GeekwithEnvy

Developer

Check out the World’s First REAL Hoverboard

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Hendo Hover has created a technology that uses an engine that creates a magnetic field which pushes against itself to create lift. The board currently hovers 1 inch above the ground. The technology in these boards currently requires a special surface in order to operate, so it’s not quite like the hoverboard from Back to the Future, but it’s still pretty awesome.

Hendo Hover is also offering a small scale developer kit called “The Whitebox” which allows users to get creative and utilize their new hovering engines in any way they like. These developer kits can be programmed and controlled with both Android an iOS devices. This project is being funded through a Kickstarter campaign which is linked in the widget below. For more information head here.

Draw Circuits With a Pen

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Creating basic circuits by hand is the best way to learn about how electronics work and using a breadboard has traditionally been the best way to do this, at least until now. Circuit Scribe is a kickstarter project that features a cool new ball point pen that uses a conductive silver ink which is perfect for drawing simple circuits. Utilizing just a Circuit Scribe pen, piece of paper, and a few electronic components like a LED light or a small motor, you can create just about any small project that you can imagine. This catchy idea has already pulled in $260,000, which is far beyond the set goal of $85,000.

This pen would make a great tool for children to use in the classroom to learn about simple circuits and there’s even a Classroom kit that includes 10 basic kits and a activity book. You can also buy just one basic kit for yourself to see what you can come up with. You can also get two larger kits, the Maker Kit and Developer Kit.

Each kit includes the Circuit Scribe pen which can be purchased separately for $20.

Here’s what’s in the Basic Kit (Cost $30):

  • 2 LED Boards each with two (2) LED lights attached
  • 2 Coin Batteries
  • 9V Battery Connector
  • 2 PIN which you can add Resistors, Capacitors, and Switches to
  • Slide Switch
  • Jumper Stickers
  • BJT NPN Transistor

Maker Kit ( Cost $50):

  • Includes Basic Components
  • Maker Notebook
  • RGB LED
  • Photo Sensor
  • Sound Buzzer
  • Potentiometer
  • 8 PIN ( NAND Logic Gate, 555 Timer, OP AMP)
  • Stencil
  • 9V Battery

Developer Kit ( Cost $100):

  • 2 Basic Component Kits
  • Maker Notebook
  • 2 Sets of Maker Components and Developer Components
  • 10 Magnetic Connection Cords
  • USB Micro B Power Adapter
  • Motor
  • 2 DPDT Switches
  • 10 DIY Solder Boards

CircuitScribe

Valve’s Official Steam Machine Hardware Specs

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SteamLogo

If you’re not already aware, Valve is creating it’s own hardware to run Steam to try and create the ultimate gaming experience.

This hardware is just a prototype and the final product isn’t due until 2014, but 300 lucky Steam users will get to beta test the system sometime this year.  Currently, there are no images of the prototype hardware but in a recent post from the company they have provided us with some pretty serious specs.

Here are the specifications for Valve’s 300 prototypes:

  • The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
  • GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
  • CPU: some boxes with Intel i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
  • RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB GDDR5 (GPU)
  • Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
  • Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
  • Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high

As a hardware platform, the Steam ecosystem will change over time, so any upgrades will be at each user’s discretion. In the future we’ll talk about how Steam will help customers understand the differences between machines, hardware strengths and weaknesses, and upgrade decisions.

We aren’t quite ready to post a picture of our prototype – just because they’re not finished enough. Before they ship we’ll let you know what the prototype looks like. And we expect people to redesign the machine, too. Both from a technical perspective, deciding on different components, and from an industrial design perspective, changing the enclosure in interesting ways.”

Apple’s Sept.10th Announcements with iPhone5C & iPhone5S

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The Apple Sept. 10th event has announced a lot of new exciting updates.

iOS 7 will be available, for free, starting on September 18th. This will be for the iPhone4 and up, and also iPad2 and up. If you’d like a quick run-down on some of the features head here.

Onto the iPhone5C and iPhone5S. Apple has stated that once they release the 2 new phones, the iPhone5 will no longer be sold.

iphone5c

iPhone5C:

“The iPhone 5C is made with all the incredible technology that customers have loved with the iPhone 5, but there’s more, too. It has an incredible new design. One that’s more fun, and more colorful than anything we’ve made before.”

Colors will be what we expected, green, grey, light blue, peach, and yellow.

Features:

Steel Enforced with a multi band antenna.

Hard coated polycarbonate back, with a glass front.

4 inch Retina display

Integrated touch

Full sRGB Standard

Widescreen Video

New FaceTime HD camera

A6 Chip

Console level graphics

New camera app with live photo filters. 3x video zoom.

Bluetooth

16GB priced at $99, 32GB for $199 with a 2-year contract.

iphone5s

iPhone5S :

Yes Apple is sticking with the half upgrades as they announced the iPhone5S as we all expected.

Available colors will be Silver, gold, and “a new space gray.”

Features:

A7 chip, 64 bit. The world’s first 64 bit mobile phone

It’s made of a high-grade aluminum, with diamond-cut, chamfered edges. (Same as iPhone5)

It runs OpenGP ES 3.0. “This means that graphics-intense applications can bring their console- and desktop-level performance to the iPhone 5S.”

They announced a whole new chip, the M7 which will continuously measure motion data, accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass. This chip enables a new generation of health and fitness apps.

There’s a new, 5-element, Apple-designed lens with f/2.2 aperture. A 15 percent larger sensor.

“When you do take a picture, unbeknownst to you it actually takes multiple pictures.” This phone will automatically choose the best one for you.

All new TrueTone flash. “Whatever color your flash is it’s going to clash with the color of the room and give you a color that doesn’t look right. The flash is a dual-element, cool and amber. It offers 1,000 possible color temperatures!”

120fps slow-motion camera

 

Security:

Touch ID, fingerprint. built right into the home button. It’s still a physical button, that you need to push down, but there’s a metal ring that senses your finger.

How it works:

Touch ID capable sensor

170 microns thin

500 ppi resolution

Scans sub-epidermal skin layer

360 degree readability

They go on to say its a “very high level of security.There’s a secure area as portion of the A7 accessible only by the Touch ID, it’s never stored online or backed up to the iCloud.”

This feature can also be used for iTunes purchases.

Touch ID

 

You can pre-order the 5C on September 13th and purchase the 5C and 5S on the 20th.

To watch the full event head over to Apple.com.

 

Apple Developer Center Slowly Back Online

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Apple Dev Progress

It’s been over a week now since Apple’s Developer Center has gone offline. This is all thanks to an intruder that hacked his way into the developer center last Thursday. Apple has since promised to completely rebuild everything and to slowly bring things back online. They have created an status page that shows the progress of their developer system and as of today, about half of it has come back online.

Here’s the actual statement that was sent out to developers via email.

Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.

In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we’re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.