...will he ever win?
Siri, Apple's widely advertised voice-activated "intelligent assistant," has so far been limited to the latest iPhone 4S hardware after Apple's acquisition. Though observers have come up with various reasons for the restriction, a newly revealed piece of the puzzle suggests the issue is related to hardware after all. According to recent SEC filings from technology start-up Audience, Apple incorporated an improved version of its background noise filtering technology directly into the A5 processor used in the iPhone 4S—technology that improves Siri's speech recognition capabilities.
Siri was originally a third-party app for the iPhone that ran on devices as old as the iPhone 3GS. Apple later bought the company behind Siri, and integrated the tech directly into iOS 5, which was released to the public in October of 2011. Siri is now only available on the iPhone 4S, however, and Apple subsequently pulled the old app from the App Store when the 4S was released.
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February 06, 2012 07:15 PM
Airbags for motorcyclists, whether built into the vehicle (a la
Honda) or the rider's apparel (like the
D-Air,
Spidi and
Hit-Air), are not a new idea. But Canadian inventor Rejean Neron's Safety Sphere concept has to be the most, well,
all-encompassing of those we've seen. Described as an "inflatable crash garment for non-enclosed vehicle riders", Safety Sphere isn't so much built into the rider's suit as it
is the rider's suit. In the event of an accident, the intended results are nothing if not dramatic, as the CG video promo ably illustrates...
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Dramatic "Safety Sphere" concept provides all-round protection for motorcyclistsSection: MotorcyclesTags: Airbags,
Concept,
Motorcycles,
Safety
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February 06, 2012 07:14 PM
Homogeneous catalysis, in which the catalyst is mixed directly in with the reaction components, sees widespread use in industrial settings. The catalysts
themselves are often complex organometallic compounds that contain a precious metal atom/ion—platinum, rhodium,
palladium,
rhenium—at their molecular center.
From an engineering
standpoint, a reactor for a homogeneously catalyzed
reaction can often be described as a catalyst recovery
system first, reactor second. The high cost of these precious metals means that recovery and reuse of the catalyst is essential to making the reactions economic.
A report
published in last
week's edition of Science
discusses the work of a team of chemists who
are looking
at ways of obviating the need for the precious metals, replacing them with their more ordinary relatives. The
paper focuses on chemistry that is important to the silicone industry.
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February 06, 2012 07:00 PM
[William] developed this temperature candle as a tool to help keep babies safe as they sleep. It seems that ambient temperature has an effect on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). This device is meant to alert you when room temperature is outside of the recommended envelope.
The board hosts an eight-pin PIC microcontroller (12F683P), a temperature sensor, RGB LED, and a push button. The round PCB is the same size as a votive candle, which is nice except that you’re going to have to drill a hole in your candle holder to accommodate that barrel jack.
The temperature sensor is read by the microcontroller and used to determine the color of the LED. Red is hot, blue is cold, and just right is somewhere in between. But if you’d rather know the exact current temperature you can press the button and it’ll blink out the Celsius reading using blue for 10 degree increments (three blinks is 30 degrees, etc.) and red for single degrees. Don’t miss the demo of the candle in the video after the break.
Filed under:
Microcontrollers 
February 06, 2012 06:49 PM
Debian has updated cacti (fixes a
regression in the previous update), xen-qemu-dm (code execution), and apache2 (multiple vulnerabilities).
Fedora has updated bip (F16;
F15: code execution).
Oracle has updated php OL6;
OL5; OL4:
denial of service/remote code execution), ghostscript (OL6; OL5; OL4: multiple vulnerabilities), and OL5: php53 (remote code execution).
SUSE has updated kernel (multiple vulnerabilities).
Ubuntu has updated firefox (multiple
vulnerabilities), mozvoikko (multiple
vulnerabilities), and ubufox & webfav
(multiple vulnerabilities).
February 06, 2012 06:49 PM
Urgent messages sent using Morse Code via radio waves or by electrical telegraphy are, by necessity, quite short - after all, you don't want to spend all day dotting and dashing your way through
War and Peace. These days, of course, if you want to send the latest piece of gossip or news to those near and dear there are quite a few quicker options - from email to instant messaging and Facebook to Twitter. For users of the latter networking platform who are looking for a novel way to merge the old with the new, Martin Kaltenbrummer's open source Tworsekey Morse Code interface can deliver messages direct to the Twitter API via Ethernet LAN...
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Update Twitter in Morse Code with the TworsekeySection: ElectronicsTags: Arduino,
Input Device,
Open Source,
Retro,
Twitter
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February 06, 2012 06:30 PM
A vDSO (virtual dynamic shared object) is an alternative to the
somewhat cycle-expensive system call interface that the GNU/Linux kernel
provides. But, before I explain how to cook up your own vDSO, in this brief jaunt down
operating system lane, I cover some basics of vDSOs, what they are and why
they are useful. more>>
February 06, 2012 05:43 PM
Apple has begun to take action against iPhone app ripoffs that have been crudding up the App Store. Over the weekend, the company removed a number of apps that bear a striking similarity to ones that are already popular among iOS users—the list includes Angry Ninja Birds, Plant vs. Zombie, and Temple Jump, which correlate to the popular titles Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, and Temple Run (hat tip to Gamasutra). The move is encouraging to developers who have been struggling with knockoffs attempting to steal their business on the App Store, but there's plenty left to do if Apple wants to show it's serious about tackling the problem once and for all.
Apps attempting to clone—or at least ride the popularity wave of—other apps has been a problem for iOS developers for years now. Ars first started covering the phenomenon in early 2009, but examples continue to pop up on both the mobile App Store as well as the Mac App Store.
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February 06, 2012 05:36 PM
Whatever happened to the "six strikes" system that was to help civilize the American Internet?
Three years ago, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gave up its mass litigation strategy of targeting tens of thousands of alleged file-swappers. Instead, the group announced that it would pursue a "graduated response" system in partnership with Interent providers. Infringement notices would be sent on to subscribers, who would be hit with increasing penalties as the notices stacked up.
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February 06, 2012 05:25 PM
