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Levitating objects with sound waves isn't anything new, but a team from Switzerland has taken it to the next level by rotating and moving objects as they float. In fact, the researchers were able to manipulate a number of objects mid-air, including water droplets, inserting DNA into cells and mixing up a little instant coffee. If you're wondering how intense sound waves need to be to get things moving (at this level, at least) then 160 decibels is the starting point. If that sounds ear-splittingly loud, that's because it is. But, by using frequencies typically out of the human audible range (24 kHz), no ears were at risk. The movement itself is controlled by a grid of sound-emitting squares. Once the object was in the air, it could be moved around by lowering the volume on one grid point, and increasing it on the next. For now, the science is only able to lift tiny objects, but the same team claims that it'll will soon show similar work using steel balls. Could we use this to get our (sonic) hoverboard? We're not calling that just yet.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: Washington Post

Source: PNAS

Second screen experiences on mobile devices are nothing new -- just ask many TV viewers -- but two-way interaction is frequently limited to completely in-house efforts like SmartGlass. Microsoft wants that kind of integration to spread, so it's teaming up with Polar on a web app that demonstrates the Companion Web, where pages on one device control and complement pages on another. Polar's app lets viewers register their opinions of a TV show from their phones, and watch as a matching site on their tablet or TV reflects both the vote and the page position. The Companion Web demo isn't as elaborate as experiments like Google's Map Dive, but it does show that browsers don't have to be novelties in the living room -- especially once features like the Xbox One's Snap Mode come into play.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, Internet, HD, Microsoft

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Via: Exploring IE

Source: Polar

Having a hard time finding something on the internet? You're probably doing it wrong -- at least that seems to be Microsoft's supposition. The company has recently revised its Bing autosuggest categories to help users find the correct search parameters for the content they're looking for. The idea is to eliminate erroneous results by suggesting more specific search terms up front. Asking Bing for information on Harry Potter, for instance, presents users with a number of options separated by category: the films, the character itself or the literary series that kicked off the franchise. Selecting one amends the original search with more specific parameters: selecting the book adds "wikipedia" to the end of the string, while selecting a film from the series tweaks adds the movie's full name to the search heading. A simple tweak? Absolutely, but one that could help vague Bing users get off of Microsoft's landing page and on with their lives.

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft

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After 83 years, the escape artist's collection of clippings about Spiritualism pulled a reappearing trick.

It the weather near you is like it is here, it's ridiculously hot and a cold treat can take the edge off the summer heat. Thanks to Instructables user doodlecraft, this ice cream recipe can hold the heat at bay, and you don't need a machine or a ton of ingredients to make it. It's simple and easy.

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Whether you work at a place that blocks a bunch of web sites, or you can't access a page because it's behind a paywall, tech blog Digital Inspiration shows you how to use a couple Google proxy servers to get around those restrictions.

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Halo 4 live-action web-series Forward Unto Dawn is up for an Emmy - no, not a tech Emmy, the real primetime deal. It's going up against the likes of HBO's The Newsroom and CBS' Elementary for this year's Main Title Design honor.

The Main Title Design category rewards work that goes into title sequences, so we should doff our cap towards German 3D animator Polynoid, who collaborated with Halo 4 dev 343 industries on the intros for the five Forward Unto Dawn episodes.

Machinima and Microsoft first released the series on YouTube last year, leading into the launch of Halo 4, before bringing it to Blu-ray and Netflix. If you've not seen it and you've got 90 or so minutes to spare, we'd say it's worth the watch, and not just for the titles. As for the Emmy, the winner will be revealed at this year's ceremony on September 22.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn earns Emmy nomination originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox corporate VP Marc Whitten wishes that Microsoft had done a better job explaining the features of the Xbox One, many of which were removed when the company reversed the console's "always-online" connection policy. Speaking to IGN, Whitten responded to a recent online petition asking Microsoft to re-reverse its decision and re-implement features like Family Sharing, which would have allowed users to share their digital games with other Xbox One owners via Xbox Live. "The thing that's really gratifying is that people are excited about the types of features that are possible," he said, "and it's sort of shame on us that we haven't done as good of a job as we can to make people feel like that's where we're headed."

"We need to do more work to talk about what we're doing because I think that we did something different than maybe how people are perceiving it." For one thing, he said, Family Sharing isn't necessarily gone for good. "If [Family Sharing] is something that people are really excited about and want, we're going to make sure that we find the right way to bring it back." It would require additional engineering to enable Family Sharing after always-online was dropped, so the feature was removed from the Xbox One launch window.

Whitten said Microsoft "learned a lot of lessons" over the course of the Xbox One's reveal, and the company will be "engaging more with the community" going forward. "I think it's the number one thing I'd want to do if I went back, was have the conversation more open and more complete."

Family Sharing could return to Xbox One, says Microsoft's Whitten originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 15 Jul 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the five star rating system the Xbox 360 had?  If you had to take some time to think about it, don’t worry.  It was rarely used and the implementation was not a tangible result you could check on.  The concept behind the five star rating system of the Xbox 360 was innovative yet flawed.  By giving someone a low rating you would essentially not be paired with that person in future Xbox Live matchmaking.  The problem with this is most likely you would have to do this with every multiplayer session you participated in because of the horrible etiquette a lot of players showcase.  This is, unfortunately, a byproduct of the anonymity the internet grants you.  So, what most players turned to (myself included) is the party chat mode.  This prevented dealing with the the “miscreants” of Xbox Live, but a new problem arose: teamwork was a lot harder to come by in multiplayer sessions because of the fragmentation of the chat.  No one would win.

This is the very problem Microsoft wants to solve with the Xbox One.  In a recent interview with OXM, Microsoft’s Senior Product Manager Mike Lavin discussed some ideas on how this new reputation system will affect future Xbox Live users.  This “Reputation” system will be displayed on your profile just as prominently as your Gamerscore was on the Xbox 360.  Exactly, how does this system work?  According to Mike Lavin, this system will, essentially, separate the people who play nice with the ones who don’t.  This will be based on a rating a person is given following a multiplayer match.  In matches which include several players to a team, the person with the lowest score will be the dictating score of that team.  Basically, putting pressure on that individual to conform to the play style of that team.  Why would that player want to conform?  Well, unless they don’t mind playing with other players with similar etiquette traits, they will basically be in Xbox Live purgatory.

Imagine that.  Like a virtual insane asylum.

Aside from gaining reputation in gaming it may also be increased by joining Microsoft’s community programs.  Xbox Live Rewards being one of those such programs  It is not yet known whether this system will be based on numbers, stars, etc.

What do you think of this?  Sound off on the comments and stay on That VideoGame Blog for more news and insight.