Microsoft invests $300 million in new Barnes & Noble 'strategic partnership'

Well, that's an interesting end to all those legal tussles. Microsoft and bookseller Barnes and Noble have decided to buddy-up in the face of competitors like Amazon and Apple. The strategic partnership -- Microsoft loves 'em -- would come in the form of a new Barnes and Noble subsidiary that deals with all things Nook, in addition to its education business. The bookseller would hold onto the lion's share at 82.4 percent, with the remaining 17.6 percent in Microsoft's control. The first benefit posited would be a Nook app for the incoming Windows 8. Barnes and Noble's Nook Study software would also benefit from a friendly boost on all that Windows hardware. Maybe all those other legal matches will resolve in similar warm-and-fuzzy business hook-ups -- but we doubt it.

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Microsoft invests $300 million in new Barnes & Noble 'strategic partnership' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/30/microsoft-barnes-and-noble-partnership/

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This Stunning Electric Bike Is Like a Jet Fighter On Two Wheels [Desired]

This is the ZecOO, an electric motorbike that can reach 75mph with a range that goes from 55 to 85 miles. No bad. But what I really like is its weird, anime jet fighter aesthetic, from its retro-futuristic profile to the extruded gauges to its front suspension. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Xme-8jfHnMA/this-stunning-electric-bike-is-like-a-jet-fighter-on-two-wheels

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A Billion Details and No Precedent—An Inside Look at the TSA's Scrambling Start [Tsa]

Building the TSA from scratch in the months following 9/11 seemed an insurmountable task, unrivaled in both scope and size. In Permanent Emergency, former TSA administrator Kip Hawley vividly reconstructs the breakneck pace at which this gargantuan security agency came about and how it came to be an institutional clusterf*ck. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/uTSYGUyCzvo/a-billion-details-and-no-precedentan-inside-look-at-the-tsas-scrambling-start

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FAA writing rules for electric aircraft, to allow public to fly them in the next decade

There are those in the general aviation community who think electric planes are the future for private aircraft, but regulatory hurdles are in place preventing them from proliferating in our skies. You see, current FAA requirements for light sport aircraft (LSA) -- planes that can be flown by anyone with a pilot's license -- preclude electric powerplants, and that makes such planes unavailable to most private pilots. Well, today at the CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium, FAA analyst Tom Gunnarson delivered some good news for flying EV advocates, stating that the FAA has completed its regulatory study on electric aircraft, and the rulemaking process will begin soon. Once those rules have been written, electrically-propelled aircraft will be available for use as LSA by the public, which isn't possible today given their current status as experimental craft. The bad news? Governmental wheels spin slowly, and Gunnarson said that incorporating those new rules into the current regulatory framework will take five years if we're lucky, but ten years is a more likely time frame for the FAA to finish. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for air shows or terrestrial transport to get your EV fix.

FAA writing rules for electric aircraft, to allow public to fly them in the next decade originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/27/faa-electirc-aircraft-rules/

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Apple Patent Shows 3-D Interface Calibrated by Eye Positioning

Depending on the lighting of your environment, a 3-D display could render differently. Image: Free Patents Online

In a recent patent application, Apple shows how an immersive, adjustable 3-D user interface could be implemented in future mobile devices.

The patent, titled “Three Dimensional User Interface Effects on a Display by Using Properties of Motion,” illustrates how eye-tracking and other sensor data could be used to display a 3-D user interface that automatically calibrates itself to a user’s positioning and ambient environment.

The method would use data from your iDevice’s compass, GPS, accelerometer and gyrometer to calculate your real-time frame of reference. On top of that, your hardware’s front-facing camera would perform eye tracking. This would allow the device to show “more realistic virtual 3-D depictions of the objects on the device’s display,” according to the patent filing.

Users would be able to see the sides and back of a 3-D object onscreen. Image: Free Patents Online

No current Apple devices run 3-D displays, so for even a glimpse at where Apple may be going with its patent, we would have to turn to the HTC EVO 3D. This smartphone uses the parallax barrier technique for glasses-free 3-D viewing, but seeing any semblance of a 3-D effect is difficult due to the technology’s tight viewing angles. Indeed, current systems like that in the EVO 3D don’t take user-positioning information into consideration to render the 3-D effect.

Ambient lighting would also be factored into Apple’s virtual 3-D environment, as the image above shows. If an onscreen item had a shadow behind it, that shadow would dynamically change position depending on the location of a light source. And eye tracking would allow you to see not only frontal views, but also the sides and rear views of 3-D objects.

Rather than the flat, 2-D app icons you see on your iPhone home screen now, this 3-D implementation would use a recessed “bento box” form factor, according to the filing. And wherever your gaze falls, a virtual spotlight would highlight what you’re looking at. You’d be able to switch this 3-D effect on and off using physical gestures like waves.

Apple’s method could also be implemented on desktops.

via Apple Insider

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/02/apple-patent-3d-interface/

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Mon.ki Is Building A Rapportive For The Web

Prepare for the concept of the address book to be flipped. Today, a startup called mon.ki is launching a new way for you to discover "who you know" by providing that information to you in the context of what you're viewing. The product, which they're calling a "social compass" of sorts, automatically extracts information from the web page you're viewing, and then displays relevant information from Twitter about the people and tweets related to the page . To be clear, it's not just about finding out who tweeted about that page, but about the people related to that page. For example, a TechCrunch article would point you to the author's profile, as well as Twitter profiles related to that writer. And Twitter integration is just the beginning. The company is adding support for Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn, too. In addition to today's launch, mon.ki has also closed a round of $400,000 in seed funding.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ZKcoFtTuGDc/

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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 »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/3eHcp1lbMUw/sayhi-translate-an-interpreter-inside-your-iphone

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Would you prefer a thinner iPhone or a larger battery? [Poll]

When it comes to the next generation iPhone, is thinner always better, or would you trade a couple of extra millimeters for longer battery life?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/SOy-4Um7ChU/story01.htm

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Asus Transformer Pad TF300 launching in the UK in May

Asus' latest tablet offering, the Transformer Pad TF300, has only been with us for a day and a night now. Thankfully for those of us on the European side of the Atlantic, release information has started to emerge with the news of its UK launch. 

The slightly cheaper, slightly less spec'd version of the Transformer Prime will be with us in stores in Blighty from "late may." The tablet will be exclusive -- at least initially anyway -- to the Dixons group of retailers, including high street chains PC World and Currys. The TF300 will go on sale online from "early may" with the devices being available to purchase in the groups physical stores later in the month.

The device will hit other retailers from "late June" -- notice a pattern here? No exact dates are being tossed around at the moment, but we'll surely find out soon enough. As with the US, the Royal Blue version will be on sale initially, followed by the Iceberg White and Torch Red in June and July respectively.

So what about the price? Including the keyboard dock, the TF300 will set you back £399. In all honesty, that isn't a bad price at all when the dock is included. Not to mention taking into account Asus' record for keeping their devices up to date. If you're considering a TF300, then don't forget to check out Jerry's extensive review.

via Eurodroid

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/nd-AxI_GsV0/story01.htm

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Nokia's Windows Phones: The Games Begin

Last week Nokia unveiled a pair of Windows Phone devices, the Lumia 710 and 800. They'll arrive in the United States sometime in early 2012, according to the Finnish manufacturer.

"Lumia is the first real Windows Phone," Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told the audience during a London keynote Oct. 26. "We are signaling our intent right now to be today's leaders in smartphone design and craftsmanship, no question about it."

Let the games begin.

The Lumia 800 represents the high end of Nokia's smartphone plans, and features a 1.4GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor, and an 8-megapixel camera that uses Carl Zeiss optics. Design-wise, there's a 3.7-inch active-matrix organic LED (AMOLED) ClearBlack curved display integrated into a body rendered from a single piece of polycarbonate. I played with it during a Nokia presentation last week in New York City; it's pretty.

In a play toward the midmarket, Nokia is also offering the cheaper Lumia 710, also with a 1.4GHz processor, and a 5-megapixel camera. It's pretty, too.

To say that Nokia needs both these devices to succeed is something of an understatement, considering how it's abandoned its other operating systems in favor of Windows Phone. In order to sweeten the deal for consumers, Nokia has installed some exclusive apps with its phones, including Nokia Drive (with turn-by-turn navigation and voice-activated control) and Nokia Maps, which offers up points of interest around the user's location.

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, Microsoft wants to push Windows Phone more toward the midmarket, and the Lumia 710 seems a big step in that direction. "We are dramatically broadening the set of price points in Mango-related phones that we can reach," Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows Phone division, told the audience during the Asia D conference Oct. 19. "That's particularly important because going lower down in price point opens up more addressable market."

But it'll still be some months until we know whether Nokia's succeeding in its all-or-nothing effort.

Source: http://feeds.ziffdavisenterprise.com/~r/RSS/MicrosoftWatch/~3/8Pq0sZJ5dOU/nokias_windows_phones_the_games_begin.html

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