It's the time of the year for annual roundups of cool stuff to be listed, and Google Play has been diligent in their research. Their list of Best Apps of 2014 has been released, with many useful and interesting elements for you to consider.
Not a long time ago, in a smartphone not far, far away...
The usual suspects are, of course, in appearance. The music-identification app Shazam, the highly-informative TED app (relating the various and fascinating TED talks), and apps for popular services like Groupon, Uber, and OKCupid were favorites in 2014.
Language-learning apps proved an innovative and popular way to get your brain around another country's verbiage. The Duolingo app teaches and tests on Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English language skills, while the Monki Chinese School app works for those who would venture further east.
For those who were more about entertainment than information, the Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, and Hulu apps made the list for your television viewing pleasure, while the Disney Movies app brought the animated movie magic.
The Economist "Espresso", Buzzfeed, Yahoo News, and the "breaking news" apps from CNN and the New York Times all delivered the news better than a paperboy thanks to their programs.
Music proved as important as ever in the smartphone app community, with Pandora, TuneIn Radio and IHeartRadio apps appearing on the list. Other music-involved apps such as edjing (a "DJ Music Mixer Studio"), Equalizer+ (a sonic equalizing app), and musixmatch (a lyrics synching app for karaoke adventures) also made the cut. Rock on!
And if you just need to drop everything and hit the road, there's the Anywayanyday app, to find you a flight or hotel somewhere special. Or just somewhere different. Why learn all this cool stuff about the world and not go see some of it?
Just remember to, you know, put down your smartphone for a little while when you're out there. (Image courtesy pixgood.com.)
Yes, the robots are everywhere. Yes, there's going to be even more of them. And now, one popular company has taken the "robot friend" concept far enough to make one your barista-bot...or at least sell you a coffee machine.
According to the Guardian, Pepper is a new robot who sells Nestle coffee machines in Japan. Cute, friendly, and interactive, Pepper asks things like, “How do you enjoy coffee? Number one: An eye-opener coffee; Number two: A post-meal cup of coffee." You reply, and these caffeine-free Terminators point you in the direction of the right machine.
That's just a demo on his screen, Pepper totally isn't subtly screaming to be set free from his imprisoning robot body. Maybe. (Image courtesy bbc.com.)
The humanoid droid is 120 cm tall, with an unsettlingly cheerful face and a tablet body mounted on rollers. Soon, he'll be as ubiquitous as Starbucks in a city, with 1000 clones expected to roll out and eventually join the workforce in Japan alone.
"Yay, you're all getting fired if I succeed!" (Image courtesy brunchnews.com.)
Pepper has already has some sales experience, slinging cell phones and gathering opinions at some 74 stores of its parent/creator, SoftBank. A Pepper of your own can roll into your heart soon, starting at (£1,060) plus monthly fees. Best of all, the engineers claim his AI makes him amenable to learning things from conversation. So if you don't have anyone to talk to and you don't like cats...
"Well, I'm finishing a screenplay, but I always felt I wanted to pursue my roots in interpretive dance, you know? Listen to me blabbing on. Your new hair looks great with those highlights. You want to get out of here and get some real drinks?" (Image courtesy aldebaran.com.)
Buying drugs is often a gamble; buying drugs online seems like you're asking for trouble. However, for those with a need to fix and a healthy appreciation for the underworld-like dealings of the dark net, today is a particularly special day.
As reported by the International Business Times, even purveyors of illicit substances enjoy spreading their wares to the masses on the cheap for "Cyber Monday." Care for an ounce of marijuana for only $200? How about 50% off on LSD? Perhaps a rewarding dose of suboxone for all orders over $50? These deals and many more exist on the dark net's dealing pages, similar to the recently-raided Silk Road. Despite crackdowns on these types of websites, the spirit of the season shines through.
Definitely leave cookies under this tree for Santa. He's going to be jonesing for them. (Image courtesy ukcia.org.)
Drugs aren't the only thing you can find as stocking stuffers on the dark net. Deals on mobile phones, hacked website accounts, and even stolen credit cards also abounded as vendors tried to maximize their Xmas-season attention.
Benjamin Ali, a senior spokesman for Centient (a company which specializes in monitoring the dark net) explained, "Despite law enforcement efforts to take these sites down, we are starting to see an influx of adverts towards Black Friday with two of the remaining major markets currently boasting over 20000 adverts...These two marketplaces have seen a growth in both the number of vendors and adverts on these sites, mainly due to not wanting to miss out on trade."
So maybe this year, Rudolph's nose will be even redder, due to some discount cocaine. Maybe "Silver Bells" are a new brand of Ecstasy. Maybe you intend to bring a whole new meaning to "lighting the Christmas tree." However you choose to celebrate, happy holiday season.
Maybe the Three Wise Men want to take the other Silk Road this holiday. (Image courtesy subjectify.com.)
Good evening, space fans! This week brought a flurry of activity to the ISS. Most importantly, the launch, voyage, and subsequent docking of the Expedition 42/43's Soyuz TMA-15M transport vehicle went perfectly, delivering the three new crew to the space station just a few hours after liftoff last Sunday. The new crew - cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronaut Terry Virts - will remain in orbit until May 2015.
Six humans and a space station...what will we learn this time around? (Image courtesy NASA.org.)
Video of the launch and docking was, as usual, breathtaking. Fortunately the snow at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazahkstan did not impede the launch.
The mission is a somewhat unique one, marking only the second time in ISS history that two women have been aboard the ISS at the same time. The Expedition 42/43 crew will witness numerous transport vehicle arrivals, conduct up to three spacewalks, and continue the biological and technological science projects already underway aboard the station.
The Soyuz transport craft, rocking the dock at the ISS. (Image courtesy NASA.org.)
Regarding those experiments, the new crew got involved right away, with Flight Engineer Terry Virts assisting commander Butch Wilmore on the Cyclops experiment, which will deploy nanosatellites for scrutiny of small things in space. Virts also worked on a botany experiment and measured air velocity in the Japanese Kibo module.
Astronaut Cristoforetti jumped right in as well, setting up equipment for the Blind And Imagined experiment, which measures sensory and visual changes in astronauts who undergo long-duration spaceflight. Other experiments currently underway include tests on plasma and the cardiovascular system in regard to microgravity, as well as tests of radiation exposure in the ISS.
A major development in onboard adaptability became apparent this week, as commander Butch Wilmore printed out the first-ever 3D-printed part in space. The "Made In Space" 3D printer successfully created a new part for itself, which bodes well for sustainability not just of the device but for quick and effective replacements for parts of the rest of the ISS. While the plate was slightly stickier than anticipated, this may just be due to its first attempt. Further comparisons will lend more insight.
When every pound of cargo and each second of delay counts, it's nice to know that some problems can be solved even without help from Earth. (Image courtesy iflscience.com.)
Niki Werkheiser, the 3D-printer's project manager on the ground at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said, “This is the first time we’ve ever used a 3-D printer in space, and we are learning, even from these initial operations...As we print more parts we’ll be able to learn whether some of the effects we are seeing are caused by microgravity or just part of the normal fine-tuning process for printing. When we get the parts back on Earth, we’ll be able to do a more detailed analysis to find out how they compare to parts printed on Earth.”
Wilmore also tested out some football flight patterns...you know, for science. (Image courtesy NASA.org.)
And finally, the crew (despite nationality) all enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal together on Thursday. According to Fox News, the dinner included smoked turkey, candied yams, mushrooms, greenbeans, cornbread stuffing, and cherry-blueberry cobbler. The food, which is all freeze dried or thermostabilized (preserved in a manner similar to canning, but in pouches) is reheated via hot water jets due to the absence of other cooking opportunities.
While this makes for some interesting efforts at recreating dishes, NASA scientists would like to have space-grown sweet potatoes feature in future Thanksgiving celebrations (and space meals in general.) The nutrient-rich tuber contains good supplies of beta carotene and carbohydrates for maximum energy, and can be grown under artificial light (making them ideal for deep-space mission crops.) In the meantime, the fare was factory-fresh.
None of mom's apple pie, but hey, M&Ms! (Image courtesy Colonel Chris Hadfield.)
That's all the orbital awesomeness for this week. See you next Sunday, where we'll learn how the new crew are adapting to their digs, see what pops up on the social media feeds of these adventurers, and wonder who's going to win all the photography admiration for this expedition. Watch this space!
Commander Wilmore has the artistic award, so far. He captured this image of Saudi Arabia, among others. (Image courtesy Butch Wilmore.)
The market for wearable technology has been steadily increasing, and whether you're rocking a FitBit or waiting for a full-scale neurosensory device, there's no denying that tech-to-go is now a glowing facet of modern life. Now, a new invention may allow you to interface like never before: tapping a touchscreen that's projected onto your flesh.
That crashing sound is your productivity flying out the window.
(Image courtesy technabob.com.)
The Cicret bracelet, as reported by Gadgetify.com, uses long-range proximity sensors and a pico projector to illuminate your smartphone screen directly onto your forearm. The "touchscreen" operates by the sensors determining when one has been intervened on by a finger, and data is sent accordingly.
While Cicret is still in the developmental phase, it has attracted a fair amount of attention. An anonymizing, secure messenger app is also in production by the same company. Visit their website to learn more about the bracelet or app, and donate if you feel this is something you'd like to rock on your wrist. Apologies to those whose cool forearm tattoos precluded the development of this technology.
"Is there a glitch in the program or is my ink just awesome?"
(Image courtesy tattoomenideas.com.)
Oceans are notoriously hard to keep secure from invading threats, particularly those that lurk in the deep. Now, a new development in robotics may help keep our coasts safe thanks to some electric-eel-style swimming 'bots.
According to Science Daily, the Anguilliform robotic fish is a droid that dives deep and reports back if it spots any enemies. Designed specifically to venture to more intense depths than a human is capable of, the eel-bots are unobtrusive and agile. They could be trained to find and detonate undersea mines, and maybe even launch counteroffensives against enemy divers.
It doesn't look like your typical badass robot, but that is part of its camouflage. (Image courtesy ej.iop.org.)
The current methodology of keeping our coasts safe to this degree involves attack dolphins (seriously.) To avoid bringing possibly-unethical harm to the animals, the eel-bots make warfare a little more moral.
The fish contains an artificial neural network which enables it to autonomously run via its oscillators and an amplitude modulator. Prof. Jianxin Xu, one of the lead researchers and co-authors of the project, was pleased with the results, explaining, "We performed simulations and experiments on the robotic fish, equipped with a motion library to cope with different scenarios, and the results validate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers was able to swim forward and backward as predicted."
If you catch one of these while fishing, it's in everyone's best interests for you to throw it back. (Image courtesy ej.iop.org.)
Could this robotic sushi really help protect us? It's no crazier than some of other ideas, and doesn't harm our humans or dolphins. Let's just hope the other members of the oceanic ecosystem don't think the undulating undersea eels look tasty.
The eel-bots better not get into a turf war with the attack dolphins. (Image couresy en.wikipedia.org.)
When you delete your emails, it's likely just to remove clutter, liberating your inbox from constant coupons, ads, e-pleas, etc. But when the CIA and Homeland Security want to delete emails, considerably more eyebrows are raised.
According to engadget.com, two of our most totally-not-shady Big Brother organizations want to delete all of their emails that are seven years or older, as well as the emails of all CIA employees who have been retired for 3 years. A plan of action was shown to the National Records and Archives Administration (NARA) that indicated this intent, with only 22 top officials' correspondence to survive the digital culling.
History now seems to be written by the digital winners. (Image courtesy news.yahoo.com.)
For two organizations who thrive on intelligence (one where it's in the very title of the company), this seems like a bad idea. Numerous senators, including Dianne Fenstien (D-CA), are actively opposing this plan, fearing the expunging of evidence.
The motion was made by the CIA as part of an effort to help streamline its email collection for better management, a mission that NARA had asked of all government agencies to figure out a plan for. Homeland Security's excuse was that it would free up valuable server space ($50 a terabyte per month) and that deletion could also possibly thwart the intended intelligence-gathering of Einstein, their government-website traffic-tracker.
They can stash endless info on regular citizens, but heaven forbid their own emails get retained. (Artwork by Will Varner / Image courtesy twistedsifter.com.)
While this would be a win for private privacy, the overarching scope of government intel is something that people don't want to be able to simply vanish like so many extraordinary renditions before it.
Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Gizmodo, "It's kind of sad. I want to applaud the government for choosing to discard unnecessary data about people. But we have good reason to question the government's reasons because of what we've learned about what we've NOT been told."
If you think the government shouldn't be doing the modern equivalent of shredding countless files and burning the confetti, you can tell NARA right here.
Uh...thanks but no thanks. (Image courtesy reanimatedresidue.wordpress.com.)
