Technology | Binary Impact

27th
JAN

Comparing the Big 4: Google vs. Microsoft vs. Apple vs. Yahoo!

Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Tech

It’s no secret that Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo are always expanding their reaches, slowly but surely adding new products and services into their line-ups. The New York Times’s Nick Bilton took a step back and surveyed their empires.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to see how much these four behemoths overlap, and I doubt anyone will be surprised when these companies continue to fill in this grid in 2010.

Looking at the empty spaces reveals where we might look for these companies to grow. There have been grumblings of a Google music store for a while, and it seems entirely possible that Apple’s Tablet will at least in part emphasize its capabilities as a gaming device.

As the companies stretch and grow, some of their endeavors will prove more successful than others, but until then this chart is an interesting reminder of how vast their reaches already are.

[New York Times Bits]

Tags: Apple, Google, Hardware, Internet, Microsoft, Search, Software, Technology, Yahoo!

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18th
JAN

Dell Froot Concept Design Does Away with Keyboard, Monitor

Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Tech

With the environment and sustainability firmly in mind the Dell Froot concept saves the planet courtesy two projectors: One for the virtual keyboard, and another for the monitor.

Designed by Pauline Carlos as part of a sustainability contest sponsored by Dell, the Froot also uses a colorful case that’s constructed out of a biodegradable starch-based polymer. As it’s a futuristic concept, the lack of a mouse is understabdable—we’ll no doubt be using our brains by then.

More seriously, Pico projectors are almost there, but not quite, otherwise I’d be asking why this is still just a concept.

[Behance Network]

Tags: Dell, Desktop, Froot, Technology

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23rd
JUN

New Treatment Filters Bacteria From the Bloodstream with an Electromagnet

Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Tech

This may sound like something out of Iron Man, but it’s very real. Don Ingber has developed a machine that uses an electromagnet to suck sepsis-causing bacteria out of the blood.

In lab tests, Ingber’s team mixed donor blood with the fungus Candida albicans, a common cause of sepsis, and added plastic-coated iron-oxide beads, each a hundredth of a hair-width in diameter and covered with antibodies that seek out and attach to the fungus. Next they ran the mixture through the dialysis-like machine, which uses an electromagnet to pull the beads, and any pathogens stuck to them, from blood into a saline solution. The device removes 80 percent of the invaders-enough so that drugs could knock out the rest-in a couple of hours.

He still has to perform testing on animals to make sure it doesn’t, you know, kill things, but it all looks quite promising. If it works for this bacteria, he’s hoping to jigger the process to pull cancer cells from the body or harvest stem cells. [PopSci]

Tags: Medicine, Science, Technology

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17th
JUN

iSamurai: Two-Person Fighting on the iPhone

Posted by Mavrik | Filed under Tech

iSamurai is a crazy two-player app that recreates real Samurai sword fighting without the worry of killing your sparring partner.

The app uses the iPhone’s built-in motion sensor and accelerometer (similar yet better than the lightsaber app) to tell where the iPhone is in space and make noises that suggest that you are fighting with swords. It connects to another player’s iPhone with peer-to-peer networking. As you can see above, the concept of fighting with invisible swords takes a bit of skill and imagination but it’s a fascinating use of all of the iPhone’s motion features. It’s available now for 99 cents. I know you’re all hoping there’s a lightsaber app coming out like this one because I know I am!

The iPhone and iPod Touch have three accelerometers (devices which measure changes in speed and gravity). When a player swings his iPhone to attack, the iPhone senses the motion using its accelerometers and communicates that motion in real time over Wi-Fi to the opponent’s iPhone. If the opponent holds up his iPhone with the correct block for that attack, the ring of steel on steel is heard. Unsuccessful blocks result in a variety of sound effects indicating that an attack was successful. At no time do the iPhones come into actual contact with each other or with the opponent, but the iPhones know what is happening in the battle and simulate a real sword fight.

iSamurai: Two-Player Sword Fight includes the following features:
* Two-player interactive Wi-Fi game using two iPhones or iPod Touches
* Single-player game with four levels of difficulty
* Tutorial featuring animations of the different attacks
* Training “Dojo” where the player can practice the different iSamurai moves
* Art of War quotes from legendary warriors

Tags: Apps, iPhone, iPod touch, iSamurai, Technology

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11th
JUN