shrug off a post-World Cup hangover, baseball is serving up the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game this week, while NBA Summer League action is on NBA TV. We’re still trying to figure out some of the new summer TV series like The Leftovers, The Strain, Extant and Tyrant, but there are a few more new shows incoming (as 24: Live Another Day makes its exit — Fox hasn’t yet announced if it will run another miniseries in the future). FX is premiering Married and You’re The Worst this week, Hulu will stream The Hotwives of Orlando, USA has Rush and Satisfaction, PBS tosses in Sex in the Wild and CW brings Seed. Have any of the new shows made it into your DVR queue? 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.
Blu-ray, Streaming movies & Games
- Rio 2 (3D)
- Black Dynamite (S1)
- Orphan Black (S2)
- Under the Skin
- Hell On Wheels (S3)
- Scanners
- Deadman Wonderland (Complete Series)
- Crimsonland (PS4)
- Light (PC)
Monday
- 2014 Home Run Derby, ESPN, 8PM
- Switched at Birth, ABC Family, 8PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
- 24: Live Another Day (season finale), Fox, 9PM
- American Ninja Warrior, NBC, 9PM
- The Fosters, ABC Family, 9PM
- Major Crimes, TNT, 9PM
- Seed (series premiere), CW, 9:30PM
- Under the Dome, CBS, 10PM
- Murder in the First, TNT, 10PM
- Teen Wolf, MTV, 10PM
- Longmire, A&E, 10PM
- Mistresses, ABC, 10PM
- Cee Lo Green’s The Good Life, TBS, 10:30PM
Tuesday
- The Hotwives of Orlando (series premiere), Hulu
- MLB All-Star Game, Fox, 7:30PM
- America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8PM
- Pretty Little Liars, ABC Family, 8PM
- Time Scanners (season finale), PBS, 8PM
- Matador, (series premiere), El Rey, 9PM
- History Detectives Special Investigations, PBS, 9PM
- Rizzoli & Isles, TNT, 9PM
- Chasing Life, ABC Family, 9PM
- Royal Pains , USA, 9PM
- Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
- The Wil Wheaton Project, Syfy, 9PM
- Finding Carter, MTV, 10PM
- Inside The Walking Dead: Walker University, AMC, 10PM
- Drunk History, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Perception, TNT, 10PM
- The Night Shift (season finale), NBC, 10PM
- Tyrant, FX, 10PM
- Covert Affairs, USA, 10PM
- Nathan for You, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
- Sullivan & Son, TBS, 10PM
Wednesday
- Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
- Rogue, DirecTV 101, 8PM
- Young & Hungry, ABC Family, 8PM
- So You Think You Can Dance, Fox, 8PM
- Mystery Girls, ABC Family, 8:30PM
- 2014 Espy Awards, ESPN, 9PM
- Extant, CBS, 9PM
- 60 Minutes Sports, Showtime, 9PM
- Suits, USA, 9PM
- Dual Survival, Discovery, 9PM
- Sex in the Wild: Elephants (series premiere), PBS, 10PM
- The Bridge, FX, 10PM
- Wilfred, FXX, 10PM
- Taxi Brooklyn, NBC, 10PM
- Motive, ABC, 10PM
- Virgin Territory (series premiere), MTV, 11PM
Thursday
- Black Box, ABC, 8PM
- Defiance, Syfy, 8PM
- Rush (series premiere), USA, 9PM
- Mythbusters, Discovery, 9PM
- Welcome to Sweden, NBC, 9PM
- Rectify, Sundance TV, 9PM
- Big Brother, CBS, 9PM
- Rookie Blue, ABC, 9PM
- Dominion, Syfy, 9PM
- The Sixties, CNN, 9PM
- Working the Engels, NBC, 9:30PM
- Gang Related, Fox, 9PM
- Married (series premiere), FX, 10PM
- Satisfaction (series premiere), USA, 10PM
- Ridiculousness, MTV, 10PM
- NY Med, ABC, 10PM
- Last Comic Standing, NBC, 10PM
- You’re The Worst (series premiere), FX, 10:30PM
- Maron, IFC, 10PM
Friday
- WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
- Cold Justice, TNT, 9PM
- Almighty Johnsons, Syfy, 10PM
- Crossbones, NBC, 10PM
- The Half Hour, Comedy Central, 12 & 12:30AM
Saturday
- Cedar Cove (season premiere), Hallmark, 8PM
- Expecting Amish, Lifetime, 8PM
- Bet On Your Baby (season finale), ABC, 8PM
- Bad Teacher, CBS, 9 & 9:30PM
- Power, Starz, 9PM
- Almost Royal , BBC America, 10PM
Sunday
- Wipeout, ABC, 8PM
- Dodgers/Cardinals, ESPN, 8PM
- Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
- Last Tango in Halifax, PBS, 8PM
- Aliens on the Moon: The Truth Exposed, Syfy, 9PM
- Ray Donovan, Showtime, 9PM
- Reckless, CBS, 9PM
- Endeavour (season finale), PBS, 9PM
- Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, CNN, 9PM
- True Blood, HBO, 9PM
- The Last Ship, TNT, 9PM
- The Musketeers, BBC America, 9PM
- Rising Star, ABC, 9PM
- Catching Hell, Weather Channel, 9PM
- The Lottery (series premiere), Lifetime, 10PM
- The Strain, FX, 10PM
- Masters of Sex, Showtime, 10PM
- The Leftovers, HBO, 10PM
- Falling Skies, TNT, 10PM
- The Hunt, History, 10PM
- Halt and Catch Fire, AMC, 10PM
- Reckless, CBS, 10PM
- Vicious, PBS, 10:30PM
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Comcast buys ‘smart internet’ startup to build better routers
Last year, Skydog was an interesting Kickstarter project promising a cloud-based router built to give better individual control over your connected devices through its mobile app. Now, TechCrunch reveals its parent company PowerCloud Systems has been acquired by Comcast as a part of its quest to provide “smart internet.” Comcast’s Tyson Marian tells VentureBeat that the kind of tech this could lead to includes “smart internet” modem/router combos that track and manage the devices on your network. That way they can be set up to connect directly or have access walled off from the rest of the network for security, all controlled through a simple app. This is the kind of network management that’s already possible, but the point here is to make it easy enough for anyone to use (that Comcast could use it to tier pricing based on what kind of devices you’re using or how many also comes to mind.) Existing Skydog customers can expect their devices to keep operating for their 3-year service subscription, but there is “currently no commitment of service” beyond that.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Skydog FAQ
Secret widens its anonymous network to include your Facebook friends too
When Secret first launched earlier this year, the only subscribers who could see your anonymous missives on the app were folks who were somehow connected to your phone’s address book — they were either your friends, friends of friends, or friends of friends of friends (you get the idea). Now, however, Secret has loosened that restriction just a touch with the introduction of Facebook login support. Now if you sign up with Facebook on the app, you’ll be able to spill your secrets to all your Facebook friends who are also on Secret. Of course, the company promises that no personal information is ever shared and you’ll still be completely anonymous. On the one hand, this lets those of us who have more friends on Facebook than on on our phone’s address book see more Friend posts on Secret. On the other, it does give us a tiny bit of the creeps. Thankfully, the feature is completely optional, so you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to.
Secret also announced another feature today called Collections, which are simply daily digests of posts from a certain category. You can go to Secret’s brand new web interface and subscribe to any of the available Collections — current categories include Popular, Dating, Reflections, Funny, Work and Loss. If you do subscribe, you’ll get secrets from that collection in your Explore stream. This definitely narrow the kinds of posts you see on Explore quite a bit, and it seems like it lets you hone in more on what you prefer to see on there. According to the folks at Secret, they’re still experimenting on how to give users more control over what they see on Explore, which can be a rather daunting task given the growing popularity of the network. If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, head on over to the source link to find out more. Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Secret (Medium), Secret
Sotheby’s teams up with eBay to stream luxury auctions worldwide
Sotheby’s auctions can be prohibitively expensive, but part of the problem is getting there in the first place; not everyone can send people to bid on their behalf. Distance shouldn’t be an issue in the near future, though. The company has struck a deal that will have eBay launch a special section for “rare, unique and premium” (i.e. costly) goods where Sotheby’s will stream live auctions worldwide, complete with real-time bidding. The section will be limited to New York auctions when it launches in the fall, and it won’t include the biggest sales. In short, you won’t be scoring a Monet from the comfort of your couch. Sotheby’s will eventually expand to other locations, however, so you might not be stuck if some valuable antique goes up for grabs in Hong Kong.
This isn’t the first time that upscale auctions have gone online, or even the first time that Sotheby’s and eBay have worked together; they briefly tried a partnership in 2002. Nonetheless, the new arrangement might be vital to Sotheby’s future. Christie’s has already had success selling items for millions of dollars online, and Sotheby’s risks missing out if it doesn’t expand its online presence — especially in an era when young technology executives can quickly join the ranks of the nouveau riche. The move also widens the kinds of objects that the company can sell. Instead of focusing so many of its efforts on super-exotic items, it can auction off family heirlooms, old wines and other items that are just rare enough to merit more than the usual eBay sale.
[Image credit: Robert Orion Martin, Flickr]
Filed under: Internet
Via: New York Times
Source: Sotheby’s (PDF)
Shazam streams full tracks from Rdio without leaving the app
Shazam has linked out to Rdio for a while now, but the tune identification app would boot you out to access a full track. With a recent update though, the software now streams songs it identifies from Rdio’s library from within, so long as you have a subscription. Those who have yet to pay up will still get a preview, but selecting the aforementioned repository from the listening options will only prompt you to download its app. Those who do shell out the monthly fee need only to link the two apps in order to take advantage. Shazamed tracks are automatically sorted inside their own playlist for later access while a “Add to Playlist” button lets you chose more appropriate destinations. While the iOS version is available now, folks who carry Android devices can expect it to arrive “in the next few days.”
Source: Shazam
New Screenshots of Material Designed Google Play Store Surface
It has been a minute since we have gotten a Play Store update, but it looks like one is right around the corner. Android Police got an exclusive look at the new Play Store with some of that delicious Material Design implemented in it, and the images look mouth-watering.
Looking through some of the screenshots, playing movies through the Google Play has certainly added a nice overlay UI, and the screenshot below that features the Grand Budapest Hotel was actually shown off during this year’s Google I/O. No word on exactly when this new revamped Play Store will be available for download. They might roll out numerous updates in waves, but hopefully it will happen in one shot. If you want to check out all the screenshots from Android Police, hit the source link below to check them out. let us know your thoughts about the new look.
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The post New Screenshots of Material Designed Google Play Store Surface appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
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