Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Your 2 hourly digest for Engadget

Engadget
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G.A.U.N.T.L.E.T. trades in keyboard and touchscreen typing for sweaty hands (video)
Jul 16th 2012, 22:56

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Between touchscreens and physical keyboards, you'd thing that handset manufacturers have most of their bases covered. Given the fact that fact that the G.A.U.N.T.L.E.T. isn't even the first glove keyboard we've seen, it seems safe to assume that there's some cold-handed portion of the populace that just isn't satisfied with their current options. Jake Liu's solution is the Generally Accessible Universal Nomadic Tactile Low-power Electronic Typist, a wireless glove keyboard that connects to mobile devices via Bluetooth, letting you type by touching your thumb to your fingers.

The gloves, created when Liu was a student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, have the corresponding letters printed on the fingers, with Enter, Backspace, Space and Function on the thumbnails, the latter of which allows you to switch between different keymaps like numbers and symbols. There's also an accelerometer built into the Minority Report-inspired peripherals for added functionality. Check out a quick video demo of the clove in action, after the break.

Continue reading G.A.U.N.T.L.E.T. trades in keyboard and touchscreen typing for sweaty hands (video)

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G.A.U.N.T.L.E.T. trades in keyboard and touchscreen typing for sweaty hands (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashgear, Ubergizmo  |  sourceTechCrunch  | Email this | Comments

Qantas replacing staff BlackBerrys with iPhones, Australian flights may be held up by Tiny Wings
Jul 16th 2012, 22:32

Qantas Airbus A380

RIM has already been feeling the sting of lost customers. That sting isn't getting any gentler, as Qantas just outlined plans to replace all 1,300 BlackBerry phones in the fleet with iPhones. As the airline explains to The Australian, a mix of cost overhead and employee feedback is steering the decision to wing it Apple's way. We also imagine Qantas may be facing the usual airline dilemma of having to replace large swaths of equipment after clinging to old technology for dear life. Naturally, the company is keen to reassure passengers that the security is up to snuff as well, and a Bring Your Own Device effort could see Android fly once it's approved. The time scale is indefinite enough that it's unlikely that we'll see the airline crew members distracted by a game of Amazing Alex on that next flight to Melbourne -- we only know that they'll be weaning themselves off of BlackBerry Messenger before too long.

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Qantas replacing staff BlackBerrys with iPhones, Australian flights may be held up by Tiny Wings originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink N4BB  |  sourceThe Australian (subscription required)  | Email this | Comments

TigerText adds secure messaging to Dropbox in bid to rid the world of bicycle couriers
Jul 16th 2012, 22:13

TigerText adds secure messaging to Dropbox in bid to rid the world of bicycle couriers

Secure messaging outfit TigerText has mixed its sauce with Dropbox's API to make a private communications goulash that could spell doom for the humble bicycle courier. The technological team-up enables users to share documents with a pre-set lifespan and recall an attachment if you really didn't mean to send your boss so many cat pictures. Thanks to its HIPAA-compliant encryption, the documents you push around cannot be downloaded, copied or forwarded, making it ideal for law firms, medical agencies and movie studios that currently blow thousands of dollars on using messengers to take secret stuff 'round town.

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TigerText adds secure messaging to Dropbox in bid to rid the world of bicycle couriers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceTigerText  | Email this | Comments

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 to be bundled on all Windows RT tablets
Jul 16th 2012, 21:55

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 to be bundled on all Windows RT tablets

The playing field in the world of Windows tablets became a bit more level today, as Microsoft has announced that Office Home and Student 2013 will be bundled for free with all Windows RT computers. Perhaps the move shouldn't come as a complete surprise, as the company had previously revealed the inclusion of Office on its own ARM-based Surface tablet. For those who'd feared that Microsoft wouldn't play fairly with its hardware partners, however, it seems that at least some of those concerns can be put aside. Naturally, everything you've come to expect in the Home and Student edition will be there, which includes Microsoft Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint. If you're unsure of what to expect, be sure to check out our recent preview of the productivity suite.

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Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 to be bundled on all Windows RT tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 17:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhoneArena  |  sourceMicrosoft  | Email this | Comments

DARPA fights fire with sound and electricity, hopes 'ionic wind' could save lives in the field
Jul 16th 2012, 21:32

DARPA develops method of extinguishing fire with sound and electricity, hopes 'ionic wind' could save lives in the field

Fire, frenemy of humanity since time immemorial. Typical extinguishing methods have involved water, chemicals and even blankets, but DARPA wanted to see if there was another, more pragmatic way. Starting with the understanding of fire actually being a cold plasma, DARPA then explored fire's electromagnetic and acoustic qualities, and discovered two potential ways to quell the flame, one using electrons, the other, sound. The electron technique creates an oscillating field that separates the fire and fuel dubbed "ionic wind," the other method creates an acoustic field that increases the air velocity (thinning the the flame boundary) and causes the flames to widen and drop in temperature, dispersing the fire's energy. The concepts have been proven, but scaling these up to real world solutions is a whole different matter. Light up the videos after the break to see them in action.

Continue reading DARPA fights fire with sound and electricity, hopes 'ionic wind' could save lives in the field

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DARPA fights fire with sound and electricity, hopes 'ionic wind' could save lives in the field originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 17:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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