When I used to work in Fairfax, Virginia as a computer consultant during the dot-com boom (actually I was a documentation specialist) we’d all go down to Pizza Hut for their lunch buffet. They had pizzas all laid out – three or four flavors, plus dessert pizza. A salad bar. I’d go with a bunch of people whose names I forget now (I didn’t make a lot of friends when I worked in Fairfax. I’d go for long, meandering runs in the Virginia countryside, pounding along the highway past sagging shacks that were destined to be torn down for gated communities that sprung up in the early 2000s like Queen Anne’s Lace along the berm.)

We’d eat a lot of pizza and feel horrible after but we were young and we didn’t have a lot of cool stuff to do in our lives so we’d eat that lunch, go back to work and edit documents for a tax system, and go home. Some days I’d fall asleep on my floor. I can’t tell you why. I probably exhausted myself with the monotony and loneliness of it.

Then I’d go to raves. This was like 1998 and people still went to those. I’d dance to Drum and Bass. It was my specialty. I treated it like an exorcism and I was so into it people just stared like I was an absolute freak but I was young – 23 or so – and this life I chose was pretty horrible and I wanted to do something creative so I figured if Michael Stipe could twist around like a noodle in his videos, I could do the same.

I still hate the thought of those long, triangular meanderings from my office to the grocery to the Tower Records with my apartment in the middle like a reminder of how far I was from anything like home.

I moved to Warsaw a year later and things got much better. I doubt this jolly, DIY LED-encrusted tie, called the Ampli-tie, would have made me feel better back then, but I bet it totally would improve your day if you made one. You can see the instructions over at Adafruit.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Idle 3D printers are the bane of the creative class. That’s why MakeXYZ.com is so important. It is a service that helps you find 3D printers near you and request print jobs. Like the remote batch jobs of yore, you can simply contact a MakeXYZ maker and they’ll print off your item.

Programmers Chad Masso and Nathan Tone opened up the site to orders this year and it’s already well-populated with printers awaiting their instructions. The Austin-based site is already profitable.

Quoth the website:

“We have signed up 550 printers in 1.5 months. We don’t disclose revenue or order volume data,” said Tone. “Printing locally turns out to be a sweet deal. In comparison to 3D printing service bureaus, customers going through MakeXYZ get their 3D models for half the cost in a third of the time. And you get to meet the person who made your model… in our opinion, community beats anonymous factories.”

Print jobs are priced based on square centimeter and many jobs cost about $15. Prices start at about 25 cents per cm³ but those with a better run rate can ask for more. The company takes a 5 percent cut on top of the printer’s price. It’s clearly an excellent way to take up the slack in the 3D-printing world, especially considering the price of the initial investment in Makerbots and other devices.

Tone said he created the product when he wanted to make a light-switch cover with a hook attached. “I didn’t have a 3D printer, so I shipped the CAD file to a printing-service bureau in NY. It was expensive and took over a month to arrive. Which was frustrating, in that when you’re making something you want to have it in your hands – to admire, iterate, etc. And since I’m sure that there’s gotta be one person in my building with a Makerbot.”

“Printing locally does just that – by keeping it in the community and halving the cost and turnaround time of making something awesome,” Tone said.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

[Editor's Note: This is a weekly series. If your company is doing something amazing to help a charitable cause or doing some good in your community, please reach out.]

What if you found a blue envelope outside and it had a few dollars in it that you could use on whatever you like, say a coffee on Monday. This is a possibility with a new initiative that took off in London and is starting to spread itself throughout the world.

#GiveMondays is a community of anonymous givers who thought that it would be nice to start off everyone’s week with a random act of kindness. The act of giving makes you feel better, and it doesn’t matter what you give or how much you give, either. I don’t even know who started the website.

Here’s the story behind GiveMondays:

One fine morning we had an epiphany – giving feels good and Mondays are blue. Blessed with this wonderful insight we decided to set up GiveMondays and encourage people to give their week the best possible start by good deeds every Monday. So who are we? GiveMondays is an anonymous community of givers. And we’d like you to join us.

It’s super easy to get started, just get yourself a blue envelope and leave it in a random spot with some instructions on how to pay it forward. Really small campaigns like this excite me, because it’s proof that the Internet isn’t just a place to post pictures of your cats, you can learn about and participate in some really amazing stuff.

Seeing the tweets from people who are preparing and finding the envelopes is kind of neat to watch:

You feeling lucky, punk? #givemondays instagr.am/p/VSbivGgKGW/

—
Jonathan Mulligan (@jjmullz) February 03, 2013

If you took the time to stuff a blue envelope and add the instructions below, you could inspire just one other to do the same. That person could inspire someone else, and so on. This is true “virality” for good. You could leave an envelope by the bus stop or on a co-workers desk and just watch how happy someone is when they open it up. The best part is that you don’t even put your name on it, you just get to feel good for giving.

Jump into the comments and let us know if you plan on participating tomorrow. If you giving kindness or receiving kindness in a blue envelope, go to the website and sign in to share your location. The site then displays on a map all of the places where envelopes were given and found.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

A hacker called [Sprite_tm] AKA Jeroen Domburg built his own teeny, tiny Raspberry Pi-based MAME cabinet using some laser-cut plexiglass, some custom controls, and a eeny, weenie 2.4-inch TFT display. The best part? The cabinet even has a small OLED marquee at the top that shows the current game in play.

The instructions are pretty hardcore and involves tweaking jumpers in order to make the TFT talk to the Rasberry Pi’s onboard graphics chip. While he could have just run a fat HDMI cable out of the thing, it’s impressive that he went out of his way to reduce nearly everything to microscopic size.

You can download the instructions and source code here and build your own MAME cabinet in the comfort of your home electronics lair.

[Sprite] is a serious maker and that means he built this just because he could. “So now, I’m going to totally play old-school games for hours on end… on a tiny 2.4″ display… while I have something more powerful in my back pocket…” he wrote. “Wait, why did I build this again?”

via Hackaday

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Google just announced an update to Gmail that will make life a bit easier for those of us who often write emails in different languages. Gmail users can now easily switch between over 100 virtual keyboards and transliterations. In addition, you can now use Google’s Input Method Editors (IME) to convert your keystrokes to Asian characters. This, says Google, means you won’t “find yourself limited by the language of your keyboard.”

Thanks to the virtual keyboards, which support languages like Arabic, Hebrew, Thai and Korean, Gmail now supports typing in 75 languages. The Input Method Editor currently supports Pinyin and Wubi IME’s for Simplified Chines and Pinyin and Zhuyin/Bopomofo IME’s for traditional Chinese and Japanese.

To turn these new input methods in Gmail on, just head over to your Gmail settings and look for the option to “Enable input tool” and follow the instructions here. It looks like Google is rolling out this new feature slowly, so if you don’t see it in your Gmail account yet, check back later today.

Previously Google already offered a similar feature set through its Google Input Tools Chrome extension. If you often need to switch between languages, the Chrome extension is still worth a look — even now that this has become a built-in feature in Gmail, as it works across a number of other tools, including Google Drive, Search and Translate. Google also offers a Windows desktop client and an Android app with similar functionality.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Facebook has acquired the team behind Spool, the mobile content-caching startup that launched in September 2011 at TechCrunch Disrupt. At that time, my colleague Sarah Perez snappily described its service as “Instapaper on steroids.”

This looks like a pure talent acquisition — it doesn’t appear that any of the technology Spool built will be integrated into Facebook, and the company has already shut down its service. Spool raised a $1 million round of venture capital this past January from a group including SVAngel, Felicis Ventures, Yuri Milner’s Start Fund and YouTube founder Steve Chen.

We’ve reached out to Spool for more information about the deal — financial details, staff numbers, and the like. This will be updated with any news we receive.

Facebook sent along this statement about the deal:

“The Spool team has deep expertise in mobile software development and a passion for making content easy to consume. We’re excited for the team to join and accelerate their vision at Facebook.”

Here is the blog post Spool co-founder Avichal Garg wrote announcing the move:

We started Spool to make content easy to consume on a mobile device. To accomplish this, we built some very sophisticated technology and developed a deep expertise in mobile software development. We firmly believe that solving these problems will be increasingly important as the world accesses the Internet primarily through mobile devices.

We are proud to announce that today we will be pursuing our vision as a part of Facebook. If you were a Spool user, please read the instructions on retaining your bookmarks.

We are extremely excited to accelerate our vision and help Facebook’s users connect and share with the people in their lives. We wouldn’t be in a position to have this sort of impact without our supporters and the Spool community. Please accept a heartfelt thank you for supporting us and for affording us this opportunity.

Sincerely,
The Spool team

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Good news, Android fans. A developer over on the forever awesome XDA Developers forums has figured out how to extract Google Now from Android Jelly Bean and port it over to devices running Ice Cream Sandwich. The process for doing so requires a slightly geeky skill set, of course. You have to have a rooted device and you’ll need to be comfortable navigating through the Android file system, for starters. But assuming that’s you, then you can be among the first to try Google Now in (nearly) all its glory.

In case you’re wondering what the big fuss is about, Google Now is only the most innovative, futuristic, and even downright creepy updates to Google’s search service ever to come. Instead of presenting a blank box where you type in text and hit enter, Google Now flips the search paradigm on its head. It alerts you to things you’ll want to know about before you search for them. Yes, really. Billed as a smart personal assistant to rival Apple’s Siri, Google Now comes pre-loaded on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean devices (the most recent version of Android, introduced at Google I/O), and proactively alerts you to things like weather changes, flight times and delays, sports scores, interesting places near you where you might like to eat, shop or visit, and more.

Google Now works best in a situation where it’s deeply embedded in the Android operating system itself, as in Jelly Bean, which may be why Google has made the decision not to release it as a native app for older versions of Android (either that, or the native build is still in progress. Fingers crossed!). But serious Android fans don’t have to wait to upgrade their OS to get most of the functionality Google Now offers.

XDA Developers forum user febycv figured out how to extract Google Now from Jelly Bean, and, by modifying the build.prop file, users can install the modified APK file.

He posted the instructions here on the original thread which detail the steps involved.

1. Open Root Explorer & navigate to /system
2. Now Open build.prop in Text Editor.
3. Edit ro.build.version.sdk = 16 & save.
4. Now go to /system/app & Rename GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk to GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk1
5. Now reboot & install the app from the download link (mirror).
6. Now edit build.prop & change ro.build.version.sdk = 15 & reboot.

There’s also a second method in another forum thread which doesn’t involve editing the build.prop file. The link for that one is found on post #142 on this page. The news made its way through the Android developer community just prior to the holiday, thanks to post on XDA itself. (But now we’re all finally sober enough to try it out.)

Depending on your device, and your general good luck, you may experience some issues with the hacked app, including an inability to use voice search and other bugs.

Regardless of which method you attempt, keep in mind that rooting your phone and making modifications like this is something you should only attempt if you understand the risks involved. If you don’t know your way around Android, you can do some serious damage.

However, if you have been searching night and day since Google I/O for a hack that lets you install and run Google Now, then you’re definitely in luck. I’m even digging out my old Android phone (the sad little one with the cracked screen) just for the hell of it in order to see how well this hack works. If you’re bold enough to give it a go, let us know how it turned out for you.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

News that Apple’s brand-spankin’ new Maps app wouldn’t have full functionality across all of their iOS 6-capable devices struck many as a major blow this week. Apple’s known to keep flagship features on flagship devices, so relegating turn-by-turn navigation and the 3D “Flyover” mode to the iPhone 4S and new iPad only fits with that strategy.

But it turns out that a Russian website called iGuides has cracked the case, at least where Flyover mode is concerned. Without even using Cydia, the hackers have found a way to get Maps up and running on an iPhone 4, including Flyover. Unfortunately, turn-by-turn navigation is still a trouble spot.

Before we go any further, I must instill a sense of caution within your little hacker heart. Not only is the app a bit rough around the edges on the iPhone 4, but the instructions on how to port the software over to your older-generation device are translated from Russian. So please, be careful.

As you can see in the video, the phone he’s using to demo doesn’t have the iPhone 4S’s second antenna band on the side. You can check out the functional Flyover mode below, and directions can be found here.

[via Ubergizmo]

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Last year, Google announced an initiative to give authors on the Web greater ownership over their content and more visibility in search. Google Authorship, as its known, has changed consistently since launch, as the company experiments with the best ways to authenticate authors and give them proper attribution.

Unfortunately, up to this point, the authentication process has been fairly convoluted. Rick DeJarnette’s post last week illustrates that clearly. There are a lot of steps and blog platforms like WordPress, for example, require additional configuration to enable authentication. It’s been confusing users to the detriment of the service.

The process, however, is evolving. It’s gone from adding code to your site’s pages to something that’s more automatic. As part of this, Google announced today that it’s made it a lot easier to link your website to your Google+ page.

Whether or not users like it, Google search was always going to get more social. Innately, people trust recommendations from their friends more than they do from strangers, or algorithms.

As Kevin Gibbons recently pointed out, Google Authorship is essentially Google’s way of bringing together personalized search with its social search — your social graph, in this case brought to you by Google+.

There are a whole mess of reasons why Google Authorship is important. For starters, it lets those who create the web’s content claim that content and make it their own, adding their name and image next to the byline of their articles, blogs, etc. That makes their content stand out. With few exceptions, content creators want to have their personal brand attached to their links — it’s good for business.

For Google, social media and author authentication help them measure the influence (and trustworthiness) of content and links and, ideally, serve better results. If results have been authenticated with authorship — they’re “owned” by personal and company brands — searchers get better results and advertisers spend more knowing they’re getting more bang for their buck.

But, “I don’t use G+, no one outside of Google does, so why would I do that?” you cry. Well, it makes it easier to have your authorship show up in search as a result. By god, reader! Own your content! Dennis Troper explains that linking your site to G+ means that:

“Your recent posts can appear in lots of relevant places across Google. For example: When users search for your brand, an excerpt from a recent Google+ post may appear to the right of search results.”

Now, page owners can link their sites in a few steps:

1) Visit your Google+ page, open its profile, and click ‘Edit profile’
2) On the About tab, save your website URL, then click the new button, ‘Link website’
3) Follow the instructions for adding a short line of code to your website’s homepage, then click ‘Test website’

According to Troper, if the set up goes as planned, users will then see a confirmation message. Then, after a day or two, “the link between your website and your Google+ page will be active, and a check icon will appear next to your URL on your profile.” That means you’re good to go.

Typepad said in a blog post today that it, too, has been working with Google to make authentication easier for its users. It’s a little bit more complicated than just adding your site to G+, but it’s still pretty straightforward. Find those steps here.

More on Google Authorship here.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Fitbit has consistently proven to be the best smart pedometer on the market. Competitors exist, including the excellent Striiv, but the ease of use and portability of this little pedometer clip beats them all. In short, Fitbits just work.

With the launch of the Aria wireless scale, Fitbit has added another sensor in the panoply of health data available to high-tech health nuts. This innocuous-looking device takes both your weight and your body fat percentage and automatically sends it to the Fitbit website for later perusal. Like the mini-pedometer, these readings help you understand your current health status and remind you, ceaselessly and without mercy, of your – well, my – failures as a biological entity.

The Aria supports up to 8 users and it senses uses based on previous weight measurements. When the wife or kids hop on, you see their readings (if shared) pop up in the main user’s account. To take body fat percentage measurements you need to take your weight reading with your socks off. Once the Aria senses your vitals it transmits them via WiFi to the server.

The service, in all honesty, couldn’t be easier to set up. In setup mode you simply connect to a WiFi access point that the scale creates initially. You connect to the access point, tell the scale your local Wi-Fi information, and save your settings. Then all you have to do is change batteries occasionally. The screen is easy to read – it’s blue on black, similar to the Fitbit’s OLED screen – and the instructions are simple. Readings are taken in a few seconds.

I didn’t have long to test the scale, but in comparison to similar devices (remember the Tweeting scale?), this device is superior. Because there is no real set up involved, it’s perfect for the technically averse and those who may want to set this up for a loved one in order to help monitor weight loss.

These things work by making you actually think about your weight and exercise. Rather being offered some nebulous terms like “working out” and “shedding pounds,” these devices offer feedback as bluntly and as clearly as possible.
Click to view slideshow.
Product Page

Article courtesy of TechCrunch