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Showing posts from April 1, 2011

Introducing Gmail Motion

In 1874 the QWERTY keyboard was invented. In 1963, the world was introduced to the mouse. Some 50 years later, we’ve seen the advent of microprocessors, high resolution webcams, and spatial tracking technology. But all the while we’ve continued to use outdated technology to interact with devices. Why? This is a question that we’ve been thinking about a lot at Google, and we’re excited to introduce our first attempts at next generation human computer interaction: Gmail Motion . Gmail Motion allows you to control Gmail — composing and replying to messages — using your body. To use Gmail Motion, you’ll need a computer with a built-in webcam. Once you enable Gmail Motion from the Settings page, Gmail will enable your webcam when you sign in and automatically recognize any one of the detected movements via a spatial tracking algorithm. We designed the movements to be easy and intuitive to perform and consulted with top experts in kinestetics and body movement in devising them

HP pushes cloud printing with Google

IDG News Service - Hewlett-Packard on Thursday enhanced its mobile printing service by adding support for Google's Cloud Print, which will enable smartphones and tablet users to print documents from applications such as Gmail and Google Docs. Users will be able to remotely print documents from applications on select HP printers with the EPrint capability, in which an email with print instructions is sent directly to the printer. The mobile application needs to have Google's Cloud Print extensions. Google has already integrated Cloud Print in its Gmail and Google Docs applications, and will add extensions to more software in the future. The Cloud Print service also works with laptops based on the Chrome OS, which is not yet available on commercial laptops. Users have to add the email address of an HP EPrint-enabled Photosmart, Envy, Officejet or LaserJet printer to a unique Google account tied to a smartphone or tablet. Multiple printers can be tied to one Google

Microsoft Files Antitrust Complaint Against Google

How’s this for the pot calling the kettle black? Microsoft has made an official complaint to the European Commission, claiming that Google is behaving in an anti-competitive way when it comes to search. Namely, its acquisition of YouTube in 2006 meant that competing search engines were restricted from “properly accessing it for their search results.” They’re also claiming that Windows Mobile phones were blocked from being able to use YouTube properly. Brad Smith, the senior vice president and general counsel of Microsoft, wrote on the TechNet blog: Google has enabled its own Android phones to access YouTube so that users can search for video categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth in the rich user interfaces offered by those phones. It’s done the same thing for the iPhones offered by Apple, which doesn’t offer a competing search service. Unfortunately, Google has refused to allow Microsoft’s new Wi

Can Next-Generation Reactors Power a Safe Nuclear Future?

Areva's Taishan 1 EPR Facility Under Construction in China Areva At this time last week, the Nuclear Renaissance was in full swing. Plans were moving forward to use the $36 billion in loan guarantees for new reactors in President Obama's 2012 budget. China was approving reactor stations at a steady pace, and nations across Europe were considering new nuclear sites of their own. Seven days later, the push toward more and better nuclear power has come to a full stop, as the crisis at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi power station threatens to unravel into the worst nuclear disaster in history. But amid a strong, worldwide nuclear backlash, it's important to remember that the next generation of nuclear reactors are designed to prevent exactly what went wrong at the 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi plant. Which is good, because according to the experts, a future weaned from fossil fuels will include nuclear power whethe

How It Works: The Light-Driven Computer

IBM's Light-Driven Processor Courtesy IBM The speed of light is as fast as it gets, and IBM researchers are exploiting that fact to give supercomputers a boost. They’ve made the smallest-yet silicon chips that use light to transmit information. Most parts of the chip resemble those found on any other commercial chip. The parts that process or transform information—in other words, the parts that do the actual computing—still deploy electrons moving through semiconductor gates. But the interconnects, the lines that shuttle information between different areas within a chip, are drastically different. Instead of shuttling electrons, which can slow down significantly when the interconnects heat up, they shuttle light. That’s because light is easy to contain and loses less information as it travels. The researchers hope that this quick communication will make possible the first exascale computers—that is, computers that can per

Google Plans Facial Recognition App That Can Pull Up Personal Data When It Sees A Face (Updated)

Google's New Facial Recognition App Will Use Pictures To Search the Web For Personal Details Hello Turkey To via Flickr It was only a matter of time, and that time is fast approaching: Google is incubating a mobile app that will use facial recognition technology to identify people and access their personal info via photos snapped with a digital camera or mobile device. Privacy advocates, prepare for war. For its part, Google is trying to get in front of the privacy argument that is undoubtedly coming (Google is getting pretty good at this by now) by assuring users that they will have to opt into such a service by checking a box. And the search giant is working on added layers of security and privacy to ensure that only those who want to be photographically found will be. The idea is that Google’s massive search resources could be used to trawl social networks, online photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa, and the lik

Women in Technology names 2011 leadership award finalists

Women in Technology has named 40 finalists in 12 categories for its annual Women in Technology Leadership Awards. Science Applications International Corp. grabbed the most nominations with seven. Other companies represented with multiple nominations were Computer Sciences Corp. with three and Northrop Grumman and Deloitte with two nominations each. The finalists are being recognized for their contributions to the technology industry over the course of the past year. The winners will be announced May 19 during a banquet at the Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Va. The finalists are: Corporate Commercial Large Business Jill Bruning, NJVC Kathy A. Miller, American Red Cross Mary Jo Morris, CSC Beverly Seay, SAIC Corporate Commercial Small Business Homaira Akbari, SkyBitz Inc. Lisa Dezzutti, Market Connections Inc. Lynne Hamilton-Jones, Executec Strategic Consulting Fran Maier, TRUSTe Corporate Public Sector Large Business Kristine Martin Anderson, Booz Alle

The seven myths of 3D technology

<a href="http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.ca.itbusiness.CDN/channel;tile=4;pos=skyscraperros;sz=160x600;ord=1874695720?"target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/adj/idg.ca.itbusiness.CDN/channel;tile=4;pos=skyscraperros;sz=160x600;ord=1874695720?"width="160" height="600" border="0" alt="IT Business.ca Advertisement" /></a> Toronto – As Future Shop and LG Canada celebrated its first anniversary of 3D technology in Canada, the retailer attempted to dis-prove the many myths circulating around 3D. According to LG and Future Shop, there are seven myths about 3D. Myth No. 1: 3D can only do 3D. Dave Chichelnik, sales manager of Future Shop, said that's totally false as people do not have to watch the morning news in 3D. New LG Cinema 3D displays enables views to switch from a 2D viewing experience to a 3D one. Myth No. 2: You need 3D glasses to watch 3D screens. Again, C

Sites hit in massive web attack

  Millions of webpages are serving up links to sites peddling bogus security software Continue reading the main story Hundreds of thousands of websites appear to have been compromised by a massive cyber attack. The hi-tech criminals used a well-known attack vector that exploits security loopholes on other sites to insert a link to their website. Those visiting the criminals' webpage were told that their machines were infected with many different viruses. Swift action by security researchers has managed to get the sites offering the sham software shut down. Code control Security firm Websense has been tracking the attack since it started on 29 March. The initial count of compromised sites was 28,000 sites but this has grown to encompass many times this number as the attack has rolled on. Websense dubbed it the Lizamoon attack because that was the name of the first domain to which victims were re-direc