Lexibook kids-tablet coming to the US, makes fifth-graders dream of an Aakash
By Daniel Cooper posted Aug 24th 2012 11:00PM French educational tech maker Lexibook is bringing its eponymous kiddy-tablet to the US from next month. It’s not talking specs or price, but we’re expecting it to be close to the Lexibook First currently available in Europe. The seven-inch slate packs a 600MHz processor, 256MB RAM, 4GB storage (expandable to 16GB with an microSD card), parental controls and 802.11 b/g WiFi....
HP’s bad quarter could prove bad for America
Unless Hewlett-Packard gets its act together quickly, Lenovo will soon become the world’s number one PC maker. If that happens, it’s going to create a moment of national angst. Headlines would declare: Chinese firm becomes world’s top PC maker, displacing U.S., or, more simply, Chinese firm now leads world in PCs. A Lenovo lead in the PC market would prompt widespread commentary about how the U.S. is losing its place...
It Costs Just $1.36 a Year to Charge an iPad
NEW YORK (AP) — That coffee you’re drinking while gazing at your iPad? It cost more than all the electricity needed to run those games, emails, videos and news stories for a year.The annual cost to charge an iPad is just $1.36, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a non-profit research and development group funded by electric utilities.By comparison, a 60-watt compact fluorescent bulb costs $1.61, a desktop PC...
Harvard makes distortion-free lens from gold and silicon, aims for the perfect image (or signal)
By Jon Fingas posted Aug 25th 2012 12:00AM Imaging has been defined by glass lenses for centuries, and even fiber optics haven’t entirely escaped the material’s clutch. Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences might have just found a way to buck those old (and not-so-old) traditions. A new 60-nanometer thick silicon lens, layered with legions of gold nanoantennas, can catch and refocus light without the...
Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 now working on Linux through Google Chrome, more or less
By Jon Fingas posted Aug 25th 2012 1:30AM A Holy Grail of Linux gaming has been an Unreal Engine 3 port. Getting one for the OS would unlock a world of games that has been the province of, well, just about any other mainstream platform. Thanks to Google preserving Flash on Linux through Chrome, that dream is alive in at least a rudimentary form. Experimenters at the Phoronix forums have found that Chrome 21 has support for the Stage...
