awareness

Now this is clever marketing.

Over the last few months, Boeing has been sending its next-generation airplane, the 787 Dreamliner, all over the world on a goodwill tour meant to impress country after country with its composite materials, its curved wings, and of course its fuel efficiency.

But this month, the aviation giant sent one of its Dreamliners on a very precise flight over the United States. Over the the last two weeks, a 787 has been plying the skies of America, tracing out "787" and Boeing's signature logo over much of the northern U.S.

To … Read more

Defense contractor ITT Exelis has a nifty new line of night-vision goggles that let you see thermal imagery in the dark.

The Spiral Enhanced Night Vision Goggles (SENVG), part of the i-Aware line, overlay thermal images on the usual green display in night-vision goggles. They're sensitive enough to pick up recently moved soil on a dirt path, and can also be used to spot people hiding behind bushes.

Soldiers can use them to see clearly at night an in all weather conditions--SENVG comes with an image intensification function.

The goggles can also be used to import or export images, video, and data such as UAV pictures of terrain or map files. … Read more

Avast, a maker of popular free security suites, has announced its purchase of mobile security company ITAgents, which makes the security app for Android and Symbian called Theft Aware. Theft Aware is notable for offering SMS remote control, being resistant to phone wiping, and offering features specifically for rooted phones, in addition to more traditional lost-device mobile security features.

Avast would not disclose a purchase price for the company, although since both are privately held companies, they're not obligated to.

The purchase does not contradict the company's plans to release its own Android security solution in the fourth … Read more

From 1989 to 2001, a company called Used Rubber USA operated a retail store, offering cool gear to city-dwelling hipsters, on the corner of Fillmore and Haight streets in San Francisco. The company still turns old tires into book bags, wallets or belts and other merchandise--now online only.

Recycling used tires isn't a new idea, and now a study shows that most auto repair shops recycle tires rather than send them off to a landfill.

The organization Car Care Council has been urging auto repair shops to recycle more vehicle parts and engine fluids, in a consumer education campaign … Read more

The latest version of popular antispyware and antivirus program Ad-Aware comes with bold performance claims. Released today exclusively on CNET Download.com, Ad-Aware 9.5 Free Internet Security and Ad-Aware 9.5 Pro Internet Security have seen heavy construction under the hood, according to Lavasoft, and ought to be four to eight times faster than they were in the last release, version 9.0.5.

In addition, the suites now come with a faster installation process, bolstered by a dramatically smaller download that shrunk from 130 MB to 12 MB. This "stub" installer then grabs only about 80 … Read more

Facebook has long permitted members to put on their profiles whether they're single, married, or "it's complicated," but today it added two new options to the mix: "in a civil union" and "in a domestic partnership."

The news was originally reported in a Huffington Post article, which said that the change was made at the recommendation of Facebook's Network of Support, a coalition that the social network created with gay and lesbian advocacy groups to encourage tolerance and combat harassment. At the time, the tragic stories of several gay teenagers who … Read more

Not to be confused with the Awareness! app (note exclamation point) that filters outside noises into your headphones, the new Awareness app (note lack of exclamation point) asks a simple question--What are you feeling right now?--at random intervals.

The prompt is made via a "gentle reminder sound" that will "intercept" (as opposed to "interrupt") the user's routine, unless of course there is a scheduled iCal meeting (perhaps they should consider enabling users to block out times for such activities as sleep and sex, but for now the simplest workaround is to simply schedule said activities on iCal, or maybe even turn one's phone off).

Users can choose from 115 possible answers that are grouped into eight mood categories and one sensation category ("body feelings," such as tired, sore, etc.). Once the user answers the feeling question, "brief video clips guide you back to the present moment," and "400 inspirational quotes tied to what you are feeling" are displayed, presumably not all at once.… Read more

The free version of Lavasoft's Ad-Aware 9 marks the launch of two new detection engines and some performance tweaks that make it faster. Check out CNET's First Look video, and whether you're a longtime user or new to the program, let us know what you think about it in the comments below.

While the role of the professional critic in the realm of books, film, music, or art is well-established, for interactive entertainment the lines are less clear. As a (relatively) young medium, questions about how to actually write about video games are still being hashed out, by consumers, fans, bloggers, established media critics, and others.

The default to date has been to consider a work of interactive entertainment as a packaged consumer product--hence game reviews that focus on the number of levels, hours of gameplay, and other technical details. I am more inclined to consider a game as a cultural or … Read more