Leap

ZeroUI promises hands-free 3D model creation

SAN FRANCISCO--Building 3D models should be something everyone can do. That's the pitch from ZeroUI, a Silicon Valley startup that has created a technology platform designed to let anyone create their own digital models, whether a robot, drum, table, or anything else.

The Cupertino, Calif., company is relying on gestural input technologies such as Microsoft's Kinect, and soon, Leap Motion's Leap controller, as well as systems built into some computers, to allow users to create their models with nothing but their hands.

The company's name comes from the fact that its system has an extremely minimal user interface. Rather than requiring users to understand the mathematics and physics of a model they might want to build, the ZeroUI system simply allows them to stand in front of the input camera and use intuitive hand gestures to craft their 3D model (see the video below). … Read more

Muve Music makes leap to all Cricket Android phones

After a year and a half of offering an unlimited smartphone rate with a built-in music download feature, Cricket Wireless will make its Muve Music plan standard on all Android phones, beginning September 2.

This is excellent news if you're a fan of the music rate, which wraps music software for downloading songs and ringtones into the monthly package alongside text, talk, and Web use.

In the year and a half since the plan launched in January 2011, a growing number of Android phones has featured the plan, then a $65 premium on no-contract handsets like the Samsung Vitality … Read more

Design 3D lava lamps with gestures on Handy-Potter

Gestural interfaces like the Leap promise a world in which we'll all be driving cars and flying planes by waving our hands in the air, "Minority Report"-style.

Pudue University is joining the fun with the Handy-Potter, a design tool that lets you fashion 3D virtual objects with your bare hands.

Recently presented at the ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference in Chicago, the research won the All-Conference Best Paper award.

The Handy-Potter is a departure from traditional computer-aided design. It works with the Microsoft Kinect to track the user's body and hand gestures, modifying 3D shapes according to motions such as waving or pulling. … Read more

MetroPCS honcho: We're no 'Podunk' business

MetroPCS Wireless President Thomas Keys has spent a considerable amount of time and energy building up the reputation of the prepaid carrier as a legitimate player in the wireless industry.

So he could only shrug and make light of the fact that one of his key executives described the company as "Podunk" and "the hair on the tail that wags the dog" in a recent meeting with analysts and reporters.

But it's that exact image that MetroPCS wants to shed as it moves from a "fast-follower" to a company leading the wireless pack … Read more

Leap Motion: Gesture tech's come-hither allure

Developers eager to be among the first to create applications for Leap Motion's new gesture control system think it could be used to auto-translate sign language.

That was among the details the company released this morning about the initial round of requests from developers to design tools that work with the Leap -- technology that lets users control what's on their computers with hundredth of a millimeter accuracy with nothing more than their fingers or their hands.

The San Francisco company said that in the two months since pulling back the wraps on the Leap, more than 26,… Read more

Former Apple executive joins Leap Motion

Andy Miller, Apple's former VP of mobile advertising, is joining Leap Motion as the company's president and chief operating officer starting in August.

Miller will be responsible for guiding the motion-control software and hardware company's growth, including business development, growing the executive team, and leading the development of the Leap application discovery store, according to a press release.

"I've been fortunate to work with some of the most influential figures and companies in the technology industry, and I'm as excited about the Leap as I've ever been about a technology," Miller said … Read more

The 404 1,086: Where we left our dreams in a cab (podcast)

Filling in for a Justin Yu who thinks his air conditioner got him sick is the wild card Joey Kaminksi, a man who can apparently talk about -- in painfully great detail -- tipping etiquette in and around New York City. We love Joey for his tangential speaking habits, but also because he lends us his unique skew on the important matters of the day -- that and the fact that he brought us a Google Nexus 7 tablet for us to play with.

Do you have a game plan if you ever left your phone behind in a cab? Our producer Ariel Nunez tells the tale of such a predicament. Does Ariel get the phone back? Or is he forced to plop down $500 on a new device in addition to non-defective shorts?

The 404 crew also dishes out the dirt that saw multiple Web sites and services go down over the weekend including enormous time-suckers Netflix, Instagram, and Pinterest. How did planet Earth go 45 minutes without commenting on a sepia-filtered photo of your dessert? Find out inside!

Make sure you start your holiday week on the right foot by listening to these stories and so much more on today's show! … Read more

'Leap second bug' causes site, software crashes

It only takes a single second to wreak havoc on the Internet.

The addition of a leap second to the Coordinated Universal Time at midnight Greenwich Mean Time last night appears to have caused site disruptions for a handful of popular Web sites and software platforms.

The adjustment, which was made by International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, was necessary to keep atomic clocks in line with the Earth's ever-changing speed of rotation. Dozens of leap seconds have been added since their introduction in 1972.

One of the sites affected by the bug was the popular link-sharing site … Read more

The 404 1,085: Where we know this much is true (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Durex Facebook app pairs couples with just the right song...The 404 recommends "True" by Spandau Ballet.

- Do yourself a favor and download Google Chrome for iOS right this second.

- SWAT team throws flashbangs, raids wrong home due to open WiFi network.

- Here's the Braun tape recorder that inspired Apple's new podcast app.

- Don't forget to set your clocks a second faster this weekend.

- Meet up with The 404 at Comic Con 2012 for happy hour (5PM) on Saturday, July 14th! It's … Read more