<![CDATA[GEEKAPOLIS.COM GADGETS

<![CDATA[GEEKAPOLIS.COM GADGETS - TECH NEWS]]> en Mon, 20 May 2013 11:53:15 +0800 5014 <![CDATA[Earth's Atmosphere Is Leaving Into Space, Very Very Slowly (Video)]]>

Believe it or not. Earth's atmosphere is slowing escaping us. And it's heading into space. There's not much we can do about it.

But according to MinuteEarth, the process is super slow, and chances are, you're not going to experience the lack of an atmosphere in your life time. But one day, it'll all be gone. Like Mars. Which means, let's enjoy this Earth while we still can. [MinuteEarth]

]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:31 +0800 <![CDATA[How NASA Designs the Perfect Space Meal (Video)]]>

NASA's culinary techniques have improved alongside its technology to send people up into space. Tested Site Mashup takes a delicious tour of NASA's Space Food Systems Laboratory and looks first hand into what goes into making those perfect meals for astronauts.

Watch the video after the jump! [Tested Site via Laughing Squid]

]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:31 +0800 <![CDATA[This Basic Math Rule You Learned Is Wrong (Video)]]>

PEMDAS - or the order of operations, is probably wrong. As MinutePhysics explains, the formula we've all learnt in school - which involves solving equations with multiple operators in them has more to it than what we thought.

PEMDAS works most of the time, but it only approximates the real logic behind the scenes. Here's time to learn the truth. Watch below: [MinutePhysics]

]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:31 +0800 <![CDATA[Users Are In an Uproar Over Yahoo's Rumored Tumblr Acquisition]]>

Now that Yahoo's board of directors are ready for a $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, we're seeing a wave of Tumblr users opposing the idea.

Tumblr and Yahoo have yet to release official statements about the acquisition, and the Tumblr's younger skewed users have already been showing a strong reaction to the potential purchase/.

Several users on Tumblr and Twitter are making claims of this being "the end" of the blogging platform. Some feel betrayed by Tumblr CEO David Karp. Some are even expressing fears of Tumblr going the way of Flickr. Which is actually, understandable. Check out the oproar below:

]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:08 +0800 <![CDATA[Liquid Cooling Smartphone Will Ensure No More Fire In Your Pants]]>

NEC hopes to solve the problem of overheating smartphones with a new liquid cooled one. Dubbed the NEC Medias X 06E, it sports a liquid cooling pipe behind the display and next to the processor.

According to NEC, it will transfer heat away from the phone's processor through repeated evaporation and condensation.

The Medias X 06E also features a 4.7-inch OLED screen and a impressive 13.1 megapixel camera. It will be available in Japan on the NTT Docomo carrier in June.

Is a liquid cool smartphone an overkill? Or just nice? What do you think? No more phones catching on fire in pants perhaps?
]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:08 +0800 <![CDATA[Wi-Fi Network Breaks Speed Record At Whopping 40GB Per Second]]>

There's now a network that can push a 2 hour high def movie to a computer a mile away in less time than it takes to read a word. The new record was set at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, and it's a record breaking 40GB per second over a distance of about .6 of a mile.

How is this possible?

The researchers used a combination of better hardware and higher radio frequencies - at 240 gigahertz. The hardware is a set of chips developed at Karlsruhe which can process signals at higher frequencies.

Higher frequencies mean smaller components and since a shorter wavelength can be picked up by a smaller antenna, these chips were only a few millimeters on a side.

The only question left is just when can we see this kind of network available for consumer use?
]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:08 +0800 <![CDATA['Bang With Friends' Gets Kicked Out Of App Store]]>

Bang with Friends have just been booted from the App Store by Apple. The app debuted in January and quickly took off in popularity with a simple concept: Users log in with Facebook and select the friends they want to bang. Only friends that have mutually selected the other user show up in a "down to bang" queue.

The app claims that it has more than 1 million users. Privacy was a creepy subject, and earlier this month, it became possible to find out if some of your friends had signed up for the service on Facebook.

While the Android version is still available, iPhone users are directed to this page, which promises that the app will be back "soon."

BWF co-founder and CEO Colin Hodge told Valleywag that he's working to get it back in the store, confirming that Apple did boot the app.

Will BWF make it back to the app store? Should they be allowed to? Sound off in the comments.
]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:08 +0800 <![CDATA[This iPhone 6 Concept Has A Projected Keyboard (Video)]]>

This iPhone 6 concept video may be the next iPhone you're looking for. The video shows of an iPhone 6 mock which when set to a flat surface can project a Mac keyboard from one side and a Mac desktop from the other.

Created by YouTube user Sonitdac, it shows a rendered iPhone 6 that looks similar to the iPhone 5 and the top and bottom ends of the iPhone are shown snapping off to create a stand.

While it's clearly a concept, the real next iPhone isn't expected to come just yet, though some think it will come at the next World Wide Developer's Conference.

]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:08 +0800 <![CDATA[Microsoft Is Getting Serious About Windows Phone Now]]>

Microsoft's Phone marketing lead, Greg Sullivan says its time for Microsoft to get serious for Windows Phone. IDC announced that the platform is now a solid Number 3, beating BlackBerry for the first time.

Sullivan says "It takes a lot of energy to start it and get it going and you see the progress and it feels like it's very slow progress. It's the tipping point; you get to critical mass or momentum that's self-sustaining."

Microsoft knows that it is shy of "critical mass", and that things are panning out, but a little slower than they hoped.

Microsoft may have a three-to-four-month window now since Apple may not be announcing their next iPhone this summer just yet, to snap up just a bit more market share from those who are not interested in an Android phone.

It's a head-on approach we're more accustomed to seeing from Samsung, which has been attacking Apple fans for years.

As Sullivan puts it, the time is right for Microsoft to "put the pedal down."

Not only is Microsoft getting more aggressive in its marketing, but Sullivan noted, its partners continue to add carriers and devices (Microsoft also updated the mobile OS in January). Nokia, Microsoft's chief Windows Phone partner, recently rolled out the Lumia 925 flagship phone and the 920 follow-up, the Lumia 928.

Microsoft and its partners are also now covering the full spectrum of the pricing market, introducing handsets like the $129 Nokia Lumia 521 (a hit that apparently sold out in Walmart and on the Home Shopping Network). It's pictured above.

Filling that space is part of a broader Windows Phone strategy, and Sullivan said, recognition of three key factors that could help his nascent mobile platform grow.

First of all, there are still hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers who have not made the switch to a smartphone. There is also a new and growing trend to buy prepaid and off-contract devices. Sullivan contends that 1/3 of phones sold in the U.S. this past quarter were prepaid. It's also rare for anyone to offer a sub-$150 unsubsidized phone (like the Lumia 521).
]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:08 +0800 <![CDATA[Privacy From Glass? You'll Just Know When Someone's Spying on You]]>

There were a lot of questions regarding Google Glass privacy. There still are. The solution? Apparently, you'll know if someone is spying on you.

Speaking at an I/O session, Steve Lee, Glass' product director, explained that "privacy was top of mind as we designed the product."

Early prototypes covered the eyes, which they soon realized leaving them exposed would be a better idea to let others see where they are looking. According to Lee:

"You'll know when someone with Glass is paying attention to you. If you're looking at Glass, you're looking up... If I'm recording you, I have to stare at you — as a human being. And when someone is staring at you, you have to notice. If you walk into a restroom and someone's just looking at you — I don't know about you but I'm getting the hell out of there."

What do you think? It's not exactly the fail safe and privacy protection we had in mind. Got any ideas?

[Verge and Ars Technica]
]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 17:44:56 +0800 <![CDATA[Will Yahoo Buy Tumblr? For 1 Billion?]]>

Instagram is not the only company being offered a $1 billion acquisition deal. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is said to be closing in on the deal with David Karp, CEO of Tumblr.

Details were leaked earlier Thursday via AllThingsD. A later report in AdWeek, via its own sources, cited $1 billion as the figure currently under discussion. Tumblr and its 107 million microblogs would add another 15 billion pageviews a month to Mayer's hoard.

It might also make Yahoo cool again.

Yahoo's got an aging audience, and the hunt for some funk is on. But will Tumblr sell? Is it too cool for Yahoo? What do you think?
]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 16:35:19 +0800 <![CDATA[Could This New Drug Help Slow Alzheimer's? (Video)]]>

We're still a long way more to go to cure Alzheimer's but the scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a drug that may just reverse memory deficits and slow the disease. In elderly mice that is.

The drug is known as J147, and could provide a new form of treatment for the disease in humans.

At current, Alzheimer's disease cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed. There have been no disease modifying drugs for it and current medications only offer short term benefits.

Marguerite Fox, the lead study author, said, “J147 is an exciting new compound because it really has strong potential to be an Alzheimer’s disease therapeutic by slowing disease progression and reversing memory deficits following short-term treatment.”

The team at Salk used living neurons grown in the lab to test whether their synthetic compounds — based upon products derived from plants — were able to protect brain cells against several symptoms of aging.

The drug works by affecting the cellular processes associated with Alzheimer's disease including an increase in a protein that protects neurons from toxic insults. It helps new neurons grow and connect with other brain cells which is involved in memory formation.

J147 already appears to be safe in mice, but the next step will require clinical trials with humans.

]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 13:11:51 +0800 <![CDATA[Google and NASA Building AI With Quantum Computers]]>

Google and NASA are teaming up to create a laboratory to develop the future of artificial intelligence using quantum supercomputers.

The Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, basesd at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, will be home to a quantum computer from D-Wave Systems. The researchers will study how quantum computing might advance machine learning.

Quantum computer could transform web searching and speech recognition technology, amongst other things. No word on a timeline for this project just yet.

[Google via New York Times via Verge Image by D-Wave]
]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 13:11:51 +0800 <![CDATA[Apple Patent Would Use Other iPhones Nearby As Flash Kits]]>

One of Apple's patent filed back in 2011 could dramatically improve the way your iPhone takes pictures. Instead of wirelessly connecting the phone to external flashes, the patent sees the iPhone connecting and controlling flashes on other nearby iPhones.

A method for capturing an image with an image capture device, such as a camera or mobile electronic device. The method includes initiating a master-slave relationship between the image capture device and at least one secondary device. Once the master-slave relationship is initiated, remotely activating one of an at least one light source of the at least one secondary device.

It would automatically analyze the lighting in a sample shot, and then tweak the intensity or timing of the flashes on the other iPhones to improve the photos.

What do you think of this patent? Will we ever see it come to fruition? [US Patent & Trademark Office via AppleInsider]
]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 13:11:51 +0800 <![CDATA[Oldest Water Cache Discovered Is 1.5 Billion Years Old]]>

A team of scientists have been investigating some water samples from a Canadian mine to discover that they were looking at samples that may have been sealed up for 1.5 billion years.

The decaying radioactive atoms in the water told them that this cache of water, which is the oldest ever discovered, could have been waiting patiently in the rock up to 2.5 billion years.

It's not stale water either. It's full of hydrogen, which suggests that it may act as food for certain microorganisms. The rock is able to supply a steady flow of hydrogen into its cozy little crevice too. Could it sustain life?

The discovery is important, as it opens up the possibilities and understanding of how potential life could be in other isolated places. It could very well aid us in our quest to find life on other planets. According to Carol Stoker, a research scientist with NASA:

If you go back to the very early history of Earth and Mars, sort of the first billion years after the surfaces cooled, Earth and Mars looked very similar. The logic is if that happened on Earth, why shouldn't it have happened on Mars?

[NPR via Digg Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]
]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 13:02:37 +0800