How Apple Finally Abandoned Jobs’ Favorite Project

Steve-Jobs-with-first-iPhone--2007The company Steve Jobs’ founded has officially given up on one of his pet projects from twenty years ago. Apple has finally closed down its support for the WebObjects project, an obsolete program that helped businesses build websites instantly using materials that, like search words, customers would have entered online. In 1996, during the beginning of the Internet phenomenon, WebObjects was a revolution. It was one of the principal tools that permitted websites to frequently update their websites with data.

For the very first time ever, retailers were able to allow people to alter the products they wanted to purchase online. For example, for businesses that catered to products with fluctuating prices, such as car dealers and airlines, WebObjects could be used to keep their prices up to date and sell them on their sites. steve_jobs_2010-100575035-primary.idgeTechnology companies were able to sell gadgets in different sizes shapes and colors without having to create an individual website for each model.

Apple Stores and iTunes used WebObjects, with some of its code still being used today. There are still small developer groups for WebObjects today, though Apple hasn’t updated its software for over 8 years. Hugi Thordarson, a developer for WebObjects said that the company spokesperson he had spoken to said it would never be upgraded. There are many more sophisticated tools which can accomplish what the outdated WebObjects was renowned for doing a couple of decades ago.

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More Human Than Human – Google’s Atlas Becomes More Hominoid

b1534223facf25ebaafa5d7ad3b1f393Atlas is a humanoid robot created by Google’s Alphabet-owned Boston Dynamics. The robot debuted back in 2013 in a competition conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The updated Atlas is the result of seven globally contracted research teams who developed the software that has given Atlas a better but more complex brain.

Atlas was first created as a means of disaster recovery for places that were too unsafe for humans to intervene such as nuclear plants and unstable buildings. Standing at 5 ft. 9 in tall and weighing in at about 180 pounds, the new Atlas is more nimble and smaller than its previous version. It is fully mobile in comparison to the previous model which had to be hooked to a computer. Atlas can walk through snow without losing its balance, open doors, stand up after falling down and place things on a shelf.

Using sensors which are embedded throughout its legs and body and legs to help it balance, lasers for sensing objects, navigating and avoiding obstacles, Atlas is a one of a kind brainchild. Atlas can also maneuver through different types of environments by walking, climbing stairs and dodging debris using its hydraulic joints.

Google Patent Filing Shows Plans For Tearable Screens

Google-tearable-display-patent-1024x528The new trend for digital screens is for them to be able to bend and roll into a tube. Apparently, Google wants them to be tearable too now. In a recently published patent filing, the inventors had detailed a very original device that users can rip, and then reattach together. Whenever the screen is physically modified, the contents it shows are modified too. To illustrate the effect, Google used a notice for a lost dog. When the screen is intact, the flier displays a dog but when it is torn, the smaller piece shows the dog’s picture along with a contact number.

Google’s patent filing was first found by the founder of a legal software firm ClientSide, Mikhail Avady. Avady states that the patent is the turning point for next generation screens because it shows two long-promised concepts of sci-fi – disposable and modular displays.

During CES earlier this year one of the world’s biggest makers of cutting edge digital screens, Samsung, showed off ways that modular displays could soon become a reality. Using a number of smaller screens pushed together, Samsung create a huge multi-screen complex. While disposable displays remain a pipe dream for now and won’t emerge in the main stream market as viable, cost-effective technology, engineers have been figuring out ways to transfer pixels onto paper. When asked for a comment on the patent, Google coyly admitted that while it may hold the patent, it may remain an idea and never be implemented or it can mature into a full-blown product in the future.