Tour college campuses from the couch with Google Maps Street View
The time for choosing a college to attend this fall may have long passed, but you can get a jump start on next year with Google Maps. Street View added 36 more campus tours in the US and Canada, including a look at Georgetown University’s Healy Lawn that’s pictured above. University of Miami and University of Regina are also included in the tally, allowing you to familiarize yourself with prospective surroundings ahead of that formal campus visit. Or if you just really fancy an academic summer vacation.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Google Maps
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Chevy is unveiling its next-generation Volt hybrid in January
Wondering when you’ll get to see that fabled (and arguably overdue) Chevy Volt redesign? Five months from now, according to GM. The automaker has confirmed that it will unveil the next version of its extended-range EV (aka serial hybrid) at the North American International Auto Show, which kicks off on January 12th. The company isn’t giving curious motorists more than a teaser picture of the car’s backside at this stage, but leaks and spy photos suggest that the new Volt will be cheaper and sleeker than its predecessors — likely necessary given that the Chevy hasn’t been as popular as some of its rivals. The revamp will be part of the 2016 model year, so it’s safe to say that you’ll get to take the wheel within months of the unveiling.
Filed under: Transportation
Via: Autoblog (1), (2)
Source: GM News
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The Big Picture: Gaza conflict as seen from space
Earth’s view from the International Space Station always makes for interesting imagery, and the latest to come from up there is no exception. Recently shared by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, the telling picture shows what Gaza and Israel looked like as the ISS traveled over the region. Gerst pointed out that the bursts of light and bright lines seen in the photo are snaps of explosions and flying rockets, respectively, but there’s no confirmation that was, in fact, the case — PetaPixel said this “would be very difficult to capture effectively from space.” Either way, Gerst described it as his “saddest photo yet.”
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Alt
Source: Twitter (Astro_Alex)
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Watch this fish play ‘Pokemon’ live on the internet (currently in betta)
The world record holder for longest consecutive Pokemon gameplay might just be a fish. Grayson Hopper, a bright orange betta, has been “playing” the game for 135 hours and counting, with the event broadcast live on the internet from a “tiny dorm room.” Before you get too excited, the aquatic creature’s owner mapped out a video feed of an otherwise ordinary bowl, and, to the best of our knowledge, Grayson’s entirely unaware that he’s become the latest Twitch sensation. As of the last update, the fish had defeated his first opponent and even managed to acquire a Pokemon. Mr. Hopper has paused to rest throughout the experiment, so he should be in good shape to continue until his owner relocates the rig later this summer.
Filed under: Gaming
Via: Kotaku
Source: Twitch
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Google Fit preview SDK is live for the developer Community
During Google I/O they talked a little bit about the Google Fit services. The premise is to give users a better way to manage their fitness goals through apps and sensors on devices they might already own. It uses a set of API’s that developers can implement across multiple platforms and wearables to bring all your activity information to one place.
During the conference Google mentioned that a preview SDK for developers would be heading out in the “coming weeks.” Those are words we love to hear, but also dread since it is so vague and could mean anything. Luckily the wait for the preview SDK is over though after just about 5 weeks. Google has released the preview in a blog post on their developer blog this morning giving developers some insight into what it is all about and what you can start to do with it.
There are three sets of APIs designed to meet specific developer needs:
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Sensors API provides high-level access to sensors from the device and wearables—so with one API your app can talk to sensors, whether on an Android device or a wearable. So if you’re making a running app, you could register it to receive updates from a connected heart rate monitor every 5 seconds during a user’s run and give immediate feedback to the runner on the display.
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Recording API allows apps to register for battery-efficient, cloud-synced background collection of fitness data. For example, a running app could ask to store user’s location so it can map the run later. Once it registers for these data types, collection is done by Fit in the background with no further work needed by the app.
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History API allows operations on the data like read, insert and delete. When the exerciser finishes her run, the running app can query the History API for all locations during the run and show a map.
You guys will need the latest Google Play Services that is found in the Android L preview for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 though.
Google also goes on to say that developers will be able to fully launch their apps to the Play Store later this year when the full Google Fit SDK is launched as part of the Google Play Services for handsets, Android Wear and the web.
Below is the Google I/O conference video. If you want to catch up on Google Fit and get a little reminder of what it is all about, jump to time stamp 2:19:00.
Pop on over to the Google Developer blog for more details and links needed to get yourself up and running.
Source: Google Developer Blog
Via Android Police
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Android L preview version gets updated to LPV81C with Google Fit Support
Looks like today is a fun day at Google. The Google Fit Preview SDK just went live for developers to start tinkering with. They also pushed out updates for Google+ and Android Device Manger, that we know of so far, and now we find out that the Android L preview build has a new version available for those who like to get dirty with unreleased software.
The new files carry version LPV81C vs the previous LPGV7 from earlier. The update apparently adds in all the support needed for the Google Fit API’s for those wishing to develop for the Google Fit Platform. The new updated Android L preview files are live now for the Nexus 5 and 2013 Nexus 7. There isn’t any mention of anything else on the Google Developers blog about other changes, so if Google Fit app building isn’t in your future, flashing this might not do you any good. Like that has ever stopped anyone before though.
Direct yourself over to the Google Developer page and get your flash file now.
Source: Google Developer Blog
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Drake vs. Lil Wayne gets the ‘Street Fighter’ treatment from Capcom
What happens when Capcom signs on to sponsor your upcoming tour? Well, you may be in for a Street Fighter-esque app to bolster the live show. In the DvsLW app for Android and iOS, hip-hop artists Drake and Lil Wayne get help from the crowd during their co-headlining dates starting this week. Developed with a hand from the video game outfit, the mobile software lets you choose between the two stars before tapping a button to “power up,” boosting performances in real-time. That’s right, concert goers will select their tour date and then influence the results each night. It’s worth noting that tour-specific apps (and album-specific offerings, for that matter) are nothing new, but big name acts continue to crank out mobile companions to go along with the trek.
[Photo credit: Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]
Via: Pitchfork
Source: Billboard
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IBM’s new supercomputing chip mimics the human brain with very little power
A lot has changed in the three years since IBM first unveiled a prototype of its human brain-inspired SyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics) chip. That single-core prototype has now been significantly scaled up, leading to a new, production-ready SyNAPSE chip that blows past its predecessor with 1 million neurons, 256 million synapses and 4,096 neurosynaptic cores, all the while only requiring 70mW of power. Though the numbers are impressive, it’s what they translate to that holds even greater prominence: the ability for devices to process various sensory data in parallel just like the human brain, by merging memory and computing.
Traditionally, faster processing has always meant greater power consumption, but IBM’s new SyNAPSE chip flips that paradigm on its head. To give you some perspective of just how low-powered this supercomputing chip is, IBM’s Chief Scientist Dr. Dharmendra S. Modha says it requires power equivalent to that of a battery from a hearing aid. It’s an achievement that’s merited IBM the cover of the journal Science; it also has the potential to drastically alter conventional approaches to computing. In fact, the new SyNAPSE chip is so disruptive to the current computing landscape that IBM’s created a new programming language to go along with it and an educational outreach program called SyNAPSE University. It’s no wonder why the project received $53 million in funding from DARPA.
IBM’s Chief Scientist Dr. Dharmendra S. Modha says [the new SyNAPSE chip] requires power equivalent to that of a battery from a hearing aid.
IBM hasn’t publicly announced any partnerships to leverage its new SyNAPSE chip yet, though discussions are surely taking place. Currently, the company’s been able to build a programmable, working board with 16 of these chips working in concert — that represents 16 million neurons capable of processing instructions that, Modha says, would traditionally be carried out by “racks and racks of conventional computers.” Again, this is all done at an extremely low-powered state, which means the chips produce way less heat. It’s not hard to imagine some of the immediate benefits this could bring to consumers: for instance, laptops that don’t burn your lap; or even mobile phones that run for days and can process extreme amounts of environmental data.
But Modha sums up the magnitude of IBM’s new SyNAPSE chip best with this simple analogy: “You can carry our board in your backpack. You can’t carry four racks of conventional computers in your backpack.”
[Image credit: IBM]
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Apple patent application hints at a Siri-like assistant for Macs
Siri might be making her way to a Mac near you. According to a patent application filed in February and released today, Apple’s considering bringing the iPhone personal assistant to its desktop OS. The 92-page document details how you’ll interact with Apple’s “digital assistant,” a term that occurs 574 times in the patent app (the name Siri never makes an appearance, however). According to the document, a desktop version could pair Siri’s current actions with more complex functionality, such as file and system management. After calling on the assistant by using a specific gesture on the touchpad or clicking an icon in the dock, you could use it to send emails, find images or YouTube videos on the web, print documents or copy and “hold” multiple files. As TechCrunch notes, there’s no reference to such an assistant in the Yosemite beta preview, so it’ll probably be at least another year before Siri (or her better-equipped equivalent) arrives on the Mac.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: USPTO (PDF)
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Apple Seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 Build 13F12 to Developers [Mac Blog]
Apple today seeded Mavericks 10.9.5 build 13F12 to developers, just over a week after seeding the first OS X 10.9.5 beta, build 13F7, and more than a month after releasing OS X 10.9.4 to the public.
The beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Mac Developer Center.
It is unclear what improvements the 10.9.5 update will bring to Mavericks, but it is likely to include bug fixes and stability enhancements. Apple is asking developers to focus on USB, USB Smart Cards, Graphics, Safari, and Thunderbolt.
Along with working on improvements to Mavericks, Apple is also beta testing OS X Yosemite, which is due to be released in the fall. The last Mavericks update, 10.9.4, added several Wi-Fi fixes and improved wake from sleep reliability.
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