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Sunday 10 November 2013
The Lab-Engineered, Water-Resistant Dress Pants of the Future

Nice clothes usually aren’t built to do much more than look good. They’re inconvenient to clean, hard to take care of, rarely very comfortable, and one stray drop of ketchup can ruin them forever. If you sweat a lot, they’re not exactly built to cover up that mess, either.
Professional attire should be as comfortable, machine-washable, and sweat-camouflaging as your favorite Zubaz pants, right? That’s what the Ministry of Supply thinks, and they’re using space-age materials and manufacturing techniques to make it happen. The nine-person, Boston-based team creates office wear with technology and testing procedures that are normally reserved for performance sportswear.
In their labs, they use thermal tests to study how clothes interact with body heat and use skin-movement analysis tools to help eliminate blisters. Their clothes are made with futuristic tech, too. For example, the company’s Atmos T-shirt is knitted with a 3-D printer-like machine; the different textures and venting patches on the shirt are part of a continuous piece of fabric rather than sewn-in panels.
The company also makes a button-down dress shirt called the Apollo that uses a NASA-engineered form of polyester that pulls heat away from the body when it’s warm and keeps it locked in when it’s cold. They make socks with heat vents and carbonized coffee grounds woven into them, because coffee grounds are effective odor-absorbers. (The socks don’t smell like coffee. I checked.)
Ministry of Supply’s latest product comes in the form of the Aviator chino pants, which look like normal dress pants from afar but show their high-tech secrets once you get up close. They’re sort of stretchy — the material feels more elastic than cotton but not as stretchy as spandex — and they have a practically invisible ventilation system throughout the crotch.
The coolest thing about them is that they have a slick-coated fabric that won’t get wet in the rain. The pants also feel like they’re ketchup-proof; if you spill anything on them, it will probably just wipe right off with a napkin. They’re machine-washable in cold water.
At $118 per pair, they’re pricey for a pair of pants, but they’re probably a lot more durable and easy to take care of than the higher-end business wear you’ll find in the same price range. They’re available in a light khaki, charcoal gray, and navy blue.

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Transporter Sync Gives You Cloud-Based Storage Without the Cloud

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Cloud storage is nifty. We all use it, and for the most part, it gets the job done. However, you usually need to subscribe to multiple services to find all the right app-based syncing features, browser accessibility, and total storage space you require. Subscriptions are usually pretty cheap, but they add up. And there are worries beyond cost, like the whole NSA-spying-on-all-of-your-online-stuff thing.
A new drive called Transporter Sync provides the convenience of cloud-based storage without as many negatives. It’s a storage device that you attach to your network, and it stays in sync with all of your devices on and off your network, functioning much like your own private cloud-based folder.
This is the second network-capable storage product from Transporter. The original Transporterfeatured either a 500 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB hard drive. The Sync is smaller, and offers more versatility. It has no built-in storage. Instead, it has a USB port — just plug in an external USB drive and get as much storage as you need.
You plug in the device to your home router, and then use the free Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android apps to access and share your documents. Files are encrypted and transferred in a peer-to-peer fashion over your home network; the cloud is used only as a highway for transferring data, not for storing it. If you have two Transporters (or maybe you have one and a friend has one) you can set them up so they stay in sync. Choose to sync either the whole shared drive or just selected folders.
Setup is easy. It takes about 10 minutes to get it online, then you can forget about the hardware and just use Transporter’s digital access options for managing your files. Anyone you want to share with does need to download the Transporter Downloader plug-in or the apps, though.
Transporter Sync is available for pre-order now at $99, with estimated availability of November 15.

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Stop Wearing Your Earphones the Wrong Way

I love listening to music on in-ear headphones. The sound is rich and perfectly clear, they block out external annoyances, and they’re super light and portable. As such, I frequently recommend them to friends when they ask me what kinds of earphones they should buy. But just as frequently, those friends come back and tell me they’re unsatisfied with the sound. Tinny, they say. Not enough bass. And they fall out too often. This is usually the point where we both realize it’s an issue of fit, not function.
In-ear headphones look like earbuds, but they don’t work the same way. They don’t hang in the crevices of your ear-folds like a traditional bud. They’re meant to be worn fully inserted into your ear, so the squishy tip can form a tight seal with all of the walls of your ear canal — like a cork in a wine bottle. If you don’t get that proper seal, the transference of sound will suffer (especially the low frequencies) and too much outside noise will creep in.
You don’t just jam them in there, though. You have to properly seat them in your ears. Here’s a fail-safe method:
Start by placing the tips in your ears and pushing them in just a little bit. Then, use both hands to seal them up. For your left ear, reach up with your right hand and grab your left earlobe. Pull the lobe downwards a little to widen your ear canal. Then, use your left index finger to gently push the tip further into your ear. Don’t shove it all the way in, but far enough to where you feel the seal. Finally, let go of your earlobe. Your ear canal returns to its normal size, and you’ll feel the seal tighten. Now do the same for your other ear.
You’ll notice the sound coming out of the earpieces is louder (go ahead and turn the volume down a little) and that the bass is much improved. You’ll also notice you’re pretty isolated in there. Some people don’t like this — it can feel claustrophobic. But the music is much more immersive when there’s less outside noise coming in. So learn to enjoy the solitude.
Getting the perfect seal also requires finding the correct tip size. Most in-ears come with a few different sizes of tip, as well as different materials like rubbers and foams. Start with the medium size rubber tip. If that doesn’t give you a great seal, move down one size to the smaller tip and try that first. Try the largest size last — you’d be surprised, but a smaller tip sometimes gives you the more comfortable seal. If the rubber tips aren’t working, try the foam variety. There’s a company called Comply that makes excellent foam tips for all different kinds of earbuds and in-ear headphones. So if none of the tips that came in the box work for you, give Comply a shot.


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Friday 8 November 2013
Sony PlayStation 4's hardware detailed in official teardown video

Sony's next-generation gaming console, the PlayStation 4 is about to hit the markets next week, at least in some regions. As we get closer to the release, Sony is offering more details related to the console. It has now even done a teardown video of the PlayStation 4 revealing the console's internals.

Sony's Yasuhiro Ootori (Director, Engineering Department) offered a complete teardown of the PS4,courtesy Wired.

After unboxing the console, Ootori informs that the console doesn't have any visible screws at the front and even the ones at the back are hidden beneath seals, which are present to discourage users from opening the console, and   built in a way that Sony will get to know if a user attempts to dismantle the PS4. 

After removing four screws, Ootori takes out the lower outer cover of the console to reveal the fan, the optical disc drive that plays both DVD and Blu-ray disks, and the power supply unit, which has been incorporated into the PlayStation 4's body.

He also shows the Bluetooth antenna and the 500GB hard disk drive on the PS4, and after removing all these components, unscrews the to cover to reveal the mainframe. He removes the shield plate to show the motherboard of the console that neatly houses the x86 CPU core, similar to a standard PC. The integrated CPU-GPU design is also showcased along with the GDDR5 memory in 8 slots adding up to 8GB. Ootori mentions that Sony chose GDDR5 RAM modules as the GPU needs lot of bandwidth.

Ootori also details the PS4's secondary processor that does the network processing tasks in standby mode, in order to optimise power consumption. The Wi-Fi antenna is located on the motherboard along with the USB 3.0 port, the AUX connector for the PlayStation camera, the gigabit Ethernet port, the HDMI connector and the optical audio output to connect audio components and amplifiers.

He then removes the other shield plate with which the heat sink is attached. Two heat pipes are used for the heat sink. The centrifugal fan that cools the PS 4 has an 85mm diameter and generates optimum amount of air and pressure.

All the components look to be neatly stacked together, giving the impression the PlayStation 4 is indeed a well-engineered device.

Sony said in August that it had received 1 million preorders for the PS4, which will be on sale from November 15 in North America and in other regions including Europe, Australia and South America from November 29, in time for the busy pre-Christmas season. The console will be released in select Asian markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea, in December. 
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Playing video games collaboratively, competitively can boost learning: Study


Playing educational video games either competitively or collaboratively with another player can enhance students' motivation to learn, a new study has found.
While playing a math video game collaboratively - as compared to playing alone - students adopted a mastery mindset that is highly conducive to learning, researchers said.

Moreover, students' interest and enjoyment in playing the math video game increased when they played with another student.

The findings point to new ways in which computer, console, or mobile educational games may yield learning benefits.

"We found support for claims that well-designed games can motivate students to learn less popular subjects, such as math, and that game-based learning can actually get students interested in the subject matter?and can broaden their focus beyond just collecting stars or points," said Jan Plass, a professor in New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and one of the study's lead authors.

"Educational games may be able to help circumvent major problems plaguing classrooms by placing students in a frame of mind that is conducive to learning rather than worrying about how smart they look," added co-lead author Paul O'Keefe, an NYU postdoctoral fellow at the time of the study.

The researchers focused on how students' motivation to learn, as well as their interest and performance in math, was affected by playing a math video game either individually, competitively, or collaboratively.
Researchers had middle-school students play the video game FactorReactor, which is designed to build math skills through problem solving and therefore serves as diagnostic for learning.

In order to test the impact of different settings on learning, students were randomly assigned to play the game alone, competitively against another student, or collaboratively with another student.

The findings revealed that students who played the math game either competitively or collaboratively reported the strongest mastery goal orientations, which indicates that students adopted an optimal mindset for learning while playing the video game with others.

The study appears in the Journal of Educational Psychology.
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Thursday 7 November 2013
iPad Air reviews roundup


Apple Inc has not reinvented the wheel with the iPad Air but the thinner device, priced higher than many of its competitors, is a major improvement on a successful product, the reviewers wrote on Tuesday.
Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg called the iPad Air the best tablet he has ever reviewed.
"That isn't just because of its slimmer, lighter design, but because Apple boasts 475,000 apps optimized for tablet use - far more than any other tablet platform," Mossberg wrote.
The new full-sized iPad goes on sale from Friday and will be priced starting $499.
Damon Darlin of the New York Times said the Air is lighter than its predecessors, adding that the gadget is a delight to use.
Reviewer David Pogue, who recently left the New York Times to start a new consumer-tech website at Yahoo, said the iPad Air is "a fantastic leap into the future if you're upgrading from an original iPad, or if you've never owned a tablet before."
However, all three reviewers highlighted that the iPad Air is pricier than many of its competitors.
"Do you need to plunk down $500 or more for an Air if you already have an earlier version of the iPad?," Darlin asked, calling the improvements on the new device "incremental, not revolutionary."
Amazon.com Inc's 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX costs $379, Microsoft's Surface 2 starts from $449, while Samsung's Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch tablet has a suggested retail price of $400.
Pogue said that given the price, an iPad probably does not need replacing every year or even every other year.
Mossberg concluded: "Bottom line: If you can afford it, the new iPad Air is the tablet I recommend, hands down."

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