Monday, April 20, 2015
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
The new Galaxy S6 has the strongest processor in the world
The move by Samsung to use its own processor in the new Galaxy S6, proved correct. The first benchmark, flagship of the Korean manufacturer literally zgromi main competitors, HTC One M9, Nexus 6 and Apple iPhone 6 Plus.Exynos 7420 chip, definitely proved stronger than the latest Qualcomm, Snapdragon 810, although both have similar architecture with eight physical cores. Due to the number of cores, the chip of Samsung achieved an incredible result of 4547 points GeekBench, before HTC One M9, who finished with 3959 points. Nexus 6, which has 805 Snapdragon processor, complete with 3307 points, while most iPhone with 2911 points.
The benchmark intended for single core, though, Nexus 9 with Tegra K1 is the best CPU with 1976 points before the iPhone 6 Plus with 1626. For these tests, Galaxy S6 finished third, with great achievement for processor cores with more than 1443 points, that is dramatically better result than 810 Snapdragon processor in HTC One M9, which ended with 1186 points.
Looking at the results of these benchmarks, it is clear that the Galaxy S6 boasts that it is the fastest Android smartphone now, certainly not if we consider Nexus 9, which is a tablet. The difference relative to its competitors is generally small and sopred previous experiences, could be felt in some 3D games that require more and more performance.
And though the new Exynos CPU Galaxy S6 not make a big difference in everyday use in terms of Snapdragon 810, Samsung will have the right to boast that it has the fastest smartphone on the market right now, which may in great increase sales . Along with the new, luxurious design of the phone model and Edge, who after a long time brings innovation in display in this class, Samsung seems to have again hit the world, which will sell millions of copies.
A Chat With Project Mosul About Rebuilding A Ruined History
Matthew Vincent is one of the members of Project Mosul, an effort to recreate the lost artifacts at the Mosul Museum that were recently destroyed by ISIS fighters. By taking pictures and images of the broken artifacts, the group hopes to recreate them with 3D printers, storing at least the shape and quality of the originals to keep them safe, at least in a digital form. He spoke with me about the project and what it feels like, as an archeologist, to see history destroyed.
TC: Tell me about yourself and your team.Matthew Vincent: Project Mosul is a volunteer effort that has grown out of the Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage, a Marie Curie Actions programme funded by the European Commission. We are around 17 fellows who are working on this, although the instigators of Project Mosul are myself, Chance Coughenour (another fellow), and the project coordinator Marinos Ioannides.
TC: What does your group do?
MV: We work on digital cultural heritage. The ITN-DCH is all about dealing with cultural heritage as a single, cohesive unit. The digital part is the application of new technologies to traditional heritage, such as the digitisation and preservation of heritage through these new mediums.
TC: Why are you taking up this project?
MV: I am an archaeologist, I’ve been working in Jordan for 11 years now and seeing the destruction in Mosul is just too close to home. In a conversation following the video released the ISIS a couple weeks ago, one fellow suggested that we crowdsource the reconstruction of the Mosul Museum. that was when the project began. There was no reason not to do it, and so Project Mosul was launched.
TC: What do you hope to achieve?
MV: We hope to see a virtual museum come out of this, where as many of the artefacts as possible can be located within a virtual environment and visualised through the web or other environments. The limitations of photogrammetry mean we cannot guarantee the fidelity of the models to the originals, but the visual representations should be enough to give the public access to lost heritage. Furthermore, the 3D models could potentially help to restore any of the originals, even lacking the geometric fidelity.
TC: Has this been done before?
MV: We are not the first to do something like this. One of the more famous examples is the reconstruction of the Buddhas in Afghanistan which were originally destroyed by the Taliban. Crowd-sourcing photos for reconstructions dates back even further, with IBM being one of the first to work on a reconstruction, specifically the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche in Dresden, which is the earliest photogrammetric reconstruction of a monument, to my knowledge.
TC: Have you spoken to anyone in Mosul?
MV: We are trying to reach out to those in Mosul, but communication isn’t easy and we want to respect the safety of the individuals in the area.
TC: What do you think of this sort of destruction?
MV: As an archaeologist, I am sickened by what I see. My first love was Mesopotamia and the ancient Akkadian and Sumerian languages. To see world heritage sites destroyed is a senseless act of violence. Their actions are those of extremists and do not represent Islam. What they destroy is all pre-Islamic, and represents a shared heritage that much of the world holds, and I would love to see actions taken to protect this heritage. That said, ISIS has done far worse in terms of human lives lost, and the heritage is just one more casualty in a long list of those destroyed by the extremists.
TC: What can museums do to make your job easier?
MV: Museums and public alike. Museums around the world should see this as a wake up call. No museum is safe from these sort of destructive acts, whether they are acts of man or natural disasters, heritage is a treasure to be preserved for generations to come. Museums can take preventative measures and digitise and publish their collections in open formats. One challenge we face with the Mosul Museum is that they’ve effectively been closed for over 10 years (since the 2003 invasion of Iraq). That means there aren’t a lot of pictures of the museum and its artefacts. Museums that do not allow photography could jeopardise the opportunities for future digital reconstructions by not allow the public to capture what they see in those institutions. Better yet, museums should open source 3D digitisations of the artefacts, giving the public direct access to the collections and democratising the data for all. However, this is something that must come from the museums, and it is not something we can simply usurp.
On the same lines, we need the public to support our museums, and make it clear that they will be maintained no matter what. Project Mosul is about showing the world that we don’t want to see a single museum lost in times of crisis, and that we are willing to be our time and energy into the preservation of these memory institutions, even with limited information and resources available. But, much of this can be avoided if museums open-source their collections, and make it a priority to digitise their collections and get them online. Furthermore, this helps with the looting issues, as these models can be accessed by law-enforcement agencies to help identify looted antiquities on the market.
TC: Tell me about yourself and your team.Matthew Vincent: Project Mosul is a volunteer effort that has grown out of the Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage, a Marie Curie Actions programme funded by the European Commission. We are around 17 fellows who are working on this, although the instigators of Project Mosul are myself, Chance Coughenour (another fellow), and the project coordinator Marinos Ioannides.
TC: What does your group do?
MV: We work on digital cultural heritage. The ITN-DCH is all about dealing with cultural heritage as a single, cohesive unit. The digital part is the application of new technologies to traditional heritage, such as the digitisation and preservation of heritage through these new mediums.
TC: Why are you taking up this project?
MV: I am an archaeologist, I’ve been working in Jordan for 11 years now and seeing the destruction in Mosul is just too close to home. In a conversation following the video released the ISIS a couple weeks ago, one fellow suggested that we crowdsource the reconstruction of the Mosul Museum. that was when the project began. There was no reason not to do it, and so Project Mosul was launched.
TC: What do you hope to achieve?
MV: We hope to see a virtual museum come out of this, where as many of the artefacts as possible can be located within a virtual environment and visualised through the web or other environments. The limitations of photogrammetry mean we cannot guarantee the fidelity of the models to the originals, but the visual representations should be enough to give the public access to lost heritage. Furthermore, the 3D models could potentially help to restore any of the originals, even lacking the geometric fidelity.
TC: Has this been done before?
MV: We are not the first to do something like this. One of the more famous examples is the reconstruction of the Buddhas in Afghanistan which were originally destroyed by the Taliban. Crowd-sourcing photos for reconstructions dates back even further, with IBM being one of the first to work on a reconstruction, specifically the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche in Dresden, which is the earliest photogrammetric reconstruction of a monument, to my knowledge.
TC: Have you spoken to anyone in Mosul?
MV: We are trying to reach out to those in Mosul, but communication isn’t easy and we want to respect the safety of the individuals in the area.
TC: What do you think of this sort of destruction?
MV: As an archaeologist, I am sickened by what I see. My first love was Mesopotamia and the ancient Akkadian and Sumerian languages. To see world heritage sites destroyed is a senseless act of violence. Their actions are those of extremists and do not represent Islam. What they destroy is all pre-Islamic, and represents a shared heritage that much of the world holds, and I would love to see actions taken to protect this heritage. That said, ISIS has done far worse in terms of human lives lost, and the heritage is just one more casualty in a long list of those destroyed by the extremists.
TC: What can museums do to make your job easier?
MV: Museums and public alike. Museums around the world should see this as a wake up call. No museum is safe from these sort of destructive acts, whether they are acts of man or natural disasters, heritage is a treasure to be preserved for generations to come. Museums can take preventative measures and digitise and publish their collections in open formats. One challenge we face with the Mosul Museum is that they’ve effectively been closed for over 10 years (since the 2003 invasion of Iraq). That means there aren’t a lot of pictures of the museum and its artefacts. Museums that do not allow photography could jeopardise the opportunities for future digital reconstructions by not allow the public to capture what they see in those institutions. Better yet, museums should open source 3D digitisations of the artefacts, giving the public direct access to the collections and democratising the data for all. However, this is something that must come from the museums, and it is not something we can simply usurp.
On the same lines, we need the public to support our museums, and make it clear that they will be maintained no matter what. Project Mosul is about showing the world that we don’t want to see a single museum lost in times of crisis, and that we are willing to be our time and energy into the preservation of these memory institutions, even with limited information and resources available. But, much of this can be avoided if museums open-source their collections, and make it a priority to digitise their collections and get them online. Furthermore, this helps with the looting issues, as these models can be accessed by law-enforcement agencies to help identify looted antiquities on the market.
Twitter Starts Breaking Meerkat Features By Limiting Social Graph Access
Talk about timing: Twitter confirms they’ve bought Meerkat-competitor Periscope, and but a few hours later Twitter makes a move that kills off a few Meerkat features.Meerkat is a fast-rising, Twitter-centric live video broadcasting platform that seems to be gaining quite the fanbase since launching just a few weeks back. Viewers of your livestream can tweet at you and have those tweets appear on your screen, allowing for quick, on-the-fly interaction and discussion.
Much of Meerkat’s success and draw lays in its tight integration with Twitter — something that many have noted could be an issue moving forward, be it that Twitter decides to get into live video themselves. Which, of course, they’ve just done.
And now Twitter has begun to cut off off Meerkat’s access to Twitter’s social graph.
So what’s that mean? Until now, new Meerkat users could login to the service with their Twitter account, and bam — you’d automatically be following anyone on Meerkat who you already follow on Twitter, and they’d be following you back. It let Meerkat seem like a very, very natural extension of Twitter.
Buzzfeed spotted the change first, when follower counts seemed to be a bit off when creating new accounts.
We’ve reached out to Twitter, who confirmed the change. Here’s what a Twitter spokesperson would say on the matter:
“We are limiting their access to Twitter’s social graph, consistent with our internal policy. Their users will still be able to distribute videos on Twitter and login with their Twitter credentials.”
Is it a devastating change? Maybe not — Meerkat already has a fair amount of momentum behind it. But it’s certainly not something the Meerkat team will be excited about… particularly with the now present threat of an in-house-Twitter competitor looming.
Update: Meerkat co-founder Ben Rubin responds, calling the move “a sad day for the Twitter developer community” but a “small bump for meerkat”:
Much of Meerkat’s success and draw lays in its tight integration with Twitter — something that many have noted could be an issue moving forward, be it that Twitter decides to get into live video themselves. Which, of course, they’ve just done.
And now Twitter has begun to cut off off Meerkat’s access to Twitter’s social graph.
So what’s that mean? Until now, new Meerkat users could login to the service with their Twitter account, and bam — you’d automatically be following anyone on Meerkat who you already follow on Twitter, and they’d be following you back. It let Meerkat seem like a very, very natural extension of Twitter.
Buzzfeed spotted the change first, when follower counts seemed to be a bit off when creating new accounts.
We’ve reached out to Twitter, who confirmed the change. Here’s what a Twitter spokesperson would say on the matter:
“We are limiting their access to Twitter’s social graph, consistent with our internal policy. Their users will still be able to distribute videos on Twitter and login with their Twitter credentials.”
Is it a devastating change? Maybe not — Meerkat already has a fair amount of momentum behind it. But it’s certainly not something the Meerkat team will be excited about… particularly with the now present threat of an in-house-Twitter competitor looming.
Update: Meerkat co-founder Ben Rubin responds, calling the move “a sad day for the Twitter developer community” but a “small bump for meerkat”:
IKEA furniture introduced wireless device chargers
Wireless charging technology is still young, but slowly gain market share. There are two main "players" / standards here. Ones are Wireless Power Consortium, and other Power Matters Alliance. Both standards have a few big players like McDonalds, Starbucks, Xiaomi and so on.Now the Wireless Power Consortium joined announced that IKEA furniture that will have such (Qi) chargers integrated inside. Their idea is to ease congestion on the cables, while charging the devices to be neprimetlivo and viable on the table around which sit.The furniture that filled cell function in a manner that its surface has a section that sets the phone or tablet. If the device supports this charge then feel free to leave it as it would have left any other area and be a witness to wireless charging. According to IKEA, "Through research and visiting homes, we know that people hate the chaos of cables. They worry about how they can not find the charger and it will remain without power. Our innovative solutions that integrate wireless charging in domestic furniture will make life at home easier. "
IKEA still know that you are not just buying furniture from them, so they decided to start to sell these areas independent charging that you can integrate into other furniture. This technology will mostly be for charging devices that are regularly used as phones and tablets, but can be used for other things, such as rechargeable electric toothbrush or shaver.So far, there are not many devices that support wireless charging, and the struggle between two rival standards further complicates the work. However, this is really interesting solution for all those times when we ask friends charger to charge the phone because it spent in the middle of the day.
IKEA still know that you are not just buying furniture from them, so they decided to start to sell these areas independent charging that you can integrate into other furniture. This technology will mostly be for charging devices that are regularly used as phones and tablets, but can be used for other things, such as rechargeable electric toothbrush or shaver.So far, there are not many devices that support wireless charging, and the struggle between two rival standards further complicates the work. However, this is really interesting solution for all those times when we ask friends charger to charge the phone because it spent in the middle of the day.
MWC 2015: Sony Tablet Z4 and Xperia M4 Aqua hands-on
The Xperia M2 Aqua introduced IP68 certification to the budget-conscious crowd only a few months ago. The Xperia M4 Aqua, which Sony just unveiled, comes with markedly better hardware, including an HD display, 64-bit Snapdragon chipset and twice as much RAM.
Sony brought a bunch of accessories as well, most notably a Bluetooth keyboard dock for the Xperia Z4 Tablet, which turns it into an Android ultrabook. A quirky wireless speaker was revealed too alongside a new wireless headset. Fans of wearables weren't left out either, and two more strap options for the SmartWatch 3 were released.
Join us on the following pages where we share our first impressions with all of the above
We packed for Barcelona without expecting to lay our eyes on a next-gen Sony Xperia Z4 flagship, and yet that's exactly what happened. Only it was the Xperia Z4 Tablet, and not the smartphone.
No compromises have been made in terms of hardware and the slate is impressive in every respect. You get a 10.1-inch display of WQXGA resolution (2,560 x 1,600 pixels makes a lot more sense) for a sharp 300ppi density. We had a minor gripe with the previous-gen tablet and its only average 224ppi and we're happy this has been addressed.
It's an IPS panel too, and features Sony's proprietary TRILUMINOUS and X-Reality technologies. In practice this results in pleasant colors, good brightness and wide viewing angles. While the screen remains legible, a significant drop of brightness is observed at extreme angles, though.
The whole thing quickly turns into a smudgy mess, but the engineers pointed out it's not the final version of the oleophobic coating and it will get a lot better by the time the tablet hits the stores. The Xperia Z4 Tablet actually works pretty well when wet - we had the opportunity to test it out and it's miles better than any other touchscreen in that regard.
Design is your typical Xperia affair, or as Sony likes to call it, OmniBalance. Not much has changed since the previous generation, with the notable exception of the 3.5mm jack, which has been relocated to the top.
Engineers managed to trim down the body marginally, compared to the predecessor and now the tablet measures 254 x 166 x 6.1mm. Sony is keen to point out that the Xperia Z4 Tablet is the lightest 10-inch tablet at 392g/396g for the Wi-Fi/LTE versions respectively. It packs the same 6000mAh battery as the Xperia Z2 Tablet, and sports an IP65/IP68 certification, as you surely couldn't have missed in the title photo.
Inside, the Xperia Z4 tablet continues to deliver. The almighty Snapdragon 810 is joined by 3GB of RAM for smooth multitasking, and if the 32GB of built-in storage isn't enough, you can always pop in a microSD card.
Beyond the basics, the Xperia Z4 Tablet isn't short on goodies. An 8.1MP Exmor RS main camera will help you raise eyebrows if used in public, while the 5.1MP wide angle front snapper should be instrumental in video calling. The slate also packs stereo speakers with a handful of quality-enhancing technologies.
Keyboard dock
Alongside the Xperia Z4 Tablet, Sony announced a dedicated keyboard dock for power users. The BKB50 connects via Bluetooth and transforms the Zperia Z4 into a full-fledged ultrabook. It offers 0-130° tilt angles, keys are comfortably pitched and a touchpad is present, in case you forget that you can simply tap on the screen.
The video below offers a quick glimpse of Sony's lightly-skinned Android interface as well as the keyboard dock in action.
Apple Is Pulling a Bunch of the Neatest iOS 8 Apps
Remember when Apple went after that handy note-taking widget, a popular app that’s one the first truly useful widgets for iOS 8? Turns out, Apple’s been pulling all kinds of apps that take advantage of new features in iOS 8—even after they’ve been approved to be in the App Store. And developers are starting to get pretty upset.
The Guardian just published a lengthy report on the trend. The paper names the following apps as victims of Apple’s newly unpredictable App Store:
Transmit, an FTP program that lets you save files iCloud Drive (a new ability in iOS 8)
PCalc, a calculator app and widget that looks a lot like the native iOS calculator
Drafts, a writing app that included buttons in an accompanying widget
Launcher, an app that makes it easier to launch apps from the Notification Center
Why Apple is doing this remains a bit of a mystery. At first glance it would appear that Apple is killing apps that challenge its owns, but upon closer examination, the trend seems to point to some confusion about the new App Store guidelines. Since widgets and extensions are new to iOS 8, there are all kinds of new rules that Apple’s written to make these work they way that they want. It just seems like maybe not all of these new rules are written down, or consistent. And it sucks for the developers who are making useful things, getting them approved, and then watching Apple pull the rug out from under them.
PCalc, a calculator app and widget that looks a lot like the native iOS calculator
Drafts, a writing app that included buttons in an accompanying widget
Launcher, an app that makes it easier to launch apps from the Notification Center
Why Apple is doing this remains a bit of a mystery. At first glance it would appear that Apple is killing apps that challenge its owns, but upon closer examination, the trend seems to point to some confusion about the new App Store guidelines. Since widgets and extensions are new to iOS 8, there are all kinds of new rules that Apple’s written to make these work they way that they want. It just seems like maybe not all of these new rules are written down, or consistent. And it sucks for the developers who are making useful things, getting them approved, and then watching Apple pull the rug out from under them.
We’ve reached out to Apple for more details on the specifics of what’s going on and will update this post if we hear back. [The Guardian]
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