As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
The Newest Tech Innovations at NYC Media Lab's Third Annual Summit
People have been waiting decades for the flying car but it has not arrived yet — for better, for worse.
In the meantime, we conform ourselves to Candy Crush on bending “smart phones,” swapping filters in Instagram or filming not-so-Titanic Vimes.
The truth is that as fast as technology does fly, it still takes time fund great ideas and develop their respective apps.
Last week, dozens of talented students and professors gathered at NYC Media Lab’s Third Annual Summit, hosted at The New School, to present innovative designs and concepts such as games, web platforms, and apps. And while some are demos or are not quite ready for commercial exposure, we cannot underestimate the potential (remember, Mark Zuckerberg was a student when he concocted the idea of Facebook in his dormitory, and Steve Jobs was merely 21 years old when he designed Apple’s first computer).
Among the designs at this year’s Annual Summit was Murder Machine, a web platform that enumerates the violence and deaths currently afflicting Venezuela, a genius visual map of what people usually eat and the products’ corresponding food labels, and even a 3D printing of a penis wall that responds to music, the rise and fall of the stock market, and movements.
The list below compiles the 10 most noteworthy projects and designs from the Annual Summit — the latest in cutting edge media and technology until that flying car comes around.
The City Beat
One of the greatest multimedia tools for visualizing what’s going on the “City never sleeps.” This platform shows you on real-time data about trendy events, news and activities from New York City extracting geo-tagged images and texts from social media. You can see photos from a concert in Williamsburg or tracking what people are posting about Time Square or Central Park. Raz Schwartz, a Cornell Tech’s Post Doc Researcher, designed this useful application that could keep you busy exploring the city.
Flicker Effect
Bored of the same image filters? David Muñoz from NYU was too, thus he set about developing this platform to animate still images by manipulating colors. Would you Flicker yourself? Shoot him an email at flickerapp@gmai.com.
Augmented Skirt
After Anna Wintour discovers this, the fashion industry as we know it will never be the same. Parsons The New School for Design student Birce Özkan has designed a skirt that imitates a bird in flight, with feathers that flutter as the wearer walks. This follows a built-in biological compass and sensors that makes them fly based on the earth’s magnetic field. The wearable technology won’t be limited to just skirts; talks are in the works for a possible men’s suit design.
TwerkMeter
This is no joke. Interested in learning how to move like Nicki Minaj, or confirming an already mastered skill, this app will tell you if you are a #twerkmonster or #twerkfail. The design is easy: put your phone in your pocket, move while following instructions and get scored. Houtan Fanisalek and Ken Kruger, graduated from Columbia Engineering, are the responsible of this.
Glossy
A new fancy way to… “look it up.” If you want to find Karl Lagerfield’s cat or Beyoncé’s dresses you probably will find “massive garbage” through Google. This app wanted to provide you infinite links of premium content that can be found only in glossy magazines. It looks like Pinterest and when you press some image it will suggest you content from publications like Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Cosmopolitan. They claim this will give “a new way to explore professionally-generated content.”
AICER Assistive Image CommEnt Robot
I guess you have friends get offended if you don’t comment on their pictures. I know. Some Columbia students are developing a marvelous tool that will suggest you comments you can add on your friend’s pictures (i.e. in Facebook) just with pressing a button. Using a big database it would recognize attributes on the image that predicts the viewer responses such as “How cute” or something a bit more elaborate like “super jealous, gorgeous shot, lovely strong composition.” The Chrome extension tool will be available soon, meanwhile you can try it on its demo website.
Streamfully
If you are one, like me, that have tons of opened tabs and keep opening pages without finishing none studies said we become to understand less. But this app is bringing a holy solution for that digital mess. With just rolling your mouse over a hyperlink, it will automatically show you a personalized preview of information of the new page. Based on your web interaction and prior readings, it predicts what information would you be of your interest. This is now available for Chrome or Firefox and it was designed by Paul Pangaro, faculty of School of Visual Arts.
Sound Necklace
If you enjoy music, you will love this. This accessory, created by Ezgi Ucar from Parsons, has place for fashionable beads, which create music when you touch them. Moreover, you can change the beads and play different sounds. As she describes this is a “personal musical instrument you can carry around as an accessory.”
The Daily Pundit
Overwhelmed by storms of news and information? This app promises you answer your questions regarding trendy issues. The Q&A based system will summarize your doubts about, for example, what is ISIS or what’s going on in the day. This useful tool created by Billy Shaw from NYU will coming this winter.
Out, a Coming Out App
Coming out would be safer and more accessible… coming soon. This app aims to provide useful tools and guide LGBT youth step-by-step through the process of expressing their sexual orientation or gender identity. If the young is worried about how to coming out with parents or which way would work better, the app would recommend a range of resources such professional counseling, movies, and articles depend on the situation. Eddie Chen, a student from NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, hopes find funding and permissions to make accessible his project.
NPD: iPhone 6 launch triggered record-breaking sales of accessories
According to a new report from sales analyst NPD, mobile phone accessories in the US hit a new record in the two weeks immediately following the release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Accessory sales were seen to be 43 percent higher than the two weeks before the launch, and far better than the 17 percent increase seen in the same period after the release of the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s last year. The new total for accessories in the fortnight was $249 million, topping last year’s $195 million.
Can You Really Know All Your Facebook Friends? This Photographer Tried to Find Out.
This post originally appeared on Slate.
By David Rosenberg
Willow & Foris Williams, Gorham, Maine, 2013. Relationship: friends, family friends, met through Toby and Lucky Hollander. Years known: 25-30.
Like many Facebook users, Tanja Hollander realized that when she was sharing information on the social network, some of the people reading her posts she was in constant communication with, while others she barely knew. Some, she didn’t really know at all. She wondered: “Am I really friends with all of these people?”
That question would evolve as she traveled through 43 states and five countries, averaging two weeks of travel per month, to photograph every one of her Facebook friends for her project Are You Really My Friend (she didn’t include people she added since beginning the project in 2011). She is currently trying to figure out how to translate this project into a March 2017 show at Mass MoCA that will include all the portraits plus accounts of her experiences both on the road and via social media since she began the ambitious undertaking.
“That’s what I’m obsessed with right now, trying to visualize all the data,” Hollander said about the intriguing connections that come up when meeting people for the project. “All of these experiences I’m having to me are almost more important than taking the picture of the people. So how do I visualize all of these experiences besides saying go to my Instagram feed or let me tell you this cool story?”
All of the portraits for the project have been shot on film, which in some ways might seem like a paradox for a project that delves deep into the modern, digital oriented virtual world. For Hollander it’s the only thing that made sense, although she does bring along an iPhone and digital point and shoot camera for backup.
“It’s not like I’m going back to film,” she said. “I never left film. I went from records to an iPod. I’ve always shot film and it’s funny because I’m doing a super tech project—I’m not a techie at all—I came kicking and screaming into even using Photoshop.”
Most photographers will tell you that shooting film also slows things down. To keep things casual and less intimidating for her subjects, Hollander travels by herself with no light kits and no assistants, armed only with her Hasselblad camera, a couple rolls of film and a tripod. Not only does it bring down the tension for her subjects, it has also affected Hollander.
“I’m a much nicer person now because you have to be,” she said about making the portraits. “You can’t be a jerk when you go into someone’s house to take a picture.”
Working on the project has also reshaped Hollander’s definition of what a friend is, although she isn’t convinced there is much difference between online relationships and those based in “reality.” She said friends have always represented different roles from those you might only run into at an art show to those with whom you share more intimate details of your life.
“The word friend is hard because Facebook took it and corporatized it,” she said. “I’m a person who loves meeting people and I’m always introducing people … I would say I definitely have a connected network of people and I think Facebook just mimicked what I already had and made it easier to connect with people.”
So far, the majority of people Hollander contacted about participating in the project have agreed to sit for her. Her sister and her wife liked theirs; her parents, not so much (“I don’t think they really understood what I was doing and it was the first time they’ve seen themselves portrayed in this way.”) Hollander said she tries reaching out to people few times about taking their portrait and if they don’t have the courtesy to respond to her request, she unfriends them.
She made a conscious decision to shoot her exes last, something she might end up changing. “I’m starting to think that’s not the best idea to save all the people I don’t want to see,” she laughed. “It’s going to suck the last six months!” She added that simply going into each home is emotional enough.
“The emotional part is hard because I never know what situation I’m going to walk into, even with close friends. You never know what’s happened in the last couple of days—and when I’m there, I’m in it!”
See more photos on Slate.
Over 9M 'reservations', 1M official pre-orders for iPhones in China
Official pre-orders for the iPhone 6 finally went live in China early Friday morning, with more than a million orders being taken in the first six hours of availability. The new pre-orders would be different from the more than nine million “reservations” taken by other carriers and resellers, meaning that opening weekend sales — which are scheduled to open in China on October 17 — could easily surpass the combined first-weekend sales of the nine countries the iPhone 6 line debuted to in September.
Kmart Hack May Have Compromised Customer Information
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears Holdings Corp. said Friday that a data breach at its Kmart stores that started last month may have compromised some customers’ credit and debit cards.
The data theft at Kmart is the latest in a string of hacks at big retailers including Target, Supervalu and Home Depot. Sears Holdings, which also operates Sears stores, said that Kmart’s information technology department on Thursday detected a breach of its payment data systems.
The company was unable to provide the number of affected cards. But it said that based on its investigation so far, it believes no personal information, debit card PIN numbers, email addresses or social security numbers were obtained by the hackers. And there’s no evidence that Kmart.com shoppers were affected.
It said Kmart was able to remove the malicious software from its systems.
The news of the hack is a blow to Kmart’s Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based parent company, which is struggling with losses and sales declines as it fights to stay relevant with shoppers.
Sears said Kmart is working with federal law enforcement authorities and banking partners as it investigates the breach. It is also deploying software to protect customers’ information.
The company said that it will be providing free credit-monitoring protection for customers who shopped with a credit or debit card at Kmart stores during the month of September and through Thursday. It also emphasized that customers have no liability for unauthorized charges if they report them in a timely manner, according to the policies of most credit card companies. Sears said that the most up-to-date information will be available on its website, kmart.com and customers can contact its customer care center at 888-488-5978.
The announcement comes a few weeks after Home Depot, the nation’s largest home improvement chain, said that a data breach that lasted for months at its stores in the U.S. and Canada affected 56 million debit and credit cards. A pre-Christmas 2013 attack at Target Corp. compromised 40 million credit and debit cards.
The size of the theft at Home Depot trails only that of TJX Companies’ heist of 90 million records disclosed in 2007.
Target’s high-profile breach pushed banks, retailers and credit card companies to increase security by speeding the adoption of microchips in U.S. credit and debit cards. Supporters say chip cards are safer, because unlike magnetic strip cards that transfer a credit card number when they are swiped at a point of sale terminal, chip cards use a one-time code that moves between the chip and the retailer’s register.
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Make Home Life a Priority Again
Our televisions have over 300 channels to choose from. There are so many good movies to watch on Netflix. The Internet is so darn addictive. We hop on Facebook to quickly peruse our friends’ status updates and somehow get sucked down the rabbit hole of liking updates, clicking on trending topics and reading news scandals. And that’s before we even go on Twitter. We’ve got plenty of time for screen time at home, but here’s a question: while we’re viewing these screens, what’s going on in the background?
Are the dishes piled up in the sink? Is the clutter accumulating on the dining room table? Is the food supply in the refrigerator running on empty? What’s for dinner tonight? What about breakfast tomorrow? Are the bedroom drawers stuffed to the brim with clothes that are rarely worn? Is the piano collecting an impressive layer of dust?
With all of the glittery distractions of modern day technology and entertainment, our home life is suffering. Even when we finally manage to do something relatively domestic we feel compelled to snap a picture of it and share it on Instagram only to await the first like.
Is it possible to find a balance and be able to enjoy the wonders of the Internet and our favorite shows while also living well at home? With a little self-discipline and a change of perspective, it is possible to make our home life a priority again.
First, we have to ask ourselves why we feel such resistance toward washing those dishes in the sink or clearing the clutter in the living room. Can we change our perspective and think about those traditionally mundane tasks as being pleasurable rather than tedious? Can we slow down and actually enjoy tending to our home for the benefit of ourselves and our families? When we do this, something curious happens.The entire family starts to notice. Things shift and because you care, your children care too. Your spouse starts to care.
You realize that you don’t need to take a picture of your supper and share it online. You can actually just enjoy it with your family. Do they “like” it? What are their comments on the meal? Can you all come together as you each tackle a junk drawer and laugh at the random objects those drawers contain? Can you shut down the screens, dust off that piano and sit down and play? What’s happening while this is going on? Are your children dancing freely around the living room, singing off-tune?
Feel the intense satisfaction of the present moment. Be in it. This is what home life is all about: family and connection. If you want to share your experience on Twitter later, go for it, but right now make being in this moment a priority. Commit to making your home life a priority again. Because living well at home lays the foundation for thriving in every other aspect of your life.
Jimmy Fallon's #ThatWasStupid Tweets Are Way Too Relatable
Warning: this hashtag may hit a little too close to home.
This week, Fallon decided to see what harebrained shenanigans people have been up to by asking for #ThatWasStupid tweets, and don’t be surprised if some of these sound kind of familiar.
Seriously though, maybe we all think waiters are saying “super salad” when they mean “soup or salad” because a super salad just sounds amazing.
“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.
Briefly: Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile updated, Renegade iPhone 6 case
Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile has released an update to its iOS app, offering a thorough overhaul from its previous versions. A professional-grade painting and drawing app, SketchBook v3.0.1 features pencil and brush tools that aim to deliver a realistic drawing experience. Its redesigned user interface and improved “paint engine” allow users to apply the same workflow to devices with a range of screen sizes, thereby eliminating separate tablet and phone editions of the app. The app’s interface is fully customizable to fit the user’s working preferences.
5 Great Online Tools for Creating Infographics
Professional infographic designers rely primarily on a core vector graphics software program to create their infographics designs. The main advantage is that all the icons, charts, images, illustrations, and data visualizations are treated as separate objects that can be easily moved, resized, overlapped, and rotated. No matter where you create the individual design elements, the final infographic design is usually put together in a vector graphics program.
Creating infographics using online tools has never been easier. In the last few years a number of online tools have emerged that allow anyone to create great visual content. Whether you are working on a project for work, personal use, or social media, each new project starts with a template. With the dimensions laid out for you, you can focus your attention on quickly creating effective designs. Search, drag, and publish — it can be that simple.
These new tools are vector graphics applications that run in your browser as a replacement for using an expensive professional desktop application like Adobe Illustrator to put your infographic design together. Each one offers different tools, image libraries, charts, fonts and templates as a starting point. None of these have the full capabilities of a professional desktop application, but you probably don’t need that much power to create a simple infographic.
In this article, we take a quick look at 5 of the best online tools for creating infographics: Visme, Canva, Easel.ly, Piktochart, and Infogr.am. All of these tools are evolving quickly, and this is just a snapshot of their current capabilities.
1. Visme (visme.co)
Visme allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics and other engaging content. With tons of templates, and huge library of free shapes & icons to choose from, Visme has you creating awesome visual content right away.
The templates are set up simply and beautifully. If you wanted, you could just edit the placeholder text, insert your own, and publish your infographic.
One of the greatest aspects of this service is changing percentages within the charts. All you have to do is click on the graphic you would like to change, enter a new number, and the chart changes to reflect the new information automatically. Saving you hours of frustration trying to do it on your own.
Pros:
Creates infographics, presentation, animations, ad banners, and custom layouts.
Insert and edit chart objects directly by changing the data values.
Large library of icons and images.
Embed YouTube videos directly into designs.
Special pricing for students & teachers.
Cons:
The basic free version is limited.
Only 3 projects.
Must include the Visme logo.
Limited access to charts and infograph widgets.
JPG download is still in Beta, with a few bugs.
Price: Basic version is free with pricing plans available
2) Canva (canva.com)
Canva just celebrated their 1-year anniversary last month, and has made a big splash in the online design space. Your experience kicks off with a great “23 Second Guide to Beautiful Design,” where they walk you through a brief introduction to their design program.
After finishing the brief tutorial, you can start a new design. Canva is filled with options, whether you are working on a project for work, personal, or social media. Each new project comes with a template for the project you choose to work on. With the dimensions done for you, you can focus your attention on creating beautiful designs in seconds.
Pros:
Excellent (and short) intro tutorial to get you started, and many more on advanced concepts.
Templates for social media, blogs, presentations, posters, business cards, invitations, and more.
Easy and intuitive to use.
Large library of images to choose from.
Cons:
No editable chart objects. You need to import your own data visualizations as images.
Have to pay for different image assets individually, instead of a monthly subscription.
Price: Free, but you have to pay for Pro quality design assets individually
3) Easel.ly (www.easel.ly)
Easel.ly is a great program, but lacks some of the guidance, and features, that come standard in other programs.
Easel.ly lacks a “How-To” introduction section to their program, and just kind of throws you into the design process right away. Their focus seems to be primarily based on infographic design. Whereas other programs offer a plethora of design project options.
If you’re just looking to design an infographic, this program will work well. If you want more variety, you’ll have to utilize one of the other programs in this list.
Pros:
Free.
Very basic design layouts and assets.
New charts feature allows some basic editable charts in your design.
Easy downloads for JPG and PDF versions.
Cons:
Not a very large selection of themes, called “Vhemes”.
Small library of image assets. You’ll want to upload your own images and icons.
Price: Free
4) Piktochart (piktochart.com)
Piktochart is one of the best looking programs on this list. All the information you need to get started is provided in their tour.
Their program is easy to use, and offers tons of freedom in building and editing your infographic using their simple graphic tools. They have categorized icons, resizable canvas, design-driven charts, and interactive maps to utilize.
Their intuitive user interface is where Piktochart truly excels. All the tools you need to create are laid out intelligently, making your new job as a “designer” so much easier.
One of the coolest aspects of this program is that they show how versatile infographics are for different projects. Whether you’re creating for a classroom, office, website, or social media setting – Piktochart gives you the heads up on how to use infographics effectively.
Pros:
Themes and templates are of high design quality.
Intuitive. Allows you to edit anything and everything with ease.
Create infographics, reports, banners and presentations.
Embed videos from Youtube and Vimeo in your design.
Cons:
Limited selection of free templates. Higher quality templates are available with a Pro account.
$29 per month is a high subscription price compared to the others.
Price: Start for free with pricing packages available
5) Infogr.am (infogr.am)
Infogr.am has got the best charts. For illustrating data, there are more than 30 different types of charts to choose from. Anything from bubble charts and tree maps to simple pie charts.
Editing data can be easily done in Infogr.am’s built-in spreadsheet, or you can import your own XLS, XLXS and CSV files. Once your infographic has been edited and beautifully designed, you can save it to your computer as a PNG or PDF file with a paid subscription.
Pros:
Ability to create and edit great charts by changing data
Built-in Spreadsheet. Can also import your XLS, XLXS and CSV files
Widest variety of available chart types
Educational and Non-profit pricing plans available
Embed videos from Youtube and Vimeo in your design.
Cons:
Only creates infographics and charts
Small selection of infographic templates
No image library, you must upload your own image assets
Download options require paid subscription
The White Label subscription service is the most expensive options of the group
Price: Basic version is free with pricing plans available
Which design sites have you tried? Which tools are your favorites? Post in the comments.
This article first appeared on Cool Infographics.
The Best Times Of Year To Buy Cars And Computers, From Trae Bodge (VIDEO)
When it comes to making big purchases, like a new car or computer, senior lifestyle editor of RetailMeNot.com Trae Bodge says that timing matters. Trae recommends purchasing a new car in August, which is right before the newer car models get released, which means you’ll get the best price on their current model. If you’re looking to purchase a new laptop, your best bet is to look in August during back to school season, in April, right before new computer models get released, and during Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals during the holiday season.
For more advice on shopping smart, view Trae’s essential tips, below:
See more clips
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Chris Hadfield's Stunning Photos From Space Will Give You A 'Truly Global Perspective' On Our Planet
From a bird’s eye view of Niagara Falls to a breathtaking pic of the Windy City, astronaut Chris Hadfield became famous for his stunning photos of Earth from space.
Hadfield shared many of his photos via social media–but not the 150 images included in his new book, “You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes.” The book goes on sale Oct. 14.
What inspired Hadfield, now retired, to put the collection together?
“A desire to not keep this magnificent experience to myself,” he told The Huffington Post in an email, “and to let people see our planet for themselves from a truly global perspective. To share the experience of floating beside me by the window for an entire orbit of our world.”
Scroll down to see 11 of the stunning photos from the book.
Check out 16 things you may not know about Hadfield here.
The Funniest Someecards Of The Week
Was it just us or was this a loooooong week?
Summer is officially over, Halloween is still weeks away, and we’re feeling all sorts of blah. Thankfully, the weekend is here and it’s time to add some spice to our lives. Ease into the excitement slowly with this week’s most entertaining Someecards. The fun starts… NOW.
Why Tesla Didn't Release A Fully Driverless Car
The world wasn’t ready for a driverless car. And neither was Tesla.
CEO Elon Musk disappointed some people — at least on Wall Street — on Thursday when he unveiled exactly what everyone was expecting at a product launch event outside Los Angeles. Tesla rolled out a super-fast, all-wheel drive “D” line of Model S sedans, which come equipped with a limited autopilot function.
With the new release, Tesla caught up the competition — rather than leapfrogging over it. Rivals Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar have already released functions that allow their luxury sedans to park and stay within the lines of the road autonomously.
It’s not that Tesla couldn’t have zoomed ahead of its fellow carmakers. It has the technology — just last week, Musk told CNN that Teslas could be 90 percent “capable of autopilot” by next year. But, regulatory and safety concerns aside, the company is not ready to drastically alter the way people drive cars just as people are beginning to buy the company’s vehicles.
“If he made this huge announcement about driverless cars, “I’d say, ‘Well, why are you making and selling all these different vehicles that aren’t going to be driven that way?” Carter Driscoll, a senior analyst of clean technology at investment bank MLV & Co., told The Huffington Post.
Tesla is slated to debut its first SUV, the Model X, sometime next year — the company has already taken reservations for preorders for the vehicle. By 2017, the upstart automaker hopes to begin production on the Model 3, its first mass-market vehicle expected to sell for about $35,000.
There’s no doubt those upcoming cars will feature the new autopilot hardware, which includes frontal radar to detect where other cars are and cameras that can read road signs and adjust the Tesla to meet the speed limit.
But that technology, advanced as it may be, still needs to be time-tested, and consumers need more time to get comfortable with it.
“What happens when the road sign is covered in snow?” Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at the automotive research firm Kelley Blue Book, told HuffPost. “It’s not that the technology couldn’t do it in theory, it’s that there’s going to be 1 million and one exceptions.”
From the vantage point of a technology utopian, driverless cars present endless possibilities — reducing traffic deaths, scaling back carbon emissions, providing a designated driver anytime a car owner so much as sniffs an alcoholic beverage. That seems to be the vision put forth by Google, which began parading its little, steering wheel-free, beetle-like cars earlier this year.
Last year, Tesla kicked off talks with Google about developing driverless cars. And, by Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas’ estimation, Tesla may be poised to become the industry leader in autonomous driving.
That’s what the company did with electric vehicles. Musk has revived the long-dead dream of a zero-emissions car by making an attractive vehicle that’s also eco-friendly: The Model S is luxurious, sexily designed and fun to drive — just ask anyone who’s been behind the wheel of one. But it’s just that — people like to be behind the wheel.
Brauer said the shift to autonomous vehicles will be an evolution, not a revolution.
“There’s still a journey to be made to get to autonomous vehicles,” he said. “It’s not a two-year journey, it’s not a five-year journey. It’s going to be years and years in the making.”
Upskirt Photos Don't Violate A Woman's Privacy, Rules D.C. Judge
Women can add public peeping toms to the long and ongoing list of things they need to protect themselves from.
On Sept. 4, Washington, D.C. Superior Court Judge Juliet McKenna dismissed charges against Christopher Cleveland who was accused of taking pictures up women’s skirts without their consent or knowledge at the Lincoln Memorial. Judge McKenna ruled that no person could “have a reasonable expectation of privacy” when “clothed and positioned” in the manner in which these women were in a public space (sitting on steps in a skirt).
Cleveland, a Virginia-native, was arrested in June 2013 when police found him taking pictures of women sitting on the steps of the memorial who were wearing dresses or skirts. After police arrested Cleveland, they found multiple upskirt photos of women’s crotches and butts on his camera. Unfortunately, McKenna’s ruling removed these images from being used as evidence.
“This Court finds that no individual clothed and positioned in such a manner in a public area in broad daylight in the presence of countless other individuals could have a reasonable expectation of privacy,” McKenna wrote in her ruling.
She cited that the photographs “were not ‘incidental glimpses’ and in fact were images that were exploded to the public without requiring any extraordinary lengths, or in fact any lengths whatsoever, to view.”
Although McKenna admitted that Cleveland’s actions were “repellent and disturbing” she was not convinced that his actions of “photographing publicly exposed areas of women’s clothed and unclothes bodies, including the upper portion of their buttocks and breasts visible through their clothing” was sufficient enough for officers to arrest him.
FYI: Just because women’s bodies are in public, doesn’t mean they’re public property.
Read the full ruling below:
Cleveland Christopher – Court Order – Aug 2014
H/T The Daily Intelligencer
Here's How Bubble Wrap Is Made
Bubble Wrap. It protects your things from getting bruised and broken during transport, and it’s strangely enjoyable to pop with your fingers. But do you know how it’s made?
In this fascinating video created by Sealed Air Corporation, the makers of the pop-able material, consumers get an inside look at just how Bubble Wrap is created — from its humble origin as a bunch of small resin pellets, to its transformation into sheets of bubbly plastic.
The making-of video delighted netizens everywhere when it went viral earlier this week. But Sealed Air told The Huffington Post on Thursday that the clip had not been created for public consumption; it had been “made special” to lift the spirits of a 12-year-old girl named Naomi, who’s battling leukemia.
A company spokesperson said Naomi sent Sealed Air a request for a box of colorful Bubble Wrap and asked for an explanation of how the material is made.
The company obliged, making the video you see above and sending her a DVD of it, along with a huge box of Bubble Wrap.
H/T Reddit
Boost to carry iPhone 6, 6 Plus on Oct. 17th with $100 discount
Sprint-owned Boost Mobile has announced it will begin selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on Friday, October 17th. Since Boost is a prepaid carrier buyers will have to pay for a contract-free device, but Boost is slashing $100 off the price of each model. A 16GB iPhone 6 will therefore cost $549, for example, and an equivalent iPhone 6 Plus will be $649. 64 and 128GB options will also be available.
Mobile diabetes care is forcing companies to share patient data
Traditional device companies are being forced to share patient health data because of the #WeAreNotWaiting movement.
The post Mobile diabetes care is forcing companies to share patient data appeared first on iMedicalApps.
Hawk Attacks A Quadcopter Drone, Wins In Terrifying Fashion
When Christopher Schmidt took his quadcopter drone to Magazine Beach Park in Massachusetts, his camera was greeted by an unexpected visitor.
And by that, we mean it was ATTACKED BY A HAWK.
The bird “decided he wasn’t too happy with my invasion of his airspace,” wrote Schmidt when he uploaded his video on Wednesday. “As far as I could tell, the hawk came out unscathed, and having defeated his prey, was happy to retreat. As soon as he flew at me, I throttled down the props to try to minimize any harm to the bird. The quadcopter came out unscathed as well.”
And now we know — hawks own the sky.
H/T Tastefully Offensive
Study Explains Why You Stalk Your Most Pitiful Friends On Facebook
On those lonely Saturday nights, you don’t end up scrolling through your unemployed high school friend’s Facebook by accident. There’s a good, scientific reason for your creeping.
A new study from two researchers at the Ohio State University found that when people are in a good mood, they’re drawn to the profiles of their successful and attractive friends. However, when they’re feeling down, they lurk around the profiles of people who have had more difficulties in their lives. The findings will be published in the December issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior.
The researchers tested 168 undergraduate students to determine how mood affects who people stalk on Facebook. First, they primed the college students to be either in a good or bad mood by having them perform a test on facial recognition. The college students were told their results were either “excellent” or “terrible,” regardless of actual performance.
Next, the students were shown a fake social network called “SocialLink,” which gave them the option to click on the profiles of eight fake people — each rated for attractiveness and financial success on a five-point scale. Those who felt like losers gravitated toward the profiles of those who looked like even bigger losers. Or, in science-speak, they tried to manage their mood “through selective exposure” by making “downward comparisons” to their SocialLink friends.
Meanwhile, those flying high after acing the test tended to check out the profiles of the Glenn Tablots and Kenneth Widricks of the world, and let the light of those superstars shine down upon them.
Things have always come easy for Glenn and Kenneth.
Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, a professor of communications at Ohio State and co-author of the study, argued that her results could be generalized to real social networks like Facebook. “Our experimental site operates a bit differently, but that’s a benefit of doing experiments,” she told The Huffington Post. “It gives us more control over what features influence the browsing behavior. [Other] studies rely on survey responses at a single point in time, which makes it harder to show cause and effect.”
So next time you shave acquaintances off of your friend list — and you really should — make sure not to purge just everyone, in case you find yourself in need of a dose of schadenfreude.
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