American Science and Engineering (AS&E) just released a tiny new X-ray gun with some impressive capabilities. Roughly the size of a breadbox, the Mini Z Backscatter imaging system can find contraband in bags and see through car doors. It could also someday also be plugged into Oculus Rift for a full-on X-ray goggle experience.
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Everyone knows you should drink plenty of fluids when playing sports, but hydration actually becomes an exact science when the pride of your nation is at stake during something like the World Cup. That's why at this year's tournament, Brazil's soccer team is using specially-designed Gatorade bottles that track how much the players are drinking.
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Our relationship with Japan has improved considerably over the last several decades, but this chummy relationship definitely has its limits, which manifests specifically inAmerica's unwillingness to sell Japan any of our new F-22s. That's why Japan has decided to build a better warbird than the Raptor, all on its own.
Happy solstice, friends! The longest day of the year is a fitting end to a week with Amazon's new Fire Phone, the first electric Harley-Davidson, a scuffle between Ikea and its most popular unofficial fan site, and of course, Yo. Missed something? Here's the best stuff we wrote this week. Don't rush, you've got all day.
The boffins at Lego seem to understand that it is getting harder for kids to tear their eyes away from a tablet or a smartphone (Angry Birds Epic anyone?), which is why they're introducing a new series of game sets that allows you to translate real world brick building to a digital medium.
Dubbed Lego Fusion, the game sets come with 200 pieces and include a special Fusion Capture Plate on which the facades can be built. You can build any 16-bricks-wide by 16-bricks-tall facades, as long as all structures feature a floor and are built on the Capture Plate.
After building the facade, you can use the Lego's apps camera function to capture it. The translation of the real-world facade into a digital medium is accomplished by Qualcomm's Vuforia, which is what powers the Fusion Capture Plate.
Initially, Lego is offering four game sets: Lego Fusion Town Master, Lego Fusion Battle Towers, Lego Fusion Create & Race and Lego Fusion Resort Designer. Each set focuses on a different element of play that Lego has identified as being of interest to children.
According to Ditte Bruun Pedersen, senior design manager at Lego's Future Lab, children do not differentiate between the physical and the virtual modes of play. "To them, it's not two separate worlds. It's one world that blends together. It's all just play."
Pedersen stated that the Fusion game sets, which do not come with any build instructions, foster creativity in children. "For most kids, if you simply give them a pile of bricks and tell them to build something, they go blank." This is where the virtual game comes into play. The objectives in the game allow kids to build interesting structures on their own.
The Town Master, Battle Towers and Create & Race game sets will be launching this August, while the Resort Designer set will be available in stores a month after that. The physical game sets will cost $34.99, but the accompanying apps will be free to download. Lego has stated that it will be debuting Android and iOS apps once the game kits are close to launch.
Any of you guys interested in the idea?
Via: CNET
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Every day dozens and dozens of new and updated apps and games hit the iOS and Mac App Stores. It's impossible to keep up with them all, but it's not impossible to pick out the very best. Here they are! Today we've got a new RSS newsreader for iPad, updates to Kindle, Foursquare and more!
Unread for iPad: The RSS reader for iPhone has won adherents for its clean, simple and refined interface. Now available for iPad. $4.99 - Download now
Kindle 4.3: Amazon's ebook reader app now supports Audible audiobooks. Whispersync to Voice now synchronizes reading progress, so you can listen to books in the car or elsewhere without missing a beat. You can also download a collection, improvements to X-Ray and more. Free - Download now
OpenTable 6.4: The iPad version of the app that helps you find and make reservations at restaurants has been revamped with a new grid view, redesigned profiles, streamlined search bar and more. Free - Download now
Trello 2.6.1: The team collaboration and organization tool gets bug fixes. Maybe performance improvement too, but they're quite emphatic about the bug fixes. Free - Download now
Foursquare 7.0.9: The social networking app that enables you to overshare by telling everyone your constant whereabouts and earn meaningless awards like mayor of places you spend money has been updated with bug fixes. Free - Download now
Screens VNC 3.4: The screen sharing and VNC client for iOS adds Dropbox support, handles Mac user authentication without passwords more gracefully, fixes bugs and more. $19.99 - Download now
Adobe Photoshop Touch 1.6.1: Adobe's image editing software for iOS. Fixed an issue with saving/sharing a document, improved feathering of soft brushes, improved visibility of brush cursor on dark backgrounds, bug fixes. $9.99 - Download now
Explainer: Captures multiple screenshots into a single image. "For when a single screenshot is not enough but a screen recording [is] too much of a hassle." Free - Download now
Angry Birds Space 2.0.0: The biggest update to the popular game ever, now with "Beak Impact" episode containing 40 new levels. Six bonus levels and lots of new content to unlock. $4.99 - Download now
If you try any of the apps or updates, let me know how they work for you. If you got any new or updated apps today that you loved, but don't see here, let us know about them!
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