OLED Display Blocks pack six 128 x 128 panels, we go hands-on at MIT (video)

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How do you develop an OLED display that gives a 360-degree perspective? Toss six 1.25-inch panels into a plastic cube, then turn it as you see fit. That's an overly simplistic explanation for the six-sided display on hand at the MIT Media Lab today, which is quite limited in its current form, but could eventually serve an enormous variety of applications. Fluid Interfaces Group Research Assistant Pol Pla i Conesa presented several such scenarios for his Display Blocks, which consist of 128 x 128-pixel OLED panels. Take, for example, the 2004 film Crash, which tells interweaving stories that could be presented simultaneously with such a display -- simply rotate the cube until you land on a narrative you'd like to follow, and the soundtrack will adjust to match. It could also go a long way when it comes to visualizing data, especially when in groups -- instead of virtually constructing profiles of individuals who applied for a slot at MIT, for example, or segments of a business that need to be organized based on different parameters, you could have each assigned to a cube, which can be tossed into an accepted or rejected pile, and repositioned as necessary.

Imagine having a group of display cubes when it comes time to plan the seating chart for a reception -- each cube could represent one individual, with a color-coded background and a name or photo up top, with different descriptive elements on each side. The same could apply to products at monstrous companies like Samsung or Sony, where executives need to make planning decisions based on product performance, and could benefit greatly from having all of the necessary information for a single gadget listed around each cube. On a larger scale, the cubes could be used to replace walls and floors in a building -- want to change the color of your wallpaper? Just push a new image to the display, and dedicate a portion of the wall for watching television, or displaying artwork. You could accomplish this with networked single-sided panels as well, but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun. The Media Lab had a working prototype on display today, which demonstrated the size and basic functionality, but didn't have an adjustable picture. Still, it's easy to imagine the potential of such a device, if, of course, it ever becomes a reality. As always, you'll find our hands-on demo just past the break.

Continue reading OLED Display Blocks pack six 128 x 128 panels, we go hands-on at MIT (video)

OLED Display Blocks pack six 128 x 128 panels, we go hands-on at MIT (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SayHi Translate: An Interpreter Inside Your iPhone [App Of The Day]

If you're traveling in Brazil and you'd like to ask your cab driver which bar in Rio serves the best caipirinha, you're going to need to know Portuguese. Thumbing frantically through a phrasebook is difficult, and you might not string the sentence together properly. And would you even understand your cabbie's answer? SayHi Translate solves all these problems with a super simple voice translator. More »


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Genes that increase the risk of osteoporosis and fractures discovered

ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2012) ? Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy have identified the genetic variations that are believed to cause osteoporosis. The study, published in Nature Genetics and involving leading researchers from Sweden and the world, shows among other interesting facts that women with a higher proportion of genetic variations associated with osteoporosis have a more than 50 percent increased fracture risk.

Osteoporosis is a common and a devastating age-related disease about 50 percent of all who have a hip fracture after age 80 die within one year from the time of injury. The consequences of osteoporosis are therefore well-known, but the causes of the disease are largely unknown.

56 genetic regions for bone density

In a groundbreaking international study, which is led partially from the Sahlgrenska Academy, researchers have now succeeded in identifying a total of 56 genetic regions that control bone density in human beings. Fourteen of these genetic variants increase the risk of fractures, the study, which has been published in the world-leading journal Nature Genetics, has shown.

"This is the first time anyone has identified the genetic variants that are so strongly associated with an increased risk of fracture," comments Claes Ohlsson, a professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

Study on 80,000 people

"We can prove that women who have a large number of genetic variants associated with low bone density have up to a 56 percent higher risk of osteoporosis as compared with women who have a normal set-ups of the same genetic variants," comments Claes Ohlsson.

Targets for new treatment methods

The results have led to several new findings in bone biology, among other things the researchers identified several important molecular signaling pathways for bone density that can be targets for new treatment methods and therapies.

"In addition to already known proteins and pathways that were confirmed by the study, we are now facing a whole new biology in the field of bone research," comments Ulrika Pettersson, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Neuroscience, Ume? University, and co-author of the study.

The article "Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 56 bone mineral density loci and reveals 14 loci associated with the risk of fracture" has been published in Nature Genetics on 15 April.

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NVIDIA says 'it's coming,' won't say what 'it' is

NVIDIA says 'it's coming,' won't say what 'it' is

Ooo! It's coming! What is? We don't know, but we're excited anyway. NVIDIA has a teaser up informing us that at 7:30 pm, Pacific time, on April 28th it will have something special to announce. The venue will be the GeForce LAN / NVIDIA Gaming Festival 2012 in Shanghai -- which leads us to believe there might be a GPU announcement in store for us. Though, we wouldn't write off a Tegra reveal entirely. So, which will it be? You'll just have to check back in Saturday to find out.

NVIDIA says 'it's coming,' won't say what 'it' is originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is T-Mobile Getting The Samsung Galaxy Note?

galaxynoteEven though I think it's way too big for the average human, Samsung's Galaxy Note is doing quite well since its debut in January at CES. In fact, Samsung has sold 5 million units of the Galaxy Note thus far, which comes out to about 1 million Notes sold per month. But could it be selling better? Possibly. The phablet is only available at AT&T with a rather steep $299 price tag, but that may be changing soon according to TmoNews.

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Why does Norway's Breivik invoke the Knights Templar? ( video)

Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a twin terror attack in Norway last July, claims to be a member of a reborn 'Knights Templar.' What's the symbolism?

One of the highlights of today's testimony in the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, who is accused of the murder of 77 people during a bombing and shooting rampage in Norway, was the prosecutor's efforts to challenge Mr. Breivik's purported membership in the "Knights Templar."

Skip to next paragraph A sociologist for the defense talks about Andrew Breivik's world view.

Breivik claims to have helped "refound" the ancient military order as a force to fight immigration and multiculturalism in Europe. But why turn to a long-gone Christian order to symbolize his agenda today?

The Knights Templar, or "Templars," were a Christian order founded in the 10th century. Named for the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Templars initially protected pilgrims traveling through the Holy Lands, but eventually evolved into a powerful military force that waged war against the Muslims during the Crusades.

The Templars became so powerful, however, that European leaders grew to distrust the order. Early in the 1300s, King Philip IV of France launched a crackdown on the Templars that, with the help of Pope Clement V, eventually spread Europe-wide, destroying the order. Many members were tortured and tried for heresy by the Catholic Church.

But despite, or perhaps because of, their ancient history and sudden demise, the Templars still hold a solid grip on modern imaginations and pop culture. They are frequently depicted as the mysterious controllers of the world in books like Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" and movies like "National Treasure." "The Da Vinci Code" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" set the Templars up as secret keepers of the Holy Grail. They even appear as the enemies in video games like "Assassin's Creed."

Certainly, the organization that Breivik claims to be a member of is equally mysterious. Breivik describes the organization as "a leaderless network, made to be self-driven cells.? He said that ?For militants, [Knights Templar] is meant to be a version of Al Qaeda." He has yet to name another member of the group, claiming that to do so would risk their being caught, though he has indicated that his "English mentor" can be found in London and that a Serb "war hero" living in Liberia is among the group's ranks.

Whether or not the Templars in which Breivik claims membership are real, the name is likely meant to evoke both the mysterious nature of the original Templars and their open war against Muslim forces during the Crusades. The historical Templars' modern reputation and supposed influence makes a strong symbolic counterpoint to terrorist groups like Al Qaeda.

Monitor guest blogger James Bosworth suggested that the use of the name may also be meant to legitimize the group as a moral one.

Last July, Mr. Bosworth noted that Breivik was not the first violent criminal to invoke the Templars: A Mexican criminal gang has also adopted the name and some of the associated symbolism. But Bosworth concludes that "The Mexican Knights Templar code of conduct appears to be a false appeal to Mexico's citizens," something that could also be argued of Breivik's use of the Templar mythology. "The Knights Templar label is a failed attempt to grant historical legitimacy to a violent act that truly has no justification," Bosworth wrote.

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Skype for Windows Phone sheds beta title, graduates to v1.0

Skype for Windows Phone sheds beta title, graduates to v1.0

Skype's fledgling Windows Phone app broke out of beta today, adding contact searching and landline calling to it's VOIP repertoire. The update comes just shy of two months of the Beta's introduction in February, and boasts a handful of minor improvements that should keep your calls connected. You'll still be making those calls yourself, however, as the full version doesn't yet have support for receiving calls in the background -- if the app isn't running, your phone isn't ringing. Hit the source link below to update.

Skype for Windows Phone sheds beta title, graduates to v1.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP LaserJet Pro 400 Color MFP M475dn

The HP LaserJet Pro 400 Color MFP M475dn ($699 direct) has an awkward name, and nobody is going to give it any awards for speed. But it has a good feature set and above-average output; it?s especially strong in graphics. This makes it a very respectable choice as a color laser multifunction printer (MFP) for a smaller office.

The M475dn prints, copies, faxes, and scans; it can fax either from its 3.5-inch color touch screen or from a computer (PC Fax). You can scan to a USB thumb drive, email, or a network folder. It has a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) for faxing, scanning, or copying multi-page documents without you having to feed each page by hand. It can scan at up to legal size using the ADF.

This MFP measures 19.7 by 16.5 by 19.0 inches (HWD) and weighs 65 pounds, too big to share a desk with, and moving it into place is a 2-person job. The M475dn has a 300-sheet standard paper capacity, split between a 250-sheet input tray and 50-sheet multipurpose tray; a second 250-sheet tray is available as an option ($137 direct). It has an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper, which can save you a lot of paper.

The M475dn is capable of running HP?s Web apps and comes with a generous selection of them pre-installed. Their printable content ranges from forms to news feeds, coloring book pages, Sudoku puzzles, and more. The M475dn is also ePrint enabled; HP assigns an e-mail address to the printer (which you can later customize), you can send documents to that address, and the printer will automatically print them out (as long as it?s connected to the Internet).

The M475dn offers USB and Ethernet connectivity. (An otherwise identical WiFi-enabled version of the printer, the M475dw, is available for $749 direct.) I tested it over the Ethernet connection with a PC running Windows Vista.

HP LaserJet Pro 400 Color MFP M475dn

Print Speed

I timed the M475dn on the latest version of our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), at a rather sluggish 3.2 effective pages per minute (ppm), even considering its relatively low rated print speed of 21 ppm?which should be about the speed you would get if you were to print text only. The Editors? Choice Dell 2155cn ($549.99 direct) finished the same tests at a much faster 5.9 ppm clip, while the OKI MC561 ($750 street) was even faster, at 7.2 ppm.

Print Quality

Overall output quality for the M475dn was slightly above average, thanks to very good graphics quality. Text was slightly below average for a laser, which still translates to very good?fine for any business use except those requiring very small fonts, like some desktop publishing applications, or documents like resumes that need to make a good visual impression.

Graphics were of good enough quality that I wouldn?t hesitate to hand them to clients I was seeking to impress, or?for that matter?use for marketing materials. The only issues I encountered were minor, some blotchiness in a couple of color backgrounds due to uneven toner distribution and some mild posterization.

Photo quality was a little on the high side of average. Photos generally showed very good color, although a couple of them had modest tints. Several showed dithering, and there was a loss of detail in several bright areas.

The Editors? Choice Dell 2155cn is considerably faster than the M475dn, and has slightly better overall output quality and a lower price tag. It lacks an auto-duplexer, and although they both have 250-sheet main trays, the Dell 2155cn?s multipurpose feeder is limited to a single sheet. The OKI MC561has blazing speed and even has a duplexing ADF, letting you copy, fax, and scan 2-sided documents. Its output quality isn?t up to either the HP or the Dell 2155cn, however. The OKI MC561has slightly lower color costs that the other two.

Unless print speed is a strong consideration, the HP LaserJet Pro 400 Color MFP M475dn is a good choice as a color laser MFP to anchor a small office. It has a very solid feature set, including HP Web apps and ePrint capabilities, and good output quality highlighted by beautiful graphics.

More Multi-function Printer Reviews:

??? HP LaserJet Pro 400 Color MFP M475dn
??? HP Officejet 6700 Premium e-All-in-One
??? Canon Pixma MX892 Wireless Inkjet Office All-in-One
??? Ricoh Aficio SP C242SF
??? Ricoh Aficio SP C240SF
?? more

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Helium-filled floating wind turbine, renewable energy with style

Helium-filled floating wind turbine, renewable energy with style

There's no doubting that the cause of renewable energy is a noble one. But, ethics aside, it also gives birth to the occasional technical marvel. Altaeros Energies, a company from Massachusetts (with MIT and Harvard blood in its veins) has created one such curiosity. The prototype is a wind-turbine that doesn't just languish on a hill-top, cutting a line in the horizon. No, this one has a helium-filled outer-section which allows it to deploy itself to 1,000 feet, where it can benefit from stronger, more consistent winds and gives nearly twice the power yields of its land bound brethren. That's all very nice, but we just thought it looked dang cool in action.

Helium-filled floating wind turbine, renewable energy with style originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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