SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS Beta is live
who's going to buy Palm? blackberry can't do this (yet) -- your own TV shows on your own portable device. Posted Mar 28th 2007 1:31AM by Darren Murph
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Intercept packages before delivery with UPS
UPS has just rolled out a new Delivery Intercept feature that adds a new level of control over everything that happens to your package after it's shipped but before it's delivered.
After you ship your package, Delivery Intercept lets you return the package to sender, change the delivery address, reschedule delivery, or have UPS hold the package for pickup over the internet any time before delivery. The service isn't free (it looks like it may be as much as $10/intercept), but anyone who's had to hassle with shipping problems that could have easily been remedied with a mid-ship intercept will likely find this a handy option.
Justice Department Wasting Billions On Another Tech Debacle
from the haven't-we-seen-this-before? dept
Remember the famous FBI computer system? The one that was late, over-budget and was useless at fighting terrorists? The same one that some security experts decided it would be worth beginning a crime spree the day it was launched? The same one that was eventually scrapped entirely despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent? Well, it looks like the Justice Department may have another such system that they're wasting taxpayer money on. The Justice Department has been building a $5 billion (with a b) wireless communication system. However, a new audit says that the system is apparently "at a high risk of failure." Like the FBI's computer system, the system is "not on the path that was envisioned." And now, just like with the computer system, the Justice Department will spend many months examining whether its worth salvaging the system, or just throwing it away. Accountability, apparently, isn't something the Justice Department takes too seriously.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Aerogenerator Wind Turbine - vertical axis is key
by DJ Neawedde September 11th, 2006 in Energy.
The Aerogenerator, designed by Grimshaw Architects (UK) in association with Windpower Ltd., is a new form of wind turbine. Unlike three bladed turbines that we have come to know which spin on a horizontal axis, the Aerogenerator spins on a vertical axis. Spinning at three revolutions a minute, the Aerogenerator could generate around nine megawatts, a massive amount compared to the average of around two megawatts we have come to expect from horizontal turbines. Because of the larger power output, it would be more economical to build out at sea. This design also has the potential to harness the energy of the waves and tides by sub-surface generators.
The design is derived from the Darrieus style of turbine, which rotates on a vertical axis – and as such is omni directional, accepting wind from whichever direction working something like a sideways water wheel.
Kinetic Sculptures: Wind Powered Robots
by DJ Neawedde November 19th, 2006 in Robotics, Energy.
Theo Jansen is the Dutch creator of what he calls “Kinetic Sculptures,” where nature and technology meet. Essentially these sculptures are robots powered by the wind only.
BMW broadcasts Jansen’s creation in their new commercial (watch below) which is part of a new “campaign which serves to highlight BMW’s market leadership in the fields of technology and innovation”.
EcoGeek via Uber-Review
Mute that commerical, change television forever
A sea change is about to swamp your television shows, and the source of that tsunami might be a new Nielsen advertising metric to be unveiled this May.
For years, television advertisers have complained about the lack of specific data on who views their ads. They have been forced to make decisions based on show viewership numbers, knowing full well that full bladders, the mute button and Tivo erode those figures substantially.
Now Nielsen is tackling this question with new of data that measure advertisement viewership the same way they have measured the television audience. Commercial ratings will supposedly allow ad buyers to differentiate the number of eyeballs taking in their pitches from those watching the show in which they appear.
TV networks such as CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS) and the Walt Disney Corp. (NYSE:DIS)'s ABC along with advertising agencies are not so clearly enthused about this metric, though. If a few well-thought-of campaigns prove ineffective in holding the viewing audience, it could cast doubt on the entire industry.
Nielsen, probably cognizant of how deeply their business is intertwined with the ad agency world, is taking a very cautious step into these waters. While advertisers want a second-by-second breakdown on viewership, something modern technology should allow Nielsen to capture, the new metric will only provide an average commercial viewership for each show.
Once this door is breached, however, it's hard to imagine Nielsen long refusing the demands of advertisers for more discrete data. And if they don't like what they see, expect television to change quickly and dramatically. More about this later.
I'm eager to see just how the new generation of entertaining advertisements stack up against one another. How does the snack fairy's numbers compare to the Energizer Bunny? if I had the ability, I would offer a huge prize to the first commercial that outdraws the show in which it appears.Samsung's "world's smallest" 8.4 megapixel CMOS sensor: so long CCD?
Posted Mar 27th 2007 9:54AM by Thomas Ricker Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras
TI's Mini Movie Projector: Not Everything is Big in Texas
A few select journalists got a flash at this year's CES, but no photos were allowed—until now. Texas Instruments is showing off its Pico, a DLP projector that is chiquitito enough to be incorporated into the bottom of a cellphone.
The 1.5-inch gizmo, which contains three lasers, a DLP chip capable of driving widescreen TV images, and a power supply, can be used to beam DVD-quality video onto a wall or a screen, giving you a bigger image than anything you'd find on even the biggest smartphone LCD screen. Two more pics of a nekkid Pico and its DLP chip after the jump. Oh, and need I say that the phone is obviously phake? TI demos its movie projector in a phone [CNet News]
ZenZui: Microsoft's New Web Navigation Interface For Phones
Or in other words: "OMFG! We must do something about that iPhone-thang! Pronto!"
ZenZui's Zooming User Interface organizes Web and user content in 36 tiles arranged in a virtual desktop grid. The desktop can be panned and zoomed in or out using the cellphone's touchscreen or numeric keypad. Then, when you activate one of the tiles, it will show you a small interface, which appears to follow the same directional pad control for user interaction. The interface looks rather sleek and zoomtastic, I have to say, but you'll be the judge after you see the video demonstration, right after the jump.
The idea was originally patented at Microsoft Research labs, although to me it looks inspired by Don Hopkins' pie menus and the Nintendo Wii Channels. The system will require the participation of carriers and content providers, but beyond Kayak.com, OTOlabs, Avenue A | Razorfish, and Traffic.com, there's not much more detail.
The press release babbles on about social connections and digital content sharing, but I don't know if this is just marketing drone speech or if ZenZui will offer the users the possibility to share their bookmarks and content using a centralized server or some kind of peer-to-peer messaging. You can clearly see a "Rate tile" button on the screenshots in the gallery, so there may really be some kind of social bookmarking/recommendation system in place.
We will know more from CTIA, when Brian and Jason get their sticky paws all over it.
Samsung New 64GB Keeps Apple Fans Drooling
Yet another reason to drool about for Apple fans waiting for the next coming of the MacBook and those who dig solid-state storage: Samsung has released a new NAND drive and, unlike Intel, they have pushed it to 64 Gbytes this time.
And if 64MB/s reads and 45MB/s writes in a 15 grams, 1.8" low-consumption storage thingie doesn't have you drooling, I don't know what other Samsung thing will.
Samsung unveils quick 64GB SSD
When Social Web Tools Get Creative
A social network like MySpace can help you express yourself and communicate. A bookmarking tool like del.icio.us can help you save and share stuff. A wiki can harness teamwork to build a webpage about whatever it is you care about.
But these social, accessible, dare-I-say-web-2.0 tools can be brought to another level to enable you to make something you can bring back to your offline life. Then they’re not just social, but collaboratively creative. Think Ze Frank’s the ORG or Instructables or Tabblo, which was bought by HP today.
Here are a couple examples. Their user bases are relatively small, but I’d like to think that their utility will give them lasting appeal, especially on a mainstream level.
Exhibit A: Social bookmarking for the home. MyDesignIn, in addition to providing a social bookmarking tool for collecting prospective sinks and couches and whatnot, has built a Flash floorplan tool, where you can drop the items you’ve bookmarked into a diagram of your space. It’s pretty functional considering the Marblehead, Massachusetts-based company is still working on raising its first round of funding.
You can play around with the plan, get recommendations based on users with similar tastes, and eventually get dynamic pricing information. Having a social bookmarking tool just for home-related stuff is not all that appealing, but transforming those bookmarks into a representation of your own home makes the hassle of a separate account worthwhile.
Exhibit B: Social networks for creating music. If social networks are the new shopping mall, as some have proposed, then it follows that much of the activity is about as productive as Mallrats. Not to take this metaphor too far, but perhaps this particular mall could have a recording studio, where musicians can remotely collaborate.
That’s an idea that’s occurred to a lot of people: see Splice, Jamglue, Indaba Music, YourSpins, Mix2r, Rype. In most cases, these sites offer some kind of web-based tool for remixing and collaborating on music.
I think they’re onto something here, though I’m not sure it’s a business. In various interviews, the people running these sites told me they were differentiated because they were targeting professional musicians, or instead amateurs, or even kids goofing off — or because they’re signing deals to license content for their users to sample, or rather all user-generated.
“It’s almost become a dating site — ‘emo girl looking for emo boy,’” said Matt Rubens, co-founder of Seattle-based Jamglue, which has 6,000 registered users, and 50,000 unique visitors per month. “The social currency of the site is to remix a song.”
P.S. Let us know what other sites you’ve used and liked in this categoryMonday, March 26, 2007
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
A video by Michael Wesch (see http://www.ksu.edu/sasw/anthro…), Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, is currently the most blogged about video according to Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/pop/…).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
