Bring Your Own Image Search

Bring Your Own (BYO) Image Search literally means using your own image to search for others. Born out of Idee Labs, the engine allows you to upload a personal picture and it'll come back with image results based on algorithms such as similar colors, shapes, textures, luminosity, complexity, objects and regions. For example, if you look at the screenshot above, I uploaded a picture (on the right in the Search Image box) which I took at my sister's wedding and the engine immediately generated pages of images with a similar color tone--white. There's also an option to point the search to an image on the Web. According to Idee Labs, the image results are based on the stock images from UK firm Alamy.
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Microsoft's Surface pricier than anticipated

Microsoft will give those at next week's Professional Developer Conference a chance to do more than just write software for the Surface. They'll also have the opportunity to buy a developer version of the machine.

The good news is that PDC attendees will get a 10 percent discount. However, the bad news is the machine will set them back US$13,500 even with the discount.

The cost for developers is higher because it includes five software developer kit licenses. However, even commercial customers are paying US$12,500 for the Surface. That's above the US$5,000 to US$10,000 initial cost that Microsoft said to expect when it announced the Surface back in May 2007.

"We're not far off from our initial target," Surface computing unit general manager Brad Carpenter said in an interview on Thursday, "but we would like to get the price down. Over time, with economies of scale and (higher sales volume), the prices will go down."

Its price tag was among the reasons that Robbie Bach, Microsoft's entertainment division president, thought about killing the Surface as a commercial product, although it survived with Bill Gates as a strong backer of the effort.

Still, even if they can't afford one, developers will get plenty of face time with the Surface at PDC. There's a session on developing for the Surface as well as three hands-on labs.
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Logitech keyboard-mouse combo is pricey, but darned near perfect

You might balk at the US$130 price tag, but this time more actually means better. The Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro combo puts two of our favorite products together in one package: The Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Keyboard and the Logitech MX 1100 Cordless laser mouse.

Both products received very high marks from their respective editors, and the MX1100 mouse even managed to win an Editors' Choice award. This time around, we're sticking to our guns and rewarding this winning combo as well.

One of the most significant hardware changes in the bundle that we don't speak much of in the review is the mouse's rechargeable battery. In our separate review of the MX1100, we weren't very happy to see that it used alkaline batteries for juice. We cut it some slack since it meant one less power adapter to throw into our mountain of cords, but Logitech really came through this time and includes a rechargeable battery with the system.

Logitech advertises two months of power per charge, and although we don't have the time or the resources to perform a drain test, we used the device for a full week and kept it on 24 hours a day and barely saw the drain indicator move. In our opinion, that's worth the bimonthly cord storage.

Via CNET Crave

Wither Mac Mini?

After relegating it to the hinterlands of its Mac lineup for years, Apple might be finally ready to put the Mac Mini to sleep.

That's what Gizmodo thinks, having talked to two European retailers who say they can no longer order the box from Apple. It's possible Apple could be getting ready to simply update the internal hardware in the Mac Mini, which has languished for quite a while with outdated chips, but Gizmodo reports that the retailers have been told that this is the end of the line.

The Mac Mini was an experiment in affordability and minimalism on Apple's part back in 2005. The small desktop was initially a hit with critics and consumers, but as the world's PC preferences tilted strongly in favor of notebooks over the last several years, Apple spent more time updating and promoting the MacBook and iMac all-in-one desktops than the cute little cube. And the Apple TV has fulfilled the desire of some for a small media server that fits snugly in an entertainment center, even though as designed it doesn't have nearly the flexibility offered by a real computer like the Mac Mini.

Rumors of the Mac Mini's demise have circulated for at least a year. The Mini could desperately use a hardware boost, but Apple may have concluded that it's simply not worth the effort at this point. The company has made it very clear that it considers mobile computing the future of its business, and the Mac Mini simply doesn't work in that context.

It would, however, eliminate the cheapest Mac from Apple's arsenal, raising the starting price of (officially, at least) entering the Mac OS X universe to S$1,588 (US$1,128.24). Analysts have been a little worried that the Mac is expensive in the midst of this year's economic turmoil, but consumers don't seem to have noticed, given Apple's market share gains of late.

Via CNET News

Firefox 3 may get gesture support for MacBooks

There are a lot of Firefox users out there, and there are a lot of MacBook users as well, which means a lot of people use Firefox on a MacBook. And those users might be getting a special treat in future releases of the browser.

On his informative blog, Edward Lee, a Firefox developer, spills on steps he's taken to include gesture support for MacBooks in the next version of the browser.

For those unfamiliar with gesture support, Apple introduced the functionality to the MacBook line a couple of years ago. It allows you to interact with your computer by just moving your fingers across the touch pad. For example, in most programs you can scroll down by dragging two fingers down the touch pad without having to click any buttons.

But the Firefox controls go a little further, including other gestures for navigating your tabs, handy, indeed.

There's no word yet on whether this neat feature will make the final build, but MacBook users everywhere should hope it does. Anyone who uses the gesture support in any other application knows how intuitive it is and how it can really make any app more usable.

Via CNET Crave

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