You may not be familiar with the company Tronical but you will know their work because they are responsible for Gibson’s Robot Guitar tuning systems. Well judging by this video it appears that Tronical are about to launch some standalone systems that can be retrofit to pretty much any guitar be it a Les Paul [...]
Category: Whats New
U Grok It Helps You Find Missing Stuff Using Your Phone and RFID
I wasted half an hour yesterday morning looking for my cellphone, only to find it and spend another twenty minutes looking for my car keys, which I had in my hands while looking for the aforementioned cellphone. Needless to say, I was late, my boss gave me an earful, and I had a pretty crappy day.
If you can relate, then you’d also probably be interested in the U Grok It.
It has a weird name but a pretty neat purpose. Here’s how it works: you stick a tiny RFID tag on objects that you lose on a regular basis, add them to your list of items, and locate them using the U Grok It receiver when you need to find them.
The U Grok It has a range of about six to ten feet and signals just how close you are to finding whatever it is you’re looking for with beeping signals. The closer you are, the louder and faster the beeps will be.
U Grok It plans to conduct an initial test run with 1,000 units, with full-scale production scheduled for 2013. No prices have been announced yet, but the devices is said to be around $100(USD) while each RFID tag will be sold for $1.
(Via Technabob.)
Raspberry Pi in demand
Just to get a brief idea on how much the Raspberry Pi computer was in demand, here is a statistic that you might be able to identify with – we are talking about 700 units per second. That amounts to 42,000 each minute, and it is no wonder that the demand for the Raspberry Pi during its recent launch actually led to the website crashing. This is truly a phenomenon, where a British-designed system that costs a mere £22 is in such high demand, at least according to one of its main distributors in the UK. Meant to make programming a snap as well as accessible for children, the Raspberry Pi also picked up plenty of envious glances over from a Middle East country that is outlining plans to furnish each schoolgirl with a Raspberry Pi. This is one unique case study that goes to show how the most powerful hardware necessarily “wins” in the long run, giving people what they want and need tend to ensure victory instead.
(Via Ubergizmo.)
3D Printed Guitars Rock the House
If you ask me, 3D printing is the future of small-scale and short-run manufacturing. Assuming that the technology can come down in cost and increase in speed, many of the smaller items we use will eventually be 3D printed – at least custom stuff, like these awesome 3D printed guitars by Olaf Diegel.
Raspberry Pi launch so popular that retail partners collapse under load
Raspberry Pi, an innovative $35 GNU/Linux box in a tiny package, launched yesterday — sort of. Demand was so hot that all the company’s retail partners collapsed under load. From Ars Technica’s Ryan Paul:
The product is a bare board with a 700MHz ARM11 CPU and 256MB of RAM. It’s roughly the size of a deck of playing cards and has a powerful GPU that is reportedly competitive with that of modern smartphones. Developer prototypes of the product have been shown running impressive graphics demos and decoding high-definition video…
At the time of publication, the Farnell website is still spitting errors. The RS site has been partially restored and is intermittently available, but isn’t currently allowing users to purchase the Raspberry Pi. Instead, it displays a screen where users can register to express their interest in the product. The Raspberry Pi foundation managed to withstand the traffic by temporarily replacing the contents of its official website with a static page.
Alongside the launch, the Raspberry Pi foundation also announced that the cheaper $25 model, which will be launched at an undisclosed future date, got a spec bump and will have 256MB of RAM, just like the $35 model. The $25 board was originally expected to have only 128MB of RAM. The cheaper model will still lack several of the features found in the $35 model, such as the built-in ethernet controller.
(Via Boing Boing.)
(Via Tybee Guy.)
Mass Unsubscribe From Nuisance Email Newsletters With Unsubscribr
Do you get more email than you know what to do with? You’re not alone. I get multiple, daily corporate emails that I routinely delete without so much as opening. Or, at least, I did, until just now. I used Unsubscribr and stopped those messages from getting to me. You should too. This free tool lets you unsubscribe from the stuff you don’t care about without having to actually read any of the messages and look for the “Unsubscribe” link or instructions.
You know the emails I’m talking about. They’re not quite spam, but not really useful email either. Some people call it “Bacn”, and it’s an entire category of emails from companies and services you’ve used in the past. If they’ve added up to take up way too much of your mental space, it’s time to clean them out. This simple website can help.
Gmail’s priority inbox helps with this, but you still need to delete the unwanted emails every day. Not if you run Unsubscribr a couple of times though.
Stop Those Emails!
Head to Unsubscribr to get started. You’ll need to provide your email address; the service will then figure out how to access your email. If you’re using Gmail you’ll be asked for permission:
Other services provide other ways of getting at your data, so give it a shot. This is practically a brand new service, so every email scenario under the sun may not be covered. Let us know if yours is or isn’t in the comments below.
Once you get the service logged in, you’ll see your email folders. The free version of this service will scan your Inbox and your Trash.
Note that the service can only scan 30 days worth of email, but that should be more than enough to catch the worst offenders. When the service is done scanning you’ll see a list you can respond to:
Click the “Unsubscribe” button and one of two things will happen: you will be automatically unsubscribed or you will be directed to the page where you can unsubscribe yourself.
Security Concerns
Are you concerned about security? That makes sense. This is, after all, your email we’re talking about.
Be sure to check out the Unsubscribr FAQ, because this service is designed to be secure. Email access is, whenever possible, accomplished via OAuth, meaning the service never actually records your username and password. Also, all traffic between your email client and Unsubscribr is encrypted.
If you don’t use Gmail, OAuth can’t be used. Don’t worry though, your username and password will be quickly deleted from the Unsubscribr servers. Trusting the service or not is up to you, but they seem to have thought through security quite a bit.
Conclusion
I get enough email every day, so this service is awesome to me. It lets me lessen my daily email load without a lot of work on my part.
How many emails did this service manage to find for you? Did you unsubscribe? Let me know in the comments below, along with any recommended apps for cleaning out your inbox. Thanks!
(Via MakeUseOf.com.)
An In-Depth Look at OS X Mountain Lion
An In-Depth Look at OS X Mountain Lion: ”
Last Thursday, Apple caught us all a bit off guard with the announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, the next major version of OS X. Now that I’ve had a few days to sit down and take a look at it, I can confidently say that this is no small upgrade. Mountain Lion is a huge leap forward in the unification of iOS and OS X (Apple has officially dropped “Mac” from the name), bringing over many much-loved features including iMessages, Notification Center, AirPlay Mirror, and a whole host of new applications.
Follow along as we dive in and take a look at all of the great new features, updates and tweaks of your next operating system.
Control Other Computers Remotely For Free With Chrome Remote Desktop
Like many other tech nerds, I am often called upon to seize control of some system remotely and rescue its user from some evil manifestation of technology. This isn’t my job (I don’t do this “commercially”), so my free tool of choice is TeamViewer. It’s free for non-commercial use, fast, and very easy to use even for people who don’t know very much about computers. But when I heard Google released something called Chrome Remote Desktop, my curiosity was piqued, so I decided to give it a try. This add-on is interesting because you set it up within Chrome, but you can use it to control the entire computer remotely, not just the Chrome session.
For a Chrome add-on, Remote Desktop is positively huge – it’s a 20MB download, so if you don’t have a fast connection, it might take a minute or two. Just for comparison, the latest version of TeamViewer weighs in at 4MB, so Chrome Remote Desktop is five times as big. Once you’re done downloading it, the add-on appears as a new button on your New Tab page. Clicking this button shows a somewhat-scary “extra permission” authorization page. Not a big deal for users who know what they’re doing, but if you’re guiding someone through the setup process over the phone, this might be a little stressful. You basically need to hit the Continue button:
Everything You Need To Know about OS X Lion
The wait is over, you can finally get your digital fingers all up in Lion’s mane. Apple released the latest iteration of OS X in the Mac App Store and the hefty download is ready for anyone with $29.99 burning a hole in their pocket.
While waiting for Lion, you’ve no doubt checked out Apple’s Lion Features page. It boasts more than 250 new features, some of them more featurey than others. Full Screen Apps is one feature, counting it as a separate feature for each app, that sort of seems like cheating.
To help you get the most out Lion, we compiled a list of features and tips to help you conquer your new feline friend.
How To Tame Six of OS X Lion’s Early Problems
Apple finally uncaged OS X Lion in the Mac App Store on Wednesday, and as is typical with most new operating system releases, early adopters are already scratching their heads trying to work around some oddities introduced by the big cat. Here are a few suggestions for taming the new king of your Mac jungle.
How To Use the Screen Sharing Features in Lion
The Screen Sharing application has been around in OS X since the days of Leopard (oh so long ago!), but Apple has added some nifty features to the application and underlying support in Lion. From a new tool bar, to a new per-user screen sharing feature, Lion has you covered when doing screen sharing on your local network between two or more Macs.
How To Use Versioning Control in Mac OS X Lion
With Lion, Apple has included a way for developers to implement versioning control in their apps. So when you’re saving files like documents you’ll have access to both the past versions and current version. With a Time Machine-like interface, you’re able to view all of the changes in your documents and restore past versions if you accidentally delete something in the current version.
How To Use Search Tokens in Lion Mail
Apple has completely revamped the Mail application in Lion. Not only are they going for an iPad-influenced user interface, but they’ve also enabled a searching system that makes finding messages easier through the use of tokens. With tokens, you can search by date, name, message contents, or any combination of these.
How To Navigate, Organize and Delete Apps with Launchpad
Launchpad allows you to organize, manage, and launch Mac applications just like you would on an iPad. The feature show and store applications as immediately as they’re downloaded from the Mac App Store, and they can even delete applications downloaded from the App Store.
Does Your Favorite App Work on Lion?
Want to know if Adobe Photoshop CS5 will work on Lion? What about AOL Radio?
The good people at RoaringApps have put together a wiki detailing which apps have been tested so far on Lion, and if they work properly or not. There are currently seventeen pages of apps on their App Compatibility Table, all listed in alphabetical order, with details about each app.
How to Burn a Lion Install DVD and Create Bootable Thumb Drive
Lion is Apple’s first disc-less distribution of Mac OS X, and as such, is leaving many users with slow or no internet connections without any fun today. We’re going to show you how to easily burn your Lion installer to a disc in order to install the OS on a computer without a network connection, or even as a way to make an emergency backup copy of your $30 investment.
7 Annoying Settings You Can Change in Lion
Lion has a ton of wonderful features, but there are a few new ones that might make long-time Mac users a little crazy. Fortunately, if you’re a creature of habit, Apple has enabled the ability to simply toggle them off in the System Preferences — so yes, you don’t have to live with Lion’s new way of scrolling. Read on to find out which settings you can change in Lion and get back to your normal life.
How To Use Gestures in Safari 5.1 for Lion
Mac OS X Lion ships with a brand new version of the Safari web browser. Version 5.1 of Safari gives many new features, including the much anticipated Reading List. But, Apple has also included some new gestures for Safari that gives the web browser more of an iPad feel.
How To Use Spaces in Mac OS X Lion
Spaces first appeared in OS X Leopard, but in Lion, the feature has been rebranded, along with Expose, into the new Mission Control feature. Mission Control is your one-stop place for viewing all of the opened application windows on your Mac, full screen apps and. Dashboard widgets. It also lets you create multiple desktops, which enables you to organize your windows by the types of applications or by the work you’ll do in each Space. Read on to find out how to best utilize Spaces.
(Via Mac|Life all.)
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