3d illusion arts: Walyou

Walyou

The Largest Balloon Sculpture In The World Depicts Optimus Prime
WhatsApp Now Has Over 500 Million Users
Google Glass Isn’t Google’s Only Eyewear
SuperShoes Vibrate to Show You the Way Home
Geeksphone Revolution Gets Software Update and Price Cut

The Largest Balloon Sculpture In The World Depicts Optimus Prime

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 07:00 AM PDT

The Transformers might be cold metal and robot parts with a spark, but this sculpture is quite different, as it’s based entirely on balloons.

The sculpture seen in this page is, according to its creatorJohn Reid aka Epic Balloons, the largest balloon sculpture in the world. It’s meant to portray Autobots leader Optimus Prime, but when we see the color palette all we can think about is Eva-01 from Evangelion. It was displayed at the Salt Lake City Comic Con, and people are calling it “Poptimus Prime” around the web.The whole thing is over 50 feet tall and was created out of 4,302 balloons. Hot damn.

Source: Geeks Are Sexy

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WhatsApp Now Has Over 500 Million Users

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT

As one of the most popular alternatives to paid text messages, free chat app WhatsApp now has over 500 million users.

"You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies" was the tagline that the The Social Network – the Hollywood blockbuster movie about Facebook – released with when it came out in 2010. And for the most part, that's true. Maintaining a popular app or site and keeping all of your users happy all of the time can be a pretty tricky feat, which is why plenty of sites get just shy of the 500 million users mark, buckling under the weight of their moderate success. One such app that has jumped that shark and landed as smoothly as ever is WhatsApp, the popular texting app which has now reached 500 million users and rising.

Some of WhatsApp's growth is down to being purchased by Facebook who trumped up a cool $19 billion to get the app under their wing. When the social media site bought WhatsApp back in February, WhatsApp's founder, Jan Koum, spoke of the app's "450 million monthly active users worldwide and over 320 million daily active users," figures that they'd amassed in 5 short years. 50 million more users in just two months is nothing to be sniffed at either and Facebook are going to be particularly chuffed by this success as despite slow WhatsApp growth in the US, WhatsApp has had huge success in economically improving countries such as Brazil and India as well as mobile market powerhouses like Russia as it allows for cross-platform messaging which is handy in these regions as iPhones (and their free iMessage service) aren't very popular. By default, WhatsApp's success allows Facebook to grow in those regions too and so the increase in users increases Facebook's bottom line no matter what.

Furthermore, the growth will only be aided by WhatsApp's latest Android update which now allows users to mute group conversations for a certain amount of time. This level of functionality (and the fact that WhatsApp is available from the Google Play Store for free) will only aid its growth and see more done in terms of improvements, so we'll keep you posted once we know more.

Source: mobilesyrup, ubergizmo

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Google Glass Isn’t Google’s Only Eyewear

Posted: 29 Apr 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Most people wear contacts lenses to improve eyesight, but Google’s new contacts are designed for something entirely different–measuring blood sugar levels.

Google is well known as a search engine giant, as well as for some of the additional products and services they provide, such as Gmail, Google Docs, Android, etc., but one of the most amazing parts about the company are its “moonshot” projects such as Google’s self driving cars, balloons that provide wireless internet, Ara, the modular phone, and Google Glass.

Google Glass isn’t the only eyewear project Google has in development, though. Google recently filed two patents for sensors in contact lenses to read and monitor the wearer’s tears for blood sugar levels and alert when blood sugar gets too low.

This is one of the more specific use cases we’ve seen developed for wearables, with most wearable technologies focusing on fitness or connectivity or notifications. Success in the development of something like this won’t only be a boon to the medical community, but a proof that there’s room to leverage technology in more of our products than watches.

Google doesn’t yet have FDA approval, but considering the patents were just filed, there’s no cause for alarm yet. Approval will be required before the contacts can go to market, though.

The implications of medical sensors small enough to fit into a contact lens (thinner than a strand of hair!) are significant, though, with many other potential applications before we even start talking about science fiction level technology such as telephoto capabilities and a Google Glass-like heads up display or other augmented reality features.

Even expanding the context out of this particular form factor, technology of this size with appropriate capabilities could provide a major push for advancement and diversity in many other areas of consumer technology, such as non-contact lens wearables. This level of miniaturization could allow for sensors of all kinds to be embedded in clothing and other products to provide us even more casual data about the world around us.

Google has other medical gadgetry coming down the tube in the near future as well, such as their biometric password ingestible capsules. If this is just the start of these gadgets, we can expect some really cool (and crazy) technology in the next few years.

Source: Mashable

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SuperShoes Vibrate to Show You the Way Home

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 01:50 PM PDT

In terms of smart devices, the world was a bit short on footwear. Luckily for us, some MIT scientists created a pair of smart shoes that use vibrations to lead you to your destination.

Let’s set things straight, the destination doesn’t necessarily have to be your home, but that’s where people go to most often, so owning a pair of shoes similar to the ones of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz makes a lot of sense. Think about it! Smartphones and tablets featuring GPS sensors and software are great, but the battery life of these devices is awful, so some smart shoes with a better autonomy could literally save lives.

These vibrating smart shoes connect via Bluetooth to your smartphone. A proprietary app must be installed in order to enter the destination. After doing that, you will have to knock your heels three times and… No, I”m just kidding about that! In fact, there’s nothing you need to do after that, except for walking. The shoes vibrate when you need to turn left or right (I’m assuming that only the shoe corresponding to the direction vibrates), and you’re also going to know when you’re on the right track. This way, you’ll be able to enjoy your walk without having to check the smartphone’s screen every other second.

SuperShoes are less inconspicuous than smartphones and tablets, so if you happen to walk in the bad side of the town, people with bad intentions won’t even be able to tell that you’re wearing hi-tech footwear. There are also other reasons why tablets and smartphones equipped with GPS sensors are not safe to use while walking. For example, holding a smart device in front of you while walking could lead to you bumping into walls or other persons. If you use such a thing while crossing the street, the consequences could be even more serious than that.

The bad news is that SuperShoes are nothing but a prototype right now, and as much as we’d like to wear these vibrating smart shoes, it might take a while till the scientists who developed them will push them to mass production. Hopefully, we’ll get to see them on the shelves in the not-so-distant future, and that not at an exorbitant price.

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Geeksphone Revolution Gets Software Update and Price Cut

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 01:15 PM PDT

The Spanish smartphone maker announced that it will update Revolution to Android KitKat 4.4 in the upcoming days. People opting for Mozilla’s Firefox OS on the same device will also benefit from the latest version of the software.

On top of that, Geeksphone also said it will cut down the price of the Revolution smartphone, to make it an even more attractive option for whoever is looking for a nicely designed device with decent specs. In terms of operating systems, the Spanish company offers CyanogenMod 11, a heavily-modified version of Google’s operating system, as well as Boot2Geekco, Mozilla’s mobile OS that’s better known as Firefox OS.

Mozilla said that Firefox OS 2.0 will be available in beta quite soon, and Geeksphone, as an old partner of the free software community, promised its customers that they will get this soon after the launch.

May 1 marks the begging of the price cut for the Geeksphone Revolution. From this Thursday, whoever wants to buy the Spanish smartphone will have to shell out 199 euros ($276) instead of 222 euros ($307). While not exactly a major discount, this might be just enough for attracting new customers.

Revolution’s technical specs are by no means mind-blowing, since it only has a 4.7-inch display, a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom CPU and an 8 MP camera that records video at 1080p resolution. This is not exactly a major downside, as both Android 4.4 KitKat and Firefox OS are optimized to run just fine on mid-range devices.

Besides the solid Revolution, Geeksphone has also worked on Blackphone, a smartphone running PrivatOS, a version of Android focusing on security and encryption. Given the waves that NSA made in recent times, the invention of such secure devices is mandatory. Most people believe that not only NSA is listening in, and that many governmental agencies from all over the world practice this sport. In this context, the idea of having a smartphone that encrypts both voice calls and text messages is really great. If only more smartphone manufacturers were as concerned about our privacy as Geeksphone is, the world would be a much better place.

Also, the idea of running multiple operating systems on mobile devices is very good, as it enables people to get a breath of fresh when they’re getting bored of one of their software.

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