freshness

SEATTLE -- For the last five years, Amazon has been working to figure out an online business that has claimed its share of carnage -- grocery delivery.

Here in the company's backyard, it's deployed a fleet of green, refrigerated trucks to bring produce, meats, boxes of cereal, and more to customers' front doors 24 hours a day, whenever they choose. And the company has tinkered with pricing formulas, as well as the kind of goods it offers, trying to come up with the right mix that engenders loyalty and still earns a profit.

Asked, after so many years … Read more

For those with collections of files with different naming standards, FreshBatch for Mac can help with purposefully searching for or archiving them. Despite its limited overall usefulness, it performs this function well and may appeal to some users.

The installation folder of FreshBatch for Mac contains a separate instructions file, which walks the user through the program's features and procedures. The program's sole purpose is to speed up the process of renaming files. The menu appears dated and has no graphics or other advanced features. The user has two main options, the first of which is to find … Read more

Leaked videos that hit the Web today hint at a host of possibilities for Microsoft's next Windows release, codenamed Blue. Not only does it look like there might be improvements across the operating system, but also the speech recognition feature in Windows Phones could get a noteworthy upgrade.

The videos come via MSFTKitchen, which got its hands on internal videos from Microsoft's TechFest event a couple of weeks ago.

In the video that is presumably about Microsoft Blue, the company's chief technical strategy officer Eric Rudder hints that Microsoft has plans to boost their touch feature on … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Just say no: Polaroid returns with an instant camera shaped like...the Instagram icon.

- "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme song prompts school lockdown.

- You should watch "Room 237," a fan theory documentary about "The Shining."

- 50 fan theories that will blow your mind, and the Subreddit that goes with it.… Read more

The type of gun responsible for severely injuring former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killing 32 people in the Virginia Tech massacre, and murdering rapper Tupac Shakur was a Glock pistol.

Now, these pistols are the top guns of choice for criminals and police alike in the U.S., according to Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Paul Barrett.

In a new book called "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun," Barrett details how Glock handguns managed to surpass other manufacturers' guns, like Smith & Wesson, by using unique, simple, and low-cost technology.

"Police departments were amazed when they took their … Read more

Wouldn't it be great if pre-packaged meat and fish came with a health status bar like characters get in some video games?

It can be difficult to tell the difference between rotten and fresh meat or fish. Even after a couple of hours in the open air, meat can often look normal to cook, when in actuality it's teeming with bacteria that create toxins that can harm our health. A sensor film developed by the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies EMFT in Munich could change the way we judge meat freshness in the future.

The way the film works is simple, and only requires attaching the color-changing label to the packaging. When meat decays, it releases smelly amine molecules that the film reacts to by changing color. Bright yellow means everything is fresh, while blue indicates you may be on the next train to botulism. What makes this prospective technology so interesting is the fact that it's low cost (and therefore attractively scalable to the massive meat industry), and doesn't come in direct contact with the actual food.

"Food safety is ensured by a barrier layer between the sensor film and the product itself," explained Anna Hezinger, a scientist at EMFT. "This barrier is only permeable to gaseous amines. The indicator chemicals cannot pass through."

The sensor could revolutionize our grocery shopping experience by adding an additional peace of mind outside of the sometimes untrustworthy "best by" date found on most meat packaging. Now I just need to learn to cook. … Read more

IBM is tapping into its own network of PC owners to help figure out how to clean up drinking water.

Big Blue announced Monday a series of high-tech projects related to creating safer drinking water, which IBM notes is a rare resource for at least 1.2 billion people worldwide.

To drive the initiatives, the company is calling on its World Community Grid, a network of PC owners who pitch in computing time to help scientists tackle global problems. People who volunteer for the Grid allow their idle computers to be used by IBM to collectively run simulations and other … Read more

I know it only seems like mincing piles of fresh herbs feels like it takes forever. It isn't that tough a task, but it can be made easier and faster with the Microplane Herb Mill. Just fill the mill with fresh, leafy herbs and with a twist of the handle, they are minced and ready to be added to all sorts of recipes. Add to tasty sauces, salad dressings, curries, soups, or just sprinkle over a finished plate as garnish. Best of all, the Microplane Herb Mill keeps your fingers away from blades.

The Microplane Herb Mill uses dual-action … Read more

The name's a bit hard to figure out, but FreshStart delivers to Google Chrome the long-overdue child of tabbed browsing and browsing sessions: tab synchronization. Fast and functional, FreshStart takes a little bit of effort to set up, but the workflow is simple enough that most users should be able to pick it up after one try.

When the extension is installed, it tries to open a welcome page, but that failed for us on both test computers. Close it out and go to your Tools menu, and enable bookmark sync. This will require a Google account, and if … Read more