Suffering from a bad case of pumpkin butt!
Quote of the Day: “Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.” – W. C. Fields
Researchers use a robot to uncover hidden signals of trust
Nexi the Robot
“In spite of the hardness and ruthlessness I thought I saw in his face, I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word, ” Neville Chamberlain. His first impression of Adolf Hitler can be described as an error in judgment.
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SmartBook: McGraw-Hill’s adaptive ebook that adjusts to students’ learning needs
SmartBook
Publishing giants and tech companies try to remake the humble textbook in their own image. But on Tuesday, McGraw-Hill Education offered up its latest take on the learning platform of the future.
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Can the Khan Academy help find the next Einstein?
Albert Einstein
A vision for the future would be one where everyone will be able to learn at their own pace and where it would be competency based. Once you feel like you know something you can prove it, and the world respects that, and maybe you have to maintain that knowledge state, it’s not that you just have to prove it once and not have to worry about it.
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Stephen Hawking joins international think tank to defend humanity from futuristic threats
Stephen Hawking wants to stop the rise of the machines.
Stephen Hawking turned 71 on January 8th and has joined the board of an international think tank devoted to defending humanity from futuristic threats. The newly founded organization, the Cambridge Project for Existential Risk, researches existential threats to humanity such as extreme climate change, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, artificial life, nanotech, and other emerging technologies. Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn and Cambridge professors Huw Price and Martin Rees founded the project in late 2012.
3D Systems’ CubeX 3D printer creates massive objects in three colors
CubeX 3D printer
3D printers are under constant pressure to become bigger, faster, and more powerful. 3D Systems is answering that call with its latest pair of 3D printers.
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Electric skateboard Zboard deemed most investor-worthy startup at CES
Zboard electric skateboard
The electric skateboard Zboard skated into our hearts at the DEMO conference this spring, but now it has also conquered CES.
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The hidden costs of the ‘free’ app ecosystem
“Paid apps work because they provide the great experience people deserve as customers.”
Time is money, and apps don’t last forever. All the weeks you spent on your apps and you’re never going get back all those hours you spent on them. And all of the free apps are dangerous, yet free is the dominant business model most mobile apps are taking these days. The idea is to grow as quickly as possible then insert ads of some kind or get acquired. For consumers it offers a crummy set of choices: either losing the countless hours you put into the app or have your private data sold to marketers — since as well all know, when the product is free, you are the product.
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Iran’s ‘smart’ approach to censorship of the internet
An internet cafe in Tehran.
Iran has an intense relationship with the internet. The country has made many attempts to curtail its citizens’ use of social media. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in May, issued a fatwa against anti-filtering tools that have helped citizens to access blocked material on the Internet. In December, they launched Mehr, its own version of YouTube, which allows users to upload and view content they create, and to watch videos from IRIB, Iran’s national broadcaster. They have also been building a national intranet – a government-run network that would operate “largely isolated” from the rest of the World Wide Web. Reporters Without Borders named Iran to its 2012 “Enemies of the Internet” list with Iran’s intensified online crackdowns, increased digital surveillance of citizens, and the imprisonment of web activists.
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Most smartphone and tablet users don’t care if they run iOS, Android, or Windows
The survey found there is no widespread loyalty among consumers about operating systems.
Google and Apple better watch out. According to a new study by Accenture, two-thirds of smartphone and tablet owners don’t have strong brand loyalty to any one particular operating system.
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TV still king in media consumption: Nielsen
Here is one more 2012 year-in review report from Nielsen, which examined how Americans have been consuming content over the course of the past year. Of the 289 million U.S. TV owners, the report found that 119 million own four or more television sets, making TV still the device to beat when it comes to watching and recording programs, among other things.
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Consumers becoming ‘digital omnivores’ as they are adopting more smart, web-connected technology
Consumers are becoming “digital omnivores.”
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas begins this week and the state of digital consumption is looking good. Consumers are adopting all sorts of smart, web-connected consumer technology and becoming “digital omnivores.”
