British scientist Dr. Mark Gasson of Reading Univeristy has implanted an RFID chip inside his hand. Today RFID chips have been used to tag animals to keep track of them. But they also have some uses when implanted in humans. With such a chip sitting inside Gasson’s hand, this allows him to gain secure access to the University and it also acts like an internal fingerprint reader for a cell phone (his cell phone recognizes the chip and only allows him to access its features). But with such advances in technology, says Gasson, also comes risks. And here’s the kicker: Gasson has infected the RFID chip in his hand with a computer virus. The risk? After much research, Gasson concludes that a computer virus can spread and infect other medical implants inside the body, such as pace makers. He goes on to propose that such an “infection” could potentially spread to other people! Yikes–so is this how the zombie infestation breaks out? Listen to Dr. Gasson explain his groundbreaking research in the video above.
Category Archives: Technology
Founder Nicholas Negroponte claims OLPC XO-3 prototype coming later this year
Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child initiative, says that the next prototype laptop to come out of the factory will be the XO-3 model discussed here. Back in December we were told that the XO-3 would be ready for 2012 with a $75 price tag. Apparently the folks at OLPC are ramping up production techniques. According to Negroponte, the dream tablet for developing countries will be put together in prototype form by December 2010 and will be formally revealed at the next Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011. Though the prototype model will feature a glass screen, the objective is for it to eventually be “100 percent plastic, unbreakable, and almost extruded out of a machine.” Listen to Negroponte divulge more details about the XO-3 in the brief but informative video above.
[Via Engadget]
Apple is worth more than Micro$oft, so deems market capitalization
On Wednesday Apple did what was long believed impossible–it surpassed long-time competitor Microsoft in valuation for the first time in twenty years. At the end of the trading day, Apple was up about $3 billion against Microsoft, sitting at roughly $222 billion. These figures mean a lot of things, but one defining statement just rolls off the tongue: Apple is officially worth more than Microsoft; Apple is more valuablethan the tech beast that is Microsoft. This is a very significant development for the tech company that could. For as long as these two companies existed, heated competition paved the way for innovation. Apple came first, but Microsoft quickly scooped up market and mind share with their leads in software. Nowadays, however, things are quickly changing as Apple has jumped into various tech industries beyond the PC including music players, phones, tablets, and the TV. Apple is gaining the mind share back, and according to these latest financial numbers, they have sprinted past Microsoft in the list of worthiness. Apple fanboys, don’t get too excited though; the two tech companies are neck-and-neck in the charts and things can change on a day-by-day basis. In fact, as of right now (5/28, mid-afternoon) Apple (AAPL) leads Microsoft (MSFT) 232.31 billion to 225.58 billion in market capitalization. These numbers fluctuate, but for now, Apple’s in the lead. Congratulations to Team Apple; you’ve made it to the top of the heap.
Update: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer downplays the shift in market value: “We are executing very well, that’s going to lead to great products and great success. I will make more profits and certainly there is no technology company on the planet which is as profitable as we are. Stock markets will take care of the rest.” Though he does not mention Apple specifically, he does go on to say: “it is a long game”…”we have good competitors …”we too are very good competitors.” He also went on to address the recent company shakeup with these choice words: he “wouldn’t predict any drastic changes” in company strategy and “we’ll have to accelerate plans.” Plans for what, Mr. Ballmer? Time will tell.
[Via Engadget, here & here; CNET; YahooFinance; WSJ]
“Get a Mac” ad campaign is officially over
About a month ago actor Justin Long (aka Mac) hinted that Apple was done with the “Get a Mac” TV commercial series that started way backin 2006. The latest “Get a Mac” ad was released in October 2009. So it comes at no surprise that Apple has officially decided to pull the plug on it. Watch the compilation video above to reminisce the good ‘ol days of PC (the hilarious John Hodgeman) and Mac. In addition to removing the commercials from the airwaves, Apple has replaced the “Get a Mac” website (which allowed you to watch the ads on demand) with a “Why You’ll Love a Mac” page. Head over to AdFreak where you’ll find a listing of every ad made over the years (there’s 66 in total). Look after the break to watch my two favorite spots.
[Via MacRumors; Gizmodo] Continue reading “Get a Mac” ad campaign is officially over
Microsoft shakeup: J Allard & Robbie Bach leave the company
After a flurry of rumors, this week Microsoft confirmed that Microsoft Chief Experience Officer J Allard and President of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division Robbie Bach will be leaving the company this year. It was rumored that J Allard, known to many as the “father of the Xbox”, abruptly decided to resign from his post at the company after the Microsoft Courier tablet was erased from potential existence. This was immediately shot down by Allard himself in a letter to the company that mentions “no chairs were thrown” when he made the decision to leave. After working at Microsoft for nineteen years, he says that he’s now ready “to put some energy into [his] passion for design, the arts and philanthropy.” For the time being, however, Allard will remain with Microsoft as an “advisor” to CEO Steve Ballmer and he has no plans to jump ship to other tech companies like Google and Apple. Here’s an excerpt from Allard’s goodbye letter titled Decide. Change. Reinvent.; look after the break to read it in its entirety.
If you’ve been following along, you probably understand just how difficult it was for me to decide to leave the tribe and explore new territory, but the time has come. My passion for our cause combined with my obsessive nature has put many of my other interests on hold for a long time. I don’t know exactly what tomorrow looks like – but if my focus has been 95% MSFT, 5% life until now, I know that the first step is to flip that ratio around. After wrapping some projects up, I will shift to 95% life and 5% MSFT. With that 5% I’ll be working for SteveB on a couple of projects beginning this fall.
Robbie Bach, whose been with Microsoft for about 22 years, will leave the company outright this fall. Though he’s only 48, Bach is labeling his departure a “retirement” and he says that the decision to leave the company was his alone. “I’m at the time in my life where I want to dedicate more time to my family and my nonprofit work, including my work with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.” Click here to read an informative TechFlash Q&A with Bach. Here’s an excerpt from company letter written by Ballmer concerning Bach’s departure; look after the break to read more.
After almost 22 years with the company, Robbie Bach has decided to retire from Microsoft. I have worked with Robbie during his entire tenure at Microsoft, and count him as both a friend and a great business partner and leader. Robbie has always had great timing, and is going out on a high note — this has been a phenomenal year for E&D overall, and with the coming launches of both Windows Phone 7 and “Project Natal,” the rest of the year looks stupendous as well. While we are announcing Robbie’s retirement today, he will remain here through the fall, ensuring we have a smooth transition.
So how does this shakeup affect Microsoft? With Allard and Bach out of the picture, this leaves Andy Lees, head of the mobile communications business, and Don Mattrick, head of the interactive entertainment business, reporting directly to Ballmer concering mobile and gaming initiatives. I will always remember when I was first introduced to J Allard when the original Xbox was announced back in 2001, and it was great to see Robbie Bach in person at Microsoft’s CES keynote this past year. Their experience and expertise will be noticably missed at Microsoft. I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.
[Via Engadget; Joystiq; ZDNet, here & here; MicrosoftBlog] Continue reading Microsoft shakeup: J Allard & Robbie Bach leave the company
Rock Band 3 teases keytar peripheral
Those of you who downloaded the Green Day: Rock Band demo from Xbox Live Marketplace (which includes the two tracks “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” & “Welcome to Paradise”) were treated to a teaser banner when exiting the demo for Rock Band 3. Along with the usual suspects (guitar, drums, bass, and mic) sits an entirely new instrument, a keytar! At first glance gamers interpreted the new icon to represent the addition of a keyboard peripheral for the new Rock Band game, but ArsTechnica claims their “now-famous Mole” has reliable information that the new instrument is in fact a keytar. For those of you who are not familar with the instrument, a keytar essentially combines a guitar and keyboard into one, and it’s very ’80s. Look after the break for a sexy image of said instrument.
Along with this tease comes more news surrounding the upcoming music game. While the first two iterations of Rock Band were sold with instruments created by developer Harmonix, all peripherals for Rock Band 3 will be created and distributed by third-party game accessory company Mad Catz. Mad Catz will promote a myriad of bundles including guitars, drums, and mics. Information regarding the keytar will likely be detailed next month at E3.
And there’s one more morsel of news that comes from this same source. Rock Band 3 will feature a new “pro mode” “that will require proper technique, and may lead to actual skills on guitars and bass.” Again, expect more details about the game to be exposed at E3 in mid-June.
[Via Joystiq; ArsTechnica] Continue reading Rock Band 3 teases keytar peripheral
GH6 is Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
According to an Amazon listing, the next game in the Guitar Hero franchise will use a subtitle and not a number. Much like the third iteration of Guitar Hero stripped the number and added “World Tour” to its name, Guitar Hero 6 will be titled Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Here’s what we know–GH: Warriors of Rock will release on Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii sometime this holiday season, it will be made available in three variations (Standard ($59.99), Guitar Bundle ($99.99), and Super Bundle ($179.99)), and publisher Activision claims the game will go back to its roots with this one. We’ll see if they carry out on this promise once the tracklist is revealed. But until then, all we have to stare at is the new logo sitting above. How exciting.
Halo: Reach gets September release, Bungie thanks players with video
Mark your calenders, people. Halo: Reach will release September 14, 2010. And if you’re an ultimate Halo fan and expecting to get your game on day one, be sure to preorder as soon as possible. Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop: “Pre-orders for ‘Halo: Reach’ have been off the charts, with fans snapping up the limited and legendary editions since they were introduced just a month ago. Overall, it’s a real testament to the passion of the ‘Halo’ fan base.”
The Halo: Reach beta invitational was a huge success for developer Bungie and Microsoft. Over 2.7 million gamers participated in the beta, playing over 13 million games for over 16 million hours. In a fun way to thank Halo fans for taking part in the beta, Bungie compiled a bunch of in-game footage captured by players. The video, embedded above, contains some awesome sticks and impressive kills..so check it out.
Google I/O 2010: WebM, Android 2.2, Google TV & more
This week thousands of developers gathered at Google I/O 2010 in San Fransisco to find out what Google’s got up their sleeve for the next year (and beyond) and how their contributions can make things better for the end user. At this year’s event Google introduced a new video standard, demoed their latest software revision of Android, and pulled the veil off their latest foray into a whole new market–television.
WebM: Flash, HTML5, h.264–these are all video codecs that power different types of video players on the Internet. WebM is a new video codec developed by Google. The plan for the WebM format is to make it open-source and royalty-free from the get-go. WebM is packaged into three parts: VP8, a high-quality video codec under a royalty-free license; Vorbis, an already open source and broadly implemented audio codec; and a container format based on a subset of the Matroska media container. According to Google, “VP8’s efficient bandwidth usage will mean lower serving costs for content publishers and high quality video for end-users. The codec’s relative simplicity makes it easy to integrate into existing environments and requires less manual tuning to produce high quality results.” So far, the following companies are backing the new WebM standard in their browsers: Google (duh), Mozilla, Opera, and Adobe. (Mozilla already updated their Firefox to support it, Opera says their browsers will support it “soon”, Adobe will inject VP8 support into Flash too, and Chrome support comes on on May 24.) Google will also implement it in the YouTube player (HTML5 & WebM, sittin’ in a tree…). WebM also has a list of hardware supporters including AMD, ARM, Broadcom, NVIDIA, Skype, and T.I. But the big question is if Microsoft and Apple will adopt it. At this point, there’s no word if Apple will jump on the bandwagon (big surprise there), and Microsoft has stated it will support WebM in Internet Explorer 9 (but users will be required to install the VP8 codec themselves). If there’s any tech company out there who can develop and push out a new open source video codec it’s Google. With the on-going battle for dominance between the aging Flash and up-and-coming HTML5, it will certainly be interesting to see if Google can emerge out victorious with WebM.
Continue reading Google I/O 2010: WebM, Android 2.2, Google TV & more
iPhone constructivist monument
Russian art collective Electroboutique has gone ahead and created this impressive, Tatlin’s Tower-inspired constructivist iPhone monument. Says the builders:
A giant distorted iPhone 3G, shaped as Tatlin’s Monument to the 3d International. Tatlin’s work is considered one of the avant-garde icons, whereas iPhone is a bright techno-consumerist icon of today. Back in the 20’s of the last centuries avant-garde artists have invented design as a way to bring art into people’s homes. During the 20’s century designers were gradually taking artistic ideas and implementing them into product design. Today we see companies claiming their products are art objects themselves; art has to re-define its role in the society again. The Monument to 3G links together the beginning and the current state of nearly a century of art-to-design dialogue and follows the strategy of re-claiming the designers’ ideas back into art.
[Via Gizmodo; Electroboutique]
The Objet printer can print anything!
Well, maybe not anything, but it can certainly print whatever’s produced on a computer monitor. Legacy Effects, a film production company, uses a 3D printer made by Objet Geometries called Eden260V that can shape and print out a physical production of any computer designed model. This new technology is known as rapid prototyping, and it was most recently used to create the suits seen in Iron Man 2. The actors’ bodies are scanned and the suits are “print-to-wear” with only a coat of paint necessary to round out the final product. Watch the video above for a more elaborate explanation of the Objet printer and look at all the different types of models it can produce.
[Via Engadget]
Robot marries Japanese couple in Japan
A humanoid robot conducted a wedding ceremony in Tokyo on Sunday – a world first, according to the manufacturer of the “I-Fairy,” a four-foot (1.2 metre) tall seated robot with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails.
Only in Japan.
[Via AP]