University of Ulster celebrates acquisition of PR2 robot by having it solve Rubik's cube

Programmed by Chris Burbridge and Lorenzo Riano of the Cognitivie Robotics Group, the PR2, in ways that look eerily human, carefully scans the cube, before slowly getting to work; though it’s not been stated as such, it appears the robot first solves the cube in its “brain” then sets to work carrying out what it’s already figured out how to do using it’s grippers to turn and manipulate the cube.

The PR2 is roughly the size of an adult human being and is comprised of a base, torso, arms and head. The base has castors below that allow it to move about, while the arms have grippers for hands that can not only manipulate an object, but can spin it as well to turn whatever it is holding. It also has multiple sensors and cameras placed strategically on its arms and head to allow it to “see” the environment around it, as well as parts of its own self so it knows what it’s doing.

Running on the Robot Operating System (ROS), the open source code originally developed at Stanford but now mostly supported by Willow Garage, the PR2 is one among several robots created by Willow Garage as a research tool designed primarily to advance the science of robotics. And while the robots are not provided free to research institutions such as Ulster, those that demonstrate a history of supporting research on robotics are given big discounts off the normal US $400,000 price tag.

The University of Ulster, like many others, hopes to use the PR2 to devise innovative ROS code that can be shared, used or manipulated by others to accelerate the pace at which software for robots is produced; in much the same way that open source code has been used to provide users the world over with free photo manipulation programs (GIMP) or music creation and generation (Audacity) software.

Such initiatives are likely to result in a slew of new robot applications that will likely trickle down over the next few years, to robots designed to do all those things we’ve been seeing for years in Sci-Fi movies, magazines and books. Stuff most of us have been impatiently waiting for.

More information:

via Willow Garage

READ MORE - University of Ulster celebrates acquisition of PR2 robot by having it solve Rubik's cube

[RUMOR] Next iPod Nano To Reinstate a Camera

A picture claimed to show the alleged seventh-generation iPod nano appeared on Monday on the website tw.apple.pro (via Google Translate). The report claims that the camera is a low-resolution 1.3 megapixel lens.

Crediting a source named "Ray" from California, the site suggests that the next iPod nano will not include a clip as the current model does. Placing a clip on the back of the device would cover the camera lens on the supposed device.

Tuesday's picture is not the first report to suggest that Apple could add a camera to its multi-touch iPod nano. In early April, an unverified photo showed an alleged seventh-generation iPod nano frame with space in the back for a rear-facing camera.

The Taiwanese Apple blog has correctly leaked each of the previous six generations of the iPod nano. Last year, they leaked photos of a tiny touchscreen that went on to become the multi-touch display for the sixth-generation iPod nano, released in 2010.

The larger fifth-generation iPod nano, released in 2009, did have a camera, along with the classic-style iPod click wheel. But the camera was ditched in the 2010 model, allowing Apple to create an even smaller device driven by a multi-touch display.

Adding a camera to the iPod nano once again could appease some critics who were disappointed that the feature was removed last year. But removing a clip from the rear of the device would also be a detriment, as the small size and inclusion of an integrated Nike+ pedometer has made the sixth-generation iPod nano a strong choice for use at the gym.

READ MORE - [RUMOR] Next iPod Nano To Reinstate a Camera

Microsoft fires two for Windows 8 leak, uses 'red pill' code

A rash of Windows 8 leaks may have cost two Microsoft employees their jobs. New posts suggested two regular sources lost their positions. The losses weren't independently verified but aren't uncommon for discovered leaks.

Microsoft has been unusually protective of Windows 8 and ships it with wallpaper that says "shh... let's not leak our hard work," a clue that it fully expected someone to try and leak the new OS.

Windows 8 may also have a range of features that aren't ready to show to outside of Microsoft. Separate development versions known as "red pill" builds make a licensing check to see if it's a Microsoft employee or someone else cleared to see all of the new Windows 8 features. Without the code, they only see relatively 'safe' features.

It's believed the full Immersive tablet interface is visible when the red pill code works.

Windows 8 isn't expected to ship until late 2012, but it may be shown as a beta in September. [via WinRumors]

READ MORE - Microsoft fires two for Windows 8 leak, uses 'red pill' code

Top 10 Fixes for the Web’s Most Annoying Problems

10. Too Many Ads

10. Too Many Ads

Ads are one of the most obvious (but nonetheless biggest) annoyances on the internet. It's not necessarily because they're ads, but because there are so many of them and they're frequently intrusive. Fortunately, blocking them is easy. Just pick up a copy of an ad blocker for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and even Internet Explorer.

9. Excessive Flash

Like ads, Flash might not be so bad if it was used in moderation. Or if it hadn't become so bloated. Or it didn't often overtake your CPU. If Flash is driving you nuts, you have a couple of options. If you're looking for browser-specific solutions, you can pick up FlashBlock for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or Safari. Additionally, on Mac OS X, you can use FlashFrozen for a one-click solution to an overactive Flash plug-in. You can also use ClickToFlash for Safari on Mac OS X so that you have to click to load any embedded Flash movie on a web page.

8. Tedious Forms and Logins

While most web browsers save your passwords and help you fill out online forms, that's only particularly useful if you use one web browser. While you might stick with the same web browser on all your systems, you're often out of luck on your mobile devices. It's also troublesome if you decide to eventually change web browsers. Using a password service that works across everything you use—on desktop computers and on your phones, portable media players, and tablets—puts this annoyance aside. Despite recent issues, I still like LastPass for the job. Of course, there are a few other great options should you prefer them.

7. Registering for New Accounts

Sometimes you want to try out a web service without going through the trouble of registering online. Sometimes you need to just use that service quickly and will have no use for that account later. Whatever the reason may be, registration means giving out your personal info and that's not always something you want to do. Fortunately there are databases of public usernames and passwords for you to borrow in these cases. BugMeNot is a great option and comes in browser-extension form for Chrome and Firefox, plus you can access it via the BugMeNot web site which also provides a bookmarklet for virtually any browser.

6. Ugly and Confusing Web Sites

Not all web sites have simple and intuitive user interfaces, and many are just plain ugly. If you want to improve a particular site, you can do that with Userstyles. Basically, they just override the CSS to make any site look different (and hopefully more usable). There are also extensions and add-ons that help as well. For example, you can alter YouTube (Firefox and Chrome), Facebook (most browsers), Twitter (using Greasemonkey), and—of course—Gmail (Firefox and Chrome).

5. Endless Social Networks

Everyone (or every company, perhaps) is embracing social media. The upside is there are a lot of cool webapps. The downside is you're going to have trouble managing all those cool webapps. Unsurprisingly, there are a handful of tools that help you manage your various social media accounts. For starters, check out FellowUp, Nutshell Mail, and our top five social media managers.

4. Unhelpful Search Results

A lot of sites have ineffective search options (you know, like ours—but there's a workaround!). Most of you feel that even Google isn't all that useful lately. You can, of course, learn a few techniques to help you create better Google search queries. You can also try some alternative search engines and methods if you want an alternative to Google. You're not always going to find what you want, but learning a few new tricks and expanding your options can be a big help.

3. Fake Online Reviews

When you're shopping online, reviews can be helpful in making a decision. They can also be fake and misleading. How do you know? As we've previously discussed, the biggest tells are reviews with no caveats, were all posted shortly after one another, only really talk about product features and not the pros and cons of the product, and the usernames of the reviewers are all very similar. While there's no magic browser extension to easily identify a fake review, if you look closely you can detect fakes pretty easily.

2. Waiting to Download Files from File Sharing Services

If you've ever visited MegaUpload or RapidShare, you know that downloading a file from either site with any expediency requires a premium account. If you don't have a premium account, you're stuck with slower speeds and a countdown timer that forces you to wait. This is designed to annoy you into paying. While you can't fix the slower speeds, you can bypass the wait times with a clever Firefox extension called SkipScreen. Supposedly Skipscreen was also ported to Chrome, but it currently appears to be missing. One less-robust alternative is RapidShare Download Helper.

1. Trolls

The internet can be a great place for a discussion, but not when the trolls come out to play. Mean-spirited people bring down the mood for everyone, so that's why we've put together a guide on de-trolling your internet. It features several browser add-ons/extensions, plus some advice to help keep the trolls away. If that's not enough, you can always try cognitive therapy.

---

 Ads are one of the most obvious (but nonetheless biggest) annoyances on the internet. It's not necessarily because they're ads, but because there are so many of them and they're frequently intrusive. Fortunately, blocking them is easy. Just pick up a copy of an ad blocker for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and even Internet Explorer.

9. Excessive Flash

 

Like ads, Flash might not be so bad if it was used in moderation. Or if it hadn't become so bloated. Or it didn't often overtake your CPU. If Flash is driving you nuts, you have a couple of options. If you're looking for browser-specific solutions, you can pick up FlashBlock for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or Safari. Additionally, on Mac OS X, you can use FlashFrozen for a one-click solution to an overactive Flash plug-in. You can also use ClickToFlash for Safari on Mac OS X so that you have to click to load any embedded Flash movie on a web page.

8. Tedious Forms and Logins

 

While most web browsers save your passwords and help you fill out online forms, that's only particularly useful if you use one web browser. While you might stick with the same web browser on all your systems, you're often out of luck on your mobile devices. It's also troublesome if you decide to eventually change web browsers. Using a password service that works across everything you use—on desktop computers and on your phones, portable media players, and tablets—puts this annoyance aside. Despite recent issues, I still like LastPass for the job. Of course, there are a few other great options should you prefer them.

7. Registering for New Accounts

 

Sometimes you want to try out a web service without going through the trouble of registering online. Sometimes you need to just use that service quickly and will have no use for that account later. Whatever the reason may be, registration means giving out your personal info and that's not always something you want to do. Fortunately there are databases of public usernames and passwords for you to borrow in these cases. BugMeNot is a great option and comes in browser-extension form for Chrome and Firefox, plus you can access it via the BugMeNot web site which also provides a bookmarklet for virtually any browser.

6. Ugly and Confusing Web Sites

 

Not all web sites have simple and intuitive user interfaces, and many are just plain ugly. If you want to improve a particular site, you can do that with Userstyles. Basically, they just override the CSS to make any site look different (and hopefully more usable). There are also extensions and add-ons that help as well. For example, you can alter YouTube (Firefox and Chrome), Facebook (most browsers), Twitter (using Greasemonkey), and—of course—Gmail (Firefox and Chrome).

5. Endless Social Networks

 

Everyone (or every company, perhaps) is embracing social media. The upside is there are a lot of cool webapps. The downside is you're going to have trouble managing all those cool webapps. Unsurprisingly, there are a handful of tools that help you manage your various social media accounts. For starters, check out FellowUp, Nutshell Mail, and our top five social media managers.

4. Unhelpful Search Results

 

A lot of sites have ineffective search options (you know, like ours—but there's a workaround!). Most of you feel that even Google isn't all that useful lately. You can, of course, learn a few techniques to help you create better Google search queries. You can also try some alternative search engines and methods if you want an alternative to Google. You're not always going to find what you want, but learning a few new tricks and expanding your options can be a big help.

3. Fake Online Reviews

When you're shopping online, reviews can be helpful in making a decision. They can also be fake and misleading. How do you know? As we've previously discussed, the biggest tells are reviews with no caveats, were all posted shortly after one another, only really talk about product features and not the pros and cons of the product, and the usernames of the reviewers are all very similar. While there's no magic browser extension to easily identify a fake review, if you look closely you can detect fakes pretty easily.

2. Waiting to Download Files from File Sharing Services

 

If you've ever visited MegaUpload or RapidShare, you know that downloading a file from either site with any expediency requires a premium account. If you don't have a premium account, you're stuck with slower speeds and a countdown timer that forces you to wait. This is designed to annoy you into paying. While you can't fix the slower speeds, you can bypass the wait times with a clever Firefox extension called SkipScreen. Supposedly Skipscreen was also ported to Chrome, but it currently appears to be missing. One less-robust alternative is RapidShare Download Helper.

1. Trolls

 

The internet can be a great place for a discussion, but not when the trolls come out to play. Mean-spirited people bring down the mood for everyone, so that's why we've put together a guide on de-trolling your internet. It features several browser add-ons/extensions, plus some advice to help keep the trolls away. If that's not enough, you can always try cognitive therapy.

---

READ MORE - Top 10 Fixes for the Web’s Most Annoying Problems

Windows Phone sales to top Android in 2015

Smartphones’ share of the global cell phone market is poised to explode over the next four years, according to market research firm Pyramid Research. The firm on Friday released the findings of its latest Smartphone Forecast, as compiled by Senior Analyst and Practice Leader for Mobile Devices, Stela Bokun. Bokun determined that global smartphone sell-through — or, the number of smartphones sold to end users — will total 1.46 billion units in 2011, accounting for 27% of all cell phones sold. Pyramid expects that figure to nearly double to 53% in 2015, driven by growing demand for affordable Android smartphones. “Much of the projected total market growth in 2011 will come from the Africa and Middle East (AME) region, which will see a strong demand for low-end smartphone models, ultra low-cost handsets and dual-SIM and full touch-screen feature phones,” Bokun noted in a statement. ”The main drivers of the demand in the developed markets will be the launches of a number of flagship high-end devices and new features and technologies. However, inexpensive smartphone models, particularly those from Huawei and ZTE, also will be in high demand in some of the richest Western European, Asian and North American markets.” Finally, Bokun notes that while smartphone sales will be driven in large part by Android over the next four years, Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform will overtake Android and other operating systems to become the top-selling smartphone platform in the world in 2015.

READ MORE - Windows Phone sales to top Android in 2015

Facebook Buying Out Skype? $4 Billion Deal Being Talked About

See who Mark Zuckerberg is after these days. We hear the Facebook CEO is eyeing the takeover of the much popular Skype. If the grapevine is true to what it manages to churn out, Facebook might end up buying out Skype for a price close to $4 billion.





Some observers out there firmly believe some sort of action is actually happening, but then that doesn’t mean there is a take over bid. They feel that the deal may not be a buy out, but a joint venture between Facebook and Skype.

We need not tell you that Skype and Facebook have been associated with each other for some time now.  If you would remember, Facebook had been in the scheme of things at Skype and this was demonstrated by Skype when they rolled out their version 5.0 software for Windows.

The software had a dedicated Facebook tab so as to enable users to chat or call Facebook friends via Skype. This was in fact made possible right from “the Facebook newsfeed which can be viewed from within the Skype application”.

By the way, if you are looking at going into what the $4 billion ‘possible’ takeover would bring to Skype, let us also take you to a situation where Skype had been mulling over an IPO. If you would remember, the Skype IPO was recently delayed by its new CEO until the second half of 2011. And that public offer would have brought to the Skype coffers only around $1 billion. Considering such a scene, the Facebook move, if at all that bears fruit, could mean a lot to Skype. We also hear Google too is looking at a venture with Skype. More details are awaited.

What do you think about the Facebook plan for acquiring Skype?  Send in your views.

READ MORE - Facebook Buying Out Skype? $4 Billion Deal Being Talked About

iOS, OS X and The Death of the Scrollbar

Among those who have tried OS X Lion for the first time, there is near universal dismay at the “reverse scrolling” behavior in the Apple-provided applications. It feels strange to push your fingers up on the trackpad to see content that is further down in the document, when we have had years of practice moving our fingers down instead.

The difference is best understood as a change in the user’s point of view. Instead of pulling the scrollbar down, you push the content up. The change signals a huge shift not just in scroll direction, but in user interface design where gestures are used to manipulate content instead of on-screen interface controls like scrollbars and sliders.
Scrollbar, We Hardly Knew Ye

The venerable scrollbar has been with us for ages. It was probably invented at Xerox PARC in the 70s, well before the graphic user interface (GUI) Macintosh was released in 1984. Back in those days, if you wanted to control something in the GUI, you had to be able to point at a control and click on it. The scrollbar was an obvious visual control to manipulate an application’s viewport, the section of content visible in the current window. It was versatile as well. The scroller not only provided the means to move the viewport, but its position also indicated where you were in the document.

 

One of the first steps away from direct manipulation of visual controls was the scroll wheel mouse, introduced in 1995 as a different way to move the scrollbar. Apple’s touch-sensitive trackpad and Mighty Mouse later used two-finger gestures for scrolling. However, the controls were still present on the screen to provide visual feedback on the scroller position.

The downside of the GUI was that every control needed to take up some real estate on the screen. Pretty soon we had apps with toolbars that were bigger than the content area.

 

iOSification

After over 25 years of scrollbars in Mac OS X, Apple was willing to rethink the UI for the touchscreen when the iPhone was introduced. Gestures provide a way around the need for an on-screen control for every GUI interaction and devote more space to the content itself (quite important on a small screen). Scrollbars were no longer controls, and remained only as a visual indicator of where you were. Instead, you moved content in the viewport by direct manipulation – you pushed the content itself up or down by making a gesture with your finger. This direct manipulation of the content itself is so intuitive on a touchscreen that even toddlers quickly grasp its use.

 

Different Strokes for Different Folks

On the touchscreen we have grown accustomed to using gestures to manipulate content directly. Unfortunately, when applied to the desktop this approach creates some cognitive dissonance for longtime Mac users as we try to use two-finger scrolling or mouse gestures they way we were taught, to move scrollbars indirectly.
What If You Don’t Know About Gestures?

Because the scrollbar fades out of view until moved, the scrollbars are not easily discovered and there is no visual indication of how to move content in the viewport. We rely on our memory of when we used to see scrollbars. In some applications like Safari, it is not clear where we are in the viewport because there is no scroller or thumb to tell us. Not only is it nigh impossible to discover how to scroll the content for someone unfamiliar with gestures, there is no indication (beyond cut off graphics and text) that you *need* to scroll down the page to see anything below the current viewport.

As it stands, the Lion UI is also a bit inconsistent now. Mail, Address Book, iCal, Safari, etc. all sport the new fading scroll indicators. However, iTunes still uses a scrollbar. Of course, gestures work the iOS way, and the scrollbar works the Mac way. Confusing. I have to think that other controls on desktop apps that could be replaced with gestures, like the zoom slider in iPhoto, might also disappear eventually.

Frankly, Apple’s human interface guidelines and enforcement of those guidelines in the App Store become even more important once you widely adopt gestures. They just need to be consistent. If you can’t see a control on-screen, you are going to try standard gestures. Developers must adhere to those expected behaviors if users are to have any chance of figuring out how to scroll. Can you imagine an app with no scrollbar on-screen that requires you to use four-finger swipes to scroll? How would you figure that out? Would you bother before deleting the app in frustration? Could you imagine a future with mandatory 3-minute introductory videos to explain all the non-standard gestures?
It’s Not All Bad

The scrollbar in OS X Lion does have an advantage in that it doesn’t take up as much space and visual weight in the interface. Gestures provide enough flexibility in control schemes that we don’t have to rely on a mouse click on the scrollbar control to move the viewport and a mouse click on the content to move the cursor. We have multiple ways to interact directly with the content. Content is highlighted before UI controls. What remains to be seen is if the change will prove as comfortable in practice as the theory might suggest.

READ MORE - iOS, OS X and The Death of the Scrollbar