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« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Steve Jobs Wears iPatch To Pitch Pre-Hacked arghPod?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 20, 2010 by admin in Technology
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010Everyone seems pretty sure that Steve Jobs will announce the new Apple Tablet on Monday. But the fact is that they’ve predicted this before, and been dead wrong. It could easily be a real iOpener, like an iBrator, an iPatch, or an iPotty.
What is Apple’s new arghPod? An anti-piracy device? Did they finally decide to save iPhone users the trouble, and jailbreak the phones for them? Is it simply a symbolic expression of the frustration we’re all feeling as we await the release of some kind of Apple tablet device? Argh. Everyone seems pretty sure that a tablet called iSlate is what Steve Jobs will announce on Monday Wednesday, and as we pointed out recently, that would be the perfect name, because it iS late, is late indeed. But maybe it’s something else. The image released to the press isn’t very informative; it suggests that maybe Apple is getting into the Splatball gun market. Or maybe they’re just announcing the new iTunes cloud music venture. I don’t know why I fret so much about the release of the thing; I probably won’t buy one for a year after the release date anyway. Whatever Steve Jobs announces on Monday, the fact is that no-one who knows for sure is telling yet what it is, so the speculation can continue. Which is why we dredged up our favorites from old Worth1000 contests for imaginary Apple products, as well as a couple of other parodies, including our own. See our selections below. Read the rest of this entry »
The Greenest Detroit Auto Show Ever
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 14, 2010 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology
Thursday, January 14th, 2010Ford’s Better Ideas Make Other Carmakers Green With Innovation
 This guy may be a little disappointed if he bought the “chick magnet” pitch |
While it’s usually the concept cars that grab a lot of attention at the Detroit Auto Show, this year, it’s the REAL cars that are stealing the show. And there’s probably a message in the fact that two of the biggest stars at the 2010 Show are companies that didn’t accept bailout money to float the top-heavy, profit starved, gas-guzzling monstrosity that is the Detroit auto business. It’s inspiring that amidst the rather bleak economic environment that is Michigan, there’s a lot of hope and inspiration for a smarter, cleaner future for the industry, and Ford in particular is leading the way. After being the only of the big three to refuse bailout money last year, they were also the only one to enjoy a 33% sales rise in December! Now, they’re sweeping the auto show in a big way; their Fusion Hybrid and Transit Connect won the North American Car and Truck of the Year respectively. While the Transit Connect is neither hybrid nor electric, it’s part of the One Ford initiative, which will – among other things – bring the hipper fuel-efficient vehicles previously only available abroad to the states. Like the Fiesta, which we complained about some time ago. And there’s another unexpected force making a splash this year: The Chinese BYD hybrid. Go ahead and sneer at a Chinese-made car, but if you’re old enough, you may remember back when Japanese products were the low-quality laughingstock of global markets, and we all know how that ended up. BYD is no factory town upstart; one of the company’s major backers is Warren Buffet, who describes the company’s CEO Wang Chuan-Fu as a cross between GE’s Jack Welch and Thomas Edison. This CNN Money piece explains how the guy has so much faith in his company’s commitment to a green approach that he’ll drink the cars’ battery fluid to drive the point home. In my opinion, this is capitalism at its best: tough times driving innovation. And although the Transit Connect may not be a “chick magnet”, as Ford CEO Alan Mulally has suggested, this more in-depth Business Week piece gives you some insight into why Mulally’s vision may just turn Ford back into a world leader. Though they may have to fight with the Chinese to pull it off. Read the rest of this entry »
Apple In Wonderland: iSlate Is Late For A Very Important Date
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on January 9, 2010 by admin in Technology
Saturday, January 9th, 2010If nothing else, the Apple iSlate is aptly named. It iS late arriving, and other vendors are cashing in on that fact at the 2010 Consumer Electronics show.
Why have the computer manufacturers of the world initiated a campaign of torture against me? First, there have been these endless Apple Tablet rumours, then the CrunchPad gets ready for launch, but immediately gets hijacked by its Indian partners, then the HP Slate and Microsoft Courier rumours start floating, only to have Steve Ballmer parade around with what I’m dubbing the “HP Brick” (if it’s anything like an HP laptop, that’s what it’ll be soon after you buy it) at the 2010 CES…please, SOMEONE HELP ME. All I want is a thin and durable multitouch device the size of a clipboard that does everything that my laptop and phone do in one inexpensive device. Is that so much to ask? Apparently so. So while we ponder all the devices that could be, lets add some to the list. First up: the Skiff. Formerly called “FirstPaper”, they obviously got some startup loot and hired someone to re-brand them. It’s not really a tablet device per se, its more like a publishing platform similar to Kindle. See the Engadget hands-on here. To me, the coolest thing about the device is that it’s bendable. But you know what? It’s 2010, and this kind of thing was in the movie 2001 (see below), which was made in 1968! And you could watch the BBC from Jupiter on the thing in the movie! Also kind of cool, but not floating my boat too much, is the Freescale Smartbook, which, in spite of some of the early concepts being almost scary, turned out to be surprisingly appealing in some ways, especially if they hit the $200 price point they’ve been pitching. Engadget has a hands-on with the dockable tablet, and I’m sorry to say it looks like it has a slightly toy-like level of engineering quality. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of it. In the meantime, I guess iWait. Read the rest of this entry »
Google Earth’s GeoEye & 360Cities 3D Panoramas
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on January 4, 2010 by admin in Technology
Monday, January 4th, 2010Being constantly under surveillance has never been so much fun.
Here’s a quick preview of 360 Cities with -appropriately enough – Dead or Alive as a backing track |
Do you ever get that funny feeling that someone is watching you? Well if not, you should. We’re getting closer every day to full time coverage of every location on the planet. Between things like the 4.2 million CCTV cameras in England, the way Google has you covered from your desktop to the sky, and the members of 360Cities obsessively creating cool 360 degree panoramas of the planet (see their blog for the latest views), it won’t be long before there truly will be nowhere to hide. Especially with tools like PhotoSynth to put the info all together. You may or may not find this kind of coverage invasive, but you know what? It’s really kind of FUN too. You may have read that Google made a deal with spy satellite company GeoEye last year to gain a competitive edge over Microsoft, Yahoo and other satellite image search providers. What you may not realize though is that the satellite can capture objects 16 inches across from 423 miles up in space! Don’t worry, Google isn’t allowed to use those images, only the NGA and men of integrity with security clearances like Dick Cheney are. And your secrets are always safe with the US government and politicians named Dick, right? In any case, the upside of all of this is that Google has been showing off the images on their Google Earth GeoEye pages. Even if you’re not stunned with the images, it’s a blast pretending you’re shooting the opening titles for a James Bond film by zooming in and out from the Earth, from an orbital view to street level in seconds. Likewise with the 360 Cities panoromas; some of the images aren’t so thrilling, but moving around in them is an entirely new experience, and a cool one at that. See a sample below. Read the rest of this entry »
The UK Government Is Always Happy To CCTV You!
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 24, 2009 by admin in Technology
Thursday, December 24th, 2009The UK government knows if you’re being naughty or nice, but the 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the country have had little effect on crime.
The other day, I made a joking reference to how Santa has no trouble figuring out who’s naughty and who’s nice in England each year, because of all the surveillance cameras. After receiving a roomful of blank stares, I quickly discovered that out of 11 people in the room, not one of them was aware of the number of CCTV cameras in use in the UK. Like me, everyone in the room was American, so our xenotardedness can be forgiven, but I thought it might be interesting to any other fellow ignorant Americans to take a look at the spread of Big Brother in the UK. The installation of CCTV cameras in the country began in earnest in 1993, in response to the Bishopsgate Bombing (see a full history here) and today there are an estimated 4.2 million cameras in use across the country, meaning a typical citizen is captured on camera 300 times a day (or every six seconds, according to this article). So has it been effective? Apparently not ; only 3%-4% of crimes are solved with the help of the cameras, and much like capital punishment, they fail to act as a measurably effective deterrent. So who’s watching the images from all these cameras? Until recently, apparently no-one, or at least no-one who knows what they’re doing, in any case. Extracting the images in an efficient and timely fashion for use as evidence in court has led to the system being referred to as an utter fiasco because of its poor implementation and lack of training in this regard. And what about the citizens of the UK? I’d love to hear more about the average person’s view, because although there are activist organizations like NO CCTV and Big Brother Watch, the major media never reveals a real national sentiment. A classic example stateside of course being the Bush years, when even fairly rabid Republicans would mutter incessantly about the administration, but the media portrayal of the period would reveal little of the “street sentiment” to a person abroad. My personal feeling about this kind of surveillance is that it would only be acceptable if the entire country looked like the sets in George Lucas’ film THX 1138