Make a private monitor from an old LCD monitor

You can finally do something with my old LCD monitor that you have lying around in the garage. Turn it into a spy monitor! For everyone else it will look like just a white screen, but not for you, because you will have a special "magic" points.







All you need - a pair of old glasses, paper cutter and paint thinner.

That's what I used:

• Of course it's LCD monitor
• disposable 3D glasses from the cinema (old sunglasses are fine)
• solvent (or equivalents)
• paper knife
• screwdriver
• paper towels
• Superglue

Step 1. Take the monitor.

Find your old monitor, which you are willing to sacrifice.

Remove the plastic frame by unscrewing all the screws on the back.

Step 2. Cut a polarizing film.

Most LCD monitors have on the glass cover of the two films: the polarization of light to filter, you will not want to see and matte antiglare film. We do not need anti-glare, and the polarization we use in our glasses.
It's time to take a knife and cut the film along the edge of the screen. Do not be afraid to press, metal not scratch the glass when there is no ralichnyh crumbs and dust.

* Tip of the comments: Not all monitors coverage of the two films is bonded, for some, they simply imposed and if you remove the protective metal edge of the matrix, they can be simply removed without cutting.

Then pulls the film from the screen. Do not forget to save the polarizing film, just remember its orientation.

Step 3. Clear your screen by adhesive.

After you have removed the film is likely to remain the glue on the screen, go to the dirty work.
Clean off the glue with a solvent and paper towels.

I found that if you cover the screen with paper towels soaked in solvent and allow them to lie down, remove the adhesive will be easier. Just remover, you can use any piece of plastic or wood, just scraping the glue off the screen.

Be careful, be careful that the solvent would not fall on the plastic frame.

Step 4. Work on your monitor is completed.

Once you've scraped all the glue, you can collect the monitor. Before you make a score, you can test the monitor with the polarization of the film!

  

Step 5. Remove the old lenses.

To create the points I used disposable 3D glasses from the theater, but you can use lyuby others.

 

Squeeze a glass or take points if possible.

Step 6. Scan, tracing the borders, cut.

If you plan to use the CNC machine and laser cutting machine, scan and get the image contour elements (tracing the boundaries).
* Author of the article deals with the activity in order, so here and there so strange to the majority proposal

I scanned the windows, you can use them as a model for their location. Remember that film is important for the polarization of its orientation. The parties also have the values ​​(front / rear).

  Just to cut the lenses you can use all the same knife for paper.

Step 7. We collect glasses and enjoy!

You can collect points, you are ready for what would be a bit to have fun!

 

People might think you're crazy, staring at the white screen, sitting in the sun glasses!

But I think it makes the venture even more fun!

 

 

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Dissed by Logitech, Google TV Soldiers On

Logitech introduced its Revue Google TV box in 2010, which promptly flopped with consumers.

After serious launch missteps and all signs pointing to poor consumer adoption, Google TV has a tough road ahead — and now hardware partner Logitech isn’t making things any easier for Google’s smart TV software platform.

Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca threw Google under the bus in a conference call with analysts and investors on Thursday, first reported by The Verge. De Luca cited the failed launch of Google TV as the primary reason why Logitech had disappointing Q1 financials; the company reported nearly $30 million in losses for the quarter. In part, Google TV contributed significantly to losses of “Well over $100 million in operating profits.”

As a result, Logitech is jumping ship. De Luca said the company has “no plans to introduce another box to replace Revue,” and will let its existing inventory run down to zero. It’s massive damage control for “[executing] a full scale launch with a beta product [which] cost us dearly,” as De Luca put it.

In 2010, the company bet big on Google TV, manufacturing way more devices than it should have. “We expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy these boxes [at] $300,” De Luca said. “That was a big mistake.”

A costly mistake, at that. Then CEO Gerald P. Quindlen was booted, the company missed its Q1 estimate by a mile, and as a result, Logitech slashed the Revue’s price to one third of what it initially asked. Painfully, more devices were returned in the first quarter than Logitech was even able to sell.

Despite its awfully rocky start, Google is currently ramping up for a second go at its smart TV software package. Last month, Google launched version two of Google TV, complete with a revamped user interface, Android Market app access, improved content discovery mechanisms, and more tightly integrated YouTube functionality. It’s what VP of product management Mario Queiroz considers the second leg of “a marathon project, [rather than] a sprint.”

A good portion of Google’s so-called marathon plan involves remedying big mistakes of the past, including streamlining what many saw as complicated peripheral hardware.

“They tried to make the Google TV experience too much like a computer,” Forrester analyst James McQuivey said in an interview. “Companies like Logitech invested in these complicated peripherals, and they’re too complex for people.”

The first generation of Google TV peripherals were indeed a mish-mash of combined keyboard/remote frankenware, a reminder of the failed Web TV controllers first introduced in the mid-90s. “It doesn’t make any sense to add another remote to people’s lives,” McQuivey said.

Google has said it’s working with its partners on redesigning the controller hardware, and will offer a streamlined, less-complex version of a TV controller in the future. The partner working on the project is ostensibly Sony, the other major manufacturer to offer a Google TV set-top box.

Sony did not respond to requests for comment.

But Google may not have all its eggs in Sony’s basket in the wake of Logitech’s pull-out. Google is rumored to be in talks with South Korean electronics conglomerate LG on producing its own version of a Google TV set-top box, according to sources cited by Bloomberg.

An LG spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

To be even less dependent on the remote control hardware of partner manufacturers, however, Google could focus on another market segment in which it already has momentum: smartphones.

“Google hasn’t paid attention to the fact that you don’t even need another remote when you have an Android phone,” McQuivey said. “It might be the case that Logitech never needs to make another remote, and Google TV can still be a successful product.”

Google is also beefing up on the content side of its TV operation, recently announcing a renewed deal with Disney Interactive to bring more original content to a co-branded YouTube channel. And recently Google announced it would bring over 100 different genre-specific channels to YouTube, boosting efforts to bring original content to the streaming video platform. Beefing up YouTube is especially relevant to the most recent release of Google TV, which features tighter YouTube integration and a better-performing YouTube app.

Further, Google could be in the early stages of creating its own “triple play”-style cable TV service.

Fortunately, existing Logitech box owners won’t be left out in the cold. “Logitech users can still expect to get a V2 update within the coming weeks,” a Google spokesperson told us. Currently, Google TV version 2 is rolling out to Sony boxes.

Coping with the backlash of De Luca’s harsh comments, Logitech doesn’t want its existing Revue owners to feel abandoned. “…Logitech remains committed to all of its Logitech Revue customers and will continue to provide them with customer support under our warranty policy,” a Logitech spokeswoman told Wired.com in a statement. The company also plans to continue supporting other Revue peripherals, including its TV camera and mini-keyboard.

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Microsoft’s Kinect development kit now supports Windows 8

Summary: Microsoft has rolled out Beta 2 of its Kinect for Windows development kit and has added support for Windows 8 with the refresh.

Earlier this week, Microsoft officials said the company planned to release a version of its Kinect sensor software development kit (SDK) for Windows for commercial usage in early 2012.

 On November 4, Microsoft updated the other version of the Kinect for Windows SDK — the one that is licensed for enthusiasts/hobbyists, which the company introduced in beta form earlier this summer. This SDK is available under a custom Microsoft academic license.

The Kinect for Windows SDK Beta 2 adds support for the Windows 8 Developer preview that Microsoft released in September. (This means the SDK now works on both Windows 7 and the Windows 8 Developer Preview as a Desktop Application.)

As explained by Microsoft in the ReadMe for Beta 2, “Developing Kinect enabled applications is essentially the same as developing other Windows applications, except that this SDK provides support for the features of the Kinect sensor (color images, depth images, audio, skeletal data, etc.).”

In addition to Windows 8 support, the Beta 2 SDK includes these changes and more, as listed in the ReadMe:

• Significant improvements to skeletal tracking, including faster skeletal frame delivery and multithreading/multicore support
• Accuracy has been improved overall, resulting in more precise tracking.
• When using 2 Kinects, developers can now specify which one is used for skeletal tracking.
• API (application programming interface) support for detecting and managing device status changes, such as device unplugged, device plugged in, power unplugged, etc.
• Support for building 64-bit applications.  Previously, only 32-bit applications could be built.
• Inclusion of a new C# sample: KinectAudioDemo.

I’ve asked Microsoft officials when they expect the hobbyist version of the Kinect Windows SDK to go final and have been told no comment. I’ve also asked whether the coming commercial version of the SDK will be beta or final when Microsoft makes it available next year and was told via a spokesperson: “Microsoft can confirm the release of the Kinect for Windows commercial program early next year, but does not have further details to share at this time.”

Microsoft officials said earlier this week there are more than 200 businesses in its Kinect for Windows pilot program, investigating potential commercial uses of the Kinect sensor when combined with Windows PCs.

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Hands-on with the Samsung Focus S Windows Phone

We stopped by Samsung’s offices in New York City recently to check out its brand new high-end Focus S Windows Phone. It is powered by Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, the latest iteration of the operating system, and packs a number of features that put the phone on a par with the Galaxy S II. It offers a stellar 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen, a 1.4GHz processor, support for AT&T’s HSPA+ network, an 8-megapixel camera and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera or video chat. We loved how thin the device was at just 8.5-millimeters and, thanks to its plastic body, it looks a bit like the Galaxy S II from afar. AT&T will launch the Focus S sometime this fall for $199.99 this fall. We’ll be bringing you a review as soon as we can but in the meantime you can get a closer look at the phone by checking out our gallery below.

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HTC Rezound hands-on

We just spent a couple minutes with HTC’s latest and greatest, the HTC Rezound for Verizon Wireless complete with Beats audio, and it’s surely positioned as an iconic media device. It’s reasonably thin, packs 4G LTE, a super high resolution 720p display which looks amazing, and that’s not mentioning the 8-megapixel camera with improved optics and low-light performance. And then, of course, there’s Beats audio processing that will work with the included Beats headphones or ones you might already own. All in all, Verizon’s lineup for the holidays is incredible, and the HTC Rezound will surely be music to a media-centric person’s ears. Check out all of the photos in our gallery!

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Do Yourself a Favor: Set Up These Custom Typing Shortcuts on Your iPhone Right Now

It seems Apple added text expansion to iOS 5 and decided not to mention it. This is a great, highly-desired feature that can save you tons of time typing frequent phrases and long words. Here's how to set it up and the phrases you'll want to add right away.

Set Up Text Expansion (Shortcuts)

First things first, let's get text expansion (or Shortcuts, as Apple calls it) set up. To get it set up, either watch the video up top or follow these steps:

1. Open up the Settings app on your iPhone's home screen.
2. Tap the General section.
3. Tap the Keyboard section.
4. Swipe down to the bottom and tap the button labeled "Add New Shortcut..."
5. Under "Phrase" type the phrase you want the shortcut to expand to, and under "Shortcut" type the shortcut you want to type instead. For example, if you wanted "brb" to expand to "be right back", you'd type "brb" for the shortcut and "be right back" for the phrase.
6. Tap save when you're done.

You'll need to repeat this process for all the text expansion shortcuts you want to add. You can always delete them by swiping left over them on the keyboard settings page and tapping the delete button (much like anything else in iOS).

Phrases You Should Add Right Now

Here are some phrases you'll want to add to your iPhone right now. The nice thing about the feature is it works much like autocorrect, so you can set a text expansion shortcut to a portion of a word and it'll only expand if you type a space after the shortcut. For example, you could have a shortcut called "sig" and type the word signature without worrying about the shortcut expanding when you don't want it to expand. This opens up plenty of simple shortcut options. Here are the ones we think everyone will find useful right away.

Note: These shortcuts shouldn't be added in uppercase (unless you want to), but are just shown that way to make them easier to read in this post.

• EML -> your@emailaddress.com, so you never need to type your email when sending a message to yourself or sharing it with someone else.
• PHN -> your phone number, so you can easily share your phone number without the need to type it or even remember it.
• ADDR -> your address, so you don't have to type out the entire thing.
• SIG -> your email signature, in case you only want to use it sometimes and not with every message.
• CTCL -> can't talk, I'll call you later, when you need to tell a friend you'll get back to them a bit later but aren't able to call (or answer their call).
• FMIN -> I'll be there in five minutes, for when you want to text someone that you're five minutes away but only have a few moments to type it.
• BRB -> be right back, for those of you who IM frequently on your iDevice.
• THX -> thanks!, is one example of many ways you can abbreviate common endings to messages.

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How to Get a Siri-Like Personal Assistant on Your Android Phone for Free

 If you watched last week's iPhone 4S announcement with your Android phone and went a little green with envy when Siri, iOS's new voice-recognizing personal assistant, was announced and demoed on stage, buck up. You've got a lot of great voice recognition apps to choose from on Android that can help you keep up with friends, look up the weather, find local businesses, and more. Here are a look at your options.

If you haven't looked into voice recognition apps on Android before, you may be surprised at how many applications get the job done. None of the apps currently available for Android are quite as well integrated with the OS as Siri is be with iOS (sorry), but some of them come closer than others, and you can bet that all of them will be updated and improved now that Siri is available for iOS. Best of all, they're all free.

The One You Already Have: Google Voice Actions

If you have an Android phone, you already have Google Voice Actions for Androidinstalled. When everyone got their first look at Siri on the iPhone 4S, most people jumped to the assumption that Siri was just Voice Actions for iOS. That's not true—Siri does more than Voie Actions, but Voice Actions is the closest thing Android users to a voice-operated personal assistant.

Pros: Voice Actions can control a large swath of Android functions. You can place phone calls, listen to music by track name, artist, or album, send SMS or email messages, get driving and turn-by-turn navigation directions, search the web, and more. If you're clever, you can get information like weather, word definitions, maps and information about local businesses, and more just by using voice actions intelligently. For example, tap the Voice Actions icon and speak "weather in Washington, DC," Voice Search will do a Google search for it, and Google's mobile page will give you an interactive display of the weather forecast.

Cons: The trouble with Voice Actions is that it's only well integrated with core Android functions. You won't be able to schedule calendar appointments, schedule appointments with other people, update Twitter or Facebook, or issue complex commands that require passing information to any application other than Google Search. Additionally, you need to actually tap the Voice Search icon (or long-press the search key) every time you want to issue a request, which makes it less than ideal for hands-free situations, like when you're driving. Finally, Voice Search is a simple command-response application, as in, you speak a command and it replies with whatever it has. If it's wrong, you reissue the command by starting over. There's no back-and-forth with Voice Actions.

 

The Most Hands-Free: Vlingo

Vlingo has been around for a long time, much longer than voice control has been in-style on smartphones. Vlingo has text-to-speech and speech-to-speech clients for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Windows Mobile, and while none of them have particularly deep integration with their respective operating system, the app does reach beyond core applications and comes closest to the kind of back-and-forth with advanced commands that Siri offers.

Pros: Vlingo allows you to do all of the basics: you can send SMS messages and emails, place phone calls, and search the web. You can also search for local businesses and restaurants using natural language, so saying "find pizza" will search for local pizza delivery restaurants. Saying "taxi" will search for the nearest cab company. You can also launch applications through Vlingo by speaking their name, or update Facebook and Twitter through the app. It's speech-to-text engine is good, and unlike Voice Actions, it rarely misinterpreted my contact names or spoken words.

The developers behind Vlingo have even tossed in some tie-ins to other applications: if you say "find hotels in New York City," the app will ask you if you want to install Kayak or if you just want to search the web. Say "Buy movie tickets for Real Steel in Washington DC," the app will open your default browser, go to Fandango, bring up the page for Real Steel, and offer me showtimes at nearby theaters.

Finally, Vlingo's strongest suit is that you can tell it to start listening as soon as you open the app, and when you enter Vlingo's "in-car" mode, you can say "Hey Vlingo," out loud and the app will accept commands. It's Vlingo's depth of features and its ability to have a back-and-forth conversation with you that make it the closest thing Android users have to Siri. Check outthis video to see Vlingo in action.

Cons: The only real problem with Vlingo is that too many of its commands shunt you to other applications that have no voice-activated features. When you're using "in-car" mode, Vlingo will ask you if you want to leave Vlingo to open your browser or another app to complete the action, but it doesn't let you say yes or no from that screen, and you have to touch the screen to either go forward or cancel the operation. The same is true for a number of Vlingo's other features as well. Saying "Check in to China Garden" simply opens Foursquare and does a search for China Garden, which saves time, but falls just a little short.

Also, if you stray too far from any of Vlingo's known search and command terms, you'll confuse it and it'll shunt you to a web search. That's fine in some cases, but the fact that you can't just ask what the weather is without doing a Google search is a little disappointing. Vlingo is great, but the most frustrating thing about the app is that it seems to go so far, only to stop short of perfection.

The Most Conversational: Edwin

Edwin is a utility we've covered before, and while it's lacking the bells and whistles of its competition, it adds voice response and speech-to-speech to Google's native voice actions. It also allows you to make your voice commands a bit more conversational. Most of its commands are passed through to Google Voice Actions, where they're executed or the results are spoken back to you.

Pros: Edwin's strength is in how conversational the app is. If it has a direct response, it'll speak it out loud. Ask "What's the weather in Washington DC," and the app will respond aloud with current conditions. Ask about another city, and the app will look it up and respond there as well. You can even ask the app "Where am I," and it'll respond, right down to your block number. The app has a large button you press once to make the app start listening. Best of all, if it understands, it'll respond. If the app needs to do a web search or open an application, it'll prompt you to select an app, or it'll go to the browser and perform a search.

Cons: The big problem with Edwin is that it doesn't have a rich command list of its own, and when it doesn't understand something, it suffers the same problem Voice Actions does: it just fails. The app also has a difficult time processing some commands, like navigation and SMS messages—it'll understand that you want to navigate, and it'll understand that you want to send an SMS message, but it won't pick up where you want to go or who you want to send the message to. The app definitely needs some improvements, and when testing it, I ran into a number of bugs and errors. In some cases, Edwin forgot my location and couldn't retrieve weather information, and in others it stopped being able to obtain weather information entirely. Your mileage with Edwin may vary, but at the very least it'll talk back to you.

The Most Flexible: SpeakToIt Assistant

SpeakToIt Assistant is a relatively new speech-to-speech and speech-to-text assistant in the Android market. The app prides itself on being customizable, and on giving you a cartoon avatar that you can customize and configure to be your personal assistant. (If you don't like the default sexy librarian, you've got an absurd amount of options for customizing your assistant with a range of other fantasy cartoon options.) The app does have some back-and-forth conversational abilities, and it definitely recognizes a wide array of phrases and commands. The developers behind SpeakToIt claim that it's always learning, and they're working to give the app more commands that it can directly respond to with each update.

Pros: SpeakToIt definitely understands everything that Voice Actions understands and then some. You can ask it to find stock information for you, what the weather is in a far-off place, to send an email or SMS, update your social networks, check-in to a location on Foursquare, and more. The app can also post items to your Evernote account, and it greets you—sometimes with your name after you've said it aloud—when you open the application.

Unlike some of the other applications, you can make your assistant male or female, customize their appearance, and change their voice, albeit slightly. It wins for being the most customizable, and the app with the largest library of in-app commands and pass-through terms. It's clear that the developers of SpeakToIt want you to be able to get as much information as possible inside the app before being shunted to another application or to a Google search. It can even update Facebook and Twitter on your behalf. Check out this video to see SpeakToIt Assistant in action.

Cons: Unfortunately, SpeakToIt Assistant tries very hard to be a personal assistant on the surface that some of the finer touches are lost. SpeakToIt's chosen voice is the default Android voice synthesizer, making it sound more stilted and unnatural than the others, especially when it's trying to hold a conversation with you. Grammar errors in the on-screen text make it difficult to work with at times, and the fact that you have to tap a small microphone button on-screen every time you want to speak to the application difficult to use when driving or if you want a hands-free experience.

Still, SpeakToIt Assistant is in beta, and most of its shortcomings can be easily overcome with additional development. Given that development, the app could grow to be more useful. As it is, it's a touch gimmicky.

So Which Is the Best?

If we could only suggest one, Vlingo is definitely the most mature application with its hooks into the most services. It's also the one under the most active development, and the one with the best hands-free and speech-to-speech functionality. However, its competition is hot on its heels.

Google's own Voice Actions is built-in to every Android phone, and its unlikely that Google has any intention of holding still now that Siri will be deeply integrated with iOS. Similarly, SpeakToIt Assistant may be new and still rough around the edges, but it has a lot of potential and it gives you a very personable and customizable caricature to interact with.

The good news for Android users watching Siri's development is that there are plenty of alternatives and options that bring the promise of text-to-speech and speech-to-speech to Android devices. None of them are perfect, and they're not deeply integrated with all of the common features and functions that you would expect from a real voice-activated assistant. Still, there are plenty solid options to give Siri a run for its money, and expect them all to improve very shortly.

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