Tag Archives: future
Samsung rumored to roll out fingerprint scanning on future Galaxy devices
It seems Apple isn’t the only company working on fingerprint scanning technology. It looks like Samsung is also getting into the biometrics business with a solution of their own. Deep within the Galaxy S III file system, some images have been discovered that show off illustrated fingerprints, hinting to that possibility that Samsung may implement fingerprint scanning in future devices.
According to SamMobile, a tipster found the images within the SecSettings.apk at SecSettings\res\drawable-hdpi. This indicates that Samsung could be testing some type of fingerprint scanning technology internally, and these images could’ve been left on older Galaxy S III devices by mistake, or just hidden deep within the file system so that no one could find them, but that didn’t turn out so well for them.
Then again, the images provide no indication of what exactly Samsung might have planned. We’re given just a generic group of fingerprint art, along with an image that shows a user tapping on the home button (or scanning their fingerprint, in this context), as well as some plus signs and a checkmark. Some of the pieces fit together, but we can’t be too sure, of course.
Apple has been rumored to bring fingerprint scanning to iOS devices for a while now. The company purchased security firm AuthenTec last year over the summer, as well as made a deal with biometric security startup Microlatch. Both of these business transactions could be a hint at the possibility of Apple getting into the fingerprint scanning industry.
However, we would take this with a grain of salt for the time being. Apple bought these companies before they released the iPhone 5, but biometric security was nowhere to be found on the new smartphone. It’s still possible that Apple is continuing to work on the technology, which could mean that the next iPhone will come equipped with such a feature. As for Samsung, we could see fingerprint scanning on the Galaxy S 5, although that’s a year away at this point now that the Galaxy S 4 is just being released.
SOURCE: SamMobile
Samsung rumored to roll out fingerprint scanning on future Galaxy devices is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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The future is mobile
Elon Musk drops hints about future Tesla BMW 3-series competitor
Tesla has hit an undeniable home run with this Model S electric vehicle, despite the car’s high cost. Tesla has created an attractive electric vehicle with an impressively long driving range that has wowed drivers and reviewers alike. The only downside to the vehicle is that a well-equipped version runs and the $ 100,000 range.
Recently Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter dropping some teasing details about a future electric vehicle that he and Tesla are dreaming up. Musk said, “It has always been my dream to produce a low cost, compelling electric car. We are 3 to 4 years away. Wish it could be sooner.” That would put timeframe for Tesla’s next electric vehicle at approximately 2016 to 2017.
Musk then answered another question when people were curious what sort of pricing Tesla was considering for its future electric vehicle. Musk tweeted in response to that question, “$ 30k in 2013 $ .” He also said that the new vehicle would have a 200+ mile range with some “really cool tech that we can’t talk about yet.”
I’d wager that really cool tech will be the hot-swappable battery packs that Tesla recently mentioned in an SEC filing or fast battery changing stations. Musk also tweeted that the vehicle would be about the size of the Audi A4 or BMW 3-series compared to the Model S being sized like the Audi A7 or BMW M5.
Musk even said that he thinks when we consider the savings the vehicle will give you in gasoline, that you can actually cross-shop a $ 30,000 Tesla EV with $ 25,000 gasoline-powered vehicles. Tesla could be right to assuming this future technology Musk isn’t ready to talk about has something to do with making it quick and easy to recharge or swap battery packs at a low cost.
SOURCE: Forbes
Elon Musk drops hints about future Tesla BMW 3-series competitor is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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Ender’s Game trailer reveals child genius training for future alien war
It’s finally time to get a good look at the film adaptation of the science fiction novel classic Ender’s Game with the first official full-length trailer for the movie. This trailer is just under two minutes long and has Harrison Ford speaking in what might be the least intense declaration of intent in the history of on-film representations of the military, rivaled only by his admittedly unenthusiastic voice-over for the theater version of Blade Runner. That said, the visuals appear to be bringing a fully prepared vision from director Gavin Hood and producer Bob Orci.
This clip is joined by a Google Hangout that’s taking place starting at 1pm PDT / 4pm EDT and going forward into the afternoon. This Google+ Hangout holds the heads of the film, Hood and Orci, speaking to select members of the public as well as the star of the film Asa Butterfield. This actor portrays Ender in the film which will be released on the 1st of November this year.
Ender’s Game has also seen the start of a viral campaign that will be ushering in information about the plot and the environment which will hold the characters of this science fiction story. This story takes place in the future, a future where a single alien invasion has set our Earth on high alert, allowing a single government system to keep sway over the citizens of our planet while they train children to become future military leaders. These children – Ender included – are part of a future era of humanity in which kids have the potential to become genius-level thinkers in their adolescence.
The film stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, and Sir Ben Kingsley amongst many new entrants into the major motion picture world. This film is the first official adaptation of the Orson Scott Card novel Ender’s Game, a book which was born of a short science fiction tale told in the pages of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.
Have a peek at SlashGear’s brief timeline of events that’ve recently lead up to this release and be prepared for a flow of information the likes of which we’ve not seen since Prometheus.
Ender’s Game trailer reveals child genius training for future alien war is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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Valve experiments with players’ sweat response, eye-tracking controls for future game design
Valve has a surprisingly varied staff roster. Mike Ambinder is the company’s very own experimental psychologist and he’s been outlining some of Valve’s work with biofeedback technology, including eye-motion controls for Portal 2 and perspiration-based gaming adjustments on Left 4 Dead. Mentioning these developments at the NeuroGaming Conference last week, Ambinder notes that both are still at an experimental stage, but that “there is potential on both sides of the equation, both for using physiological signals to quantify an emotion [and] what you can do when you incorporate physiological signals into the gameplay itself.”
In Left 4 Dead, test subjects had their sweat monitored, with values assigned to how much they were responding to the action. This data was fed back into the game, where designers attempted to modify (and improve) the experience. In a test where players had four minutes to shoot 100 enemies, calmer participants would progress normally, but if they got nervous, the game would speed up and they would have less time to shoot. When it came to the eye-tracking iteration of Portal 2, the new controls apparently worked well, but also necessitated separating aiming and viewpoint to ensure it worked. With Valve already involving itself in wearable computing, it should make both notions easier to accomplish if it decides to bring either experiment to fans. Venture Beat managed to record Ambinder’s opening address at the conference — we’ve added it after the break.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Venture Beat
Dolphins brass claim bleak future for team after vote for stadium improvements lapses
Now that the Florida Legislature has let a vote lapse that might have passed a hotel tax facilitating up to $ 380 million in subsidies for Sun Life Stadium, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has gone on the attack. Ross, who has owned the team since 2009, blasted Speaker of the House Will Weatherford. Ross claimed that Weatherford backed out of a promise to let the stadium improvements go to a vote.
Last week, the Dolphins held a job fair at the stadium, while knowing that the project may not go forward.
“Tonight, Speaker Weatherford did far more than just deny the people of Miami Dade the right to vote on an issue critical to the future of our local economy,” Ross said Friday in an official team-released statement. The Speaker singlehandedly put the future of Super Bowls and other big events at risk for Miami Dade and for all of Florida. He put politics before the people and the 4,000 jobs this project would have created for Miami Dade, and that is just wrong.
“I am deeply disappointed by the Speaker’s decision. He gave me and many others his word that this legislation would go to the floor of the House for a vote, where I know, and he knows, we had the votes to win by a margin as large as we did in the Senate. It’s hard to understand why he would stop an election already in process and disenfranchise the 40,000 people who have already voted. I can only assume he felt it was in his political interest to do so. Time will tell if that is the case, but I am certain this decision will follow Speaker Weatherford for many years to come.”
The decision to refuse a vote seems to have had immediate, and possibly far-reaching, effects on the team. Not only will Sun Life and the Dolphins be on the outside looking in for any future Super Bowl bids without improvements, but team CEO Mike Dee has intimated that the Dolphins aren’t a lead-pipe lock to stay in Miami on a no-matter-what basis. While Dee stopped short of saying that Ross might move the team, he told WFOR-TV that another owner might down the road.
“I don’t think it’s an option for Steve Ross, but for a subsequent owner? The Dolphins are one of the only franchises in the National Football League that do not have a long-term lease with their community.”
Dee said that the team wanted $ 3 million per year for the next 30 years from the state, to which Ross would pledge a 70 percent payment for all the stadium improvements. But the team wants to make it very clear — without a private-public partnership,” as Dee put it, Ross has no intention of putting up his own capital.
The team had already agreed to pay for a May 14 referendum on the vote, and absentee balloting had already begun. The Senate had already approved the tax use, so no matter what you think of public funding for professional sports teams, it would appear that Weatherford went a bit rogue in allowing the vote to drop.
“I think part of the complication was the fact that it wasn’t just the Dolphins,” Weatherford said last week. “You had five or six different franchises that were looking for a tax rebate, and that’s serious public policy. You’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, and I think the House just never got comfortable there when the session ended.”
Dee disagreed.
“We suspect that it’s a pure political decision, that [Weatherford is] choosing politics over the right for the voters of Miami-Dade County to decide this issue, and that’s a shame.”
The Dolphins were going to bid for Super Bowl L in 2016 and Super Bowl LI in 2017 at the upcoming owners meetings, but without any projected outcome for stadium improvements, they might as well not bother. The San Francisco 49ers, who will have a new stadium in Santa Clara, and the Houston Texans, are expected to take the lead in the process.
Still, Ross hasn’t given up.
“In the weeks ahead, I will do all I can to convince my fellow owners to bring the Super Bowl back to Miami Dade,” Ross said at the end of his statement. “The Bid Committee has done a tremendous job to give us a great shot, and my only hope is that it is enough to overcome the terrible message Speaker Weatherford has sent to the NFL … In addition, I will continue to do all I can to build a winning team for the people of Miami Dade … I will look to play an important role in fixing the dysfunction in Tallahassee and will continue to work to create good jobs in Miami Dade and throughout South Florida.”
NASA invites students to design future Moonbuggy prototypes [w/video]
Filed under: Concept Cars, Etc., Videos
There are a lot of awards handed out at the Great Moonbuggy Race, from ‘Most Improved’ to ‘Crash and Burn,’ but the one every team wants is the first-place trophy. This year was the 20th year of the annual event, held at the US Space & Rocket Center under the auspices of NASA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Aerojet, and it was two teams from Puerto Rico that took first in both high school and college divisions.
The race tested proof-of-concept vehicles created by 89 teams of high school and college students from around the world. Teams of six competitors include one male and one female driver and they have to design a buggy that, disassembled , fits into a 4x4x4 space. When the clock starts, the teams have to build their buggies and run them over a half-mile course that mimics the moonscape; whichever team has the shortest combined time wins. The winning time from Teodoro Aguilar Moro Vocational High School (pictured) was 3:24, while the collegiate entry from the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao won with a time of 3:32.
There’s a press release below with more details and a list of all the winners, plus a video from NASA Television on last year’s race.
Continue reading NASA invites students to design future Moonbuggy prototypes [w/video]
NASA invites students to design future Moonbuggy prototypes [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 04 May 2013 17:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Distro Issue 89: With Google Glass, is the future of wearable computing finally in sight?
Google has begun shipping the Explorer Edition of its high-tech headset to a select few over the past week. In a brand new edition of our e-magazine, Tim Stevens gives Google Glass the full review treatment, chronicles life behind the lens for a week and sits down with Google Ventures’ Bill Maris for a chat on the device. We also get cozy with Google Now for iOS in Hands-On, ogle more of Mission Workshop’s goods in Eyes-On and PlayJam CEO Jasper Smith tackles the Q&A. You can probably take it from here, but just in case, all of the download sources are down below for snatchin’ up a copy.
Distro Issue 89 PDF
Distro in the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Google Play Store
Distro in the Windows Store
Distro APK (for sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter
Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile
Source: iTunes, Google Play, Windows Store
Eric Schmidt: “the future is now” for YouTube
Google says that the fight between television and YouTube is over, and they say that the internet video streaming service has won indefinitely. During a recent presentation to advertisers, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said that the outcome of whether or not YouTube will overtake television has “already happened.”
Schmidt said that “the future is now” for YouTube, and the company has been set on reinventing television by getting dozens of major media brands and celebrities to launch their own channels for more exclusive content on the streaming video website. However, Schmidt says that YouTube isn’t a replacement for TV, but simply “a new thing…to program, to curate and build new platforms.”
Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s global head of content, says that while television is one-way communication, YouTube goes both ways, and he says that the streaming service is all about engagement rather than simply trying to reach as many people as you can like with television. YouTube likes to hone in on their demographics and go from there.
Google just recently claimed that more 18- to 34-year-olds watch YouTube than any cable network. DreamWorks Animation’s even purchased Awesomeness TV for $ 33 million, which is a teen-focused YouTube Channel. Cable television has been going downhill for a while now, and streaming videos are taking its place, with many people ditching their cable and hooking up their devices to their TVs to watch streaming content.
[via NPR]
Eric Schmidt: “the future is now” for YouTube is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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Google Glass is the future – and the future has awful battery life
