Services and applications

Kinect hacks have been used for many a grand feat, from a tool that helps the blind navigate more easily to hands-free questing in World of Warcraft and virtual cat brushing.

So why not integrate the powers of Microsoft Kinect with a mirror to teach such subjects as basic anatomy?

For the past year, a team out of the Technical University of Munich in Germany has been working on just that. The researchers use Kinect to estimate the position of a person in front of an augmented-reality mirror in order to create the illusion that the user can see inside … Read more

Gameloft today announced that it has become the latest brand to join Sprint's growing line of ID Packs.

The two bundles each bring Sprint consumers four of Gameloft's popular Android games along with direct access to news, updates, and more. Depending on what type of gamer you are, or how powerful your handset is, you can install either the HD Games ID Pack or Top Games ID Pack. And for those who simply cannot decide, Sprint allows users to have up to five ID Packs on each handset.

The HD Games ID Pack is designed to run on … Read more

After taking second place in the 2011 Imagine Cup finals, Team Lifelens of the U.S. is one of four teams from around the world to win a $75,000 Imagine Cup grant, Microsoft announced today at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The Lifelens project is run by students at universities across the country who have been working since November 2010 on an app that can image malaria cells for fast diagnosis right there on the phone, sans Internet.

The premise is straightforward. Apply a blood sample to a slide with a dye that only malaria … Read more

There's always been tension between server and storage bigots.

Scott McNealy, former CEO of the former Sun Microsystems, once infamously opined that storage was a (mere) feature of the server. The problem was that at the time he made that comment, the storage industry was writing its declaration of independence. Fibre Channel-based SANs were consolidating and replacing direct attached storage (DAS) architectures in many of the world's large data centers. IP-based network attached storage (NAS) systems were consolidating and replacing print and file servers, much to the chagrin of both McNealy and Steve Ballmer.

Vendors with a server … Read more

A growing number of devices aim to track Alzheimer's and other patients who have a tendency to wander. Of course, many of these devices must be remembered to be worn to be of any use.

GPS-fitted shoes, then, seem like one of the most obvious accessories given shoes are generally required for, well, wandering.

Shoemaker Aetrex, with the help of GPS device makers GTX, is now selling its GPS Shoe after it received FCC clearance in September 2011.

The shoes themselves, available for men and women with either straps or shoelaces, go for $299.99 a pair, while the monthly service plan runs $30 to $40.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Those who scoured the health and wellness zones at CES both this year and last may be wondering why they came at all in 2012. Many of the gadgets and services were either already in the works last year or being held behind the curtain for future reveals.

Within the designated Fitness TechZone in the North Hall, a few sub- or satellite genres were nearly empty or devoid of cutting-edge tech. Being six months pregnant, I had a personal interest in Mommy Tech this year. Yet when I approached BabyPlus(one of the only booths in the tiny Mommy … Read more

LAS VEGAS--When on the go, you want to stay connected at all times and carry as much data as possible without having to physically carry a lot, right?

Soon you'll be able to do just that.

Seagate revealed and demonstrated at CES 2012 the prototype of a product tentatively called the Personal Server 4G LTE Wi-Fi. This is basically a combination of what the company's GoFlex Satellite has to offer and a 4G LTE mobile hot spot in one compact box.

Seagate said this is result of a 1.5-year collaboration with Verizon, which will be the exclusive … Read more

iPhone 4S owners are most likely to consume boatloads of data, a new study from mobile network management company Arieso has found.

According to the company, iPhone 4S owners use twice as much data as iPhone 4 users and three times as much data as iPhone 3G owners. In the company's 2010 study, the iPhone 4 was the top data user.

How did the iPhone 4S take the crown, you ask? Simple, says Arieso chief technology officer Michael Flanagan in an interview published today by Bloomberg: Siri.

Apple's virtual personal assistant, which lets users find content from the … Read more

Google's Android Market has hit an important milestone, according to analytics firm Distimo.

The mobile application marketplace now has 400,000 available programs, according to Distimo. Out of that, two-thirds of the available applications are free, jumping from 60 percent last April

It's important to point out that Distimo is not the official word on available Android apps--Google is. And so far, the search giant has not immediately responded to CNET's request for confirmation of Distimo's report.

If Distimo's estimate is true, it would put the Android Market within striking distance of Apple's App … Read more