Samsung Epic 4G Touch Already Rooted!

“Since you can’t upgrade the GPU or add more RAM to your smartphone, there’s really only one way to improve upon an already impressive handset like the Epic 4G Touch — root it.

It hasn’t been on the market for very long, but the crafty hackers over at XDA forums have already figured out how to open up the phone to your every whim.

The crack is “experimental” at this point, so proceed with caution.

You’ll also need to have both Kies and Odin 3 up and running, which makes this a Windows-only treatment at the moment.”

Forgot Where You Parked Your Car? Ask Parkbud!

“Agh, where did I park my car again? Oh noes! Did I fill up the meter enough? Maaan, where can I even park? I know my forgetful self is always asking those questions over and over again but with Parkbud, I won’t ever have to again.

Parkbud bills itself as a Car Locator and Parking app, which means it’ll help you remember where you parked your car.

Just fire up the app and Parkbud will remember where your car is located through GPS with one click. It gives you a snazzy map with instructions on how to get back (and directions to other parking garages if you’re having trouble finding a spot).

Parkbud also keeps track of your parking meter too (again, in a snazzy virtual parking meter)—it’ll show you how much time you have left on your meter and fire off an alarm once you get close to running out.

There’s even options to take a picture of your parked car to serve as a visual reminder and jot notes down within the app to make sure you never forget where you parked.”

Proton-Based Transistor Developed To “Talk” To Living Beings

On the left is a colored photo of the UW device overlaid on a graphic of the other components. On the right is a magnified image of the chitosan fibers. The white scale bar is 200 nanometers.

“Human devices, from light bulbs to iPods, send information using electrons. Human bodies and all other living things, on the other hand, send signals and perform work using ions or protons.

Materials scientists at the University of Washington have built a novel transistor that uses protons, creating a key piece for devices that can communicate directly with living things. The study is published online this week in the interdisciplinary journal Nature Communications.

Devices that connect with the human body’s processes are being explored for biological sensing or for prosthetics, but they typically communicate using electrons, which are negatively charged particles, rather than protons, which are positively charged hydrogen atoms, or ions, which are atoms with positive or negative charge.”

Lock and Unlock Your Front Door With Your Phone

“Assa Abloy has already brought NFC-based door locks to some Swedish hotel rooms, but one of its subsidiary companies is now looking to bring them to your doorstep, as well. Earlier this month, Yale Locks & Hardware unveiled what it hopes will be the first NFC-enabled residential lock to hit the US market.

With this system, all you’ll need to do is wave your smartphone in front of one of Yale’s Real Living line of motorized locks, which will then automatically open (as long as you’ve been authorized to do so).”

IDF 2011: Another Wrap Up

In addition to the wrap-up of IDF 2011 by AnandTech posted earlier, here is another wrap-up from Engadget if you still have not had your fill of those wonderful little toys…

• We’re live at Intel Developer Forum 2011!
• Intel shows disaster management tech at IDF, casts fireballs
• Medfield-based Android phone shown at IDF 2011, future Android builds to be ‘optimized’ for Atom
• Intel demos Haswell-enabled, solar-powered computing at IDF 2011
• Intel shows off Medfield-based Android tablet at IDF 2011, we (briefly) go eyes-on (updated)
• Asus UX31 vs. UX21… fight! (video)
• Ultrabooks invade IDF 2011, Toshiba Portege Z830 makes cameo (video)
• Cedar Trail-based Classmate PC hands-on at IDF (video)
• Intel: Thunderbolt coming to PCs, prototype shown at IDF 2011 (update: video!)
• IDT’s power-saving Panel Self Refresh tech coming to laptops, Ultrabooks and tablets (video)
• This is what Intel’s Haswell microarchitecture looks like (video from IDF)
• Toshiba’s Portege Z830 climbs out of Dell’s Inspiron 600m at IDF 2011 (video)
• Thunderbolt accessories at IDF 2011: Belkin’s Express dock, Seagate drives and PCIe expansion cards (video)
• Intel reveals ‘Claremont’ Near Threshold Voltage Processor, other conceptual awesomeness at IDF (video)
• AMD Eyefinity eyes-on, prepare to fall for landscape goodness (video)
• Eyes-on with Thunderbolt on Windows at IDF 2011 (video)
• Opera Mobile on Android x86 at IDF 2011 (video)
• Lego’s augmented reality at IDF, eyes-on (video)
• RealVNC demos BIOS-based server at IDF 2011 (video)
• MSI demos X79 motherboards with PCI Express 3.0 and UEFI BIOS at IDF 2011 (video)

Self-Powered Microbial Fuel Cell Produces “Limitless” Hydrogen

An example of a microbial fuel cell has gone on display at London's Science Museum

“US researchers say they have demonstrated how cells fuelled by bacteria can be “self-powered” and produce a limitless supply of hydrogen.

Until now, they explained, an external source of electricity was required in order to power the process.

However, the team added, the current cost of operating the new technology is too high to be used commercially.

Details of the findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“There are bacteria that occur naturally in the environment that are able to release electrons outside of the cell, so they can actually produce electricity as they are breaking down organic matter,” explained co-author Bruce Logan, from Pennsylvania State University, US.”

You May Not Be Able To Install Linux On Windows 8 PCs

“Windows 8 PCs will boot super fast in part because of the next-generation booting specification known as Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).

The latest UEFI, released April 8, includes a secure boot protocol which will be required for Windows 8 clients. Secure UEFI is intended to thwart rootkit infections by requiring keys before allowing executables or drivers to be loaded onto the device.

Problem is, such keys can also be used to keep the PC’s owner from wiping out the current OS and installing another option such as Linux, says Matthew Garrett, a mobile Linux developer at Red Hat, in a blog post.

 If a vendor key is installed on a machine, the only way to get code signed with that key is to get the vendor to perform the signing. A machine may have several keys installed, but if you are unable to get any of them to sign your binary then it won’t be installable. … Microsoft requires that machines conforming to the Windows 8 logo program and running a client version of Windows 8 ship with secure boot enabled.

”

Update (25th Sep 2011): Microsoft Responds