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What is Stock Android?

What is Stock Android?






The term "Stock Android" gets thrown around quite a bit — particularly with the introduction of these Google Play edition devices — and has earned a level of reverence that's pretty unparalleled in the Android world. Even the words get a capital letter, so you know it's something that people care about. The (very vocal) minority of us have even forced HTC and Samsung's hand to release their latest and greatest with all their hard work removed and the mighty Stock Android in place. But Stock Android itself is a misnomer, and it's almost impossible to define.

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Microsoft confirms Windows 8 has been released to manufacturing, OEM partners now have final code

RTM. To the everyman, those three letters may not mean much. To those waiting with bated breath for Microsoft's next operating system, it's a huge milestone worth celebrating. Microsoft has today confirmed that Windows 8 has been released to manufacturing, enabling its OEM partners to grab the final code and begin implementation on systems that'll be tempting you mightily starting on October 26th.

If you're curious about the specific rollout details, here goes. Starting August 15th, devs will be able to download the final version of Windows 8 via their MSDN subscription, and IT pros testing Windows 8 in organizations will be able to access the final version of Windows 8 through their TechNet subscriptions. On August 16th, customers with existing Microsoft Software Assurance for Windows will be able to download Windows 8 Enterprise edition through the Volume License Service Center (VLSC). Also on that day, Microsoft Partner Network members will have access to Win8. On August 20th, Microsoft Action Pack Providers (MAPS) receive access to the goods, while Volume License customers without Software Assurance will be able to purchase Windows 8 through Microsoft Volume License Resellers on September 1st.

Google postponing Nexus Q launch to 'make it better,' sending a free device to those who pre-ordered

Apparently Google's strange little media streamer isn't quite ready for prime time -- not according to the company that made it, at least. The software giant has begun sending out a note to pre-orderers letting them know that the launch of the sphere has been delayed in order to "work on making it even better." The company adds that it's responding to user feedback from previewers who want it to "do even more than it does today." To show that there are no hard feelings, the company will be "extend[ing] [the] Nexus Q preview to our pre-order customers and send[ing] [them] a free device," according to Google. We asked the company to clarify that last bit, to make sure if meant exactly what we thought it meant, and sure enough they told us, "We are sending a free Nexus Q to any users who pre-ordered the device at no cost to them." Sometimes it pays to be an early adopter. No word on when the device will begin shipping, but the company promised it will be arriving "soon."

Digg Blog, Welcome to Digg v1

Digg Blog, Welcome to Digg v1:

Really excited to see one of my all time favorite blogs getting a reboot.  Digg had gone so downhill over the past few years that I completely stopped visiting.  Pretty excited that Kevin Rose and the gang saw the worth of the dying beast and decided to pump some new life into it.


On July 20, we announced that we were turning Digg back into a startup and rebuilding it from scratch in six weeks. After an intense month and a half, we managed to get the new Digg up and running on a fresh code base and infrastructure. We now have a solid foundation on which to build, and we expect to build fast. Yesterday, we previewed the new Digg applications for web, iPhone, and mobile web and today we’re happy to share Digg v1.

Sing hello to the iRig PRE, turns iOS devices into on-the-fly mic preamps

Sing hello to the iRig PRE, turns iOS devices into on-the-fly mic preamps

IK Multimedia's never fallen short of giving you some of the better tools for all your on-the-go music-making utilizing your beloved iOS device as the main rig. Now, the peripheral connoisseur's taking the wraps off its iRig PRE, which aims to help you digitally process those glorious vocal chords by allowing you to plug in any XLR mic into it without the need for other adapters or cables. Furthermore, the dongle features a 3.5mm jack for audio monitoring, gain control and can squeeze a runtime of up to 40 hours (dynamic microphones) or 15 hours (phantom powered condenser mics) from a standard 9V battery. The PRE amp will also come included with two of iRig's usual suspect apps (iRig Recorder and VocaLive) to help you get started in your quest to be the next idol. We know you can't wait to get your singing on, but you'll have to wait until "early Q2" to do so, for a moderate price of $39.99 -- perhaps the iRig Miccan get you through the days in the meantime.

Woz Wishes His iPhone Could Beat Android

Woz Wishes His iPhone Could Beat Android 

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is a big fan of smartphones running Google's Android OS . . . and in some ways finds them superior to mobile phones running iOS. "My primary phone is the iPhone. I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do," Woz told Dan Lyons.

The both fascinating and amusing article on The Daily Beast quotes Woz as favoring Android in some ways over Apple smartphones, such as for voice commands and GPS. He even has a gripe with the shortened battery life of an iPhone. The change happened when Apple built the software into the iPhone 4S.

RIP STEVE JOBS

1955 - 2011

Scientific breakthrough: Physicists at CERN have recorded particles moving faster than light

Scientific breakthrough: Physicists at CERN have recorded particles moving faster than light: "Looks like Einstein may have been wrong — An international team of scientists at CERN has recorded neutrino particles traveling faster than the speed of light.
According to Reuters:

Antonio Ereditato, who works at the CERN particle physics center on the Franco-Swiss border, told Reuters that measurements over three years showed the neutrinos moving 60 nanoseconds quicker than light over a distance of 730 km between Geneva and Gran Sasso, Italy.

"We have high confidence in our results. But we need other colleagues to do their tests and confirm them," he said.

If confirmed, the discovery would overturn a key part of Albert Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity, which says that nothing in the universe can travel faster than light."

'God particle' goes missing: Higgs boson 'may not exist' say Hadron Collider scientists

'God particle' goes missing: Higgs boson 'may not exist' say Hadron Collider scientists | Mail Online:

Signals reported in July seemed to indicate that the Higgs boson - a long-theorised particle seen as a missing link in our current understanding of physics - might have been detected among data the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva.

But since then, those signals - hinting that the theoretical 'God' particle might have a mass between 120 and 140GeV - looked much less conclusive among new statistics received from the experiment.

Guido Tonelli, spokesman for the Compact Muon Solenoid Detector, a huge particle detector at CERN employing 3,600 scientists, told the BBC's Today programme this week, 'If we exclude the existence of the Higgs this will be a major discovery - it would completely review our vision of nature.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2037722/God-particle-goes-missing-Higgs-boson-exist-say-Hadron-Collider-scientists.html#ixzz1Y30J6Gjj

Star pummeling alien planet with X-ray attack

Star pummeling alien planet with X-ray attack| MNN - Mother Nature Network

A nearby star is drubbing its close-orbiting planet with a barrage of X-rays 100,000 times more powerful than what the Earth receives from the sun, a new study has found.

That intense, high-energy radiation is blasting about 5 million tons of matter from the gigantic planet into space every second, researchers said. They made the observations using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.

"This planet is being absolutely fried by its star," said study lead author Sebastian Schroeter, of the University of Hamburg in Germany, in a statement. "What may be even stranger is that this planet may be affecting the behavior of the star that is blasting it."

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon roadmap, 2.5GHz CPUs coming early next year

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon roadmap, 2.5GHz CPUs coming early next year -- Engadget:

Speaking at the Innovation Qualcomm event in Istanbul yesterday, Senior Vice President of Product Management Cristiano Amon confirmed that the chipmaker's S4 line of silicon will be shipped to manufacturers by the end of this year and should appear in consumer products by the beginning of 2012. Available in single-, dual- or quad-core models, the new, 28nm additions to the Snapdragon family will also support Adreno graphics, 3D and 1080p HD, in addition to 3G and LTE connectivity.

3D-printed plane takes to the skies, sounds like a Black & Decker

3D-printed plane takes to the skies, sounds like a Black & Decker (video) -- Engadget

You know what's pleasing about this plastic drone, aside from the fact it flies? It took just a week to design and build from scratch, thanks to the labor-saving wonders of 3D printing. Each component was formed in ultra-thin layers by a laser beam trained on a bed of raw material -- either plastic, steel or titanium powder depending on the required part. If designers at the University of Southampton wanted to experiment with elliptical wings, they simply printed them out. If they thought a particular brand of WWII nose cone might reduce drag, they pressed Ctrl-P. And if they reckoned they could invent a wingless flying steamroller... Er, too late. Anyway, as the video after the break reveals, there's never been a better time for the work-shy to become aeronautical engineers.

The Complete History of Android In Infograph Form – The Android Story

Apple may launch cheaper iPad 3 this year according to report

Apple may launch cheaper iPad 3 this year according to report

Apple has inked deals with numerous additional parts suppliers for its upcoming iPad refresh according to a new report from DigiTimes, further supporting the notion that the tech giant plans to unveil a new version of its market-leading tablet later this year. Citing industry sources, the report claims Taiwan-based component manufacturers including Novatek Microelectronics, Richtek Technology, Capella Microsystems and Integrated Memory Logic have been awarded contracts to supply integrated circuits for the iPad 3. Contrary to previous speculation that Apple’s next iPad would be a high-end “Pro” model, DigiTimes states that Apple is seeking to utilize lower cost parts from Taiwanese suppliers in order to “compete with an array of tablet PCs to be launched by rivals in the second half of 2011.” A more likely scenario, however, is that Apple may simply be looking to offset the added expense of the upcoming iPad’s Retina Display with cheaper circuits. Such a move could allow the Cupertino-based company to launch its next-generation iPad at the iPad 2′s current price points. Apple is expected to unveil its new iPad this fall alongside the iPhone 5.

Are you threatening me? Beavis and Butt-head are Back!

Get More: Beavis and Butt-Head, MTV Shows

Guitar Oscillations Captured with iPhone 4

Pretty cool to see the standing waves caused by the different harmonics being produced by each string.  According to the author of the video, they used a bright back light to force the iphone4 to capture at a high frame rate.  

Angry Birds on a physics exam

Just when you thought Angry Birds had invaded everything known to man, our fine feathered friends are now being slung around in your physics exam. Believe it or not, this is actually quite real.

Well if the initial vertical velocity is 13.05 m/s then it will be up 2m after 2.5 seconds. The horizontal component is obviously 22 m/s, so the launch angle is:  atan(13.05/22) or 30.68 degrees ... Nevermind!  Back to the game!

It's here! Spotify lands in the US

It's here! Spotify lands in the US (video) -- Engadget

We knew it was coming, but Europe's beloved music service just officially launched stateside, bringing with it 15 million tracks with on-demand access, MP3 import, an offline mode, and social media integration. The streaming music service is currently in an invite-only beta phase, but you can sign up for an invitation or jump the queue right into the service's Unlimited ($5) or Premium ($10) monthly subscription tiers. Groove on over to the source link to sign up, and start piping millions of free tunes directly to your desktop -- once Spotify sends the welcome nod to your inbox, of course.

Spotify

Graphene chip could hit 1,000GHz, make your Core i7 feel totally inadequate

Graphene chip could hit 1,000GHz, make your Core i7 feel totally inadequate -- Engadget

8GHz (with the help of liquid nitrogen) not quick enough? Leave it to the folks at MIT to make sure your zaniest desires are well taken care of. As research forges ahead on graphene, carbon nanotubes and buckyballs (remember those?), gurus at the university have discovered a breakthrough that could eventually lead to microchips that make existing silicon-based CPUs weep. In fact, the research could lead to practical systems in the 500 to 1,000 gigahertz range. The magic all ties back to advancements on a graphene chip known as a frequency multiplier, and while the nitty-gritty of all this is far too complicated for the layperson to grasp, all you really need to know is this: finally, you can rest assured that you'll one day own a chip capable of handling Duke Nukem Forever.