Facebook isn’t the type of company content to be outdone by other people’s apps, so the company launched a new app called Facebook Camera for the iOS platform. The new app promises to make using Facebook photos faster and easier. When the user launches the app, they will see the photos from the people on their friends list.

The app lets people swipe to see more of any album or an individual photo to enlarge it. It also allows you to share your own photos by uploading multiple images at one time rather than having to upload individual images. It also has basic tools for editing pictures and adding filters. It’s not as full featured as Instagram, but I still vote we call this app Facegram.

It’s just puzzling that Facebook would release this app so soon after buying Instagram. Perhaps this app was already in development long before the purchase was announced. If you want to check it out, you can grab Facebook Camera over on the App Store for free.

The gTar was launched as a Kickstarter project. It has actual strings, and uses sensors to relay what you are playing to a custom iPhone app, which is supposed to help people learn to play the guitar more easily. The array of integrated LEDs along the fretboard will light up to show you how to play. Each note is relayed to the iPhone, which then produces the sound. There’s even a feature called SmartPlay that mutes incorrect notes. (They could also call this “Cheat mode.”)

It’s more of a learning tool than a replacement for a real guitar, though it does offer a “free play” mode where you can play it once you’ve built up your confidence. In just a couple of days, the project raised the necessary $100,000 to be fully funded. There are still 34 days left. Will it do $10 million like the Pebble smartwatch? You’ll need to pledge at least $399(USD) to get yours (the introductory batch of 200 already sold out for $350.)

Unfortunately, some people from New York and the NYPD don’t agree. Miyakawa was arrested last Saturday (May 19th) for putting up some new illuminated sculptures in the city.

So here’s what happened: Miyakawa was putting up his art installations (which were inspired by the “I Love NY” plastic shopping bags from the NY Design Week 2012) when a resident complained about how he was going to get the lights down from his tree. The call got redirected from 311 to 911, and the police eventually came and arrested Miyakawa for “planting false bombs.”

Do these look like bombs to you?

A lot of people were outraged that this happened to Miyakawa. He’s currently being held at Rikers Island without bail, and a judge has recommended that he be held for mental evaluation.

A Facebook group has since been started to show support for the artist. Its wall is flooded with words of support and encouragement for Miyakawa during his detainment.

[via Spoon Tamago]

The tower reminds me more than a bit of the Washington Monument. The tower is larger at the base in the tip and uses supporting guide wires along the way to keep it from toppling over onto the crowds. The project used over 500,000 LEGO bricks when all was said and done.

Among the builders were 4000 local kids conscribed into LEGO slave labor. By that, I mean the children won a contest and were allowed to help build the massive tower. Don’t expect to see LEGO release this tower as an off-the-shelf kit any time soon.

[via Huffingtonpost]

The diminutive LEAP box sits in front of your PC or Mac and plugs into a USB port. It then can detect gestures in 3D with enough precision to measure individual finger movements down to 1/100th of a millimeter.

Here’s a sneak preview video of the LEAP in action:

Not too shabby, eh? I love how you can use objects like pencils or a pen to interact with the screen without touching it, or use your finger as a gun controller for an FPS. Plus, they say you can network multiple LEAPs together to create larger areas for interaction. Though at this point it can only detect hands and small objects, not entire bodies like the Kinect. Then again, do you really want to stand up to use your PC? Perhaps the best news is that the LEAP is going to sell for just $69.99 (USD) – or at least that’s the pre-order price.

About the only downside is that at this point, there’s no word on when the LEAP will hit the market – but if you’re willing to take a risk on what looks like a very promising technology – you can pre-order one now. They say they won’t charge your card until it ships.

If you’re interested in some more extensive demo footage of the LEAP, check out the video below:

The “invention kit” comes with a circuit board, a bunch of alligator clips and a USB cable. All you have to do is connect the MaKey MaKey board to a computer, then attach the alligator clips to the object that you want to use as a keypad and you’re good to go. Your computer will just think that you have a USB keyboard connected. It’s like the Old Spice commercial made real: your bananas are now keyboards!

How awesome is that?! The rest of the world has already gone on record with a resounding “Hell, yeah that’s awesome!”, because as of this writing the MaKey MaKey Kickstarter fundraiser has gathered more than 6 times its original goal amount of $25,000 (USD). You can be one of the first to own a MaKey MaKey kit by pledging at least $35 (USD) to the fundraiser.

[via Engadget]

At its core, Incantor involves players casting a spell to defeat monsters or other players. Spells are cast via gestures made using the wand, which as I said communicates to the smartphone app via Bluetooth. It also has haptic feedback, so your hand will feel how a fireball feels like. Apparently it feels the same as getting a text message.

Another unique and possibly expensive feature of Incantor is that there are different types of wands – some deal direct damage, others heal or give status effects. Perhaps other wands can make wishes come true. If you’re interested, you should check out the Incantor blog for more details on the game’s mechanics. Get back to me if you see something about that wish granting wand.

Developer Movable Code is currently raising funds for Incantor on Kickstarter; a pledge of at least $100(USD) gets you a wand and a copy of the game, which will be available for both iOS and Android devices. Unfortunately, the prospects of the fundraiser reaching its goal of $100,000 seem slim at this point. As of this writing they’ve got 21 days to go and have only raised $7,277.

I’m no marketing wizard but I think it would have helped if they targeted kids instead. Children won’t give a damn about being seen in public waving a wand about, but older gamers might need to cast an invisibility spell beforehand.

[via TechCrunch]

That’s probably what Brazillian clothing retailer C&A is using as basis with their Facebook “Like” hangers. C&A has hooked up their hangers with a display the shows the number of likes the same article of clothing has received on their website.

Doing this works both ways, of course. If a person is on the fence about something and sees that it has ten thousand Likes, then he or she will probably end up buying it. But if it has just one or two Likes, it’ll probably go back on the rack.

[via New Launches via Oh Gizmo!]

The new feature allows you to skip every commercial on recorded programs starting at 1 AM the night after you record. I’m sure television studio executives are having full-on seizures right about now. This is much more than simply being able to push a button and automatically fast-forward through commercial. What Auto Hop does is completely delete commercial and connect the ends of the program for nonstop play.

How awesome is that? This means that you don’t have to pick up the remote to fast-forward; all you need to do is hit play and sit back. If Dish Network is able to weather the inevitable legal storm that this feature will raise from TV studios, I might switch from DirecTV to get this feature alone. However, there is a catch – at this point, Auto Hop only works for ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, and only with select “PrimeTime” programming, and only the day after initial broadcast. It’s too bad that they don’t let it work with all commercial programming.

[via Engadget]

If you or someone in your house is a fan of kung fu movies in the cheesy sound effects that go along with them, they need the Dragon Grip that’s on Kickstarter now.

This toy looks like the handle from a joystick and has a trigger and a D-pad on top. When someone does the kung fu moves while pressing the trigger the Dragon Grip makes sounds automatically.

The device goes along with a comic book called Legend City. If you want one of these toys, you’ll need to pledge $25(USD) or more. If you want to grip and the comic book, you’ll need to cough up $32 or more. The expected delivery on the Dragon Grip is December, assuming the project gets enough pledges to fund it.

Using an Arduino UNO, a WiFly Shield, a GoPro Hero 2, a three-axis accelerometer and lots of other bits and bobs that do important stuff, Kelly was able to turn a Tamiya Mini M05 R/C car into an analog arcade racer. The toy car connects to its base station via Wi-Fi, allowing it to be controlled wirelessly via a variety of controllers (including a steering wheel) and in return send a live first-person – first-toy car? – view as well as force feedback. He can even set it so that the camera pans in sync with the steering.

Want to know how to make your own Arduino WiFly Mini? You’re in luck: Kelly has a staggeringly comprehensive how-to on his website that is longer than the entire Harry Potter series. It was a compelling read. I couldn’t put it down. I like the part where Kelly realized he should be putting a series of instructions into one packet instead of sending packets with each instruction so the method more greatly resembles a PPM stream.

[via Make:]

Think of it like those paintings where the eyes watch your every move and follow you. It’s like that, but better/creepier. You may very well have nightmares after you watch it watching you.

[via Engadget via Geeky-Gadgets]

EA stated this week that an official announcement is expected at E3 with the launch in EA’s current fiscal year, which ends in March 2013. EA also hinted that other new video games are coming including a new Medal of Honor and a new Need for Speed game. For now, EA isn’t offering any details on the coming video games.

Some reports are claiming that Dead Space 3 won’t be set on a spaceship and will instead be on an icy planet called Tau Volantis. Issac, the main character, is also rumored to have a split personality in this version of the game and gets taunted by himself. The split personality is supposed to be visible as a separate onscreen character.

[via Computerandvideogames]

A company called Motion Simulation has created a portable 180-degree spherical projection screen and race seat. The base model is called the TL1 and uses three projectors and computer to shoot the game or simulation onto the curved, seamless screen. The motion simulator can be fitted with optional transducers to allow the driver to feel bumps in the road. I would assume it also has force feedback steering.

The system uses a chair that has adjustable driving position and the simulator can be used for flight games as well. The computer can be any Windows XP or 7 desktop with the power to handle three displays, and a total 5760 x 1200 resolution. Sadly, the base model alone is over $18,500, and a fully-outfitted simulator with three projectors, moving cockpit floor, and a high-end PC ranges from $26,000 to $55,000, so it won’t be at my house anytime soon.

[via Engadget]

The app is called Swÿp. I guess Swipr and Swipestagram were taken. It’s made for iOS devices and is as easy to use as most of Apple’s gestures. Simply swipe the icon of the file you want to transfer from the source to the target.

Both devices are not hacked or modified in any way save for the installation of the app. The trick is that the swipe is actually broken down to two parts: swiping out tells Swÿp that you want to send a file, and swiping in means that you want Swÿp to receive a file. What isn’t clear to me is if both devices already have to have Swÿp up and running or if Swÿp can autorun on the receiver’s end when it detects an incoming file transfer.

Linder and List have a guide and resources for developers here. If only it was this easy to transfer files to and from iOS devices to computers. For the love of convenience, please let this be the future of syncing.

[MIT Media Lab via Fast Co. Design]

The technology is called Touché, and is nothing short of revolutionary. Unlike the Microsoft, Corning and Samsung future, where every wall, window and surface is actually a touchscreen, the Disney future is one where objects still look a lot like the ones we have today, except they’re wired and can recognize different gestures, positions and even our presence. Touché has two main differences from capacitive conventional touchscreen technology. First of all, it doesn’t just have an on or off state (i.e. touch or no touch), and second, as I said, it works on a variety of materials, even on human skin and liquids.

That’s awesome. Pair this with Kinect and you can truly have a smart environment where the artificial surroundings – offices, houses, furniture and electronics – respond to us in more intuitive ways without us having to deal with buttons, switches, knobs or even touchscreen devices. Combine this with biomechatronics and paralyzed people will be able to “feel” again and be more independent. Mate this with life-size dolls and… No. Let’s not go there.

[via Disney Research via Hack A Day]

The game is a new MMO set 1000 years before the events in Skyrim. Considering how Skyrim lacked tech, I wonder how playing a game set 1000 years before will work out. “It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years,” said game director Matt Firor. “The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.”

The developer promises the game will have the lone exploration aspect we all know and love from the franchise combined with social aspects of MMO titles. Solo quests and public dungeons will reportedly be part of the game along with player versus player combat. The current release date is set for 2013 for both PC and Mac gamers.

[via Gamingunion]

Some people are trying to bring that concept back to life with these porcelain USB drives.

These Top Secret USB drives are safe to use wax seals on because of the material that was used to form them. Specifically, porcelain.

Of course, it’s still recommended that you protect the contents of the drive by encrypting the data or setting a password before allowing access. But taking one look at the drive–and at the seal–will let you know straight away if anyone tried poking their noses (or cursors) where they don’t belong.

The kit comes with wax, the press, and the porcelain 2, 4 or 8GB stick and is priced at €35 ($46).

[via Oh Gizmo!]

The explosion heard was a sonic boom of the giant meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Parts of that meteor hit the ground and have already been found by treasure seekers. However, so far only small portions of meteor have been found. Some researchers believe that there have to be large pieces out there waiting to be discovered.

“Only small pieces have been found. There have to be big pieces out there,” SETI Institute meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens said before the trip. “We’re just hoping to collect more meteorites for research.” The photo you see here is a group of NASA researchers heading to a NASA blimp to be used as an aerial platform to search for the meteor fragments. Meteors of this magnitude generally happen once per year around the Earth, but typically they happen in uninhabited areas. This meteor happened to plunge into the Earth’s atmosphere near populated areas and was witnessed by many people.

[via The Telegraph]

In Sega’s new Sega game, the vehicles transform between normal cars, aircraft, and boats depending on the race environment. The racing environments are also based on past Sega videogame franchises. For instance, one of the tracks is based on the Super Monkey Ball Temple Trouble environment.

Sega will offer the game for the PS Vita, PS3, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, and PC download late in 2012. I would assume that launch date means sometime around Christmas.  You can check out more screenshots of Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed over on Flickr.

The transforming vehicles make this look like an interesting racing game, what do you think?