After a long wait Google Latitude finally approved for iPhone

Back in February 2009, Google announced it would soon have an iPhone version of its location based social networking app, Latitude, which was already running on other mobile platforms, including their own Android operating system.

It never appeared as promised after the Apple gang rejected it from the App Store. According to Apple, it unnecessarily duplicated functionality of the native Google Maps app and would thus "create user confusion."



Well, just as they did with another contentious Google app, Google Voice, which was also initially rejected by Apple, only to be approved almost a year later after being faced with an investigation by the FCC, Apple has finally approved Google Latitude for iOS devices.

Google Latitude allows you and your friends share your locations on a map. It's available for free in the Apple App Store.

13 Dec, 2010 | Adam | Leave comment - 0 - | Permalink


See also:

• iPad 2 Rumours Start Rolling In (Apple)
• Apple and the Most Advanced Injection-Molding Machine (Apple)
• The Cutting Edge of SIM Ejector Tools (Apple)
• Apple Acquires Liquidmetal Rights (Apple)
• Cold News (google)

iPad 2 Rumours Start Rolling In

Reuters is claiming to have new information regarding the next iteration of Apple's iPad.

They are claiming that a source has told them to expect the new iPad in April. It will have two cameras, as the current iPhone does, one on the back for taking photos, and another forward-facing for Apple's Facetime protocol, to allow video chat. This really isn't too much of a surprise, as Apple always adds features to its products slowly as they are embraced by the public, and likes to bring its products' features into alignment with each other.

What is most interesting about the Reuters report is the claim that Apple is working on new sizes of the iPad.

Back in October, at Apple's earnings call, Steve Jobs took some digs at the 7" tablet market, calling them 'tweeners' and suggesting they were 'dead on arrival'. He even made flippant remarks about having to shave your fingers down to work on their small sized screen. He asserts that tablet makers are going for the 7" size in order to compete with the price point that Apple can offer on a 10" tablet due to their economies of scale. So it would be a bit of a surprise if Apple did start offering a smaller tablet - certainly this soon in the game - though Steve Jobs is a master of misdirection, so one can never know!



Also on the iPad front, iPad 2 cases have started to appear in the supply chain, and they seem to corroborate the rear facing camera rumours, but also offer tantalizing evidence that the new iPad may get an SD card slot, which all the current Apple notebooks offer, and possibly even a USB port. It should be noted however, that case makers have jumped the gun before and have had to recall or redesign cases when Apple's final shipping products just didn't fit.

Are you interested in picking up an iPad? Are any of these rumours compelling enough to make you wait? Would you want a 7" iPad? Or is Steve Jobs right about them being just too small?

13 Dec, 2010 | Adam | Leave comment - 0 - | Permalink


See also:

• After a long wait Google Latitude finally approved for iPhone (Apple)
• Apple and the Most Advanced Injection-Molding Machine (Apple)
• The Cutting Edge of SIM Ejector Tools (Apple)
• Apple Acquires Liquidmetal Rights (Apple)

Beer: The Ultimate Social Lubricant

When I was in school, they liked to teach us that society developed around the practice of farming to grow grains for bread.

Nowadays, attention has turned to the notion that it was beer, not bread, that the grains were being grown for.

It is, for example, much easier to make beer by accident than bread. Beer can almost happen by itself. Some grains could have gotten wet, and fermented with wild yeasts in the sun. Perhaps the resulting grain was consumed or some wacky experimenter drank the liquid, either way, the result was inebriation. After seeing this effect occur several times, two and two were put together and the conclusion that wet grain = get drunk was reached.

And of course, at the time, being drunk was thought to be a divine, spiritual state. Therefore, growing grains to make beer, was an obvious conclusion. The oldest recipe ever found was a recipe for beer.


And then from there, it wasn't a big step to form the grains into a loaf and bake it, thus deriving bread.

As Live Science reports, while not too new, evidence of this theory is mounting.

14 Nov, 2010 | Adam | Leave comment - 1 - | Permalink


See also:

• Finally! Deep Fried Beer! (beer)
• Geek Beer For Beer Geeks (beer)
• Beer + Bike = Love X 2 (beer)
• Britain's Biggest Beer Festival (beer)
• Samuel Adams Photo Tour (beer)
• Party Like it's 7000 BC (beer)
• Ale and Pie (beer)
• The Best Way to Pour Champagne (booze)

I love Ramen! And I love Robots!

Ramen is tasty and robots are cool.

So how can you go wrong with a ramen-making robot?

A robot maker in Japan has put two robotic arms to work making ramen. It's proving to be a big hit and customers say it tastes as good as human made ramen. Fun!



22 Sep, 2010 | Adam | Leave comment - 0 - | Permalink


See also:

• An Android to make you Paranoid (robots)
• Finally! A Pancake Flipping Robot! (robots)

Finally! Deep Fried Beer!

A dude in Texas has a patent pending on deep fried beer.



Mark Zable seals the beer in salty, ravioli-like packages of pastry and deep fries it for 20 seconds; just long enough to fry the dough, but not cook the beer.

Apparently the taste is something like eating a pretzel after taking a swig of beer, which begs the question "why not just eat a pretzel and take a swig of beer?".

[Telegraph]

15 Sep, 2010 | Adam | Leave comment - 0 - | Permalink


See also:

• Beer: The Ultimate Social Lubricant (beer)
• Geek Beer For Beer Geeks (beer)
• Beer + Bike = Love X 2 (beer)
• Britain's Biggest Beer Festival (beer)
• Samuel Adams Photo Tour (beer)
• Party Like it's 7000 BC (beer)
• Ale and Pie (beer)

Tractor Beam Breakthrough

Andrei Rhode and his team at the Australian National University have managed to move objects using a laser.

It has been done before using optical tweezers, but only with objects as small as bacteria and just a few millimetres.



With the new technique, the Australians have been able to move glass objects hundreds of times bigger than bacteria over 5 feet (they were only stopped, apparently by the size of the table they were using).

Shining the laser on the objects creates a warm outer layer and a cooler interior that can be moved on different angles, by slightly penetrating the outer layer, to move the object around.

Pop Sci says the technique could be used in applications to move hazardous matter around or in biological research.

[PopSci]

09 Sep, 2010 | Adam | Leave comment - 0 - | Permalink


See also: