A group of researchers has found a way to hack directly into the tiny computer that controls your monitor without getting into your actual computer, and both see the pixels displayed on the monitor—effectively spying on you—and also manipulate the pixels to display different images.
Many other scientists and academics have already harnessed the popularity of smartphones for their research. Citizens can use apps to collect data in a wide variety of ways, such as locating invasive species, measuring the effects of light pollution, tracking marine debris, and mapping noise pollution.
In the past few years, Caroline Karp, professor of environmental studies at Brown University, has also been hoping to tap this potential for widespread data collection. She has been working on finding a way to use citizen scientists — also known as crowd-sourced science — to keep tabs on the Ocean State’s jellyfish populations.
Social media and the internet connect people instantaneously, but those digital, on-screen messages disappear quickly. Now a new app from Pixinote is designed to change that pattern by giving users a means to capture a photo with a smartphone, add a brief text message and have the photo and message printed out and sent by U.S. Mail to someone special, just like in the old days before email.
Everyone is shooting more video these days, most of it with their smartphone, but it is common to shoot video holding the phone vertically. When video is sent into the newsroom, we, and our viewers, prefer seeing it in horizontal mode, without black bars covering much of the screen. To capture video ready for TV or YouTube, our App of the Day is a nice video app to add to your arsenal.
Stickers give cadence and character, punch-lines and punctuation, to South Korean text-speak. They act as qualifiers that inflect words with humour or sadness; they also establish an intimacy that most would shy away from in face-to-face dialogue. Many appeal for forgiveness. A dog called Frodo, one of KakaoTalk’s signature characters, proffers a bouquet of roses on one knee while perspiring. In another he is wearing a tie, and sweat flies as he hurries to work with a briefcase in hand, anxiously checking the time. Muzi, a yellow radish wearing a bunny suit, glares at his watch: his patience is wearing thin. Tube, a duck, cries and raises his arms above his head – a typical Korean punishment for naughty children – in repentance.
Are we all suddenly ashamed of progress bars, one of the key UI element dating back to at least the Mac in 1984? It seems like every app is trying to hide the progress bars from my eyes. True story: I didn't even notice there is a progress bar -- more of a progress indicator -- in the new Apple's Photos app until many months and many photo imports later.
~
Thanks for reading.