View-Master Photo Frame ? Not in 3D

Who here is old enough to remember the View-Master ? �Who here’s brave enough to admit they’re old enough to remember the View-Master? �In another retro revival, Unkl347 has released the Unkl-Master picture wall frame. �Available for $23 from The Fancy , it holds more than 7 pictures, but they’re not in 3D.

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/07/30/view-master-photo-frame-not-in-3d/

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Editor's desk: Mainstream geniuses, Olympic rights, and streaming wrongs

I spent most of last week laughing it up in Winnipeg with my fellow fuzzball's from Mobile Nations -- that'd be Phil Nickinson of Android Central, Daniel Rubino of WPCentral, and Kevin Michaluk from CrackBerry.com, in order. We spent a few days figuring out where the network was, and most importantly, where we're going through the rest of 2012 and into 2013. You'll be hearings -- and seeing -- a lot about that soon.

But let's jump back out of hyperspace for a moment and take a look at the week that was...

Stressing over Apple's new Genius ads

Apple aired three new ads during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and the first ads I'm aware of focusing on Apple Retail. Some folks didn't like them, some folks did. Whether or not we like something is different than whether or not that thing is good or bad. I dislike a great many things I'll happily admit are good or even brilliant.

Here are the only two questions that matter when it comes to the new Apple ads:

1. Who was the target?
2. Did Apple hit that target?

Far as I could tell, Apple was aiming squarely at people for whom computers and computing situations are stressful. People with no idea how to handle their digital photos, videos, presentations, or even purchases. People who want to make an anniversary video or photo book or just have their stuff work.

As much as iOS isn't for geeks, neither are these ads (and neither is Mountain Lion for that matter). They're for the mainstream. They were the Apple Store equivalent of the Midas Muffler guy commercial. And the message was simple -- don't stress over computers or computing tasks, just come to Apple and the Apple Store, and the Mac, and everything will be okay.

If you already know about Apple Stores, if you know the difference between a Genius and a Creative, if you couldn't care less about photo books and long ago set up your perfect Keynote deck, then these ads clearly weren't for you.

Apple already has you. They want everyone else.

Speaking of the Olympics

While NBC's Olympic coverage sounds like a bag of hurt, CTV (Canadian TV) is doing a bang up job, at least on the iPhone app. You can pick your events and stream them right to your iPhone, both live and previously recorded. There are a lot of events I want to watch that don't get a lot of TV coverage, like Judo and fencing. With the CTV Olympics app on iPhone, I simply pick Judo and watch, even on my TV. Yeah, there are ads I can't skip, but the app is free so that's no big deal.

There's no AirPlay in the app itself, but the main AirPlay controls in the Fast App Switcher aren't blocked, so they work, even if the picture is letter boxed and pillar boxed, making it needlessly small).

If NBC is really doing that bad a job, shame on them. Those that embrace the future will inherit it. Cheers to CTV for doing it better.

Now let's get it right.

Speaking of streaming

It's great that Apple's got iTunes in the Cloud music, movies, and TV shows in a lot more countries now. What's not so great is that, while I can stream all of the above to my Apple TV, I can't do the same on the iPhone, iPad, or Mac. I have to download them.

And that sucks, because typically I just want to watch something once, and right away, and not wait for a download and then delete it right after to save space.

Other than licensing restrictions and typical Hollywood myopia, why can't this just work across iOS and iTunes?

Back to business

Keeping it short this week so I can work on something big for tomorrow. And something small. Any guesses?

Editors Desk

apple ads

Olympics

Featured

Editorial

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/vpYi2XHGMPE/story01.htm

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iOS 5.1 Upgrade Details

The latest Apple operating system, iOS 5.1, to hit devices is pre-supplied with the new iPad. the new Os has been designed to fix a few bugs that were previously identified with iPads and iPhones, and also beings better battery life and WiFi connectivity. There are also a host of brand new features which are available on the new iPad 3. The Camera App The new camera is a massive upgrade on the iPad 2 and is something that many [...]

Source: http://tabletbuzzblog.com/ios-5-1-upgrade-details/

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Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app

Bots -- like the kind which automate IRC rooms and Google Wave -- are a good thing to know about. There are plenty of useful bots worth knowing about, too, including the Google Talk Guru.

Just add guru@googlelabs.com to your GTalk buddies, and you can start firing off questions. Lifehacker suggests that the same types of queries supported by Google SMS will work, though we didn't have any luck getting a response out of the Guru with phrases like "score detroit red wings" or "sushi R3N 1Y1."

Still, Guru does answer a good variety of questions and it works right within your favorite IM app. It's well worth adding to your friend list, especially for getting answers on the go on your mobile device of choice.

Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/google-talk-guru-answers-questions-via-your-im-app/

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Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android

Google, in an interesting but not entirely unexpected twist, will not be open-sourcing Android 3.0 Honeycomb for the foreseeable future.

Historically, Android is usually open-sourced via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) a few days or weeks after the code is finalized. While this departure from the norm won't affect OEMs like HTC and Motorola that have access to internal builds of Android, small-time developers will likely have to wait months before rolling their own distributions.

As to why Google is holding back Honeycomb, its reasons are actually rather rational. Honeycomb, while originally intended to run on all mobile form factors, is only ready for deployment on tablets. "To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs," says Andy Rubin, the head of Google's Android group. "We didn't want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut."

In other words, Google wants to prevent OEMs and homebrew developers like Cyanogen from rolling their own smartphone versions of Honeycomb -- it doesn't want to see the same bitter-tasting tabletified bastardization that occurred with Android 2.1 and 2.2 last year.

Continue reading Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android

Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/25/google-holds-back-on-open-sourcing-honeycomb-heralds-shift-android/

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How You Photograph a Man Free Falling From the Edge Of Space [Video]

Felix Baumgartner's upcoming and record setting 22.7-mile skydive has been hyped and promoted to the point that most of us just want him to jump already. But here's one bit of hoopla we're actually nerding out over—a look at all the wonderful camera gear that will be documenting the free fall. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/eIoBkA0EmDg/how-you-photograph-a-man-free-falling-from-the-edge-of-space

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What the Olympic Opening Ceremonies Looked Like From a Performer's Hidden Camera [Video]

One of the performers appearing in the industrial revolution section of the Olympic opening ceremonies had the foresight to build a hidden camera into their costume, giving the rest of us a first-person view of what it's like to be part of the spectacle. It's a unique angle that not even NBC could have provided, including behind-the-scene glimpses before everyone was paraded out into the performance. [PetaPixel] More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/o2xhoWvWAbo/what-the-olympic-opening-ceremonies-looked-like-from-a-performers-hidden-camera

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ASCII-ized Google Street View Is a Beautiful Way To Get Lost [Design]

Digital maps of the world have gotten so comprehensive, complex, and accessible that it's easy to take marvels like Google Street View for granted. Leave it to these gorgeous, real-time ASCII renderings of Street View to remind you that holy crap it's incredible. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/0UPlmjLDuZw/ascii+ized-google-street-view-is-a-beautiful-way-to-get-lost

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Twitter Wilts Ahead of Summer Games

Twitter was down for about two hours Thursday, prompting speculation that the site was overloaded from Olympic-related traffic. Twitter said that the outage wasn't related to an uptick in usage, but that didn't stop some media outlets from wondering aloud about a "Twitter overload." A huge spike in Twitter traffic is expected during the London Olympics.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/21c9293e/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C757640Bhtml/story01.htm

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Researchers prove your grandmother right, modern music is louder and all the same

Are your elders always complaining about loud and monotonous music? Or perhaps you've started to feel similar sentiments? The Artificial Intelligence Research Institute in Barcelona says it's not just a matter of opinion. The team analyzed data on loudness, pitch and timbre from just under half a million tracks spanning 55 years, finding the average volume of recordings has increased in that time -- said to be the doing of record labels so songs stand out amongst other radio noise. But, they report that little has changed in the actual music, and whilst there are obviously differences in composition, most melodies are created from just ten popular chords. Variations in timbre, or tone quality, have also dipped since the 1960s, which the team attributes to the experimentation of shredders from that era. Creativity in music is obviously still abundant and it's important to point out only Western pop music was included in the analysis, but Gran was never really into the progressive stuff anyway.

Researchers prove your grandmother right, modern music is louder and all the same originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/30/study-says-music-louder-over-time/

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BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 screenshots leak

A leaked early version of RIM's upcoming BlackBerry Messenger 6 has been making the rounds since late February, but images of the new app are just now beginning to appear. Over at CrackBerry, the crew has shared a handful of images of BBM 6 in action. Unfortunately, you won't get a glimpse at a chat or file transfer -- only the profile screens (after the break) and what you see above. All that's really revealed so far is the option to set custom contact and chat colors and BlackBerry OS 6.1-style icons.

CrackBerry also warns against installing the leaked BBM 6 app. There's no guarantee this app hasn't been tampered with, and BlackBerry devices are becoming a more common target for cybercriminals.

Continue reading BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 screenshots leak

BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 screenshots leak originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/blackberry-messenger-6-0-screenshots-leak/

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Daisey Cutter: The Ultimate Apple Fanboy, Mike Daisey, Is Back With A Slightly More Realistic Show

Mike Daisey, noted fabulist, is back at his original theatre in DC, The Woolly Mammoth where he is holding encore presentations of his debunked - and now slightly rewritten - show about working conditions at Foxconn. Gone are the guards with guns, the fake crippled man who touched the totemic iPad, and the real/fake translator named Cathy. Daisey replaced those stock characters with a bit of self deprecating humor and, as far as I can tell, a few, clearer facts.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/YRIBtpZAMzM/

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CrunchGear Week In Review: Indoor Games Edition

Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: Strange Video: Happinet Lets You Play Table Tennis Against Invisible Opponents Sweet DIY Book Light The Infinite Loop Tablet Holder: Actually A Cool Idea Day 1: My Week In The Nissan Leaf Weekend Giveaway: A Kobo eReader Touch (And Some Gift Cards)

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/06/27/week-in-review-indoor-games/

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The Rumpus Literary Website Brings Back Old-Fashioned Letter Writing

Stephen Elliott, founder and editor-in-chief of a literary website called The Rumpus, has found a modern-day audience for old-school letters. His site, a mixture of old-world letter writing and the modern web, is called Letters In The Mail and it aims to further disrupt the way we think about publishing. Elliott is a writer, filmmaker (his movie About Cherry comes out later this year), and occasional teacher He started The Rumpus in 2009, and it has evolved into a mix of reviews, interviews, the popular "Dear Sugar" advice column, with lots of other content. (I took a class from Elliott when I was in college, and also conducted a couple of interviews for the site in its early days.)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vMqYkH-PCDY/

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Already Tired of Olympic News? Block Any and All Mentions With This Handy Browser Extension [Olympics]

The Olympics are a grand spectacle that can take the host city years to prepare for—but mere hours for audiences to tire of. So if less than a day in you've already had your fill of Olympic updates and recaps, do yourself a favor and download F.A.T.'s browser blocking extension. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/_suS6R-Kwco/already-tired-of-olympic-news-block-any-and-all-mentions-with-this-handy-browser-extension

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