Doubling as an experiment, "UP: The Umbrella Project" is the second collaboration between MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and acclaimed, Connecticut-based dance company Pilobolus.

At least 200 participants will serve as "human pixels" by holding and using umbrellas outfitted with LED lights at MIT's Jack Barry Field. Pilobolus members will provide basic instructions and choreography, while campus staff record the resulting human behaviors using an overhead camera mounted on a boom lift, said Kyle Gilpin, a postdoctoral associate at MIT CSAIL.

"Robots are still very simplistic and it will be a long time before the intelligence of robots and the creativity of robots starts to rival that of humans," Gilpin, 30, said. "But this performance is one step of many that we think will help bring human-like intelligence and abilities closer to being implemented in robotics systems."

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The specific details of how this collaboration will look on big screens remain under wraps, but it already sounds more interesting than cheesy car dealership spots and concession stand promos.

All we know so far about the partnership is that the companies will create a weekly series that showcases the hottest Hollywood topics using Twitter. Of course the idea here is to create some new profit, and AdWeek reports that the companies will be shopping the advertising opportunity around to brands and marketers.

As for where Foursquare comes into play, the partnership will give advertisers are chance at possibly getting an opportunity to serve movie-goers interactive ads, or implement a feature that involves check-ins and local search best utilizing Foursquare's tech.

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Platform: Android

Price: Free

Google has always had a piecemeal approach to communications so I was pleased to see them launch Hangouts as they attempt to consolidate these communications. Hangouts replaces Google Talk and gives you a quick and easy way to chat and connect via a video call.

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The new feature is on the app's dashboard and mashes up its own recommendations with a user's own personal tastes to highlight what would fit best. These "feeds" are separated into seven columns in a tile format that cover both live programming and any previously recorded content. The feeds are also broken down by genre, so that live sporting events are lined up on their own, complete with a rating system between 0 and 100 to measure the "excitement factor" of the game.

The sports-centric features are largely powered by Thuzz, the sports metadata aggregator. Fans who have to share the iPad with a loved one will be happy to know that the sports column can't be removed, as users only have the ability to filter which sports they want to know about.

Other feeds hone in on favorite channels, movies playing on TV, what's popular and, of course, recorded programs. Children's programming, primetime, daytime all of that can be accessed with a tap on the appropriate tile.

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You will find native photo editing tools on all these newest smartphone platforms, but they don't appear as apps. These tools can improve the quality and look of photos you take. It is also fun to add customizations to your photos. To access these editing tools you first need to go into the device's gallery area and open up a photo. An option to edit a photo will be your gateway to these various editing tools.

I personally liked using the BlackBerry 10 and Nokia Creative Studio utilities the best as they gave me a mix of the essentials with some slick enhancement tools.HTC One Android smartphone

The editing clients for all the other platforms is the same out of the box. However, on your Android smartphone the manufacturer has flexibility to provide a different native editing tool so the tools available on HTC will be different than what you find on Samung, LG, Motorola, and others.

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Not every productivity task is optimally done on tablet software, of course. Writing a plain text document like this one isn't the same as creating a large, nuanced spreadsheet. For complex documents, I still recommend using a PC or Mac.

And then there's the problem with typing on a tablet's virtual keyboard. If you're going to use your iPad for longer documents, I suggest using a Bluetooth keyboard. I used a physical keyboard to write this, though I usually am fine with the on-screen one.

Despite these caveats, iPads and other tablets are being used every day for productivity tasks once reserved for laptops. Every time you reach for your iPad to read, or tap out, a work-related email, that's productivity. Every time you make or change a business appointment on an iPad calendar, that's productivity. And there are way too many tailored productivity and business apps to list here, including apps for salespeople, contractors and doctors.

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Read also:

Search the iPad mini (ITworld.com)

Time to forget Office for iPad? Apple reportedly improving iWork apps (TabTimes)

PadGadget Daily App Deal 15 iPad Apps on Sale (PadGadget)

Explore: 8 additional articles.

The Galaxy S4 WiFi problems appear to be limited to a few D-Link brand routers and doesn't appear to be limited to a specific carrier version of the Galaxy S4.

Samsung confirmed they are aware of the problem in a statement to ZDNet, but it doesn't appear that Samsung is working on a fix. Samsung states,

This is a problem caused by firmware stored on a specific access point in D-Link routers. Customers should update their firmware to the latest version or reboot the access point,

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The increase in screen resolution will give the iPad mini a 324-pixel-per-inch resolution, making it sharp and even more pixel-dense than the full-size iPad, which has the same number of pixels distributed over a larger 9.7-inch display.

Additionally, it appears that Apple may be trimming down the bezel even further on the iPad mini 2 with Retina Display. Though MobileLeaks did not specify the source of its intelligence, the Dutch blog posted some renders of the tablet showing that in portrait orientation, the left and right bezels are practically non-existent.

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Read also:

Would Jony Ive Really Shrink The iPad Mini Again To Add A Retina Display? (Cult of Mac)

The Latest iPad mini 2 Rumor Has A Familiar Feel To It (AppAdvice)

iPad mini 2 leaked specs suggest 324ppi display, A6X processor (Geek (blog))

Explore: 67 additional articles.

With next year's World Cup in mind, the city mayor's office published a list this week of 120 public spaces, including parks, squares, and public transit stations, where it plans to install free WiFi access.

According to Prodam, the IT and telecoms company run by the city of Sao Paulo, the hotspots would cover 6.7 million square meters (more than 4,000 square miles) and would allow 24,200 simultaneous users. The WiFi will have to be available 24 hours a day, with a minimum speed of 512 kbps per user for downloads and uploads. Moreover, the connection must be sufficient to ensure access to streaming video and VoIP telephone services. Companies will now have to bid for the contracts to implement the service.

If things proceed according to schedule, the city government hopes to conclude bidding for the project by July, and intends to start the WiFi installation by October. The mayor's office plans to spend R$45 million ($22 million) over the initial 36-month contract.

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Ironically, the trend that brutally undercut BlackBerry phones during the past five yearsthe "bring your own device" (BYOD) movementis now driving significant sales of BES, the company's backend software. At BlackBerry Live, the company released version 10.1 of BES. BES 10.1 will support a powerful new module that will launch at the end of June called Secure Work Space, which brings BlackBerry's high security mobile solution to Android and iOS.

"Our customers have been asking, 'Can you just take what you've done on BlackBerry and put it on iOS and Android?'" said Pete Devenyi, BlackBerry's SVP of Enterprise Software.

While older versions of BES could do some basic administration of non-BlackBerry smartphones like iPhone, Android, and other types of devices, the solution was limited to the basics, including a full remote wipe of devices when those employees left the company. But, that's obviously not a great solution with BYOD where employees own the devices. With Secure Work Space, BlackBerry will manage iOS and Android devices in a much more sophisticated and secure way.

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Read also:

BlackBerry sets its sights on becoming chief enterprise mobility provider for ... (V3.co.uk)

Explore: 10 additional articles.

Team Bazinga and Team Mega Nuke will board a bus bound for Indianapolis Friday night after prom, then compete Saturday and Sunday.

The team raised nearly $2,000 of the $5,000 needed for transportation, entrance fees, meals and other costs.

Donations poured in after the Clairton teams' accomplishments were publicized in The Daily News and other media outlets and letters from the school district.

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Ben Barry

Facebook is, it goes without saying, a digital company. But tucked into its Menlo Park headquarters, is something called the Analog Research Laboratory, founded by a devout hands-on, silk-screen printer and old school graphic designer named Ben Barry.

"I think at Facebook I am mostly perceived as the 'poster / analog guy', a reputation I sometimes have to work to overcome, and sometimes use to my advantage," Barry told me in an email. "I often feel like I have one foot in world of traditional graphic design and print, and another in the world of technology and the internet."

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As the social media editor for The Daily Beast, I have posted countless potentially offensive stories on our Facebook page, from the sexual proclivities of porn stars to purported cannibalism in Syria. But not until we linked to a piece about the Golden Girl's breasts did Facebook shut us down.

For a crime that wasn't a crime. For a so-called offensive image that was an actual piece of art valued at roughly $2 million.

Way to go, Facebook people.

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Tapping into its popularity outside North America, BlackBerry said the new Q5 smartphone would be available in selected markets in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

It gave no prices, but it will clearly target a younger, more price-sensitive crowd with the device, which will be available in colors including pink, red and white.

The new phone includes the tiny QWERTY keyboard that still sets BlackBerry apart from most rivals.

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Read also:

BlackBerry confirms BBM app for Android and iPhone but rivals await (The Guardian)

Blackberry Announces Summer Release Of BlackBerry Messenger For iPhone ... (MakeUseOf)

BBM Hitting iPhone and Android This Summer (Wired)

Explore: 635 additional articles.

The first part is possible via a new partnership Foursquare has struck with Locu, the menu dashboard for local merchants. Back in January 2012, about a week after it announced its latest Explore feature, the social networking company started to publish pricing menus via SinglePlatform.

Now it's doubling down with Locu:

Today's Locu update means you can click through to menus on the right-hand side of venue pages that have more such information (breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert, and drinks), and you'll also see pricing information in your Explore results. For some of these restaurants, Foursquare wouldn't say how many, the company has also added a pricing icon to give you a quick sense of how expensive the place is.

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DICE created the Frostbite Engine back in 2006 and used it to power Battlefield Bad Company in 2008. Since then the engine has been rebuilt from the ground up for use in next-gen games like Battlefield 4. The first non-Battlefield title to ship on Frostbite was 2011's Need for Speed: The Run.

The official website sheds a bit of light into how the Frostbite team, located in Stockholm, is allocating its resources. The group is split into six sub-groups, one of which is dedicated to the mobile engine: Audio, Core Systems, Mobile (Frostbite Go), Physics, Production Systems and Rendering.

Nintendo fans and gaming enthusiasts in general experienced much hand-wringing earlier this year when EA announced that no Frostbite 3 games were planned for Wii U. While that still might technically be the case, today's reveal of Frostbite Go seems to strongly indicate the Frostbite-powered games could come to Nintendo's home console after all.

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Read also:

EA developing Frostbite Go mobile game engine for iOS and Android (Joystiq)

EA working on 'Frostbite Go' game engine for Android and iOS (The Verge)

EA confirms 'Frostbite Go' engine for mobile games will come to iOS & Android (9 to 5 Mac)

Explore: 29 additional articles.

Someone buy this man some clothes

Mark Zuckerberg, fashion icon

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Read also:

Glassdoor report surveys Facebook workforce sentiment one year after IPO (ZDNet)

Mark Zuckerberg's Approval Rating at Facebook Up Since IPO - Mashable (Mashable)

Mark Zuckerberg: The Quickest of Studies (Investorplace.com)

Explore: 8 additional articles.

The new smartphone, Q5, appears to be a basic version of the BlackBerry Q10, another smartphone by the Canadian company that is set to go on sale in the U.S. this summer.

The Q5 is aimed at emerging markets and will begin selling in July. The phone will be available in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. No word on when or if it will come to the U.S. and how it would be priced.

PHOTOS: The top smartphones of 2013

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Read also:

BlackBerry Brings BBM To Android, iOS (InformationWeek)

Blackberry Messenger Will be Free iOS and Android App (Forbes)

BlackBerry Messenger expands to Android, iOS (CNET)

Explore: 525 additional articles.

Blessed as they are with a healthy diet, plenty of unavoidable exercise and near universal access to cheap medical services, it is no surprise that the Japanese live longer than practically any other nationality. With an average life expectancy of 82 years for women and 79 for men, Japan has more than its share of octogenarians and nonagenarians.

Thanks to a rapid decline in its fertility rate over recent years (now down to 1.3 births per woman), Japan is also ageing faster than any other country. In 1990 only 12% of Japanese were over 65. In 2010, 23% were. By 2025 an estimated 33% of the population will have become senior citizens. No other country has seen so swift a reversal of its demographics.

This speedy change has focused the minds of Japanese health officials. All the more so as it has occurred while the young have migrated faster than ever to big cities in search of better jobs and services, leaving older relatives to fend for themselves in the provinces. Once the rule, inter-generational familieswith children, parents and grandparents all living under the same roofhave become a rarity. A lot of long-living, solitary folk thus now find themselves in desperate need of professional care.

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There are multiple filters to choose from, including Specials, Haven't Been, Friends, Price, Open Now, and Saved. Here's how the feature looks in action:

Specials and Saved are self-explanatory, the former is for Foursquare to make money (by offering you deals that save you money) and the latter is for your personal use. The rest can be boiled down to: price ranges (based on how much you want to spend), check-ins (both yours and those of your friends), and hours.

Foursquare notes you can personalize these recommendations further, but you'll need to log in to do so. The company offers some examples to woo you:See restaurants you haven't been to before (new adventures!).See bars your friends like to go to.See places you've saved (make headway on your to-do list!).

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Read also:

FourSquare introduces advanced location filters to its website (T3)

Foursquare Adds Yelp-Like Filters to Website (Social Times (blog))

Foursquare adds filters to help you discover places better - Tech2 (Tech2)

Explore: 4 additional articles.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121108/DC08722LOGO )

Expion is part of an exclusive group of companies that have been granted access to the Instagram API allowing for third party moderation on the photo-centric platform. Brands looking to maximize impact and reach through Instagram photos now have a streamlined way within Expion's moderation solution to engage this audience and comment, as a brand, on photos.

With the Instagram integration, brands can now comment on Instagram photos based on location and share across their local Facebook, Google+, and Twitter accounts. Instagram photos are automatically surfaced based on a radius around individual locations. This allows brands to streamline their social media efforts and provides a powerful way to find and share localized customer content.

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Read also:

Thailand Now Has 18 Million Social Media Users (INFOGRAPHIC) (Tech in Asia)

Explore: 2 additional articles.

The service is called Watch ABC and will at first be available only to viewers in Philadelphia and New York, the New York Times reported.

What it won't be, according to reports, is a way for users to get around their cable subscriptions: Those who fire up the app will have to verify that they're cable customers, similar to the sign-in process on apps such as HBO Go.

That ABC now has the technology to stream live television over mobile devices shows that the company is thinking about how its viewers' habits are changing. ABC was one of the first to offer full episodes to users over its apps. And it has also launched some major social television efforts that take advantage of the "second-screen" trend, in which viewers use their smartphones and tablets while watching live TV to share thoughts with friends or look up information on a show.

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Read also:

ABC to add live streaming to iPad app this week, for a few and with a catch (tuaw.com)

ABC Plans To Stream Live TV To Your iPhone And iPad This Week (Cult of Mac)

ABC first major broadcaster to live-stream shows to iPad (TabTimes)

Explore: 72 additional articles.

iOS 7 needs to take what iOS is best known for -- its apps -- and mold the experience around getting to information from these applications more quickly and easily. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) also needs to give the user more control over the mobile experience. Because, changing the visual aesthetic to look more flat, as rumored, is not enough.

NEXT: A new home (screen)

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Read also:

iOS 7 Concept Video Shows Off Completely New Look - Mashable (Mashable)

Could This Be the Future of Apple's iOS? (Wall St. Cheat Sheet)

Apple's iOS 7 Concept Video Shows a Completely Redesigned Look - ValueWalk (ValueWalk)

Explore: 5 additional articles.

Let's start off the week with a piece of new tech, shall we? Dell is offering up a 60-inch Samsung slim HDTV with a $500 eGift card and the 11.6-inch ASUS TAICHI is on today's list as well. Details on that pair and a few more items reside on the other side of the break.

This deal is available from eBay.

Grab one of these from Dell.

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It might also be the best smartphone I've ever used.

That's saying a lot. Until now, the iPhone 5 embodied everything I wanted in an ideal smartphone: a solid-yet-elegant design, seemingly limitless speed, and a great screen. Android phones have certainly come close, but up until now there's always been something that inexplicably held them back: the Nexus 4's lack of LTE, the Galaxy S4's cheap-feeling plastic case, or Android's own design immaturity until Android 4.0.

What makes the HTC One so great? Simply put, it's a phone that never leaves me wanting. It has a great camera, it's freakishly fast, and its screen is fantastic without needing to be oversized. It also packs in several features I never thought I'd want in a smartphone but that I've found myself coming back to quite a bit.

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Read also:

Smartphone Wars: Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Apple iPhone 6 - Society & Religion (Society and Religion)

Explore: 46 additional articles.

"From the supply end of production, the major original equipment manufacturers of notebooks will have already terminated netbook production at this point. Whatever production is left is expected to be limited, or manufacturers will simply be shipping last-time builds to satisfy contractual obligations to customers," iSuppli wrote.

It seems as if it was only yesterday when we were being pummeled with a bunch of new netbook models, which people happily lapped up - 32.14 million units were sold in 2010 alone. Netbooks, with their light frames and 10-inch screens were convenient and portable and allowed us to take our work and even our casual web browsing anywhere we wanted. Most of them, like the $199 Asus Eee PCs, were also super affordable. Alas, the netbook's reign wasn't meant to last, and even in 2010, we declared the netbook revolution to be over.

Apple introducing the iPad, which users ultimately found more sophisticated and even more portable than netbook, in 2010 sealed the netbook's fate. Even Asus and Acer the two manufacturers left who were still making netbooks announced that they will stop producing the 10-inch laptops this year and have been focusing on designing new tablets instead.

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Read also:

IHS iSuppli: No More Netbooks Beyond 2015 (Maximum PC)

Net loss for netbooks: Product set for extinction by 2015 (ElectroIQ)

Netbooks 'extinct', will desktops be next? (V3.co.uk (blog))

Explore: 10 additional articles.

Police say 20-year-old Matthew Todakonzie of North Salt Lake posted more than 150 photos on a private Facebook page titled "graffiti." He agreed to share them online with undercover detective who tracked down dozens that carried the unique tag, "HOKES."

North Salt Lake Police Sgt. Mitch Gwilliam told the Deseret News most taggers are very proud of what they do and want to be recognized for their work to a certain extent.

Todakonzie's recognition landed him in the Davis County Jail on Thursday for investigation of several counts of criminal mischief graffiti and criminal trespass.

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Read also:

Facebook album leads to arrest of over-sharing graffiti artist (ksl.com)

Man arrested after posting graffiti on Facebook (Deseret News)

Explore: 5 additional articles.

In the video above, Newt explains his frustration with the term cellphone without ever mentioning the word smartphone, which is the word he is looking for. "To call this a "cell phone" or a "handheld computer" fails to capture the change that has taken place," he says, neglecting to use the word smartphone. "It is a change in kind, not just a change in scale, and just as drivers of the earliest cars called them 'horseless carriages,' our language has not caught up," he adds, again neglecting to use the term smartphone.

But because we're feeling generous, let's just run with this one and see if we can come up with a better term than smartphone just for Newt to use. Rotaryless Phonographic Talk Box? Mini Facebook Beeper? 10 Person Video Chat Locator Doohickey? Internet Pocket Voice Activation Device? Phonesmart? The Newt? Tiffany's Credit Line Voice Extendicator? Martphone-say? Portable Wife #4?

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Read also:

Newt Gingrich Having Some Trouble Understanding What a Smartphone Is (Gawker)

Somebody tell poor Newt what this mysterious, magical gadget is (msnNOW)

Explore: 5 additional articles.

That piece of counsel, Kelly Oxford's most successful tweet of all time, is the kind of one-liner that gets you 10,000 retweets and counting. It's also the sort of material that takes a woman from stay-at-home Canadian mother to bestselling author, Hollywood screenwriter and, of course, Twitter celebrity.

Oxford had no connections to the entertainment industry, no knowledge of the workings of Hollywood and nothing more than an average high-school education. She didn't, by her own admission, even have much ambition. What she did have was a voice, and it was distinct, honest and funny enough to draw famous fans from the moment she started tweeting. They include the late Roger Ebert "Well, she's bitingly funny, but everybody knows that" as well as Lena Dunham, who described her as "like your cool babysitter who teaches you about sex and sarcasm in an uncreepy way". Jimmy Kimmel, an early champion, said: "Not only is Kelly Oxford hilarious, she is consistently hilarious. Her tweets make me laugh several times a day. I can only assume that she is neglecting her children."

Oxford's status has just been sealed with a first book: what could be more solid proof of "having arrived" than a New York Times bestseller. Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar is a collection of scattershot essays, written with the UPPERCASE EXTROVERSION of a teenage girl who's drunk three too many Bacardi Breezers. Not a bad thing, particularly when the writing is shot through with glinting sarcasm and, to use her terminology, the palpable "giving of zero fucks".

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