Ad-hoc computer networks
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
Hamachi. “Free software Hamachi lets you create a quick, simple, and secure virtual network between any two or more computers with a connection to the Internet.”
Lifehacker
Archive for January, 2006
Sharing barcodes visually
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
Ringtone garments. “Industrial designer Christopher Glaister and fashion designer Michelle Shakallis’s barcode textiles are decorated by a pattern that translates a piece of music (When the Saints Go Marching In) into a barcode. The pattern can be turned back into real music or a ring tone by scanning it with a modified camera phone. The tune can then be used as the ringtone for that mobile phone.”
we make money not art
Driver tracking
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
new breed GPS vehicle tracking system provides detailed analysis of driving behaviour. “Because the information is tracked off-line, DriveSync eliminates the high monthly service fees associated with other GPS vehicle tracking systems. Results can be viewed by detaching the data key from the receiver unit and inserting it into a computer USB port. The vehicle tracking results are uploaded to a DriveSync server where the data is interpreted and consolidated into customized reports. These reports, including trip logs, route maps and usage alerts, are viewed via a secure, password-protected website. The results provide a detailed analysis of vehicle use and driver behavior.”
gizmag
Displays in everything
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
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
Really sensitive motion detection
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
Handheld Radar Scope detects people through concrete walls. “The US Military is showing off a handheld Radar Scope that they claim detects motions as subtle as someone breathing inside a building. Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the $1000 gadget works through 12-inches of concrete and fifty feet beyond. They plan to field test the Radar Scope in Iraq as soon as this spring.”
Boing Boing
Running apps from USB drives
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
OpenOffice supports U3 ‘portable Home folder’ Flash drives. “OpenOffice 2.0 can be run from any U3-branded Flash disk. The software automatically ensures that any preferences files and documents it creates are stored on the removable disk and not on the host PC. The upshot – the software can be used on any compatible computer without the need to install the application first.”
The Register
Sharing health records
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
Easily sharing medical information. “Because of a lack of integration between proprietary health information systems, it’s not easy today to exchange medical data about patients even in a single medical institution. And it’s obviously worse between different hospitals or different countries. But, according to IST Results, this healthcare interoperability problem is about to be solved by Artemis, a EU-funded project. This system is using Web services on top of existing standards to exchange messages and medical records. A prototype should be demonstrated next month in San Diego. Read more for additional details and references.”
Primidi
Game ads better then TV ads to get to teens
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
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
Knowing how we register brands
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
Neuroscience of branding. “A group of researchers have used a functional MRI to map out the parts of the brain that respond to brand identity, showing how Pavlovian conditioning generates response to a brand-mark. “
Boing Boing
Finally, a small in-ear headset
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
Motorola H5: Headset or Butt-Plug – You Decide. “Motorola is showing off their tiny, in-ear headset at CES. The wee fella is about as big—and cute—as a button and doesn’t have a strange boom mic hanging off of it to add to my “moron on the go” look.”
Gizmodo
Citizen journalism
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
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
Conducting gloves
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
Tavo gloves for the iPod. “No they’re not little gloves for your iPod, they’re actually for you. These gloves from Tavo keep your mitts warm but also have electrically conductive channels running to the fingertips. Why is that important? Just try to use that iPod click-wheel with any other pair of gloves and you’ll get the picture (but no sound).”
Engadget
Media PCs redefining PC shape
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 31st, 2006 by rbanks
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
Parents paying for expensive school tech
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
School laptop policy creating digital divide. “The Fullerton, CA public school system is aggressive in its push to educate children in the ways of silicon. The school district is aiming to give laptops to select elementary and middle school kids, and they are developing a curriculum centered around students having access to their laptops. So why are some parents putting up a fuss? The plan requires parents to pony up almost US$1,500 for the privilege, and if you can’t afford it, you don’t get to participate in the program. Participating parents would pay about $500 each year for three years, and their children would receive an Apple iBook G4 laptop and entrance into the special program. “
Ars Technica
It looks like this
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Collaborative bargain hunting
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
Find a Deal with Clipfire.. “I like Clipfire , which allows users to submit ecommerce deals, and other members can vote the best deals to the top of the site, and add appropriate metadata, like tags, to the links.”
TechCrunch
Cameras with multiple lenses
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Using the web to cut out the realtor
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
Owners’ Web Site Gives Realtors Run for Money. “Ms. Miller, 38, a former social worker who favors fuzzy slippers, and her cousin, Mary Clare Murphy, 51, operate what real estate professionals believe to be the largest for-sale-by-owner Web site in the country. They have turned Madison, a city of 208,000 known for its liberal politics, into one of the most active for-sale-by-owner markets in the country. And their success suggests that, in challenging the Realtor association’s dominance of home sales, they may have hit on a winning formula that has eluded many other upstarts. Their site, FsboMadison.com (pronounced FIZZ-boh) holds a nearly 20 percent share of the Dane County market for residential real estate listings. “
New York Times
On-the-fly translation
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Tiny, tiny PC
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
The All in One Card: credit-card thin-client concept. “The All in One Card (or the AIO Card, as he calls it), is a credit-card sized gadget that Chandan envisions as a thin-client device with an e-ink-like display, which could be used as a media player, web appliance and even GPS unit. The card would be powered by solar cells, would include integrated Bluetooth and WiFi for data transfer, and could be slotted into a smart card reader to hook up to a full-size display and keyboard.”
Engadget
Convergence in the home? Finally?
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
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
The death of the dining table
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
The Disappearing Dining Table. “International news agency AFP is reporting that the English dining table is disappearing, as more and more people either eat in front of the telly, wolf down take away standing up in the kitchen, or lord knows what. ( Many more people are buying home office furniture than dining room gear.) The article cites smaller living spaces as one reason, along with increasing divorce rates. A survey of British families found that only 5 percent use a dining table every day. A third of the respondents said the dining table was reserved for special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas.”
food museum
Non-invasive autopsies
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
? Virtual autopsies. “Traditional autopsies are considered as invasive procedures by many faiths and even violate religious laws, such as is the case for Muslims and Jews. This is why the concept of virtual autopsy, which relies on computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies, has been developed in the last two years.”
ZDNet.com
Aternatives to credit cards for online shopping
January 30th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Exchanging favors with strangers
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
The Favor Exchange. “The basic system is: register and post if you need a favor or have a favor to give. Things I see on the site now include a post for a free mattress, and a request for help writing a wikipedia article. After favors are completed, members are asked to make a rating of the other person. And if you help someone or are helped, the other person is automatically added to your network.”
TechCrunch
Cameraphone –> Scan, copy, fax
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
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
GPS for bikes
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
Yamaha Motorcycle Navigation System. “The product is basically a Garmin, but with some tweaks by Yamaha. It has a sound guidance system that wirelessly transmits (via FM) to a receiver inside the helmet (“turn left in 100 feet… and do a wheelie”). “
Gizmodo
Pushing scrolling
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
The Mile Wall. “Travis aims to build the internet’s longest page. The page will stretch for 1 mile ( 1.6 km ) horizontally and be made entirely of public posted material. It will be the first, or at least one of the first, pages to go entirely horizontal for such an incredible distance.”
Smart Mobs
Self-implanting
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
S&M Tech, DIY RFID Implants. “It appears there are a handful of people, primarily engineers, who are taking the plunge and implanting RFID chips into their hands. Purpose? For automation, of course. Having an RFID chip implanted can save time doing things such as logging onto computer work stations, unlocking electrically-locked doors, ordering pizza and buying porn.”
Gizmodo
Fast/Short games for busy lives
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Wireless sensors
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
Hitachi AirSense (The Sequel). “This time around the watch has readouts for temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure (no big deal, I’ve got a watch that does that, too). But this one also senses vibrations (earthquake! run!). This watch is not meant for your average Weather Channel addict, though. It’s supposed to be for indoor monitoring of, say, kitchens and food warehouses. That’s why it is capable of sending its data to a wireless receiver that can be used as part of a monitoring network.”
Gizmodo
Text messaging brevity
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Gender differences through activity
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
Gender gap alive and well online. “Gender divisions persist online but it is no longer about whether more men or women use the net, research shows. A study by the Pew Internet Project found that roughly the same percentage of men and women in the US are serious internet users. But the research found that men value the net for the freedom it gives them to try new ways of doing things. By contrast women like the opportunities the net gives them to make and maintain human connections. “
BBC NEWS
DRM-less
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Virtual diagnosis
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
Virtual reality helps diagnose heart defects. “Dutch doctors are using a virtual reality system to visualize the heart in three dimensions and detect if it is healthy or not. In a pilot study, ten doctors were able to move around virtual three-dimensional animated images or ‘holograms’ of the heart and to make correct diagnosis after a ten-minute training.”
ZDNet.com
Civilian GPS
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
Europe’s satellite navigation venture launches. “The first test satellite of Europe’s €3.8 billion Galileo navigation system was launched on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The system will rival the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russia’s GLONASS system. Galileo is a civilian project and promises the permanent provision of a navigation system – the US and Russia systems are both run by the military and could in theory be turned off at any time”
New Scientist
Cartography in a truck
January 27th, 2006 by rbanks
Explorers Map World’s Offramps. “From the outside, save for a global positioning system antenna that resembles a police siren on top, the Escape looks like any other SUV. But in the back is a bolted cabinet containing a GPS receiver attached to the antenna, a laptop docking station, power supply and cables snaking through the vehicle’s interior to connect with the computer display and video camera up front. The GPS setup feeds latitude and longitude information several times a second, plotted on the display as green arrows that connect to form digital roads. The camera captures three frames a second, enough to reconstruct road signs and other details. In the databases, roads are broken into line segments, each carrying as many as 160 attributes — such things as road quality (ranging from 1 for major arteries to 5 for local streets), presence of a divider or center turn lanes, speed limits and addresses of buildings along each side.”
Wired News
Free audiobooks
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Exoskeletons
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
RL Mechs on the Way. “This is the Berkeley lower-extremity exoskeleton (Bleex). The Bleex 1 has been in the works for a while and it seems they have begun work on the 2nd prototype, the Bleex 2. The exoskeleton system has two hydraulic leg braces that include 40 electronic sensors, a monitoring computer and an internal-combustion engine. The exoskeleton is attached to the legs of the soldier and allows for backpack loads upwards of 220 lb. to be carried with ease.”
Gizmodo
Adding metadata to blog entries
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Over-convergence
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
It Slices, It Dices. “Telson is showing off its TWC 1150 camera/watch/phone device. Yes, it’s a wristwatch that also houses a camera phone built-in. Just think of the possibilities!”
Gizmodo
Text plugins
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
The Hyperwords Plugin. “Hyperwords gives users a number of choices whenever a piece of text is selected. The options simply pop up – right click functionality remains unchanged.
Options include searching various engines, looking up text in wikipedia and dictionary.com, emailing text, searching on Google Maps, translation, and searching on Amazon and other commerce sites.”
TechCrunch
Connecting authors with readers
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
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)
Testing your breath for illness
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
Take a deep breath and check your health. “After several other newspapers, the Los Angeles Times is looking at the Heartsbreath test, which is a billion times more sensitive than police breathalyzers. These breath sensors can already check for asthma, ulcers or trouble with a heart transplant. But as says one of the researchers who worked on the device, “all we need to know is the chemical fingerprint of a disease and we can devise a test for it.”"
ZDNet.com
Robots in Japan
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
Japan’s humanoid robots | Better than people. “HER name is MARIE, and her impressive set of skills comes in handy in a nursing home. MARIE can walk around under her own power. She can distinguish among similar-looking objects, such as different bottles of medicine, and has a delicate enough touch to work with frail patients. MARIE can interpret a range of facial expressions and gestures, and respond in ways that suggest compassion. Although her language skills are not ideal, she can recognise speech and respond clearly. Above all, she is inexpensive. Unfortunately for MARIE, however, she has one glaring trait that makes it hard for Japanese patients to accept her: she is a flesh-and-blood human being from the Philippines. If only she were a robot instead.”
Economist.com
Computers and healthcare in the home
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
How technology is aiding medicine. “Computers and mobiles phones are playing an increasingly valuable role in helping doctors and patients monitor conditions such as diabetes on a daily basis. And government ministers believe that new technology can also be harnessed to help elderly people live independently for longer.”
BBC NEWS
Digital dashboard
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 26th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Magazines everywhere
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
On-product magazines could change the media landscape. “The media mix is about to have a new and very viable form of print publishing – on-product magazines will hit the market for the first time in early 2006 and we suspect this innovation is capable of changing the world of print media as we know it.”
gizmag
Vein authentication
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
First library system using palm vein authentication. “Fujitsu is to construct a system utilizing its biometric palm vein authentication technology for Naka city’s new public library, in Japan. The contactless palm vein authentication technology will eliminate the use of library identification cards to check out books.”
we make money not art
Respecting personal space
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
The Polite Umbrella. “The Polite Umbrella, by Joo Paek, respects people’s personal space in a public area. This shrinkable umbrella enables users to morph its shape like a jellyfish in order to reduce occupied space and to increase user maneuverability.”
we make money not art
OS hacks
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
Download of the Day: Taskbar. “Free program Taskbar allows you to rearrange the taskbar buttons on your Windows PC. After installing, just press and hold the ALT key while your mouse is hovering over the taskbar – Taskbar will switch to sort mode, allowing you to reorder until you release the ALT key.”
Lifehacker
Organizing your home – sort of
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
PDA for your pet. “Enter your pets schedule (vet appointments, medication schedule, playdates in the park) , phone contacts (vet, groomer, the shitzu with the cute owner), even their picture – and you’ll be the most organised pet owner at the dog park. And if you’ve got a globe-trotting pet, Pet Master will help you locate pet-clinics and pet-friendly motels while you travel.”
The Register
Concept tablet
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
Lenovo Yogatop. “The laptop has a detachable keyboard and a screen that can be flipped around to different angles to replicate standard laptops. Pointless? Pretty much. Still looks cool, though, and will be purchased by uptight business execs anyway.”
Gizmodo
Very high resolution display support
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Mapping out free wi-fi
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
Free ride data acquisition vehicle. “Frida V. is a computer-enabled bicycle that allows riders to map open WIFI nodes in urban spaces. It carries a small computer, GPS device, 802.11 wireless network transciever and a basic audiovisual recording unit. The system enables automated mapping of stumbled wireless networks, easy creation of location-tagged media and opportunistic synchronization with a server resource on the internet. “
we make money not art
Quickly saving text clips
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
Save to Yahoo! Notepad bookmarklet. “Lifehacker reader stripoljub publishes a bookmarklet that posts selected text on a web page to Yahoo! Notepad. This is a pretty neat way to “remember” bits of text you happen across on the web. What I’d love to see next is the ability to append text to specific documents in your Yahoo! Notepad, so you can easily add to your “gift ideas,” “quotes I like” or “places to visit someday” lists.”
Lifehacker
Interactive maps for showing local reports
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Text conversations for the deaf
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
Real-time texting for deaf people. “The new software enables text conversations in real time
Software has been developed which enables deaf people to have real-time text conversations using a mobile phone.
But the charity that has created the service says some mobile operators have yet to fulfil a legal obligation to make their services accessible.”
BBC NEWS
Visualizing your heartbeat
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
Heart beat bracelets. “In something of a Helmut Lang meets Rammstein moment, we bring you three prototype heart-beat bracelets. On top we have the “continuum” which displays the beating hearts tempo via white light pulses. Next we have the “alteration” which changes from red (fast) to green (slow) based on the heart’s intensity. And finally, the er, “finality” which reminds your azz to carpe diem by displaying the number of beats remaining in your pawn shoppe heart.”
Engadget
Little solar panels
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
Solar Powered Cellphone Charms. “Cellphone charms are available in all kinds of shapes. Now there are also little display plates powered by solar, that you can hang on your mobile phone. “
I4U News
Making RFID checkouts a reality
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
Here It Comes – Totally RFID Checkout. “FamilyMart, Itochu, and Toshiba Tec unveiled a checkout system that identifies all purchased items at the same time using item-level RFID tags. If customers use RFID payment cards such as SUICA, the checkout process can be done very quickly with this system – it takes only several seconds (more than twice as fast as the conventional checkout processes.)”
RFID in Japan
Mainstream cameraphone images
January 25th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Recently released movies on your phone
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Gadget junkies
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
Americans ‘Need’ Their Gadgets. “Personal computers, cell phones and high-speed internet are considered essential to getting by for millions of Americans who are showing early signs of addiction to the next wave of high-tech toys, an AP-Ipsos poll found. The latest wave includes MP3 players like iPods — popular with everyone from the kid next door to President Bush — high-definition television and digital video recorders like TiVo.
Some people freely admit to being high-tech junkies.”
Wired News
Smart meters
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
PhotoViolationMeter takes cash, cards… and your picture. ” The PhotoViolationMeter is a new smart parking meter that includes most recent smart-meter innovations, such as accepting payments via smartcard or cellphone, and adds a new twist: a camera that can take pictures of your car and upload them to authorities, store them locally, and make decisions based on how long you’ve been parked.”
Engadget
Get a cut if your webpage is in search results
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Computer-controlled flight in 3D
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
New Airline Navigation System Is Displayed. “Until now, an autopilot could only fly a plane in a straight line or around a gentle curve. But the one shown off Tuesday by the Federal Aviation Administration was following a path as sinuous as the river beneath, a route that planes use to control noise when they approach the airport from the north. “
New York Times (may require free subscription)
Share your PC cycles and earn cash now!
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
CPUShare – The Low Cost Supercomputer. “Feel free to join CPUShare now to start earning your first CPUCoins by helping testing the sell client and by growing the supercomputer with your otherwise wasted CPU resources.”
CPUShare
New PC form factors
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
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
Physical actions with a cellphone
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
RFID based spatial address book. “He then recorded different actions to each tag and placed a corresponding Post-It note liable on the desk surface above each tag. So, by resting the phone on “call Jack” the phone would load the number. When he walks into the office he can set the phone down on “I’m in the office” and a text message will be sent.”
hack a day
Cellphone = passport
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
Japanese college to put ID cards on cellphones. “College students may be absent-minded enough to leave their student ID cards at home, but they wouldn’t dare go out without their cellphones. That’s the idea behind a plan being implemented at Japan’s Kanagawa Institute of Technology, where IDs will be stored on cellphones beginning this spring.”
Engadget
Flexibile batteries
January 24th, 2006 by rbanks
Gel battery boost for radio tags. “Japanese company NEC has developed a lightweight, flexible battery that is less than a millimetre thick and can be recharged in half a minute.
It is called the Organic Radical Battery (ORB) and is based on a type of plastic that exists in a gel state.”
BBC NEWS
Extending the wikipedia model
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
Yellowikis. “Welcome to Yellowikis – The first Open, Free and Global business listings directory. Our aim is to be the biggest, friendliest, most up to date, most predictable, least-discriminatory collection of basic business information in the world. Compiled, edited and checked by people like YOU! “
Yellowikis
Technology-assisted walking
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
A Walker With a Mind of Its Own. “Grandma and Grandpa aren’t as spry as they used to be. Why not help them out by getting them a walker that employs enough tech to make you want to give it a whirl? It’s got GPS and sensors onboard that help guide the user around the house. It will attempt to avoid stairs and other obstacles in order to give the user a more comfortable, carefree walk.”
Gizmodo
Wireless manipulation
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
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
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
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.”
Robot-driven simulations
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
McMaster students to practise until perfect. “In a room on the first floor of the McMaster University Health Sciences Centre, the new training lab features computer-operated medical equipment hooked up to what appears to be a real patient on an operating room table. In fact, the patient is a $100,000 computerized, human-like robot that mimics bodily functions such as breathing, heartbeat, swelling and other changes in human conditions that might be experienced by an actual patient.”
McMaster Daily News
Using metadata to create vertical search engines
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
Edge Of Network Reviews – KritX. “kritX is combinging blog reviews and microformats with a vertical search engine to present these edge reviews to users. It has a long way to go. Authors must use microformats and tell kritX that they want their posts included (neither of these things are really necessary). But it is a good idea that can grow into something incredible. All the data is just sitting out there on the open internet, ready to be harvested.”
TechCrunch
Solar hitting the mainstream
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
Honda’s new business venture: solar power. “Describing itself as “the first automaker to enter into solar cell business,” Honda Motor Co. said on Monday it plans to start mass-producing solar cells in 2007, eyeing growing demand for environmentally friendly energy sources.”
MSNBC.com
Multi-gadget gadgets
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
DualCor cPC merges XP PC with smartphone. “Can you merge a fully loaded Windows XP PC with a Windows Mobile-powered smartphone without coming up with something so bulky, cumbersome and power-hungry that it doesn’t work well as either? The folks at startup DualCor Technologies seem to think so, and they aim to prove it with their cPC, a $1,500 hybrid handheld “
Engadget
Active clothing
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
Firefighter Suit Chock-Full of Tech. “the I-Garment makes use of numerous technologies, including satellite communications and WiFi. Satellite usage would be beneficial in more remote locations, as local communications infrastructure often becomes damaged during quickly-moving fires. Sensors inside the suit monitor the wearer’s vital signs, a potentially life-saving feature sure to appear in future emergency response personnel’s suits. “
Gizmodo
Merging wearable and mobile computing
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
What Would You Do with a Wearable Computer?. “The whole wearable-computing space is folding into the mobile-computing environment these days, and it is becoming tough to draw any lines of distinction between the two,” he said. This ongoing convergence makes sense, especially given the fact that the operating system, memory, processing power, and all the other assets that fulfill the needs of the wearable computing industry are now available on small compact devices”
NewsFactor Network
Photoshop-like effects on 3D objects
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
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
Ways of visualizing networks
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
A visual exploration on mapping complex networks. “VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project’s main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web.”
visualcomplexity.com
Sharing sounds
January 23rd, 2006 by rbanks
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
Wireless stylus
January 20th, 2006 by rbanks
EPOS Digital Stylus for non-touchcreen cellphones. “The setup consists of a “base station,” (actually just a chip) which can either be embedded in the phone or attached as a peripheral, and a special powered stylus that relays its position to the base station. Besides enabling on-screen writing and interactive buttons, the EPOS system can also be used for drawing on regular surfaces within a certain proximity of the base station, and also act as a Jackal-style (the Bruce Willis one) joystick for playing videogames or aiming a remote-controlled machine gun.”
Engadget
