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Want to look like a dork on a scooter! We got you Covered!

A box just arrived for me in the mail containing a giant suitcase designed to carry my Brompton folding bike safely through the danger zone known as “checked luggage.” Then, moments later I learned of this backpack scooter, which combines both luggage and transport in one handy, easy to carry (or ride) package.

The scooter comes from designer Gustavo Brenck. It’s called the Gig Pack, and it transforms from backpack to scooter in seconds. I’m not sure if this signals the resurgence of the yuppie scooter boom of ten years ago, when advertising executives zipped around London’s Soho district on folding Razor scooters for one long hot summer, but I hope not.

The Gig Pack, though, seems to fill a need that doesn’t exist. These folding scooters are already super portable and–unlike bikes–can be taken onto any form of public transport without any kind of packaging. I guess that it could be a handy way to carry your shopping home from the market, and there may be a little space left inside once the scooter platform and rear wheel are stowed inside, but surely not much.

So this impracticality, combined with he fact that Brenck’s scooter remains a concept, means that the huge bike case now sitting in my bedroom in search of a storage space mightn’t have been such a foolish purchase after all.

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Google is experimenting with a new signup form that eliminates the ability to create anonymous accounts. The new form is part of an effort to expand the Google+ social network by automatically adding every new Google account to Google+. Because Google+ requires a name and gender the new signup form effectively eliminates the anonymous Google account.

The new account creation page can be found by following the links on Google’s homepage. As the Google Operating System blog points out, the older Google account page, which does not require signing up for Google+ or Gmail, is currently still accessible through Google Reader, Calendar and other Google services.

The revamped Google account creation page adds some additional fields to the sign up form, including name and gender which are both necessary for creating a Google+ account. There’s also a new agreement — turned on by default — granting Google permission to “use my account information to personalize +1s on content and ads on non-Google websites.”

In addition to the Google+ integration, signing up for a Google account now means getting a profile page and a Gmail account; gone are the days when you could use an outside email address with your Google account. It is still possible to go in and delete the Google+, Google profile and Gmail portions of your new Google account after it’s been created, but given that few people ever change their default settings it’s safe to assume that most people won’t.

It should come as no surprise that Google is working hard to get more users signed up for Google+, after all, despite marginal momentum, Google+ is far behind Facebook when it comes to signing up new users.

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Good news! Following many reports over the last few days that the first-ever science fiction film to actually be filmed in space was being kept from release by NASA, there is now word that the space agency has relented and that Apogee of Fear will see the light of day after all.

The eight-minute film was shot by Richard Garriott aboard the International Space Station on his trip there as a paid civilian in 2008. Based on a screenplay written for him by Tracy Hickman (best known as co-creator of the Dragonlance shared universe), Garriott made the film with the assistance of two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut.

He had hoped to release it along with the documentary he made about following in his astronaut father Owen Garriott’s footsteps (Man on a Mission, which is playing in indie theaters across the country). But NASA put the kibosh on those plans without giving a great many specifics as to reasons, except that it was outside the scope of Garriott’s agreement with them. It seemed as though Apogee of Fear would remain hidden from the public eye.

Now I am pleased to report that things have changed for the better. In response to a query to NASA on the subject, I received the following reply from Bob Jacobs, deputy for communications at NASA:

NASA is working with Richard Garriott to facilitate the video’s release. While the project was not part of his original Space Act agreement with NASA, everyone involved had the best of intentions. We hope to resolve the remaining issues expeditiously, and we appreciate Richard’s cooperation and his ongoing efforts to get people excited about the future of space exploration.

It sounds like NASA is leaving open the possibility of making some edits to the short film, but on the whole it reads like great news to me. The agency certainly seems to understand why it’s important that this kind of thing is released to the public, and the fact that the word “expeditiously” is in there bodes well for that happening soon.

So watch this space: We’ll be sure to let you know if we hear anything else about Apogee of Fear. It may turn out not to be very good, of course — there’s no way to know, really — but its historical importance should make it worth eight minutes of your time regardless.

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In the gaming world, it’s all about mobile these days, it seems. Yet Alienware is offering a sleek little desktop model that looks like you ought to be able to tote it around but is meant to stay put. The X51 is good for college dorm rooms, suggested MobileTrax analyst J. Gerry Purdy, noting “the gaming market is huge enough … to accommodate a number of different form factors.”

Dell’s (Nasdaq: DELL) gaming computer brand, Alienware, has released a new desktop computer that — while not quite in keeping with the trend toward mobile gaming — is compact, powerful and sleek. 

The Alienware X51

The X51, which weighs about 12 pounds and measures roughly 13 inches tall by 12.5 inches deep by 4 inches wide, is unobtrusive enough to be placed near a television. It is powered by a range of graphics cards and several Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Core processors. Pricing starts at US$699 and goes to $1,149, depending on how the device is configured.

Options in the low-end version include a second-generation Intel Core i processor, 8 GB of 1333 Mhz dual-channel memory, a 1-GB GDDR5 Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) GeForce GTX 555 video card with 330W PSU, a slot-loading dual layer Blu-ray reader, and a standard integrated wireless LAN card.

The $1,149 model is equipped with the Intel Core i7 processor, a 1 GB GDDR5 Nvidia GeForce GT 555 graphics card, and 8 GB of RAM.

Alienware did not respond to our request for further details.

 The Mobile Trend

With the X51′s diminutive size, it is easy to miss the fact that it is not designed to be mobile — a major driving force in the gaming market now.

Gaming captured the largest proportion of a mobile user’s time spent with mobile applications — a whopping 49 percent — according to Flurry. Social networking came next, but at a distant 30 percent.

A majority of tablet owners who play video games use a console or a handheld gaming device less often as a result of owning their tablet, according to research from GfK MRI’s iPanel.

Gaming Laptops

Alienware isn’t ignoring that trend — last year, it released three powerful laptops including the M18x — which it called the most powerful 18-inch gaming laptop in the universe and “a true desktop replacement.” The other laptops are the M14x — with enhanced performance and a focus on portability — and an upgraded M11x. They also sport second-generation Intel Core i processors.

That said, there is still a place for the little X51 desktop unit in the current gaming environment, J. Gerry Purdy, principal analyst of mobile and wireless at MobileTrax, told TechNewsWorld.

“There are really two mobile stories unfolding with gaming,” he said. One is that more people are using smartphones or tablets, and providers are extending the availability of some games on these platforms. The second one are the wireless initiatives, where you are seeing controllers become de facto smartphones or computers.”

College student dorm rooms, for instance, are typical venues for these devices, noted Purdy. “The gaming market is huge enough, especially among the 18-24 age group, to accommodate a number of different form factors.”

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Apple’s announcement on Thursday that it would be introducing a new iPad textbook experience and iBooks authoring toolpresents huge opportunities for technology in classrooms.

The company is selling textbooks from McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin at a price comparable to print versions, and it’s presented an unprecedented opportunity for teachers to compile their own materials.

But Apple has a long way to go — and logistical hurdles to clear in tens of thousands of schools — before it dominates K-12 classrooms the way it has done the music industry.

Instructional Technology Resource Teacher Jenny Grabiec recently purchased iPads for two of the ESL classrooms in her 160-school district using federal funds allocated for students with limited English proficiency.

Getting approval for the actual purchase was fairly easy. She sent a written request to the district CIO, and he approved it. But it took five months to get the iPads up and running after they arrived.

In order to download new apps, she needed to get the Apple volume purchase program approved as a vendor by the budget group. But who would explain to the budget committee the process of paying with an Apple ID? Who would be responsible for downloading the volume-purchased apps? Could the students use them outside of their hour-long ESL class? The list of logistical issues went on.

“Because nobody in our district had done it before, it took a long time,” Grabiec says.

Textbook availability

Even though Apple’s first iPad textbooks will sell for $15 or less, they won’t be any less expensive for schools than paper books. Vineet Madan, head McGraw-Hill Higher Education eLabs, tells Mashable that iBooks will be sold to schools rather than directly to students, but that schools will grant students access to those books through their personal IDs.

In other words, even if a school reuses iPads, it won’t be able to reuse books. The books will be kept on individual students’ iTunes accounts.

Schools reuse the same paper book for about five years, and those books usually cost about $75. Because a new book will be purchased every year, the iBook version still costs $75 for five years.

Relying on iBooks as textbooks isn’t a feasible option for most public schools at the moment because Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson have each dedicated just a small number of titles each. Madan puts the typical cycle for textbook approval in most states at about five years.

Unless the school happens to be using one of the selected titles, it can’t use iBooks yet. Most other options for digital textbooks that can be read on an iPad –including Coursesmart, Kno, Chegg and Inkling — focus on books for higher education.

Unless major publishers decide to add more of their titles to iBooks, it won’t be a feasible default reader in most schools. Madan says that McGraw has already committed to adding five additional titles before September, but it will commit to additional titles based on uptake.

Bringing iPads to the mainstream

Many schools already use iPads in their courses. Policies that allow students to bring their own devices to school might make make this more common.

According to a 2011 Pearson Foundation survey, 70% percent of college students and college-bound high school seniors are interested in owning a tablet device, and 20% expect to purchase a tablet within the next six months.

The inevitable price decline on the iPad could also make iPads a more mainstream conduit for educational material.

“This is a change in how school districts think,” Smith says, “and in a larger school district, that can take some time.”

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The now widely used Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) standard is apparently not as protected as router makers had hoped. According to a new study, the PIN codes used to lock down the system can be brute forcedon many devices by inputting incorrect PIN codes. Millions of routers and access points could be affected.

When a remote client attempts to access the device with a PIN, incorrect entries are met with a EAP-NACK message. This snippet of code can actually reveal the first half of the PIN, and the last digit is always the checksum of the PIN, so the number of possible PINs drops from 10^8 to just 11,000. With an automated system, it’s not impossible to try all the possible permutations in order to gain access.

Also troubling is the fact that many routers do not implement any sort of lockout policy for repeated incorrect PINs. That would allow an attacker to hit the device with a new PIN every second or two until it was cracked. Expect updated firmware on your router to at least patch this last problem.

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Quantum computing isn’t the only nifty next-gen PC advancement scientists are all a-flutter about; there’s plenty of attention being focused on intelligent bio-computers made from organic materials, too. A Japanese scientist by the name of Toshiyuki Nakagaki thinks that he’s found just the organism that can make it possible, too: amoeboid yellow slime mold. That’s right, the nasty goop covering downed trees and leaves is actually a pretty intelligent little bugger that could one day be designing transportation routes and electrical grids. Man, science is cool – and weird.

The simple slime mold shows a simple sort of information processing in the way it finds food. The organism is able to identify and move in an optimized path towards its food sources, a path that avoids stress-inducing stimuli – such as light and temperature changes — while otherwise reaching the target as directly as possible. Even modern day computers can’t choose optimized paths as efficiently as slime mold, another researcher – Atsushi Tero of Kyushu University – told AFP.

“Computers are not so good at analysing the best routes that connect many base points because the volume of calculations becomes too large for them,” he says. “But slime molds, without calculating all the possible options, can flow over areas in an impromptu manner and gradually find the best routes… They can even create networks that are resistant to unexpected stimulus.”

In Tero’s slime mold studies, the icky organism naturally created a railway pattern that is remarkably similar to the existing rails found in the Kanto region of Tokyo, which is kind of exciting – in a gross way. Other scientists think that slime mold could help us better understand the way the human nervous system works. I for one, plan on welcoming our new hyper-efficient slime mold overlords with open arms.

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It’s a little ironic for a company which likes to ask “Can you hear me now?” to remain silent at a time when its customers demand some answers. After three 4G LTE data outages in a single month, it’s imperative for VZW to step up and say something that will restore customer confidence in its infrastructure, to say something that will convince potential new subscribers the recent issues are an anomaly, and just to say something, period.

Well, Verizon finally stepped out of the shadows on Thursday and issued a statement regarding its 4G LTE network.

“The Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network is BY FAR the largest and the most advanced 4G LTE wireless network in the world,” Verizon said. “It is available in 190 U.S. markets and covers more than 200 million people, providing the fastest 4G network in the U.S.

“Being a pioneer comes with growing pains. The recent issues that affected our customers’ 4G LTE service were unforeseen despite careful, diligent planning, deployment, and ongoing upgrade programs.”

Verizon went on to explain that at certain times, it moved 4G LTE customers onto 3G networks to ensure everyone would still have a data connection. Even with the three outages, Verizon estimates 4G LTE uptime at 99 percent for the year.

As for why the outages occurred in the first place, VZW said “each incident has been different from a technical standpoint,” and each one has been corrected without a second recurrence. To prevent other issues from creeping up, VZW said it’s taking a number a steps, including geographic segmentation, which enables the company to isolate, contain, and rectify network performance issues, and maintain service to the majority of customers when an issue does develop.

“We will not rest until our 4G LTE network performs at the very highest levels that our customers have come to expect from us,” Verizon promised.

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