"Aviation history in the making," says the YouTube description. I don't know about that, but it's pretty crazy to watch this Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 767-300ER taking off in a shockingly short distance at Arusha Airport, in Tanzania. That runway is only 5,351 feet (1,631 meters) long.
    
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Christopher EvansWish I had these when I went skiing!
If you're an off-roading enthusiast you've probably already seen those kits that let you replace your truck's wheels with a set of four tank treads for tackling any terrain. The Track N Go is the same idea, except that you don't need a garage, a lift, or any kind of mechanical know-how to install them. You just drive your vehicle onto the treads, lock them in place, and away you go.
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Christopher EvansThis is awesome! Must have had a ridiculous budget for it too.
And no, I don’t mean American football. In preparation for a strange but seemingly awesome ad campaign, Samsung has recruited 11 different football players from many different countries to star in a team called the Galaxy 11. And the video for it is crazy.
Basically, aliens have finally visited Earth, and to save the planet, humans have to beat the aliens in a game of football. Obviously. The video is pretty cool and features a few Samsung products, though it’s not much of an ad itself. However, this is the start of an ad campaign for 2014, so we should see more of where it’ll go.
Personally, I’m excited to see what Samsung does with this ad campaign. This first video was very interesting, so I hope it can pull off more good content. And hey, if the ad campaign reaches beyond just videos and becomes interactive, even better! Hit the source link to check out more info. What are your thoughts on this new video?
Christopher EvansPython is very cool.
If you're planning to learn to code, the first language you should learn depends heavily on what you plan to do. However, some languages are easier and offer more portable skills than others. We asked you for your favorites, then looked at the five best languages for first-time learners. Now it's time to highlight the winner of our poll.
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Christopher EvansI totally want one now. Ladies love nothing more than a man who is inseparable from his over-sized geek watch.
We’ve all been witness to the fact that smartphones are not cheap. For the past few years, buying a flagship phone outright has set you back $650, give or take a hundred. The US market has been loaded with lots of carrier deals that discount the price of the phone down to a much lower price, often $200, if you agree to a two-year contract. Even that price is too high for many, though, and what’s worse is that the budget Android market hasn’t been friendly when it comes to getting a quality phone.
Traditionally, the term “budget Android phone” has been codename for “crappy phone.” The budget Android market has had a knack for delivering flop after flop. The specs are often horrendous, the build quality is shoddy and very few are usable after two years. The budget market simply hasn’t had anything going for it except for the dirt cheap prices that the phones are sold at. If someone really just wanted a new phone at a very low price, the abysmal budget Android phones were the way to go.
But now that’s changing.
As far back as one year ago, we got our first glimpse at a new horizon for the budget Android market. Let’s start with the Nexus 4. Coming in at a starting price of $299 for the 8GB model, the Nexus 4 offered high-end specs at a price that couldn’t be matched by anything but budget Android phones. It was a feat that hadn’t yet been accomplished in the smartphone world.
Now that we’ve reached 2013, Google is once again pushing the fold. The Nexus 5 starts at just $349 for the 16GB model and features some of the most powerful specs available for smartphones. When compared to the other high-end phones on the market, it seems like a no-brainer to get a Nexus 5 over many of the others thanks to its low price and high value.
Even more recently, we saw Blu announce their latest phone, the Life Pure. The Life Pure offers specs to rival that of the Nexus 5 at the same low starting price of $349. This shows that it’s not just Google that’s capable of offering high-end budget Android devices.
But possibly the most heartening thing that we’ve seen with the budget Android market is the introduction of the Moto G. The Moto G is designed to deliver powerful hardware and software to the world at a price that blows every other smartphone out of the water. The 8GB model starts at a mere $179. And while its price tag is low, that doesn’t mean that the Moto G is a slouch. Simply check out our review and you’ll see that we were pleasantly surprised by the Moto G.
This same trend has been happening with tablets. The 2012 Nexus 7 debuted with best-in-class specs and a price that was easy on the wallet, with the 8GB model priced at $199. Other tablet manufacturers began to follow in Google’s footsteps by offering tablets with decent specs at lower prices to compete with the Nexus 7. The 2013 Nexus 7 is once again leading the low-cost, high-end charge, along with devices such as LG’s new G Pad 8.3 and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0. It’s encouraging to know that not everything has to be depressingly overpriced.
Time for you to voice your thoughts, loyal reader. Do you feel that there is a change for the better taking place in the budget Android market? Or perhaps you were fine with the way things were before cheap high-end phones began to be released? Feel free to share any and all of your thoughts in the comments below.
P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Christopher EvansIs it bad that I really like the look of this?!
Google's Street View is slowly covering more and more of the world's surface, but it still has holes. Now though, you can help fill them—and all you need is an Android phone or DSLR.
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Christopher EvansPretty interesting comparison. Siri looks to be better at presenting the results as Google tends to just fall back on search results. It is getting better though and often returns a result based on consensus from the search.
Not sure which virtual assistant/life-partner to entrust with your personal well-being? PhoneBuff newest videos should make that choice at a least a little easier, showing you 50 different commands using both Apple's Siri (above) and Google's Google Now (below).
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Christopher EvansAmazing that he's done this with a 'standard' camera.
These are the best kinds of snowflakes: the kind that are under the lens of a camera and not piled up outside my door. A Russian photographer uses a set up he made himself to take these photos. See more below!
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While everyone is freaking out about Amazon's plan to unleash an army of delivery drones on the world, it's important to remember that these flying robots can do much more than just move packages.
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Christopher EvansAmazing - I want one!
Burkhard Bilger:
The Google car has now driven more than half a million miles without causing an accident—about twice as far as the average American driver goes before crashing. Of course, the computer has always had a human driver to take over in tight spots. Left to its own devices, Thrun says, it could go only about fifty thousand miles on freeways without a major mistake. Google calls this the dog-food stage: not quite fit for human consumption. “The risk is too high,” Thrun says. “You would never accept it.” The car has trouble in the rain, for instance, when its lasers bounce off shiny surfaces. (The first drops call forth a small icon of a cloud onscreen and a voice warning that auto-drive will soon disengage.) It can’t tell wet concrete from dry or fresh asphalt from firm. It can’t hear a traffic cop’s whistle or follow hand signals.
And yet, for each of its failings, the car has a corresponding strength. It never gets drowsy or distracted, never wonders who has the right-of-way. It knows every turn, tree, and streetlight ahead in precise, three-dimensional detail. Dolgov was riding through a wooded area one night when the car suddenly slowed to a crawl. “I was thinking, What the hell? It must be a bug,” he told me. “Then we noticed the deer walking along the shoulder.” The car, unlike its riders, could see in the dark. Within a year, Thrun added, it should be safe for a hundred thousand miles.
I’ll repeat: “The car, unlike its rider, could see in the dark.”
To create more engaging video lectures, Northwestern University engineering professor Michael Peshkin created Lightboard, an ingenious transparent dry-erase board that allows him to face the camera while drawing notes and diagrams in front of him. The board consists of a double pane of glass that is lit from within by LEDs. Peshkin uses fluorescent dry-erase markers which are highly visible on the lit glass. If you’re wondering how his writing is not backwards, it’s because he films his lectures through a mirror. Peshkin has posted instructions on how to make your own Lightboard.
photo and video by Michael Peshkin
via Hack A Day
Today, we were contacted by the Google Play Support team to say that our CyanogenMod Installer application is in violation of Google Play’s developer terms.
They advised us to voluntarily remove the application, or they would be forced to remove it administratively. We have complied with their wishes while we wait for a more favorable resolution.
To those unfamiliar with the application, it has a single function – to guide users to enable “ADB”, a built in development and debugging tool, and then navigates the user to the desktop installer. The desktop application then performs the installation of the CyanogenMod on their Android device.
After reaching out to the Play team, their feedback was that though application itself is harmless, since it ‘encourages users to void their warranty’, it would not be allowed to remain in the store.
We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of installations of the application, proving the demand for more choice, and that the need for an alternative Android experience exists. As we work through this new hurdle, we will continue to make available and support the installation process via our own hosting services.
Fortunately, Android is open enough that devices allow for installing applications via ‘Unknown Sources’ (ie sideload). Though it’s a hassle and adds steps to the process, this does allow us a path forward, outside of the Play Store itself.
The application can be found via the Get Started link on CyanogenMod.org. In addition to ‘sideloading’, we are submitting the application to the Amazon and Samsung app-stores.
Update: Removed reference to Google stating the app was not in violation of TOS – this was a mischaracterization of Google’s statement.
Christopher EvansPossibly the stupidest idea ever.
Though slowly becoming antiquated, the business card is still the easiest way to make a great first impression with a new contact. Your choice of design, fonts, even paper says a lot about you. So imagine the impression you'll leave when you hand someone your contact details laser-etched onto a piece of beef jerky—you'll soar up that corporate ladder.
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Web: 100 wants to motivate you into learning a new skill in a hundred days by tracking your progress each day through a short video post. Along the way, people can like your vids and send you a few words of encouragement too.
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Christopher EvansThis is awesome!
With a development that will surely appeal to airports, Philips has announced a partnership with flooring manufacturer Desso to produce a light transmissive LED-powered carpet that can be used to display warning messages, directions, or even fancy glowing designs. And airports are just the tip of the glowy-floor iceberg.
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Christopher EvansExciting!
Today we are exiting the ‘beta’ status phase and providing the CyanogenMod Installer for general release. The Play store application is now available, and the PC client component will be available shortly is now available.
A special “Thank You” to all of the beta testers, which at current count, is a community with over 7000 members. The reception and demand we’ve received for the installer shows the value in breaking down the barrier to entry that we sought to address. We will continue to work on supporting additional devices beyond the initial set, but we are proud to say that we are supporting the majority of flagship models currently on the market. For a list of currently supported models, please see our Installer wiki page.
After this release, we will also refresh the layout and design of our Download Portal, making it easier to find the builds for your devices. By visiting download.cyanogenmod.org, you will be able to intuitively filter and search for your device, and select whether you would like the latest stable or nightly build. Gone are the days of having to memorize your device’s code-name. Keep an eye out for that update.
Update: A forum and JIRA project are now available as well. Check out the introduction post.
Christopher EvansThis is awesome!
Let's hope none of us ever have to be put in a situation where we have to evacuate an airplane but this 2006 evacuation test of an Airbus A380 makes our current plane deplaning process look like a complete waste of time. The test incredibly emptied out all 873 passengers of the plane in less than 80 seconds. Typical planes in real life take around 10 minutes. Something is not adding up!
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Christopher EvansI'm sure this is by design. Who wants to know the exact percentage when it's above 28% anyway?!
A battery percentage is something many manufacturers have been including in their smartphones for ages. LG and Samsung integrated percentages long ago. Hell, even Apple threw that into an iOS update years ago. However, Google has been very behind the times with this one feature in AOSP code, leading to stock Nexus devices not having any clean way to display a battery percentage (a persistent notification is incredibly annoying).
In my personal opinion, a battery percentage these days is very important. Not quite crucial, but important nonetheless. In today’s society, you function only as long as your technology functions. A smartphone is a key part to this dependency. With smartphone batteries being generally poor, we need to know exactly how much juice is left so we can plan around it. Even my mother thinks a battery percentage is important.
Interestingly enough, Google has begun work on this feature in KitKat. It’s finally available in the frameworks of Android, but there is no option for it. Luckily, it can be enabled using ADB or even a special app without the need for root. And guess what? It’s broken.
Yes, something as simple as changing the color of the battery percentage eluded Google engineers and requires modification of SystemUI.apk to achieve. The number is white, so if your battery is above 30 percent, it will cover the numbers. We’ll never understand Google. But hopefully this will be added as an option soon, because it’s pretty important (and I know it isn’t that hard to implement, considering I’ve done it for custom ROMs).
If you want to give it a try, you can either use an ADB command or an app. Here is the ADB command:
adb shell content insert --uri content://settings/system --bind name:s:status_bar_show_battery_percent --bind value:i:1adb reboot
You can also use an app that an XDA user created for this purpose. It just launches these commands automatically. Hit the source link to check out the app. And tell us, do you use a battery percentage?
Whenever I visit the airport or hunker down for a road trip, I tend to give myself a little more leeway when it comes to buying food. Actually, a lot more leeway. That means a burger there, a slice of pizza here, waffles and coffee galore. But a few things have cooled down my enthusiasm for "treating myself" with food when I travel—mainly overpriced meals and a general lack of healthy, satisfying options.
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Every now and again, Google likes to open up on their products and services, giving consumers an idea of where the company is heading and shining some light on anything that may come off as a little confusing. Today Google has done just that by offering up some high-level employees for some interviews with the Verge where everything from hardware design to Nexus 5 exclusive features were discussed.
The Verge’s piece diving into the interviews is titled “The Nexus 5 isn’t pure Android, it’s pure Google” for a reason. Google spent more time crafting the Nexus 5 than any other Nexus before it. Everything about the design of the handset, the look, the feel, was painstakingly chosen for a reason. In the past, it’s been said that Google will take any existing phone, slap any new body on it, and call it a day. Now more than ever, you can tell that’s not true. The Nexus 7 and Nexus 5 finally feel like a family of devices. But where they share now share a new set of handsome, understated looks, the software between the two devices may slightly differ.
One of biggest features in Android 4.4, KitKat, is the new Google Now integrated launcher. Google Now is always present on the far left screen of your Nexus 5. That’s because the new launcher on the Nexus 5 is the Google Search app. Everything you need in a launcher has been moved to the search app on the Nexus 5 — the search app available to all Android devices. Eventually, this will be a great way for Google to completely take over your device. But for now, it’s a Nexus 5 exclusive. Google wants to test the waters with the launcher integrated search app before possibly releasing to more devices. Which is big news for the Nexus name.
It would have made much more sense to use Motorola as the driving force behind Google, not Android, exclusive features, but Google is letting the world know the Nexus 5 is more than just a developer phone. Knowing Google, this could change at any moment. But for now, if you want the best of Google, Nexus is the way to go. To see the interviews in their entirety, and to hear more on the design of KitKat, the thinking behind the revamped dialer and more, check out the YouTube video below.
Christopher EvansDemonically powersuite, powersuite :-)
Everybody knows that Siri still sucks—voice recognition is one of those technologies that has to work flawlessly 100-percent of the time for it not to suck. Like in Star Trek or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Siri doesn't, which is why The Simpsons slammed it this Sunday in an episode full of Apple references. Watch.
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The Nexus 5 is finally here, and it looks lovely. But it was a long road to Nexus 5 greatness, and with this GIF from the folks at GadgetLove, you can speed down it in just three seconds.
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As if we needed any further convincing of the wonderful potential of flexible displays, a Japanese company called SEL has developed a high-resolution screen that can be rolled to a tight four-millimeter radius, allowing it to wrap around the edge of a smartphone while still working.
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Christopher EvansThis one's for you Eaton ;-)
Ashton Kutcher, the man who played Steve Jobs himself in the movie “Jobs,” has been hired by Lenovo as a product engineer. He has embraced Android and will now help Lenovo out with their products. However, this is no celebrity endorsement. According to Kutcher, he will do much more than just be the face on advertisements.
Kutcher will be heading to Beijing to meet with the R&D team to learn about Lenovo and how it internally works. Then he starts helping and advising the company on how to build better products. He went to school for engineering and is a techie, so this could be the first relationship between a tech company and a celebrity that will be more than just endorsement.
He says that he has converted to Android and is even testing an unreleased Lenovo smartphone at the moment. We applaud him for choosing the better mobile OS and we can’t wait to see what Lenovo has in store, especially with the help of someone who better knows what regular people want. Would you purchase an Android-powered Lenovo phone?
Christopher EvansI'm guessing Apple designed this feature in?
My father owns an iPhone 5, and every time he has asked me to fix something or install something, I’ve had a bit of trouble with the display. What I touch doesn’t always register accurately, especially on the top of the screen (I can never hit the install button in the App Store). I attributed this to a small screen and me being used to my Galaxy Note devices, but it appears there is a lot more to it.
OptoFidelity performed a few tests on the brand new iPhone 5S and 5C, comparing them to the aging Samsung Galaxy S III. One of the tests was touch accuracy. It used a machine that uses an artificial finger to touch points on the display and compare the coordinates to what the operating system reports, which shows how accurate the touch screen really is. The results are shocking.
The charts for the iPhones are covered in red dots, while the green area is fairly small. In comparison, the Galaxy S III has its display filled with green dots and only the edges are red. Green means that the accuracy is within a milliliter, while red means that the accuracy is off by over a millimeter. And the iPhone touch accuracy is quite a bit off.
Here, the touch accuracy is displayed on the top row of each device’s built in keyboard. As you can see, it’s quite difficult to press the O and P buttons accurately. In Samsung’s case, all the keys are equally easy to push due to some superb touch accuracy.
However, the iPhone does hold one advantage. The response time of the touch screen is faster than the most popular Android devices, so what you touch happens a tiny bit faster. This is undeniably important, but touch accuracy is arguably far more important. Have you experienced these issues?
