Daily Archives: June 25, 2012
Apps star kids with vivid imaginations
Leonard
Ink Robin, best for ages 4-8, $3.99, iPad
Rating: 4 stars (out of 4)
Using dramatic, brightly-colored illustrations on a black background, this book app follows a little boy named Leonard, whose family moves from the densely populated city to the country. Leonard is used to having lots of friends around and is surprised when he can’t find other kids nearby . He embarks on a quest to find other kids; but in the meantime, he uses his imagination to keep himself entertained. When he is looking around a nearby stream, he imagines himself underwater with a giant whale. When he climbs a ladder for a better look at the countryside, he imagines himself in outer space. When using binoculars to scan his yard, he imagines all sorts of African animals grazing.
What makes this book app special is the slider mechanism used to reveal Leonard’s imagination.
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/vVn2-IeDTgc/1
Photo app of the week: Pixlr-o-matic
From Autodesk, Pixlr-o-matic can also be used right in your browser, added on Facebook, or installed as a Chrome Web app on Chrome browsers. As far as we can tell, the only differences between the various versions are the design of the interface and interaction between the app and your respective platform’s camera.
On the Android version, the app is able to launch a camera app (either your default or another app), or you can pull a file off your device. Once you’ve designated a file for editing, the app presents you with a long strip (like a filmstrip), with filters laid out horizontally. You can add a single filter or multiple filters, with options for overlays and borders as well.
The filters and overlays themselves are quite good, though they rely on the same washed out effects that pop
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/LtsDjv9O6KI/1
TiVo ‘viewing error’ a rights issue
Answer: The issue is collateral damage of DRM, or digital rights management. DRM technologies aim to prevent unauthorized sharing of content by ensuring that a playback device will only present a movie, a song or some other copyrighted content over a digitally-locked connection.
Most of the time, DRM works invisibly on consumer hardware. (On computers, however, it prevents such routine, legal options as backing up a DVD.) We plug digital video recorders, DVD players, Blu-ray players, soundbars and other gadgets into TVs with HDMI cables and never have to think about the “handshaking” process by which these devices validate each other.
In this case, however, something went wrong. A roughly six-year-old Samsung LCD at some point lost its handshaking skills, resulting in a TiVo HD DVR reporting that error when connected over HDMI. A
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/4Ope7waDuvg/1
Study: Sea rise faster on East Coast than rest of globe
U.S. Geological Survey scientists call the 600-mile swath a “hot spot” for climbing sea levels caused by global warming. Along the region, the Atlantic Ocean is rising at an annual rate three times to four times faster than the global average since 1990, according to the study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
It’s not just a faster rate, but at a faster pace, like a car on a highway “jamming on the accelerator,” said the study’s lead author, Asbury Sallenger Jr., an oceanographer at the agency. He looked at sea levels starting in 1950, and noticed a change beginning in 1990.
Since then, sea levels have gone up globally about 2 inches. But in Norfolk, Va., where officials are scrambling to fight more frequent flooding, sea level has jumped a total
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/gJULbEHp4fI/1
Talking Your Tech: Matt Groening and David X. Cohen
The pair, who met when working together in the 1990s at Groening’s The Simpsons, recently began hosting the Futurama video podcast, which runs on iTunes and the Comedy Central website. They appear on the show with their (illustrated) frozen heads in a jar — a nod to a joke on Futurama about how some of us will stay alive in later years.
The full-bodied pair recently sat for an interview at Futurama‘s offices on the 20th Century Fox lot in Los Angeles.
Futuristic ‘Futurama’ imaging device
The Eye-Phone — not the iPhone — is a product of the future, seen on the show. Cohen: “It’s a tiny camera implanted in your eyeball and projects a hologram in front of you.” That’s where society is headed,
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/VyiQGJWTKeg/1
