Forumchem - Forum with AI(ALICE BOT & HAL9000) and TTS

From 1984 to 1993, during the heyday of the Nintendo Entertainment System, more than 700 games were released for the console--and many, many of them are classics, from M.U.L.E. to Prince Of Persia to Ice Climber. The excellent designers at Pop Chart Lab, who previously created this infographic of game controllers, has now mapped all of the games from that period in one handy chart.

The infographic starts at the center, with mid-80s games like the original Mario Bros., and spirals out from there to early 90s games. There are multiples spirals, and theyre color-coded by genre: purple, for example, represents entries in the "sports" genre, while gray represents "puzzle/racing/driving" games. That means you can monitor the evolution of NES games, to some extent: Donkey Kong came before Metroid which came before Mega Man--ad nauseum.

Just as interesting as Nintendos crown jewels, though, are the games that were released and never made much of a dent in gaming culture: for every Zelda, there are several more Kid Kools.

You can purchase a print of the infographic for $32 over at Pop Chart Labs site.

Unless youre a gadget reviewer, you cant get your hands on the new iPhones just yet--but if youre using an iPhone 5, 4S, or 4, youre going to get a really nice present today. Within the next few hours, Apple is going to release the brand-new version of iOS, iOS 7, to your phones.

When is the update coming?

Soon! Probably around noon or early afternoon ET, judging by previous software update timing.

How do I get it?

Easy! Open your iPhones settings app, which (at the moment!) looks like a bunch of gears. Hit the option that says "General," then "Software Update." Your phone will look around for the update; if its available, itll let you do it right over the air. If its not available yet, dont worry about it, itll come soon enough. Then follow the on-screen instructions; youll be able to do this without plugging your phone into your computer, though you may be required to connect to a Wi-Fi network.

Is there any reason I shouldnt update?

Well, since its not out yet, I cant tell you if itll crash your phone. But it probably wont. Ill be downloading it as soon as I can, if that tells you anything. Backing up your phone is probably a good idea; you can do that easily through iTunes. Just plug it into your computer, open iTunes, click on your iPhone in the left-hand sidebar, and under the "Summary" tab, click "Back Up iPhone," making sure its backing up to your computer.

So what even is iOS 7?

Wait, how did you get this far without knowing what this is? Fine, no judgments, Im glad youre interested. So! iOS 7 is the new version of the operating system for the iPhone. The operating system is the underlying platform on a given computer-like gadget; on your computer, you might run Windows or Mac OS X. On your phone, you might run iOS or Android or Windows Phone or BlackBerry OS. (Haha just kidding, you probably dont run one of those last two.) Anyway, iOS has changed a lot since it was introduced in 2007, but it hasnt changed very much visually. iOS 7 wont wildly change the way your phone works but it will very much change the way your phone looks.

Youll notice a totally new color palette, with cool pastels and primary colors rather than shades of blue and grey. The philosophy of the design has changed, too; before, Apple used something called "skeumorphism," which basically means trying to make digital things look like physical things. A note-taking app, for example, might have a design with a spiral binding at the top, like a reporters notebook. This is considered by the tech elite to be a slightly outdated way of designing things; the modern view is that digital doesnt need to look like anything in the real world, but can be simpler and cleaner, without unnecessary flourishes. This sort of philosophy is called "flat design," and the new iOS is a full-on flat design update.

Feature-wise, the biggest change is called the "Control Center." Its a new, faster way to change basic settings on your phone, like turning the Wi-Fi on and off or changing the brightness. To get to it, you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Easy!

Search is in a new place. To get to the search right now, you go to your homescreen and then swipe from left to right, as if the search bar was its own homescreen page just to the left of your apps. Not anymore! Now you swipe down from the center, which reveals a search bar at the top of your homescreen. Im not really sure why this is better! On the other hand, it doesnt seem worse, so, um, just get used to it, I guess.

Multitasking is also totally different, but now its much better. Double-click the home button to open up a list of all your running apps, as always, but instead of showing just a line of icons at the bottom of the screen, with iOS 7, youll see a nice big row of thumbnails, showing exactly whats going on with your phone. Tap them to switch to that app, or grab it and swipe it upwards to close it, as if youre tossing the app into a garbage can in front of your phone. (This is an interface stolen from an old OS called WebOS, in case you were wondering. Its a very good one.)

And finally theres one new feature called Airdrop thats designed to let you share things easily. You can get to it with that "Control Center," and itll let you beam a photo or certain kinds of files--not sure which kinds yet--to an iPhone or Mac nearby. Pretty cool!

Valve, the gaming company behind hits like the Portal and Half-Life franchises, plus the creators of the massively popular online gaming store Steam, are releasing... something. They created a site to tease a Monday announcement, but were scant on details. But we can guess: its very likely a game console that runs through their Steam service.

Thats not such a leap of logic. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell said earlier this week that "next week were going to be rolling out more information about... the hardware opportunities that we see for bringing Linux into the living room." Hmm. Maybe a game console that runs on the Linux operating system?

The teaser site doesnt have much on it, just a clock counting down to 1 p.m. EST Monday and a sole snippet of text. But that text is revealing: it mentions Big Picture, a recent add-on to Steam that allows players to play games through their televisions, rather than only on computer screens. That could very likely be the precursor to a television-based piece of hardware. From the website:

Rumors have been floating around for quite a while now that Valve was creating a console. It would be a "Steam Box," a gadget that downloads games through Steam and plays them, all through the television. (Valve had given funding to another company with a similar idea, but eventually parted ways. Maybe it was because they decided to make their own.)

Valve has a crazy amount of goodwill in the gaming community. If they do make a hardware announcement Monday, it could be huge.

The iPod Touch, despite its huge popularity, has always been a sort of little brother to the iPhone. It"s the almost-iPhone, the crippled iPhone, the gadget that follows in the iPhone"s footsteps. That"s due in large part to its lack of a mobile wireless antenna--without 3G, it can never replace a smartphone. Sprint"s new ZTE Peel case changes that, and makes the iPod Touch into a very curious and very cool connected device.

The ZTE Peel is basically a 3G hotspot, similar to Sprint"s own Overdrive or Verizon"s MiFi. It takes in a 3G signal from Sprint and provides a Wi-Fi network that any Wi-Fi gadget can access. But unlike the Overdrive or MiFi, which are separate boxes, the Peel is a case designed specifically for the iPod Touch.

An iPod Touch with a ZTE Peel case has a few distinct advantages over, say, an iPhone. It"s inherently a contract-free, much cheaper device, and without the need for (more accurately, without the possibility of) a voice allot, the monthly allot will be much cheaper as well. The ZTE Peel can support up to two other Wi-Fi devices, a feature for which AT&T charges $20 per month on the iPhone. Oh, and it"s on Sprint, which in many cities has more reliable service than AT&T.

It"s not exactly an iPhone, though. For one thing, the case only supports the second and third generation iPod Touch, not the recent fourth-gen. It"s not lucid why the case wouldn"t support the newest iPod Touch, and as the new model is so much better than the older ones (it has a camera and the same ultra-sharp screen and speedy processor as the iPhone 4), it"s a little bit frustrating. An encased iPod Touch also suffers from reduced battery life (about 5-6 hours of 3G time) and has no native calling or text messaging apps--you"ll have to pay for Skype or something similar for that. Oh, and it"s sort of a fatty--more than twice the thickness of the iPhone 4.

We might even recommend waiting for the next generation--we"d love to see a fourth-gen iPod Touch using a case that supports Sprint"s ridiculously fast WiMax network, especially now that WiMax is rolling out to more cities. But even now, the ability to give your iPod Touch instant phone-like capabilities, without the drawbacks of a (for many people) largely unnecessary voice allot or an expensive contract, is really, really cool.

The ZTE Peel case will be available in Sprint stores on November 14th for $80. Data plans cost $30 for 1GB of bandwidth--not thrilling, but remember, that"s all you have to pay.

[Sprint via Gizmodo]

Every month we search far and wide to bring you a dozen of the best new ideas in gear. These gadgets are the first, the best and the latest.

Click here to see our favorite gadgets of the month.

One summer, a young engineer walked into Austins Park, an amusement center outside the Texas capital, and introduced himself to the manager as an intern from Waterloo Labs-a hacking collaborative sponsored by the engineering juggernaut National Instruments. He and his colleagues wanted to convert the go-kart track into a real-life, crash-happy version of the classic videogame series Mario Kart. The manager didnt just accord. He lent him a kart.

In Super Mario Kart, cartoon drivers zoom around a track littered with interactive objects. Some boost a players speed, others hijack steering, and many can be launched at competitors. Four interns at Waterloo Labs grew up playing the game, so when someone suggested making a real-world version, they couldnt resist. "We werent entirely sure how we were going to do it," says intern Tim Lynch, "but we said, Okay, we need to do this."

Re-creating the games interactivity meant that objects on the track had to communicate with speeding go-karts. At first, the team thought of using lethargic, close-anger radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. The interns tested that idea by tossing their ID cards at a security scanner to see whether the embedded chips transmitted a signal swift enough. "That didnt labor," says Humphrey Huang. Next, they tried an active, self-powered RFID system. It cost an extra $500 but could transmit signals as far as 30 feet away, allowing each kart to interact with objects via its own RFID reader.

The interns biggest hurdle: overriding the karts controls. "We needed to be able to fight against someone trying to turn the wheel," says Lynch. They eventually selected powerful pneumatic pistons, which they attached to the chassis using zip ties, duct tape, and braces. When a driver captured or collided with an item, a reader would send that items unique ID to the computer, which, in turn, ordered pistons, valves, or servomotors to swerve, desist, or speed up the kart [see "How It Works," next page].

They tested the hacked kart in the parks garage, tossing plush toys embedded with RFID tags at the vehicle and watching it respond like a living creature. Then-with the track managers permit-they modified three other racers and added pneumatic cannons so that drivers could fire kart-crippling toys at competitors.

On game day, Huang, Lynch, Dylan Caswell, and Peter Gaylor raced, crashed, and futilely tried to prevent their carts from careening into the railing when RFID-tagged toys took over the controls. Lynch learned to steer with his knees while grabbing objects from the track and loading them into his cannon. Huang shot a plush turtle shell across the track at Caswell, triggering the RFID system in his kart and jamming the brakes. "We were doing lap after lap and thinking, Its actually working," says Lynch. "Were actually playing Mario Kart."

"LETS-A-GO!"

The red shell slows down a driver and jams steering. Air pistons attached to the front wheels tie rods lock it in place, while another piston depresses the brake pedal.

A driver who captures a green shell can stuff it into an air cannon and then launch it toward an opponent to fully desist his kart.

Plastic bananas cause one tie-rod piston to contract and another to expand, forcing the front wheels to the right on the left-aiming track. "We figured that would be most perilous," says Hunter Smith, Waterloo Labs internship coordinator.

Normally, a spring prevents the throttle lever from opening more than 85 percent. The RFID tag in the plush mushroom, however, triggers a servomotor to pull on the lever-enabling the driver to reach speeds nearing 35 mph.

The opportune driver who grabs a plush star temporarily earns a fully opened throttle, while his Wi-Fi-equipped controller orders all other karts to brake.

(Get the specifics of the project on the next page)

HOW IT WORKS

Hacking go-karts into the racecars of the Mario Kart videogame series was no simple feat. Four interns from Waterloo Labs began with standard four-stroke-engine vehicles and added components such as ruggedized cRIO computer controllers, Wi-Fi routers, and RFID readers.

1) TOY CANNON

Compressed air fed into a PVC pipe can blast a plush toy at competitors as far as 30 feet away.

2) FASTENERS

Zip ties, brackets, and other removable hardware made all modifications reversible.

3) AIR TANKS

A 3,000psi paintball tank stores 48 cubic inches of air to charge augment-on pistons.

4) ELECTRONICS

A suite of gadgets can detect the RFID codes of objects on the track and then manipulate the kart.

5) STEERING

A 130psi air piston attached to each tie rod can steer a kart off-course.

6) BRAKE OVERRIDE

A valve can depress the brake pedal by directing high-pressure air into a piston.

Time: 8 weeks

Cost: $1,200

WARNING: We review all our projects before publishing them, but ultimately your safety is your responsibility. Always wear protective gear, take proper safety precautions, and follow all laws and regulations.

This article originally appeared in the May 2013 issue of Popular Science. See the rest of the magazine here.

At this year"s Association of the U.S. Army gathering, developers showed off a handful of new military-focused apps (using consumer hardware, mostly) that bring a new level of seriousness to our gadgets. Sure, you may be an expert tower defense game player, but what about defending real towers?

The apps mostly center on mapping, in various forms. One of the best uses of a smartphone in the consumer world is the ability to center yourself, to find out where you are and what"s around you, good and bad. In the military, it"s not so different, but instead of finding good coffeeshops and avoiding the C train, you"d want to know the locations of your allies and enemies. There are a few different ways to do it, some of which works with explicit hardware.

The iPad, with its big screen, is a great device for GPS mapping. The image above, from Textron Systems, uploads the locations of friendlies and unfriendlies to SoldierEyes, a secure cloud-based service. Then there"s Raytheon"s curiously named RATS (Raytheon Advanced Tactical Systems), which provides a sort of buddy list that allows secure sharing of locations between users. Instead of SoldierEyes, RATS uses a server called RATMAN (no word on if Raytheon swiped some of DARPA"s rogue acronym-writers for this).

But the iPad notably lacks a camera, so it can"t handle any kind of augmented reality. Local Augmented Reality, which also uses SoldierEyes, is an Android app that allows you to detain the device up like a camera and see icons representing allies or enemies, even if you can"t physically see them.

These apps aren"t available in the App Store or Android Market, for pretty obvious reasons, and aren"t currently being used in the field--but they definitely give the smartphone in your pocket an element of potential danger. It"s great seeing our own gadgetry being used for insane/deadly purposes, like flash drives, iPhones, and, um, dogs.

[Wired]