Google seeks to commercialize humanoid robots

The first sign that Google now owns robotics heavyweight Boston Dynamics was when the Google bus rolled into the DARPA Robotics Challenge to offer engineers a place to kick back and take a nap. Officials at Google, a company known for offering extravagant perks like meditation pods and beach volleyball courts to employees, showed up at the Homestead Miami Speedway in southern Florida today to show support for their new team and to get a look at the Atlas robot, built by Boston Dynamics, and one of the stars of the challenge. The Atlas robot hardware was built by Boston Dynamics, which was recently acquired by Google. (Photo: Sharon Gaudin/Computerworld) Last week, Google confirmed reports that it had acquired Boston Dynamics, a company known for creating impressive robots like the four-legged BigDog robot, as well as Atlas, a six-foot-tall, 330-pound two-legged robot designed to function much like a human. Google, which is known for its search engine and popular Android mobile platform, had bought seven other robotics companies in the last several months, before snatching up Boston Dynamics. Industry analysts had speculated that the company is interested in beefing up the software for its autonomous cars with the robotics acquisitions, but many were surprised that Google would go for a robotics player as prominent as Boston Dynamics. Joe Bondaryk, project manager with Boston Dynamics, said Google is eager to get into humanoid robotics, and the company has the energy and the cash to advance the technology. "My understanding is they're very interested in the humanoid robots and what they could be made to do, and finding a commercial use and business purpose for them," said Bondaryk. "DARPA is all blue sky thinking, but Google is even more blue sky and it has deeper pockets." He also noted that Boston Dynamics will honor its government and military contracts but probably won't take on any new ones.emule acceleration patch registration code download cnr cp4sp1 vezeto intel 82810 graphics driver update adobe flash player latest version retro clock widget 1.6.4 apk prosavage pm133 driver lexmark z23 driver for xp rcon tool cod4 11 3 1 gratis tema laptop hello kitty windows 7 via vt6103l audio driver free

Windows 8 cheat sheet

Ready or not, Windows 8 is here. One of the most controversial versions of the operating system ever released, its main interface feels designed more for touch-screen tablets than traditional computers. What's more, the Desktop has been hidden away and weakened with the removal of the Start button. But I'm not here to talk about the controversy. I'm here to help you use Windows 8, because whichever version of Windows you're upgrading from, you'll find it a new experience. The horizontally oriented Start screen (once called the Metro interface) sports big tiles that practically beg you to touch them. And the Start screen and the Desktop feel as if they're dueling operating systems, because each works differently from the other in many ways. All this might sound overwhelming, but as you'll see, it's not that tough to master Windows 8. In this cheat sheet I'll show you how to get the most out of the new Start screen and its apps, the Desktop, the new Charms bar, Internet Explorer 10 and plenty more. I've also provided quick reference charts listing useful touch-screen gestures and keyboard shortcuts. Note: If you want to get the most out of Windows 8, you'll have to use a Microsoft ID as your user account. Without a Microsoft ID, you won't be able to use a number of new Windows 8 Store apps, including Mail and People, and you won't be able to sync settings among multiple devices. So when you set up Windows 8 for the first time, sign in with an existing Microsoft ID or create a new one. (You can also switch to a Microsoft ID account later on via the "PC settings" screen.) There's a new lock screen in town When you start Windows 8 (whether booting up initially or waking from sleep), you'll see the first big difference from previous versions of Windows -- a whole new look for the lock screen. Like the lock screens on Windows Phone devices, it sports a big graphic image and displays a variety of information, such as the date and time, the local weather, the number of new emails you have, the strength of your network connection and how much power you've got left on your device. Windows 8's new lock screen mimics the lock screens on mobile devices. Click to view larger image. This information isn't interactive; you can't click or tap to see your email, for example. (Later in the story I'll cover how to change the information that appears on your lock screen.) To log into Windows, tap a key or click the mouse -- or, on a touch system, swipe from the bottom up -- and you'll come to a sign-in screen. Select an account if you've got multiple accounts, then type in your password and press Enter to sign into Windows 8. Meet the Start screen Once you've logged into Windows from the lock screen, you head directly to the new Start screen rather than the familiar Desktop interface. Like it or not, this is the new face of Windows. Initially Microsoft called this design the "Metro" interface, but now it's just calling the new UI "Windows 8 design." Laptop and desktop PC users might dislike the Start screen's big tiles and horizontal orientation, but I've got some advice for you: Get used to it -- it's your new home. Here's what you need to know about it. Tiles. The Start screen is made up of a grid of colorful tiles. Each tile represents an app; click (or tap) the tile to run the app. Your new home: the Windows 8 Start screen. Click to view larger image. To begin with, you'll find tiles for several simple new apps -- People, Mail, Calendar, Messaging and others -- that are built into Windows 8 and have the same look and feel as the Start screen. (More apps in this style are available through Microsoft's newly launched Windows Store.) Formerly called Metro apps, they're variously referred to as Windows 8 apps, Windows Store apps, Modern apps or Start apps by industry watchers. Update, 10/31/12: Microsoft has now officially announced that it will call the new-style apps "Windows 8 Store apps." We've updated this cheat sheet accordingly. Notifications. Some Windows 8 screencast o matic for chromebook linksys lne100tx v5 1 driver skype per lg t310i sunage battle for elysium remastered skype app blackberry z10 hp laserjet 1320 pcl5 driver windows 7 64 bit lexmark t420 driver for win7 uc browser for samsung corby plus gt b3410 bluesoleil crack windows 7 freedom fighters 2 soldiers of liberty pc

Google CEO: 'Big bets' on non-core products are worth the risk

Google's core offering may be search, but the company is just as serious about providing in-the-moment information to users with emerging technologies such as Google Now, self-driving cars and Google Glass, CEO Larry Page said during the company's recent earnings call with analysts. Those products, along with voice-based search and others, may be risky "big bets," but Google doesn't want to be focused only on "incremental technologies," Page said. "That is why we're investing in what appear to be speculative projects," he added. "[Most companies] never do anything different, and they run into problems for that reason." During the conference call, financial analysts asked how Google will monetize new products such as Google Now, which functions as a kind of personal digital assistant to automatically give users information as they go about their day. "I'm not worried about that," Page said. "The better the job we can do in providing users with information without their asking for it, the better we can provide commercial information from people who are excited about promoting it." For the latest quarter, Google's sales rose by 31% to about $14 billion, driven partly by strong gains in advertising revenue. deluxe cleaners epson tm-u295 drivers xp microsoft .net framework 3.5 sp1 helper.exe konica minolta di2510 driver windows 7 64 bit plants vs zombies hd kindle fire apk descargar el juego de plants vs zombies para android 4.0 new usb disk security 2012 temple run game for blackberry phones menutab pro for facebook mac hotspotshieldlaunch17

New iPad is the 'epitome' of what a tablet should be

Two years ago, Apple side-swiped the computer industry by releasing the first iPad. Though dismissed by some critics at the time as an overgrown iPhone, the iPad has proved to be just as disruptive to the PC industry as the iPhone was to mobile. And 55 million tablet sales later -- including an incredible 15.4 million last quarter alone -- there's a new king of the tablet hill: the latest iPad. Unveiled by Apple CEO Tim Cook and other company execs on March 7, the new iPad arrived this past Friday to long lines and sold-out preorders, its popularity surprising almost no one. As was the case last year, the new iPad was available in a variety of retail locations besides Apple stores, including Best Buy, Target, Radio Shack, AT&T, Verizon, and assorted resellers. (Some Wal-Mart stores began selling the tablet just after midnight, eight hours before Apple's own retail stores opened.) I preordered my iPad -- the 64GB model with Wi-Fi and 4G -- for home delivery. As fun as chatting up other Apple fans is, the convenience of not leaving the house beat standing in line. I still got to talk with an Apple fan, though: the FedEx person who delivered my iPad. He immediately struck up a conversation, volunteering the fact that he'd been (enviously) delivering new iPads all day and was excited he was soon to get his own after missing the prelaunch window. (Just a few days after orders began, Apple ran out of stock; current delivery times are two to three weeks.) I was struck again about how software encased in a bit of aluminum and glass can engender so much excitement, prompting perfect strangers to chat for hours on end while braving long waits to get the latest Apple hardware. Owners post unboxing photos online, on Facebook and in tweets; videos pop up in forums and on personal sites; and every mainstream media outlet from USA Today to the local neighborhood blogger feels the need to weigh in. Clearly, the iPad has gone mainstream. But does it live up to this year's heightened expectations? The basics At first glance, the new iPad is virtually indistinguishable from the iPad 2; if you loved/hated the design before, you're going to love/hate this one just as much. I've always been a fan of the aluminum-and-glass look, so I don't mind that it's unchanged. The new iPad, still encased in a 9.5-in.-x-7.3-in. aluminum frame, is just slightly thicker than the previous model. The oil-resistant oleophobic 9.7-in. glass display again comes bordered in either white or black, a minimalist design that's still as sharp-looking and luxurious in quality and feel as ever. My first choice is always black. While even the most experienced iPad 2 users would be hard-pressed to distinguish between the new iPad and an iPad 2 on looks alone, the same cannot be said regarding the weight. At 1.46 lbs. for the LTE version -- 1.44 lbs. for the Wi-Fi-only models -- the new iPad is a couple of ounces heavier than its predecessor; iPad 2 users will notice a difference, though it's not enough to be off-putting. (For those who are still using the first iPad, this one weighs just slightly less than that model. So if you're upgrading from version 1 to the new iPad, you should notice this one's slightly lighter.)plants vs zombies gratis version completa softonic free talk and write insys m54sr drivers vista angry birds 2-pack figures yellow and green pig hp photosmart c4200 printer driver windows xp ifaith for windows 1.5.6 free skype for samsung vodafone 360 wechat hp java heck.in

Users flock to anonymizing services after NSA snooping reports

Companies offering anonymous Web browsing and communication services are seeing a huge increase in business since recent news leaks about the National Security Agency's mass data collection and surveillance activities. Disconnect Search, an anonymous Web search service that launched Monday, had more than 400,000 searches by users by Thursday morning, said Casey Oppenheim, its co-founder. Disconnect, which also offers users a service to block companies from tracking them online, started working on Disconnect Search more than a year ago, before the first leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were published in June. But Oppenheim said the continuing revelations about NSA data collection are driving users to the search service, he said by email. Web searches are among the most personal information that companies or the government could collect about someone, he said. "In comparison to search surveillance, I'd probably rather have my phone tapped or my email tracked because I'm filtering myself when I communicate with others in those ways," he said. "Most people don't filter their searches and don't understand how their queries are being tracked, saved, and turned into profiles that are associated with their real names and/or their IP address." Disconnect Search, a browser extension, allows Web users to continue to use their search engine of choice, but the service routes search queries through Disconnect's servers. The service also prevents search engines from passing keywords to sites that are visited from the search engine's results, and it encrypts all queries. Another anonymous search service, DuckDuckGo, has seen a steep increase in searches since the Snowden leaks. In May, the month before the first Snowden leaks were published, DuckDuckGo users searched 54.4 million times. In September, users searched 116.7 million times, said a spokesman for the company. DuckDuckGo doesn't collect or store personal information, meaning it doesn't know how many users it has.die hard 5 game for mobile adobe photoshop cs6 crack mac game counter strike extreme v7 single link awinware pdf security remover crack icarus sanctuary of the gods review amortization table excel variable interest rate samsung pc studio para windows 7 baixaki radeon 9200 se family driver windows 7 websmartz slideshow designer registration key hp laserjet 5 drivers

Google dives headfirst into robotics with Boston Dynamics buy

Less than two weeks after reports circulated that Google has been buying up robotics companies for the past six months as part of an effort to develop its own robotics technology, the company said it's buying Boston Dynamics, one of the most well-known robotics companies in the world. Boston Dynamics confirmed to the IDG News Service this weekend that it is acquiring the company behind the four-legged rough-terrain traversing BigDog robot, as well as Atlas, a six-foot-tall, 330-pound robot designed to function much like a human. Atlas is the focus of a DARPA-sponsored robotics challenge later this week that will have 17 teams from the likes of Carnegie Mellon University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory vying to create the best software to enable the robot to turn valves, use human tools, climb a ladder and even drive a car. And Boston Dynamics was at a robotics demonstration for the U.S. Army at Fort Benning in Georgia in October, showing off its BigDog robot. While the company declined to talk about its work there, officials did say they were under contract with DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Boston Dynamics showed off its BigDog robot, shown crouched down here, during a robotics demonstration at Fort Benning this fall. (Image: Sharon Gaudin) Now, Boston Dynamics, which works with industry as well as the U.S. military, will be part of Google. That's a bit of an odd pairing, according to Ezra Gottheil, an analyst for Technology Business Research. "I can usually figure some connection between Google's main business and their wilder acquisitions and projects, but this one is hard to figure," Gottheil told Computerworld. "The only thing I can figure is that they like to buy very smart people and very smart technologies. Certainly, there's a potential integration with the automobile stuff, but I still don't have a clue." For several years now, Google has been working to develop autonomous cars, logging thousands of miles on the road, getting the first license for a driverless car and even approaching major auto makers in Detroit as potential partners in their effort. For the last six months, Google has been buying robotics companies in an effort to develop technology that can be used in its manufacturing operation, which largely focuses on electronics assembly. Boston Dynamics will be the eighth robotics company acquired. "We are looking forward to this next chapter in robotics and in what we can accomplish as part of the Google team," Boston Dynamics co-founder Marc Raibert said in a statement. Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, noted that at first glance, this does seem like an odd purchase for Google, which is known for search, its highly popular Android platform, the Chromebook and Maps. But it's just an extension of their recent robotics interest. "Well, much of what Google does is experiment with stuff and that's what makes them Google," said Kerravala. "With Boston Dynamics, they get a bunch of robots in different shapes and sizes. And Google is just a company that's really out there and has deep pockets."nova 3 for iphone free educational puzzle for babies for ipod toddler animals game for ipad free ringtones for android mobile phone kitty birthday party time for ipod mega n64 emulator for android pako king dreamworks adventures for iphone how the grinch stole christmas for iphone face in hole free for iphone manager app for android mobile

Apple moves toward digital unity with Mountain Lion

Apple surprised the tech world last week by pulling the curtain back on its latest desktop/laptop operating system: OS X Mountain Lion. The final version will be released this summer, but the developer preview unveiled on Thursday shows that the upcoming OS picks up where OS X 10.7 -- code-named Lion -- left off. The coming update incorporates even more popular features from iOS, the software which runs the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The upgrade -- pricing not yet announced -- will be available only as a download from the Mac App Store. Apple won't sell it on disc or on a thumb drive, as it did with earlier versions of OS X. That's a change from past practice and gives Apple another way to showcase its fast-growing App Store. Another change: Apple execs quietly previewed Mountain Lion first with a select few journalists and bloggers. Their early-bird reports last week led to a sudden tsunami of information about Mountain Lion and what it offers: iOS-like Messages, Reminders, Notifications and Game Center, AirPlay Mirroring, and a new security effort called Gatekeeper. It was clear with the release of Lion last year that the Mac OS X and iOS feature sets were morphing; this year, that trend continues with Mountain Lion. The big question for users then becomes whether this melding of features works, whether the iOS-inspired apps and processes fit within the context of a desktop operating system. For better or worse, the future of Apple's desktop OS is full of iOS-esque flourishes, changes that reflect a new Apple way of thinking and indicate where Apple is going. iCloud integration The most important element of the new OS is deeper integration with iCloud, the collection of services that stores your data to Apple's servers automatically and then syncs that data across all your devices. On the iPhone and iPad, every photo, document, bookmark, contact -- everything -- gets backed up. And through iCloud, it gets automatically sent to all your Macs/PCs, iPhones or iPads. To put it another way, iCloud shifts the onus of keeping data organized and up to date on multiple devices from the user to the machine. It's invisible. And it just works. For example, if I see an app I like in the App Store, I can buy it and within a few moments that app is already on my iPhone, my iPads, and my various Macs. When I take a picture on my iPhone, by the time I fire up iPhoto on the Mac, it's already waiting in Photo Stream on all of my devices. iCloud makes living with multiple devices far easier because data is automatically dispensed across them all. Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook reaffirmed that iCloud is not a strategy with a specific shelf life, but a core part of all future Apple products, just as the Digital Media Hub strategy motivated Apple decisions over last dozen years or so. While iCloud integration on the Mac is not yet as comprehensive as it is in the iDevice lineup, Mountain Lion moves closer to real integration with Apple's online services. The iCloud focus is apparent right away. After downloading and installing Mountain Lion, an iCloud login/sign up is one of the first things to greet you following a clean install. If you already have an iCloud account, your email, contacts, calendars, FaceTime info, Safari bookmarks and Reading List links are automatically configured. Once the Setup Assistant is complete, a virtual visit to the Mac App Store allows you to easily install any apps you've already bought.red stamp cards for ipod hills of glory wwii for android doraemon repair shop seasons for android baby names by nametrix for ipads how to free movies for ipad 2015 eye shadow makeup tutorials for android 200 vision illusions for iphone textfree with voice app for ipad pool billiards pro apk for android urban crime game free for ipad