aeds

If you're looking to attract attention, setting a Guinness World Record is probably a good way to start.

That was the goal -- attracting attention, that is -- for a group of IBM Research scientists who recently set out to make what turned out be the Guinness World Record-certified smallest stop-motion film ever.

Called "A Boy and His Atom," the animated film features a small boy having a good old time as he bounces around, playing catch, and dancing. The twist? The film was shot at the atomic level and features 130 atoms that were painstakingly placed, atom by atom, as the researchers shot 250 individual frames. The images were created at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and were magnified 100 million times. … Read more

Texas hold 'em may not enjoy the popularity that it did only a few years ago, but it is still the most popular card game in America, with hundreds of tournaments, Web sites, and apps devoted to it. There are quite a few apps that attempt to bring that experience to the app store. Texas Hold'em Poker 100K by ASH is one of the most popular and for good reason: it manages to bring the feeling of a high-stakes game of poker to the iPad in a way that few other games have managed to do.

If you've … Read more

The iPad has made it possible to create some very impressive pieces of music. It's hard to imagine something as complex and deeply intellectual as composition happening on a device used more often to play bird-tossing games, but there are some truly impressive compositions and even more impressive apps to create those works. One such app is Sketch-a-Song, providing a sleek, drag-and-drop interface to create songs with the tap of a button.

Sketch-a-Song starts by requiring you to register an account. You can choose to connect to Facebook, but Facebook integration is deep and the settings are not immediately … Read more

Huawei has announced (translate) a midrange Android smartphone for China and emerging markets in the form of the 5-inch A199.

Powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Huawei A199 also features Huawei's custom Emotion 1.5 UI. On hardware, the handset falls in the mid-to-high end of the spectrum with its quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, and 8.0-megapixel rear camera.

Whereas most 5-inch smartphones tend to offer a 1080p HD display, the Huawei A199 comes with a still respectable 720p resolution screen. Additional hardware includes a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, a 2,150mAh … Read more

Intel's CEO seemed to throw cold water on a chip deal with Apple in Tuesday's earnings conference call -- though it really depends on how you read his comments.

When asked about making processors based on the ARM design -- such as Apple's A series chips -- Paul Otellini was quick to dismiss the idea.

"No," was the short answer from Otellini. The longer answer stipulated "ground rules" where Intel "would not enable a chip competitor."

But Otellini did seem to leave an opening for his successor, depending how you choose … Read more

WhatsApp is bigger than Twitter, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum boasted today.

Koum, speaking at AllThingsD's mobile conference today, wouldn't talk about specific figures when it comes to usage, but he confirmed that the mobile messaging service topped Twitter's usage. Twitter declared in December that it had exceeded 200 million monthly users.

WhatsApp boasts an average of 8 billion inbound messages and 12 billion outbound messages a day, he said.

Koum also addressed the rumors that WhatsApp would be acquired, reiterating that the company wants to remain independent and doesn't really think about acquisition as an exit … Read more

At first glance, A-Shape seems like an app designed to go over the heads of most users. The opening screen discusses X and Y coordinates and the intricacies of geometry. However, after a few moments spent playing with the app, you'll find that it offers a unique experience even for those that aren't mathematicians, or even mathematically inclined.

The goal of A-Shape is to give you complete control over the dimensions and intricacies of a shape with affine transformation. If this means nothing to you, that's okay -- the shapes you create are incredible and can be … Read more

Apple is cutting Samsung out of anything related to the chip slated for future iPhones and iPads, a South Korea-based newspaper reported.

Apple "has excluded its Korean rival from a project to develop A7...processors," wrote The Korea Times.

That chip will be the successor to the A6 and A6X -- which Samsung makes for Apple -- now powering the iPhone and iPad, respectively.

'"Apple is sharing confidential data for its next A7 system-on-chip (SoC) with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). TSMC has begun ordering its contractors to supply equipment to produce Apple's next processors,'' … Read more

Acer hasn't officially announced the Iconia A1-810, but the tablet's spec sheet was spotted in the wild on a French retailer's Web site. It has since been removed, but not before introducing us to Acer's new 7.9-inch Android 4.2 tablet, which is estimated to ship around June.

The tablet houses a 1.2GHz MediaTek MT8125 ARM Cortex-A9 quad-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 1,024x768-pixel resolution IPS panel screen. The Iconia A1-810's specs are comparable to the 7.9-inch iPad Mini which also sports a 1,024x768-pixel resolution screen but falls short … Read more