wolfram

Bing getting a fall refresh

Unlike when you stand over your coworker's desk, Microsoft's Bing search engine actually works better when you hover.

One of the key features of the would-be rival to Google is that when you hover to the right of a result, you can get a preview of what to expect. As part of an update this week, Bing's hover result will now feature more information including a thumbnail preview of the site in question.

One of the ongoing challenges for Bing, besides just getting more people to use the site, is letting them know that the hover feature … Read more

BOL 1087: Google's leaky cloud

Have a Google Voicemail account? Have some voicemails in there? I may have listened to them today! Thanks to some leaks in the Google cloud (rain?) it seems some folks voicemails are searchable on Google. Glad that eye appointment went well! Also Verizon and Motorola are bringing it to the iPhone. But will Verizon have to make a switch next year if the rumors are true?

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1087

Verizon’s anti-iPhone gets its first commercial: ‘Droid Does’ http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/verizons-anti-iphone-gets-its-first-commercial-droid-does/ … Read more

Wolfram Alpha iPhone app is cool but overpriced

The iPhone app for Wolfram Alpha (iTunes store link) got approved by Apple surprisingly quickly, I was told in a breathless e-mail from Wolfram PR on Sunday. But the real surprise was the price: The app is $49.99.

The rationale is twisted.

"It's less than half the price of a graphing calculator, but it does more," the rep told me. By the way, "price of a graphing calculator" is a calculation that Wolfram Alpha can't compute.

For much, much less than the price of a graphing calculator, or $0.00, you can point … Read more

Wolfram Alpha opens API to developers

Developers can now put Wolfram Alpha results in their own applications. The company today opened up its API to open access, allowing coders to query the Wolfram system and incorporate its data, calculations, and rich media results.

The company put out a blog post about the new API without showcasing any example apps. However, the post, by Wolfram's Schoeller Porter, does mention developer ideas for using Wolfram Alpha programmatically, from "researching cancer through computational biology" to "determining the optimal temperature for draft beer based on the current weather conditions."

A spokesperson for Wolfram confirms that … Read more

Report: Wolfram Alpha to offer API for data feeds

Wolfram Alpha, the "computational knowledge engine" developed by Mathematica, will soon allow its dynamic search results to be queried and mashed up in a variety of new ways.

According to the Guardian, Wolfram will be opening its curated data to be queried via an application programming interface, or API. Currently, you can view results in a browser, export them as a PDF, or "play" them using a Mathematica plug-in. The ability to use the data on other sites and for other means, such as computations in spreadsheets, is appealing, if not earth-shattering.

Wolfram's launch fanfare … Read more

Bing strikes licensing deal with Wolfram Alpha

Microsoft's Bing search engine is getting a little help from a very smart friend.

Wolfram Alpha and Bing have reached a licensing deal that allows Bing to present some of the specialized scientific and computational content that Wolfram Alpha generates, according to a source familiar with the deal. The deal was reported earlier by TechCrunch.

Representatives from Microsoft and Wolfram Research declined to comment on the deal.

Wolfram Alpha's unique blend of computational input and curated output hasn't taken the world by storm, but it is considered an interesting enough take on the business of Internet search … Read more

Wolfram Alpha's baseball info just a bit outside

It's been two months since Wolfram Alpha launched, and in some ways, the "computation knowledge engine" is still fouling off pitches.

Wolfram used the occasion of Major League Baseball's 2009 All-Star Game--otherwise known as the three most boring days of the baseball season--to highlight the ability of Wolfram Alpha to process baseball-related queries. "...what we at Wolfram Alpha love about baseball are all of the fast statistics that can be quickly computed and returned as easy-to-read graphs," the company said in a blog post.

A few examples were provided, such as the ability … Read more

The many ways to access Wolfram Alpha

Say what you will about Wolfram Alpha, the creators are hard at work trying to drum up interest in the site.

On Tuesday, the WA crew launched a number of updates to its service, some of which I tested. Now the team's Thursday blog points you to the many "cool tools" you can use to access the site--buttons, widgets, gadgets, and more. You can grab them from the Wolfram Alpha download page, where you'll find the tools organized by operating system and browser. I took them all for a spin to see how they fared.

Toolbars … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 993: Viagra sponsors orbit mission

We are almost done talking about the Pre and iPhone, but not quite. We do talk about the Nokia N91 and Qik streaming on all Nokia phones. Twitter may be dead or at least hibernating. Wolfram Alpha gets a little smarter, the iPhone knows if you're going to get sick, plus some E3 roundup news. Also, a new inflatable tube could send you to space and the Pleo is not extinct after all.

Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video) EPISODE 993

Nokia N97 out for $700 http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/06/09/the-nokia-n97-hits-nokia-stores-for-700-today/… Read more