April 03, 2007
Twitter: Fad or Rad?
I heard about Twitter on Future Tense last week, but it kind of went in one ear and out the other. Surprising, since I'm a known social-networking whore. If you build it, I will sign up. Then my husband, Mr. Anti-Social Networking himself signed up for Twitter yesterday. So I had no choice.
Then the husband got me going on this rad Google mashup that scrolls around the world displaying the latest tweets. Mesmerizing. Just sit and watch the world tweet!
I tweet from an easy little (Mac) desktop app.
But, the question remains: What's the point? The NY Times is using this to "tweet" the latest headlines. But, is it just yet another distraction on top of my ever-refreshing inbox and IM? Dunno yet. Jury's still out.
Posted by Meghan at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2007
Apple goes for it
The rest of the world hasn't completely realized yet that Apple has become a medium. They have the world's ears with their iPods, its minds with their OS/applications and now its eyes with their Apple TV. The forever up-and-coming alternative to the Pee Cee is turning into a medium. That is a huge strategical move on Apple's part, to compete with cable companies, video outlets, music stores and TV networks all at once.
I'm a well-known Apple zealot, but in my experience nothing makes buying music, TV and movies easier than iTunes. Apple figured out how to do it. They've even made it fun. They've also made it easy. I download a TV show and can watch it on my Mac, on my iPod or my TV without thinking about it.
I am predicting a big deal where someone like Google or Time/Warner buys Apple for billions of dollars. Or maybe Apple buys them. I don't know. But I've been listening to people count Apple out for 20 years and they are still wrong.
Apple, not just a computer anymore.
Posted by Michael at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2007
Un-Skype: Gizmo
Your computer is your phone. I keep saying it and you keep not listening. Here is another way you can put down your phone and use your ear buds instead. Gizmo.
Posted by Michael at 01:47 AM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2006
Cell-phone Sized Projector Using Lasers
Light Blue Optics is developing a miniature laser-based projection system that could allow you to project anything from your cellphone onto a wall. The technology supports resolutions up to 2048x1280, making the projector suitable for HDTV.
The current prototype uses a monochrome laser and a holographic micro-screen to create an image via diffraction. A PowerPoint presentation on the device is available from this press release.
There are example images inside this presentation, though they have been cropped in the presentation to hide some laser edge effects. Perhaps these distracting lines and dots are part of the technology? The uncropped originals are reproduced below:
Via Slashdot.
Posted by Matt at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2006
39 Megapixel Digital SLR Camera
Try this on for size. Hasselblad, a Swedish company, has announced the world's first 39 megapixel SLR camera. The H2D-39 includes a range of extended digital features including digital APO Correction technology and Instant Approval Architecture. It offers Hasselblad's own HB RGB color profile, and a new 3FR RAW file format. For all those times you needed a image the size of a building. Yours for the price of only $29,995.
Read more in the press release.
Posted by toddc at 03:55 PM | Comments (1)
January 24, 2006
...and the virtual becomes real!
OGLE, is a piece of software that grabs 3D information being displayed on your computer, and outputs it in a way that can be read by other 3D programs. This has an incredibly huge amount of applications, but the developers (a non-profit called Eyebeam OpenLab) have already hit on one of my favorites--turning virtual reality into reality. They used a Dimension 3D printer to create a little model of a world of warcraft character. Just thinking about how many ways this is cool makes my head swim. I'll bet someone ambitious could even make a pretty penny just churning out personalized models for 3D gamers.
The official announcement (about OGLE) was posted on Eyebeam's blog.
[via Boing Boing]
Posted by Martin at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
The Wonderful World of Widgets
Yahoo announced this week that it was acquiring Pixoria, a developer that specializes in creating 'widgets' - tiny web applications that do not rely on the browser to access web-based content and deliver it to a desktop near you. Apple Computers and the 'Dashboard', included in the latest Mac operating system, has called serious attention to widgets. But the common misperception is that they are an 'Apple only' possibility. Clearly this acquisition indicates that widgets are about to be more prevalent across platforms.
The good news is, we don't need to buy widgets to use them to deliver targeted content. We can build our own branded widgets to serve specific purposes for clients. Content outside of the browser opens up a whole new world of possibility in terms of accessibility and personalization. It's very exciting for developers for sure.
Posted by Nancy at 07:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 30, 2005
Podcasting Goes Primetime
Apple just released a new version of iTunes which supports podcasts. Podcasters all over are reporting huge increases in traffic. Apple, once again, gets there first.
Posted by Michael at 11:06 AM | Comments (1)
June 27, 2005
iRiver
Even though I have an iPod I wanted something to use as a voice recorder for podcasting. Many podcasters use the iRiver and, lucky me, my wife got me one for Father's Day. It is really cool. While its capacity is a fraction of a decent iPod, it has other advantages:
1. It has a built-in microphone for voice recording.
2. It has a built-in FM tuner so you can listen to and record the radio.
3. It is super small and super lightweight.
4. It runs on a single AA battery which seems to last a damn long time.
5. It's cheap! < $150. I got this one.
Posted by Michael at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2005
Tech Lets You See Around Corners
Imagine the following scenario: you have a paperback book open to a printed page, a camera, and an LCD projector that form a rough triangle. Suppose you have a playing card, with its back facing the camera. The front of the card partially faces both the projector and the book, so light from the projector will create a diffuse reflection from the card's face on the page of the book.
Now, you might think that it's impossible to determine the suit and value of the card from the camera's perspective—the only information available to the camera is the light reflecting off the back of the card, and the light from the open book page. However, by controlling the structure of the light from the projector in a very fine manner (illuminating one "pixel" of the playing card's face at a time), the entire card can be scanned in, a piece at a time!
"Seeing around corners" is perhaps an exaggeration, but this technology is just plain cool. For more technical information, check out the paper behind the discovery, Dual Photography, or jump straight to the demonstration video (torrent) or the paper in PDF format.
Grab the torrent if you've got the time—the end of the movie demonstrates the playing card scenario I described above. It's fantastic.
PS. If you don't have a BitTorrent client, head over to the official web site and download it. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) technology that shares the burden of downloading among everyone who wants the file. Rather than everyone attempting to snag it from a single computer, people with more pieces of the file than others share it with the group. This greatly accelerates download time, and allows many more people to download the file without overloading the server. P2P is not evil!
Posted by Matt at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2005
Your Father Wanted You to Have This...
In honor of the upcoming Star Wars release: Video of the Plasma Saber in action. Starting at $990.00.
Posted by Andy at 08:13 AM | Comments (2)
April 18, 2005
Comic Life
Over the weekend I came across a new app that I could have way too much fun with:
"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."
I'm with Phil...it would be fabulous if Flickr integrated this sort of functionality, so that anyone (not just OS X users) could make comics from their digital photos.
Posted by Sharyn at 09:05 AM | Comments (1)
April 01, 2005
How the PSP could replace your ipod
The PSP can play mp3 files natively, that means you can just drag mp3s onto the memory stick and go. But the 32 meg stick it comes with is obviously not enough to get anyone to want to use it that way.
But the games come on Sony's new Universal Media Disks (UMDs). Sony claims this is an "open" standard, so that other companies can release movies and such on their own. All that needs to happen now is for some company to release a commercial UMD media writer. At anything less than $50, a writer would (I imagine) skyrocket sales of the PSP for those of us who want a gaming system that could also, potentially, play our mp3 collection.
Posted by Martin at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2005
RFID
Sun has an article about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). This is pretty cool technology. When creative people get their hands on it, some really amazing things are going to happen. Certainly there are security issues with RFID but there are still many, many applications for goodness here.
Posted by Michael at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2005
Skype
Your computer can be your phone. With Skype you use your computer's speakers and microphone as your phone. You can call other Skype users for free but for a very small fee you can call anyone, anywhere on their land line or cell phone. You can also have an incoming phone number so people can call you just like normal. You can also have voicemail and see missed calls and such. This is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) but sort of with a twist. Most VOIP systems have you using "normal" phones that are connected to the network. With Skype your computer is your phone.
I think it is pretty dang cool.
Posted by Michael at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)
February 26, 2005
Podcasting
Have you heard of podcasting? In a nutshell, it is audio blogging. You have a client that downloads new entries and loads them into your music player. So it's sort of like radio except you can listen to it whenever you want. A good site for an intro to podcasting is http://www.ipodder.org/. It also lists tons and tons of podcasts. People podcast about all sorts of things, just like blogging.
The thing that is cool about podcasting is it ties different technologies together -- RSS, blogging and MP3's are all part of the technology that makes up podcasting.
Posted by Michael at 10:08 PM | Comments (1)
February 22, 2005
Can Your Digicam Do This?
Facing the skyrocketing popularity of digital cameras, a ragtag band of traditional photographers strike back! Using customized cameras and using 9"x18" negatives, they've produced a gallery of "ultra-high-resolution" prints. As in up to 10'x20' in size, and resolutions of up to 4ooo megapixels.
Why do this? Read on for a cool study in how 'older' technologies end up re-defining their roles. Radio didn't go away when television took over, but rather, it's role changed. How will early web technologies develop as time goes on? What will things like newsgroups and Telnet look like in 15 years?
Posted by Andy at 03:23 PM | Comments (1)
February 12, 2005
Flash and Phones
It looks like Flash is coming to a phone near you. Nokia recently announced a licensing agreement with Macromedia to integrate Flash into the Nokia Series 60 platform. It's time to really start thinking about developing useful Flash content that can extend to the cell phone. It looks like Nokia is rolling out developer tools for exactly that purpose. Who will be the first dev shop to harness this technology and target this niche?
Posted by Nancy at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2005
Thunderbird
So Thunderbird is like Firefox except it's for email. It is a very cool program. It runs on Mac, Windows and *nix. It also handles encryption using GPG. I'm told this works on Windows just fine, too, once adequately configured. I'm dying for an easy way to get Windows people using GPG encryption and Thunderbird might be a good option. A couple of good links I found:
How to secure your emails with GnuPG and Enigmail
A Practical Introduction to GNU Privacy Guard in Windows
Posted by Michael at 10:17 PM | Comments (3)
Good News for Foodies
Making a grocery list for a recipe you found? How very 1999.
One of those "wish I'd thought of that" ideas.
Posted by Andy at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2005
Flash Misconceptions
Flash has long been thought of as unreliable and that hoards of users don't have the ability to view it. Macromedia obviously has a vested interest in doing so, but i think that they have done a good job dispelling some of the myths and illustrating viewership rates for flash and other types of rich media. There is also a good blurb about when to use flash.
Posted by Eric at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)