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Building Xbox One: An inside look at Microsoft’s play for the next generation of gaming

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The engineers in Microsoft’s windowless next-gen Xbox silicon lab are rattled. And understandably so. We’re in their office, after all, and we have a mess of cameras in the one place you’re not allowed to have cameras (or even cellphones). We’re obviously outsiders on Microsoft’s multi-building, security-heavy Mountain View campus, especially given our quartet of esteemed escorts: Todd Holmdahl, Ilan Spillinger, Nick Baker and Greg Williams. These four gentlemen are leading the charge on both Microsoft’s next big thing and, perhaps more importantly, a major effort to internalize silicon architecture at the traditionally software-focused megacorp.

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The skittish engineers aren’t worried we’ll film the mess of 24-inch LCD screens running video-compression tests, or the rows of desks with water hose stations used for temperature stress tests, or even the sea of circuit boards in various states of disrepair — that’s all standard for any Silicon Valley computer lab. It’s really just a single chip that’s causing concern: a custom-built Microsoft SoC that sits at the heart of the Xbox One. It’s this SoC that has us in Mountain View, Calif. — in Silicon Valley, literally down the road from Google — a mere five days before Microsoft will unveil its next game console to the world. Over six hours last Friday, we learned not just about that SoC, but also how the company plans to utilize it in the new console. We spoke with its four lead hardware architects. We toured the labs where they are testing the silicon, and where the next-generation Kinect was born. What follows is more than a look behind the silicon that drives the next Xbox — it’s a deep dive into the changing approach Microsoft’s taking to creating devices.

Gallery: Where the Xbox was built: An inside look at Microsoft’s play for the next generation of gaming

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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Acer president sees ‘no value’ in building a Windows RT tablet right now

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Author: Jon Mitchell

Ever since Acer’s Linxian Lang said that Microsoft would eat “hard rice” for building its own Windows RT hardware, the company has treated the operating system with something bordering on contempt. When asked about Acer’s long-gestating RT device, Acer president Jim Wong said “to be honest, there’s no value doing [hardware for] the current version of RT.” Given the underwhelming interest in RT gear that other companies have reported, we’re not sure if Wong’s comments qualify as a sick burn or merely kicking an adolescent piece of software when it’s down.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft, Acer

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Source: AllThingsD

Vintage M B robotix man parts and pieces building toy

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Author: Jamie Colby

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Inhabitat’s Week in Green: dog with prosthetic limbs, glowing sheep and gourd building blocks

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Author: Natalie Wood

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

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The start of May saw an abundance of groundbreaking stories about flora and fauna — first, there was the heartwarming story of Naki’o, the first dog to be fitted with four prosthetic limbs after losing his legs to frostbite. Then we were surprised and slightly disturbed to learn that scientists in Uruguay used genetic engineering to create glowing sheep with genes from the Aequorea victoria jellyfish. In other illuminating news, a team of bioengineers in San Francisco is using genes from fireflies to create plants that glow. And the Institute of Space Systems in Germany announced plans to use Heliospectra’s new LED lighting systems to conduct research into growing vegetables in outer space.

Filed under: Misc, Science

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San Francisco Is Building A Social Network For Emergencies Only

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Author: Brittany Turner

Online relief efforts such as #BostonHelps are inspiring, but haphazard and confusing. How San Francisco is building a social network — for disasters.

Via: sf72.org

When a disaster strikes, the first thing people want to know is what happened. The second? How can I help?

Efforts to offer help online are often scattered and confusing. Within minutes after news of the explosions in Boston spread, people began tweeting offers of help with the hashtag #BostonHelp. Not long after, Google created a people finder doc. The Boston Globe created another Google doc where people could offer up housing to those in need. Both circulated the internet, largely through Twitter. Lots of people signed up to help, but few were connected with people in need.

“I got at least 20 emails, DMs, [and] calls, but in the end no one needed our extra beds,” says Benjamin Maron, who repeatedly tweeted about his home and other services available. However well-intentioned, it was an admittedly odd fit — a Sandy-style relief effort for a human act of violence.

What’s become clear over the last year is that there's is a need for disaster and crisis coordination online, beyond hashtags. And San Francisco, the earthquake capital of the country, might have the solution.

In collaboration with the design firm IDEO, the city is creating a social networking website and app to connect people who want to help with those who need it. Through the SF72 platform, you will be able to preregister your home, supplies you have — say, an emergency generator — and relevant skills, such as emergency first aid. Instead of scanning hashtags, people will be able to simply log in to a preexisting community, knowing there will be specific offers for help organized by neighborhood.

“We looked at everything from CB radio protocols to earthquake apps, as well as emerging and established social platforms,” says Kate Lydon, who led the project for IDEO. “The central insight that SF72 is built upon is this: in the event of an emergency, human relationships and a community network are more important than a backpack filled with supplies— that people might not know how to use and are often out of date.”

Most government emergency response departments, including FEMA, use social media to communicate with the public. But they aren’t enabling conversations between other people looking to coordinate. As we saw during hurricane Katrina (and to a lesser extent Sandy), FEMA's immediately ability to help can pale in comparison to what regular people offer each other on the ground, almost immediately. Coordinating that help is essential.

“We want to make it simple and take fear out of it,” says Francis Zamora, spokesperson for the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (SFDEM). “It appeals to people's values. We live here for a reason and this is our home and we want to be a part of it and make simple connections with our neighbors.”

The city did a soft launch in January, collecting user feedback, but the service is still in beta. “We are dreaming big right now,” says Zamora. “As we go into the second phase of the build out, we want to see what will work for people. SF72 can be anything.” The next build-out phase occurs in mid-May.

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Inhabitat’s Week in Green: algae-powered building, ionic wind thrusters and 3D-textured solar cells

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Author: Tyler Evans

Each week our buddies at Inhabitat recap the week’s most fascinating green developments and clean tech information for us– it’s the Week in Green.

Today, Inhabitat stated that the world’s first algae-powered building officially opened its doors in Hamburg. It’s called the BIQ Home and it includes an excellent bio-adaptive algae facade that controls day lighting while producing a stable stream of sustainable energy. It makes sense that the self-sufficient building is found in Germany; the European nation is blazing a trail in clean tech. Despite dumping its nuclear reactor, Germany has quadrupled its energy manufacturing in the previous two years, largely due to its rapidly expanding alternative energy portfolio. Not to be outdone, England just flipped the turn on the world’s largest wind farm, and in Paris, Schneider Electric set up kinetic energy-harvesting tiles that generate power from joggers in the Paris Marathon. At the same time at the International Space Station, astronauts are installing a brand-new sort of 3D-textured solar cell that will absorb 16 sunups every day.

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Samsung building mid-range phone with 6.3-inch display, says ETNews

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Author: James Cliff

Korea’s ETNews doesn’t have a flawless track record with Samsung leaks, but it’s hoping to revive its reputation with this latest sliver of gossip. It’s suggesting that the company is going after those people who think the Galaxy Note is a bit on the weeny side by releasing the 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega. The device, which is codenamed “Project Möbius,” is likely to come with a dual-core Exynos chip, 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel shooter up front. On the other hand, SamMobile has thrown out a bucket-load of specs to say that we could see a 5.8-inch Mega with a low-res 960 x 540 display, a 1.4GHz Exynos CPU and 1.5GB of RAM. We get the sense that neither device is coming with bleeding-edge specs and will instead slot into the mid-range tiers of the company’s product lineup — assuming they exist at all. Either way, at least we’ve managed to get through a whole post without using the word “phablet”… damnit!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Via: Unwired View

Source: ET News, SamMobile

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LG Is Also Stated To Be Building A Smartwatch And Google Glass Competitor, As Is Everyone

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Author: Angela Chin

If you ’ re looking for a smartwatch in the next few years, you most likely succeeded ’ t desire for selection. A brand-new report pegs LG as establishing its own take on the new classification, according to The Korea Times on Friday. LG is allegedly dealing with a smartwatch as well as a product “ similar to Net big ’ s Google Glass, ” according to the paper ’ s sources, as part of a method to stay competitive lasting.

The LG smartwatch is in advancement along with the Glass-like product as a “ non-commercialized ” R&D job, which basically means it isn ’ t prepared to ship. LG, like Samsung and a lot of various other mobile makers, is no stranger to integrating smart phone innovation with watch-based designs. The LG-GD910, for example, was demoed at CES 2009 and included a touchscreen and built-in 3G.

LG joins Samsung (which verified previously this week that it was dealing with a smartwatch), Apple (which hasn ’ t verified anything, but which is reported to be dealing with it from various sources), and now Google (a new FT report claims it ’ s in on the activity simply this morning) as business apparently developing smartwatches. And obviously Sony currently actually shipped one, plus there are providings offered from Pebble and MetaWatch, to name a few.

Basically, everyone has or is dealing with a smartwatch. And while the listing is shorter for Google Glass, at this “ non-commercialized ” stage explained in the Korea Times report today, you can wager your britches everybody else is dealing with that, too. We ’ ve currently seen rumors about Microsoft, Sony and Apple developing Glass-type devices too, and now LG contributes to that listing.

The thing is this: if you ’ re a significant electronics maker, and at this point you haven ’ t appointed at least one man with a lab coat or an engineering degree to look into both wrist- and head-mounted wearable tech, you ’ re already out of touch. For better or for worse, these wearables are happening, and at this point I ’ m more surprised not to hear that a business is working on those locations. I ’ m looking at you HTC and BlackBerry: where are your reports of private research jobs? This doesn ’ t count:

RT @TaylorLorenz: @stevekovach here is unique image of BlackBerry # smartwatch cc @evleaks http://t.co/AjgSPTBTDW— Steve Kovach(@ stevekovach)March 22,
2013

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Tags: also, building, Competitor, everyone, Glass, Google, SmartWatch, Stated |

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Walgreens is building America’s first ‘zero energy’ superstore

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Author: Christen Arquette

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Pharmaceutical chain Walgreens has actually started deal with exactly what it calls America’s first “zero energy” superstore. Its Evanston store, found some 20 miles far from its headquarters, will utilize even more than 800 solar panels, 2 wind turbines, and geothermal energy to– it hopes– offer sufficient energy to try to keep the store running without extra power from the grid. Walgreens is fairly positive it could quickly reach that goal; it states that its renewable resource sources can generate 256,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity every year, and approximates its store will utilize simply 200,000 kWh. It does emphasize that both those figures are just estimates– weather will play a large part in both energy demands and output.

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Inhabitat’s Week in Green: algae-powered building, 3D-printing vending machine and the Toyota i-Road concept

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Author: Tiffany Shoman

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

Now that green design is entering the mainstream, we’re beginning to see the design community tackle larger, more ambitious projects using eco-friendly techniques. Case in point: This week, San Francisco transformed the Bay Bridge into the world’s largest light sculpture by outfitting it with 25,000 LED lights. Because the lights are so energy-efficient, it will cost just $ 15 per night to run the installation. In Hamburg, workers are putting the finishing touches on the world’s first algae-powered building, which is set to open this month at the International Building Exhibition. A company in Tokyo recently demonstrated a new skyscraper deconstruction technique that harvests energy from the demolition process and salvages almost every piece of the building for reuse. And in Copenhagen, work has begun on a combined ski resort and waste-to-energy plant, which will convert the city’s trash into energy that powers the resort.

Filed under: Misc, Science

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