AirSwing is a new way of scrolling through choices
My source seems to insist that this AirSwing from Toshiba is Minority Report technology, which always makes me want to write about it, honestly. I think I’ve probably referenced this film in more posts than any other science fiction film, and this includes Blade Runner.
There are no special gloves like the ones that Tom Cruise wore at the beginning of Minority Report, but the AirSwing does use webcams to make this technology work.
I have a video of this after the jump so you can see it in action. You can see how the user’s reflection is on the screen, super-imposed with a menu of selections. I’m not certain if the reflection is a result of the screen being reflective or some part of the Airswing program.
Either way, the user can wave his or her hand or some other gesture, and can scroll through mall maps, flight plans, or other type of selections.
Best of all, this particular program does not take much processing. So it won’t freeze up on you while in action.
Of course, this is still concept tech, and is not in any particular place at this time. However, I can think of many places where I would use it. I can just see an interface like this being used for customer service in any store in the future.
Sony Ericsson Cedar takes on a greener approach
Companies these days want to be seen to do their part when it comes to keeping the environment around us green, and every slight effort is trumpeted so that their efforts are not lost on anybody. Most recently, we have Sony Ericsson touting their GreenHeart initiative which sees products that fall under the GreenHeart movement to be degrees “greener” than regular ones, with the Sony Ericsson Cedar being the latest cellphone to fall under that category. This handset will target those who want to stay connected to family and friends through phone calls, text messages and social networking sites without breaking the bank while keeping their consciences clear that the phone itself has some green features along the way to leave a better planet for our kids.
With a name like the Sony Ericsson Cedar, you will be able to enjoy an easy-to-use social networking experience with the Widget Manager 2.0, where this application lets you access a bevy of social networking sites through its stand-by screen. Not only that, the Cedar is also a joy to hold and look at, thanks to its human curvature design which is now a consistent feature across the Sony Ericsson portfolio. Other features and specifications are as follows :-
UMTS HSDPA 2100
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS HSDPA 850/1900/2100
EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
Widget Manager 2.0 allows easy access to your favourite social network and applications
Social network applications – Facebook, Twitter and MySpace
Keep contacts close – hassle-free phone book transfer and web backup
Stay organised with calendar, phone book, email
Fast browsing with 3G and direct access to the web browser
EAS Push email and modem connectivity
Connect your headphones on the 3.5mm jack and enjoy music, video on the go
Capture the moment with the 2-megapixel camera and send it by MMS
Human curvature design – fits into the palm of the hand
In a quest to make the whole experience greener, the Sony Ericsson Cedar comes with a host of green credentials including recycled plastics, a low power consumption charger, an e-manual, waterborne paint and compact packaging. You can choose from black/silver or black/red color schemes when the Cedar hits the market this Q3.
DIY USB Bronze Bell Clock
The tragic thing about computers is that they always so silently broadcast the time. It used to be that clocks were works of art in both sound and looks. Now there is just a small digital clock on the very bottom corner of your screen. It’s not exactly awe inspiring. Instead of settling for that, now you can turn your computer clock into something much more grand. Just make one of these USB bronze bell striking clocks and you’ll always be able to hear the time.
Every hour the bronze bell rings out and even once at the half hour mark, just like the big cuckoo clocks. Thankfully the person that created this was kind enough to post a guide on how to make your very own. That way everyone in your office can enjoy all of those classic sounds that clocks used to come with. I’m sure your co-workers will just love you.
Three high school students team with NASA to solve spaceship problem
A Massachusetts high school science teacher recently put his three best students on a special assignment. They were told to imagine a world where some sort of spacecraft was hurtling toward Earth, and that it was up to them to figure out how they would record the event while onboard a separate aircraft.
The three students eventually put their heads together and came up with a way of doing what the teacher said. Then, the plot twist occurs, and the teacher is revealed to be a representative from NASA. He then took the students to Japan, and they implemented their solution to the problem. They even got to board a DC-8 and actually took photos of the Hayabusa spacecraft.
Sounds like some children’s story, doesn’t it? Like any children’s story, there is a distinct moral: Scientific problems can always be solved by kids.
Seriously. I would be willing to bet that if Steve Jobs were to give a group of smart high schoolers an assignment to create a better iPhone, they would have come up with a more decent version of the iPhone 4. Perhaps they could have figured out why it loses reception if you hold it a certain way.
Pool Jet lets you go underwater with little effort
Check out the £84.99 Pool Jet that lets you make your way across the pool without much effort from you, as all you need to do is grab hold of it and you’re good to go. This is more or less the lesser sibling of the Sea Scooter, and since it is pool-based, you won’t have to worry about making your way to the mouths of other dangerous sea creatures. It has enough juice to last for up to 20 minutes of constant use, and don’t worry about the safety of your child using this since it will require the pressing of two buttons to keep it going, so if one hand happens to slip off the button, the Pool Jet will stop jus about immediately. The rule of diminishing returns applies here as usual, since a charging time of approximately 4.5 hours yields the aforementioned 20-minute of swim time. At least you can make summer more fun for the little ones in your home pool with this, eh?
Tablets, PCs and laptops running Windows 7 were showcased at the Microsoft
booth. There was also a section where visitors could get a hands-on experience
of Microsoft Office 2010.
iPhone gets Bluetooth keyboard driver
Apple’s refusal to add a netbook to its range has left many attempting to use the iPhone or iPod touch as a rough equivalent, but ease of text entry continues to frustrate. Happily, where Apple fall short the developer community delivers, with the simply-named iPhone Bluetooth Keyboard Driver. Soon to appear in the Cydia Store, v.1 of the driver allows you to wirelessly connect a Bluetooth keyboard to the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPod touch.
It’s not a perfect solution: it requires that the device be jailbroken first, and iPhone 2G support is unclear at present. You’ll also need an iPod touch with Bluetooth, too, so that counts out the first-gen model. The software implementation isn’t quite perfect either; v.10 lacks support for cut/copy/paste, you can’t highlight text by holding down shift and using the cursor keys, the CapsLock button won’t work and Apple’s own wireless keyboard won’t quick auto-connect.
Nonetheless, this is a huge step forward for turning the iPhone or iPod touch into a mobile workstation, and those who enter large amounts of text may find the combination of the App Store and this new driver irresistible. No word on when exactly it will enter the Cydia Store.
Should You Give Up XP for Windows 7?
Windows XP retained many loyal users during the dark ages of Vista, but the emergence of Windows 7 may signal the end of an era.
The vast majority of PC users still haven't adopted Vista. Eight years after its release--and months after Microsoft officially discontinued it--Windows XP is more beloved than ever.
So will Windows 7 convince XP loyalists to switch? Instead of guessing, we decided to ask them. In August, we conducted an online survey of more than 8000 people who told us that XP was their primary OS. The top three reasons they haven't upgraded to Vista: They're comfortable with XP, Vista lacks features that might justify an upgrade, and they're concerned about driver and compatibility issues.
Vistaphobia ran high among respondents who had tried Windows Vista (62 percent said that their opinion of the OS was somewhat or very negative) and among those who merely knew about it (81 percent were somewhat or very negative). But most respondents said that were keeping an open mind about Windows 7.
In fact, the 26 percent of respondents who said they had already used Windows 7 were quite enthusiastic about it: 73 percent said that their opinion of Win 7 was somewhat or very positive, and only 11 percent said that it was very or somewhat negative. Also, 56 percent said that they intended to move to Windows 7 immediately or eventually. Among respondents who had read about Windows 7 but hadn't used it, 56 percent said that their opinion of Win 7 was somewhat or very positive, and only 12 percent said that it was somewhat or very negative.
Still, a meaningful minority of respondents have no interest in upgrading: 40 percent said that they intended to stick with XP indefinitely. Which brings up another interesting question: When will it become impractical to keep using XP and spurning its successors?
Supposedly, that date has already come and gone: Microsoft formally discontinued Windows XP on June 30, 2008, and it ended mainstream support on April 14, 2009. But the company has continued to permit PC builders to offer downgrade discs that let XP fans install the OS over Vista. It says that manufacturers can ship Windows 7 machines with XP downgrades for 18 months after Win 7's release or until it ships the first Service Pack for the new OS--whichever comes first. In other words, XP downgrades may be available until April 22, 2011 (assuming that Microsoft doesn't extend the deadline further; it has already granted XP so many stays of execution that refusing to grant any more would be a bit surprising.)
Windows XP's final death knell is scheduled to sound on April 8, 2014. On that date, Microsoft says that it will no longer take support calls and issue security fixes. This doesn't mean that no one will run XP on April 9 and beyond--it just means that they'll be on their own. XP holdouts, you've been warned.
Lenovo targets 1 mln Lephone China sales this yr
The phone, called Lephone, is based on Google's (GOOG.O) Android operating system. It was showcased at a mobile fair in January this year.
"We hope to sell 1 million (units in China) this year," Tong Fuyao, Lenovo's vice president, told reporters.
Tong also said he saw potential for the phone in business and was working with developers to come up with applications to target that market.
Lenovo, the world's No. 4 PC brand, said in April mobile Internet products would account for 10-20 percent of revenue in five years. [ID:nTOE63I02Q] (Reporting by Melanie Lee and David Lin; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
If You Want Privacy on Facebook, You Should Pay for It
Not surprisingly, Facebook's half-hearted attempts to kick its data-sharing addiction have not exactly wowed the privacy cognoscenti. Last week a consortium of groups -- including the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse -- wrote an open letter to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg [PDF] saying essentially what I (and many others) also said after FB's nominal response to the recent privacy uproar: Nice start, but... not enough by half, at least.
Facebook's response? Suck on it, you privacy pantywaists. We're done listening to you.
OK, that's not what they said literally, but that's the subtext of their letter, a copy of which you can find on Scribd.
Jeff Tinsley, CEO of MyLife.com, has another idea: If you really want Facebook to protect your privacy, you should pay them for the privilege. No, he's serious. And he's got a good point.
The idea is simple: If you're a paying customer, Facebook doesn't need to monetize your data so heavily via ad deals. That means it has less incentive to butter your data all over the InterWebs and more incentive to keep its paying customers (ie, you) happy.
“When you're solely reliant on ad revenue, that puts you in conflict with your users," he says. "To maximize revenue in a business with an advertising model you need to use the information you collect from your users to better target them. Advertisers are demanding the use of that information, which could put Facebook under pressure to collect and expose more and more of its users' information, especially if it goes public.”
Fact is, pay sites are more and more common. MyLife (formerly Reunion.com), has been charging users an average of $9 a month and providing a lot less than what Facebook offers its users each month for free. Tinsley's site has almost completely dropped ads as a revenue stream. And he's got nearly a million paying customers to show for it.
Like ZoomInfo, Pipl, and a dozen others, MyLife is a people search engine; its particular niche is that it also tells you who's been searching for you. Looking for that long-lost high school hottie? MyLife can help you find him/her or tell you if he/she has been looking for you. (That's the idea anyway; more on how MyLife actually works in a future post.)
A subscription plan might also give Facebook reasons to provide better customer support. As it is, good luck reaching a human when you have a problem with your Facebook account. The best you can do is send an email to a generic email address and hope somebody gets back to you.
That's not unusual when a service is 100 percent free. Tech support is expensive. But if you paid, say, $5 a month, Facebook might have the funds (and the need) to put more bodies on that problem.
Tinsley isn't advocating a complete paywall for Facebook, but a "freemium" model -- so you might get status updates and Wall posts for free, but if you want to play Farmville or take quizzes it'll cost you. Or maybe Facebook could limit on the number of friends you can claim, updates you can post, etc., for free. The number and types of free/pay models is virtually endless.
Does the idea of paying for Facebook strike you as insane? It shouldn't. As Rob Enderle, principal analyst with The Enderle Group notes, one way or another you end up paying for "free" services like Facebook.
“If you don't know what's funding your service, there's a good chance your information is,” he says. “You're a lot safer if you know the fee structure of the service. If you've got a choice between a nominally priced service and a free one, you're taking less of a risk with the fee-based one.”
Would you be willing to pay for Facebook? And if so, for what and how much? Post your thoughts below or write to me at dan(at)dantynan(dot)com. I might share your thoughts in a future blog post (with your permission, of course).
ITworld blogger Dan Tynan would pay other Facebook users to stop playing Farmville/Petville/FrontierVille etc -- or at least, quit publishing how many damned sheep they now own. Catch his brand of juvenile-infused humor at eSarcasm and follow him on Twitter: @tynan_on_tech
Facebook's response? Suck on it, you privacy pantywaists. We're done listening to you.
OK, that's not what they said literally, but that's the subtext of their letter, a copy of which you can find on Scribd.
Jeff Tinsley, CEO of MyLife.com, has another idea: If you really want Facebook to protect your privacy, you should pay them for the privilege. No, he's serious. And he's got a good point.
The idea is simple: If you're a paying customer, Facebook doesn't need to monetize your data so heavily via ad deals. That means it has less incentive to butter your data all over the InterWebs and more incentive to keep its paying customers (ie, you) happy.
“When you're solely reliant on ad revenue, that puts you in conflict with your users," he says. "To maximize revenue in a business with an advertising model you need to use the information you collect from your users to better target them. Advertisers are demanding the use of that information, which could put Facebook under pressure to collect and expose more and more of its users' information, especially if it goes public.”
Fact is, pay sites are more and more common. MyLife (formerly Reunion.com), has been charging users an average of $9 a month and providing a lot less than what Facebook offers its users each month for free. Tinsley's site has almost completely dropped ads as a revenue stream. And he's got nearly a million paying customers to show for it.
Like ZoomInfo, Pipl, and a dozen others, MyLife is a people search engine; its particular niche is that it also tells you who's been searching for you. Looking for that long-lost high school hottie? MyLife can help you find him/her or tell you if he/she has been looking for you. (That's the idea anyway; more on how MyLife actually works in a future post.)
A subscription plan might also give Facebook reasons to provide better customer support. As it is, good luck reaching a human when you have a problem with your Facebook account. The best you can do is send an email to a generic email address and hope somebody gets back to you.
That's not unusual when a service is 100 percent free. Tech support is expensive. But if you paid, say, $5 a month, Facebook might have the funds (and the need) to put more bodies on that problem.
Tinsley isn't advocating a complete paywall for Facebook, but a "freemium" model -- so you might get status updates and Wall posts for free, but if you want to play Farmville or take quizzes it'll cost you. Or maybe Facebook could limit on the number of friends you can claim, updates you can post, etc., for free. The number and types of free/pay models is virtually endless.
Does the idea of paying for Facebook strike you as insane? It shouldn't. As Rob Enderle, principal analyst with The Enderle Group notes, one way or another you end up paying for "free" services like Facebook.
“If you don't know what's funding your service, there's a good chance your information is,” he says. “You're a lot safer if you know the fee structure of the service. If you've got a choice between a nominally priced service and a free one, you're taking less of a risk with the fee-based one.”
Would you be willing to pay for Facebook? And if so, for what and how much? Post your thoughts below or write to me at dan(at)dantynan(dot)com. I might share your thoughts in a future blog post (with your permission, of course).
ITworld blogger Dan Tynan would pay other Facebook users to stop playing Farmville/Petville/FrontierVille etc -- or at least, quit publishing how many damned sheep they now own. Catch his brand of juvenile-infused humor at eSarcasm and follow him on Twitter: @tynan_on_tech
STRIDES 2010
It is festival time and Pragati is buzzing again. We have been conducting techfests separately as Data Connect, Exult, Ejive and Erudite every year. All of us .... students, teachers and friends of Pragati have decided to take a big leap in the new decade,and bring all the events together under the umbrella ' Strides-2010 '
So,here we are ,with new look and new ideas but underneath the heart remains the same ---- eager to explore the frontiers of technoogy .
Strides 2010 comes to you with exciting events including Robocamp, Ethical Hacking workshop, Inter College Quiz, Bussiness Plan...etc., along with our regulars.....
Exult - Annual Technical Fest of EEE Department
Erudite - Annual Technical Fest of ME Department
Ejive - Annual Technical Fest of ECE Department
Data Connect - Annual Technical Fest of CSE & IT Department
More than 3 lakhs worth of exciting prizes to be won and loads of fun filled events are waiting to happen.
We extended our warmest welcome to engineers and would be engineers to join us and indulge in the fun to learn.
Cheers!
Team Pragati
log on to http://strides.pragati.ac.in/
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