Thursday, 28 June 2012

Fight!: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Vs iOS 6 Vs Windows Phone 8

A few weeks ago, we compared the feature sets of iOS 6 and Android Ice Cream Sandwich to see how they stacked up. But then Google and Microsoft went and dropped all sorts of new features in their new Android Jelly Bean and Windows Phone 8 operating systems. That means it’s time to re-examine the relative merits of each once again. Let the battle begin!

For the record, this is not a review. There will be no review until we have spent some quality time with the final versions of iOS 6, Android 4.1 and Windows Phone 8. This is a look at how these three stack up on paper in 12 key categories.

Apps

iOS:650,000 apps. 225,000 for iPad. Still tops as far as smartphone platforms go.

Android: Android is currently at 450,000 apps for Android. Most apps will run on tablets, but the number of tablet-optimised offerings is significantly lower than iOS (Google won’t give an official number, but a quick run through Google Play makes the situation abundantly clear).

Windows Phone: Windows Phone currently has 100,000 apps available for download, which is considerably less than the other two. And since there’s no Windows 8 tablet yet, well…

Maps

iOS: Apple now has a maps service of its very own, following in the footsteps of Google and Microsoft. Not only does it deliver traffic updates, points of interest and turn-by-turn navigation (which is integrated well throughout iOS 6), there are 3D maps that both look cool and might be helpful when lost in the middle of a crowded metropolis. But the lack of public transport directions hurts, even if they’re offering a third-party API solution. And iPhone users reared on Street View might sorely miss it; Apple hasn’t presented an equivalent.

Android: Google Maps in Jelly Bean will likely be unchanged from what Google showed off a few weeks ago at its dedicated maps event: 3D buildings, offline caching and Yelp integration will all be added to supplement the top notch combination of search, turn-by-turn navigation and Street View. Plus, the search giant is going crazy with mapping the insides of notable locales — Compass Mode employs a phone’s gyroscope to give you 360-degree interior views — so expect to see more of that over time.

Windows Phone: Windows Phone 7 was a showcase for Microsoft’s Bing maps, but the mobile navigation turf will belong to Nokia on Windows Phone 8. That means terrific NAVTEQ maps, turn-by-turn navigation, 3D buildings, offline caching and dynamic routing for public transit — all of which is good news. There aren’t many bells and whistles here though, for better or worse.

Browser Sync

iOS: iCloud Tabs are new in iOS 6 and unify your browsing across all of your iOS and OS X devices. It’s not a full cloud browser that offers the same tab view across all devices, but rather a list of tabs tucked behind an icon or sub-menu, along with your bookmarks.

Android: The Chrome Beta on Android offers tab syncing with your desktop as well, but throws in bookmark and search syncing as well. And since there are more desktop Chrome users in the world than any other browser, a lot of people will be taking advantage of this feature.

Windows Phone: Browser sync is conspicuously absent from Windows Phone, which is odd considering it will run the same version of Internet Explorer that Windows 8 will in the Windows RT environment. Then again, with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 both not expected until later in the year, there’s a lot of time for Microsoft to make this work. Fingers crossed.

Facebook Integration

iOS: Facebook is integrated throughout iOS 6, which means you can update your status and upload images from various apps (not to mention Notification Center), sync contacts, and have your Facebook events coordinate with your iOS Calendar. Plus, a third-party API is on the way, so all apps can integrate Facebook into their wares.

Android: Android has always been good for Facebook sharing, and there’s no reason for that to change with Jelly Bean. You can share and upload from pretty much anywhere in the OS and inside most Android apps. Plus, you can pull Facebook data for your contacts already stored on your phone, or pull all your Facebook friends into your contacts.

Windows Phone: Facebook integration has always been one of Windows Phone’s selling points, as the platform seamlessly integrates features like status updates, images, Contacts, Chat and Events into Microsoft’s own sections (People, Messaging, Calendar, etc). It’s as well-designed as Facebook integration can get.

Voice Commands

iOS: Siri wasn’t amazing in iOS 5, but it worked OK. In addition to being able to dictate texts and emails, schedule calendar events and set timers, Siri in iOS 6 has much more promise, at least in the US, given its ability to pull data from even more sources (sports scores, movie times, dinner reservations), in more useful ways. Plus, Siri will be able to interface with car audio and navigation systems once iOS 6 goes live later this year.

Android: With Jelly Bean, speech recognition is about to get a big update. Google has always allowed for voice search and dictation across the entire OS, but now it taps into Knowledge Graph and a built-in speech recogniser that will be installed on future devices. Not only should Android voice recognition improve dramatically, but it will recognise voice input even while offline. Like Siri, it can also spit back Wolfram-like semantic search results (with or without your voice).

Windows Phone: Windows Phone also has voice commands, allowing you to place calls, send texts, search the web and launch an app. It may not have the depth of Google’s and Apple’s efforts, but it’s there.

Mobile Payments

iOS: Surprise! The iPhone doesn’t have NFC, which means Apple doesn’t have much to offer in terms of mobile payments. But Passbook is Apple’s way in.When it’s up and running, it will collect tickets, rewards cards, debit/credit cards and more into a single app that relies on both GPS and QR codes to work. It can also deliver updates and notifications for the items you have stored in Passbook (flight updates, expiring deals, etc). It’s clearly been designed with NFC payments in mind; we just have to wait a few months until Apple makes it official and to see if any of it will come to Australia.

Android: For the time being, Google Wallet — which includes mobile payments, deals/rewards/offers and more for users in the States — remains unchanged. But it is a huge question mark for Google. US mobile carrier Sprint is still the only official Google Wallet mobile partner (and even they’re rumoured to be parting ways), MasterCard is the only card company on board, and the number of devices NFC is available on is limited. Google announced new NFC-based features today unrelated to payments; hopefully it’s enough to entice hardware partners to include the tech in future devices.

Windows Phone: With the arrival of Windows Phone comes Wallet, which is Microsoft’s full-fledged attempt at, well, a digital wallet. You’ll be able to store credit/debit cards and rewards/loyalty cards, not to mention the ability to access deals. But what might set Windows Phone apart from Android and iOS is that it will make use of secure NFC elements stored on SIM cards, which will allow for more flexibility — and security — when it comes to the preferred standards of card companies and mobile carriers (Google Wallet has hit a wall because of resistance to its own built-in secure elements). Save for Apple strong-arming everyone into playing by its rules, this may be the most frictionless way for NFC-based payment technologies to succeed.

Video Chat

iOS: Apple has FaceTime, which can place calls over 3G or Wi-Fi and works fairly well. But its also a pretty insular app that only works with other Apple devices.

Android: Android’s Gmail/Google Talk-based video chat system is a bit more universal, considering you can video chat with anybody who has Gmail on a Mac, PC or Android phone. And yes, you can chat over 3G or Wi-Fi. But Google’s ace in the hole, surprisingly enough, might just be its Google+ app, which features Hangout support and will be available for both Android and, some day soon, iOS.

Windows Phone: Microsoft’s secret voice chat weapon is Skype, which is arguably the most universal standard of them all. There are already proper Skype apps for Macs, PCs, iOS and Android — and Microsoft owns all of them.

Call Features

iOS: iOS 6 lets you decline a call with a canned SMS response, filter out calls annoying contacts, and includes a Do Not Disturb toggle, all of which will prove useful for power users.

Android: Android lets you compose a series of texts you can use as quick auto-replies when declining a call, and also lets you filter out calls from specific people, but it lacks the ability to enter into a Do Not Disturb mode.

Windows Phone: This is another weak point in Windows Phone, as there are no pre-composed texts you can fire off to people you don’t want to talk to, nor is there any sort of Do Not Disturb functionality. But there are advanced filtering and call block options for those people you’re trying to avoid.

Messaging

iOS: iMessage is a beta feature with a lot of promise, given its ability to trade messages between phones, tablets and laptops. But it’s hardly seamless, it’s barely reliable, and it’s not exactly intuitive. There’s currently no real way to link a phone number and iCloud account of a contact and have texts and iMessages appear in a single thread. Nor do messages always arrive to all your connected devices. And there’s no way to instant message with non-Apple users. We have yet to see the final implementation of this cross-device integration, which probably won’t be settled until iOS 6 is officially out, but there’s definitely some work to be done in this regard.

Android: With webOS all but dead, Android has the best native instant messaging platform hands down. Sure it doesn’t integrate with AIM or Facebook, but AIM has a foot in the grave anyways, and Gchat is every bit as ubiquitous as Facebook Chat. When you’re logged in to Gchat, messages always arrive on all connected devices reliably and quickly. That’s more than can be said for iMessages. Plus, Google Voice is well integrated throughout Android, which means text messages sent from your phone or laptop stay perfectly synced.

Windows Phone: The messaging effort on Windows Phone is solid and well considered, allowing you to seamlessly send texts, Facebook messages, and Skype messages to a given contact from a single window. No, there’s no Gchat or AIM, but that’s not particularly shocking, given the trend towards walled ecosystems with each platform.

Smarter Icons

iOS: When it comes to dynamic app icons, Apple is sorely lacking. Sure it has badges that let you know when there are new messages, emails or notifications, but they don’t really tell you anything else. One of the things we’d hoped for was that Apple would smarten up its app icons. Let them change to display information. Unfortunately, Apple is still stuck in the past on this one.

Android: Android doesn’t really do much with app icons either, and that doesn’t change with Jelly Bean. But since the App drawer is pushed into the secondary layer of Android, it doesn’t matter. Android employs widgets to take on the task of real-time updates, which allows for a fair amount of customisation when it comes to getting your mail/weather/calendar updates from your home screen in a quick manner. They can sometimes be messy and unruly, but when properly implemented, are quite useful.

Windows Phone: Windows Phone 8′s Live Tiles are the cream of the crop amongst smartphones. Not only can they display notifications and vital info (such as texts, mail, weather calendar events), but they arrange into a neatly organised grid that is now bolstered by the ability to break tiles into three different sizes depending on how you want info displayed. Microsoft is way ahead of everyone else in this regard.

Media Streaming

iOS: iOS 6 has AirPlay, which has been one of the easier, more intuitive implementations of media streaming we’ve seen so far. You can push music from your computer or iOS device to AirPlay-approved speakers, AirPort Express routers, and Apple TV (which also accepts video and iOS device mirroring, and soon OS X mirroring). And if you’re streaming from a computer, you can push to multiple AirPlay devices. But like some of Apple’s other features (FaceTime, iMessage), AirPlay doesn’t really extend past the Apple product ecosystem. That said, you’ll find AirPlay baked into more and more devices with each passing month.

Android With the introduction of the $US300 Nexus Q, Google just provided its own streaming standard for Android-based devices, but it’s only for the US market right now. The hubs will be able to take audio and video streams, and spit them out to televisions and speakers (powered by the Nexus Q’s 25W amplifier). Plus, you can link hubs together for more robust multi-zone streaming than what Apple offers. Think of it as Sonos for Android, complete with the modest sticker shock.

Windows Phone Windows Phone will have SmartGlass to serve as its media streaming portal to the Xbox. Though built directly on top of DLNA streaming standards, the app simplfies and visualises the process of pushing content back and forth between the Xbox and Windows 8/Windows Phone 8 devices. Plus, SmartGlass can beam supplementary content to your device while watching a TV show, such as Game of Thrones. Toss in the possibilities for gaming and support for Windows, Android and iOs, and you have yourself a very intriguing streaming platform.

- Gizmodo

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Google's Nexus 7 tablet outed before I/O

Well, it looks like the leaks were accurate. This morning, just an hour ahead of Google I/O's initial keynote, Android Police got its hands on what appears to be a press shot of Mountain View's 7-inch tablet, aptly named the Nexus 7.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: 5 Features We Want in Google’s New OS

When Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, arrived on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone last November, it marked the most radical change Google’s hugely popular mobile operating system had undergone since its debut.

It was also the best thing to happen to Android so far. It was the first version of Android designed for both phones and tablets, and it was the first version of Android that was truly beautiful to look at and fun to use.

But of course, Android can be improved. On Wednesday, Google is expected to kick off its Google I/O developer conference by introducing Android 4.1, dubbed Jelly Bean. Unlike version 4.0, which featured a top-to-bottom redesign of Android, version 4.1 is expected to bring a number of incremental changes. Rumor has it the new OS could even debut on a Google-branded, Asus-built Nexus tablet, and it could land on Google’s developer-friendly Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone as well.

Whenever it arrives, we’re expecting new features and bold moves. Here are a few things we’d like to see in Jelly Bean.

Ditch Browser, Go With Chrome

Android has two web browsers, both built by Google. The boringly named Browser is the default entry point to the web installed on every Android phone going back to the first version. The thoroughly modern Chrome, however, has only been available as a download from the Google Play store since its debut on Android in February, and it only works on ICS devices. Chrome is still a “beta” product — Google is killing bugs and polishing off the app. But Chrome’s time has come.

When the world thinks of Google’s web browser, it thinks of Chrome. Android’s Browser app is an afterthought. Chrome is the better browser in absolutely every way: user interface, tab handling, speed and support for web standards are superior, and Chrome can sync your bookmarks and browsing history between all your Chrome installations across all devices and platforms. Not to mention that Google is extending the Chrome brand beyond just the browser, with the Chrome OS and devices like the Chromebook and Chromebox . It’s time to simplify things, Google — go with Chrome and ditch Browser.

Unify Messaging

Another example of multiple apps that do the same thing: messaging.

Google could ease the lives of Android users by delivering one unified messaging app. Currently, Google offers a stand-alone text messaging app (Messaging), a separate app for chatting over Google Talk (Talk) and yet another for sending notes to Google+ contacts (Messenger). Three apps that all do the same thing — that’s more complicated than it needs to be.

It’s time to take a page from Apple’s playbook and offer just one messaging app. All three services could be rolled into just one app — call it Messages or Messenger or Messaging or Talk or anything you’d like. When a user messages a phone number, it can be sent via text message. When a user messages an e-mail address, as they do via Talk or a contact on Google+, that message can be sent using web data as opposed to a standard text message through the wireless carrier.

The app could even recognize when a user is sending a message to another Android phone and send that message using web data as well — just like Apple’s iMessage app in iOS. One app for all three services. This is the way to go.

Program Your Own Gestures

We’d like to see Android give users the ability to create their own gestures, specific swipe combinations for opening up apps or forcing their devices to perform specific actions. Google already has a patent for this, and no other platform — iOS, Windows Phone or the different flavors of BlackBerry — currently offers this feature.

If you’ve ever used Android’s gesture-unlock feature, you already have an idea of how this might work. Essentially, your phone would record a specific swipe or gesture that’s unique, and launch an app or action of your choice whenever you perform that gesture. Apple already has a number of multitouch gestures, such as the five-finger pinch-to-close gesture found on the iPad. But so far, Android is largely devoid of this sort of thing. The ability to program your own gestures would bring a level of personalization to Android that’s unmatched. To make things easy, Google can throw in a couple multitouch gestures of their own for those who don’t want to customize their devices, but still want a shortcut to popular apps.

Add More Built-In Apps

Ice Cream Sandwich has no built-in apps for audio and voice recording, to-dos and reminders, or weather. Other operating systems — namely iOS — do. So this update seems like a no-brainer. Integrating with Google Drive for saving audio files, or re-purposing Google Calendar’s Tasks to handle to-dos and reminders are easy wins. As for weather, Google’s desktop search engine delivers forecasts from the Weather Channel, Weather Underground and AccuWeather. It’d be nice to see these three options show up on the ground floor of Android as well. If Google had to go with one, we’d like to see it pick Weather Underground, which offers crowdsourced weather reports down to the neighborhood in many cities.

Do Not Disturb

Apple introduced a “Do Not Disturb” feature for iOS 6 at its Worldwide Developer Conference just two weeks ago. Android should match it.

OK, so it’s a bit lame to see operating systems ripping off their rivals off — iOS’s Notification Center if a notable offender — but a good idea is a good idea. And Do Not Disturb is brilliant.

You walk around with your phone in your pocket (or very close by) all day. When you get home, you’ve still got your phone on you, and you might have a tablet kicking around, as well. Having the ability to take a break from text messages, alerts, e-mails and phone calls would be welcome. Of course, like the iOS version, Android’s Do Not Disturb should still allow you to get all of these messages and notifications, only later, when you want them. But during the Do Not Disturb period of your choosing, your gadget should remain silent with out a ring or vibrate to bug you.

Exceptions are a must, too. This way, select friends, family and even bosses can reach you if you decide. Or, if someone calls multiple times — maybe you can decide what the threshold is — the call or message will go through, alerting you that this time, it’s urgent and your attention is needed.

A look inside Leap Motion, the 3D gesture control that's like Kinect on steroids

Leap Motion's not the household name Kinect is, but it should be — the company's motion-tracking system is more powerful, more accurate, smaller, cheaper, and just more impressive. Leap CTO David Holz came by the Verge's New York offices to give us a demo of the company's upcoming product (called The Leap), and suffice to say we're only begrudgingly returning to our mice and keyboards.

The Leap uses a number of camera sensors to map out a workspace of sorts — it's a 3D space in which you operate as you normally would, with almost none of the Kinect's angle and distance restrictions. Currently the Leap uses VGA camera sensors, and the workspace is about three cubic feet; Holz told us that bigger, better sensors are the only thing required to make that number more like thirty feet, or three hundred. Leap's device tracks all movement inside its force field, and is remarkably accurate, down to 0.01mm. It tracks your fingers individually, and knows the difference between your fingers and the pencil you're holding between two of them.

FINE-TUNED MOTION CONTROL CAN CHANGE MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY, GAMES, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

Holz showed off a number of different use cases for Leap Motion's technology. The simplest thing it can do is simulate a touch screen, so you can interact with any display as if it were touch-enabled — we were slicing pineapples in Fruit Ninja in seconds, without a moment of extra development or additional software.

Developers that do take advantage of the Leap's SDK will be able to do much more, however, and the possibilities appear to be limited only by your imagination. All kinds of different apps are being developed: some could improving remote surgery, others allow easier navigation through complex models and data, and others might put you square in the middle of a first-person shooter. It's like holding the Mario Kart steering wheel, but on a whole new level.

Rather than mapping particular gestures (cross your arms to close the app, draw a circle to open a new window), Holz said developers are being encouraged to provide constant dynamic feedback. No one needed to be taught what pinch-to-zoom meant — it's the natural thing to try and do on a touchscreen, and as soon as you start pinching or spreading it becomes clear what happens. That's the paradigm for the Leap, Holz says: you should always be able to just do something, and the app or device should respond.

YOU CAN BUY A LEAP NEXT YEAR, BUT IT MIGHT BE INSIDE YOUR OTHER DEVICES TOO

Leap Motion's plans are huge (Holz mentioned a few times wanting to totally upend traditional computing methods) but the company's playing its cards close. The Leap will cost $70 when it's released — sometime between December and February — and Leap Motion is also working with OEMs to embed its technology into devices. The Leap is about the size of a USB drive, but Holz says it could easily be no larger than a dime, so adding it to a laptop or tablet shouldn't be difficult.

Developers are apparently beating down the company's doors for access to the technology — Holz said thousands of Leaps will be given away in the next few months, before it's released to the public. That's no surprise: after only a few minutes of cutting fruit, scrolling around maps and webpages, and navigating through huge 3D spaces, all without ever touching a thing, we're pretty sure we've seen the next big thing in computing.

The natural comparison to any motion control is Minority Report, an imagined future everyone seems to desperately want to come true. We asked Holz about the comparison, and if Leap Motion's technology meant we'd all have Tom Cruise's awesome PreCrime dashboard in the future.

"No," he told us. "It'll be even better."

Google I/O 2012 kicks off tomorrow, get your liveblog via Engadget!

Hey, remember that keynote last year where Google unveiled Ice Cream Sandwich before showing off Google Music and the Open Android Accessory standard and Android@Home before giving away 5,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets? Yeah, it was quite a rush. This year we're expecting another new flavor of Android and maybe even a new Nexus tablet to boot. You won't want to miss it and, as always, we'll be there.

We'll be liveblogging every detail of the event straight to your browser courtesy of our exclusive liveblog viewer. Set your bookmarks right here for all the action then set those alarms for the time below.

Monday, 25 June 2012

Do The New iPhone Prototypes Have NFC?

Recently Apple announced Passbook, a new mobile wallet that will debut in iOS. Its existence prompted speculation that future iPhones will include NFC — and now 9to5mac is reporting that new iPhone prototypes feature the technology.

9to5mac has previously analysed data from two new prototype iPhones, codenamed N41AP and N42AP. But their latest investigation reveals that those same prototypes appear to have Near Field Communication (NFC) controllers directly connected to the power management unit (PMU).

Among the massive speculation about what the next iPhone will look like, the small inclusion of NFC perhaps seems trivial. But if the rumor turns out to be correct, it will see Apple poisitoning itself in direct competition with Google Wallet and another similar service unveiled by Microsoft last week.

If Apple follows its usual release patterns, then we won’t see an actual iPhone 5 until October. Will it feature NFC? Maybe, maybe not. But you can be sure that, if it does, Apple’s take on mobile payment could be enough to force the concept into the mainstream. [9to5mac]

Nexus 7: This Is Google’s New Nexus Tablet,

Jelly Bean on board.

Wondering what Google’s flagship I/O Conference announcement this week should look like? Wonder no longer. It’s a 7-inch Tegra 3 tablet running Android Jelly Bean

As rumoured, Google’s going to announce a 7-inch, Nexus-branded tablet called the Nexus 7. According to the leak, it’s built by Asus, with a 1.3Ghz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, GeForce 12-core GPU and 1GB of RAM with two different storage variants: 8GB and 16GB.

The Nexus tablet will also feature NFC and run Google Wallet (probably only in the US) and Android Beam.

The screen is an IPS display with a 178-degree viewing angle, running a resolution of 1280 by 800. The device will also sport a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera. The battery will also give you 9 hours worth of operation.

The 8GB model will set you back $US199 and the 16GB will cost $US249. No word in the document on local prices.

The leaked document also says that the device will be the first to run Jelly Bean, the new version of Android. Details are scarce on Jelly Bean, but the slides tell us that Google will handle operating system updates from now on, which could address the fragmentation problem. We aren’t sure if this statement means that Google will handle all handset updates from Jelly Bean onwards, or if it just means it will handle it for the Nexus 7 going forward. Based on the various arrangements with other manufacturers and telcos around the world, it’s likely to be the latter. We’ll know more come Google I/O.

Update: The document says that the Nexus 7 will run Android Jelly Bean, but makes no mention of the version number. We understand that the device will be version stamped with Android 4.1, rather than leaping ahead a generation and stamping it as 5.0. Wired had suggested after spotting a leaked benchmark that this would be the case.

Rumours about Google working on a Nexus-branded tablet with Asus have been swirling for a while. Even as far back as May, a report emerged of a super cheap Tegra 3-powered device was coming at the Google I/O developer event, which is now only days away.

The first clue was when Asus demonstrated the awesome cheap and wonderfully cheerful Eee Pad MeMO 370T at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, before delaying the unit indefinitely.

Since then, rumours about a home-grown tablet from Google have been few and far between, but this is the first time we’ve seen anything official regarding specs.

Apple has already played its announcement cards around iOS 6, Microsoft has announced Surface and Windows Phone 8, and Google risks being left behind without its own bespoke tablet product. June is one hell of a month to be following what’s new in tech.

Priced at sub-$US200, the Google’s Nexus 7 will become Amazon’s biggest problem post-launch, threatening the market share of the hugely successful Kindle Fire. The Fire runs a highly modified version of the Android operating system and prevents users from wandering outside the customised Amazon environment. The Nexus brand, however, has always been associated with the purest form of the Android operating system Google has to offer, meaning that it’s likely going to be a better experience. Google is also banking on the fact that the screen is better than the Fire’s, with a higher resolution and 10-point touch capability.

Of course, this could all prove to be an elaborate fake. We’ve seen them before and we’ll see them as long as there’s a rabid tech-loving public that will queue up around the block for value this good.

We’ll bring you the news as we hear it about this tablet, and if it really is the Nexus 7, I’m looking forward to this year’s Google I/O.

New Khoisan name for Cape Town

Cape Town - It may take some getting used and some Capetonians will probably have difficulty getting their tongue around the Mother City’s new name: //Hui !Gaeb.
This Khoisan word means “where the clouds gather”, reported the Weekend Argus.
The name change was proposed by the Khoisan community as they gathered for a memorial service for their traditional leader, Dawid Kruiper, who died earlier this month.

Tania Kleinhans of the Institute for the Restoration of the Aborigines of SA said after the city name change was proposed in honour of Kuiper, she had approached fast food chain Nando's, in recognition of their recent controversial TV ad on diversity.

“We love the advert, because it is based on facts. It is not about racism, xenophobia or diversity. It shows that we are the original people of SA,” she said.
Nando’s had apparently enthusiastically agreed to sponsoring billboards to advertise Cape Town’s new name, which would from next week be seen on the N2 and in the city centre outside the Castle.

Remembering Alan Turing at 100

Alan Turing would have turned 100 this week, an event that would have, no doubt, been greeted with all manner of pomp -- the centennial of a man whose mid-century concepts would set the stage for modern computing. Turing, of course, never made it that far, found dead at age 41 from cyanide poisoning, possibly self-inflicted. His story is that of a brilliant mind cut down in its prime for sad and ultimately baffling reasons, a man who accomplished so much in a short time and almost certainly would have had far more to give, if not for a society that couldn't accept him for who he was.

The London-born computing pioneer's name is probably most immediately recognized in the form of theTuring Machine, the "automatic machine" he discussed in a 1936 paper and formally extrapolated over the years. The concept would help lay the foundation for future computer science, arguing that a simple machine, given enough tape (or, perhaps more appropriately in the modern sense, storage) could be used to solve complex equations. All that was needed as Turing laid it out, was a writing method, a way of manipulating what's written and a really long ream to write on. In order to increase the complexity, only the storage, not the machine, needs upgrading.

His name will also, no doubt, spark familiarity as part of the Turing test, betraying his pioneering involvement in the field of artificial intelligence, proposing that much debated question, "can machines think?" It's a question (albeit modified into the form "can machines do what we can do?") he sought to solve, offering a way of measuring a computer's intelligence relative to the human variety. Turing's concept, based on a party game called "The Imitation Game," has become synonymous with the concept of determining the humanness of artificial intelligence.

Turing's gifts manifested themselves at an early age, showing tremendous promise in the fields of math and science, in spite of his teachers' focus on the humanities. A great intellectual breakthrough occurred at the tender age of 16, upon being introduced to the works of Albert Einstein. He laid out the basis for what would come to be known as the Turing Machine just ahead of his 24th birthday, tackling German mathematician David Hilbert's rather unwieldy "Entscheidungsproblem."

By 26, Turing was performing cryptanalysis for the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) at the Bletchley Park estate in Buckinghamshire, the epicenter of the UK's decrypting efforts during the war, and the home of many of the country's most brilliant minds of the era. The gig led to the design of the bombe, a machine used by the allies to decipher Enigma machine-encrypted German military messages in World War II. Hundreds of the devices would be deployed during the war.

Turing continued to develop cryptanalysis methods throughout the war, taking on the German naval Enigma and lending his name out yet again, this time to Turingery, a method of codebreaking developed at the GCCS. Turing's Delilah, a secure, portable communications device was not perfected in time to be adopted for use during the war, though the computer scientist would tap into his knowledge of the field to help develop the secure speech system SIGSALY for Bell Labs.

After his pioneering work in artificial intelligence in the '40s, Turing switched focus yet again

After his pioneering work in artificial intelligence in the '40s, Turing switched focus yet again, exploring morphogenesis, the study of the development of an organism's shape through biology. It was the field he was fixated on at the time of his death by poisoning. In 1952, Turing, then in his late 30s, was convicted of indecency due to his relationship with another man, sentenced to hormonal treatment that amounted to chemical castration. The sentencing also found Turing stripped of his security clearances, in spite of having been one of the UK's great war heroes. Just ahead of his 42nd birthday, Turing was found dead.

Much of Turing's praise has, sadly, come posthumously. In 1966, the Association for Computing Machinery established the prestigious Turing Award for contributions to computing. 1998 saw the addition of a commemorative plaque added to his birthplace, and three years later, the mathematician was memorialized in Manchester, sitting on a park bench, holding an apple (thought to be the conduit for the poison that ended his life). In 2009, more than half a century after biting into the apple, a petition with a thousand signatures made its way to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who formally apologized for the government's "appalling" treatment of one of its most brilliant minds, adding, "you deserved so much better."

Nokia Air promo surfaces, teases what could have been

In some alternate timeline, droves of Nokia fans are enjoying seamless cloud syncing on Symbian handsets. Here on Earth-One, however, we'll have to settle for watching a leaked preview of the syncing service that never was. The Nokia Air promo (after the break) promises a service that lets you "experience everywhere" by serving your devices from the ever-present cloud. "Apps don't require downloading, installing or updating," the narrator boasts, explaining that updates, notification, apps and other content are delivered directly from the cloud to all of your devices. Sound familiar? Don't get too excited though, between Nokia's commitment to Redmond and the ancient Engadget post we spied in the demo's feed, this project was probably scrapped.

KEN BLOCK AND DC SHOES ANNOUNCE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF GYMKHANA FIVE, PRESENTED BY THE FORD FOCUS ST

JUNE 18th, 2012 - Huntington Beach, California – After much anticipation, Ken Block and DC Shoes are proud to announce the coming of Gymkhana FIVE, which will debut globally on Monday, July 9th at 10 AM EST via the DC Shoes YouTube channel. Filmed on the streets of San Francisco, California, Gymkhana FIVE builds on the previous successes of the Gymkhana viral video series and it’s 140+ million views.

“My idea for Gymkhana FIVE was simple,” said Block. “I wanted to build on the ultimate playground concept from Gymkhana THREE, and bring the franchise back to that raw and fast feel that the earlier videos had. I’ve always wanted to film a Gymkhana video in a city and there are few places as unique and iconic with such amazing topography as San Francisco. While movies like Bullit and various chase scenes have tried to use San Francisco to the fullest, I’m pretty confident that I’ve proven there was a lot left to be done on those amazing streets!”

Without question, the streets of San Francisco make Gymkhana FIVE the most unique project to date in the franchise’s history. And for good measure, a few world records and a surprise guest have been thrown in too. Making a return for the second year in a row is Block’s Ford Fiesta H.F.H.V. racecar, which can be seen slaying its tires on the streets of San Francisco globally on the July 9th release date. For select media and action sport VIPs, DC will premiere the video on Friday, June 29th during Summer X Games 18.

Make A Three-Minute Call, Help Develop A Test For Parkinson’s Based On Voice Recognition

At TEDx Edinburgh today, the BBC reports, mathematician Max Little today launched a new project that uses a speaker’s voice to help diagnose Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s, which is a devastating neurological disease that develops gradually and often starts with very slight tremor in one hand, is notoriously hard to diagnose as there are currently no blood tests to that can help doctors test for the disease. Voice however, says Little, is affected as much by Parkinson’s as limb movement and his algorithms can currently detect the symptoms of the disease with 86% accuracy. Little recently became a TED Fellow and is now working to improve the accuracy of his algorithms and hopes to make his tools available to doctors within the next two years.

If you have three minutes, you can even help him in his mission by making a simple 3-minute call to an automated system that will ask you to answer a few questions and repeat a few sentences. Besides in the U.S. (1-857-284-8035), the team is also offering call-in numbers in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Canada and the UK.

These calls, the Parkinson’s Voice Initiative’s team say, will help the organization train its systems and test its algorithms. Ideally, these tests will soon be as accurate as clinical tests, but they can be administered remotely and patients will be able to do the tests themselves. In total, the initiative is hoping to record about 10,000 voices.

Little stresses that he isn’t looking to replace experts, but, as he tells the BBC, to developer a system that can “augment treatment decisions by providing data about how symptoms are changing in-between check-ups with the neurologist.”