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Perhaps peculiarly, Apple removed AirPrint from the public release of Mac OS X 10.6.5, an update largely expected to allow iOS 4.2 devices, such as the iPad, to print to shared network printers.

AppleInsider reports that users experimenting with various settings in Mac OS X 10.6.5 have discovered a way to bring the iOS AirPrint function back to your Mac. AirPrint uses CUPS technology, an open source Unix-friendly printing architecture, owned and maintained by Apple.

The CUPS filter used to convert the AirPrint URF format into PDF format for printing was the component removed from … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--They've celebrated Pac-Man's anniversary, Einstein's birthday, the World Cup, the Fourth of July, Persian New Year, the Olympics, U.S. elections, and just about everything in between. Who are they? Google's Doodlers, of course.

A band of artists whose job it is to translate special events into those colorful, whimsical versions of Google's corporate logo, the Doodlers almost certainly have one of the best jobs in the world.

This team's members mix artistic skills with an ability to fit into Google's culture--meaning they can speak engineering and hold their own … Read more

If you think robots are heartless piles of plastic and silicon, you're correct. But soccer-playing humanoid robot Nao has been evolving by developing "emotions" under a European project and is now being used in the U.S. in sessions to treat autistic children.

Under the recently concluded Feelix Growing project--aimed at designing bots that can detect and respond to human emotional cues--researchers at the University of Hertfordshire's Adaptive Systems Group and other centers have been trying to get Nao to simulate human emotions.

Researcher Lola Canamero and colleagues have been programming Nao--created by Aldebaran Robotics and used worldwide as a research bot--based on how human and chimpanzee infants interact with others. Working with a budget of some $3.2 million, the researchers have been trying to create robots that can be better companions for people.

In a gushing report, the Daily Mail has hailed Nao as "the first robot capable of developing emotions and forming bonds with humans."

Robot fans who remember Sony's robot dog Aibo, discontinued in 2006, will recall that it had a range of synthetic emotions and could "grow" emotionally according to how it interacted with its owner.

It's no surprise that the researchers have also been experimenting with Aibo, including the cyberpup and Nao in a "robot nursery" designed to incubate emotional behaviors. Nao can so far express excitement, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, and pride, and supposedly has the "emotional skills" of a 1-year-old child.

Using its facial-recognition skills, Nao can become attached to people who help it learn, just like a human infant. When confronted with an unfamiliar situation, or when neglected by its human caregiver, Nao can become agitated. It will remember past experiences it interprets as positive or negative. … Read more

Bracketron's MobileDock is a universal dashboard- and windshield-mounting cradle for most mobile devices and smartphones. It sticks to nearly any hard surface and holds nearly any phone, but the way it does so is a bit unconventional.

The unit features a suction cup mounting mechanism that locks into place with a lever, just like nearly every other suction cup mount that we've tested. However, the MobileDock stands apart because its cup uses what Bracketron calls Temporbond technology.

Essentially, the suction cup is made of a tacky material not unlike those sticky hand toys you get out of a gumball machine. The sticky material, combined with the cup's suction, allows the MobileDock to attach securely to nearly any hard surface. That means your can stick it to your windshield or dashboard without the need for an adhesive mounting disk. We even got the MobileDock to stick quite securely to drywall, so there shouldn't be many dashboard materials that can rock this cradle.… Read more

The Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid, which led its overall classification for more than 8 hours back in May at the Nurburgring 24-hour race, will now travel to the USA and Asia.

Due to its larger range, the GT3 R Hybrid took the lead in the race after the other cars pitted, but left it with less than two hours to go.

This fall, U.S. racing fans will get a chance to see the GT3 R Hybrid at the season finale of the American Le Mans Series. The "Petit Le Mans" on Oct. 2, at Road Atlanta. … Read more

Goaaal! is a soccer shootout arcade game, in which you try to rack up the best score possible by taking successive shots on goal.

The interface is simultaneously simple and tricky: you have a fixed view, facing the goal (and the goalie), and you just flick your finger to kick the ball. The trickiness comes from mastering accuracy (requiring much trial and error), learning how to fire on the ground versus in the air, and figuring out how to put spin on the ball by flicking from one side or the other. You can also reposition the ball by holding … Read more

Earlier this month, an octopus named Paul living in a tank in Oberhausen, Germany, proved capable of successfully "predicting" the results of his home nation's World Cup soccer matches--and then went a step further and correctly selected Spain as the winner of the final.

Of course, there's now an app for that.

An iPhone app development company called uTouchLabs just released an app called "Ask the Octopus," which lets users input two options for any query and then has a cartoon "octopus oracle" choose one much in the way that Paul would … Read more

Paul the German Octopus is officially more powerful than our own Wilson G. Tang at predicting the future. The mollusk in Oberhausen is 8 for 8 in forecasting the winning teams in this year's World Cup, including yesterday's triumphant victory for Spain over the Netherlands.

In fact, we already planned to invite Paul into the studio this Friday to tell us about the iPhone 5, but recent news tells us that the eight-legged wonder is already planning his retirement from the soccer prediction industry.

If you haven't figured it out by now, The 404 crew is complete … Read more

Facebook has always struggled with hate groups.

It defines the hate emotion so subjectively that one hardly knows what it is permissible to hate--semolina, perhaps--and what is entirely verboten. (Not Holocaust denial, it seems.)

So I will be very curious how the peak players at Facebook will react to the news that certain Facebook members and groups are demanding the death of a very sensitive creature, Paul the psychic octopus.

Should you have recently been buried by youths on a secluded beach, you might not know that Paul is an octopus who lives in a tank in Oberhausen, Germany, and … Read more