Artificial retinal implant restores vision
Tests on a new kind of prosthetic eye have proven successful, meaning that the technology could someday allow around 25 million people who are blind due to retinal diseases to see in crystal clarity, by having much stronger intercommunication when portraying the image to the brain.
Shiela Nirenberg and Chetan Pandarinath, of Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York city have tested this retinal prosthetic in blind mice, discovering it gave them the power to see individual dimples on a baby's face. With this success comes the potential of human use.
Study shows people are more likely to lie while text messaging
The University of British Columbia conducted a study recently, suggesting people are more likely to lie in text messages than they are in all other forms of communication.
This was done with a pretty ingenious role-playing game of 'stock market.' 170 students were analysed via face-to-face, audio, video and text message communications as they play the rolls of brokers selling stock or consumers out to buy the aforementioned stock. Just before the brokers were to make their sales pitch to consumers, they were informed that the stock had lost half its value, which set the stage for the buyers to report back to researchers, determining how often they'd been lied to.
Study lists the reasons why you're friended or unfriended on Facebook
So why did that random person add you as a friend on Facebook? Or worse yet, what possible reason could that guy who's been your friend for months just remove you from his friend list without the blink of an eye? It's a time nobody cares about tough time for anyone to be de-friended, which William Shatner has helped the world through. But the question still stands: why? Thats what NM Incite has answered in newly conducted research.
This Week In New Releases
We all need a gentle reminder from time to time. This Week In New Releases from New Rising Media aims to do just that – remind you of the biggest, best and hottest new media releases to look out for this week. From the latest big screen blockbusters, to this week's most anticipated Blu-Ray discs, via details of the next big triple-A videogame to reach consoles. This isn't a total run-down of everything new this week, though, these are carefully hand-picked for your viewing/playing pleasure. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you This Week In New Releases...
The 2011 New Rising Media Christmas Gift Guide
We took a look around and noticed one particular constant: people already know what they want. These gift guides are, essentially, pointless re-hashes of old reviews that website has already done to give an air of assistance in a technological impairment that is buying for someone for Christmas.
Take a look at the consumer end also, these products are marketed to such an extent with the layer of 'newness' that the likes of a Galaxy nexus, Gears of War 3 or a Playstation 3 (£249 for console and 4 games, pretty good value). So what we have are two voices recommending exactly the same product, which is all good and well, as it fuels this festive season of praying to the Capitalist Gods.
But what about alternatives? What about those ideas that the person you're gifting to didn't realise they needed up until the point they open your present? Those small jewel-encrusted moments where you are genuinely surprised by a gift come few and far between, and we'd very much like to help with that. With this in mind, here's our Gift Guide.
The Round-up: Sexting, the VGAs and a whole lot of hate towards the English
So a pretty big week has passed us by, giving we few writers a hell of a lot to cover. Permit us, if you will, to assist those who are late to the metaphorical nrm party (we say metaphorical both because that the party is a metaphor for the audience for the website, and also that the thought of any of us hosting a party is laughable imaginary), by offering a whole seven days of coverage in a nice concise package of links for you to divulge upon. Next Call of Duty in space? Google search returning results that call English people...well...it rhymes with hunt? A hydro-jetpack? Strap in. This one's a doozy!
This week in new releases
We all like the word 'new,' adds a promotional sheen to stand your product out from the rest. But where can you identify all the new media to cross your path? Sure there's 'new game releases' and 'new film releases' pieces; but where's the convergence? That's where we come into it, introducing This week in new releases.
Spike TV VGA Awards 2011: The Round Up
Geographically close to one of the gaming industry's iconic public stages – E3's LA Convention Center – the Spike TV VGA Awards has been building quite the name for itself over the past few years. Once just another 'me-too' award show (albeit one with more T & A and ill-conceived humour than your average affair), the annual show, shown live on Spike TV, is now one of the most hyped events in the industry's calendar. What with a host of exclusive worldwide reveals (Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City), Spike TV has built the VGA's into quite the spectacle – a show that celebrates games, gamers and gaming with a menagerie of celebrity guests, worldwide reveals, exclusive debut trailers and, of course, the awards themselves. This year might have struggled to break free from its immature roots, for many, including Jason Schreier, still a worrying trend, but that didn't mean we weren't treated to some truly spectacular glimpses at upcoming titles. So, without further adieu, here are our picks of the very best moments of the Spike TV VGA Awards 2011...
Facebook Memology presents the most popular topics and cultural trends of 2011
Let's be honest, this is only scratching the surface as to how many data trends the social network are collecting about its users; but the Facebook Data Team have returned to present this year's Memology, tapping into the social graph by tracking 2011's most talked about topics, memes and the widely used acronyms on the service.
All about the new Twitter.com
So if you've been on Twitter over the past 12 hours, you'll have noticed that things look a little different to say the least. The social microblogging service received a major upgrade, packing new functions and an all new design, forming the most significant update of Twitter yet. Here's what has changed both on the face of it and under the hood.
Infographic: A History of Western Typefaces
All about 8-bit Metal
So someone over a couple years ago took to the tablature program Guitar Pro and inputted their song of choice at the time, and created a MIDI playback via SCXX. Immediately, one is transported back to the likes of the Sega Master System, Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System with a listen to merely one of these.
And henceforth, the 8-bit versions of metal songs were born in 2009: the absolute fascination being how some would suit so eloquently as soundtracks to video games, in some situations bettering the originals in an abstract sense. The combination of the raw buzzsaw sound of the chiptune with the melodical intricacies of the songs makes for a remeniscent experience. Basically, you'd never think metal would work in this sense; but it makes for a rather unique form of paying homage. Take a look at some of our favourites.
Study: Teens aren't really sexting that much any more
A report went out yesterday, concluding that teen sexting is not as prevalent as you may have thought. In fact, the number of youth who have shared or taken images of themselves naked is around 1%.
The definition of this gets thrown around in many different shades from what we've read, so to make it clear what it's meant in this form, we turn to Wikipedia.
Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones. The term was first popularized in early 21st century, and is a portmanteau of sex and texting.
The study was released by The University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Centre, to coincide with one released a few months ago: the first called "Prevalence and Characteristics of Youth Sexting: A National Study," and the second titled “How Often Are Teens Arrested for Sexting? Data From a National Sample of Police Cases.”
The Round-up: Half-life 3, exploding iPhone 4 and condoms
So this week's been pretty mighty in terms of the sheer amount of news we've had to write about, so allow us to condense it all into a handy set of links which will help navigate around the week's digest. There was McGruff the Crime Dog, Carrier IQ (mobile phone tracking), a little printer, an iPhone 4 mysteriously blowing up, Facebook receiving all kinds of privacy-related hell, and a urinal gaming system...honestly. Let's begin.
This week in new releases
We all like the word 'new,' adds a promotional sheen to stand your product out from the rest. But where can you identify all the new media to cross your path? Sure there's 'new game releases' and 'new film releases' pieces; but where's the convergence? That's where we come into it, introducing This week in new releases.
So why did that iPhone 4 combust? Can it happen to you?
So the news has (understandably) gone massively viral overnight, as the report came in of a Regional Express flight passenger's iPhone 4 going a bit beserk: presenting "a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow."
Nobody was harmed and the flight attendant did his duty by promptly extinguishing the glow; but the big questions here need to be answered before I go anywhere near a plane with my iPhone: what happened? And could the situation be symptomatic of all the iPhone 4s out there?
Facebook privacy concerns voiced by FTC. Mark Zuckerberg responds.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has posted a blog in response to the recent agreement that has been settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over privacy concerns.
The social network agreed to settle charges made by the FTC claiming they "deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public." In light of this, a formalizing of its privacy strategy is in hand, along with a complete review and improvements to the service as per what has been agreed.
The Round-up: Phishing for Xbox, Myspace Tom and The Minority Report
This week has been huge, so it's warranted the welcome return of the round-up: putting everything that happened last week on one page for you to digest. We've had everything from The Sun, 7-inch tablets and Myspace Tom to HMV On Demand, William Shatner and a rocket launch. Even a tricky question is answered: what happens online when you die? So let's get started.
Government releases 'The UK Cyber Security Strategy.'
The UK government released its 2011 Cyber Security plans to protect and promote the UK in a digital world.
The new strategy reports to increase its focus on cybercrime, and place a spotlight on maintaining the economic and social prosperity found in the cyberspace. It's clear to see that Whitehall is definitely moving in a positive direction in terms of getting to grasps with these ever-growing complexities of our global produce. From the sights of it, it's not going to be easy; but it's a long-term set of tasks and incentives that will benefit both private and public sectors.
What happens online when you die?
It's the question that nobody really thinks of as in the face of death (quite understandably) your online profiles fall to the wayside. But what does happen to the digital persona you spent time constructing after you die?
The obvious questions arise at first. Whether you'd rather want your profile to continue online existence forevermore or to elect a "digital executor" to take the lead in removing your online footprint?