Scientists are using the power of the web to track and find real disease outbreaks. Every hour, HealthMap, an infectious disease-tracking website, feeds off of news, public health list serves, and the World Health Organization\'s online pages to survey the spread of infections. With help from Google, the program has identified 95 percent of all disease outbreaks, sometimes days before the WHO or international disease control agencies can announce them.
Most recently, HealthMap detected the salmonella outbreak in the U.S., which has sickened over 1,000 people, long before the Center for Disease Control announced that it was happening. By alerting officials and doctors to the most likely diseases in their area, the web tool could help make health care much more efficient and precise. [Discovery]
The iPhone 2.0 Pwnage Tool is now available, weighing in at 19.7MB. It came slightly earlier than expected, but I\'m sure nobody\'s complaining that they can now unlock their iPhones and iPod Touches a day early. Grab it on the iPhone Dev Site. It only jailbreaks, not unlocks the iPhone 3G, so you\'ll have to wait a little longer for that one. [iPhone Dev Blog]
Looks like Asus listened to us when we complained about the price of their biggest and best Eee PC yet, the Eee PC 1000H. It\'s been on sale for less than a week, but Newegg\'s already dropped the price by $100. In case that was the only thing preventing you from taking a bite out of Eee, go pick it up now for $549. [Mobile Stylus]
One of the many exciting aspects of The Dark Knight is how the movie incorporated IMAX shots. Friends who watched the film have called the shots absolutely stunning and incredibly immersive; another reason why this is the Best. Movie. Ever. Having yet to see it, I can only sigh wistfully and aggregate information on how it was done. Popular Mechanics has a great write-up of the challenges in shooting with an IMAX camera, including a behind-the-scenes video on how the action came together.
IMAX cameras, which use 70mm film, are much larger and heavier than a traditional 35mm machine. Among the plethora of changes to accommodate IMAX, technicians reinforced gyrostabled remote control camera cranes, crafted sturdier rigs to be mounted on cars, and forced one poor cameraman to actually carry the damn thing on his shoulders in an especially tense S.W.A.T. Team sequence.
When you\'re done checking the video out, head over to Wired (if you haven\'t already) for even more information on Christopher Nolan\'s methods and madness. Helicopters, wrangling with the Chinese government; the making of this movie could be its own movie. [Popular Mechanics]
For DIYers with a lot more technical know-how than cash, an Instructables user has put up a really interesting tutorial on building an electric motorcycle using just $3000. The vehicle has a 70mph top speed, but can only go about 10 miles before it needs to be recharged. It\'s great for a quick trip to the store, if you don\'t make any unexpected stops along the way. With gas prices being what they are, you should probably try to make it so everything you would normally need to get to is less than 10 miles away anyhow. [Instructables via Uberreview]
With all the advances in technology we\'ve had over the last couple of decades, you\'d think that something as simple as changing your land line number into a cellular one would take hours at most. At least Congress does, and its now urging the FCC to put rules in place that will speed up local number portability processing.
Congress says the rules, which would give a 48-hour time limit for carriers to transfer numbers between each other, are necessary since carriers have been known to delay processing in a bid to throw as many retention offers as they can at customers trying to switch. The FCC seems to agree that it\'s a good idea, but was ambivalent as always about when it\'d get around to implementing new regulations. [DSLreports]
The iPhone Dev hints rather strongly on their official blog that the much anticipated Pwnage tool that\'ll jailbreak phones running the 2.0 software so you can install unofficial apps alongside those from the App store will be released tomorrow. Usually I hate Sundays, but apparently not tomorrow. [iPhone Dev Team Blog]
After he left Microsoft, Satoshi Nakajima, the lead architect of Windows 95 and a "defining force" in the creation of Internet Explorer 3.0, wanted to understand why people were so into Apple. He picked up a Mac two years ago and decided he\'d never use a PC again. Now his company, Big Canvas, develops apps for the iPhone. Their first app for the iPhone, PhotoShare, isn\'t bad, but it\'s another photo service to sign up for, and we just wanna use Flickr, damn it.
Still, he has some interesting thoughts on the mobile market, like there\'s "no business reason" to develop for Android and that "Apple has proved that having a single app store does make sense to users as well as the offerers, so I believe Microsoft, Nokia and possibly Google will follow and we’ll have five stores, and that’s ideal."
Google has already announced that there will be an app store for Android, so that\'s at least two in the game (and I think he\'s right about the others). Check out the full interview over at Cult of Mac. [Cult of Mac, PhotoShare]
Sometimes I pick up my phone and say to myself “Gee, this communication device just isn\'t cryptic enough. It\'s too user friendly and not enough like a puzzle out of the Da Vinci Code.” Apparently designer Marc Schömann was listening in, because he\'s now created a baton style mobile that forces you to twist sections of it to make calls.
The phone has no display and no buttons, and uses haptic feedback—though it\'s not really clear for what. Line up the number you\'re trying to dial on twelve numbered sections and then twist the top until an LED turns green to make the call. Par for the course with its cryptic design, the phone is unnamed. I can\'t wait to show this to my buddies at the Secret Society of Utterly Useless Gadgets. [Yanko Design]
European researchers are developing a software that will give robots the power to learn when a person is sad, happy or angry. The Feelix Growing project is putting together simple robots that can detect different parameters—facial expressions, voice and proximity—to determine emotional states. The aim of the project is to develop a robot that can serve humans with special needs, such as the ill and the elderly. Using adaptable neural networks, the robot can learn the correct way to respond to people\'s emotions from experience.
For instance, if someone shows fear, the robot can learn to change its behavior to appear less threatening. If someone seems happy, the robot can make a mental (or, I guess, digital) note of what brought on that response. And if someone seems upset and lonely, the robot can give her a pat on the back, offer her a stiff drink and say "Elaine, you deserved someone better than that dickwad anyhow."
I, for one, welcome our new emotionally adept overlords. [Physorg]
Not looking so good on the Psystar front. Following Apple\'s inevitable lawsuit and demand that every Mac clone be recalled, apparently their HQ is on the market and "priced for quick sale" by owners Constructora Canahuati. "Find new headquarters" is a hell of an addition to an already busy to-do list. [Yahoo!, Thanks Sean!]
If you Google "iPhone apps," the first thing that comes up is iPhoneApps.org, a site selling a bundle of "top 10" iPhone applications for $25 using "safe PayPal." Friends, there\'s nothing safe about this site. It\'s a scam. The iTunes App Store is the exclusive distributor of official iPhone apps, period. Don\'t get your apps anywhere else. Tell your friends and family. If you\'re savvy enough to use Installer.app, this PSA is not for you, obviously. [Thanks Blake!]
Apple TV\'s onscreen keyboard is an exercise in stress management, especially with its morsel of a remote. Not pimped by Apple is that the iPhone\'s Remote app solves this by presenting the iPhone\'s keyboard anytime you need to type and would otherwise pop a blood vessel, like when you\'re searching for "Jay and Seth Vs. the Apocalypse" on YouTube or plumbing through iTunes. Handy for the weekend, no? [Daring Fireball via Mac Rumors]
Little girls in Japan will get their chance today to act out their fantasies of being American corporate tools, thanks to Bandai\'s new mobile communicator “Smart Berry” toy, which kind of looks like a Mylo done up in pastel colors. The Smart Berry includes a touchscreen LCD panel measuring roughly 2 inches by 1.4 inches, a slide- out keyboard, and Wi-Fi capabilities for email, chat and online games.
The device registers user profiles so that Smart Berry owners can only send and receive mail from friends. Up to four units can communicate with each other at the same time if they\'re all within a 10-meter diameter. Additionally, it also has a virtual Tamagotchi-like pet you can play with. The toy costs $97 and is targeted at girls from ages 6 to 9. Boys who want to send emails on a faux-mobile device while raising their own virtual pet are SOL this time around, I guess. [Tech On]
These photos, taken from a Flickr set, show what appears to be some sort of crashed spacecraft in London\'s Potters Field. They offer no explanation as to what\'s going on over there across the pond. Do any of you know what this is? Movie shoot? Publicity stunt? Photoshoppery? Actual alien invasion? Let\'s hear your guesses, both educated and uneducated, in the comments. Update: It\'s an ad for a new car. Boo. [Flickr via NotCot]
Guitarists may get all the chicks, but some of us loudly and proudly played less popular instruments and heck, we ought to get a chance to be a hero too! While I plead with Harmonix to include the noble Euphonium in their next music game, you other band geeks can show solidarity with your instrument of choice by wearing it on your shirt. Torsopants has a crazy collection of Guitar Hero parodies for almost every musical player out there. Banjo Hero? Kazoo Hero? Didgeridoo Hero? All yours for $19 plus shipping. [Torsopants via Boingboing]
Despite wanting desperately to watch The Dark Knight, I still haven\'t gotten a chance to rush out to my nearest movie theater and bask myself in the two-or-so-hours of nerdgasmic delight I know is waiting for me. So as the stellar reviews pour in from the papers and from friends, I need to find creative ways to scratch that Batman itch. Like papercraft! Here\'s an amazing Batmobile Tumbler design created by paper model expert Claudio. With hundreds of individual pieces, I bet this thing will distract me until my man in shining (black rubber) armor whisks me off to the cinema. [Technabob]
Let\'s say that you did have some disposable income at some point in time, but it happened to turn into a spankin\' new iPhone 3G right before you realized Junior desperately needed a new computer for the school year. Don\'t worry, Taranfx\'s here to help make up for your bad parenting without throwing you deeper into debt: Starting Sunday at 8am, Wal-Mart will be selling a 15.4-inch Toshiba Satellite notebook with an Intel Celeron processor for $398. The Toshiba will be decked out with 2GB RAM, a 120GB hard drive, CD-RW and Windows Vista Premium. [Check Out Blog]
Oscar Pistorius, double-amputee with carbon-fiber "cheetah" blades, failed to qualify for the Olympics. He just missed the needed time in the 400 meter of 45.55 seconds, though it should be noted he posted a new personal best of 46.25. [New Scientist Tech, via Engadget]
Motorola, upset that one of its former executives might be violating a no-compete clause in his contract, has sued him for going to work at Apple with the iPhone as an executive in sales. The contention isn\'t just sour grapes, says Moto, but that the exec, Michael Fenger, has intimate knowledge of Motorola\'s "trade secrets and customer relationships". But let\'s be clear here: The people who settled for a free RAZR are not the people waiting in like for the iPhone. We\'ll see what happens. Non-compete suits are usually pretty cut and dry, but this one could get interesting, if not humorous. [Yahoo! News]
This week marks the 40th anniversary of Intel, the people who likely made the CPU in your computer. To mark the occasion, the people at PC Magazine have put together a pretty comprehensive timeline showing every major generation of Intel processor from the first one to the current Core 2 Quad and Atom series processors. We\'ve all used them at some point in our lives, and I remember my first Intel processor was a Pentium II running at a blazing 233MHz. I loved that laptop. What was your first Intel processor? Or which was your favorite? [PC Mag]
CenterStage, the great Media Center-like UI for OS X, has merged with the Plex project, an alternative interface in hopes of creating a de facto product for any Mac user looking for more functionality that Apple TV currently affords. The application can play back many formats the Apple TV, and even iTunes, can\'t, like XviD, AVI, Video_TS, and others, straight through your HDTV. It also has additional features like streaming Internet radio and built-in game emulators. The excellent Plex UI will mix with what CenterStage already has built, the end result being a universal application for Mac-centric Media Centers that\'s easy to use. Check out the new UI demo and screen shots after the jump. [CenterStage]
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D is a Mario Kart-like 3D racer with Crash Bandicoot at the wheel instead of the chubby Brooklyn plumber. You unlock new characters as you collect items, but the controls are pretty much standard for iPhone racing games. The one thing we noticed is that the default calibration is off, leading Crash to always veer left at the neutral point even when we started up the game with the phone on a desk. This means we needed to tilt the phone slightly to the right to go straight. For $9.99, we expect better. [iTunes Link and iPhone App Review Marathon]
Of all the talk of the iPhone 3G being THE new porn delivery device for on-the-go businessmen, there\'s been very little evidence of that actually being the case. Until now. A new site called iRoticNET.com offers a $9.95 subscription for absolutely unlimited porn direct from their site, featuring over 200 titles at launch next week on July 22. Our hands-on verdict? It\'s wankalicious.
Even over 3G and not Wi-Fi, the video quality was remarkably good for something you\'re watching streamed live. You can seek to any part of the movie using the default iPhone movie playback controls—just like the kind you see in any embedded Quicktime movie. Audio quality was good and the 200 movies gives you a fairly ample selection that will only grow as the site matures. For $9.95, it\'s a pretty damn good deal if you\'re a frequent traveler or if you need to hide your habit from your wife. "Favorites" support even helps you get to your preferred scenes as quickly as humanly possible.
In our opinion, it\'s probably the easiest way to get porn on your iPhone without loading it up in iTunes beforehand. [iRoticNET]
Couple of news tidbits from the shadowy Wii homebrew scene today. First is what is supposedly the first custom Wii firmware that its author, Waninkoko, claims will allow the Wii to read burned DVDs without any hardware modification. And from the "just for the hell of it" department is a separate announcement of a PSP emulator running successfully on the Wii—albeit at a blazingly unplayable four to eight frames per second. The PSP emulator smells a bit more of fish than the DVD-R enabling firmware, but neither have been tested officially. [Waninkoko, DCEmu via Slashdot]
It\'s Mercedes\' Swarovski Elements iPhone pouch from their GLK collection, which holds your iPhone the way that only a gaudy piece of leather can. Only 40 are going to be made (as of now), and will be raffled off in the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin to people who are rich enough to attend. More gaudiness after the jump. [eMercedes Benz]
We have known for quite some time that the TSA would allow companies to develop "checkpoint friendly" laptop cases—and now the first products are beginning to roll out to the masses. The ScanFast collection from Mobile Edge is among these new releases, and their lineup features a backpack, briefcase, and a messenger bag that can allow security personnel to easily view its contents so you never have to remove your laptop. The products are expected to be released "in late summer" but pricing info has not been made public. [Mobile Edge]
This is a backpack that doubles as a birdcage. You can carry your bird around with you. On your back. In the birdcage backpack. TGIF, am I right, guys?? [Designboom via Coolest Gadgets]
It seems like common sense—if drivers have two hands on the wheel they are less likely to get in an accident on the road. Therefore, all states should adopt a hands-free law when it comes to driving and cellphone use. However, there are studies out there that suggest hands-free driving with a Bluetooth headset is as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol. Whether that is true or not, there is still the problem of implementing the law in such a way that it becomes a truly effective deterrent. So, despite these potential shortcomings, do you support hands free laws?
If you have been busted by the hands-free law, Bluetooth headset companies are already doing promotions aimed at offenders. (Although, you can type in any random number in the citation box and still get the deal.)
It won\'t make its official debut until July 30th, but if you just can\'t wait another 12 days to get your hands on one, it can be had right now on Craigslist. Why anyone would spend a premium amount of cash on a used test unit with the release less than two weeks away is beyond me, but I wouldn\'t be surprised if someone took the bait. [Craigslist via HipTop3 via BGR]
