Why do I get a strange feeling this is where the cell phone market is headed?
[Via ONN]
Category Archives: Technology
Wii Rowing Machine
Why oh why would you ever buy something so unequivocally unnecessary?
Official Twitter for iPhone available now
The official Twitter application for iPhone (and iPod touch) is available for download today. It’s called Twitter for iPhone and it comes directly from Twitter, Inc. and aquired developer Atebits. Get it for free at the App Store.
[Via TwitterBlog]
Happy 5th Birthday, YouTube
On Sunday May 16, 2005 the beta version of YouTube.com was launched. To celebrate its five year exsistance, YouTube put together a “FiveYear” channel “which features people from all over describing how YouTube has changed or shaped their lives.” Check it out! Also, be sure to watch the video above that timelines the birth and quick rise of YouTube. The most interesting and outstanding fun fact? YouTube now receives two billion views per day.
[Via YouTube blog]
Hulu intros new video player: updated design, new features
Today Hulu gave their video player a much needed refresh that brings with it a slightly updated look and a bunch of new features. You can watch a brief guided tour about all the updates in the video embedded above, but I’ll run through some of them here. The base video player is now 720×404 pixels large, that’s 25% more surface area than the old player. When you’re watching a video and the mouse is at rest, the player is control-free, meaning on all-screen controls and menus are hidden from view. There are new player controls that are now streamlined across all videos: normal player, fullscreen player, pop-out player, and embedded player. New features include adaptive bitrate streaming (as your bandwith fluctuates, you can make it so the player chooses the resolution of the streaming video based on your current speed); ad volume normalization (the player analyzes the volume of your streaming video and normalizes the volume of the ad breaks to match what you’re watching); and seek hover preview (when you hover your mouse over any spot in the video, you will see a small thumbnail preview of what’s going on at that specific point in time). Scrub through the video above to learn about some other neat features. Overall, all the new features and the updated design combine to make a welcome, streamlined refresh of the Hulu video player. Now about bringing Hulu to mobile devices…
Adobe makes love, not war, with Apple in new ad campaign
Adobe, makers of Flash video, have decided to take the high road in their retaliation against Apple’s harsh words against their platform. As you know, Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently released an open letter regarding his position on Adobe’s Flash standard for video. He believes it is not an open platform, it’s proprietary, and it’s a dated standard that does not belong in the mobile space. In direct response to Jobs’ open letter, Adobe has rolled out a new ad campaign with the slogan “We [Love] Apple”, with a heart in the place of “love”. In addition to web ads, Adobe coughed up some cash to place a large ad in yesterday’s Washington Post. Things just got more serious, and Team Adobe wants you to know they are in this for the long haul. Besides the new ad campaign, Adobe co-founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock penned their own open letter titled “Our thoughts on open markets.” These choice words are obviously directed at Apple:
We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.
In the end, we believe the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we believe the answer is: nobody — and everybody, but certainly not a single company.
Flash to Apple: Oh, it’s on. Look after the break for the open letter in its entirety, as well as one of the new advertisements.
[Via Engadget; Adobe] Continue reading Adobe makes love, not war, with Apple in new ad campaign
Steam for Mac is available for download today
Hey Mac users! Now you can finally play a bunch of solid games on your computer! Steam, a games distribution service that’s been widely available on Windows PCs for years, is now available for Mac OS X. Steam is run by Valve, the company behind popular games like Half-Life, Team Fortress, and Left 4 Dead 2. In layman’s terms, Steam is a centralized place where computer gamers can browse, preview, and download a number of titles. It’s also got a bunch of social features like chat, and friends lists. And get this–for a limited time (until May 24) Steam is offereing a FREE download of one of Valve’s most popular and best rated games, Portal. It’s a highly addicting, first-person puzzle game, so get on that before it’s too late. Besides Valve games, Steam for Mac (which looks almost identical to its Windows counterpart) already houses a bunch of third party games like Civilization IV, Bejeweled 2, World of Goo, and City of Heroes: Architect Edition. Click here for the DMG download of Steam for Mac.
[Via Joystiq]
Apple lets loose new iPad commercial
That voice and those words sound strangely familiar…look after the break. Continue reading Apple lets loose new iPad commercial
Music video: IZABO – “On My Way”
This music video from Israeli band IZABO uses the iPhone in all kinds of funky ways. The music…eh. But watch it for the visuals.
[Via Gizmodo]
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon recreated IRL
A bunch of dudes collectively known as Cake Group decided to recreate the album cover from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon atop Primrose Hill, in Regent’s Park, London using lasers, neons, and a smoke machine. Pretty slick, huh? Look after to break to see how they did it.
[Via Gizmodo; TheDailyWhat; Cake] Continue reading Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon recreated IRL
Stunning waterfall hopes to make debut at 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
Solar City Tower, designed by Swiss architecture firm RAFAA.
Ever since Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was selected to host the 2016 Olympics, the International Architecture Competition has heated up with hundres of submissions from architecture firms. They are all vying to create a winning design that inspires people to visit Rio de Janeiro and conceptualizes Brazil’s “natural beauty and its commitment to a sustainable future.” The Solar City Tower is one of the most daring and tempting submissions that I hope takes top prize. The Tower is lined with solar panels; captured energy allows seawater to be pumped to its top and gravity forces the water back into the ocean. It’s a “green” waterfall! When the water falls it spins turbines that produces energy during the night. The designers call the waterfall effect “a symbol for the forces of nature.” The tower also proposes to house a amphitheater, auditorium, cafeteria, shops, and observation decks with bungee jumping. RAFAA on their design:
The aim of this project is to ask how the classic concept of a landmark can be reconsidered. It is less about an expressive, iconic architectural form; rather, it is a return to content and actual, real challenges for the imminent post-oil-era. This project represents a message of a society facing the future; thus, it is the representation of an inner attitude. Our project, standing in the tradition of “a building/city as a machine”, shall provide energy both to the city of Rio de Janeiro and its citizens while using natural resources.
[Via Likecool; DVICE; Treehugger]
Google search gets a new look & feel
So have you noticed something different about Google lately? This past week Google rolled out a new look and some welcome features to their search platform. Least significant but still noticable is the refreshed Google logo on the home page; it’s definitely more colorful, isn’t it? Moving right along.. Google has added a “contextually relevant, left-hand navigation” panel to the search results page. Now whenever you search a keyword, a navigation panel reveals itself to help refine your query. There’s three parts to the panel. First there’s Universal Search; “the top section suggests the most relevant genres of results for your query and lets you seamlessly switch to these different types of results.” Everything is selected be default, but you have the option to switch the search feed depending on the type of information you’re looking for about the query. For example, if you search “wind power”, Google automatically does a normal search for the term, but now it also helps you find that term within other relevent places such as news, blogs, images, and books. Next there’s Search Options; this “enables you to get a different view of your results” by sorting search results by time, timelines, “wonder wheels”, image previews and more. Lastly there’s Google Squared; this addition utilizes Google’s “Something different” feature which “helps you find and compare entities” by offering other related topics to search. All of these new parts are built right into the left-hand navigation panel. Welcome to the modern age of Google search. Look after the break for a brief video rundown of the new features described here.
[Via GoogleBlog] Continue reading Google search gets a new look & feel