Brain of Samsung Galaxy S4 sets world record to solve Rubik’s Cube

This basically proves that anything can be achieved with some Legos and a smartphone. In Birmingham, United Kingdom, at the Big Bang Fair, a robot, Cubestormer 3, shattered the world record for solving the iconic 3D puzzle that is Rubik’s Cube.

To put things in perspective, the human-powered record was set last year by Mats Valk of the Netherlands. He could only solve it in 5.55-seconds. That was not fast enough for what was then holding the absolute record that was Cubestormer 2 (powered by a Samsung Galaxy S2) which managed to solve the puzzle in 5.27-seconds.

Cubestormer 3 is a whole new generation of geekdom and robot.  Legos with robot actuators are connected to a Samsung Galaxy S4 (Exynos octa-core powered) which is tasked with analyzing the cube’s starting arrangement.  Then, the Samsung directs the Mindstorm actuators to spin the cube in the manner needed to solve the puzzle.

How fast did Cubestormer 3 handle the mission? Try 3.253-seconds. As you can see in the video below the device is hammering the Rubik’s Cube with movements that are basically faster than the human eye can see. Then again, when you look at at Mats Valk’s video solving the puzzle, his action is pretty fast too. What is your record for solving the puzzle (no, taking it apart and reassembling does not count)?

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This list is brought to you by 25 years of the world wide web

When Tim Berners-Lee penned a memo to his boss at CERN in March 1989, he was looking for a better way to manage information about complex evolving systems. He proposed an interconnected network of information that would improve communication at the facility, but there was no way of knowing what a tangled web we would weave. That memo would eventually spawn the world wide web and the various memes, crowdfunded gadgets and user-generated porn sites that it made possible. Hell, you wouldn't be reading Engadget if it weren't for Sir Berners-Lee. In homage to that great network of information that we all know and surf today, we present you with 25 things made possible by the big ole' W3.

1. Keyboard an4rchy

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How Independent Media Around The World Can Flourish

Independent media has historically faced an uphill slog. Before the Internet, organizations had to deal with printing costs and very limited distribution networks. Web 2.0 gave them new outlets, but did not necessarily help publications grow readership or attract sponsors.

As smartphone penetration rates around the world increase, however, and platforms like videos become more accessible for creators and viewers alike, independent publications now have fresh opportunities to change the news industry.

Marcus Brauchli and Sasa Vucinic are two media veterans who believe in the potential of independent publications around the world. Brauchli’s background includes top editing positions at the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, while Vucinic helped launch the non-profit Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) and is also the founder and CEO of Indie Voices, a crowdfunding site for media projects around the world. I spoke to them last week at the Taipei offices of The News Lens, where they are angel investors as well as advisors.

The two plan to find more independent media organizations throughout the world that combine strong perspectives with solid business models.

Though they don’t plan to focus exclusively on digital publications or startups, Brauchli and Vucinic are especially keen on media companies that have figured out how to use technology to scale up quickly without having to sacrifice their editorial integrity and are willing to find new ways to engage with readers.

As investors, the two say they want to provide capital “without editorial strings attached.”

“Our intention is to create the absolutely ideal media investor that no one should be afraid of,” says Brauchli. “Our intention is to invest in media companies that are interested in high quality news, that are not manipulated, that do not belong to any specific political parties, that belong only to themselves and their own sound thinking.”

Disrupting traditional media around the world

Another of Vucinic and Brauchli’s goals is to help independent media organizations around the world connect and learn from one another.

“It’s a great time for independent media because technology reduces the entry barrier,” says Vucinic. “It makes it a phenomenal time for media in general. It’s David versus Goliath, and David is always a little smarter, more nimble, more fast.”

“It’s the classic disruptive play,” Brauchli adds. “The media has tended to be big, expensive, with all kinds of legacy costs, and the opportunity afforded by technology is to come in–inexpensive, fast, agile, and independent–and present an alternative approach to an audience that is maybe tired of the old style and are looking for new voices that are independent and truthful to help them understand the world.”

He points to Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp as a “transaction that to some degree suggests the nature of the global technology media market, which is that what works in one place may also drive change in another place.”

“There’s a great opportunity for us to spend time in developing markets and understand what people are doing there, because there are people in the U.S. who may at times be myopic about the importance and centrality of the U.S. in the evolution of media,” says Brauchli.

“There are smart, creative, innovative people everywhere around the world, and they are constantly coming up with fresh ideas and perspectives.”

Using tech to create new outlets

The News Lens launched just last summer, but has quickly developed a reputation as a trusted source for information in Taiwan’s crowded media landscape.

Co-founded by Joey Chung and Mario Yang, the site uses multiple channels and organic marketing through social media to build readership without sacrificing the quality of their content, which combines news aggregation and original analysis.

For example, The News Lens, which launched with a mobile-optimized site, recently started producing videos with 90-second news summaries that play on screens in high-traffic areas like shopping centers and will eventually be shown on TV networks, too.

The company also recently struck a deal with one of Taiwan’s largest taxi groups to play videos on in-car monitors and is even talking with 7-Eleven about placing news snippets on their coffee cups. The latter idea is particularly savvy because Taiwan has the world’s highest concentration of convenience stores and 7-Eleven is the leading chain.

“When we look at media companies, we are looking at people who understand the importance and centrality of mobile, social, and video, and who are open to whatever technological possibilities might emerge,” says Brauchli. “Because the truth is, most new players can leapfrog the newer, existing legacy players.”

Long-term sustainability

Vucinic and Brauchli say another area where independent media organizations have the potential to innovate is monetization. For example, online publications can explore a freemium model that targets their core readership and allows them develop without having to worry about adjusting their editorial policy to suit corporate owners or advertisers.

While the two look for companies that are commercially-focused and have the potential to be profitable, they don’t demand short-term financial results.

“Reliable, high-quality information creates a good business in the long term. We are not interested in a quick buck or quick investment,” says Vucinic.

Ultimately, the most important thing for any media company to figure out is how to adapt to the demands of their growing readership while maintaining a strong and consistent editorial vision.

“Anyone who is doing news today has to have a very focused sense of who they are serving,” says Brauchli. “You need to know who your audience is or they don’t know who you are.”

Image by Flickr user Andy Beatty under a CC BY 2.0 license.

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All the best CNET TV bloopers from Mobile World Congress

Not every CNET TV video goes off without a hitch. Yes, sometimes we stumble here and there. Check out the best bloopers from our Mobile World Congress team.

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Yahoo Acquires Virtual World Gaming Startup Cloud Party, Will Shut It Down

Yahoo is doing more than just throwing shade at Google on Twitter today and then taking it back – the company has acquired Cloud Party, a browser-based game creation engine. In a blog post today, the Cloud Party team shared that they will be joining Yahoo after two years of operation, and that the service will shut down on February 21, 2014.

Cloud Party is the work of a founding team of MMO and console game industry vets, including Sam Thompson (formerly of Cryptic and Pandemic), Jimb Esser (also ex-Cryptic), Conor Dickinson (ex-Facebook, Tomb Raider dev and Cryptic alum) and Jered Windsheimer (Cryptic, natch). They built Cloud Party as a sort of free-form virtual world experience, similar to Second Life, but with an updated view of what an online virtual world might look like with more emphasis on user-generated 3D content.

It’s not exactly clear what the team will be working on at Yahoo, but it will definitely be games related, as Thompson notes in his farewell blog post that the Cloud Party squad is “excited to bring

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Intel’s Vision: Wearables Everywhere In A Post-Windows World

At its CES-opening keynote Intel laid bare its vision for computing in the future. If Microsoft is remembered for the once Quixotic goal of ‘a computer on every desk,’ Intel has taken up the mantel of ‘a computer in every thing.’

Touting new hardware, new computing chips, and operating system agnosticism, Intel talked its way through gaming, sensors, smart gadgets, and more to draw the picture of its take on what is next for the technology industry.

At the core of its view is the idea of ‘smart,’ which is to say a regular item made intelligent through a firm dose of computing power. Its catalyst for this trasmorgification is the Edison, a full computer the size of an SD card. Available in the middle of this year, the Edison runs Linux, and can bring the power of computing into a plethora of new environments.

During its keynote, Intel showed off a few gadgets of its own provenance that contained roughly the same charisma as a bucket of warm spit; contained therein: an awkward headset more fit for a failed Star Trek competitor, a bowl that charged your devices in an unexplained manner, and a watch that did something.

But what Intel has in mind is the introduction of computing power everywhere, a fabric of intelligence woven into your daily life to quantify and understand and react and control your world. If you are even slightly chart-inclined, this is a future of information at the ready of scale you can scarcely imagine.

I would love to know the impact of my morning coffee on my heart rate provided a set of conditions from the previous night. If I was out late, does a four or five shot latte provide the best morning boost? What about the post-caffeine crash? Surely this could be looked into if the devices and brains that were integrated into my life became intelligent enough to tally their own scores, and, this is key, talk to the rest of my life’s trinkets.

And here we’ve come to it: You can’t create an endemic layer of sensor technology that needs to speak to its cohort in harmony, and intelligently enough to draw and explain inferences thereof without a set of firmware intelligent enough to keep the whole game in the air.

And the Edison runs Linux.

We’re in a slightly post-PC era in that the venerable PC in its desktop and laptop formats is losing ascendancy in certain use categories to tablets and other SKUs across old school computing needs. But what Intel is drawing is a future in which the very core fabric of our digital lives will be the passive collating of data, and in its view Windows is nowhere in sight. How can you run Windows on microcomputers that retail for a fraction of the cost of Windows to an OEM building a new PC?

And as you expect, the Edison contains an application store, and supports what Intel awkwardly called “app store programming.” So this is another potential oxygen leak for Microsoft’s yet nascent Windows 8.x operating system.

The Edison is not out yet, its market impact yet demonstrated, and its vision just that, an untested potential, but Intel has plans: A more than million dollar competition is in the works that will see developers walk away with six-figure checks for the best use of the Edison.

Ironically, the company in the best position to state that new hardware well-suited for hacking leads to developer interest is Microsoft itself, who had great success with its Kinect sensor in the homebrew community.

Your Platform, My Platform

The WinTel era is not over, but it’s certainly no longer the titanic force that it once was. Before, when Windows and Intel were lashed together, dominating the personal computing market as a duo full of vigor and vim, there was a shared symbiosis.

Now that Windows is seeing its device volume decline, and rival platforms such as Android laptops and Chrome-based netbooks eat at its device points, Intel is not surprisingly looking to new pastures.

The company did mention Windows in its keynote, but pivoted quickly (provided that my notes are on point here) to a discussion about its forthcoming Windows and Android dual operating system platform. I don’t think the venture has much in the way of legs, but the idea is simple: Bring users the platforms that already have the apps they want. And if Windows is going to lag its rivals, so be it.

This is, of course, a new blurring of the lines between the traditional and the mobile computing worlds, a trend that Microsoft is itself pressing with its Windows 8.x platform and shared Windows core that extends a similar user interface from desktops to tablets to phones to your television.

Towards the end of its talk, Intel brought Steam on stage to show off its Steam Machine hardware, which brings games into your living room. It’s a direct threat to the Xbox, in other words. The Steam rep was more than effusive about Intel. Oh, and Steam Machines run SteamOS, which is based on Linux.

So, Intel today was on about Linux an Android more than it was about Windows and other Microsoft products. To have such a long ally doodle up a picture of the future that all but excludes Microsoft is no subtle move.

Intel will continue to sell billions of dollars in chips to power PCs each year, but it is certainly not tying itself to the past. We already knew nearly all of this, but it’s important to note that even that those closest to Microsoft’s soul — Windows — are aware of its current weaknesses.

So, onward in the view of Intel, towards a smart world, where every object no matter how small is intelligent. Where Microsoft fits into that currently only has a single apparent answer in Intel’s future: It doesn’t.

Top Image Credit: Flickr

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Meatspace, A World Of Animated Gifs, Human Robots And The Ephemerality Of Snapchat-Like Apps

Meatspace, an addictive new web service and mobile app is part Snapchat, part Twitter and part animated gifs. It works like this: You write an update in 250 characters or less and then pose for the camera on your computer or phone. The service then records and makes a two-second animated loop.

Meatspace shifts the conversation into a different space than a conventional chat service, news feed or shared video stream. Instead, it’s an ephemeral app, similar to Snapchat or Blink. There is no archiving as with Twitter or an enterprise platform like Yammer. Updates disappear after ten minutes. There is no unique URL — the updates just go away like most conversations do when people talk over a beer or cup of coffee. Like the conversation you might have with a friend over dinner, the memories are of the highlights you recall and person’s expressions.

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Open Thread: What Will You Give The World This Year?

Maybe it’s the ham and biscuit brunch talking, but here’s something we’ve never done: an open thread. To celebrate our new Facebook commenting system, I’d like you all to start sharing what you’d like to give the world this Christmas. Is it your start-up? Is it a new hardware project? Is it a great idea? An event you’re planning? Share it here and let’s have a nice, free-for-all Festivus of self-promotion/happiness/good wishes. I’ll keep my eye on this thread and follow up with you folks in 2014.

Happy Festivus!

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In A Post-Amazon World, E-Commerce Site Wayfair Wants To Win At Selling Home Goods And Furnishings

Taking on Amazon when it comes to e-commerce can be a futile effort. There are only a handful of e-commerce companies that have successfully been able to build a billion dollar-plus business in e-commerce (without having physical stores) in a post-Amazon world. Zulily is one of those companies. Another one, which has stayed relatively under the radar, is Boston-based Wayfair.

Wayfair, founded by college friends Niraj Shah and Steve Conine in 2002, was born from CSN Stores, and rebranded as Wayfair in 2011. Shah and Conine are serial entrepreneurs, having sold their first company, Spinners, to XML in 1998.

What’s impressive about Shah and Conine’s company  is that it has quietly been able to create a solid, $1 billion business around selling home goods and furniture online and will likely IPO in the next year or so. Instead of appealing solely to a high-end market, Wayfair focuses on the mid-market, competing with the Macys, Overstocks, Target, Bed Bath and Beyonds of the world. In addition to the Wayfair.com destination, the company also operates a One Kings Lane-competitor, Joss & Main (which focuses on high-end furniture), as well as a modern furniture site (think CB2 or Design Within Reach) called AllModern.

As Shah explains to me, the company hasn’t focused on pursuing massive press attention to flaunt big-name backers, even though Wayfair counts early Twitter backer Spark Capital, Battery Ventures, HarbourVest Partners and Great Hill Partners as investors. In fact, for the forts nine years of operation, the company was bootstrapped. In 2011, Wayfair did decide to raise funding to expand aggressively, and took $200 million from the investors named above.

The site now has 7 million home products available for purchase from a fulfillment network of 8,000 suppliers across 12,000 brands. And Wayfair is seeing $1 billion in order volume, which translates into $900 million in sales for 2013. That’s up from $600 million in sales from 2012.

One drawback to ordering on Wayfair is because of its fulfillment network, and because it is shipping furniture, it can take days or even weeks to receive an item. But unlike Target or Macy’s’ online sites, Shah says, Wayfair actually pays attention to merchandising and has been utilizing technologies such as Pinterest-like inspiration clipboards, and more to help engage consumers. In fact, the company employs over 300 data scientists and engineers to help use these data points towards increasing personalization and engagement. To be fair, the Targets and Walmarts of the world are starting to realize that design, personalization and technology can only help them increase sales, but these companies tend to move slowly.

Home and furnishing spend is a $200 billion market in the U.S. alone, and only five percent is this spending is online. As e-commerce continues to grow, Wayfair’s share of this will too. Right now, Shah estimates that Wayfair has around one percent of all home furnishing spending online. Amazon has expanded into new territories like fashion, wine and grocery, but he isn’t afraid of e-commerce giant growing into the home furnishings territory (via Amazon’s Quidsi acquisition, it operates a home furnishings and supplies site Casa.com). In fact, Shah believes that home furnishings, jewelry and fashion are the only areas in e-commerce where there is room for a number of large companies. That’s because, he explains, the consumer is looking for uniqueness in these categories vs. electronics, books, household supplies, grocery and more.

With the company’s growing sales, it’s of no surprise that Wayfair was one of the companies invited to present at Goldman Sachs’ Private Internet Company Conference in Las Vegas in November. Many of the companies invited to present are the ones bankers want to keep their eye on–and potentially represent in a public offering in the future. For Wayfair, an IPO may not be too far off.

Shah has been open about his intentions to go public. The company also recently brought on former Warner Music Group Chairman Michael Fleisher as CFO.

It’s clear that 2014 will be a pivotal year for the company. Investors will be looking for continued growth, and other large retailers will trying to up their technology game to increase their share of online dollars spent on home furnishings. But for a company that was relatively unknown two years ago, Wayfair’s growth and ascent is impressive. Stay tuned.

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Edward Snowden reminds the world that he's still homeless

While the US justice system slowly begins to digest everything Edward Snowden revealed about the NSA, the whistleblower himself remains stateless and living under temporary asylum in Russia. In an open letter to the people of Brazil, following revelations of widespread NSA "data collection" in that country, Snowden has made it clear that he's not happy with his current situation and won't be content until an appropriate government grants him permanent political asylum. He says he's willing to help the Brazilian authorities to understand the extent of the NSA's surveillance of their citizens, which allegedly covered over two million mobile calls and text messages in a single month, including calls made by Brazil's president, but insists he can't do anything while the US limits his "ability to speak" from Russia -- with the obvious hint being that he'd quite like to move to Latin America. You'll find the full text of Snowden's letter at the source link below.

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Via: The Guardian

Source: Folha De S. Paolo

Tags: asylum, brazil, edward snowden, nsa, spying, surveillance Next: PointGrab will let you control devices and appliances by pointing at them .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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