Does Apple want to buy Facebook?

Peter Kafka at All Things Digital thinks that Steve Jobs might want to buy Facebook. His reasoning is that Jobs, when asked what Apple plans to do with its now $51 billion in cash, said, "We firmly believe that one or more unique strategic opportunities will present itself to us, and we'll be in a position to take advantage of it." Kafka believes that one such "unique strategic" opportunity is called Facebook.

Jobs and Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg met for dinner the other day. Many presumed that they were discussing Facebook Connect and Ping integration, but what if it were something more, like Apple buying Facebook? Kafka thinks that Apple acquiring Facebook makes sense because Facebook doesn't compete with Apple in any significant way, and Facebook is something that Apple couldn't compete against even if it wanted to. Plus, Facebook is already competing with Google, "which has to make Jobs like it even more," Kafka argues.

What would Apple buying Facebook lead to? Every Facebook user would probably automatically have an iTunes Store account. FaceTime chat could be integrated into Facebook chat, potentially leading to increased sales of iOS devices. If Apple continues down the road of using not only phone numbers, but email addresses and eventually Facebook IDs as designated FaceTime "phone numbers," then 500 million users would already have a FaceTime ID to use when all telephony goes VoIP.

Apple has the cash to buy Facebook outright (Facebook is valued at around US $25-35 billion), but will they? Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg seem to share a lot of traits (not to mention both having had movies made about them), but could two of the most powerful people in tech -- with equally powerful egos -- work together?

Measurement Scientists Set a New Standard in 3-D Ears

Scientists at the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) have developed a means of representing a 3D model ear, to help redefine the standard for a pinna simulator (the pinna is the outer part of the ear) -- used to measure sound in the way we perceive it.

The nature of human hearing is heavily dependent on the shape of the head and torso, and their interaction with sound reaching the ears allows for the perception of location within a 3D sound field.

Head and Torso Simulators (HATS) are designed to model this behaviour, enabling measurements and recordings to be made taking account of the Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) -- the difference between a sound in free air and the sound as it arrives at the eardrum.

This is an image of the NPL artificial ear. (Credit: NPL)

HATS are mannequins with built-in calibrated ear simulators (and sometimes mouth simulators), that provide realistic reproduction of the acoustic properties of an average adult human head and torso. They are ideal for performing in-situ electro-acoustic tests on, telephone handsets (including mobile and cordless), headsets, audio conference devices, microphones, headphones, hearing aids and hearing protectors.

Critically the shape of the pinna has a large effect on the behaviour, and as a result it is defined for HATS by its own standard (IEC TR 60959:1990) to provide consistency across measurements. However, this standard defines the shape of the pinna through a series of 2D cross-sectional profiles. This form of specification and definition has on occasion proven to be an inadequate guide for manufacturing processes.

As part of a revision of this standard, the Acoustics Team at NPL teamed up with the National Freeform Centre in a novel move to redefine the standard through an on-line 3D CAD specification. A model ear was measured using a coordinate-measuring machine with laser scanner to produce a 3D scan of the ear, which can then be used to provide manufacturers with a more practical specification for reproduction and a standard that is easily comparable with similar non-contact freeform measurement techniques.

Ian Butterworth from NPL, said: "Having a 2D pinna in an artificial ear has some inherent frequency limitations. For example, when sound spreads through structures like narrow tubes, annular slits or over sharp corners, noticeable thermal and viscous effects take place causing further departure from the lumped parameter model. The new standard for the 3D model has been developed to give proper consideration to these effects. We worked with the National Freeform Centre, experts in measuring items that are unconventional in shape or design, to develop the new standard -- which will now help manufacturers develop better products."

Netflix on PS3 goes disc-free, gets 1080i streaming and 5.1 surround sound

Rejoice, PS3 owners, your Netflix streaming experience just got vastly better than anything else on the market. Starting October 18 Netflix on the PS3 will no longer require a disc, and it'll stream some content with 1080i resolution and / or 5.1-channel surround audio, while everyone else will be stuck with a max of 720p stereo for the time being. Oh, and you'll get subtitles on some content as well. Netflix is partnering with Dolby on the audio side, and the surround format will be Dolby Digital Plus, which is the same codec used by the VUDU HDX streaming service -- we're guessing it'll require a tiny bit more bandwidth but the results should sound pretty great. Netflix says 5.1 will come to other platforms "over time," so we'll see how long that takes -- and given that the PS3 is now disc-free and the company's eschewed the SRS surround features baked into its Silverlight-based platform, we're guessing Microsoft's exclusivity period has now completely run its course. Video and PR after the break. 

Old to New: Typewriters

Last week I stumbled upon the USB Typewriter etsy shop and my jaw dropped! Jack Zylkin has invented a Typewriter Convertor process that turns any manual typewriter into a keyboard for your computer! He sells ready to purchase typewriters or you can buy a kit and do it yourself! I think these would be awesome for hotel/B&B lobby computers or electronic guestbooks at a shop... something memorable to catch your eye! Or if you're a modern Angela Landsbury, use it for writing a book the semi-old school way!

Jedi Housekeeping

Miele unveils the R2D2 cleaning droid and Jedi accomplice (HEPA filtration and lightsaber storage included), as conceived...