lab

Eleven awesome Gmail Labs features

Gmail isn't just cool because it's part of the Google family of services, it also has many extra features created by independent developers. These features are available to you at no additional cost by enabling them in the Labs area of the Mail settings menu. Here's a collection of 11 of the most awesome Gmail Labs features to get you started with a personalized Gmail experience:

Canned responses

While the name sounds like a vacation responder, it's more of a template insertion tool than anything else. You can add custom signatures or even a collection of … Read more

Ford unveils OpenXC, invites open-source applications

SAN FRANCISCO--Ford wants developers to create a broad array of connectivity applications that can be used in conjunction with its cars, and it launched its OpenXC platform Monday to promote that effort.

In an announcement at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference here, Ford and its partner Bug Labs unveiled OpenXC, a platform designed to allow third-party developers to create any number of open-source hardware or software products that will interact with Ford's Sync system.

The idea, said K. Venkatesh Prasad, the senior technical leader of Infotronics at Ford Research and Innovation, is to make it possible for outside developers to … Read more

Enable Bubble Buttons in Google Maps for Android

Google Maps recently updated and brought with it a new Labs feature called Bubble Buttons. The above video walks you through how to enable the new feature, as well as what exactly Bubble Buttons means for you.

If you aren't the video-watching kind, follow the steps below to enable Bubble Buttons for yourself. Before you do, though, make sure to check the Market to make sure you are running the latest version Google Maps.

Launch Google MapsPress the Menu buttonSelect MoreSelect LabsScroll down to Bubble Buttons, tap to enable

Now when you tap on a venue's pin … Read more

Intel invests $50 million in cloud, Chinese firms

Intel today announced two separate rounds of investment totaling about $50 million. The largest chunk of money is targeted at cloud computing and embedded technology, while other investments are focused on Chinese firms.

A total of $30 million is going to Intel Labs' latest Intel Science and Technology Centers (ISTC) at Carnegie Mellon University. Cloud computing research at the new ISTC includes an effort to make the cloud more distributed and localized.

"In the future, [new] capabilities could enable a digital personal handler via a device wired into your glasses...[it would see] what you see [and] constantly pull … Read more

Google offers workshops to lure Android developers

Google is launching a series of workshops designed to grab developers who can create high-quality Android apps.

Set up by the folks at Google's Android Developer Relations, the Android Developer Labs (ADLs) will try to show developers how they can optimize their apps for Android tablets, according to an Android developers blog.

Dubbed "Optimizing Honeycomb Tablet Applications," the ADLs will cover how to develop apps for the screen size and user interface of Honeycomb tablets and how to migrate apps from mobile phones to tablets.

The sessions are for experienced developers only, specifically those who have already … Read more

Disposable sensor detects heavy metals in humans

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have created a disposable lab-on-a-chip sensor that can test levels of potentially harmful heavy metals in humans in as few as 10 minutes.

Their work, published in the August issue of the journal Biomedical Microdevices, is co-authored by assistant professor of environmental engineering Erin Haynes, who has also been studying air pollution and the effects of lead and manganese on residents in Marietta, Ohio--home to the only manganese refinery in the U.S. and Canada. (Manganese compounds are used to make steel and other products.)

Manganese is naturally ubiquitous and considered essential both nutritionally … Read more

Swarm robots form landing pad for quadrotor

I love swarm robots, especially when they pull off tricks that you can easily imagine a robot army doing.

Researchers at the Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems Lab have been having fun with small Khepera robots and a quadrotor.

Ted Macdonald and colleagues previously taught the rolling bots to spell the lab's acronym, GRITS, as seen in this video. Now they've made the bots form a mobile landing platform for the quadrotor.

The vid below shows how the Khepera robots can be told to follow a leader bot and assemble into various formations. It's interesting to note that they don't communicate with one another, just like the experiment when they spelled GRITS. … Read more

Via Labs launches flash USB 3.0 controller

Via Labs announced today its latest USB 3.0 controller, the VL751 SuperSpeed USB to NAND flash controller. This is the company's second-generation single-chip solution for USB 3.0 flash-based portable storage devices.

Via Labs says that the new VL751 controller features a four-channel NAND interface, capable of doubling or even quadrupling maximum throughput over single- or dual-channel designs. It offers improved parallelization and higher efficiency by means of integrated preread and prewrite buffers. And it boasts better support for flash memory. These enhancements translate into a nearly 100 percent performance boost over the previous model without increased power … Read more

New lab-on-a-chip genetic analysis resembles pinball

Researchers have invented a silicone lab on a chip they say could make genetic analysis far more sensitive--not to mention rapid and cost-effective--by routing fluid through microscopic tubes and valves, and allowing individual cells to fall into place much like balls in a pinball machine.

Standard genetic testing involves vast numbers of cells that, when analyzed, provide a sort of composite picture that cannot reveal the behaviors of individual cells.

"It's like trying to understand what makes a strawberry different from a raspberry by studying a blended-fruit smoothie," said Carl Hansen, an assistant professor who led the … Read more

How Sprint tests its phones

When carriers announce exciting new phones, rarely do they also reveal exactly when that new handset will go on sale. We usually hear promises like "summer" or "second half of the year" and then we wait for the actual release date to drop. More often than not, it can take a while and cell phone fans and tech journalists begin to get impatient. "Just what's taking so long?" we wonder. Or even worse, "Could there be something wrong with the phone?"

Of course, you can't really blame us for always wanting the next best thing. Yet, this week I learned that perhaps I could be just a bit more patient. And I owe that realization to a two-day visit to Sprint's headquarters and testing labs in Overland Park, Kans. Though I had been to Sprint's "campus" near Kansas City, Mo. before--and trust me that it really looks like a college--this was the first time I saw something outside of a conference room. I joined CNET News Senior Writer Roger Cheng and a small group of reporters for briefings with company executives, including CEO Dan Hesse, and a behind-the-scenes tour of the painstakingly thorough process that Sprint uses to evaluate new devices and ready them for its network. … Read more