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 Whenever technology is used to solve a real problem, it warms our hearts. It really does. But when technological perambulations are needed to work their way around antiquated state liquor laws (the likes of which have tormented at least one poor Engadget editor since he reached the age of majority), it just seems sad. For instance, it's illegal to sell alcohol in grocery stores in Pennsylvania, but it's not illegal to install a vending machine that dispenses wine: as long as the user is asked to take a breathalyzer test, swipe their state issued ID or Driver License, and then show their mug to a state official sitting somewhere in Harrisburg, who is keeping an eye on the proceedings via CCTV. Simple, right? Maybe not, but it does protect the state's monopoly on liquor sales. The Pronto wine vending machine is currently only available in select grocery stores in the state, but it's just been announced that the PA Liquor Control Board has given Walmart preliminary approval to put the things in some of their locations outside of Pittsburgh. We'll try one out ourselves, as soon as they start carrying Blue Nun. PA Walmart stores getting CCTV-enabled, breathalyzin' wine vending machines originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  KDKA | Email this | Comments 
 Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/oRrZysutHB4/ YAHOO XILINX WESTERN DIGITAL Who doesn't love pop-ups? Really, I mean, it has to be the world's most effective and well-respected mode of advertising. You're browsing along, reading something on the Web, and suddenly your screen explodes with color and NSFW video clips. Seriously, how can you not enjoy that? If you're one of the odd few who aren't enthusiastic about pop-ups, you might appreciate Better Pop Up Blocker. While Chrome already features some pop-up blocking measures, they're not very serious. Even when you add the popular AdBlock extension, Chrome's blocking abilities still leave something to be desired. This point is made quite convincingly by the Better Pop Up Blocker homepage. If you're using Chrome, just click the image that says Click me, I'm an image, and see what I mean. By default, Chrome allowed three different huge pop-up windows to appear. After installing Better Pop Up Blocker, no pop-up appeared when clicking the image. I was still able to see what pop-ups were blocked using the extension's menu and open them if I did want to access them. The browser action icon will every time it blocks a pop-up, just to let you know it's working. All in all, it's a welcome addition to my Chrome installation - and one that will remain installed on my system. Filed under: Google Better Pop Up Blocker for Chrome blocks pop-ups -- better originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/11/28/better-pop-up-blocker-for-chrome-blocks-pop-ups-better/ STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS SRA INTERNATIONAL SPSS Wikileaks founder Julian Assange looms like the mysterious British freedom fighter V atop the Drudge Report, threatening a "devastating" confidential document dump if his organization suffers any more hack attacks. Paypal says Wikileaks and its donors are pals no more. Amazon.com boots Wikileaks off its virtual cloud, citing vague and unconfirmed suspicions. Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/71385.html MANTECH INTERNATIONAL MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES LSI  The Kinect is an impressive gaming accessory; no one is going to dispute that. But it's the fact that the hardware is a $150 USB device that is so impressive that it warrants its own Wikipedia article: " The device features an "RGB camera, depth sensor and multi-array microphone running proprietary software",[21] which provides full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition and voice recognition capabilities...The Kinect sensor's microphone array enables the Xbox 360 to conduct acoustic source localization and ambient noise suppression, allowing for things such as headset-free party chat over Xbox Live." Clearly, Microsoft hit a home run on this one. The development community instantly latched onto the device and nearly immediately started working on mods, hacks, and shenanigans. The Kinect put up a bit of a fight at first with its locked down codebase, but a $3,000 bounty drew attention to the cause and someone ultimately cracked the code. Seeing how the Kinect is just over a month old, it's 'bout we round up the best hacks so far and seriously, judging by the list of accomplishments done in just over 30 days, the Kinect will probably be playing us this time next year.  Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7cpGHx0g2AI/ LAND SOFTWARE LAM RESEARCH L1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS You may not be able to get Android 2.3 loaded in any official capacity on your Nexus One yet -- or any other phone, for that matter -- but Google's 2.3 SDK is now available, which means there's an emulator attached, too. As with most development emulators, this one's a stripped-down subset of the apps and settings you'd see on an actual retail device; basically, all that's left is the bare minimum Google figures its developers are going to need to code apps. Be that as it may, we noticed a few things that stuck out: - Overall, the UI changes are extremely subtle, and generally for the better. We prefer the new looks for the status bar, keyboard, and menus over their Froyo equivalents.
- We couldn't get a sense of the performance improvements -- the emulator is slow as molasses for us and really has zero bearing on how it'll perform on devices.
- When you reach the end of a scrolled list, the side of the list that has reached the end glows orange briefly, presumably to make it even more obvious that you're at the end. Even the browser does this -- it's an interesting effect that we kind of liked.
- The miserable default camera UI is exactly the same. Expect manufacturers to continue to replace this with wild abandon.
- The Gmail app isn't included in the emulator, so fear not when you're looking at the screen shot of the unthreaded messages -- that's the "standard" email app.
- The fingertip-sized markers for highlighting text work quite well, including in the browser. They seem to consistently disappear after a few seconds and automatically highlight and / or copy the text in between the markers; we're not sold on whether we like that behavior.
Clearly, the jury's out until we've got a Nexus S firmly planted in our hands -- but in the meanwhile, check out a bunch of shots of Gingerbread doing its thing in the gallery below. Android 2.3 Gingerbread in pictures originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 23:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments 
 Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/b-XKL8c3gdo/ COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS COMPAL ELECTRONICS COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM Orbox B is a puzzle, but it's one with a very frenetic pace. Each level is composed of a "field" of blocks that are carefully arranged. You control a single block and the object is to get it to the exit. Here's the tricky part: once your block starts moving, it won't stop unless it hits something. And if it falls off the board, you lose. When you do hit another block, you stop -- and then it's time to figure out your next move. Which block should you hit now? Short-term planning will only get you so far, though. As you progress, planning your moves carefully becomes more important. You must hit the other blocks in the exact sequence needed to eventually make your way to the end. The higher levels also introduce other block types that can disappear after you hit them, snap shut, or do all sorts of other tricks. It's a minimalistic game, and it's very fast. There is no background music and restarting is instantaneous. Orbox B is also begging for an Android port - in fact, if you know of one, let me know in the comments. Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters Orbox B is a fast, tricky Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/11/15/orbox-b-is-a-fast-tricky-time-waster/ MENTOR GRAPHICS IMS HEALTH IMATION It sometimes happens that a certain word eludes me. I know it exists, I even know what it sounds like or how it begins or ends -- but for the life of me, I can't recall what the exact word is. For situations like these, Tip of My Tongue can come in very handy. To find the word "download," I only had to tell it that it starts and ends with D, has W somewhere in the middle, and means "transfer." The search is very fast, done on-the-fly, as you type. You can search by word parts (beginning, middle, end), by certain letters which it must have or can't have, or by its meaning (you get to specify up to three synonyms). You can then refine the search by specifying a minimum and maximum length, and even what the word sounds like (i.e, what it rhymes with). To me, this seems to cover all bases. Even a vague notion of what a certain word is should be enough to hone in on that word using Tip of My Tongue. This is definitely one for any writer's toolbox. Filed under: web 2.0, Education Tip of My Tongue helps you find that word you're looking for originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/11/26/tip-of-my-tongue-helps-you-find-that-word-youre-looking-for/ SI INTERNATIONAL SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY SCIENTIFIC GAMES ReadWriteWeb reports that Twitter has just signed an agreement with Gnip, a social data streaming service, to offer half of Twitter's total message traffic for $360,000/year. That is, if you want to analyze Twitter data, you're going to have to pay Gnip for the privilege. With this move, Twitter is effectively outsourcing the "tweet analysis" business. The tweets sold via Gnip are not for display purposes - meaning, if you buy them, you must keep them largely to yourself and be content analyzing them and using the results. Customers like Google, who use 100 percent of Twitter's firehose for displaying instant search results, will still deal directly with Twitter. Filed under: Business, Web services Twitter signs Gnip to provide firehose access for $360,000/year originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/11/18/twitter-signs-gnip-to-provide-firehose-access-for-360-000-year/ INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC |
