The Curious Geography of the iPad

(Picture credit: Net Applications)

If you’re sick and tired of the iPad, it might be worth a vacation to Wyoming. There are beautiful rugged landscapes to occupy your attention, and you can take a bottle of water and have a geeky moment at the Continental Divide.

But more to the point, Wyoming is currently the state with the lowest level of iPad usage.

That’s according to Net Applications, which provides internet data analysis for thousands of sites, then collates that data to provide overall figures. It’s just released its internet usage report for April, the first to include site visits from iPads. Of course, with the iPad having just 0.12% of all US browsing during the month, there’s a spectacular margin of error to these stats, so it’s best not to read too much into them.

With that in mind, the state by state figures aren’t all that surprising. Generally states with denser populations and bigger cities have more iPad users, while rural and less wealthy states have fewer. (The figures are percentages, meaning there’s a fair comparison of differently populated states.)

There are a couple of surprises: Colorado, Nebraska and Utah all feature in the top 10, while the state with the highest proportion of iPad use is Hawaii: perhaps the iPad experience is truly better on a sun-kissed beach.

On a city-by-city basis, Microsoft might want to hold its next staff retreat in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the only city listed which had no recorded iPad users. Number one was San Francisco, which isn’t a major surprise given that Apple is headquartered in the Bay Area.

There are also national figures, and if you assume the US dominates, you’re wrong. The place where iPad use makes up the biggest proportion of web surfing is the Cayman Islands, with Anguilla, Aruba, and Monaco all scoring highly, suggesting there’s certainly a market among those who can afford grand vacations. Though that doesn’t explain why the second highest country on the list is Mali.

It also appears that either iPad buyers like to travel, or there’s a truly international demand: despite not being on sale overseas yet, the device has been recorded in use by people in 117 different countries.


RoboDoc becomes a reality

As great as modern mobile device apps may be, they hardly compare to what one man in Britain did with a handheld device last week: he performed heart surgery.

Andre Ng became the first doctor to use a remote controlled robot for the surgery to correct an irregular heartbeat: and he also felt the medical benefits.

The operation involved inserted catheters (thin wires) into blood vessels at the top of the groin and then threading them up to the patient’s heart chambers. The catheters contain electrodes to stimulate different sections of the heart, which can help find the source of the irregularity. One catheter is then used to burn the appropriate section of heart tissue.

The problem is that such surgery requires constant X-rays to track where the catheters are. As a result the surgeon needs to wear a 14 pound lead apron, which isn’t exactly ideal for an operation that can last seven hours. Even with the protection, there’s a risk of the surgeon being exposed to harmful levels of radiation over the course of a career.

In last week’s surgery, Ng used a remote-controlled robotic “arm” to carry out the operation, on a 70-year-old man. While other medical staff remained by the patient’s side, Ng was sat in an adjacent room controlling the arm.

Ng said that the arm allowed even more precise control than moving the catheters manually, and noted that being able to sit down and not wear the lead apron meant there was less danger of becoming tired and losing concentration.

He even believes that if there was a reliable enough link between the remote controller and the remote arm, it would be possible to carry out the surgery even when the surgeon and patient were in different cities.

That would only make sense, however, in medical facilities which found it easier to pay the $500,000 cost of the system than to recruit a surgeon with the relevant skills.

[Via Reuters]

Stephen Hawking on Aliens, Real Possibility of Space and Time Travel

Stephen Hawking has partnered with the Discovery Channel to present a new documentary series called “Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking” covering some pretty wonderfully geeky subjects including alien visitors and time travel. But don’t get all excited. Mr. Hawking, as ever, is measured in his approach—though his comments on time travel will likely cause a stir in the science community, as it’s considered somewhat of a taboo topic.

According to CNET, on the subject of aliens, Hawking is far from optimistic. Says Mr. Hawking: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.” So, in geek speak, that’s a little more Independence Day and a lot less Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

While he’s not alone in his considerations of less than friendly life in space, Hawking was reluctant to share his opinions of time travel, worried he might be labeled a heretic. Hawking believes that high-speed flight will absolutely be possible, with spaceships zooming around so quickly we’ll be able to skip generations in the bat of an eye. While this opinion is far from accepted in scientific circles, it’s exciting to hear regardless. Who knows? While we certainly won’t be around to see such advances, it’s still a thrilling possibility.

Let’s steer clear of those vicious aliens.

You can learn more about the show here: Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking.

(via CNET)

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Robbery Foiled by Spider-Man, The Flash, Jedi Knights

This may be the geekiest arrest ever.

International Free Comic Day meant that there were about 40 people dressed in costumes when someone decided to try to steal from a comic book shop in Australia this past weekend. So it’s not really surprising that it turned out to be Spider-Man (actually the store’s owner) that apprehended him – with some help from the Flash and a couple of Jedis blocking the door. Apparently the security footage shows “Spider-Man running down the corridor of the shop, grabbing this guy, hauling him off.”  What heroics!

I wonder how many people thought they were LARPing?

[Source: couriermail.com.au]

This is one AMAZING gymnast – Part II

Almost 1 year ago, we featured the 2009 edition of Damien Walters’ acrobatic showreel, which you guys really enjoyed, and since Damien has released the 2010 edition yesterday, we thought you wouldn’t mind us posting it again this year. Enjoy!

Oh, and wait, that’s not all! If you thought that was good, wait until you see this hardcore parkour video from The Office.