[Note: I'm away from the desk this week. This post originally ran on February 28, 2011, and stirred a lot of online discussion; still fully current, and I suspect will be so for a while.] Is cognitive science full of crap? A biophyics researcher recently asked this of a cognitive science researcher. The latter answered with spirit. My own answer is that of course cog sci is full of crap — except when it’s not. Which makes it like most science, only more so. It started when Cambridge University memory researcher Jon Simons posted a lament about how proposed UK science-funding cuts especially threaten young, developing researchers. The cog-sci debate broke out when University of College London biophysicist David Colquhoun suggested that perhaps precious funding ... Continue reading →
The HTC One lineup of smartphones have, so far, been the best-in-class for Android devices this year. They’ve got big, beautiful displays; they’re very fast; and the Sense 4.0 software subtly enhances the Android 4.0 experience, rather than overwhelming it. Battery life is surprisingly good and they come with an additional 23 GB of free Dropbox storage and Beats Audio. I’ve tested the One S for T-Mobile and the One X for AT&T. Now I’ve got my hands on Sprint’s entry, the awkwardly named HTC Evo 4G LTE. It’s essentially a tweaked version of the One X designed to work on Sprint’s CDMA network. Unfortunately, I can’t really experience the Evo 4G LTE as its meant to be used because it’s missing a key feature. ... Continue reading →
Yahoo! Axis offers a faster, smarter search with instant answers and visual search previews. Continue reading →
Yahoo is taking a break from executive drama to do something, well, dramatic: attempt to relaunch its search experience with a browser plug-in called Axis that syncs with a full-fledged iOS browser with the same name. The plug-in is available on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 9 and the core idea is that Yahoo will present search results live as you type along with web previews. On both clients, the search results come from Microsoft's Bing, just presented in the new UI layer Yahoo has developed. It presents itself as a small search box on the bottom-left of your browser, and when you begin typing it gives you a vertical list of suggestions next to a horizontal set of webpage previews.The plug-in will also ... Continue reading →
