February 10, 2006
Getting access to a book before it's finished
Roughcuts: Read tech books as they're being written. "'Reilly and Associates, my all-time favorite tech-book publisher, has just launched Roughcuts, a service that sells you access to tech books as they are being written; once the book is done, you get a copy of it, too. This is an amazing idea: many of O'Reilly's books cover brand-new technical ideas for which little or no documentation exists; putting even rough editions of their material into readers' hands while it's being finalized is a brilliant way to extend and increase the value of O'Reilly's titles."
Boing Boing
Printed codes that can "store" megabytes
New 3D Barcode able to Store Videos for Mobile Devices. "Content Idea of Asia Co. has developed a printable 3D code that can store between 0.6 to 1.8 MB, enough for watching short video commercials on mobile phones. The 3D code is based on the 2D QR Code [...]. Content Idea of Asia Co. calls it PM Code. The PM code consists of up to 24 layers using different colors. A usage example is for instance to watch a commercial on a mobile phone scanned from a perfume ad in a magazine. "
I4U News
More and more megapixels
The world’s first 39 megapixel digital SLR camera. "Hasselblad is creating a new standard of digital image quality for professional photographers with the announcement of a new camera and three camera backs based on the combination of Hasselblad’s new, true 39 megapixel CCD sensor and its unique Digital APO Correction (DAC) technology."
gizmag
How marriage changes web surfing
The Finger on the Keyboard Wears a Ring. "Married women are about a third more likely than single women to use the Internet at least occasionally. For men, marriage contributes roughly half as large a bounce in online rates, according to a recent study of gender differences in Internet use conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow with the project, said that parenthood explains some of the increase; the same report found that parents of children under 18 were a third more likely to be online than people with older children or none. Also, married women tend to have higher household incomes than single women. "Being married has economic advantages," Ms. Fallows said. "The higher your income, the more likely you are to be online.""
New York Times
February 09, 2006
The Millennial Generation
A Generation Serves Notice: It's a Moving Target. "The eldest of the millennials, as those born between 1980 and 2000 are sometimes called, are now in their early to mid-20's. By 2010, they will outnumber both baby boomers and Gen-X'ers among those 18 to 49 - the crucial consumers for all kinds of businesses, from automakers and clothing companies to Hollywood, record labels and the news media. The number of vehicles through which young people find entertainment and information (and one another) makes them a moving target for anyone hoping to capture their attention."
New York Times
VOIP home phones with features
VoIP Videophone from Philips. "As far as features go, the VP-5500 comes with a built-in VGA camera that rotates up to 240 degrees, letting you check yourself out as you chat with a friend. Not only that, but you can hook it up to a TV and have it output a slideshow of all the photos you’ve taken. To make it future-proof, Philips designed the phone to be updatable via Wi-Fi, opening up all sorts of neat, Linux-powered possibilities."
Gizmodo
February 08, 2006
Blogs for lists of stuff
junklog. "Welcome to junklog! It's a site for logging and rating what you've read, watched, listened to and played."Junklog
Stickies on websites
Bookmarking with sticky notes. "To put it simply, Mystickies allows you to place little yellow squares of digital paper anywhere and everywhere you feel like in the whole wide web. Along with the ability to put sticky notes on webpages mystickies offers a powerfull interface to browse, search, sort, edit and generally have a wonderfull time with your sticky notes from any computer that has internet access."
Lifehacker
Remembering where you were
Download of the Day: Page Bookmarks. "Firefox extension Page Bookmarks adds an entry to the right-click context menu that allows you to save your place on a long text document so that next time you open that page, you can pick up reading right where you left off."
Lifehacker
Cellphone becoming your music player
Yamaha's Mobile Phone Stereo System. "Chaku-uta furu (“receive music full”)—mobile phones in Japan are used for playing real music and have become a competitor to the iPod and its ilk. Yamaha is capitalizing on this trend with a compact speaker system (NX-A01) and a Bluetooth receiver unit (TRX-RO1BT) in cooperation with the mobile phone provider au. This cubic form speaker is white (3.3x 4.6x 3.3 in.) and the wireless receiver is black (1.7x 1.8x 1.7 in.) and together they give you decent sound quality from a mobile phone."
Gizmodo
Another new display technology
Latest Display Technology: SED. "The next big thing is called Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display, or SED for short. Basically it combines the terrific contrast, responsiveness and sharpness of conventional CRT monitors with the power efficiency, size, and thickness of LCDs or Plasmas. Like any new display technology, it will probably cost an arm and a leg."
Gizmodo
Wi-fi slow to take off (in the UK)
Wi-fi slow to enthuse consumers. "According to a survey for electronics giant Toshiba, only a handful of people use a laptop to go online when they are outside of the home. Just 11% used laptops in hotels, 7% on trains and 3% in coffee shops, compared to 55% who used them mostly at home. There are over 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in the UK but not everyone is aware of them. The survey found that 15% thought there were not enough wireless locations for them to use the technology."
BBC NEWS
Digital book clubs
Book Clubs Get the Message by Reading Online. "E-mail book clubs are part of the nightmare scenario that book publishers envisioned starting five years ago, when major universities and other interests began making entire books available on the Internet."EWeek
Wireless displays
The Wireless VGA Extender eliminates some other wires too. "Every fanboy has a diagram stashed somewhere detailing some level of wire-free desktop nirvana, but if only he could eliminate that pesky VGA cable (and those annoying power cables, still working on that one) then he would be truly happy. Well the Wireless VGA Extender is here to help, and not only does it take your VGA signal wireless, up to a 1024x768 resolution, but it can transmit your PS/2 plugs for a keyboard and mouse, and an audio jack across the room with it."
Engadget
Participatory film making
This Is Not Spinal Tap: A Concert Film by Fans. "as the Beastie Boys set out to commemorate a concert at Madison Square Garden, the hip-hop group had a different idea. Why not smash the model? They decided to lend hand-held video cameras to 50 fans, told them to shoot at will, and then presented the end result in movie theaters in all its primitive, kaleidoscopic glory. The result of this brainstorm is "Awesome ... ,"
New York Times
3D avatars on phones
Meet the New Breed of Avatars. "Ring tones, shmingtones. The next wave in cool applications for mobile phones promises to be 3-D animated avatars that serve as your alter-ego during a conversation. Think beyond the cartoony stand-ins available now in Asian markets, like those in Japan known as Chara-den, which users control via handset keypads."
Business Week
February 07, 2006
Toys that communicate over a distance
Dolls communication. "PlayPals are wireless figurines with their electronic accessories that allow children aged 5-8 to communicate between remote locations. When a child at one location moves one doll’s hands, the remote synchronized doll moves its hands in the same way. The dolls alone communicate only by gestures. Each child has a set of tokens that are used as the dolls’ accessories. When a token is placed in a doll’s hands, it functions as a different communicating tool: adding a “walkie-talkie” token to the doll, enables synchronous voice communication, a microphone for asynchronous is used for voice communication, a video camera for synchronous audio-visual communication, a digital camera for asynchronous visual communication, etc."
we make money not art
P2P Tivo
Download of the Day: Ted. "Ted (torrent episode downloader) keeps track of torrents of your favorite TV shows and automatically downloads them for you whenever a new episode is available. When ted finds a new episode, it will announce this to you by a little balloon in your system tray. Then ted will fire up your favourite bittorrent client and your client will start downloading the episode."
Lifehacker
High-convergence objects
Battle Of The Bulge: Future Phone. "Imagine a device that unites everything that you carry along: a mobile phone, a player, your credit and discount cards, your apartment and your car keys."
PSFK
Ads on your phone
Mobile carriers to test out tiny ads for tiny screens. "Well, it was inevitable really, but get ready for a whole new world of phone based advertisement. Verizon and Sprint Nextel are tiptoeing around the idea of opt in video ads, with plans to test the functionality in March but fears of upsetting consumers, while ESPN is jumping into the fray with Visa, Nike, and Hilton Hotels all lined up to provide video ads to accompany their service."
Engadget
Alternative forms for the remote control
Remote Control Beads Could Be TV Future. Or not.. "Imagine, instead of holding a remote control to surf channels, you have a set of beads. Each bead is embedded with a different set of instructions for controlling your TV. The concept is called Remobeads and its designed by Dima Komissarov. As you can see, it would certainly look better in the living room than all those nasty black remotes. All you have to do is slightly press the bead to change a channel, and you can even add sound "
Gizmodo
Overview of digital television
Digital Television, Part I: Making Sense of it all. "First, prepare yourself for a pig’s breakfast of acronyms son, there’s just no way around it: DAB, T-DMB, DVB-T, DVB-H, ATSC, and ISDB-T. At least these are the tastiest of the morsels under global mastication. Come on, don’t sweat it, you managed PCMCIA didn’t you, and that’s six whole letters! Besides, you really only need to learn the couple selected by the country you call home to effectively talk down to your local hi tech sales goon, mkay? So do join us as we take an extensive, in-depth look at what's really going on with the world of digital television."
Engadget
Boosting storage densities
Perpendicular storage coming in 2006. "This month Seagate is letting the perpendicular storage dogs loose. Today they have announced the release of the first perpendicular storage products designed for end users. The Momentus 5400.3 is the first notebook hard drive to use the technology, and offers 160GB of storage in the same amount of space as previous 120GB options—a boost of over 30 percent, offering 132 Gbits per square inch."Ars Technica
Cheap color calibration
Pantone hopes to make calibration mainstream with $89 huey. "Pantone hopes to bring the calibration experience to mainstream consumers, with the huey, an $89 device that the company says is targeted at "digital photo enthusiasts, gamers and any computer user wanting absolute color and clarity.""
Engadget
Send a digital camera through the mail (concept)
Snap & Send Postcard Camera. "A Kiwi industrial design student has 'created' a disposable digital camera that is so light and inexpensive it can be sent in the mail as a postcard. The camera will have a screen that allows the recipients to watch a slide show of the pics you send. You could go on holiday, take a dozen snaps, stick it in the mail and your loved ones can see what you got up to on your last visit to Vegas!"
PSFK
February 06, 2006
RFID cooking
RFID Cooking. "VistaCrafts RFIQin, available in Japan, comes with 24 recipe cards. The pan reads the card you show and "tells" the cooktop what to do 16 times a second to perfectly monitor each cooking step and perfectly reproduce the most difficult recipes. Each pan handle is embedded with an RFID chip that uses a proprietary signal to communicate with coordinated chips in the cooktop and special recipe cards that monitor each cooking step for a partcular dish."
we make money not art
Games in the classroom
Computer games 'motivate pupils'. "A third of teachers are using computer games in the classroom and a majority believe they improve pupils' skills and knowledge, a survey suggests. The survey of 1,000 teachers in England and Wales suggests a quarter also personally use them in their free time. Over half of the 1000 teachers questioned by Nesta Futurelab said they would use them in future and believed they were a "good motivational tool". But two thirds expressed concerns they could lead to anti-social behaviour. "
BBC NEWS
Voice-commanded entertainment
The VOCO Voice Commander "personal voice assistant". "If you're ready to enter that snazz 21st century we keep on hearing about and start using your voice to control your entertainment, VOCO has your back with their handheld "personal voice assistant," the VOCO Voice Commander. When bundled with a Vzone player, which can hook up to a stereo, you create a "Vzone" which can pump out the music you request with your Voice Commander, Sonos style. You can also get news, stocks, and sports info on your screen, with everything flowing over WiFi. You could of course be boring and just use the buttons to get the same results about twice as fast, but what's the fun in that?"
Engadget
Online fitness equipment
Turn your living room into the Tour de France. "FitCentric (fitcentric.com), a California firm, has sold Web racing software for stationary bikes, treadmills, and other machines as well. Their NetAthlon software uses video-game technology to re-create such real-world courses as Olympic venues and Boston's Head of the Charles. Hooked up to a big-screen TV, you can sense everything but the wind in your hair. In the coming weeks, the company plans to release a new system that will retrofit any piece of fitness equipment, bringing the technology to a much wider audience. It will retail for $169.95."
csmonitor.com
Podcast anything
Turn your feed into a podcast. "The podcast uses one of those text-to-speech engines that are popular among the fitter, happier, and more productive crowd. You can listen to the podcast in a streaming flash player, or you can subscribe to the podcast’s RSS feed. Feed2Cast is a very cool way to get started in the podcasting world without all that pesky talking."
Lifehacker
HUGE, interactive screens
Panasonic Digital Wall (Total Recall Pt. 1). "In the special presentation room is a wall-size, huge screen (twice the size of a 110-inch display), and it’s a touchscreen. The images on the screen change as you touch them (it’s online, of course), and you can choose from an extensive menu of options and tools. It functions not only as a TV and PC, but also as interior decoration by changing the image from a bookshelf for the living room to a graffiti space for the kids’ room. It is supposed to appear on the market around 2010 and the price will be horrendous."
Gizmodo
Getting rid of reference material from papers
Papers Begin To Lose Financial Pages. "The Chicago Tribune has announced that it will stop printing its stock agate (or stock market pages) because its readers are going online for that information. There will still be a summary on Saturday and the 'top movers' will be reported daily."PSFK
Smart kitchens
The Kitchen of the Future. "You are at the office and decide to invite friends over for dinner that night. What's for dinner? Just pick up the phone and call home. Your kitchen can give you a heads up on what foods you have in the refrigerator and pantry, suggest menus that use some of those foods, and once you've selected the menu, it will supply a grocery list for other items you need to pick up. Use the same call to leave a message for your spouse to put some wine in the refrigerator to chill."
gizmag
The challenges of home networking
Network Babel in the Living Room. "The dream, as described at last week's Consumer Electronics Show, is to allow devices like TVs, computers and audio receivers to share audio and video around the home, with a single remote control running the show. But where some see the industry awakening to a bright new future, others see an ongoing interoperability nightmare. "The Japanese still do not understand networking," said one senior engineer employed by a major Japanese electronics maker, citing a litany of obstacles to digital nirvana -- from a lack of technology standards to tunnel vision exhibited by separate divisions within a single company."
Wired News
February 02, 2006
In-context chat rooms
Let's Chatsum. "Chatsum is a Firefox extension that lets you chat and leave messages on any website for other Chatsum users to see and interact with. The Chatsum sidebar houses a fully-fledged chatroom, specific to the page you’re looking at, and all the other users in the room are also viewing the same web page. When you navigate to a different page the Chatsum room changes automagically. If you open a page in a new tab, Chatsum will keep pace with whatever you’re viewing."
we make money not art
Losing a love of music
Downloads, iPods make music more 'disposable'. "In the 19th century, music was seen as a highly valued treasure with fundamental and near-mystical powers of human communication... Because so much music of different styles and genres is now so widely available via portable MP3 players and the internet, it is arguable that people now actively use music in everyday listening contexts to a much greater extent than hitherto. However, the degree of accessibility and choice has arguably led to a rather passive attitude towards music heard in everyday life: the present results indicate that music was rarely the focus of participants' concerns and was, instead, something that seemed to be taken rather for granted, a product that was to be consumed during the achievement of other goals"The Register
Digital binoculars
Sightwave's Digiviewer digital binoculars. "Binocular manufacturers are tacking digital cameras onto their products left and right, but the Sightwave Digiviewer is the first product that we've seen to use a CCD and LCD as the actual mechanisms for magnified viewing (but not capturing pics). Although the internal screen could use a bump in resolution, being able to zoom in and out like a digicam seems like quite a useful feature, and cushioned eye opening felt better than most traditional models we've used."
Engadget
Mapping sounds
NYSoundmap. "What kinds of sounds can you find in New York City? With sound-seeker, you can zoom, pan and search for sounds with interactive satellite photos or detailed maps. Click on hot spots to listen to the recorded sounds of a location pin-pointed by GPS. Sound-seeker was created using GoogleMaps and isn't viewable in all browsers."
networked_performance
Sharing and charging for video
Google Video store launches. "Looks like many episodes are priced at $1.99 and can be viewed with the Google Video Player. Now users who submitted videos via Google’s Upload program can charge viewers through the Video Store, and non-copy-protected content can be put on your iPod or PSP using the “to go” option."
Lifehacker
Exclusive video on phones
2006 when TV capitalizes on mobile phones. "Now in 2005 we've seen first signs of real innovations - you have to see MTV's Head and Shoulders to really "get it" - what we can do and what can really sell - on mobile TV. When Robbie Williams promoted his new CD, he had his concert simulcast to 3G phones. At the MTV Europe Awards the mobile MTV channel went back stage and shot exclusive footage that was only seen on mobile phones. At Big Brother houses around Europe it is now commonplace to have exclusive cameras - and latest innovation from Finland this Autumn, exclusive microphones - that viewers of the show can get more through their 3G phones."Communities Dominate Brands
Audio guidebook popularity
The death of the guidebook?. "Is this the end for the guidebook? Publishers are reporting huge demand for their newly launched 'podcasts' - audio guides to foreign destinations which you download from the internet onto your iPod or MP3 player. Lonely Planet, which released its first podcast three months ago, claims that one of its audio guides proved so popular that it reached number 12 in the download chart, beating a single from Madonna."
Guardian Unlimited
E-Ink displays in consumer devices
Weather Wizard e-ink forecaster. "Ambient Devices and E Ink have teamed up to deliver a weather forecaster, called the Weather Wizard, which displays info from Ambient's nationwide network on a low-power electronic ink display. You may remember Ambient as the company that manufactures devices like the Orb, which glow with different colors correlated to predetermined metrics (stock market, national terror level, our stress levels at CES). The Weather Wizard reportedly lasts for an impressive two years with just a pair of AAA batteries, although the E Ink display seems capable of only lackluster graphics."
Engadget
Music downloads
Music downloads growing faster than reported. "The week between Christmas and New Year's saw a record-breaking 20 million songs downloaded through services like iTunes and Rhapsody (single tracks only, mind you, but more on that in a moment), which brought up the full-year totals to 352 million songs downloaded. That's a very healthy 149 percent increase over last year's 141 million. Meanwhile, CD sales huffed and puffed their way to 620 million units sold, down 7.2 percent from 666 million (no, really) in 2004."Ars Technica
Shared museum tours
Marking Your Way for Ubiquitous Gaming. "Marking Your Way, by Idumi Sakuma, is a visual information display for museums and exhibition spaces, which allows users to view personal as well as collective trajectories of visitors. [...] Visitors use a personal device called wall stone that automatically detects its location by receiving beacons from hundreds of infrared devices mounted on the ceiling. [...] On its small LED display is a virtual creature "digi-mon" that asks questions to visitors when they are in front of certain exhibition items. Visitors then answer questions by tilting and shaking it. If their answers are right, the device glows. The rewards are digi-mon cards - cool. "
we make money not art
February 01, 2006
Blogs as a shopping resource
Toshiba to Push Blog Reviews to Mobile Shoppers. "There is a report that Toshiba is developing software that will allow people to take a picture of the bar code label of many products, send it to a related service and quickly receive back information related to the product. The data the service returns? From blogs. Yep, Toshiba will send back summary information on how many blogs gave the product positive and negative reviews. Related product information will also be displayed."
TechCrunch
Clickable text adventure
Clink. "The story line of Clink, which begins with you standing on your own front porch, is gradually revealed as players "literally" move around by clicking on words within the story. While there is a definite beginning, middle, and dramatic ending to the game, every person who plays Clink will have a unique experience because there is no pre-determined sequence of navigation. The story is constructed in a way to allow a smooth continuity of content, regardless of the order it is encountered."
networked_performance
Cheap VR
In Love With Reality Truly, Madly, Virtually. ""V.R.'s original promise, to construct a ghostly realm where consciousness could roam free of the constraints of flesh, became socially obsolete." But there was a bigger, more concrete problem: while cellphones with all the whistles cost as little as $99, virtual reality environments, like medium-priced New York condos, could set you back about $1.5 million. Until now. Virtual reality is now available to artists for about $3,000. This is the kind of watershed moment that video art enjoyed in 1965, when portable video recording equipment became available at mass-market prices."
New York Times
Multimedia messaging growing in popularity
Mobile users finally get the picture. "Over the past 12 months MMS usage levels have increased most among the 18-34 age group, and doubled in all age groups above 34 years old. Around 33 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women now use the medium to send and share pictures. Men are bigger users of the mobile internet, however, at 38 per cent compared to 26 per cent of women."
vnunet.com
January 31, 2006
Displays in everything
A-Data SD cards with capacity display. "The LC display uses power from a host while inserted and indicates the remaining capacity on the card. Pop the card out and the display retains the information until you reinsert it, so you can manage your data needs."
Engadget
Webcams in motion
SatuGO: 3 megapixel camera in a ball concept...yeah, it's bouncy. "The 3 megapixel camera has a timer for delayed snaps and built-in accelerometer allowing it to sense bounces, max altitude, and such for capturing a variety of unusual shots or recordings. The camera, battery, 1GB of memory and diodes (for flash photography) are housed in a rugged, rubber-wrapped casing for protection while being tossed about. It can also double-up as a webcam for those more restful moments."
Engadget
Game ads better then TV ads to get to teens
Study: Best place to advertise to teens is in-game. "Two main avenues are open for advertising through games: in-game advertising and advergaming. The former is an extension of the product placement common in movies and television, and can range from graphical representation of a product in a game to wholesale sponsorship of a gaming title. With the increase in open-ended gaming that allows a player to wander around a virtual world (such as the Sims or Grand Theft Auto), opportunities for product placement are numerous. Advergaming refers to a game, usually online, that is wholly intended as a promotional device."Boing Boing
Citizen journalism
Citizen Journalism In Africa. "One of the dubiously nice things about living in Africa is that you’re never short of a news story or two. This might explain why home grown journalism is taking off in a huge way. So much so that Johnnic, one of the largest local media groups (they publish the Sunday Times and Sowetan), are launching their own citizen written online newspaper www.reporter.co.za. The site, which launches next week from what I can gather, is edited by a fulltime editorial team and there is the added novelty that those with articles that get selected get paid… Not that anyone will be giving up their day jobs just yet as it is the equivalent of about 3 pound a story."
PSFK
Digital board games
Video games meet board games with the Entertaible. "While we all love video games, sometimes there are moments when you want to get a little more analogue. Philips are clearly banking on our secret board game urges with a new product called the Entertaible, an electronic tabletop device which will apparently let you enjoy both the interactivity of electronic games and the social aspects of board games."
Joystiq
Media PCs redefining PC shape
Kapsel Media Center ceramic PC with Intel Viiv. "This tiny (10.6 x 9.1 x 3.0-inches) ceramic shelled PC can be positioned horizontally, vertically, or hung on the wall and throws down 7.1 surround and hi-def video playback. Expect this and other Viiv-centric media centers to ship first quarter 2006, price not yet disclosed."
Engadget
Websites publishing paper versions
Call It Gutenberg's Revenge. "When babycenter.com was born in 1997, the parenting e-zine reveled in the cost savings to be found in cyberspace. No postage rates or paper bills to worry about. Ink? So yesterday. So it comes as quite a surprise that eight years later, at a time when the magazine industry is falling over itself to boost its presence online, that BabyCenter has launched a version of its popular Web site on -- gasp -- paper."Business Week
January 30, 2006
It looks like this
The Retrievr Flickr Tool. "Retrievr has a Flash sketch pad built into the site. Draw something - anything - and it will fetch Flickr images that are similar. My very rough drawing of a black line intersecting with a red blog brought up some nice results (see image)."
TechCrunch
Peer-to-peer file sharing built into the browser
AllPeers Is The FireFox “Killer App”. "AllPeers is a simple, persistent buddy list in the browser. Initially, interaction with those buddies will be limited to discovering and sharing files - If you choose to, you can share any file on your network with one or more of your friends. They will be able to see what files you choose to share (even getting an RSS feed of new files you include), and with a single click download it to their own hard drive. AllPeers will work even when the sharer is offline - AllPeers is a bittorent client, and will allow files to be pulled from multiple sources. When downloading, the file may be grabbed partially or fully from others you have shared it with (or who shared it with you). So a user just clicks on a file, and waits for it to eventually download."
TechCrunch
Cameras with multiple lenses
Kodak's Latest CES Goodies. "Kodak will be debuting the world’s first dual-lens digital still camera, the EasyShare V570. Why two lenses? The real question is, why not? One lens is a 23mm ultra wide angle lens and the other is a traditional 3x optical lens."
Gizmodo
On-the-fly translation
The Ajax Language Translator. "I saw Joel Parish’s Ajax Translator on Ajaxian last week. It’s an on-the-fly Ajax application that creates real-time translations between English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese and French. Very slick. Ajax Translator, like Babel Fish, is useful for crude communication that translates one word at a time or that has the same grammatical structure in both language, but it does not allow for grammatical inconsistencies."
TechCrunch
Convergence in the home? Finally?
Data, Music, Video: Raising a Curtain on Future Gadgetry. "For more than a decade, manufacturers of consumer electronics like televisions and audio gear have talked about blending their products with personal computers, so that consumers can enjoy a seamless stream of data, video and music anywhere. It has not happened, because the two industries do not have compatible technology standards and the requisite high-speed Internet connections have not been widespread enough."
New York Times
Aternatives to credit cards for online shopping
Big Plastic's Online Challenger. "Marino is making progress at creating another option. He runs a 150-person outfit called I4 Commerce, whose Bill Me Later payment system is catching on with online merchants and shoppers. Some million consumers have used his alternative, which permits them to shop online without providing credit card numbers or filling out lengthy applications, at 230 e-commerce sites including Wal-Mart, Priceline, Overstock.com, Expedia's Hotels.com and airlines such as American and Continental."Business Week
January 27, 2006
Cameraphone --> Scan, copy, fax
Turn Your Camera Phone Into A Mobile Scanner. "scanR is simple to use: • Take a picture of a document or whiteboard. • Send the picture to scanR. • Receive the scanned image in email or fax."
scanR
RSS over Instant Messenger
The MAKEbot is here!. "The MAKEbot is a AIM/iChat buddy you add to your list. When you type latest, he will give you the latest headlines from Makezine.com. You can type subscribe 1 and he'll deliver the latest news each hour, lastly - if you type keywords like psp, welding, ipod or whatever he'll search the Makezine.com site and pages from MAKE and give you a link from our search engine to help you find what you're looking for"
MAKE
Community security cameras on TV
London estate broadband offers 'spot the ASBO suspect' TV channel. "Alongside video on demand TV services from Homechoice, the SDB will offer a "Community Safety Channel" which will allow residents "to monitor estate CCTV cameras from their own living rooms, view a 'Usual Suspects' ASBO line up, and receive live community safety alerts. [ASBOs are a way of tackling persistent anti-social behaviour]"The Register
Fast/Short games for busy lives
Games accelerating for faster-paced lives. ""In today's world, if there's a new entertainment experience, it's got to be quick to learn and quick to play," he said. Tait said Cranium is coming out with a DVD version of its Hullabaloo game that will be in stores in 2006. Hullabaloo, for children 4 years and older, is a cross between Twister and Simon Says and can be played in 15 minutes. The DVD will feature a host who guides the children through the game."Reuters.com
Text messaging brevity
Life and Romance in 160 Characters or Less. "Compared with an ink-and-paper letter, messages may seem disposable. The relative inconvenience of typing out words using a numeric keypad -- the letter "c," for example, requires three presses of the "2" button -- and the brevity of the message may seem a hostile environment for heartfelt discussion. But the discipline of having to distill thoughts into short bulletins, then waiting to receive the response, allows users to pour more meaning into the writing, some text-message users say."
Washington Post
DRM-less
Magnatune’s Answer to the Music Problem. "There are two key business model issues to note that make Magnatune different. The first is that Magnatude allows buyers to download music completely free of DRM and in the format [...] and quality of their choice (very similar to grey market allofmp3.com, but in this case with the artist’s express permission). [...] The second business model difference is how Magnatune treats its artists. They share a flat 50% of gross proceeds (before any costs) from music sales with artists. They also share 50% of merchandise sales profits, although they have not started selling merchandise yet."
TechCrunch
Politics and podcasting
The Podcast Shaking Up French Politics. "Not only is it the first-ever podcast by a French political leader, it also marks a startling break with customary etiquette, as Sarkozy and Le Meur address each other with the familiar "tu" rather than "vous" during their 30-minute meeting. "Bravo!" read many of the hundreds of viewer commentaries posted on Le Meur's blog over the past few days. Many are heralding the interview as a watershed event, showing that French politicians can no longer afford to ignore the growing importance of nontraditional media"Business Week
Website summaries
Revamp of Gawker RSS reader Kinja launched. "Gawker quietly released a new version of their RSS reader Kinja last week, with some handy new features -- most notably, site results returned as "cards." "
Boing Boing
January 26, 2006
Free audiobooks
LibriVox Offers Free Audio Book Downloads. "LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net (podcast and catalog). Our objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project."
TechCrunch
Adding metadata to blog entries
Structured Blogging,The "Del.icio.us Lesson", Personal Datamining and The Knowledge Commons. "Structured blogging is an initiative to add structure to blog posts of similar content. For example, let’s say that I write a review of a piece of software on my Wordpress blog and someone else writes a review in their Movable Type blog. Not only are these two posts structured differently, with the blogging platforms writing different code, but each tool has customizable templates so that the blogger can write any code they want. So even though the content is nearly the same, the probability that the code in the end results looks anything similiar is very small."Smart Mobs
Connecting authors with readers
A Chance to Meet the Author Online. "Shoppers looking to pick up Meg Wolitzer's latest novel, "The Position," on Amazon.com last week found the usual readers' comments and excerpts from reviews. They also found something unexpected: posts on the subject of literature from Ms. Wolitzer herself. The entries were part of a new program called Amazon Connect, begun late last month to enhance the connections between authors and their fans - and to sell more books - with author blogs and extended personal profile pages on the company's online bookstore site."
New York Times (may require free subscription)
Digital dashboard
New Mercedes S-Class dashboard goes LCD. "AutoSpies caught a glimpse of a new Mercedes S-Class where all the regular analog gauges have been replaced with a configurable LCD dashboard that can display different gauges, data, or even video. Not sure how much it'll cost as an option, but the dudes over at AutoSpies seem pretty floored by what they saw."
Engadget
Video affiliation
Reuters video to get mass distribution. "International news agency Reuters is launching a pilot program on Tuesday that will allow blogs, news organizations and other online publishers to show Reuters news video on their Web sites. The video affiliate network program will enable Web site operators to place a video player on their Web site and show up to 20 of Reuters' breaking news stories from around the world that will be updated throughout each day"CNET News.com
January 25, 2006
Very high resolution display support
11 companies join effort to promote new, high-definition display standard. "UDI, or Unified Display Interface, will combine compatibility with existing standards such as the current digital display connector DVI and the high-definition standard HDMI, with an increased bandwidth suitable for driving very high resolution displays. UDI will have a bandwidth of 16 Gb/s in its first incarnation. This is in contrast to single-link DVI's bandwidth of 3.96 Gb/s."Ars Technica
Interactive maps for showing local reports
New York Transit Strike - Readers' Commuting Reports . "A collection of reports from readers about their commutes during the strike. Click on the map below to browse by ZIP code. Click and drag to move to a different area."New York Times
Mainstream cameraphone images
Cameraphone Picture makes Times Best Photos of the Year 2005. "Time Magazine have chosen Adam Stacey's cameraphone picture as one of the Best Photos of the Year 2005 - of his experience on the london underground during the attack in London on the 7th of July 2005."
Smart Mobs
January 24, 2006
Recently released movies on your phone
Italians Get Good Movies on Cellphones. "If you’ve got a 3G phone, the company will soon let you view first-run movies just 10 days after they’re released in theaters. Looks like Memoirs of a Geisha will be available on December 27th! Not bad. Of course, you’ll be paying $10.50 for this experience, so the next question would have to be: why not just go to the movies and see it on the big screen?"
Gizmodo
eReader tied to content
Tomorrow's paper will be digital. "Belgian daily De Tijd is to be distributed electronically in what is claimed to be the first complete solution for portable electronic reading and writing. Available from April 2006, the Iliad platform allows for customised versions of an electronic reader that can be created for special markets."
The Register
Continued storage growth
Unlimited storage on the way.. "Those of us who can just never have enough portable digital storage will be heartened to hear that Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is working on a 5 terabyte 3.5 inch hard drive aimed at the PC market. Though it’s not due until 2010 – less than five years from now – it’s a reminder that the technological bar is being raised significantly every day, regardless of the industry."
gizmag
Get a cut if your webpage is in search results
Gravee Takes a New Approach to Search. "Gravee soft launched tonight. It has an interesting business model. In addition to pulling in search results from Google, MSN and Yahoo (Alexa coming soon), Gravee also allows publishers to claim their site and, theoretically, get a piece of Gravee’s revenue. With Gravee’s AdShare program, when a user clicks an ad on Gravee, up to 70% of the ad revenue generated as a result is divided between the 10 sites included in the natural search results on the page (i.e. 70%/10 = 7% of ad revenue to each Web site on the page - for every ad that is clicked). Register your site now to start collecting your share of Gravee’s ad revenue."
TechCrunch
Context-sensitive IM
ajchat - AJax Instant Messaging on the Fly. "...ajchat is an ajax instant messaging on the fly, that allows you to log in or type anonymously. It’s free. The ajchat blog is here. [...] There is also an option to share a chat directly on a webpage, and against my better judgement that is exactly what I am going to do here. If it works, it will appear below. This to me, is a compelling feature that starts to encroach on some of the stuff that Userplane is doing."
TechCrunch
Dynamic music making
TransPose. "Computer vision technology captures the performer's physical actions captured and translates them to audio in real time. The performer sits in front of a camera, and his or her silhouette is projected in front of them in relation to a number of predefined trigger areas called "noteboxes." Using his/her silhouette to overlap the noteboxes, the performer triggers various tones. "
we make money not art
New PC form factors
Microsoft/IDSA Design Competition highlights. "Contestants were asked to “envision how form factor influences the digital lifestyle” in four categories: personal productivity, entertainment, communication & mobility, and living & lifestyle."
Engadget
January 23, 2006
Wireless manipulation
3DID Wireless MIDI Glove Kicks Total Ass. "Twenty-four-year-old computer engineering graduate and musician Shaduz from Bologna developed a MIDI glove which can be used to manipulate music and sounds. The 3DID MIDI glove just isn’t any glove, though—it’s wireless and was built for about 150 euros, or $180. The glove features three gyroscopes, three accelerometers and 18 hours of battery life. It also has five “bend” sensors in the fingers for bending and manipulating musical instruments. Perfect for softsynths."
Gizmodo
One-person journalism
KRON-TV: everyone in the newsroom is a one-man-band.. "San Francisco's KRON recently became the first major-market TV station in the US to supply much of its newsoom staff with laptops and digital video cameras, then train them to shoot, write, and produce stories on their own. KRON calls them VJs. Others in the biz sometimes refer to the combo role as "sojo" (solo journalist) or "one-man-band," while a producer editor mashup is a "preditor.""
Boing Boing
New living patterns driven by technology
PSFK: The Rise Of The Exurb. "The New York Times last Sunday write a lengthy article bout the growth of the 'exurb' - the growth of new commuter communities spreading out from established suburbs. The article points to the growth of these areas near Dallas and other areas with high immigrant populations. New houses, new schools, new roads, new traffic. Two key factors driving this trend, the NYT suggests, is stay-at-home parenting and technology. The cheaper housing allows families to cut back to one income and allow one parent to stay at home. Technology has allowed others to work from home much of the week."
Photoshop-like effects on 3D objects
Morphovision - Hacking Photon. "In front of a physical 3D miniature house (placed in a glass box) is a touch screen that allows a user to select different visual effects. According to the user's selection, the house may become soft or even break apart. This all happens between your naked eyes and the miniature house - no special goggles or screens needed. I can't help saying that we are a step closer to "photoshopping the real world.""
we make money not art
Sharing sounds
Silence of the Lands. "Silence of the Lands enables participants to collect ambient sounds, then to create and share individual and collective cartographies. These sounds represent subjective interpretations of the soundscape of the urban or natural settings that affect the everyday life of the community, and act as conversation pieces about natural quiet."
we make money not art
January 20, 2006
Portable HDTV
Pixela's HDTV On the Go. "Apparently, the Japanese just can’t stop watching their awesome HDTVs, so much that they need to do it on the go. So in comes the H.264 Pocket TV by Pixela, released only in Japan. Yes, now you will be able to enjoy stunning HDTV-quality programming on the go in the form of a long candybar-esque pocket TV. The device not only does television, but also FM radio and music playback. You can enjoy your tunes with digital 5.1 as well, since this little TV offers it all."
Gizmodo
Finding out about the current page
Follow discussions about a webpage with Talk Digger. "Talk Digger helps users track conversations about a webpage. If you’d like to know who is talking about a news story or blog post and what they have to say about it, simply enter the URL of the page into Talk Digger."
Lifehacker
Cellphone interruption
Sentenced to a cell(phone). "study in the December issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family finds that cellphones and pagers interfere with family life by bringing job worries and problems home. Interviews with working couples - many with children - revealed that cellphone use tends to decrease family satisfaction and increase distress. "People felt they couldn't turn them off," says Noelle Chesley, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who conducted the study. "I couldn't find evidence of benefits."
csmonitor.com
More glasses with displays built in
Orange France touts video spectacles. "Fed up with having to squint at movies, photos, emails and text messages on your mobile's microscopic display? Then Orange France is offering the full heads-up experience, courtesy of its "video glasses". The slimline shades hook up to Samsung's D600E mobile phone by cable to display whatever's on the screen. The glasses also sport a pair of integrated earphones. Orange premiered the goggles at a French Sci-Fi channel event earlier this month, presumably hoping to attract all those Star Trek nerds who'd like a visor like Geordi LaForge's. Except, of course, he doesn't wear one any more."
The Register
Windows as displays
zaZen shows new ways to automotive enlightenment. "The entire roof dome from the belt line up is made of a single sheet of transparent Bayer polycarbonate which can be switched from transparent to opaque at the press of a button. This property also enables any superfluous knobs and displays on the dashboard to be “faded out” so the driver can concentrate on what is most important."
gizmag
Cheap e-paper
E-Paper's Killer App: Packaging. "Electronics maker Siemens is readying a paper-thin electronic-display technology so cheap it could replace conventional labels on disposable packaging, from milk cartons to boxes of Cheerios."
Wired News
Software prediction
Neural network sorts the blockbusters from the flops. "Using data on 834 movies released between 1998 and 2002, Sharda found that the neural network can judge a film based on seven key parameters: the "star value" of the cast, the movie's age rating, the time of release against that of competitive movies, the film's genre, the degree of special effects used, whether it is a sequel or not, and the number of screens it is expected to open in. This allowed it to place a movie in one of nine categories, ranging from "flop" (total takings less than $1 million) to "blockbuster" (over $200 million)."New Scientist
January 18, 2006
MP3 voicemail
Download your voicemail with GotVoice. "GotVoice is a free service that allows you to access your voicemail over the Internet, meaning you can download, listen to, and save your voicemail messages as MP3s from any browser."
Lifehacker
Machine-readable blogs
Structured Blogging. "Structured Blogging makes it easy to create, edit, and maintain different kinds of posts and is very similar to an edit form on a blog. The difference is that the structure will let users add specific styles to each type, and add links and pictures for reviews. These styles and tags ensure that movie and book reviews don't look like calendar or journal entries, and that each content type can be quickly recognized and processed by automated search services and other applications. Woven into the HTML of a blog post, this information travels with it through syndication feeds, readers, and aggregators. Ultimately, it can even be converted out to other formats our Structured Blogging tools support such as RDF in XML."
Structured Blogging
Continuous browser history
How'd I Get Here Firefox extension. "The How’d I Get Here Firefox extension tracks your clicktrail to every web page in your browser history and provides a back button that works even after you’ve closed a tab."
Lifehacker
January 16, 2006
Merging blogs and media
Boltfolio media sharing. "Clearly influenced by Flickr (and who hasn’t been), the neat thing about Boltfolio is that all your media types - photos, videos, audio and blog entries - are stored in one place. Surf everyone’s media by tag or search by keyword, make contacts, set your blog posts to public or private, and get RSS feeds of every media type by user."
Lifehacker
RFID museum interaction
Museum with Many Tags. "Okayama City Digital Museum is introducing RFID based services for visitors. 7,000 tags are embedded under the floor of an exhibition room (a large birds-eye photo of the city is printed on the floor.) Visitors walks around on the floor, pushing an information display device called Korotto . The device displays historical/cultural information related to the user's current postion on the photo."
RFID in Japan
Digital books
HarperCollins to begin digitizing books. "U.S. publisher HarperCollins said Monday that it plans to convert some 20,000 books in its catalog into digital form in a bid to rein in potential copyright violations on the Internet. Under the plan, HarperCollins will hold all the digital copies of its books in a digital warehouse and it will allow companies such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon.com to crawl the server to create an index, Murray said. This will allow Google and other search systems to offer what, in effect, amount to electronic card catalogs to help users locate the full work. "ZDnet
Cool future tech
A Peek at Tomorrow's Coolest Tech. "Among those that offer a glimpse into what's way beyond the next generation of gotta-have gizmos are devices ranging from a magic wand that serves as a remote control to a bracelet that translates your body movements into text messages. Take a peek at some playful concepts that are being cooked up in labs and brainstorming sessions around the world."
Business Week
Why turn up for class?
The advent of iPod U. "Taking the technology even further, UC Berkeley is currently beta testing a service that allows keyword searching of recordings, so it might be possible one day to not have to listen to a class you don't have to show up for. This could be one reason why Stanford University is taking a slightly more cautious approach to podcasting. Partnering with Apple to create Stanford on iTunes, the service provides a publicly accessible site which includes "Stanford faculty lectures, learning materials, music, sports, and more." The access-restricted site provides "course-based materials" to students. "Some faculty are concerned with intellectual property. There are also faculty concerns about students [not] coming to class," said Victoria Szabo, Stanford's academic technology manager, in a telephone interview."Ars Technica
Video blogging
TV Stardom on $20 a Day. "Amanda Congdon is a big star on really small screens - like the 4?- inch window she appears in on computer monitors every weekday morning or the 2? inches she has to work with on the new video iPod. Ms. Congdon, you see, is the anchor of a daily, three-minute, mock TV news report shot on a camcorder, edited on a laptop and posted on a blog called Rocketboom, which now reaches more than 100,000 fans a day."
New York Times
Embedding one kind of media in another
BET promotes ringtone sales with videdo pop-ups. "BET has begun embedding text-messaging codes into its music videos, encouraging viewers to order a download of each song's ringtone directly from their mobile phone, reports Reuters/Billboard. "While such cross-marketing is a common practice in Europe, this is the first time a U.S. video channel has integrated mobile messaging on air to sell ringtones."
ringtonia.com
December 15, 2005
Low power photography
New digital camera chip slashes power consumption 50x. "They’re only in the design prototype phase right yet, but a couple of dudes by the names of Mark Bocko and Zeljko Ignjatovic at the University of Rochester have apparently worked out a way to digitize photography at each pixel of a CMOS sensor, the results of which are actually nothing less than fifty times less power consumption in taking a shot, and ten times the dynamic range of light captured — on chips expected to be smaller and less expensive than current devices."
Engadget
Sharing recordings of places
soundtransit :: book. "SoundTransit is a collaborative, online community dedicated to field recording and phonography. In the “Book” section of this site, you can plan a sonic journey through various locations recorded around the world. And in the “Search” section, you can search the database for specific sounds by member artists from many different places. If you are a phonographer, you can also contribute your recordings for others to enjoy."
soundtransit
Outsourced game playing
Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese. "For 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, my colleagues and I are killing monsters," said a 23-year-old gamer who works here in this makeshift factory and goes by the online code name Wandering. "I make about $250 a month, which is pretty good compared with the other jobs I've had. And I can play games all day." He and his comrades have created yet another new business out of cheap Chinese labor. They are tapping into the fast-growing world of "massively multiplayer online games," which involve role playing and often revolve around fantasy or warfare in medieval kingdoms or distant galaxies."
New York Times
Physical and virtual gaming
RFID turns you into a real-life action hero. "You've been sent to a 31st-century prison, where puzzles will help you crack the security system and escape. There are ventilation shafts to crawl down, secret doors, ladders, dead ends and hidden bonuses. This games is not on your PC or PlayStation but in a three-storey building in Madrid. In Negone, created by Differend Games, each player has a wrist console displaying your score, your character's health and tools obtained in the game. You select your mission (they range from "inoculate the virus" to "steal the secret weapon") and difficulty level. Security guards then escort you to your cell."
we make money not art
Browser history
How'd I Get Here (Firefox extension). "Use this extension to go to the page on which you first clicked a link to the current page. For example: Go "back" even after opening a link in a new tab and closing the original tab. Remember how you found a site you bookmarked yesterday. When you are sent a link you have already seen, astound the sender by responding with a statement more precise than "I saw that on some blog a few days ago". "
How'd I Get Here
Album covers
CoverFlow. "CoverFlow aims to bring that aesthetic appeal to your mp3 collection. It allows you to browse your albums complete with beautiful artwork pulled from any sources it can find, whether that’s buried in your song tags, collected via Synergy, or looked up on Amazon."
Lifehacker
December 14, 2005
Religious podcasts
"Godcasts” becoming more popular. “I would say probably anywhere from 10 percent to 20 percent of the podcasts available online have some dimension of religion or spiritual life to them,” estimates Lee Ranie of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Godcasts are created by houses of worship from every denomination, and from around the world. The wide selection is good news for web worshippers."Smart Mobs
Interactive toys
Plush Toy Interacts with DVD Movie - Supposedly Supports Child Development. "This interactive plush toys are aimed at babies to become more active when watching TV. The plush toy are synchronized with scenes shown on a DVD movie. A signal triggers the plush toy to start giggling, singing, and flashing its integrated light. The DVD plush toy comes as lamb, dog or cow. The plush animal have a somewhat weird look, a hint of Teletubby."
I4U News
Word of mouth sales
What Did He Say? - A Cockney gangster film becomes a DVD phenomenon.. "Layer Cake is a phenomenon that we're likely to see more of in the future, the word-of-mouth DVD hit. As such, it raises interesting questions about the future of movies in a business increasingly dominated by the home-video market—not just whether movies can perform markedly better in home video than in theaters, but what kind of movies are likely to do so."
Slate
External/secondary displays
Pertelian’s External LCD Display keeps fraggers informed. "It can display e-mail headers, IM messages, the weather, RSS feeds (like ours), CPU stats, media player data, and more. You can even set up hotkeys to control all this info without ever leaving the game, including quick responses to IMs and skipping through and searching your songs to keep the tunes pumpin’."
Engadget
More and more interactive homepages
Create a personalized homepage with Protopage. "Protopage is an Ajax-built web app designed to bring your RSS feeds, sticky notes, and bookmarks into one pretty package."
Lifehacker
Shifting away from physical media
DVD sales likely nearing global peak: report. "Movie sales on DVD are likely nearing their peak worldwide as more people look to computer downloads and video-on-demand to watch their favorite programming, according to a report released on Wednesday. [...] DVD sales growth is slowing, according to several recent reports. A study released by Adams Media Research in October forecast DVD sales of about $17.3 billion this year, a 12 percent rise from 2004. Adams forecast a 9 percent rise to $18.9 billion in 2006."
Reuters.com
RFID games
Smart Jigsaw Puzzle Assistant. "First, we describe several advantages of employing RFID technology for the development of gaming applications. Then we present the Smart Jigsaw Puzzle Assistant, a fully operational augmented jigsaw puzzle game which we have developed and prototypically implemented using miniature RFID tags and a palm-sized RFID scanner."
networked_performance
Video on demand
Brits Get Satellite on their PCs. "Called skybybroadband, the service promises a good mix of films, including Hollywood blockbusters and classic movie titles, as long as they’re available on its Sky Movies channels. All you need is a PC running Windows XP and a broadband connection. And all this is being done through third-party software by Kontiki, so it looks like you won’t be able to then download any of the content to any other PMPs you may have handy."
Gizmodo
December 13, 2005
Storage in everything
LG 42" Xcanvas With 160GB Of PR()|\|. "The TV can do 13 hours of HD recording, 63 hours of SD recording, and you can even pull in pics through the built-in 9 in 1 card reader. This of course means you can do your photo viewing, movie viewing, MP3 playing, etc. through the same TV interface."
Gizmodo
Parents restricting game time
PlayLimit token-based video game and TV viewing timer. "..they’ve hardly had to bother begging quarters off of mom and pops to hit the arcades ever since they got that fancy “Nintendo” hooked up to the tube. Well, now they can know your pain with the PlayLimit, a token-based system that locks up their system’s composite connector and sets a timer to playtime. It comes with 40 tokens that each represent 15 minutes of play, so after 10 solid hours of Halo 2 vegging, Junior is going to finally know how it feels to be all out of change."
Engadget
Getting e-paper in front of people
E-Paper Display In Tokyo Station. "Six A4 sheets of e-paper are on display for commuters in a snazzy transparent blue housing — allowing them to see how thin the e-paper is. The sheets of e-paper are being fed with the latest news stories via a wireless Internet connection and are updated with new content every five minutes."
Gizmodo
Exciting PC design
Lenovo wins design awards for concept PCs. "The first award is “Best of the Best for Highest Design Quality,” and it was won by the company’s “Yoga” concept, which consists of a laptop with an LCD that can be twisted all the way around such that the notebook stands up like an a-frame. The other award for “High Design Quality” was won by their “Sundial” concept, involving a slimline all-in-one PC on a stick that has some kind of whacky 3D scroller interface."
Engadget
Educating parents about technology
Games website to educate parents. "It is a response to controversy over the type of content children may be exposed to in games. A recent survey found that parents often let children play games, even though they knew they were 18-rated. "
BBC NEWS
Worldwide TV by phone
Watch HBO in Europe on Vodafone global Mobile TV. "Vodafone announces a global Mobile TV service enabling for instance Europeans to watch HBO on their 3G mobile phone. Hit series Sex and the City, Six Feet Under or Curb Your Enthusiasm will be available on Vodafone Live! globally."
I4U News
Executive toys
Tyco designer track for bored execs. "Showing how far executive toys have come from Newton’s swinging balls (what?), we bring you the $1,500 Designer Tyco Track for bored-rooms everywhere."
Engadget
December 09, 2005
Extending Wikipedia
Wikitravel. "Wikitravel is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable world-wide travel guide. So far we have 6150 destination guides and other articles written and edited by Wikitravellers from around the globe."
Wikitravel
Bigger flexibile displays
Plastic Active-Matrix SVGA flexible e-paper Display. "Plastic electronics developer Plastic Logic has developed the world's largest flexible organic active matrix display. The display consists of a flexible, high resolution, printed active-matrix backplane driving an electronic paper frontplane from E Ink Corporation. The display will be publicly shown at the 12th International Displays Workshop in Takamatsu, Japan tomorrow. The displays are 10" diagonal SVGA (600 by 800) with 100ppi resolution and 4 levels of greyscale. The thickness of the display when laminated with E Ink Imaging Film is less than 0.4mm."
gizmag
Background communication information
Girls Ambient Room. "data is gathered from different chat services, email & comment entries to their personal online journals. when the user (the Taiwan teenager) is in her room & receives a message on MSN chat, she hears audio signals that are in tune with one another, & sees bubble-like visual animations are created on the wall. Email traffic is represented by lines on the screen which start to animate & vibrate. the more email the more vigerous the animations."
networked_performance
Alternative interactions for games
SenToy. "In this paper, we describe a way of controlling the emotional states of a synthetic character in a game (FantasyA) through a tangible interface named SenToy. SenToy is a doll with sensors in the arms, legs and body, allowing the user to influence the emotions of her character in the game. The user performs gestures and movements with SenToy, which are picked up by the sensors and interpreted according to a scheme found through an intial Wizard of Oz study. Different gestures are used to express each of the following emotions: anger, fear, happiness, surprise, sadness and gloating. Depending on the expressed emotion, the synthetic character in FantasyA will, in turn, perform different actions."
networked_performance
December 08, 2005
Interactive TV on a phone
Ericsson, NRK launch interactive mobile TV. "Swedish telecoms supplier Ericsson and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) are conducting the world's first live trial of interactive mobile TV. The trial demonstrates a way of using mobile TV which allows mobile phone users to vote, chat and communicate with a television presenter while watching a TV show simultaneously on their handsets. "Digital Media Europe
Big antennas
WirePlus Broadband uses phone lines to extend WiFi range. "Florida-based SercoNet has developed a system it calls WirePlus Broadband, which recruits your phone lines to act as super-antennas, carrying your signal from one access point to the next. It may sound like the powerline-based HomePlug, but SercoNet insists the technology is completely different. “It is strictly RF, physical layer,” the company’s Mike Harnack told WiFi Planet. “It’s like an extension of the antenna… the copper is the medium that the shifted signal flies on.”
Engadget
December 07, 2005
Printing from digital
Printing a Book with CSS: Boom!. "Can CSS be used for serious print jobs? To find out, we decided to take the ultimate challenge: to produce the next edition of our book directly from HTML and CSS files. In this article we sketch our solution and quote from the style sheet used. Towards the end we describe the book microformat (boom!) we developed in the process."
A List Apart
Personal weather maps
Weather Underground and Google Maps. "Weather Underground has a neat use of Google Maps. They’ve got maps that show where their stations are and by clicking on them you can get all kinds of weather information about that local area."
Lifehacker
Re-representing a service
Pretty up del.icio.us with Delancey. "Delancey is an online bookmark manager that enhances the popular del.icio.us social bookmarking application. Delancey keeps track of how frequently you click on each of your bookmarks and presents them to you in order. The interface is nice, and content load-times (after an initial cache of your bookmarks) are decent. Also, sorting bookmarks by popularity is a cool idea. If you’re one of those people who loves del.icio.us but hates the way it looks, try making it all purdy with Delancey."
Lifehacker
Online photo editing services
Edit photos online with PXN8. "PXN8 is a free online image-editor. And while we’ve mentioned online image-editing tools before, PXN8 has a lot to offer. Along with a slew of nice editing features, PXN8 also integrates with Flickr, allowing you to edit your Flickr photos with the click of a bookmarklet, then save the edits back in Flickr. For the Flickr-addicted, PXN8 gives you the opportunity to tweak your photos anytime you’re bored and at a browser."
Lifehacker
Visualizing music albums
TuneBooks™ Digital Liner Notes and Interactive Booklets. "TuneBooks provide the visual content fans crave by bundling online albums with a collection of unique and innovative media highlighting the band and their visual sensibility. TuneBooks combines traditional visual elements - liner notes, cover art and band collateral - with custom-designed interactive art and media to create a new visual experience. And each TuneBook integrates artist discography and label catalog browsing, creating a natural means for fans to sample, explore, and buy new music."
TuneBooks
Playing music without instruments
Virtual Air Guitar. "Using a computer to monitor the hand movements of a "player", the system adds riffs and licks to match frantic mid-air finger work. By responding instantly to a wide variety of gestures it promises to turn even the least musically gifted air guitarist to a virtual fret board virtuoso."
networked_performance
Cellphone remote
lipii Beam Station turns mobile phone into mouse. "For 1,980 yen (about $16), you can pick up their “lipii Beam Station,” a small USB device that accepts infrared signals from your mobile phone. Using a special iAppli on the phone, which is currently supported by pretty much all FOMA handsets, you’re able to control various functions of your PC by using only the phone’s keypad."
Engadget
Living online and offline
The MySpace Generation. "Although networks are still in their infancy, experts think they're already creating new forms of social behavior that blur the distinctions between online and real-world interactions. In fact, today's young generation largely ignores the difference. Most adults see the Web as a supplement to their daily lives. They tap into information, buy books or send flowers, exchange apartments, or link up with others who share passions for dogs, say, or opera. But for the most part, their social lives remain rooted in the traditional phone call and face-to-face interaction. The MySpace generation, by contrast, lives comfortably in both worlds at once. Increasingly, America's middle- and upper-class youth use social networks as virtual community centers, a place to go and sit for a while (sometimes hours). While older folks come and go for a task, Adams and her social circle are just as likely to socialize online as off. This is partly a function of how much more comfortable young people are on the Web: Fully 87% of 12- to 17-year-olds use the Internet, vs. two-thirds of adults, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project."
Business Week
Growth in PC to PC syncing
Access and sync your data from anywhere. "But for consumers who open their laptop on the road only to find that a critical file is back at home - or who are frustrated by having different sets of contacts and browser bookmarks on every computer they use - there are some simple alternatives. They take somewhat different approaches to the job, but all use the Internet to some degree, and are best put to use with a high-speed connection."
Lifehacker
Digital gemes the use physical objects
Neon Racer. "Neon Racer is a multi-user Augmented Reality racing game on an AR tabletop setting. The game displays only the players’ racing vehicles and the checkpoints. The active setting for the game is provided by the physical world, and all its parts can influence gameplay. Physical objects act as collision obstacles and influence the course of the race itself. Participants have to interact with both the virtual and real objects to succeed."
we make money not art
Gaming for everyone
BBC study reveals the facts about gamers. "Most people play games. (59% of 6-65 year olds). All kids play games. (100% of 6-10 year olds). The average age of all gamers is 28. Older gamers outnumber non-gamers. (51% of 31-50 year olds play games.). Gender gap? What gender gap? (48% of gamers are female.). Consoles pwn PCs. (21.4 million console gamers versus 19.9m PC gamers.). People actually play interactive TV games. (8.1 million of them.). Puzzles and quizzes are the most popular game type. (63% of gamers love them.) "
Joystiq
Visual representations of energy use
Power-aware devices. "The Interactive Institute has unveiled new STATIC! prototypes that explore how everyday products might be designed to better express – and stimulate reflection on – energy use. Power-Aware Cord displays the energy consumption of the appliances that are connected to it. The blue light in the cord displays the intensity relative to the watts. In a primary stage, the cord can be used as an experimental tool to examine household products and in the long run it turns into an ambient display of everyday energy consumption. The cord has been patentent and they are now looking to take it into production."
we make money not art
Internet addiction
Hooked on the Web: Help Is on the Way. "The patients, including Mike, 34, are what Dr. Cash and other mental health professionals call onlineaholics. They even have a diagnosis: Internet addiction disorder. These specialists estimate that 6 percent to 10 percent of the approximately 189 million Internet users in this country have a dependency that can be as destructive as alcoholism and drug addiction, and they are rushing to treat it. Yet some in the field remain skeptical that heavy use of the Internet qualifies as a legitimate addiction, and one academic expert called it a fad illness. "New York Times
December 05, 2005
Huge, shaped displays
The 360 degree LED television. "The first time you see one of the screens you’ll understand what the fuss is about – the quality, colour, contrast and definition is extraordinary and the screen is absolutely huge – the third generation of the new LED screens is being introduced at present with the largest being a 2.5 metre high, 5.46 metre circumference screen and capable of being viewed clearly from 30 metres away. Interestingly, the screens can actually display one image around the full 360 degrees, so it would be possible to use them as output for a 360 degree camera."
gizmag
Limitless channels
Man gets 5,000 channels on 12 dishes. "Al Jessup of Beckley, West Virginia, has 12 cheap satellite dishes stuck to his house, which pull in over 5,000 free-to-air channels from satellites all over the sky. He is retired, and delights in odd and foreign programming. Because the programming is free, it changes regularly, he noted. Sometimes, a program he likes will disappear and something he dislikes will be put in its place, or vice versa. For example, he once had three ABC stations from Wyoming only to have it reduced to one. "
Boing Boing
Young still won't pay for songs
Young 'prefer illegal song swaps'. "Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan said: "The digital youth of today are being brought up on a near limitless diet of free and disposable music from file-sharing networks. "When these consumers age and increase spending power they should become key music buying consumers. He added: "Unless the music industry can transition these consumers whilst they are young away from free consumption to paid music formats, be they digital or CDs, they may never develop music purchasing behaviour and the recording industry could suffer long-term harm." "
BBC NEWS
Tag management
Tags Sort Out Music Mess. "Tags that are complete and well-organized make it possible to find the perfect song to fit the mood of your intimate dinner party or Dionysian rager. Anything short of that and your guests will long have departed by the time you've located the tune. Soon enough, my hobby as a music collector morphed into one of a librarian. Fixing faulty tags requires what's known as a tag editor. One of my favorites is MP3 Tag Studio, a free program with many powerful features. The application allows you to select an unlimited number of MP3 files and manipulate them in any number of ways."Wired News
Encouraging remixing of content
Washington Post asks readers to remix it. "The Washington Post has created a blog for highlighting mash-ups of Post content. Current remixes include: a news keyword cloud viewer, a world map interface to Post stories, and a dynamic news quiz. Although a bit skimpy on implementation details (or implementations, for that matter), the idea's surprisingly hip."Boing Boing
Virtual phone pets
Trident: Tamagotchi meets Barcode Battler?"Earlier this month, Preamble Corp. released Trident, a virtual pet game for camera phones. . Players feed their virtual pets by scanning QR codes. Then, in "battle mode," the pets fight with each other. In order to win a battle, players should feed thier pets the right food (or QR code) and thereby raising/strenghening the pets and collecting key items. For example, if a fight can last long, you may want to feed lots of good food before the fight. "
RFID in Japan
November 30, 2005
Simple play
The sitting computer game. "Their midi-sofa allows you to interact with the game on the screen in front of you. You control the movement of your avatar by changing the seating position on the sofa, bouncing on it or pressing harder the back of the furniture. The more physical action used the faster the ball gets. Both, the "strategy of power" and the "strategy of minimal movement" lead to success. More images."
we make money not art
Smart streetlights
What is StarSight. "It is a system which allows the provision of multiple services including Wireless Internet, Wireless Street Lighting, Wireless Electricty, Wireless Security, Wireless CCTV, and Wireless Surveillance. The StarSight solution combines a unique set of powerful benefits, including solar power, battery back-up, low maintenance, wireless set-up, cost-effectiveness, lighting of dark and/or remote areas, access to wireless broadband services and an ever-evolving number of add-on applications. "
StarSight
Home network management
The brain for your intelligent home. "Every self respecting technophile has probably been eyeing up what’s available in home automation, home security and home entertainment systems, but each comes with an array of microprocessor-controlled functions and a network. The aim should be to have one network and the SecureGen HTVR offers the chance to combine all three of those networks with one unit – the brain of your intelligent home. "
gizmag
Virtual objects for sale
Objects of virtual desire. "We have collected a series of objects produced and owned by inhabitants in the online world Second Life and will sell physical reproductions of these objects via our web shop. Each chosen object has a strong sentimental value for the avatar (a persons virtual identity) who made or owned it. We have acquired (copies of) these objects, along with their owner’s personal story, within the in-world economy of Second Life."
Objects of virtual desire
Digitizing everything
The automatic book scanner is here. "As the technology to automatically scan and digitize books is put to work it will multiply the speed at which libraries can put collections online. The vision of all the books ever written being accessible globally is made manifestly more realistic by the automatic scanner. Kirtas introduces its scanner here with an video of the process. Kirtas says the machine “automates the scanning of bound documents at a capture rate of 1200 pages per hour, while using a page turning process that is more gentle than the human hand.""
Smart Mobs
November 25, 2005
Advanced electronic toys
Korean Magic Pen Reads Books to Kids. "This is perfect for parents who do not have time (they should though) to read books to their kids. The 'magic pen' has a camera based scanner built-in that reads codes hidden in the book. It matches the code with the data on the corresponding cartridge and reads the text or triggers sounds. "
I4U News
Small, powerful projectors
A movie projector in a cell phone?. "The reduction in size comes from a technique invented by Upstream for channeling the light from LEDs to a display in thousands of small beams. Light, whether from a candle or an LED, naturally shines in every direction. Upstream has built a complex micro-optical system that collects that light close to the source and sends a huge proportion of it to an intended target. The so-called "photon vacuum" optical system surrounds the LED like a shell. As a result, a tiny optical package can provide roughly the same level of illumination efficiency that larger systems can. "
CNET News.com
Auto karaoke
Download of the Day: EvilLyrics. "EvilLyrics is a free lyrics fetching program designed for use with most popular music players (iTunes, Winamp, WMP, etc.). In addition to displaying lyrics of the song currently playing (which it handles with aplomb), EvilLyrics also has a cool karaoke mode that highlights lyrics line-by-line. If karaoke isn’t available for your song, it’s easy to create your own karaoke "
Lifehacker
Movies for cellphones
Sony Goes Ahead With Movies For Cellphones. "Thank you Sony. It’s about time somebody came out with movies made for your mobile. I mean, let’s face it, with the Video iPod and multimedia phones popping up everywhere, it should definitely be easier to get content for these devices. So Sony Pictures has decided to start introducing movies on 128 MB MMC cards. If you have a cellphone that plays multimedia files and has a card slot, you’re in. And I’m shocked, shocked I say, that the company is being so kind about not putting all this on Memory Sticks!"
Gizmodo
Hotels setting home trends
In 'smart' hotel rooms, everything is just right. "At the Mandarin and other high-end hotels, new computer systems which connect individual rooms to network servers can now keep track of guests' preferences and change the room conditions automatically. These "smart" systems can learn whether a frequent guest likes the lights dimmed, the curtains closed or the room toasty warm. They can also personalize the electronics in the room so that the music of John Coltrane, for instance, greets jazz buffs when they enter their rooms. Meanwhile, sensors in refrigerators alert maids when the minibar is running low on Coca-Cola. While much of the underlying technology is not new, it is still rare in private homes because the cost of the equipment is relatively expensive. As a consequence, luxury hotels are the first to embrace it.
International Herald Tribune
DVRs not a threat
TV networks say digital recorders raise viewership. "Far from being the TV doomsday machines that some have predicted, digital video recorders that allow viewers to skip advertising and watch shows at their leisure will actually boost television audiences, the major networks said on Wednesday. That was the principal finding in a report issued by the six major networks -- CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, the WB and UPN -- that sought to allay concerns in the media industry that DVRs will undermine the commercial value of broadcast television."
Reuters.com
November 23, 2005
Electronics for kids
High-tech child's play. "The real economic trend behind changing tastes for toys, market analysts say, is the precipitous decline in the price of electronics. Low-cost technology has turned items that once cost hundreds of dollars a few years ago into kids' stuff. For example, Hasbro's VCam Now gives kids a digital video camera experience for $79. So whereas toys have always imitated grown-up items, low prices have led to the creation of fully-functioning, lower-quality replicas of adult electronics. Sean McGowan, a toy market analyst for Harris Nesbitt, calls the phenomenon "the juvenilization of electronics.""
csmonitor.com
November 22, 2005
Making a business out of new technology
Profits May Rock Podcasting World. "But nifty products and gizmos were ultimately a sideline at the Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference, where attendees wrestled with a far more fundamental point: whether this podcasting thing is -- or even should be -- a business. "If somebody gives you money, you owe them something," said keynote speaker Leo LaPorte, who appears in ad-supported radio and TV shows but eschews commercial promotions for his popular This Week In Tech podcast. "I listen to my listeners, but I don't want to listen to advertisers.""
Wired News
Open source games
Dance Dance Revolution as free software/free culture. "Stepmania is a free, open source Dance Dance Revolution lookalike for Mac, Linux, and Windows. [...] Fans repackage all the official DDR songs as Stepmania files, so you can find these on your favorite p2p searcher (say, Limewire) with a search for "stepmania". Or use Dancing Monkeys, a student project that takes any mp3 and turns it into a Stepmania file, complete with appropriate dance steps (Windows only, unless you have Matlab). Another fun feature: you can run random .AVI movies in the background while you're playing...very surreal".jpg)
Boing Boing
Book rental
Google gauges interest for online book renting. "Web search leader Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) has approached a book publisher to gauge interest in a program to allow consumers to rent online copies of new books for a week, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The proposed fee is 10 percent of the book's list price, the Journal reported, citing an unnamed publisher. "Reuters.com
November 21, 2005
TV over the network
AOL launches free vintage TV, Nickelodeon dumps slime on Apple. "In2TV will have six "stations" that users can tune into using their computers, ranging from comedy to action to drama, but users won't be able to obtain TV shows for use on their computer or portable media device. Streaming video from AOL's In2TV portal will be the only allowed method of access. Don't be too glum, though. AOL claims that their new streaming video format, dubbed AOL Hi-Q, offers DVD quality video. More on that in an upcoming report. The major draw for In2TV will be quantity. The service is aiming to "air" 300 episodes each month. If Nick at Nite brings back old memories, just wait until In2TV actually offers up 100 series over the course of the year—we'll be lucky to remember half of them."Ars Technica
Standard features for Web 2.0?
A Profile of Tagworld. "The site is going to try to own just about every web 2.0 experience of its users - blogging, bookmarking, photos and other media files, file storage, and tagging. They say they are going to have open data in and out, meaning if a user is really attached to say, Flickr, they’ll be able to integrate with those photos seemlessly. And they’ll have RSS and APIs to send data out. But their clear goal, as Fred said when we met, is to replace del.icio.us, flickr and blogger (among other services) for its users. All features are free to users (other than extended file storage); Tagworld makes its money from integrated advertising."
TechCrunch
Earbud jewelry
Plantronics Versa: Wireless Earbuds. "The design uses a miniaturized base outfitted with Bluetooth to connect to your cellphone, and RF to connect to the actual earbuds. Plantronics claims this technology is only “a year or two out from being ready to launch,” but don’t chuck your old buds just yet. The design comes in three styles: long, slim and metallic for men; a chrome necklace design for women; and a universal necklace/clip combo with colored anodized aluminum for teens."
Gizmodo
November 18, 2005
Mobile phone remembrance
Poppy goes high-tech. "Britain's remembrance poppies have gone high-tech -- digital versions of the red paper flowers are now available for downloading to mobiles. The poppies' move into cyberspace is a bid to get younger Britons aware of the sacrifices made by those who fell in battle, the Royal British Legion charity said on Friday. "
Reuters.com
Better digital imaging
Powerful Image Sensor Developed. "A Korean research center developed a super-sensitive image sensor with applications likely to dramatically enhance medical or military equipment such as endoscopes or guided missiles, as well as household electronics. The new sensor can record high-quality video images under moonlight, as it is about 500 times more light-sensitive than current versions, the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) said. The researchers expect the sensor will be used for military equipment such as long-range missiles, night vision goggles, unmanned aircraft and surveillance cameras."The Korea Times
November 17, 2005
Multi-language text-to-speech
Epson Chip Can Read Text to You in Multiple Languages. "The chip can read text and speak it in US English, French, German, Castilian Spanish, and Latin American Spanish. Other languages are in the works. The Epson chip S1V30100 contains Fonix DECtalk v5.0* as its TTS engine. Applications for the chip are in portable devices for instance to read emails to users. The chip also supports MP3 and AAC audio decoding. "
I4U News
Aggregating your services, not just your feeds
Aggregate your feeds with SuprGlu. "SuprGlu is about bringing the pieces of your web content together into one central place for you, your friends, and maybe even your friends to-be. With the advent of so many fun to use applications, it is a shame for us to not use them. So keeping that in mind, what would be even better is to blog them."
Lifehacker
Trading on virtual land
Virtual property market booming. "A gamer who spent ?13,700 on an island that exists only in a computer game has recouped his investment, according to the game developers. The 23-year-old gamer known as Deathifier made the money back in under a year. The virtual Treasure Island he bought existed within the online role-playing game Project Entropia. He made money by selling land to build virtual homes as well as taxing other gamers to hunt or mine on the island. "
BBC NEWS
Hacking games
Play Risk With Google Maps. "For some reason I decided a bit after the API for Google Maps came out that it would be awesome to be able to play Risk on it. About a month later it became apparent that everyone using the API was doing it for more useful things, such as gas price tracking and ::cough:: hotornot placement. I’ve always been a gamer and thought this was the perfect step."
Lifehacker
TV shows for download
CBS, NBC To Launch 99-Cent On-Demand TV. "A pair of separate deals announced Monday between CBS and Comcast, as well as NBC Universal and DirecTV, soon will allow viewers to pay to watch current primetime broadcast hits just hours after they air for free. CBS and NBC will be charging 99 cents per episode to access such series as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and the "Law & Order" spinoffs putting a twist on the traditional TV business model that will have untold implications for industry sectors ranging from affiliates to advertisers for years to come. "Extrememe Tech
November 16, 2005
Social TV sharing
Tape It Off The Internet. "A global TV guide, Torrent tracking, your favourites and recommendations plus an innovative social layer to hang it off. You want it, we want it, let's build it."
Device integration
B-On Universal Bluetooth Receiver. "The BT-1000 pendant style Bluetooth receiver can be paired with mobile phones, mp3 players and PCs. The little Bluetooth box comes in several colors. I guess the device is geared towards kids. These days they need to manage Skype Calls on the PC, Mobile Phone calls and still listen to the latest Madonna Confessions on a Dance Floor CD. With the B-On they can do all this with only one headset - cool! "
I4U News
November 15, 2005
Automated advertising
Podcast Advertising with Fruitcast. "Fruitcast automates the process of inserting ads into podcasts. We download a podcast’s MP3 audio files, add the advertisements on the fly, and then send them to the podcast’s subscribers. Each time a podcast episode is downloaded, the advertiser is charged a certain amount, and a significant portion of that amount is credited to the podcaster."
Lifehacker
Extremem portable computing
Fashionable Computer Not Too Stylish. "Featuring a Head Mounted Display (HMD), a wrist keyboard and VR glove, you’ll be able to do your computing just about anywhere by using a throwing motion to transfer and exchange music files, video clips or even word documents. "
Gizmodo
Remote access by phone
GLOOLABS demonstrates the missing link. "Using GlooNet, consumers can access their home audio collection while at work, select pictures stored on their home PC from a print shop kiosk or share pictures and videos with friends and family without sending bulky email or waiting for lengthy uploads. Additionally, GlooNet includes features for enabling mobile phones to be used as wireless MP3 players without the need for significant local storage capacity."
gizmag
RFID in the home
TAGGED! Stolen Things. "The installation consists of a large shelf and tagged everyday objects in it. When one of the objects is placed in the central empty cubicle of the shelf, associated information (picture, movieclip, sound or music collages) are being displayed on the screen above."
we make money not art
November 14, 2005
Online "exercise"
Marathon at a keystroke. "Virtual Marathon is a game designed to let the players gain a new perspective of the Internet. The players become ‘virtual runners’ and run through different game servers hosted physically around the world. Through the course of running, the players running speed changes with the different servers. The players feel their (physical) relationship with the different web servers. Location becomes apparent, instead of being flat and smooth, Internet becomes a textured space."
we make money not art
November 11, 2005
Personal photo booth
Kids Poloroid Booth-Bring on the Fun. "It’s got a little mirror and comes with a timer and flash for the same type of booth photos you know and love. Of course, the pics you get are on the tiny iZone film, and will only be one-inch by one-inch, but they can be made into stickers, so it’s all worth it. Comes with a roll of film, though it looks like it only uses the older iZone film, not the newer iZone 200, making it harder to find."
Gizmodo
November 10, 2005
Buying books by the page
Amazon to sell chapters of books. "Online retailer Amazon.com has unveiled "two innovative programmes" to allow readers to access parts of books rather than buying the complete work. It says Amazon Pages will let customers purchase online "just the pages needed" be it a section or chapter, while still offering the whole book up for sale. And a second scheme, called Amazon Upgrade, will also allow online access to those buying a hard copy of a book. "
BBC NEWS
Collaborative audio annotating
On the BBC Annotatable Audio project.. "This post concerns an experimental internal-BBC-only project designed to allow users to collectively describe, segment and annotate audio in a Wikipedia-style fashion."
plasticbag.org
Teen publishing
Pew study: Kids remix like hell. "American teenagers today are utilizing the interactive capabilities of the internet as they create and share their own media creations. Fully half of all teens and 57% of teens who use the internet could be considered Content Creators. They have created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations. Teens are often much more enthusiastic authors and readers of blogs than their adult counterparts. Teen bloggers, led by older girls, are a major part of this tech-savvy cohort. Teen bloggers are more fervent internet users than non-bloggers and have more experience with almost every online activity in the survey."Boing Boing
Phone TV
New Nokia N92 - World's First Mobile With a Built-in DVB-H. "Users can set reminders to watch their favorite TV programs, create personal channel lists and subscribe to TV channel packages. The Electronic Service Guide (ESG) contains information about the available TV channels, programs and services. Other mobile TV features include watching time of up to four hours, recording and 30 seconds replay. The Nokia N92 is also an XpressMusic device, with up to 2 GB memory card support, offering storage for up to 1500 songs delivered through the built-in stereo speakers or a stereo headset. "
I4U News
Posting TV online
Must-Surf TV. "Starting Monday, November 7, the executives behind the NBC Nightly News want you to feel free to change the channel. Not to a competing newscast, mind you, but to their own newscast online at MSNBC.com. This offering will make NBC the first network to provide an entire newscast online. It will available 10 p.m. EST on the day of the broadcast. To long-time Web viewers, this news might sound, well, not particularly newsworthy. But in the tradition-bound world of major television network executives, it's a bold step."Tech Review
Archives of content online
The BBC's programme catalogue (on Rails). "In the early part of next year, you can look forward to a public beta with extensive programme details and broadcast histories. There are "On This Day" schedules that go back to 1933. It's got full contributor histories, and Really Good Search. I can't begin to describe the depth of this dataset - it had an entry for the one time in the 1990s when my dad was on local TV news as a spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council. The cataloguers have worked hard on this stuff for years, and it deserves a wide audience."
hackdiary
November 09, 2005
Built-in computing
JackPC, the in-wall thin-client. "It’s probably not going to do you a whole load of good around the house, but a company by the name of Chip PC’s apparently working on a very small AMD Alchemy-based in-wall thin-client PC device that runs Windows CE called the JackPC. The specs aren’t too terribly important since all the real computing is done on the server end (ok, fine, it’s got a 333 or 500MHz CPU, 64 or 128MB of RAM, DVI out, 4 USB 2.0 ports, and power over Ethernet support)"
Engadget
Media through Bluetooth
Music trial taps into Bluetooth. "Handset maker Nokia and music label EMI have started a project to let coffee shop customers listen to music sent to their phone via Bluetooth. As well as music, customers will be able to get hold of ringtones, wallpaper, video clips and vouchers. The first free tests of the service will be in six coffee shops and music stores in Helsinki, Finland. "
BBC NEWS
November 08, 2005
Divergent display sizes
The Extra-Large, Ultra-Small Medium. "Technology tends to shrink. Hulking mainframes begat slim laptops; boxy mobile phones and digital cameras have dematerialized into silvery credit cards. But something curious is happening to television: it's simultaneously growing gigantic and minuscule, stretching across living room walls at the same time it slips into pockets. People can brag about their 60-inch plasma screens and their palm-size nanocasters in the same breath."
New York Times (may require free subscription)
Wireless toys
TileToy. "By arranging the electronic TileToy, users can play different games, ranging from fast-paced arcade style games to puzzle or learning games. Compared to traditional tile games, TileToy can avail itself of changing-state strategies, animations and games where the tiles can effect the state of adjoining tiles. The re-programmable and constantly updated graphical information on each tile is displayed with a LED matrix system. Each tile is controlled individually and transmit information on its own or in groups of several tiles, e.g. for scrolling text. The tiles snap onto each other magnetically and communicate wirelessly with the help of built-in transmitters and receivers. The assembled tiles are "aware" of their individual position in relation to each other."
we make money not art
November 03, 2005
My TV show
Telecommuting Video Blog. "This guy, Ravi Jain, is shooting a weekly video blog from the driver's seat of his car during his daily commutes between Jamaica Plains and Allston, MA (or five hours of "studio time," as he puts it). He has guests on (who are bumming rides), and when his wife commutes with him, they do a "Regis and Kelly" type show (or at least that's how Ravi fancies it), with some "marital banter to start the show" (oh joy!)."
Boing Boing
Heavy media consumption
and PCs 'take over US homes'. "The average American spends more time using media such as TV and the internet than sleeping, a study has found. US researchers found that Americans spend nine hours a day watching TV, using the web or talking on a mobile. One-third of that time is devoted to using two or more media at once, noted Bob Papper, a Ball State University professor who co-authored the report. "
BBC NEWS
Living off virtual worlds
Picturing online gaming's value. "One player he met in the virtual world, Second Life, earns $70,000 a year creating female avatar clothing, he says. Another player, Mark (aka Marcos Fonzarelli in Second Life) has turned himself into a "robot tailor", designing robot costumes that characters can wear. Admittedly, it is a niche market, says Mark, but he still earns $250 a month. "
BBC NEWS
November 01, 2005
Feeling music
Speaker helps deaf to 'feel' music. "Product designer Shane Kerwin has created a device that allows deaf people to "feel" music with their fingertips through an audio speaker. With Vibrato, a speaker is connected to five different finger pads. When music is played, it sends different vibrations to each of the finger pads, allowing the wearer to feel the difference between notes, rhythms and instrument combinations."
we make money not art
Wall-sized displays
UC Irvine’s monster HIPerWall monitor. "To save you a trip to the calculator, the HIPerWall (for Highly Interactive Parallelized display) measures 192-inches diagonally and sports a maximum resolution of 25,600 x 8000—so although this enormous setup was designed with medical, meteorological, and military uses in mind, all we can think about is the number of Dashboard widgets we could cram in."
Engadget
Online creativity
Soundjunction. "Young people in the UK are being given the opportunity to create and remix music in order to inspire them to learn more about different types of music. The website, Soundjunction, has extensive video clips and audio for teenagers to listen to. In addition, there is some original music created for the site by Jason Yard, Tunde Jegede and David Horn. "
PSFK
Physical interaction
Tiles as graspable window for digital information. "Tagged transparent acrylic tiles are embedded with RFID tags. These tiles serve both as physical windows for digital information and to trigger specific actions (to launch an application, or submit a query) when placed on a sensor-enhanced display surface. When a tile is placed on the tray, its associated function is automatically triggered. For example, placing a weather tile onto the tray retrieves the current weather forecast information from the Internet and displays the processed results on the region of the screen under the tile."
we make money not art
October 26, 2005
39 megapixels enough for you?
Kodak announces 39 megapixel CCD. "much will 39 megapixels run you? No pricing is out yet, but Phase One’s current top model, the 22 megapixel P25, goes for about $30,000. That puts it at over $1,300 per megapixel, so don’t be surprised to see the P45 going for as much as $50K."
Engadget
Leisure GPS
SureShotGPS brings GPS to golf course worldwide. "The SureShot has a 2.2-inch display, can hold data for 10 courses at once, and syncs with a PC via USB. The device will initially come preloaded with maps of a handful of Australian courses. The company aims to have all of Australia’s major courses added to a web site for free downloading within six months; international courses will follow"
Engadget
Exercising for entertainment
The EnterTrainer Excer-Tainment Accessory. "The EnterTrainer comes with a wireless strap-on heart rate monitor. The devices monitors you target heart rate. If you start missing the goal the volume of the remote controlled TV is going down. If you are not getting back inside the target the TV switches off, and the EnterTrainer gadget has won."
I4U News
October 25, 2005
SMS from any device
Send SMS Messages Via TV With Your Remote Control (Mobile). " new SMS service sends text messages from TV to cell phone or from TV to TV. Infobank, a mobile solution developer announced the launch of Message on TV, the SMS based on interactive digital data broadcasting service."Lockergnome
Casual gaming
Airtime. "Casual games have a few general principles, but the most important is simplicity. They’re games that are easy to learn, easy to play, and are well-suited to short bursts of gameplay rather than long sessions. They’re also suited to the physical characteristics of mobile handsets. Analyst firm NPD Group, which referred to mobile gaming recently as a “digital snack,” says the limited screen size and navigation options of phones make casual games a good fit."
Gizmodo
Selling your videos
3 UK lets cell users make, sell videos. "The smallest of Britain's five mobile phone network operators said on Tuesday that customers could now use their mobile phone to make a 30 second video and upload it onto a "See Me TV" channel for others to view. Each time a clip is downloaded by one of 3 UK's 3.2 million customers, the performer gets paid one penny. "Reuters.com
More "future wireless" technologies
'4G' Leapfrogs Next-Gen Wireless. "Whether it's Flash-OFDM, UMTS TDD, WiMAX or some other impressive-sounding acronym or buzzword, experts promise that such "4G" wonders will finally bring broadband mobility to the general public. "There are a lot of exciting possibilities out there," said Max Weise, a principal at Adventis, a global consulting firm. "You could have your personal media repository that you use at home and on the road. Or handheld devices could control things at home, such as your TiVo." "
Wired News
Easier to make a wi-fi cloud in rural areas
America's biggest Wi-Fi cloud is in rural Oregon. "While cities around the country are battling over plans to offer free or cheap Internet access, this lonely terrain is served by what is billed as the world's largest hotspot, a wireless cloud that stretches over 700 square miles of landscape so dry and desolate it could have been lifted from a cowboy tune."Boing Boing
30% of Americans are early adopters
Early adopters go mainstream. "Early adopters are the object of affection for technology and consumer electronics companies. They are also a lot more common than you might think, according to a study done by USA Today and market research firm Claritas. That research shows that 29 percent of US households are early adopters when it comes to technology, and that early adopters live in some surprising places--Kentucky, Iowa, and Minnesota, to name a few."Ars Technica
October 21, 2005
Video participation
BBC To Start Using Viewers 3G Comments. "The BBC is trialling a new video messaging system for the venerable Match of the Day football show. Called 'Your Shout!', the system lets football fans send in 3G video messages with their opinions on the crucial England internationals and during Football Focus broadcasts. The best content will then be broadcast on live TV during and after the matches, which are being covered live on Match of the Day."
PSFK
Non-US cellphone innovation
Samsung demos 3D camera, display for cellphones. "Samsung recently demonstrated a working concept that incoporates stereoscopic cameras and a 3D-capable display directly into a cellphone, allowing for a more lifelike rendition of the subject. The stereo cams work under the same principle as human eyesight, while a parallax barrier LCD display gives on-screen images more depth and robustness. The new camera setup and displays should start appearing on foreign handsets next year, by which time we’ll hopefully be seeing 3 megapixel phones with optical zooms here in the technologically-backwards US."
Engadget
Connecting people through clothes
Empathy Vest. "The garment allowed for the transmission of data that was converted into sensory affect. Two touch sensors and one voice relay sensor, gave the wearer a sense of experiencing informational stimulus mapped onto the body through the output modes – 4 x light channels and 1 x fan. These sensory impacts on the body questioned whether the fact that the wearer can feel the physical stimulus could make him/her develop an empathic connection with the remote space or person(s) from which the signals were being received."
networked_performance
Total multimedia control
Tactic m2 video mixing instrument. "The m2 tactile console combines video triggering, scratching, source mixing and live camera manipulation, plus control over a slew of onboard effects. The control interface is intended to inspire creative multimedia performance via hardware and software integration, connecting to a Macintosh for processing and performance in real-time."
Engadget
October 20, 2005
Feeds of video
Subscribe to free, del.icio.us video in iTunes. "Two great tastes that taste great together: now that del.icio.us offers feeds by filetype and iTunes has full video support (including “vodcasts,” or video podcasts), you can load up iTunes with free video files bookmarked and tagged in del.icio.us."
Lifehacker
Audio books - direct to phone
A Marriage of Bookshelf and Phone. "Last week, though, commuters, exercisers and people sitting around for jury duty gained an ingenious new audio alternative: books on phone. Its actual name is Audible Air, and it's a way to download spoken recordings from Audible.com to the Palm Treo cellphone and other wireless gadgets - over the air, wherever you happen to be. But to appreciate its significance, you must first understand how Audible works."
New York Times (may require free subscription)
October 18, 2005
Location-based podcasts
Placing Voices. "Placing Voices, by Brian House, is a mobile-sound-blog software which uses the built-in sound recording feature of mobile phones (which is optimized for voice) and MMS messaging to place these fragments on a web-accessible map of the city as they occur. The objective is to express a map in terms of these experiences, to restore some claim to my memory of physical spaces over the transient voices heard within them."
networked_performance
Online game addiction
Are multiplayer online games more compelling, more addictive?. "Most players become intensely involved in the challenge of the game for a while, but eventually tire of it and move on to some other activity. But for a small minority, obsession with these games can lead to bad habits or worse. Some players have been known to avoid eating and sleeping for many hours at a stretch while lost inside the game. In August, a South Korean in his 20s died after he spent 50 hours, taking only short breaks, playing an online game at an Internet cafe."
csmonitor.com
Hacking together public media
Drive-on Movie Magic. "By attaching a video projector to the roof, hood or front your automobile, and popping a DVD player, or even a Mac mini in your car stereo slot, you may project your favorite flick onto the wall of your choice. Hell, why not invite a couple of friends, and use some kind of FM transmitting device to broadcast the sound over to their boogie-vans, too?"
Sponbustion
October 14, 2005
Technology taking up your time
Young Males Leave The Flicks. "In a survey of 2,000 moviegoers by OTX, an online research company based in Los Angeles, American men under 25 said they had seen 24 percent fewer movies this summer than they did in the summer of 2003, when the same study was last conducted... Instead, young men aged 13 to 25 reported that they were busy surfing the Web, instant-messaging with friends and playing video games on consoles like PlayStation 2 and Xbox. "PSFK
User-generated TV
MTV Creates User-Generated Channel. ""We are handing over an entire channel online to college students and everyone who wants new music. mtvU Uber gives them the power to create and program their own channel, and will remain in perpetual beta mode as they experiment and pioneer the digital future.""
PSFK
Other ways of distributing songs
New Record Label: Starbucks. "Does Apple's iTunes hold the key to the future of music distribution? Or does Starbucks with its Hear Music burning stations?"PSFK:
October 13, 2005
Broadcasting to those around you
Philips “Tune In” concept allows for anonymous music-sharing. "The “Tune In” is a flash-based player that both broadcasts its signal to nearby Tune In devices and can recieve tracks the same way. Philips envisions users becoming their own tiny radio stations, sharing their playlists on the subway, in the library, anywhere people congregate."
Engadget
October 12, 2005
Helping with tagging
Tagging Help With Tagyu. "The basic premise of Tagyu is to let other people help you tag your content. Tagyu compares what you’re writing to what other people around the web are writing. It looks at how they’ve tagged their content and uses that information to give you some ideas about how to tag yours."
Lifehacker
October 10, 2005
Environmentally sensitive furniture
Intelligent Illumination. "This lamp shade, designed by Philips, changes to match any color you expose to it. How smart! The Chameleon has a built in camera that can copy the color of any object you show it, like this tie for example, just by approaching its sensors."
PSFK
Gesture-accompanied singing
HandySinger. "The HandySinger system is a tool developed at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories to naturally express a singing voice controlled by the gestures of a hand puppet. A singing voice morphing algorithm smoothes out the strength of expressions delivered with a singing voice. "
we make money not art
October 07, 2005
Content providers as "virtual operators"
Airtime . "ESPN and other big brands don’t want to take a backseat to mobile operators, and they certainly don’t want to get into the business of buying spectrum and building out their own wireless networks. Their strengths are in content and marketing, not setting up and maintaining a cellular network. So they become a virtual operator—they buy airtime wholesale from a traditional carrier, then package it, market it and sell it however they want."
Gizmodo
Flash memory replacing hard drives?
In a Flash, Hard-Drive Memory Fading. ""Flash-device sales will surpass hard-drive sales," Jupiter Research analyst David Card says. "But the technology is not important. What's important is reaching a certain capacity at a certain price point at a certain size." "EWeek
Digital music purchasing hits maintream
Digital music revenue 'triples'. "Digital music sale revenue tripled in the first half of 2005 compared with 2004, figures have suggested. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) estimated 6% of record industry sales were digital, worth $790m (?450m). "
BBC NEWS
Video search & browse
New Video Search Sites Offer Glimpse of Future TV. "The most recent version of this customized Internet TV idea comes from Blinkx, a San Francisco online search company that plans to activate MyBlinkx TV today at www.blinkxTV.com. The site is supposed to work much like a standard search engine, prompting users to type words or phrases into a search box. But when the user types in, say, "big wave surfing," instead of displaying links to Web pages, the site starts rolling a string of video clips most relevant to that topic. Users can fast-forward, rewind, pause the video and click a button to save the channel. When they return to it, the technology refreshes the channel with newer, more relevant clips."
New York Times
Ambient devices
Sharing memories. "Momento makes it easier to share video memories. The glass ball will "wake up" when approached and play its store of movie clips when a person reaches out to pick it up. To change from one clip to another, simply shake the glass ball and its sensors will detect the movement prompting the existing clip to dissolve and another one to appear in its place."
we make money not art
October 06, 2005
Centralizing the features for all your appliances
Professor Wants to Put Your Toaster on the Internet. "Wang's idea is to connect inexpensive, reconfigurable, "dumb" appliances to a central operation center that provides “smart control agents” (autonomous software algorithms). Each appliance has just enough memory space and processing power to host one or two control agents for specific functions. Take a VCR, for instance. If you want it to record, it will send a request to the central computer asking for the control agent that does the recording at the speed you specify. When it's done recording, the VCR deletes the control agent for recording and asks for a control agent that will rewind and play the tape. By parsing the functions, the VCR needs much less computing power and can be upgraded with software. The only time you need to buy a new one is when there is a major hardware upgrade and the new VCR will be less expensive because it won't contain a huge amount of computing muscle."
university of Arizona
October 05, 2005
Unique ringtones
WolframTones. "WolframTones (tones.wolfram.com) are dynamically generated ring tones as unique as a snowflake. Using a basic program that generates a style of music - rock, swing, classical, rap - and a set of data, WolframTones creates a new piece of music every time it is run. The core concept in Mr. Wolfram's area of expertise, cellular automata, is that simple rules beget great complexity."
New York Times
October 04, 2005
Networked televisision
Toshiba’s LCD TVs with Ethernet. "Toshiba has just announced a new lineup of LCD TVs that incorporate Ethernet ports for Video on Demand services. These Japan-only sets will come in 32, 37, 42, and 47-inch flavors, with the three biggest screens sporting 1920 x 1080 resolutions and dual-digital-tuner picture-in-picture. The big draw here, though, is the 4500 on demand movies and 50 video channels that will be available to NTT broadband subscribers. "
Engadget
Bringing back old content for enthusiasts
Information Design Classic Back In Print After Two Centuries. "While until now bringing to the press again an out-of-print book meant only spending more money, today, thanks to power of the infinite shelf-space offered by online clearinghouses like Amazon, the market is re-defined by user preferences and recommendations, search and affinity engines, and by the negligible costs of digital printing and inclusion in online virtual catalogs. "Lockergnome
Renting the contents of your PVR
Rent my DVR. "Rent my DVR is an online marketplace for buying and selling TV programming. Buyers can scan online listings of available shows and download them via a proprietary P2P application for about 25 cents a pop. Providers in turn receive a 25 cent payment for delivering shows. "
Engadget
Streaming audio to your phone
Airtime. "Sprint’s had a lot of announcements in this area in the last few weeks, with services on the way from well-known brands like Sirius and Rhapsody. Some radio stations, like the UK’s Virgin, are developing their own custom applications to allow people to listen live over mobile networks. Meanwhile the rise of 3G in Europe sees more and more users listening in on stations’ existing Web streams. "
Gizmodo
Homebrew technology
Hi-tech DIY to solve local problems. ""By personal fabrication, what I mean is ordinary people creating, rather than consuming technology, creating technology to solve local problems," Gershenfeld says. "
BBC NEWS
October 03, 2005
Things that live in the network
Network organism. "Nomen Nominandum, an organism that can live and grow for several years, floats around on the school network. If you call for it by voice or mouse movement it may come to your machine. If you play with it in the right way it will stay until it gets bored. At night, it sleeps curled up on its secluded plasma screen. It has real-time moods, sleeps in on Mondays and may decide to go away for a month in January. Its growth is very slow and as with living things you may never see it grow, but rather remember that it looked completely different some years ago."
we make money not art
Blogs for advice
Shoppers use blogs for bargains. "Consumers are starting to use weblogs, or blogs, as guides to what they should and shouldn't buy, finds a survey. More than three-quarters of those questioned in the research said they had consulted blogs before shopping. "
BBC NEWS
Interactive 3D theater
Laptop illusions add extra dimension to live theatre. "3D technology currently used in the theatre is pre-recorded so every show is identical. Bogglevision, developed by Teesside company Amazing Interactives, allows the technology to adapt to whatever happens on the night. In Horrible Histories, as characters on stage search for a missing book, a member of the audience is asked their name and sees it appear instantly in a 3D book that suddenly floats, dancing in space, in front of them. "
we make money not art
Smart building skins
aperture. "Each single aperture and all the apertures as entity "see" what happens on the inside of the facade and react accordingly: like the human eye‘s iris and the iris diaphragm of the objective, they react to light, widening and contracting according to the intensity of incoming light. If no human activity is to be distinguished on the inside, a "memory" mode recalls images and abstract animations captured throughout the day and displays them."
we make money not art
Hi-fidelity projection
Like High-Def? Here Comes the Next Level. "The high-speed network will feed the data to a state-of-the-art Sony video projector that displays so-called 4K digital video, with images that are about 4,000 pixels across. When it is uncompressed at the receiving end, the video stream contains more than six billion bits per second. "New York Times
Drawing on digital photos
Memorylane and Okitegami. "morylane, by Ryo Sanpei, Sadamitsu Azuma, Akiyuki Kayama, Yumiko Yoshimoto, and Naohito Okude, is a picture frame for digital photos, which allows users to draw on digital photos and exchange them with friends. The demo video illustrates a cute episode of a boy and a girl making up using memorylane. "
we make money not art
September 28, 2005
Centralizing everything in your blog
Project Comet. "Community Aggregation: Gives you the ability to create individual blogs and share sections of them with other users in an elegant and customizable way. Multiple Streams: Provides a single place to keep everything that is important to you. A record of your life is created by incorporating streams from various media, like music, photos, videos and other blogs into a single customized blog with an identity of its own. "
Six Apart
Tracking you in virtual space
VirtuSphere Immersive Virtual Reality. "The device consists of a large hollow sphere which is mounted on a specially designed platform that allows the sphere to rotate freely as the user walks in any direction. The user wears a head-mounted display, which provides the virtual environment. Sensors under the sphere provide subject speed and direction to the computer running the simulation. Users can even ineract with objects in virtual space using a special manipulator." "
Usability In The News
Adapting old games for new platforms
BREW-ing Up DoomRPG. "Got a hot cellphone that can run Java or BREW apps? Then you know you need DoomRPG, a turn-based role playing version of the popular Doom series. It looks extremely well done and is designed to play like everyone’s favorite favorite FPS. You can get UAC credits and buy ammo and health, interact with scientists, and level up your character."
Gizmodo
Checking and deleting P2P software
Anti-music swapping tool launched. "The International Federation of Phonographic Industries has released Digital File Check to help people remove unwanted file-sharing programs. The program is also designed to help firms detect if staff are using work computers for illegal file swapping. "
BBC NEWS
The return of journal view?
Onlife. "Onlife is an application for the Mac OS X that observes your every interaction with sofware applications such as Safari, Mail and iChat and then creates a personal shoebox of all the web pages you visit, emails you read, documents you write and much more. Onlife then indexes the contents of your shoebox, makes it searchable and displays all the interactions between you and your favorite apps over time."
Onlife
September 27, 2005
Simple 3D drawing
"Magical Tools" for 3D Drawing and Painting. "Teddy is one of the most well-known works of his, which allows users to create 3D models just by drawing freeform strokes. Such a 3D authoring method could allow anyone to create 3D objects and effectively support creative processes of making 3D characters and objects. Look what kids made using Magical Sketch 2. "
we make money not art
September 26, 2005
TV over IP
Reinventing TV: Network TV Signs Off. Networked TV Logs On.. "Plugging TV into IP rather than into a terrestrial cable system or a fleet of geosynchronous satellites, could redeem - or at least reinvigorate - the medium. The hermetically sealed world of television is about to be cracked open and rewired, transformed into an open publishing platform as a variety of new devices and services emerge to make independent video content easier - and perhaps even profitable - to produce and distribute to smaller subsets of the population. "Release 1.0
Toys that support storytelling
The recording toy car. "The HotCam is a manual control toy car with an onboard video camera and microphone. The car enables children to record certain "scenes" in their own stories. They can then "play" the captured scenes through a TV, re-experience their stories and share them with parents, siblings and friends in a similar way to something as traditional and tangible as a painted picture or clay model. When the push button on top of the car is ON the headlights and rear lights come on and the car is recording. When the button is OFF the lights go off and the camera is not recording."
we make money not art
Big pixels on buildings
Light Emitting Roof Tiles. "Lambert Kamps's Light emitting roof tiles allows you to add huge texts, animations and logos on the roof of your building. The translucent polyester roof tiles are illuminated with LEDs and each tile can act as a pixel and be controlled by a PC. "
we make money not art
September 21, 2005
Growth in home storage
Ten million U.S. households will have a networked storage device by 2010. "Storage and Management for the Connected Home identified several factors that are driving this market, including declining price, the entry of major hard drive and home networking companies, consumer awareness campaigns sponsored by these vendors, the emergence of system-on-a-chip solutions, and better designed software solutions."gizmag
IM bots for information
TV listings IM bot. "Search the BBC 7-day TV listings with your IM client, and get SMS reminders sent to your phone. "
BBC backstage
Mobile storage in the car
VW adds USB in armrest. "Up to six music folders can be displayed as CDs one to six on the radio or navigation system screen. Any information that has been stored for the music files – for example, the number of the song and the timer – will be displayed. The scan, search and shuffle functions can be selected using the radio buttons as you would for CDs. "
Boing Boing
A digital camera in the eye
'Bionic eye' has potential to cure blindness. "SCOTTISH scientists are developing an electronic implant that will be capable of curing two of the most common forms of blindness. Dr Keith Mathieson, from Glasgow University's Department of Physics, is using digital camera technology to create the 'bionic eye'. He has developed a microchip that can replicate the role played by the retina, the sensitive lining at the back of the eye that converts light into a signal that is sent to the brain. The implant would allow doctors to restore the sight of more than 800,000 people in the UK."Scotsman.com
Interfacing through gesture
Waving at TV changes channels. "The device clips onto your hand to operate the TV with simple hand gestures and short-range wireless technology. Specific gestures are still being developed but a palm-up or palm-down gesture could mean fast-forward and rewind, while hand-up could change the channel up and hand-down could change channels down."
we make money not art
Launching a career online
Chinese pop idol thrives online. "Budding popstars are trying to make a name for themselves in China with just a laptop, headphones and a lip-mike. And it has worked for Xiang Xiang, China's number one internet pop star. "
BBC NEWS
Location awareness in the home
Nukunukukey. "The Peltier device produces 3 different levels of heat according to how many people are present in a house. The LED emits light differently according to people's locations in the house -- whether they are in a living room, a kitchen, or a dining room. An apron-shaped device was also conceptualized for sending yes/no questions (such as "Will you have dinner at home?" or "Are you coming back home today?") to a nukunukukey. "
we make money not art
Changing your photo after the event
Fail-Proof Focus. "Tired of blurry photographs? Ren Ng, a computer science graduate student at Stanford University, has developed a digital camera and software that allow photographers to refocus images after they have been taken."
Tech Review
September 20, 2005
Digital music creation
Scrapple. "In Scrapple, object placed on the table become sound-producing elements that determine the score's rhythm and pitch. They are interpreted as sound-producing marks in an active score: flexible shape-holding curves allow for the creation of melodies, a group of small toys and other moving objects yield ever-changing rhythms. Video projections on the table turn the installation into a simple augmented reality, in which the objects are elaborated through colorful and explanatory graphics."
networked_performance
Shaped displays
large cylinder display device for browsing the Web. "The device connects to the Internet and fetches Flash, image and text files based on certain time-varying constraints as well as users' keyword search queries. It then shows the fetched information on the cylinder display and reads relevant text information with a synthesized voice. "
we make money not art
September 16, 2005
Video Jockeys
Radio 1 Superstar VJS - Creative Archive Licence trial. "For the first time in our history the BBC is opening its video archives to the UK public. Download nearly 100 clips especially chosen with VJ's in mind. We've scoured the archives for skylines, sunsets, seascapes, wildlife, time-lapse photography & retro gadgets. We will be adding new clips/programmes and launching a major VJ based competition over the next few months so keep coming back for the latest updates. "
BBC
Projectors augmenting reality
Augmented carnage. "The remote-controlled vehicles scurry around, while status circles and other data are projected on the surface. As the vehicle moves, cameras and photo-detectors relay the movement to tracking software. Images are projected to the areas corresponding to the actual positions and directions of the toys: virtual laser beams and missiles appear to fly out of the real vehicles; explosions are overlayed on the screen as they connect with their targets. "
we make money not art
General gesture control
Audiosensor turns your table into an AV controller. "this Audiosensor by Tona Interactive will make us look like wizards of home theater, as it allows you to control audio, video and other electronic components via hand movements on the surface of something like a table. The unit translates your hand signals into remote control programming commands — who needs a scroll wheel when you can just wax on/wax off your coffee table to control your tunes?"
Engadget
Neighborhood exploration
Exploring the City with Digi-Diviner. "Participants will provide their cell phone and email address to an attendant at a kiosk. In return, they will be given a digi-diviner to walk and explore the neighborhood. A minute or so after they go outside a real time mix of sound art and verbal information triggered by their location will start to play through an earbud attached to the diviner. The information is a mix of recordings of residents and historians, text-to-speech synthesis, recitations, musique, and other processed sound."
networked_performance
WORKING flexible display concept
READIUS ‘Rollable Display’ pocket e-Reader concept at IFA 2005. "The Readius is the world’s first prototype of a functional electronic-document reader that can unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. With four gray levels, the monochrome, 5-inch QVGA (320 pixels x 240 pixels) display provides paper-like viewing comfort with a high contrast ratio for reading-intensive applications, including text, graphics, and electronic maps."
gizmag
Physical interactions
Memory Ball Alarm and Radio. "...at each intersection of the quilted grid on top of the radio, is actually a preset radio station. You change the station by rolling the magnetized ball to another grid intersection."
Gizmodo
Analyzing song similarity
Pandora. "Pandora is a music recommendation engine with a twist -- instead of making recommendations based on statistical similarities between people's tastes, Pandora makes recommendations based on the musical characteristics of a model song or artist. The interface is clean and smart and it's already introduced me to a couple of bands I'd never heard of."Futurismic
Cameraphones no threat to real cameras
Camera phones boosting digital camera sales-study. "Mobile phones equipped with tiny cameras are seen as less of a threat to replace digital cameras as camera prices fall, IDC said in its Mobile Imaging Survey. In fact the report said new phones help to introduce users to digital photography, which uses no film and allow pictures to be e-mailed. "Reuters.com
August 30, 2005
RFID for testing architecture
U.K. family agrees to RFID monitoring. For science, of course.. "A British family has agreed to have their activities monitored via RFID tags while they occupy a new smart home, in order to provide data to the builder, which will use the info to make future home-building decisions. As family members move from room to room, 26 sensors will track their locations, giving the builder a better idea of whether, say, anyone is actually using the hot tub or playing table tennis in the garage."
Engadget
Live TV online
BBC TV channels to be put on net. "The BBC's TV channels will be made available on the internet, BBC Director General Mark Thompson has confirmed. He announced plans for the MyBBCPlayer - which will allow viewers to legally download seven days of programmes [...]. A simulcast of BBC One or BBC Two, letting UK viewers see programmes on the web at the same time as they go out on TV, is also planned as part of MyBBCPlayer . "
BBC NEWS
GPS in cellphones
Roamin' Holiday. "Imagine leaving your car at home and networking with other GPS-phone users to form impromptu car pools, or receiving Web pages on your phone about Pickett's ill-fated charge as you amble up Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg. Geo-aware devices that trigger location-specific services will become as natural as the very idea of wirelessness, and the Web itself will cease to be a placeless cyberspace and will be pinned at millions of points to the physical world we inhabit. "
Tech Review
More recording space
Hitachi’s DV-DH1000W, a terabyte hi-def DVR with DVD recorder. "Hitachi’s new DV-DH1000W records up to 68 hours of hi-def video (or 1700 hours of standard def) on its sizable 1000GB array—we’re assuming it’s an array since 1TB drives haven’t hit the street yet—and also features a DVD burner for flushing it all out."
Engadget
Legitimate music sharing
Downloading Disrupted. "PlayLouder have signed a deal with Sony-BMG, one of the biggest record companies in the world, that will allow PlayLouder members to download music and then share it with their peers. The PlayLouder software analyses the sharing and works out what songs are being shared and how frequently. They then pay a fee based on this to the record label that owns the songs rights. This business model is truly revolutionary. It allows users to continue file sharing and actively encourage this whilst satisfying the record labels by compensating them based on actual figures. "
PSFK
Artists encouraging remixing
Beastie Boys release vocals-only tracks to encourage remixers. "The Beastie Boys are posting acapella tracks -- just the vocals, in other words, along with BPM info -- from their songs and encouraging their fans to make noncommercial remixes of them. A new track goes live every Friday. "
Boing Boing
New music publishing models
Warner Music readies CD-free 'e-label'. "Warner Music Group is creating a new music-distribution mechanism that will rely on digital downloads instead of compact discs. Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music's chairman and CEO, said Monday that the new mechanism will be called an "e-label," in which artists will release music in clusters of three songs every few months rather than a CD every few years."CNET News.com
More online borrowing
Online librarian is 'overwhelmed'. "The website asks its members to add a list of 10 books they own to its online catalogue. The listed books can then be exchanged between members for the cost of postage and packing. "
BBC NEWS
Mainstream P2P
File Share and Share Alike. "To publicize its new series "Gilgamesh" and "Goddanar," it is releasing promotional packages - not in stores, but via the dreaded BitTorrent. "BitTorrent has been used extensively in a kind of underground environment up until now," said David Williams, a producer at ADV, in a telephone interview from the company's Houston headquarters. "There's a large group of people who have it on their systems. Since this core group already exists, we figured why not give them legitimate material to download that would help them learn about some of our products.""
New York Times
Physical and virtual connections
Real World Activities Effect Your Game Character. "This device has currently been prototyped using the RPG Morrowind. In usual circumstances, a player might make an avatar that is a fitter, stronger more attractive version of themselves. The G-Link reverses this and says if you sit in and play games all day, your character will be weaker, yet if you go out for a walk then your character will be stronger. Also if you go out in the sun your character will be light aligned, yet stay indoors and it will go over to the dark side."
networked_performance
Digital schools
Look, Ma, No Schoolbooks!. "Gypton said he assigns readings based on websites, lists postings to news articles, uses online groups and message boards to keep the students connected on weekends and asks them to comment on each other's work. "Wired News
Tiny flying things
Tiny robot plane flies indoors, transmits data. "Swiss researchers have demonstrated a flying bot with an 31-inch wingspan and a weight of just 1 ounce, that can fly indoors, avoiding walls and other objects via its onboard cameras. The robot plane has gyroscopic stabilizers and a Bluetooth transmitter to send data back to a nearby computer."
Engadget
August 25, 2005
Massively multiplayer games through the phone
Artificial Life announces First Massive Multi Player 3G Game. "Players of the game can select a virtual persona for themselves and inhabit and live in a simulated virtual city. When navigating through the virtual city, users can contact and interact directly with other players in real time, have live real time chats with other human players or chatter bots, enter and explore virtual buildings, use interactive objects and co-operate with others to solve certain tasks or to avoid certain threats."
gizmag
Virtual TV?
Gov't to push for virtual reality TV by 2020 - Japan's Leading International News Network. "The Japanese Communications Ministry is to establish a research group that will work to commercialize virtual reality television by 2020. VR TV will enable images to be seen in 3D from any angle at a quality equivalent to that offered by high-definition TVs, and allow viewers to feel and smell the objects they are watching."We make money not art
Anyone can start a music store
BurnLounge Makes Anyone a Music Download Retailer. "The Web-based service provides the music library, e-commerce tools and business management software for virtually anyone to own and operate their own digital download store. The company’s founders hope to recruit everyday music fans, allowing each to decide which acts they want to feature and promote, as a sort of digital guerrilla marketing play."
Realtech News
August 24, 2005
More 3D browsing
NTT 3D SpaceBrowser. "Japanese NTT is works on a 3D information browser that is scheduled to be released in October. The NTT SpaceBrowser shows web pages arranged in 3D. This is not a new concept, and I am still not convinced it makes sense to navigate information in 3D without having solved the 3D navigation user interface in general. The SpaceBrowser is nice to look at, but in my opinion just a toy."
I4U News
Collaborative comics
Panel Junction. "Panel Junction combines the graphic novel with forms of shared authorship, merging spontaneous drawing with scripting and direction from online visitors. Participants from around the world can contribute dialog, graphics, caricatures, fonts, narrative ideas, internal monologues, jokes, backgrounds, puns, story-boards, coloring, anecdotes, and sketches."
we make money not art
Wearable media
A Digital Locket to Love for Its Lovely Little Tricks. "Wearable MP3 players are nothing new, but the Digital Locket EMP-Z II Plus from BeatSounds tries to be more than just a memory chip on a string. This tiny music player has a small, oval color screen that can display a photo, bringing a 21st-century touch to the sentimental jewelry favored by romantics in the Victorian era and later."
New York Times (may require free subscription)
Downloadable TV
NerdTV. "PBS Launches NerdTV, the First Downloadable Web-Exclusive Series From a Major Broadcaster. A Whole New Kind Of Television For Niche Audiences. Beginning Sept. 6, PBS will make available - exclusively over the Internet - broadcast television's first entirely downloadable series, featuring PBS technology columnist and industry insider Robert X. Cringely's interviews with personalities from the ever-changing world of technology"
PBS
Mobile cameras
Camera Shoot. "In the near future, a soldier who needs a quick look over the next hill will be able to aim his rifle skyward, fire a grenade-sized reconnaissance device and instantly receive imagery on his pocket computer," writes Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome."
Defense Tech
Electronic books
Coming to campus: E-books with expiration dates. "Alongside the new and used versions of Dante's "Inferno" and "Essentials of Psychology" will be little cards offering 33 percent off if students decide to download a digital version of a text instead of buying a hard copy. That's not a bad deal for a cash-strapped student facing book bills in the hundreds of dollars. But there are trade-offs. The new digital textbook program imposes strict guidelines on how the books can be used, including locking the downloaded books to a single computer and setting a five-month expiration date, after which the book can't be read."CNET News.com
Internet TV
DTV Beta: Internet TV. "DTV is a new, free and open-source platform for internet television and video. An intuitive interface lets users subscribe to channels, watch video, and build a video library. Our publishing software lets you broadcast full-screen video to thousands of people at virtually no cost. The project is non-profit, free and open source, and built on open standards."
Lifehacker
People creating media
Citizens do media for themselves. "D Lasica's ourmedia is a place online where anyone can publish their own digital home movie, music, photos, or even plain old blog for free. [...] Since its inception in March 2005, not-for-profit Ourmedia has attracted more than 31,000 international members, and now plays host to 22,000 separate pieces of media, from travelogs to tastes of family life."
Smart Mobs
Reformatting RSS
Convert RSS to PDF. "RSS 2 PDF is a free online service that lets you turn an RSS or OPML newsfeed into a PDF. It’s lightning fast and creates a very readable and nicely formated PDF for your offline reading pleasure. [...] I can think of a few reasons to dig this. For example, linking type blogs that don’t utilize permalinks could use this to create a nice permanent content archive."Lifehacker
News by mood
Mood News. "Mood News started as an idea to represent the day's news as a sad or happy face. The current version provides a fresh view of the news with a dynamic interface. The ratings are based on keyword scoring from a vocabulary of 160 words and phrases."backstage.bbc.co.uk
Physical manipulation for organization
Interactions within a personal network of devices. "Exploring the Content Network, Thomas Stovicek's thesis project, is a a set of screen-based software and hardware interactions between devices that looks at new ways to access, view and filter this growing store of information. Devices are physically manipulated and keywords used to make a more intuitive way to access content- text, photos, videos etc."
we make money not art
Mixing up services
Koreans Find Secret Cybersauce. "There's more to online social networks than matchmaking, and South Korea's Cyworld is showing the way. The online service blends homepage building and social networking with a host of other online activities, including Sims-like role-playing."
Wired News
August 23, 2005
Smart toys
Heaven Seed. "Heaven Seed is a smart plastic ball that senses its movement and generates various sound effects in real time thereby enhances the game people play with it. The motion data sensed by the ball are wirelessly transmitted to a host computer to provide rich auditory experiences."
we make money not art
Messages in the furniture
SMS Controlled Spy-Mirror. "The messages appear as luminous text, running on the mirrors’ surface when one gets close to the mirror."
networked_performance
August 10, 2005
Video booths
MYSQ: Video Purikura. "MYSQ (My Style So Qute) is an interactive "video booth" for shooting 30-second movies that can be viewed on mobile phones. [...] The booth can accommodate up to three people so you can shoot Prikura style video clips with your friends. Inside the booth is a fluffy thing called a MYSQ ring - you wear it on your hand. A camera detects the movement of your MYSQ ring. Also, floor sensors detect your foot movement. So, the system can control video effects based on your (and your friends') hand/foot movement."
we make money not art
Playing with video
Shapeshifter. "Shapeshifter is an installation for busy streets. People interact by standing in front of the large screen. A camera records the user one slice at a time enabling the user to compose strange bodies. The various slices are recorded and stored for other people to play with."
we make money not art
Smaller chunks of content
Shorter, faster, smaller. "Music: Consumers are moving from albums to singles. TV: Networks are looking for short video that works as well online as on broadcast. Movies: Online distribution is creating a big new audience for short films. Videogames: Between cellphone games, "casual" web games and downloadable content, smaller games are on the rise. Magazines: Reflecting the pace of a browse-and-skim culture, articles are getting shorter."
Longtail Post
Printers that cut
CraftRobo Pro. "The craftrobo pro is a new inkjet printer sporting a built in cutting head which can spit out pre-cut patterns that fold into 3d objects. The craftrobo site features a library of downloadable patterns with novelties like robots, and dinosaurs..."
Gizmodo
Printing one-off books
Rewriting the rules of publishing. "...Mr Young's website - called Lulu - allows authors to upload their manuscripts onto the site, where they can be printed off and sold individually as and when wanted. The same principal applies to other creative works that can be loaded onto the Lulu site, such as music, photos, calendars, and videos."
BBC NEWS
Dedicated, location-based handhelds
Node Explorer upgrades GPS tourism with WiFi, Linux. "The unit, a prototype Node Explorer from Bath-based Node, is billed as a location-aware media player. Using GPS to get location data, the Linux-based, ruggedized unit communicates over WiFi with a nearby Node Server to present info on a location in realtime."
Engadget
August 08, 2005
Collaborating with video
Video making for children. "In Shooting mode, the users insert a token in the camera and record a shot. They place the camera on the table and the video is transferred wirelessly to the computer. Once removed from the camera, the tokens can be used as a composition element on the table and the resulting video clips can later be combined by the group to achieve a common outcome."
we make money not art
Reading quickly on the phone
Tech by Design: Rapid-Fire Reading on Your Cell Phone. "There's a possible solution to the problem that doesn't require devices with bigger displays. In fact, the displays could be even smaller than they are now. It's called "rapid serial visual presentation" (RSVP for short), and it involves displaying text one word at a time on a phone or handheld screen."
Mobile Magazine
Farming for virtual goods
Farming For Game Loot. "Gamer website 1UP.COM published a very interesting article recently about the 'farms' of workers that play online games to pick up objects and powers that can be traded in real-life for a lot of money. The article describes how some workers in China earn 56c an hour in "sweatshop conditions" whilst the manager makes a tidy profit trading items found in games."
PSFK
Fashionable hearing aids
Call for 'designer' hearing aids. "The ideas on display include a remote control to block out irritating sounds, a device to enable people to have a clear conversation in a noisy bar, and hearing aids designed as fashionable jewellery or must-have gadgets. Another concept, known as the Goldfish, instantly replays the previous 10 seconds of sound to the wearer in case they have failed to catch someone's name. It is based on the idea that goldfish only have 10 seconds of memory. "
BBC NEWS
August 06, 2005
Digital music mixing
iPod DJ Station is GO. "Big controls for iPod scroll wheel and transport buttons, Ins and outs for connecting other gear (like, say, a turntable?, 2-channel mixer, 3-band EQ, USB connection to Mac/PC; full docking support, S-Video out for iPod Photo, Recording support (in iPod)"
Gizmodo
Creative use of technology
Digital Citizens: The DIY DJs. "All this week the BBC News website is speaking to people whose creativity has been transformed in the digital age. From blogging to podcasting, millions of ordinary people are becoming writers, journalists, broadcasters and film-makers thanks to increasingly affordable and accessible tools."
BBC NEWS
Wi-fi ePaper
Now Hitachi’s talking up their WiFi e-paper. "...while it's not color like some of those other, fancier guys', Hitachi's 13.1-inch sheets do have a leg up with it's 100dpi definition and WiFi connectivity. Are we going to be reading our newspapers on these things next year?"
Engadget
Phones + location
BBC offers mobile seaside service. "Mobile phone users visiting Britain's seaside will soon be able to access local information via the BBC. By pointing their mobile phones at plaques placed in 100 coastal locations, people will be able to access material from the new BBC Two series Coast."
BBC NEWS
Physical interaction models
Book Radio. "Each page of the Book Radio represents a frequency. You flip pages to scan the frequency spectrum; open to a specific page to listen to a station; place the bookmark on a desired page to listen and store the station; and slide the bookmark up or down to control the volume. Besides you can scribble in it, place stickers or take notes while listening."
networked_performance
More fun with mirrors
Through the looking glass. "Through the looking glass is a system that allows a person to play a game with her/himself in a mirror. A full-body-action pong game can be played with the current installation, which provides the excitement of wining and losing at the same time, against oneself."
we make money not art
July 18, 2005
Tangible media
moo-pong. "...is a technology that allows people to capture, share and view video images using Tangible User Interface. When a camera captures video images, they are associated with physical tokens using RFID technology. "Users can edit and browse among moving images by dropping moo-balls into the moo-scope. Mirrors the in moo-scope produce visual effects like a kaleidoscope."
we make money not art
V-Blogging
Blogging + Video = Vlogging. "Bloggers who previously wrote endlessly about everything from politics to tech tips to how to fry an egg on a hot sidewalk can now take their commentary, advice and random experiments to the next level by filming and broadcasting their work, thanks to the latest web trend -- video blogging."
Wired News
Tangible interfaces to media
MusicCube. "Users can physically interact with their music collections via the MusicCube using gestures to shuffle music and a rotary dial with a button for song navigation and volume control."
we make money not art
Physical interactions
Living Jukebox. "The horizontal display provides a unified gateway to access music from different digital sources. To select the music, you just have to place a cursor object and move it on the surface of the display. Each object signifies a different way to browse the music collection, and the interface changes accordingly when a different object is placed onto the display."
we make money not art
July 16, 2005
Laptops instead of books
'Sims school' abandons books for laptops. "Instead of spending $600 per head on textbooks, Vail High School in Tucson will buy each of its 350 sophomores an $850 laptop. That shouldn't be too difficult - the school itself is located in a science park. But the Tucson school district's superinterindent, an enthusiastic technology evangelist called Calvin Baker, candidly admits he doesn't know quite how it will all work."The Register
Online news reading
South Korean's prefer to click. "This Taipei Times editorial looks at South Korean "readers,who once leafed through morning newspapers,now prefer to click on to major portals like naver.com, yahoo or daum.net, where they can peruse articles from dozens of newspapers listed under these portal sites."Smart Mobs
July 12, 2005
Selling your photos for news
the citizen journalist's photographic agency, selling mobile phone and digital camera pictures to the press and media.. "If you photograph a newsworthy event, you could have a valuable scoop on your hands. Scoopt represents you, making sure the right people see your photo and ensuring that you get a good deal."Scoopt
The market for Podcasts
Podcasting set for 'huge growth'. "Market researchers and analysts continue to buoy up podcasting's future with latest figures suggesting a US audience alone of 56 million by 2010."
BBC NEWS
Computer driven drama
Faade + Auto Mata. "This long-awaited one-act interactive drama, featuring a 3D environment and voice-acted, AI-driven characters, Faade has been a testbed for research in and development of new discourse-based NLP techniques, a new drama management framework, and new ways of allowing behavior hierarchies to interact."
Networked Performance
July 06, 2005
Modular extreme computing
Wearable system of mountaineering devices. "EasyTech SafeTrek is a system comprising modular devices (each offering a function like phoning, location or avalanche warning), a CPU "hub" linking these functions together, with or without wires, and a standardised power supply. These elements are wearable: distributed around the body, mostly in pockets attached to a harness. The whole system is controlled, via a single "intuitive interface protocol", by input controls designed for mountaineering conditions, such as the operable thumb of a thermal glove (the thumb acts as a joystick). A head-mounted display is the main output monitor. The hub automatically recognises any new element added and incorporates it in the system. For example, you can request the hub to take a photograph using the camera module, direct the GPS module to place the location on the picture and then direct the Satphone module to send the image to the your website in real time."
we make money not art
Legally downloadable movies
Forget the Bootleg, Just Download the Movie Legally. "After years of avoiding it, Hollywood studios are preparing to let people download and buy electronic copies of movies over the Internet, much as record labels now sell songs for 99 cents through Apple Computer's iTunes music store and other online services."
The New York Times (may require free subscription)
July 01, 2005
Watching your TV anywhere (aka Place Shifting)
Device Lets You Watch Shows on a Home TV, TiVo From Elsewhere. "I have been testing the Slingbox at home, in my office and on the road. In my tests, it worked exactly as advertised. At my office, about a dozen miles from home, I watched recorded episodes of "Charlie Rose" and "Desperate Housewives." At an airport, I watched CNBC live on my laptop via a public Wi-Fi connection. And in a Boston hotel room, about 450 miles from home, I watched a live Washington Nationals baseball game unavailable in Red Sox country."
The Wall Street Journal
June 30, 2005
Home automation++
SMARTHYDRO Intelligent Tub. "This is a tub that takes orders from your PDA. You can send the tub special instructions and it will heat the water, set the level, and prepare a delightful rose-smelling balm - probably not - remotely and remain ready until you walk through the door. The tub will even call you when it completes its setup process."
Gizmodo
Second-hand technology
A Used Printer? No, It's a Refurb. "A refurbished Pioneer 50-inch plasma television with some previous history fetched $3,300 on eBay over Memorial Day weekend, after an auction that opened with a 99-cent bid. Even Pioneer Electronics, which arranged the auction as an experiment, wondered if the frenzied bidding that quadrupled the price in the last hours was just holiday madness, said Russ Johnston, senior vice president for marketing in Pioneer's home entertainment division."New York Times (may require free subscription)
Digital content
Publishing makes shift to digital. "The vast majority of UK research material will be available in electronic form by 2020. According to a study commissioned by the British Library, 90% of newly published work will be available digitally by this time."
BBC NEWS
Physical interactions with media
Draw your own tracks with Connect - draw - remix. "...the Connect - draw - remix prototype/concept CD Sequencer packaging by Matthew Falla? You plug it in to your machine's USB port, and design (and redesign) audio tracks that you mix by drawing on electrical traces with a plain old pencil."
Engadget
Wearables
Inview Swim Goggles. "A third-year industrial design student has developed these "Inview" swimmers' goggles, featuring an integrated lap counter to help keep track of, you know, laps."
Gizmodo
One-off audio books
Playaway - the digital audiobook for people who hate digital technology. "The idea [...] is that you'll buy a single player for each book you want to listen to, saving you from having to figure out the computer or lug around cassettes or CDs."
Engadget
June 29, 2005
Cameraphones take over low end digi-cams
90% of all consumer pics snapped with cameraphones. "Future Image Mobile Imaging Report claims that nine out of ten digital images taken by consumers this year will be captured by cameraphones."
Engadget
Projected user interfaces
CD playing lamp with projected controls. "Instead of a remote control or button panel, the CD controls are projected via LED (what, no lasers?!) onto the surface below while still illuminating your humble surroundings."
Engadget
June 27, 2005
Games on the streets
Monopoly Live: London style. "...you're given (fake) 15m to invest in (real) London properties, and move around the "board" as 18 GPS transmitter-equipped cabbies pick up and drop off players accordingly. Chance and Community Chest bonuses are even sent via SMS."
Engadget
June 23, 2005
3D TV
Holographic movies show promise for medical, military applications. "UT Southwestern's Dr. Harold "Skip" Garner and his colleagues have developed the first true, three-dimensional holographic movies. The technology shows promise for medical visualization and heads-up displays for helmets and military aircraft."
utsouthwestern
Controlling games with RFID
RFID Arcade Games. "This game is unique in the way how it combines Arcade Games, Trading Cards and RFID cards to provide new gaming experiences. There are two different kinds of cards used in this game. One is Trading Cards whose movements are detected by so-called Flat-Reader (see below). Players control their own armies by simply moving the cards on the surface."
RFID in Japan
June 15, 2005
RFID + posters
Just Show Your ID to Make a Reservation for "My First Love"" J-POP artist Shogo Hamada's new album "My First Love" can be reserved simply showing SUICAs, which are RFID train passes widely used in the Tokyo metropolitan area, to special "digital posters" installed at some train stations including Tokyo Station, Shinagawa Station, and Ueno Station. The digital posters have speakers that play songs from the album; they read SUICAs and issue album researvation coupons."RFID in Japan
Real & virtual through the camera phone
CamBlaster. "Shoot at flying targets through the camera! Move the phone away and discover swarms of new targets to shoot! Come back, and see the previous targets still flying in the same zone!"
Realeyes3D
June 14, 2005
Phone-based photo sharing
fotochatter. "1. Jack sends a picture from his phone to his fotochatter posting address. 2. All ten of Jack's fotochatter friends get an SMS notifying them that he has added a photo (if they have this option turned on). 3. They view Jack's photo on their phones either via the fotochatter WAP site or J2ME(Java) application. 4.Some friends make comments on his photo. 5. 5 minutes later, Jack receives several comments (via SMS) on his photo, and can reply to each individually via SMS."
Smart Mobs
Finding How-To information
Do-it-yourself Information Online. "Some 55% of adult internet users have looked for "how-to," "do-it-yourself" or repair information online and roughly 1 in 20 internet users -- about 7 million people -- search for help on a typical day. The prevalence of this activity is yet another example of the many ways online Americans use the internet to gather practical information for their everyday lives."Pew Internet & American Life Project
Classes by phone
Get your next college lecture delivered to your video phone. "UK's Coventry University is broadcasting its lectures straight to the 3G handsets of its students. The lessons are filmed, whittled down into 15-minute edited segments and sent to the students' 3G phones "so they don't have to get out of bed in the mornings."
Engadget
Fast, on-demand printing
World's fastest inkjet printer - three pages a second!. "Brother sees the technology being used in on-demand printing - as the world goes completely electronic, this type of technology will enable personalised printed newspapers e.g. your hotel might have such a machine hooked to a system that can have your local newspaper from Bogota printed and delivered to your room overnight when you're at the conference in New Orleans."
gizmag
One display, two images
Social hardware: the shareable display. "Jeremy Newton's thesis project is an interactive multi-view screen that lets more than one viewer see and interact with a moving image or application on the same screen at the same time. Now little Annie can play Halo 2 while nerd child Danny does homework without infighting"
Engadget
Renting game characters
Rent a character for MMOGs. "GamePal.com will rent you a pre-played character for the massively multiplayer game of your choice, already leveled-up to the point where the game starts to get really fun, without having to do all that tedious grinding. If you like your rental character, you can buy it. The rental works by sending discs with the game, reg code, and character through the postal mail."
Boing Boing
Hard drives everywhere
Hard drives for 'terabyte lives'. "This week Seagate announced a slew of hard drives which it says are for people who want a "terabyte lifestyle". Among them is the first 2.5-inch 160GB hard drive which uses what is called perpendicular recording to fit much more data for every square inch. It also said it was producing a specially "ruggedised" drive for cars. Its 20GB and 40GB hard drives for cars have been designed to withstand temperatures from minus 30 to plus 80 degrees centigrade, as well as vibrations."
BBC NEWS
June 13, 2005
Manipulating information
Sony's DataTiles. "Taken from what appears to be the inside of some sort of Sony laboratory, it shows a crazy yet intriguing table where transparent tiles are placed depending on content that wants to be interacted with. Want weather? Slap down the weather tile. Sports? Sports tile. And the tiles can interact with one another, too."
Gizmodo
June 10, 2005
Virtual/real overlap
Computer Scientists Develop Wireless Application For Ubiquitous Video. "Computer scientists at UCSD have taken the wraps off a new technique for mixing images and video feeds from mobile cameras in the field to provide remote viewers with a virtual window into a physical environment. Dubbed "RealityFlythrough", the application constructs a 3D virtual environment dynamically out of the live video streams."
UCS
Non-hierarchical file management
Tiger Tweaks Could Kill Folders. "The problem, he says, is that "we tend to organize data by hierarchical folder. But we may want to view the data many different ways, organized by different criteria, often through ad-hoc searches.... These new search tools offer multiple ways to find things according to changing context."
Wired News
Location aware tasks
Place Mail location-sensitive to-do list for cellphones. "The app, called Place Mail, can send a reminder whenever you're near a particular location. So, for instance, if you're near the video store, it can remind you of a movie you wanted to rent."
Engadget
June 08, 2005
Digital photography in your job
USES: From Broken Bones to Decayed Buildings. "When a patient is brought into the emergency room with, say, severe skeletal trauma, caused by a car accident or a shooting, one of the first steps for Dr. Olson's medical interns is to photograph the crushed bones and shredded tendons. The medical team then realigns the bones and applies a sterile dressing as a prelude to surgery. In years past, Dr. Olson said, surgeons would have removed the dressing each time they wanted to study the damage to plan the surgery. Now, the resolution of the images taken with the camera is enough to provide fine detail of the injury from various angles."
The New York Times (may require free subscription)
Games driven by emotion
Redefining the Power of the Gamer. "It was one version of the future here this past week at the first Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment conference. It is a future where games are driven as strongly by characters as combat, where games are as much soap opera as shooting gallery and as much free-form construction set as destruction arena."
New York Times (may require free subscription)
Picking things based on someone elses opinion
Outfoxed in a nutshell. "My Mom is searching for a flight, so she types "Airline Flights" into a search engine. She gets back a lot of results, but how can she know which company is good? With Outfoxed, she can say that she trusts my opinions. I've used STA before and had good experiences, so I've given them a good report. Outfoxed shows my report next to STA in her search results, and moves it to the top of the list."
Outfoxed
June 07, 2005
Advanced back-up of media
New wrinkle in movie swapping. "Dubbed RatDVD, the new software crunches video from movies into small packages, while creating a single file that keeps intact DVD "extras"--alternate endings, outtakes, director's commentary and the like."CNET News.com
June 06, 2005
Disposable camcorder
World's first disposable digital camcorder. "For US$30, the CVS camcorder records up to 20 minutes of 640x480 video and sound. The video camcorder's 1.4-inch colour playback screen lets consumers instantly enjoy their home videos and even delete unwanted segments with the press of a button. Once finished shooting, consumers simply return the video camera to their local CVS/pharmacy store and get a DVD to view and share the same day. Video camera processing, that is, burning the DVD for you, costs US$12.99."
gizmag
Radio copying the Shuffle
Radio Industry Hits Shuffle. "From Seattle and San Diego to Baltimore and Buffalo, more than a dozen big-city radio stations have converted to a format known as Jack-FM over the past two months. On Friday, even legendary New York City oldies station WCBS-FM dumped '60s rock and joined the 'Jack' parade. Boasting they're "like an iPod on shuffle," the new stations typically dump their disc jockeys in favor of huge song playlists that mimic a well-stocked portable music player."Wired News
June 03, 2005
Quiet computing
Silencemodding. "To eliminate background hums, the sounds of noisy fans and whines from spinning parts -- even levels as low as 30 to 35 decibels are considered objectionable by some -- engineers have used tools as varied as a clothes-dryer exhaust hose and an empty plastic snack cup. One computer programmer tells the Journal, "This is what happens when you start getting into quiet computing. Your standards for how loud is too loud...get lower and lower."Boing Boing
Tiny tech
GeCube GC-STK-TV: Tiny USB TV Tuner. "The Inquirer continues their excellent coverage of Computex 2005, including a shot of this GeCube GC-STK-TV, a USB TV tuner so small that its antenna is larger than the circuitry."Gizmodo
Removable hard disks
Argosy shows 'infinite capacity' media player. "Alongside the centrally-mounted DVD unit is the HDD bay. What pops out looks like a typical external PC hard drive - the only difference is the presence of a proprietary connector on the back that hooks into the HV670. There's a mains power jack and a printer-style USB 2.0 port next to it, ready for when you want to hook it up to your PC to copy over video, photo and music content."
The Register
June 01, 2005
Progress on electronic paper
Seiko Epson shows off e-paper. "Still gonna be a couple of more years before they commercialize this, but Seiko Epson announced at this year's SID International Symposium that they had a working prototype for a 2-inch e-paper display that's just 0.375mm thick and has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels."
Engadget
May 31, 2005
Broadcasting from your car
Watch for Roadcasting Rage. "Stuck in traffic and sick of Howard Stern, you may soon be able to tune in to the music collection of the person in the car in front of you. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing an ad hoc networking system for cars that would allow any driver to broadcast music to any other vehicle within a 30-mile radius."Wired News
Radio station of audio blogs
BlogRadio. "BlogRadio combines the most recent Blogger.com audio posts into one online radio station to provide an answerphone for the world."
BlogRadio
May 20, 2005
Innovative gaming
Japanese Games Go Wild. "Is it possible that military pinball and musical fish will supplant gun-toting mercenaries and tricked-out virtual Ferraris? Probably not. But that's not to say that today's wacky import won't be tomorrow's megahit franchise. Remember how weird Donkey Kong was in 1981?"
Wired News
May 19, 2005
Easier phone downloads
Sound start for handset downloads. "Israeli firm Ki-Bi has invented a card-based system that it claims makes downloading content much easier. When held against a phone's speaker the chunky cards play a series of tones that connects the handset to an operator's portal."
BBC NEWS
Tele-band
MusicGrid. "A new First Monday article explores an educational experiment for collaborating with music online among remote schools near the polar region. Apparently, the experiment has been declared a success, in terms of getting remote students to be more enthusiastic about participation in school music programs".
Smart Mobs
May 18, 2005
Physical connections to history
What trees tell you in marunouchi. "Marunouchi is an area located at the center of Tokyo. QR codes are now attached to 94 roadside trees in the area so that visitors can use their camphones to get information "from the trees." Scanning a QR code leads you to a mobile website that shows historical or sightseeing information related to the location of the tree. For example, the code may tell you the history of a building behind the tree or show you a map and dining/shopping information."
RFID in Japan
Gender neutral gaming
Unlike Video Games, Mobile Gaming Proves to be Gender Neutral. "Is Mobile Gender Neutral? Despite commonly held beliefs about the differences between men's and women's mobile entertainment preferences, the similarities are noteworthy. Of the mobile entertainment consumers surveyed, Sorrent found the following: -- Both men and women (66 percent of men and 68 percent of women) play games at least once a day -- More than a third (34 percent) of both men and women play games more than three times per day"Sorent
Media through direct connections
Haptic Gloves. "Each participant wears the gloves, headphones (through which they can hear their personal music) and a clip-on box housing circuits. As soon as they touch the gloved hand of another, they can hear their own music mixed with the other person's sound. The more people holding hands, the more sophisticated the track."
networked_performance
May 17, 2005
TV re-broadcasting online
Online TV service moves closer to reality in UK. "The BBC is forging ahead with plans for a pilot of a new service that would make broadcasts available online after airing. Eventually available to anyone paying the mandatory UK TV license fee, the service will initially start with a 5,000-person trial in September of this year."arstechnica
May 16, 2005
Mass tagging
'Tagging' helps unclutter data. "Tagging is something selfishly useful. It helps you understand and categorize something for yourself," Technorati founder David Sifry said. "But I can take advantage of the fact that you and hundreds and thousands of people have also tagged the things" for themselves."
CNN.com
Quick ways of reading on the go
More About BuddyBuzz. "BuddyBuzz both a cell phone application that enables users to rapidly read custom delivered material and a content distribution system. BuddyBuzz users read using a modified form of rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) at whatever pace they desire."
BuddyBuzz
Nutritional advice from a distance
MyFoodPhone "keeps dieters honest" with camphone food shots. "Customers use cameraphones to snap photos of their meals, send them to a web site and get back advice from a registered dietitian on how to modify the portions or selections to reach health or weight goals."
Engadget
Long distance health care
Technology Lets Patients Visit Doctors Without Leaving Home. "As part of remote diabetes care, a team travels to First Nations reserves, where the disease is endemic, to take photos of patients' retinas with a specially designed digital camera. Those images can be viewed via computer by an ophthalmologist hundreds of kilometres away to check for signs of diabetes-related eye damage."
CNN
May 12, 2005
RSS TV
torrentocracy. "Torrentocracy (pronounced like the word democracy) is the combination of RSS, bit torrent, your television and your remote control. In effect, it is what gives any properly motivated person or entity the ability to have their own TV station. By running torrentocracy on a computer connected to your television, you not only become a viewer of any available content from the internet, but you also become a part of a vast grass roots media distribution network."
torrentocracy
Managing your energy
Solar Power Home Control Panel. "The JH-G51X gives real-time information on power consumption, the charge being generated by the solar cells, how much excess power you can sell back to the grid, or how much of a deficit there is."
Gizmodo
Music stores from anyone
Channel 4 launches download store. "Tracks will be shortlisted by music industry experts before a public vote selects their favourite band, with the winner appearing on Channel 4. The site, the first download store from a terrestrial broadcaster, offers 350,000 tracks starting at 79p."
BBC NEWS
May 11, 2005
APIs for media providers
BBC Backstage: tools for remixing the Beeb to your spec. "BBC Backstage is a collection of feeds, APIs, and other tools for remixing the BBC's digital offerings, to "make your stuff using our stuff." They want the world to convert the BBC's raw material into individualized, idiosyncratic and wildly imaginative applications. It's the Flickrization of the Beeb and it's so exciting I can scarce contain myself."
Boing Boing
Self made visualizations
Music sampling's history, visualized. "This Java applet is a visualizer for the history of music sampling -- a timeline with colored dots represents some of the most widely circulated tracks; click to see all the tracks they spawned, click the tracks they spawned to see what other tracks they sampled."
Boing Boing
Games for relaxation
Philips Design's "Relax to Win" game. "They've designed a device that measures your galvanic skin response and sends it wirelessly to a PC or cellphone. To play (here's the hard part), you've got to slide the device between your fingers and relax. Your character is a friendly dragon on the PC or cell screen, and the more you chill out, the more your dragon will fly."
Engadget
May 09, 2005
Sharing between devices
InstantShareCam. "InstantSharecam is a service for sharing in real-time and on the spot high-res videos/photos with your friends or your crew right from your digital camcorder to other devices."
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Messing with time in video
The Khronos Projector. "The Khronos Projector allows people to visualize movie content in a new way. By actually touching and deforming the screen, the user can send portions of the image forward or backward in time."
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One-off books
One-off coffee table books - the democratisation of book publishing. "A new web-based service that offers personalised single-copy high-quality coffee-table books could give the humble book a new life in the digital age."
gizmag
Pre-teen cultural awareness
Cradle rock. "Steve Gallant of music retailers HMV says that, where record-buying once began at around age 13, "they start to consume at seven or eight now, because there are 30-odd satellite music channels, and they're aware at a much younger age. Previous kids' albums were either hits from Disney movies or stuff like Bob, but this is proper pop music, aimed at kids."
Guardian Unlimited
Digital archives of culture
Support for EU 'digital library'. "A plan to create a vast digital library to preserve Europe's cultural heritage has received strong backing from European Union (EU) culture ministers. Six EU nations said they supported the initiative at culture talks, which were also attended by more than 800 artists."
BBC NEWS
Sharing photos over the phone
Playful ways to share mobile phone snaps. "A first set of ideas allows to exchange pre-recorded images in real-time during a voice-call with another person. Through a touch screen interface images are "pushed" and "pulled" to a shared viewing space. The analogue control allows for a variety of gestures, from the quick flashing of images, to rapid firing of image sequences to offering an image to be revealed by the other person."
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Cool ways to visualize your photos
Main >Comic life. "Comic Life for OS X makes digital comics a snap. Use Comic Life to create high quality comics for posting on the web, including in movies or printing out for friends."
plasq
Flat technology
Scientists create flat speakers. "These speakers are thin transparent sheets that move like cloth. They can be hung on walls, draped over an object or hung in a frame. One only needs to cut out a piece of the "cloth" and connect it to an amplifier with a wire."
we make money not art
April 28, 2005
Family connections
Re-connecting remote families. "FamilyScrapbook is a service and an application. It relies on a third party to provide storage space, to which different devices will be connected. On the user's side, it's an application -- for the computer, the cell phone or the television -- that allows a quick view of new postings, facilitates fast uploads and has browsing capabilities."
andreea chelaru
Blogging on TV shows
'Canadian Idol' Raises Its Profile. "Beginning next month, CTV will give bloggers the ability to offer their views about the show. "Each person will have their own space, and they can come back and actually comment on the show as the show plays out and the competition goes on," Smith said. "We will still have the administration that we can accept or reject blogs, but I believe the plan is to just let them loose. We are going to have to moderate it to see how it goes."
EWeek
Podcasting-only radio stations
Podcasting Killed the Radio Star. "The world's first all-podcast radio station will be launched on May 16 by Infinity Broadcasting [...]. Infinity plans to convert San Francisco's 1550 KYCY, an AM station, to listener-submitted content. The station, previously devoted to a talk-radio format, will be renamed KYOURadio."Wired News
Changing someone else's design
Download of the Day: Aardvark page layout editor. "A spectacular new extension for Firefox called Aardvark customizes any web page layout - by letting you select any section of a page and change its colors or dimensions or remove it completely."
Lifehacker
April 26, 2005
Problems with DRM
Online music lovers 'frustrated'. "What people don't understand is that when they buy an iPod or other digital music player, they're being tied into a system," said Mr Ross, deputy labs editor at PC Pro. "Many of our readers have already been caught out, buying tracks but being unable to play them on their player."
BBC NEWS
Task-focused devices
New system to access the net without using the PC. "The system is composed by buttonless appliances, each one dedicated to one specific function like email, voice over internet, video call and internet TV. These appliances are supported by a service and a very simple one-button remote control, called the "dropper" allows the system to be highly flexible."
we make money not art
Trading virtual items
Sony opens game goods marketplace. "The Sony Station Exchange will open in late June and will let EverQuest players buy and sell in-game cash, magical items and characters. The move is a surprise because for the last six years Sony has battled to stop the trade in game items and characters."
BBC NEWS
Printing and cutting
Laser printers can cut paper. "French researchers have found that lasers could be used in desktop printers to cut paper, in addition to printing. The trick is using paper that's pre-printed with light-absorbing ink at the points where cutting should occur. The advance could allow printers to more easily print and cut labels, cards and other odd-sized media..."
Engadget
Remixing with permission
Nine Inch Nails + Garageband. "'What I'm giving you in this file is the actual multi-track audio session for 'the hand that feeds' in GarageBand format. This is the entire thing bounced over from the actual Pro Tools session we recorded it into."
Cool Hunting
Kids content on phones
A Way to Calm Fussy Baby: 'Sesame Street' by Cellphone"It's certainly not like we're advocating selling phones to preschoolers," Mr. Marcum said. "But you can't ignore the convenience factor when people are in motion. A parent can pass back a telephone to the kids in the back of the car. And it's a device that families are going to carry with them everywhere."
The New York Times
3D displays for tables
Toshiba Introduces Still More 3D Display Technology. "This technology led to the display you see at the right, which is intended to be placed on a flat surface (think: playing chess using a 3D display)."
Gizmodo
Real objects driving UI
3D Magic Story Cube. "Each side of the magic cube is a different component of the story, represented by the illustration on that side. As you flip sides, you get a different part of the story that is played out as an animation on the computer screen."
we make money not art
Downloading video = TV
Open Source TV. "We are building a free and open-source desktop television application tentatively known as DTV. Subscribe to a channel and video will download in the background (Channels are RSS feeds, so there's already dozens of compatible channels out there). When a new video arrives, DTV will let you know. It's that simple."Participatory Culture Foundation
April 25, 2005
Ringtones before singles
Cingular convinces bands to release songs as ringtones before singles. "First up is Coldplay, you'll be able to get their new song - Speed of Sound - as a ringtone six days before it gets played on the radio and a couple of months before their new album comes out in June."
Engadget
Buttons on things
The talking notice button. "Attached to garment or other objects, Voisec can contain the instruction to use a device, give information about the prescribed usage of a medicine, contain familly messages, caregiver's instructions, spoken notes, be taken away to the supermarket as a "shopping list", etc."
we make money not art
Saving bandwidth
Watch live cartoon baseball on your cellphone - in Japan. "...we're guessing/hoping that it's the desire to shave a few yen off the monthly wireless data bill that is at the heart of the absurd brilliance that is Craftmax's new Digital Stadium service, which replaces the live video feed of a baseball game with a bandwidth-saving, digitally animated recreation that uses the game's play-by-play to trigger different actions which are then acted out by cartoon players."
Engadget
April 17, 2005
Enhancing sport
Virtual Spectator Squash Technology. "Watching live sport could take on new meanings in the future as new technologies put a virtual dashboard of information, infographics and overlays that enhance the experience in different ways for newbies and experts."
gizmag
April 11, 2005
Memory workout
Calisthenics for aging brains / S.F. firm develops software to improve mental agility. "Posit scientists created exercises to stimulate specific brain functions. Then its video game designers turned them into computer games, complete with a couple of animated coaches to give tips and rewards like amusing pictures when players complete tasks. The company says one key to brain rejuvenation is that the exercises become more difficult as players progress so they're always working at a threshold of intensity."
SF Gate
Digitizing printed books
The Infinite Library. "Once the knowledge now trapped on the printed page moves onto the Web, where people can retrieve it from their homes, offices, and dorm rooms, libraries could turn into lonely caverns inhabited mainly by preservationists. Checking out a library book could become as anachronistic as using a pay phone, visiting a travel agent to book a flight, or sending a handwritten letter by post."
Tech Review
Object recognition
Tasting music. "Tasting Music is a table, developed by Michihito Mizutani, allowing people to listen to music without using any sophisticated device. You simply put the CD in the center of the table, a menu appears and you can pick up the track you want to listen to by placing a coin over it."
we make money not art
TV with viewer participation
The Vee Pee's New Tee Vee. "Audience members will be encouraged to not only watch but also shoot, edit and upload their own bite-sized digital video segments to the Current TV website. If the editors and web audience like the segments, they will then be broadcast to the channel's potential viewer pool of 19 million."Wired News
Online game therapy
Second Life Teaches Life Lessons. "According to a woman who goes by the in-world name of Gwyneth Llewelyn, a British organization called ARCI is using Second Life to help abused children in Portuguese safe houses by bringing them into the game and then working on socialization, collaboration, team building, computer skills and more."
Wired News
Biometric gaming
Heartbeat-based game. "As players travel through the landscape the physical and physiological changes in their body help to create a different world. The game responds to the location and physical activity of the players, measured by pedometers and heart-rate monitors."
we make money not art
April 08, 2005
RFID with family and friends
The Echoes table. "The center of the TeleTable contains a slot for the Pitara. Placing it in the center activates a function which associates digital images on the TeleTable with the objects contained within the Pitara. Adding new artifacts to the Pitara queues up associated digital objects on the screen."
we make money not art
Games-related insurance
Study shows video game helps kids lose weight. "A West Virgina-based insurance company is conducting a study on the effects of playing the Dance Dance Revolution video game on obese kids. Eleven-year-old, 175 pound K.D. Jones lost 10 pounds after two weeks of playing the game, which is akin to an aerobic workout."
Lifehacker
VOIP popularity
US to embrace VoIP. "Those clever boffins at IDC reckon the number of residential VoIP users will rise from three million at present to 27 million by the end of 2009. Despite its slow start, VoIP is beginning to take-off with punters hooked on the cheaper call charges on offer."The Register
Memory helpers
software to create personally tailored songs and enhance memory. "Earworms, by Aaron Koblin, is a software which allows users to create personally tailored songs to enhance their memory. The concept is that the use of rythm, repetition and melody will help people remember, share and organize their lives."
we make money not art
Dynamic posters
Escalators get moving advertising posters. "Companies can refresh messages daily and even hourly. A newspaper advertiser could update ads to promote breaking news, for example and prices will rise and fall according to traffic patterns."
we make money not art
Haptics for devices
'Body talk' could control mobiles. "Changing tracks on digital music players of the future while on the move could be done with the nod of the head."
BBC NEWS
Interactive music creation
reacTable. "The reacTable allows collaborative performances by professional musicians without the limits of many screen-based interfaces. The table is played by manipulating a set of objects placed on top of it."
we make money not art
April 04, 2005
Wall sized displays
Wall-sized e-paper. "The latest news are displayed twice daily on this newspaper made of 272 Electronic Paper tiles, each of which is a combination of an E Ink frontplane laminated onto a printed circuit board with pixel electrodes."
we make money not art
Technology driven by the body
Sharp's camera that zooms via squinting. "By placing a small optical sensor right below the viewfinder which measures how much of the white of your eye is visible and then adjusting accordingly..."
Engadget
Downloading movies
Sony wants an 'iTunes for movies'. "Films will be put onto flash memory for mobiles over the next year, said Mr Arrieta, and it will develop its digital download services for films."
BBC NEWS
Games that mix the real and virtual
SCOOT: a reality adventure game. "Players have to solve clues located both in the real world and the virtual world. They interact with strange objects, receive information via SMS to their phones and have to text their answers to the games clues back to SCOOT."
we make money not art
April 01, 2005
Beblu mini-component computer system
Beblu mini-component computer system. "Beblu Limited recently announced what they claim is the world's first mini-component home entertainment computer system, the beblu. Beblu components are available separately or in pre-configured"
Engadget
Guiding by sound
PDA-based auditory navigation system. "Melodious Walkabout, by Richard Etter, is a wearable system that guides a user by contextualizing audio contents s/he is listening to. The system doesn't use speech and allows the user to listen to her/his own audio contents while being aware of the location of the destination."
We make money not art
Bring your own music
Hilton gets a line in. "It's an article about Hilton as in hotel, where they're busy replacing the standard-issue radios found in their rooms with stereo devices with line-in jacks for plugging in portable music players. Kudos to them for opting for a standard jack instead of a proprietary interface..."
Engadget
Tiny displays
MicroEmissive Displays outfit sunglasses with TVs. "Engineers at Scottish electronics firm MicroEmissive Displays have developed a television screen less than half the size of a postage stamp that can be fitted inside a pair of sunglasses - or regular glasses for that matter."
Engadget
Individual's radio stations
David Byrne launches internet radio station. "Musician and artist David Byrne, known most widely as co-founder of the Talking Heads, has just launched an internet radio station that streams the music he digs."
Boing Boing
Pull content for mobile phones
Motorola SCREEN3. "SCREEN3 is an always-on data service that pushes text and images to the idle screen of your handset. Kind of like the mid 90s screen-saver, Pointcast, SCREEN3 offers news, entertainment, weather and other configurable content that can be consumed passively by watching the idle screen."
Cool Hunting
March 31, 2005
Object recognition built into cameraphones
NTT DoCoMo's Object-Recognition Binoculars. "The examples they offer include looking at a passing plane and seeing the flight number and destination displayed in the eyepiece, or looking at a flower and having its name shown to you. This sort of technology could make its way into camera phones and the like, perhaps affording us an automatic photo-tagging system somewhere down the road."
Gizmodo
March 22, 2005
Ringtones from live music
Busker Ringtones. "For people who want to make a living of live and spontaneous music on the streets, the Busker Ringtones project, by Tamsin Fulton, offers buskers a new revenue stream but gives also the public the possibility to get unique ringtones for their mobile phones. The ringtones would normally cost 1,50: with 75p going to the musician and the rest to the requester's mobile phone network."
we make money not art
Interactive hand shadows
Shadow monsters. "Philip Worthington made a fabulous application to frighten children or make them laugh. You move your hand and its shadow on the wall not only has spikes or a long tongue, but it also makes burps and other strange noises."
we make money not art
Posting photos of your in-game self
Invent in-game moblogging. "How about a Flickr uplaod button -in game-. See something cool? Hit the button, add the tags, designate it to your guild, upload. I suspect this would mean tens of thousands of accounts for a service like Flickr, but on a more macro level, people are going to start moblogging their virtual worlds just as much as the real world, why not use Flickr."
Boing Boing
Color correction technology
Samsung Develops LCD for Color-Blind. "Samsung Electronics has announced that they are developing LCD monitors for people with dyschromatopsia (color-blindness for the lay-folk). The color correction technology will allow users to control red, green and blue output at 10 levels so that people can set the monitor to adjust the contrast of the colors giving them the most difficulty."
Gizmodo
Tagging by phone
Taggs Rule!. "Yesterday, a team from BBC Radio showed how it allowed listeners to "tag" songs using their cell phones - thanks to Phonetags - and they pointed out how this information helps to organize songs in different ways -- suggesting new playlists for DJs, but also helping people find other songs, albums, or shows of interest."Smart Mobs
Cameras with eye-control
Eye-controlled video camera. "We've seen stuff like this years ago with eye-scanning viewfinders that track focal points, but this working prototype developed at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University does full camera movement. It is expected to have applications for psychology and market research..."
Engadget
March 14, 2005
Commercial podcasting
Virgin Radio starts daily podcast. "Virgin Radio is making highlights of its breakfast show available for digital audio players in what it says is a first for "podcasting".
BBC NEWS
Time spent with media
TV, Computers a 'Full-Time' Activity for U.S. Youth. "Using computers, watching television and listening to music are nearly a full-time activity for most U.S. children, with the average 8- to 18-year-old taking in 6 1/2 hours a day, a report published on Wednesday said."Reuters.com
March 10, 2005
Virtual tours
Japan's virtual bus tour guides. "They're not just playing back a tape, though, the whole thing is actually connected to the bus's GPS navigation to sync up the virtual tour with the real current location."
Merger of games and the rest of the world
Sony offers pizza feature for hungry gamers. "Sony has built the ability to order pizza into its latest online multiplayer game. Type the command "/pizza" while playing Everquest II, a fantasy game with 330,000 active players, and get the Pizza Hut Web site, where you can place orders for delivery."
CNN.com
Online banking replicated offline
A.T.M.'s Pick Up Web Site Tricks. "According to a report last month from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a research organization based in Washington, online banking was the fastest-growing activity among Internet users in the last five years. The report said that 53 million people, or 44 percent of online users in the United States, did their banking online, an increase of 47 percent from late 2002."
The New York Times
Games and film merges
Virtual Reality Psychodramas. "So, as the human user proceeds through the drama, his or her actions are being recorded computationally over the Internet, interpreted psychologically and used to prompt the responses by the virtual characters. Because of this, the drama is different every time, a factor that the researchers say is both a more challenging and exciting type of entertainment, while also more computationally demanding."
Tech Trends
March 09, 2005
Future mobile communications
rb.log. "The video you are about to see portrays the kind of technological advances that could transform our world over the next ten years. The events depicted are fictional, but the potential of NTT DoCoMo's cutting-edge technology is very real. Our third-generation (3G) FOMA service is already operational throughout Japan; and by 2010, we hope to have fully brought our vision of advanced mobile communications to fruition."
DoCoMo
March 07, 2005
Managed lending
Peerflix - Netflix alternative?. "Beta web service Peerflix lets you trade DVD's you own with other members for a pay-as-you-go 1 dollar a trade rate. [...] Peerflix provides the mailers - send out a DVD, receive a DVD. Keep the movies you get for as long as you want, until you trade again."
Lifehacker
Growth in home networks
Data Point: A Rise in Two-Computer Homes and a Leap for Home Networks. "Forty-six percent of households with more than one computer now have a home network, up from 29 percent in October 2002, the last time the survey was conducted. Among those households equipped with networks, 52 percent now use wireless technology, according to the survey. The number of homes with more than one computer grew as well, from 27 percent of all households in October 2002 to 32 percent in January 2005."The New York Times
Digital tourist binoculars
Kowa Vista View. "Kowa is hoping to replace some of those traditional tourist binoculars with their new fangled LCD-based version. These have the advantage of letting more than one person use them at a time."
Engadget
Games for the blind
Blind computer users are playing by ear. "Justin Daubenmire, founder of BSC games, is one of a tiny band of game devotees who specialize in computer games for the blind -- games that use precisely recorded stereo sound rather than 3D images to guide players through the action."
we make money not art
Digital cinemas
UK pioneers digital film network. "Most cinemas currently have mechanical projectors but the new network will see up to 250 screens in up to 150 cinemas fitted with digital projectors capable of displaying high definition images. [...] Cinemas will be given the film on a portable hard drive and they will then copy the content to a computer server."
BBC NEWS
Advertising displays
Virtual Reality Goes Round. "Instead of being surrounded by images, you'll play with the VR Object Display, a two meters tall cylindrical column with a diameter of 1.6 meters, which has been specifically designed for advertising, trade shows and presentations."
Tech Trends
Open source hardware
Turn that Jobo Giga Vu into, well, whatever you want. "...a recently released SDK for the device opens wide the device's warm, chewy inner Linux center, making it ripe for all sorts of hacking, from loading up PDA software (Qtopia, for instance), to loading up Doom - they have a step-by-step for that one."
Engadget
February 25, 2005
Camouflaged technology
MP-O2-OTG Media Drive Book. "It's not quite the Hitchhiker's Guide, but the new MP-O2-OTG is a pretty slick little portable media drive enclosure. Not only does it look like a book (for easy hiding in your wood-paneled study), it decodes a variety of audio and video formats via VGA and component connections."
Gizmodo
Altering a website that you don't own
greasemonkey. "Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension which lets you to add bits of DHTML ("user scripts") to any webpage to change it's behavior. [...] For example you could: Make sure that all URLs displayed in the browser are clickable links. Improve the usability of a site you frequent. Route around common and annoying website bugs."mozdev.org
Real life time-shifting
Globe-jungle. "Kids can play during the day on the rotating climbing frame. One camera records their play, while another records their surroundings from inside the globe. These two perspectives of the globe constitute the images archive. After sundown, this footage is projected onto the bars of the globe. By spinning the frame the bars become a surface reflecting the images."
we make money not art
Bridging new and old tech
The Abe BT 80C Bluetooth Stereo Cassette. "What we're talking about is the Abe BT 80C, an audio cassette adapter that you can pop into your car's tape deck and stream music to from your Bluetooth-enabled MP3 player, handheld, or PC."
Engadget
Lending digital books
Public library lends out book-filled iPod Shuffles. "We have it on good word that the South Huntington Public Library in Suffolk County, New York, is doing just that. They apparently have a handful of Shuffles, pre-loaded with books, and are planning to add more."
Engadget
Voice driven media
Opera Offers Voice Controls for Television. "Opera Software ASA (the web browser folks) has announced their new voice-enabled Electronic Program Guide, allowing people to control their DVD players, DVRs and digital TV boxes via voice."
Gizmodo
Mobile soaps
Girl Friday. "GF will be Australia's and possibly the world's first mobile cam girl. She is a live action character who on the surface appears 'real' but in fact is a fictional part of the GF interactive world. Her story reflects the way devices (such as your mobile) are changing the way we communicate in everyday life. As GF tries to deal with the sagas of career, love and family we journey with her as a friend and confidant."
Girl Friday
Smart labels
Holograms Poised to Feed Bio Data. "Prototypes have already been made for contact lenses that monitor glucose levels, thin badges that detect alcohol levels, and sticks that can tell, instantly, if milk has spoiled or become contaminated. The technology promises to be quicker and cheaper than tests used today. It will also require less training, because the hologram itself can be designed to show results graphically."EWeek
February 21, 2005
Browsing media by similarity
Philips new HDD093 and HDD095 shuffles with Like Music. "It's called Like Music, and as the name implies if you engage it while listening to a song it'll pseudo-randomly and intelligently shuffle you up 20 more tracks that it thinks sounds similar to what's on (apparently it uses 40 metrics to grab tracks with a familiar beat, instument lineup, and tempo)."
Engadget
New instruments
The musical curtain. "Each bead, when touched, lights itself and emits a unique sound. People play with the curtain by weaving their hands through it, touching it with their faces, and moving through it with their body."
we make money not art
Wireless switches
The Wireless, Battery-less Light Switch. "EnOcean, a Siemens spin-off, is developing a fully wireless light (or any other device) switch, no batteries required. Using a piezoelectric generator, the act of pushing the switch generates just enough electricity to transmit its unique switch code. Claimed range of the switch comes in at around 300 meters, which should give end-users plenty of flexibility."
Gizmodo
Year of the Music Phone
Music Porter. "Most of the new models that are supposedly "music ready" haven't played around with form much, but Docomo's Music Porter does something different. Sure, it looks like a Gameboy Advance with numbered keys, but it sure is attracting a lot of attention, with prominent showcases at most stores, and people constantly playing around with them."
Gizmodo
Interactive learning
Mushroom sounds. "The Soundgarten [...] enables kids to create their own sound environment by manipulating toys. They can use predefined sound samples, record them and modify and arrange the different elements, choose volume pitch and apply sound effects."
we make money not art:
Browser plug-ins
Flickr Firefox = FlickrFox. "Firefox web browser extension FlickrFox lets you browse photos in the sidebar from photo-sharing service Flickr."
Lifehacker
February 15, 2005
Consumer high-def camcorders
Home Video Made to Watch on HDTV. "All right, go ahead, ask it: "In whose twisted opinion does a $3,300 price tag make this a consumer camcorder?" Let's put it this way: the next least expensive three-chip, high-definition camcorder costs about $40,000."
The New York Times
February 09, 2005
Shopping by scanning
Smart scanner helps elderly shop. "A barcode reader is used to scan items from a catalogue - or off tins - and then the order is sent to the supermarket via the phone line."
BBC NEWS
More augmented reality
Total Immersions D'Fusion Technology. "Total Immersion's D'Fusion software solution allows for real-time video capture and perfect merges between video streams and 3D objects. All you need is a camera, a few sensors, and a HUD. This turns your world into an immersive gaming experience, where you are IN the game...or where the game is all around you. Words cant really describe this, so just check out the video."
Gear Live
Flexible displays
Arizona State opens flexible-display center. "Their first prototype, a 4-inch, semi-flexible display, is expected to be out later this year. The center hopes to produce full-color flexible displays suitable for battlefield use as well as commercial applications, including displays that can be rolled up or folded."
Engadget
Group submissions
The Human Clock. "Many people viewing this website end up sending in their own clock pictures, be they in an airplane, installing brakes, or on a playground. There are clock pictures from all over the world ranging from Outback Australia to Canada to Pakistan to Antarctica to Italy to Brazil. Other people travel around the American Southwest and end up taking a clock photo on a corner in Winslow, Arizona."
HumanClock.com
Online, handheld gaming
PSP: 5 online titles available at launch. "All 5 games will feature two wireless multiplayer modes. The standard method will connect PSPs that are close together (i.e. in the same room), while the "infrastructure" mode makes use of the built in Wi-Fi to link players over the Internet via hotspots."
Joystiq
February 07, 2005
Adding virtual objects to live video in real time
Augmented-reality machine works in real time. "Previously, it has been necessary to calibrate a computer using several markers added to a scene. The Oxford team's machine only requires an object of known size to be placed in its line of sight to perform a complete calibration. The system then automatically picks out its own visual markers from a scene. By measuring the way these markers move the computer can judge how far away each marker is."
New Scientist
Interactive buildings
Playing mobile games with buildings. "Arcade which is part of Project Blinklights is an interactive light installation, allowing mobile users to play games such as Tetris, Pong or Pacman which are displayed on Buildings, by using their mobile phones."
we make money not art
February 05, 2005
Renting music by volume
Napster Goes Mobile. "For about the price of one CD, Napster subscribers can now pack their portable music player with unlimited songs, delivering a new challenge to Apple Computer's buck-a-song iTunes model."Wired News
Sports tracking software
Piero gives rugby new perspective. "Piero [...] creates a virtual stadium in which virtual players can be tracked from almost any angle. Viewers will be able to see precisely how the ball was thrown and by whom, giving a greater depth to the growing wealth of analysis available during sports broadcasts."
BBC NEWS
Phone OS
Symbian Unveils More Powerful Smartphone Software. "The software can process pictures of two million pixels and more, it can send stereo music to a wirelessly connected headset and can import MP3 songs from a desktop computer without the need for additional synchronization software."EWeek
Continuing convergence
Pantech & Curitel PH-L4000V Camcorder Phone. "Pantech & Curitel continue to explore new form factors with this PH-L4000V 'Camcorder Phone,' which adopts features normally seen in video cameras."
Gizmodo
Cell computing
The Cell chip - what it is, and why you should care. "The 'cell' which gives the chip its name doesn't refer to the hardware, but to a virtual clump of software which roams the system looking for computing resources. The patent refers to a "cell object" - program and data - and it can even roam across LANs or WANs, to find another Cell-based device."The Register
Projected displays
Video Images Floating in the Air. "Air comes into the device, is modified then ejected and illuminated to produce the image. Nothing is added to the air so there isn`t any harmful gas or liquid emitted from the device, and nothing needs to be refilled."
Technology Trends
February 02, 2005
Group tagging
Folksonomies Tap People Power"The job of tags isn't to organize all the world's information into tidy categories," said Stewart Butterfield, one of Flickr's co-founders. "It's to add value to the giant piles of data that are already out there."
Wired News
Playing to learn
Dance mat teaches pupils Spanish language. "Children learn words by placing their feet on coloured squares according to the words shown on screen and shouted out by a cartoon character. These cover topics such as colours, directions, shopping items and numbers."
we make money not art
Virtual displays
User interface for virtual butterflies. "Moony [...] uses steam as both a screen and an interactive interface. If you touch one of the virtual butterflies projected into the vapor, it will fly away and disappear. But hold your hand into the steam for a while and butterflies will flock around and play."
we make money not art
Viral games
Viral handheld gaming feature(?). "As well as a single-player mode, Infected will also take advantage of the PSP's wireless multiplayer functionality, and should put an interesting spin on things as, in addition to just blasting each other, players will be able to create a unique avatar which then spreads like a virus through the handhelds of players who lose to them. You'll then be able to check your rankings and see how far your virus has spread amongst your victims."
Smart Mobs
Interactive kids games
Interactive playground for kids. "Funny square creatures are projected onto a 2.8x2.1m playground. The child steps on the playground and interacts with the little creatures. The animals react to the child’s position, which is tracked by a web-cam. In the beginning the creatures run away from the child, later on they "get used" to her/him."
we make money not art
The impact of HD TV
What high-definition will do to DVDs. "The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out. But when high-definition films do come out on the new format DVDs, it will profoundly change home entertainment."
BBC NEWS
Downloading TV
Steal This Show. "Millions of viewers are now watching illegal copies of television programs - even full seasons copied from popular DVD's - that are flitting about the Internet, thanks to other new programs that allow users to upload and download the large files quickly."
The New York Times (may require free subscription)
Mapping photos to the globe
Escape Lab Travel Album. "It offers 3D, 2D, and plain flat interface navigation through dozens of destinations around the globe with high quality photos from each."
Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting
GPS gaming
GPS:: Tron. "The player's movements in real space, which are tracked by GPS and transmitted to the phone's display, influence his/her position in the game. Each player is represented by a line that gets longer and longer. But the player's own line is never allowed to cross itself or the opponent's line. Which makes the game harder as time passes."
we make money not art
January 28, 2005
Interactive objects
Hayat Benchenaa Radio Alarm Clock. "When the alarm is set the Sfera dims and the music fades as you fall asleep. When it goes off in the morning, you have to reach up and tap it to activate the snooze. Then the Sfera rises and after 10 minutes goes off again, which causes you to rise up out of bed even more to activate the snooze. This process is repeated until the Sfera reaches the ceiling, which forces you to get up and pull it down to deactivate it."
Josh Rubin
More subtle ways to power things
The table that cooks. "A series of electronic grids are inset within its walnut wood top to allow food mixers, laptops or any other appliances to be powered simply by being placed on the surface, like rechargeable toothbrushes. No power sources nor cords are needed."
we make money not art
Electronic programme guide for radio
DAB EPG for Bug Launches - Radio TiVo. "Using the EPG, Bug users will be able to browse the programmes coming up over the next 7-days, read additional information about them and select them for recording. In the same vein as a Personal Video Recorder (DVR), does this make it a DRR - Digital Radio Recorder?"
Digital-Lifestyles.info
Wireless movies
Feature Films Without Wires [at Sundance]. "Intel technicians in Hillsboro, Oregon, encrypted Rize, which was shot on high-definition digital video. The file was streamed to Salt Lake City, then beamed via microwave to Park City and through a WiMax connection to the top of a 10,000-foot mountain. A receiver at the ski lodge sent the file to an HP Media Center PC, where it was decoded and projected through a high-end digital projector."
Wired News
Satellite TV on the go
MobaHo!: Satellite Broadcast to Mobile Video Report. "MobaHo! -- a joint venture of 88 Japanese and Korean companies -- is gambling Big Money that Asians will want satellite TV and radio broadcasts beamed from the sky direct to their handheld receivers, cell phones and car-mounted tuners -- and maybe even iPods in the future."
I4U News
Customized sound
Booth for spatial filters. "Spatial filters encapsulate how your features alter sounds before they reach the eardrum. The booth would record the spatial filter measurements on to a smart card, readable by next-generation sound systems. The result - sounds heard through headphones should be indistinguishable from hearing the same sounds live."
we make money not art
January 27, 2005
Location-based time travel
Mobile learning game/ "Waag Society is developing Frequency 1550, a "mobile learning game". The citygame, using mobile phones and GPS-technology, will transport 11 to 12 year-old students to the medieval Amsterdam of 1550."
we make money not art
More and more data over FM
Mobiles get set for visual radio. "If you have a Visual Radio enabled handset, when you hear an artist you don't know, or there's a competition or vote that you'd like to participate in, you pull out your handset and with one click you turn on a visual channel parallel to the on-air broadcast you've just been listening to."
BBC NEWS
Games on the go for kids
Back Seat Gaming. "Backseat Playground [...] is a mobile gaming research project that will enable kids to play with the world outside their window from the back seat of a car. This augmented reality game uses a digital compass and a GPS-receiver to connect the game to the passing landscape. By aiming the device towards objects, players can defend themselves against creatures or pick up magic artefacts."
we make money not art
USB as a power standard
How to make a USB battery from a 9v cell. "The mad scientists over at hackaday have a relatively simple 9v-cell-to-USB hack, simple that is, if you're the type who feels comfortable with a trip to Radio Shack and wielding a soldering iron. Just be careful, aight?"
Engadget - www.engadget.com
January 26, 2005
Carrying everything on your phone
A Media Center in Your Pocket. "And the wireless capabilities of a cell phone could give them a leg up on what's already out there. A cell phone with a built-in MP3 player could, for example, download music right from a wireless network at a moment's notice. It will be able to synchronize with a PC. And with special memory features, such as Nokia's so-called removable memory, they will be able to store as many songs as regular MP3 players."Business Week
January 21, 2005
Buildings as displays
Pixel-clad shopping centre. "Shimmering by day and radiant at night, the disks are frosted on both sides to diminish sun glare and diffuse light produced by LED fixtures behind each disk, capable of generating 16 million colors. Because each LED is individually controlled, together the disks act like pixels on a huge screen, displaying text, scenes, and color schemes changed via the Internet, up to 20 times per second."
we make money not art
Physical printers
VersaLaser -- Cool $10,000 toy. "The VersaLaser is a desktop computer peripheral that takes your drawings and spits out products made of "wood, plastic, fabric, paper, glass, leather, stone, ceramic, rubber."
Boing Boing
Dedicated printers and scanners
The NeatReceipts. "...a portable scanner called the NeatReceipts that can scan your receipts and software that will automatically recognize and export the data into QuickBooks, Quicken, MS Money Excel or as a PDF for your expense reports. Costs $250 bucks."
Engadget
Specialised robotics
New Konami Takara Tera Robots shown in Japan. "...the Tera AV is able to play a DVD and has a projector lens in his eyes to display the video - strangely cool. The Tera Life robot measures things like alcohol level, body temperature, blood pressure and body fat. [...]The Tera Security features a camera, fire detector and gas alarm."
I4U News
Syncing pain
Despite promises, gadgets still don't talk to each other. "Electronic devices that ought to be able to talk to each other stay stubbornly silent - or turn consumers into hardworking digital diplomats before they intercommunicate."CS Monitor
Cellphone as media player
Music Media Watch. "We think it will be at least a year, probably two or more before a mobile phone comes out with enough storage space to mount a serious challenge as a stand-alone music player."J@pan Inc
Interactive maps
Sound mapping"Streetscape", by Japanese artist Iori Nakai, is a plastic map with the sounds of the city "attached" to it. When tracing over the city's white map with a special pen, you can hear everyday noises that were recorded at that particular location: conversations, passing traffic, and all the ambient sounds that make a city."
we make money not art
January 20, 2005
Direct manipulation objects
Mouseradio. "Moving the radio vertically changes the volume, moving the radio on the horizontal axis changes the frequency. The radio is on, when the black speaker points up in the air."
petracolor.de
PCs built into furniture
Behold the $55,000 PC. "After several years of working with furniture makers and wood carvers on one-off projects, Wojewidka decided there was a need for a systematic approach to custom-made desks that carefully conceal a high-end PC."
CNET
January 18, 2005
Graffiti "linked" to media
Turning New York into a webpage. "Grafedia , created by John Geraci, is hyperlinked text, written by hand onto physical surfaces and linking to images, video, sound files, etc. It can be written on walls, in the streets, or in postcards, on the body as tattoos, or anywhere you feel like putting it. Viewers "click" on the grafedia hyperlinks with their phones by sending a message addressed to the word "@grafedia.net" to get the content behind the link."
we make money not art
Cameras aware of the environment
Olson, the independent camera. "Bristling with microphones, the camera "listens" for interesting events such as laughter and spins around to capture images you would miss with a conventional camera. The camera has its own stable base, but its shape also fits the necks of wine and beer bottles or wine glasses for extra height.
we make money not art
January 14, 2005
TV phone
Sanyo Prototype TV Phone. "Sanyo was showing off this prototype phone at CES that has a built-in TV tuner. The clamshell screen can be flipped over so television can be watched while it's closed, as well."
Gizmodo
January 13, 2005
Cameraphone search
Hyperlinking the World. "Let's say you're standing in front of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. You take a snapshot with your cameraphone and instantly receive an audio-visual narrative about the painting. Then you step out of the Louvre and see a cafe. Should you go in? Take a shot from the other side of the street and a restaurant guide will appear on your phone. You sit down inside, but perhaps your French is a little rusty. You take a picture of the menu and a dictionary comes up to translate."TheFeature
January 12, 2005
Augmented reality gaming
Interactive outdoor augmented reality collaboration system. "ARQuake is an Augmented Reality (AR) version of the popular Quake game. [...] We use a head mounted display, mobile computer, head tracker, and GPS system to provide inputs to control the game. Using ARQuake, you can walk around in the real world and play Quake against virtual monsters."
ARQuake
Gesture-based ringtones
Motorola's spray-on ringtone wall. "...this prototype system that enables you to spray a pattern onto a wall sensor, which plays a melody in response to the shape that you draw; you can then print out the pattern with a URL that takes you to a ringtone version of the melody that you can download to your cellphone."
Engadget
MP3 players everywhere
Samsung YP-W3 MP3 Pocket Watch. "The flash player supports a variety of formats (including OGG Vorbis), and switches between a watch face and a navigation screen as needed."
Gizmodo
Video on demand through RSS
Videos Quick, Easy and Automatic. "Locating video content on the web can be cumbersome and time-consuming, especially for the not-too-tech-savvy tinkerer. But a new application combining BitTorrent and RSS could make it easy for video fans to automatically locate files and download them to their computers."Wired News
January 11, 2005
Interactive tables
Interactive tables List. "Philips Caf Table has an interface that facilitates the use of the computer while you're chatting with a friend over a drink. The table displays a selection of community content relevant to the caf it is in and allows browsing as well as the creation of new content. Users can store content on a physical token by placing it in the ceramic bowl in the centre of the table."
we make money not art
Integrating new tech with old
SmartDeck Intelligent Cassette Adapter for iPod . "SmartDeck allows you to control your iPod using the built in controls of your cassette player. Using patent-pending sensing technology, the SmartDeck determines which commands the cassette player sends to the iPod."
Griffin Technology
RFID in sport
Electronic bugs in football balls and players' shinpads. "The new technology could, for example, inform spectators that the ball missed the goalpost by 3.9 centimeters. Coaches could also tell which players were hustling around the pitch, and which were holding back, either out of fatigue or laziness."
we make money not art
January 07, 2005
Auto-house building
Houses built by robot. "Lines of wet concrete are squeezed out of a huge nozzle as if from a gigantic toothpaste tube. Then a pair of trowels attached to the nozzle shape the concrete as the robot repeats the pouring as many times as is necessary to achieve the programmed height."
we make money not art
Automatic image categorizing
Search Looks at the Big Picture. "The image-processing software looks for "key patches" in an image to determine the relative positions of different shapes, such as tires and a car body, or a beach and ocean waves, to categorize the image's contents, Dance said. The software has learned hundreds of objects since development began in 2002, and "can be used to categorize images and automatically create image tags," Dance said."Wired News
Cooking by product code
Beyond Bread Maker." ...the Beyond Bread Maker (retails for $150) automatically bakes any bread or cake mix by just by scanning a UPC barcode - there's no need to set times here with this little contraption. Cooking by UPC code - now that's something we like hearing."
Engadget
January 06, 2005
Wireless cameras
Kodak Easyshare One Wireless Camera. "...you can add a WiFi card [...] to it to upload your photos right to the web, or even log in and view your Ofoto pictures on the camera. Plus Kodak sealed a deal with T-Mobile to make sure you can upload your pix from any T-Mobile Hotspot (aka Starbucks)."
Engadget
January 05, 2005
The changing face of media
Media: New Generations Steal The Show. "The challenges come in all shapes and sizes. Broadcast networks will look on as they're zapped by a rising army of remote-wielding couch potatoes with digital video recorders (DVRS). Film studios will see more movie-loving teens forgo the neighborhood cineplex for video games and DVDs..."Business Week
Projected books
Illuminated Manuscript. "Projected typography is virtually printed into the blank pages of a handbound book with a video projector. Sensors embedded in the pages inform the computer when pages are turned."
we make money not art
January 04, 2005
Satellite radio recording
Sat Radio Recording Moves Ahead. "A handful of new and soon-to-be-released devices enable music listeners to automatically record tracks from satellite radio broadcasts onto hard drives or portable music players such as the iPod. While the recording industry has publicly decried such activities for terrestrial radio, analysts say it has a financial reason for remaining silent about satellite radio recording."
Wired News
Multimedia paper
MicroMedia Paper. "This snapshot-sized display can play music, movies, and more Price: $50 for a 10-pack. Executive Summary: Wafer-thin display and storage finally brings digital media to the familiar format of paper. Tech Barriers: Flexible, disposable displays; radical new GUI; millimeter-thick batteries. Target Market: Photo-sharing families, 35 and up, plus execs wanting fancy business cards."
Mobile PC
Online games for the disabled
MMO character run by nine profoundly disabled players"Micah and Charlene could use the mouse," lilone replies, when I ask her if it's possible for each member of wilde to enter Second Life directly, perhaps with their own individual accounts. "John and Nichole could, but wouldn't alone. Micah can't read. Charlene has one hand, but can read." She shrugs. "None of them, really."Boing Boing
Media on the go
TiVoToGo Goes Live. "TiVoToGo allows TiVo users to transfer recordings from the TiVo box to a Windows XP or 2000 based PC (Mac support to follow). This means that you can transfer a recorded show to a laptop and bring it with you for viewing on the go, hence the name."
I4U News
December 17, 2004
Music on every device
Nintendo adds media playing to DS. "Nintendo is releasing an adapter for its DS handheld console so it can play music and video."
BBC NEWS