Google’s quietly pitter-pattering its acquisitive ways back into the controversial realm of facial recognition technology. To do that, the company busted out its oversized wallet to fold Pittsburgh-based PittPatt into the Mountain View borg.

Founded by a trio of PhD’s from Carnegie Mellon University, this three-man strong outfit specializes in the sort of object recognition software you’ve come to know as “tagging.” Is this a reversal of the Do No Evil tech giant’s prior waffling on the dubious visioning tech, or just another massive weapon in its social networking crusade against Facebook? We’d err on the side of both, although the company’s new employees aren’t exactly playing their cards for us to see.

A brief statement on the triumvirate’s site makes vague mention of “computer vision technology” being core to Google’s products and points to the tech’s planned integration in photo, video and mobile applications. So, basically, expect to see Picasa, Goggles, YouTube and Google+ watch you as you flaunt your internet celebrity ways to that front-facing camera.

SOURCE via Pitt Patt

Developed by Urban Green Energy and GE Energy Industrial Solutions, the brand new Sanya Skypump harnesses the power of the wind and sun to charge your Electric Vehicle (EV). This hybrid solar/ wind turbine-powered charging station has a slim design that can easily fit along roads or in parking lots, making EV charging easy and accessible. A UGE-4K wind turbine harnesses wind power, while solar panels on the Skypump’s roof generate electricity from the sun’s rays. The combined energy produced by the wind turbine and solar array is enough to significantly offset the charging station’s electricity use. The Sanya Skypump can fully charge an average electric vehicle in only four to eight hours.

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A new all-in-one desktop PC from ASUS is about to enter the Japanese market. Known as the ET2011AUTB, this space-saving machine sports a 20-inch 1600 x 900 multi-touch display, a 1.60GHz AMD E-350 processor, an AMD A50M FCH chipset, a 2GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a webcam, a DVD SuperMulti drive, an SD card slot, WiFi and runs on either Windows 7 Home Premium (SP1) or Professional (SP1) OS. The ASUS ET2011AUTB will go on sale in late August for 63,000 Yen / $800 (w/ Windows 7 Home Premium SP1) or 69,800 Yen / $890 (w/ Professional SP1).

SOURCE via Asus

The Boss Micro BR-80 is a new portable recording and jam-along tool for guitarists and other musicians. The device comes equipped with three modes to create, record, and perform your music: an eight-track MTR (Multi-Track Recorder) mode; an eBand mode for onstage backing tracks and phrase training; and a Live Rec mode for instantly capturing high-quality stereo recordings. You can even combine the three modes seamlessly. The BossMicro BR-80 comes bundled with Cakewalk’s SONAR X1 LE DAW software for Windows that allows you to easily exchange data between the Micro BR-80 and Sonar X1 LE or any other DAW. If you are interested, you can purchase this digital recorder for $290.

SOURCE via Boss

Did you pick up a new iMac between May and July 2011 sporting a 1TB Seagate HDD? You should probably know that the platter might be of the prone to failing variety. No worries though, Apple’s announced it’ll replace potentially faulty drives at no cost.

Owners of registered rigs at risk are being notified via email, but if you skipped that form you can check the serial number on Apple’s website (linked below). After confirming that the machine’s eligible, you’ll be able to drop it off at an Apple Store or authorized service centre for the swap. It’s also suggested that you back up the drive prior to bringing it down. Finally, you’ve got a good excuse to use that Thunderbolt port.

SOURCE via Mac World

And you thought that the beef between Personal Audio and Apple has been solved, well think again. Everyone’s favourite patent licensing company is back, hitting Cupertino with another suit. You’ll recall an earlier ruling by a federal jury in Eastern Texas found the CE maker guilty of infringing upon PA’s playlist-related IP with an assortment of older iPods. This new filing alleges that newer Apple devices, like the iPhone 4, iPad 2 and modern day iPods — which weren’t part of the original 2009 case — also violate that same IP, in a move we’d surmise serves to pad Personal Audio’s coffers.

SOURCE via BGR

Ripple Korea has announced the availability of the new Ripple Look with AMD’s Brazos architecture. Measuring 235mm x 215mm x 69mm and weighing at just 400 grams, the mini PC comes jam packed with a 1.6GHz ADM Zacate E-350 CPU, an ADM Radeon HD6310 graphics, a 2GB of DDR3 PC10600 RAM, a 320GB of SATA II HDD, HDMI and D-SUB. No word on pricing so far.

SOURCE via Akihabaranews