Microsoft Research shows off next-generation gesture interfaces, Kinect integration, other neato stuff (video)

Leave it to Microsoft Research to show off some cool stuff that may or may not actually happen on any thing you ever actually buy. Check out the video after the break to see the latest, Director of Microsoft Applied Sciences Steven "Stevie B" Bathiche showing off a variety of interesting interfaces. It all starts with gesture controls that take you well beyond the touchscreen, relying on a retro-reflective sash and a camera to detect hand position. But, things quickly progress to a flat lens called a wedge that can enable holographic-like imagery. Pair that with a Kinect and perspective shifts come into play, tracking your face to enable you to peer around like looking out a window. It's all just waiting for you below -- and maybe IRL sometime in the future.

Continue reading Microsoft Research shows off next-generation gesture interfaces, Kinect integration, other neato stuff (video)

Microsoft Research shows off next-generation gesture interfaces, Kinect integration, other neato stuff (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/azwAb2fXiAI/

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New MacBooks Torn Open, Thunderbolt Chip Revealed

The little pinky nail sized chip you see up there, inside the green square, is almost certainly the controller chip for the new MacBook Pro’s Thunderbolt port. The chip, and its tasty thermal paste topping, were found inside the new MacBooks by the teardown experts at iFixit.
The Thunderbolt (nee Light Peak) controller IC is what [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/02/new-macbooks-torn-open-thunderbolt-chip-revealed/

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Nintendo 3DS launches in Japan, populace tears through initial 400,000 unit shipment

You won't be able to snap one up at your local GameStop for a full month, but the Nintendo 3DS had a solid launch in Japan today, reportedly liquidating nearly its entire initial shipment of 400,000 spiffy stereoscopic gaming handhelds by the end of the day. Some of those sales were to customers waiting in a few lines up to 2,000 persons long, but those lines were exceptions to the norm -- several publications note that very few stores actually had any lines to speak of, as most Japanese electronics retailers sold out when the 3DS went on pre-order over a month ago. Get a refresher on what to expect from the system here (and here) or read all about the surprisingly orderly Japanese launch at our source links.

Update: Our friends at Engadget Japanese were on hand for the 3DS launch, and picked up a pair of systems themselves -- get a closer look at one of the first retail 3DS units in the gallery below!

Gallery: Nintendo 3DS -- Japanese retail version

Nintendo 3DS launches in Japan, populace tears through initial 400,000 unit shipment originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/26/nintendo-3ds-launches-in-japan-populace-tears-through-initial-4/

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Aiaiai TMA-1 Headphones Review

Looking at the box containing the Aiaiai TMA-1 headphones, one would expect flashy, ?Look-at-me? headphones to be packed inside. After all, they were developed by and for DJs, and DJs like to be noticed, right? What you may not know is that Aiaiai is a Danish company? Scandinavian. Lets face it, Scandinavians are design minimalists [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/02/22/aiaiai-tma-1-headphones-review/

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Gmail accidentally resetting accounts, years of correspondence vanish into the cloud?

If you've got a working Gmail account, you might want to back it up every so often -- as many as 500,000 Gmail users lost access to their inboxes this morn, and some of them are reporting (via Twitter and support forums) that years worth of messages, attachments and Google Chat logs had vanished by the time they were finally able to log on. While we haven't experienced the issue personally, we're hearing that the bug effectively reset some accounts, treating their owners as new users complete with welcome messages. For its part, Google says that the issue "affects less than .29% of the Google Mail userbase," engineers are working to fix the issue right now, and that missing messages will be restored as soon as possible. We'll soon see if this is a momentary setback... or a lengthy wakeup call.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Gmail accidentally resetting accounts, years of correspondence vanish into the cloud? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 18:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/27/gmail-accidentally-resetting-accounts-years-of-correspondence-v/

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Motorola dragged into court for Xoom trademark infringement

To Xoom or not to Xoom, that is the question -- and Xoom Corporation says Motorola needs to ditch the name of its new Honeycomb-laden slate. That's right, Xoom has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit asking for monetary damages, a temporary restraining order, and / or a preliminary injunction to spoil Moto's release party for its new tablet. In case you're curious, Xoom (the company) does seem to predate the slate by a good bit: it's been operating its online payments business under that name and has owned the www.xoom.com domain since 2003. Xoom got a registered service mark for its money transfer and e-payment services in 2004.

But what about that Xoom trademark Motorola filed last year for mobile computers and related accessories? Traditionally, courts give priority to the first user to register a mark, so Xoom Corp. certainly has a case here, but we're not so sure they'll be able to prove that consumers are likely to be confused. To find out, the court will look at multiple factors to determine the likelihood of confusion: the strength of Xoom's mark, the similarities between the two marks, the proximity of Xoom's services and software to Moto's tablet in the consumer marketplace, evidence of actual customer confusion, and the similarity of the marketing channels used by Moto and Xoom. Honestly, we can't see Moto marketing the Xoom tablet to anyone looking for online payment services (aside from the occasional Android Market purchase) so Xoom Corp. has a tough road to hoe, but stranger things have happened -- we'll see how it goes.

Motorola dragged into court for Xoom trademark infringement originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/25/motorola-dragged-into-court-for-xoom-trademark-infringement/

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Flash Player 10.2 with Stage Video hardware acceleration out of beta

Flash Player 10.2 is finally out of beta!

We've covered this upgrade before, and after three months of beta testing, Adobe feels ready to roll this one out as an official update.

The key features that make Flash 10.2 a worthwhile upgrade are:

• Proper full-screen support for multi-monitor systems: At long last, users with more than one monitor would be able to play a full-screen video on one monitor while working with another monitor! Hurrah! This long-overdue feature alone is worth the upgrade.
• Stage Video: Adobe's new API for high-performance video playback across multiple platforms. In simple terms, it makes HD video fast and easy on your computer. The only snag is that developers will have to build in support for it - it's not just a client-side change. Adobe says YouTube, Vimeo, and Brightcove are already hard at work adding support.
• Font smoothing: Flash player isn't all about video, after all. This improvement adds ClearType-like font smoothing.
• Hardware acceleration: Last but not least, Flash 10.2 supports IE 9's hardware acceleration capabilities ("GPU rendering").

All in all, Flash 10.2 sounds like a worthy upgrade. Click here for the download page, and if you're using Chrome, be sure to disable the built-in Flash plug-in to reap the benefits unless you're on the updated Dev channel.

Flash Player 10.2 with Stage Video hardware acceleration out of beta originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 04:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/09/flash-player-10-2-with-stage-video-hardware-acceleration-out-of/

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