Smartphones are getting the job done

digithoughts:

I visited my old neighbours this weekend*. The last time I met them – 6 months ago – they had just bought a new laptop to replace their old one which was getting ridiculously slow. Now, they still hadn’t even unboxed the new one. They use their smartphones instead (one has a Samsung Galaxy SII and one has an older SonyEricsson Xperia I believe). We ask ourselves if tablets are, or will be powerful enough to replace PCs. For many users, smartphones are already doing it.

*They’re not old. But we don’t live next door anymore.

futurescope:

The Leap - new gesture control system

The Leap gesture control interface can detect movements as small as one one hundredth of a millimeter, so instead of jumping up and down while flapping your arms, you can control things with the tiniest finger motions.

Best of all, Leap isn’t part of a closed loop system like the Kinect or WiiMote, so it can control any regular on-screen activity much like you do with a mouse. All you do is connect the Leap sensor to your computer via USB, and it will detects motion within a four cubic foot space. Leap Motion is currently seeking developers who can create apps specifically for the interface, but even without special apps this looks like a very cool new way to control your computer. […]

(via emergentfutures)

Source: dvice.com

lookhigh: A ‘Picture Perfect’ Launch Looking like a bright star streaking up into a black sky, a rocket took off before dawn today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying an unmanned capsule filled with food, clothes, and other supplies for astronauts on the international space station. But this robotic cargo ship doesn’t belong to NASA. Instead, it’s owned by a company called SpaceX, which made history by launching the first ever private spacecraft on a mission to the station. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion cargo-delivery contract with NASA, which is turning routine flights to the station over to industry so that the veteran space agency can start to focus on more ambitious exploration efforts. (NPR) Photo: Historic @SpaceX #DragonLaunch to ISS. @NASA on Twitpic
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lookhigh:

A ‘Picture Perfect’ Launch

Looking like a bright star streaking up into a black sky, a rocket took off before dawn today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying an unmanned capsule filled with food, clothes, and other supplies for astronauts on the international space station.

But this robotic cargo ship doesn’t belong to NASA. Instead, it’s owned by a company called SpaceX, which made history by launching the first ever private spacecraft on a mission to the station.

SpaceX has a $1.6 billion cargo-delivery contract with NASA, which is turning routine flights to the station over to industry so that the veteran space agency can start to focus on more ambitious exploration efforts. (NPR)

Photo: Historic @SpaceX #DragonLaunch to ISS. @NASA on Twitpic

(via scienceetfiction)

Source: twitpic.com

futurist-foresight:

A very innovative approach to a typical problem in the Netherlands (and of course because Leeuwarden is next door to Groningen where I stay, I thought it interesting).

climateadaptation:

This is a real bridge spanning a canal in northern Netherlands. More pics, here.

thequirkyinventor:

The bridge of Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. Looks like something from a Transformers movie. See the originals in Mark van Reesk’s Flickr.

Source: Flickr / markvanreesk

futurescope: NASA trains astronauts for asteroid mission NASA is training a team of astronauts to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals, and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth. NASA hopes to launch an unmanned spacecraft that will use a robotic arm to collect samples from an asteroid by 2016 before sending a manned mission by the late 2020s. A manned mission will aim to rendezvous with an asteroid up to three million miles from the Earth, taking around a year to make the entire round trip. The astronauts could stay on the asteroid for up to 30 days. […] [via] [read more] [photo credit: ANDREW]
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futurescope:

NASA trains astronauts for asteroid mission

NASA is training a team of astronauts to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals, and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth.

NASA hopes to launch an unmanned spacecraft that will use a robotic arm to collect samples from an asteroid by 2016 before sending a manned mission by the late 2020s.

A manned mission will aim to rendezvous with an asteroid up to three million miles from the Earth, taking around a year to make the entire round trip. The astronauts could stay on the asteroid for up to 30 days. […]

[via] [read more] [photo credit: ANDREW]

(via futurescope)

nasdaq: The snazzy looking watch above is the most-financed project in KickStarter history: the Pebble Smartwatch. Note to entrepreneurs: When the founders at Pebble couldn’t get any funding from VCs, they decided to take their watch to Kickstarter. It worked out pretty well for them—they set a goal of $100,000 and broke that after their first day. They ended up raising $10.1 million in total, and announced a few days ago that they’d be stopping their fundraising a week early to begin providing their supporters with the best possible watch they can make. So don’t be discouraged if your pitch initially gets turned down by — it might just be the best thing to ever happen to Pebble.
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nasdaq:

The snazzy looking watch above is the most-financed project in KickStarter history: the Pebble Smartwatch. Note to entrepreneurs: When the founders at Pebble couldn’t get any funding from VCs, they decided to take their watch to Kickstarter. It worked out pretty well for them—they set a goal of $100,000 and broke that after their first day. They ended up raising $10.1 million in total, and announced a few days ago that they’d be stopping their fundraising a week early to begin providing their supporters with the best possible watch they can make. So don’t be discouraged if your pitch initially gets turned down by — it might just be the best thing to ever happen to Pebble.