CERN Announcing New LHC Results July 4th

CERN Announcing New LHC Results July 4th:
An anonymous reader writes "The Higgs boson is regarded as the key to understanding the universe. Physicists say its job is to give the particles that make up atoms their mass. Without this mass, these particles would zip though the cosmos at the speed of light, unable to bind together to form the atoms that make up everything in the universe, from planets to people. From the article: 'Five leading theoretical physicists have been invited to the event on Wednesday - sparking speculation that the particle has been discovered. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are expected to say they are 99.99 per cent certain it has been found - which is known as 'four sigma' level. Peter Higgs, the Edinburgh University emeritus professor of physics that the particle is named after, is among those who have been called to the press conference in Switzerland."
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Nexus 7 "the first Android Tablet" worth buying

Nexus 7 "the first Android Tablet" worth buying: At The Verge, Joshua Topolsky offers a positive write-up of Google's new 7-inch tablet. Aimed more at Kindle's Fire than Apple's iPad, the $200 Nexus 7 nevertheless feels more like the latter than the former: "Google’s Nexus 7 isn’t just an excellent tablet for $200. It’s an excellent tablet, period. In fact, it’s the first Android tablet that I can confidently recommend to buyers."

VLC 2.02 adds Retina display support, ditches font cache interruptions

VLC 2.02 adds Retina display support, ditches font cache interruptions:

The latest version of everyone's favorite file-type-friendly media player has been updated on both Windows and OS X, although the Apple iteration gets the most major addition -- playback support on the new MacBook Pro's Retina display. Alongside sharper menus, VLC's latest update extends functionality to the video itself, maintaining crispness on smaller viewing windows and even fully-blow 4K video. Good news on all platforms though, as the developers have now nixed that grating "building font cache" pop-up window. Smaller changes include support for Growl and the return of the "keep aspect ratio" option. Hit up the changelog for a full run-down of the other changes.

VLC 2.02 adds Retina display support, ditches font cache interruptions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 06:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First DSLR 4K video from prototype Canon EOS-1D C reportedly emerges

First DSLR 4K video from prototype Canon EOS-1D C reportedly emerges:

If you've been wondering what kind of eye candy Canon's EOS-1D C is capable of, you might be in luck. The crew over at EOSHD have apparently snagged some 4K sample footage from an early prototype of the unreleased, professional-grade DSLR. The clip looks slick to us, albeit lacking in the scenery department. Even so, EOSHD comments that while a "massive step up for image quality compared to all previous DSLRs" the video footage isn't as sharp as stills from the 1D X (the 1D C's less-endowed sibling) and "not near what true 4K should look like." (Of course, anyone looking for true 4K is advised to step up to Sony's $70k F65 CineAlta, so we guess you get what you pay for). You can check out the minute-long clip, unfortunately scaled to a Vimeo-friendly 1,920 x 1,080, after the break. If your discerning eye demands the raw footage, however, why not grab the few seconds available at the source link and let us know your thoughts? That's what the comments are for, after all.
Continue reading First DSLR 4K video from prototype Canon EOS-1D C reportedly emerges

First DSLR 4K video from prototype Canon EOS-1D C reportedly emerges originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Jul 2012 22:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Mac Virus Discovered, Making the Rounds

New Mac Virus Discovered, Making the Rounds:
sl4shd0rk writes "A new Mac OS X exploit was discovered Friday morning by Kaspersky Labs which propogates through a zipfile attachment. The attachment tricks the Mac user into installing a variant of the MaControl backdoor via point-and-grunt. Embedded in the virus is an encrypted IP address belonging to a server in China which is believed to be a C+C server. Once installed, the virus opens a backdoor allowing the attacker on the C+C server to run commands on the compromised machine. Shortly after Kaspersky's announcement, AlienVault Labs claims to have found a similar version of the Mac malware which infects Windows machines. The Windows version appears to be a variant of the Gh0st RAT malware used last month in targeted attacks against Central Tibetan Administration. Both viruses are suspected of being tools in a campaign to attack Uyghur Activists."
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Visualized: The iPhone five years after launch

Visualized: The iPhone five years after launch:

In case you somehow missed it, today is an important milestone in technology nostalgia: it's the fifth anniversary of the original iPhone's launch. We'll let you explore the memories of that insane day on your own terms, but ComScore has produced a visual breakdown of just how ownership has grown and shifted over the years. It's not hard to see that adoption has been on an accelerating curve, especially after the 2010 launch of the Retina display-toting iPhone 4: as of this past May, about three quarters of owners have either the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4S. And the 2007 edition? Only two percent of all iPhone owners are still actively holding on to the aluminum-clad debut model, which suggests most would rather have Siri than reminisce. Whether you're a fan or have since moved on to a competitor, the chart is a reminder of just how far one of Steve Jobs' biggest projects has come.

Visualized: The iPhone five years after launch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On the iPhone and Apple's Meteoric Rise To the Top

On the iPhone and Apple's Meteoric Rise To the Top:
zacharye writes "Friday marks five years since the world first got its hands on a smartphone that would turn the industry on its head. In five short years, Apple went from the ground floor to being the most profitable company in the smartphone business by a staggering margin. Apple and Samsung — two companies that weren't even on the smartphone industry's map a few years ago — are now the only two major global vendors making money, and the split was estimated at 80/20 in Apple's favor last quarter. That's 80% of smartphone industry profits in less than five years with just five different smartphone models under its belt during that span."
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3D printed, fully assembled, teeny-weeny little cars

3D printed, fully assembled, teeny-weeny little cars:


This teeny weeny little car is 3D printed, fully assembled, with all its mechanisms in place:

These tiny 3D printed cars were printed on the Objet Eden 3D printer and scale down from 4cm in length to a tiny 1cm in length. Even in the tiniest car, the wheels remain fully functional and there is no deformation of walls or loss of fine details - highlighting the enormous power of Objet's 3D printers to turn CAD designs into visually and functionally accurate prototypes.

Micro car with open doors and turning wheels

Fantasizing about what you could buy instead of health insurance

Fantasizing about what you could buy instead of health insurance: Cockeyed's Rob Cockerham lost his job last year and now works as a contractor. He now buys his own medical insurance:

And man, oh man, is it expensive.

Our family's policy, two adults and two kids, for medical, dental and vision, costs $1,320.87 per month. That's the insurance premium. If we actually use the care, we have to pay a deductable too (called a co-pay), but honestly, after paying $1,320.87 per month, almost any co-pay seems like pocket change.

He began fantasizing about what he could buy with that much month every month:

Visiting car dealerships was fun when I had a potential $1320/month to spend, but maybe that money would be better spent elsewhere. No, not on health insurance, for every extraneous monthly expense I could dream of!

Like Netflix, streaming subscription with 8 DVDs out ($51.88/month), plus a World of Warcraft subscription ($15/month), plus a gym membership ($25/month), a home security monitoring system ($32/month), Gamefly service ($22.95/month), plus a membership to a tanning club ($9.95/month), plus Amazon Prime ($6.66/month), plus Hulu Plus ($7.99), Time Magazine ($2.50/month), Newsweek ($3.25/month), Playboy ($1.33/month), Wired ($1.25), Martha Stewart Living ($2.00/month), a lawn service ($50/month), Dana's Housekeeping service -- four hours/week ($312/month).... uh, plus FullBelly Farms weekly vegetable & flower deliveries ($127.50/month), plus sponsoring a child in Haiti ($35/month), plus Disneyland deluxe annual passes for the whole family ($127.36/month total) plus a large supreme pizza from Pizza Hut delivered every night ($428.40/month). Those things total $1267.02 per month, leaving enough to give the pizza guy a $53 tip.

What I Could Buy Instead of Health Insurance

World's smallest 4K USB 3.0 camera delivers 21 frames per second, fits in pockets

World's smallest 4K USB 3.0 camera delivers 21 frames per second, fits in pockets:

After proving that a 1080p webcam on USB 3.0 was possible, to the surprise of none, Point Grey's latest addition is a little more impressive, This "ice-cube sized" camera can pipe 4,096 x 2,160 images through that capacious USB 3.0 port, using Sony's new IMX1221 Exmor R sensor. Thanks to its size, the camera is geared toward business-centric applications, including broadcasting and high-resolution optical inspection -- which goes some way to explaining the $945 retail price. The full technical spec sheet waits in the press release, right after the break.
Continue reading World's smallest 4K USB 3.0 camera delivers 21 frames per second, fits in pockets

World's smallest 4K USB 3.0 camera delivers 21 frames per second, fits in pockets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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