For everything from family to computers…
Google+ Hangouts are great for straight-up talking, and they have some productive features, too. Now, though, the gates are open to third-party apps. The first batch is mostly games and goofiness, but two tools stand out. More »
from Lifehacker
A couple of weeks ago, Google updated Google Maps Navigation screens with bigger buttons and to be more car-friendly. Today, they updated the actual starting Navigation menu with a new layout to help complete the experience. You now have 4 big buttons to choose from when entering the Navigation screen, along with a list of recent destinations. If you swipe to the left, you get a list of locations that you have starred in Google Places for quick access. If you swipe to the right, you get a list of your contacts that have addresses attached. Seems minor, but man does this make sense.
Update:  Google also added in “preferred†mode of transit and gave higher resolution maps to phones with better displays.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Cheers Jason and JW!
from Droid Life
Continue reading Clarion’s Android-running Mirage IVI: a head unit that can play Angry Birds
from Engadget
Confused over Apple’s liberal use of the 4G moniker? The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reckons you have a point and took those concerns to Apple Australia. The company has now responded to the country’s federal court, offering to contact — by email — everyone who bought the retina-screened slab and promise a refund if they felt misled over its connectivity capabilities. Apple will also amend its point of sale details to explain that while it can connect to 4G (LTE) networks in the US and Canada, it won’t connect to Australia’s own next-generation network offered by Telstra. Apple also thinks that the existence of HPSA capability — and its nebulous definition as either a third-generation or fourth generation network — in the Land Down Under meant it could still hold onto those 4G credentials.
from Engadget
The promise of free energy is an enticing one — that’s free as in renewable source, not cost. (This is capitalism, after all, someone’s got to foot the bill.) Economic gripes aside, research outfits like M.I.T. are getting us one step closer to this cleaner fuel future with the creation of three dimensional photovoltaic cells. The team’s findings, recently published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, demonstrate how these computer-modeled structures, rising upward in an unfolded accordion shape, have been proven to increase their energy yield over contemporary flat panels by up to 20 times in field and theoretical testing. This capacity gain, made possible by an efficient harvesting of sunlightduring less optimal hours of the day, could be especially helpful in powering regions prone to overcast or wintry climates. The tech is still far from consumer friendly, though, with the actual price of the associated juice exceeding that of traditional solar tech. With continued improvements to the manufacturing process, however, residential and business customers could very well look forward to a future outfitted with solar towers only a Cubist could love.
Continue reading MIT’s 3D solar cells take cubism to new energy efficient heights
from Engadget
